Friday 07 June - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za)
Page 1 – Car spiking suspect shot and killed in the middle of a robbery The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 1 – Eskom implements stage 1 load shedding from 5pm, warns of more power cuts this week
Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za) Still no cheer for troubled tourism industry Citizen (www.citizen.co.za)
Page 2 – What’s going on with SAA’s safety?
Car spiking suspect shot and killed in the middle of a
robbery
Pretoria News
7 Jun 2021
JAMES MAHLOKWANE james.mahlokwane@inl.co.za Pretoria News
POLICE shot and killed a car spiking suspect in the middle of a robbery in Tshwane on Friday night as the battle to crack down on criminals who throw spikes and stone vehicles on the roads continues.
After the police had warned that these criminals were relentless and moving from one area to another in Gauteng, they caught a group busy robbing passengers on an Iveco minibus, which they had halted with spikes on the N1, near the Stormvoel Road off-ramp.
This incident occurred just as social media users raised the alarm about another tactic – stoning of vehicles, which left three cars with extensive damage on the N4, between Bronkhorstspruit and Emalahleni, at the end of last week.
In a video which went viral on social media, three motorists and their passengers explained that they had managed to drive to a filling station nearby in the vehicles, a BMW 5 series, a Hyundai i10, and a Nissan NP200, which were hit with stones on their sides, and a bakkie on its windscreen, just after dark on the road.
The panicked passengers told petrol attendants of their ordeal, while the person who shot the video warned other motorists to be vigilant, as he showed the cars, including the NP200, which he said was still brand new.
When shared this video with the Gauteng traffic police and the SAPS, the law enforcement officers said they were not aware of the incident, but promised to investigate further to establish what happened.
Gauteng Traffic Police spokesperson Sello Maremanse, however, said the police were hard at work to crack the whip on these criminals, and make sure they were busted and punished for their acts.
On Friday night, on the N1 in Pretoria, he said the Gauteng Traffic Police Special Law Enforcement Unit officers were patrolling the highway in an effort to track down criminals who were putting spikes on public roads, and happened to be at the right place at the right time.
The tyres of the minibus, which was spiked just after 7pm, were punctured and the criminals held the travellers hostage and snatched their cellphones and bags.
“While the criminals were busy robbing the travellers, members of our unit intervened and attempted to arrest the robbers. The robbers then started shooting our officers without uttering any word and our officers returned fire.
“One robber was shot and sustained fatal injuries while the rest of the robbers ran away into nearby bushes.”
Eskom implements stage 1 load shedding from 5pm,
warns of more power cuts this week
By Sihle Mlambo 25m ago
DURBAN: Power utility Eskom has announced that it would implement stage 1 load shedding from 5pm on Monday afternoon until 10pm, also warning that South Africans should brace for more power cuts this week.
Eskom said it was implementing load shedding due to further breakdowns and delays in returning generating units to operation.
Eskom spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha apologised to South Africans in a statement and said the power cuts were due to breakdowns at two power stations, while at three other power stations, units which were expected to return to service, were experiencing delays.
"Eskom regrets to announce that that it will implement stage 1 load shedding due to the loss of two generation units at Kusile and one each at Kendal and Tutuka power stations. These constraints have been exacerbated by delays in returning a unit each – at Kusile, Duvha, and Matla power stations – to operation.
“Breakdowns currently total 15 570MW of capacity, while planned maintenance is 1 270MW of capacity.
“The likelihood of load shedding is high for the rest of the week, as the power system remains constrained and vulnerable. Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any changes.
“These capacity constraints will continue for the foreseeable future and all South Africans are urged to reduce their use of electricity, particularly between 5pm and 10pm, when the winter demand is the highest.
“Eskom apologises for the inconvenience and uncertainty caused by these interruptions in electricity supply,” said Eskom.
Last week, Eskom announced that it had suspended the general manager of the Koeberg power station, for performance-related issues.
The power utility said chief nuclear officer Riedewaan Bakardien would oversee all the operations of the power station, while an investigation was taking place about the performance of the Koeberg power station.
Eskom implemented load shedding last week and into the weekend.
