(3 minutes read)
· Rwandair is resorting to drastic measures including
reduction of the salaries of employees as the company is upfront with
covid-19 crises. It is learnt that 65% of employees’ salaries will be
cut in an attempt to avoid layoffs. The airline has also put on hold
contracts of some pilots and non-essential staff until further notice.
· Ethiopian Airlines is taking alternative solutions to avoid
bankruptcy and is focusing on cargo services to beef up the revenue to
make good income lost through passenger traffic.
· South African anti-apartheid activist Denis Goldberg (87)
has died at his home near Cape Town. A prominent member of the ruling
African National Congress, Goldberg stood trial alongside Nelson
Mandela and spent 22 years in prison for his involvement with the
ANC’s fight against apartheid imposed by the white minority
government.
· San Francisco and Lagos-based fintech startup Flutterwave, a strong player in the payment space has launched Flutterwave Store,
a portal for African merchants to create digital shops to sell online.
Experts say that the portal is less Amazon and more eBay — with no
inventory or warehouse requirements.
· South Africa’s job losses are likely to touch seven million
as a result of the coronavirus pandemic according to official
projections. This will take the country’s already record unemployment
rate as high as 50%. In a briefing Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and
Treasury Director General Dondo Mogajane painted a dire picture of the
state of the South African economy and explained how the domestic
economy was already taking strain before Covid-19 hit SA shores.
· South African motorists will be paying less for petrol and
diesel as local fuel prices plunge in line with historic drops in the
international price of crude oil. All grades of petrol fell by R1.74
per litre from midnight on Tuesday, while diesel declined by between
R1.56 and R1.61 per litre.The wholesale price of illuminating paraffin
dropped by R2.23 per litre. The maximum LPGas retail price fell by
R2.62 per kilogram.
· According to the Confederation of Mozambican Business
Associations (CTA) the state of emergency that began on 1 April the
country’s businesses have lost an estimated 6.1 billion meticais
(almost 90 million US dollars). At a press conference held at Maputo,
the CTA’s deputy chairperson for financial policy, Paulo Oliveira,
said that across the country 1,175 companies had suspended their
activities, affecting more than 12,160 jobs. Companies still operating
have reduced their activity to less than 25 %of normal levels.
