Features

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African Airways suspended two executives including Chief Financial Officer Phumeza Nhantsi following unspecified allegations made against them in a forensic probe of the state-owned airline. Musa Zwane, who was acting chief executive officer for two years until November, has also been placed on leave pending a disciplinary hearing, SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said Tuesday. The airline won’t comment further while the probe is ongoing and both executives are presumed innocent, he said….

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa)- Samsung C&T Corp., an affiliate of the world’s biggest smartphone maker, is in talks for a multi-year deal to buy cobalt from a Congolese miner, joining Apple Inc. in the global rush to secure supplies of the metal at the heart of the electric-car boom. Samsung C&T has approached Somika SPRL to buy cobalt produced at its Kisanfu mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo after only buying copper from the company for the past four…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – It didn’t take long for President Donald Trump’s derogatory comment about African nations to come up in Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first visit to the continent as top U.S. diplomat. At a press conference with African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, a journalist asked Faki and Tillerson whether the U.S. should apologize for the remark. The reporter said the comment, which Trump has denied,…

  CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Saudi Arabia’s crown prince brushed off a festering dispute with Gulf neighbour Qatar as “very trivial,” though one that might drag on for a long time, and claimed the kingdom was succeeding in blocking Iran’s regional ambitions, according to Egyptian media. Mohammed Bin Salman, in an interview with newspaper editors in Cairo this week, also accused the Muslim Brotherhood of exploiting democracy in the region and said Turkey,…