Still no cheer for troubled tourism industry
Pandemic has hit tourist accommodation sector while slow vaccine rollout and third wave continues to deter global travellers
0 7 J U N E 2 0 2 1 - 0 5 : 0 0 M A R C I A K L E I N
Waiting for the rebound: An empty hotel in Cape Town. Picture: SUPPLIED
The tourism sector, whose slow road to recovery towards the end of last year was
thwarted by the onset of the second wave of coronavirus, is facing more headwinds as the slow vaccine rollout and third wave cast doubt on a possible increase in tourism in 2021.
This is potentially crippling for a sector already on the brink.
Stats SA figures showed that total income for the tourist accommodation industry decreased 45.3% in March compared with March 2020. Income specifically from
accommodation decreased 35.9% year on year in March and by 64.3% year on year in the first quarter of 2021, worse than the 61.1% year on year decrease recorded for the fourth quarter of 2020.
These and similar sobering statistics throughout 2020 are in large part due to the 72.6%
decline in the volume of tourists to 2.8-million in 2020, from 10.2-million in 2019.
While these are attributed to the pandemic, the long-term trend indicates the extent to which SA has become out of favour as a travel destination and why local destinations were already under the whip, even before the pandemic hit.
Overall travellers have decreased from nearly 24.6-million in 2006 to 12.1-million in 2020, while the tourism sector’s contribution to GDP and its role as a major employer have consistently come under pressure.
Tsogo Sun’s announcement of an occupancy rate of just 12% in the year to end-March is a shocking illustration of the extent of the fallout of the pandemic on the industry.
Tsogo said the 51% decrease in income and bottom-line losses were incurred due to the lockdown, closure of all its business in the first quarter, curfews, alcohol bans and capacity limitations.
These conditions brought accommodation establishments across the board to their knees and many have closed or are looking for buyers. Notable developments include the sale of Fairmont Zimbali, which was in business rescue, to Capital Hotels and Apartments, the closure until further notice of the Hilton hotel in Durban, Spear Reit’s plan to convert 15 on Orange in Cape Town into apartments and a hotel, and the indefinite closure of the Michelangelo hotel in Sandton. While it is difficult to quantify, industry players believe many B&Bs, Airbnbs and boutique hotels have stopped operating or converted to long- term rentals where possible.
For a labour-intensive sector, these conditions have been devastating and many workers have been retrenched, are working for a percentage of their salaries or are on restricted shifts. Tsogo Sun, for example, reduced its headcount by 1,361 in the year to March.
The industry’s major players focused on debt reduction and cost cutting, negotiated rent relief, reduced or extended payment terms with suppliers and reduced their payrolls. Sun International raised R1.2bn in a rights issue and CEO Anthony Leeming says it has enough cash flow to reduce debt levels further. Hotel owners that have stayed in business have been treading water, waiting for the expected rebound since the end of last year, but this was weak and short-lived.
City Lodge CEO Andrew Widegger says 2021 started slowly as the second wave of Covid-19 infections took hold and cancellations came through thick and fast, “as when infection rates increase, confidence to travel disappears”.
Leeming says international travel remains “low to nonexistent”, and this has not been compensated for by local leisure. The group does not see a quick recovery until progress is seen on vaccinations and the resumption of flights and routes. A strong rollout of vaccines would signal that this is a country that is worth visiting, he says, and there is definitely pent up demand. Business travel has certainly improved, but volumes remain
low, and there has been some resumption of conferencing, but only with small numbers of people.
Leeming says small hotel groups are battling, most are not in a profitable position and the group has been approached about buying various hotels that cannot keep trading. For those that are operating, “there are specials everywhere, prices are at rock bottom, and hotel groups are just trying to manage costs to see through the pandemic.”
Widegger says City Lodge has introduced new specials, special weekend rates and food and beverage innovation, but there is only so much you can do to attract guests. “If you are going to stay open you need people through the door, but you also cannot be at a stage where the room rate doesn’t even cover variable costs,” he says.
The situation at hotels and resorts has had a knock-on effect on adjunct products and services such as bars, restaurants and taxis that operated in or outside their premises.
Widegger says there have been some closures, but also some new businesses opening, including restaurants, which he attributes partly to some people using retrenchment packages to start working for themselves.
Sun International’s resorts generally include the large restaurant chains that generally want to keep open for when the recovery comes. Their level of performance has been influenced by the resort they are in. At a resort such as Grand West, for example, these businesses depend on events and entertainment which are not happening, while at Times Square, restaurants are doing quite well.
