City Johannesburg Financial News

South Africa says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend an economic summit in Johannesburg next month

Vladimir Putin will not attend a BRICS nations summit in South Africa next month, the country's presidency said on Wednesday, ending months of speculation. Putin's potential visit has been a thorny diplomatic issue for South Africa. The Russian leader is the target of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant — a provision that Pretoria as an ICC member would be expected to implement were he to set foot in the country. «By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit, but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister Mr (Sergei) Lavrov,» Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a statement. The decision follows «a number of consultations» held by Ramaphosa in recent months, the most recent of which took place «last night,» Magwenya said.

Russian experts think the Central Bank will roll out its digital ruble by 2025, with the nation’s biggest banks expressing their eagerness to work with the central bank digital currency (CBDC).

South Africa’s president says that arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin — should he show up at an economic summit next month in Johannesburg — would amount to a “declaration of war” by his country

Former Mozambique finance minister Manuel Chang has been extradited to the U.S. to face a fraud and corruption trial over a $2 billion scandal involving fraudulent government loans

It’s one step forward, two steps back for Johannesburg-listed Murray & Roberts’ attempts to buy back Perth-based RUC Cementation Mining Contractors out of administration.

Turns out things have moved faster at RUC Cementation Mining Contractors than Street Talk anticipated. Macquarie’s refusal to tip in about $50 million as asset-backed lending, reported by this column on Thursday, was enough to wipe out Johannesburg-listed Murray & Roberts’ attempts to buy Perth-based RUC out of administration and return money due to creditors.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Sunday confirmed that the BRICS summit scheduled to be held next month, which Vladimir Putin has been invited to attend, will be ‘physical’ despite an arrest warrant against the Russian leader, reported AFP. South Africa is the current chair of the BRICS, a grouping of heavyweights that also includes Brazil, Russia, India and China and is set to host the 15th BRICS summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in its financial hub Johannesburg from August 22 to 24. "The BRICS summit is going ahead and we are finalising our discussions on the format," AFP reported quoting Ramaphosa, adding it will be a "physical" meeting.

At least nine people have died in a flash flood in the Johannesburg metropolitan area, which was hit by heavy thunderstorms on Saturday. 

 

South African company helps hang local art in virtual world

Top golfers from Africa and Europe will be eyeing lucrative Bitcoin (BTC) payouts at the end of the 2022 season after a new sponsorship of South Africa’s Sunshine Tour.

Nelson Mandela’s original arrest warrant raised 1.9 million rand ($130,000) in an auction to help fund a heritage site that documents South Africa’s struggle for democracy. Mandela, the anti-apartheid activist who emerged from 27 years in prison to become South Africa’s first Black president, was arrested in 1962 for conspiring to overthrow the White-minority government. Proceeds from the sale will go toward the Liliesleaf Museum Heritage Site, which received the original document in 2004 as a donation, said Ahren Posthumus, chief executive officer of Momint, the marketplace for NFTs that sold the Mandela item. Last year the museum received about $50,000 following an auction of a NFT of a pen gun owned by fellow freedom fighter Oliver Tambo.

Police in the Netherlands say they’re still not sure how a stowaway got on board a KLM flight from South Africa to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Sunday.

Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died at age 90, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday.

JOHANNESBURG — Dozens of countries restricted travel to and from South Africa and neighbouring nations on 26 November, hoping to contain a fast-spreading new variant of the coronavirus that scientists say may be more contagious and could render the current crop of Covid-19 vaccines less effective.