Climate change concerns are gaining traction and ranking increasingly higher on the corporate agenda. And Sasol, a synfuels and chemicals group, is directly in the firing line.
It’s hardly surprising given that Sasol’s synfuels plant in Secunda is the single largest point of emissions in the world.
Once a state-owned enterprise, Sasol’s pioneering technology turned SA’s plentiful coal resources into fuel at a time when the apartheid regime faced sanctions and energy security was at risk. It’s been a highly successful journey for the company that recently completed a R14bn coal mine replacement programme to secure feedstock for its synfuels plant into 2050.
But now pressure is rapidly mounting on Sasol to clean up its act.
In November 2018, shareholder activists tried to put SA’s first climate change related resolution on the agenda at Sasol’s AGM, although it was ultimately not permitted.
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Due to the alarming levels of air pollution in the Highveld Priority Area, designated as a hot-spot by the government in 2007, environmental justice groups this week launched a court case against the minister, the president and others to compel them to finally enforce emissions standards on big polluters in the area. That includes Sasol.
Also this week, another legal bid was launched by environmental activists, this time to appeal the renewal of the atmospheric emissions licence for Sasol’s synfuels plant.
Investors have flagged Sasol’s carbon emissions as a material risk to the company not least because, after almost a decade of consultation, the government has introduced a carbon tax, albeit a watered down version. And when Sasol does eventually comply with air quality regulations, it’s going to require some major spending.
M&G a welcome voice in SA’s dwindling media mix
There’s something encouragingly even-handed about the way the competition authorities work. Just days before their latest pronouncements on the “currency manipulation” case involving eye-watering amounts of money and powerful global banks, the Competition Commission announced that the Mail & Guardian (M&G) had agreed to pay a fine for anti-competitive behaviour.
The M&G fine — R286,846.39 — is for “price-fixing and the fixing of trading conditions” and relates to an investigation launched by the commission all the way back in 2011. M&G is one of 28 media companies the commission referred to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution. Who would have thought there were that many media companies left standing in an industry whose lifeblood has been sucked out by global players such as Google and Facebook? Indeed M&G itself came perilously close to toppling not too long ago.
Its disappearance from the local media landscape would have been a tragedy; at the very least it contributes to the diversity of voice in the media, which is critical these days.
So far only 13 of the 28 companies have settled. The settlers include MultiChoice, Caxton, SABC, Primedia, Ster-Kinekor and the Independent Media Group. Word is that Tiso Blackstar does not feature on the list of 28, thanks to assistance given to the commission by previous management — during the Avusa era.
The media companies, who are all members of the Media Credit Co-ordinators (MCC), were found to have agreed to offer similar discounts and payment terms to advertising agencies that place advertisements with MCC members.
The ironic aspect of M&G’s fine is that, like all the others, a chunk of it will end up via the Economic Development Fund in the hands of the Media Development and Diversity Agency — which means the agency must now be considerably better resourced than one of country’s most diverse media voices.
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