Hotel performance has also differed across regions. Widegger says that in KwaZulu- Natal, a lot of customers are from the province, indicating people are opting for short trips. Similar trends are evident in Waterfall City and in outlying areas such as
Bloemfontein and Rustenburg, but Cape Town has not fared as well, possibly because of the long flight from Johannesburg.
Leeming says Durban has been one of the better-performing regions while Cape Town, which has a large proportion of five-star hotels and a reliance on international and business tourism, has battled.
For Sun International, some resorts rely more than others on events and entertainment, which have been absent over the past year. As for gambling, which Leeming says felt the curfews and alcohol ban intensely, every month gets better. At casinos, the environment requires a large crowd, entertainment and “buzz”, he says, and while a lot of gambling has gone online during lockdown, “we don’t believe online has taken all that share”
permanently as gambling is entertainment for many people and most of the group’s customers want to go out for the experience.
While 2021 is not signalling the recovery hotel operators hoped for, there are small signs of hope.
City Lodge is on track with its pipeline of new hotels. “In SA we just opened another hotel so we are on 50 out of 56 [planned] of SA hotels and five out of seven of rest of Africa, so we are nearly 100% there. We will probably have all open July-August depending on demand and the third wave. The group is, however, looking at selling its East Africa operations.”
Widegger says the group sees more positive trends week by week and weekend business has been better than traditionally. He does not see a return to pre-Covid-19 levels, which were depressed already, until possibly the mid to third quarter of 2022 when, hopefully, the vaccine rollout, resumption of international and pent up demand will lead to a recovery.
Leeming says Sun City is experiencing better occupancy and demand in recent months.
“We have to see through today, but we are looking forward, absolutely,” he says. The group has done refurbishment at Sun City and is focusing on service and “doing a lot to sort out our product” to be in a better position when conditions improve. He expects conferencing to become more important for companies building corporate culture and teams.
Tsogo expects to be reliant on domestic leisure and sports travel in the absence of international travel, and says it will focus on cash preservation and liquidity to continue trading through the pandemic.
Other groups are doing the same and all continue to focus on strengthening balance sheets and cutting costs while they ride out the pandemic.
The longer it lasts, though, the more difficult it becomes.
What’s going on with safety at SAA?
Sources claim audit findings show serious concerns.
The Citizen (Gauteng)
7 Jun 2021
Hein Kaiser – news@citizen.co.za
Picture: Neil McCartne
yTROUBLED. A safety audit of South African Airways highlights ‘severe non- compliance’.
Mystery surrounds the findings of a safety audit report on South African Airways (SAA) carried out by the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) and which could impact on its permit to fly as a commercial operator.
Sacaa confirmed the audit findings have been given to SAA, but refused to discuss the contents of the audits, saying the information was subject to “non-disclosure and confidentiality” restrictions. SAA would not comment on questions sent a week ago.
Several sources alleged that the SAA audit saw failures with at least three level 1 findings.
Sacaa audits categorise risk into categories, and the authority explains that a level 1 is issued when there are serious safety concerns along with contraventions of the law.
Sacaa’s Daphney Chuma said that “it is a severe non-compliance or non-conformance that may pose a serious safety or security risk to the public and will necessitate the immediate enforcement action from the regulator in the interest of safeguarding aviation safety and security.
“Based on this, if such non-compliance has been identified during our audit and inspection, an approval holder shall be required to immediately address such non-compliance, and failure to do so may lead to partial or full suspension of such an approval.”
The audit may affect whether SAA’s Air Operator Certificate is renewed when it expires at the end of this month. That, in turn, may impact on the airline’s ability to return to operations as early as next month, the date given by interim boss Thomas Kgokolo.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said last week SAA’s resumption of operations would only be likely in August, as negotiations with a private equity partner were still being finalised.
Various sources allege that two of the three Sacaa audit findings relate to cabin crew and pilot training shortcomings.
In February, SAA’s controversial flight to collect vaccines in Brussels saw a dangerous
“alpha-floor” when automatic software prevented a potential disastrous stall on the Airbus A340-600 aircraft. This event should not have happened had pre-flight checks been carried out as required.
SAA declined to comment on the status of its internal investigation, but Saaca’s probe is nearly complete, with findings “on the verge” of being shared with SAA.
The Democratic Alliance’s Alf Lees said the alleged failure by SAA in the Saaca audit was
“not surprising given the chaos at SAA, left by the business rescue practitioners”.
