South Africa

Low-income earners are typically the population segment most negatively affected by unexpected adverse events, and they also tend to be the group with the lowest insurance coverage. While South Africa’s micro-insurance penetration compares favourably – around 30% of South African adults use micro-insurance compared to less than 1% in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa – there is...

It seems that every year in South Africa, newspaper headlines are filled with a pending shift in policy direction for the mining sector, but rarely with any results. In 2012 fears were of a populist-driven move towards resource nationalisation, which was subsequently quashed by President Jacob Zuma’s administration, while 2013 saw concerns over a new resources tax.

South Africa’s mining industry is the fifth largest in the world and the country has around 80% of global platinum reserves, 11% of gold reserves, and some of the largest supplies of chrome ore and manganese. The sector’s contribution to GDP has, however, been on a steady decline, falling to just under 5% in 2013 from 11% two decades earlier. Reversing this trend is a top...

Woolworths Holding is an investment holding company, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and operating through two subsidiaries, Woolworths (proprietary) and Country Road, as well as joint venture Woolworths Financial Services. Woolworths is a chain of retail stores in South Africa and certain countries in Africa and the Middle East that offers a range of clothing, food and general...