A number of factors affected the chemicals and plastics industry in South Africa during the late 1990s. With South Africa’s acceptance into the global economy after the election of a democratic government in 1994, a new export oriented strategy was implemented to increase international competitiveness. Sasol consulted with the Competition Board in 1998 in order to gain approval of a merger with AECI. The merger was expected to bring about economies of scale and to create a globally competitive explosives giant within the South African borders.

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In 1984, three former Wits MBA graduates established BSW (Pty) Ltd. By the late 1980s, the founders of BSW recognised that knowledge management was the basis of their company’s vision and philosophy. In April 1999, BSW’s chief information officer, Pauline Smith, was charged with the task of recommending a knowledge management strategy to guide the company.

In November 2010, Clifford Barnett – director and co-owner of family business, SA Metal Group (SA Metal) – put his hard hat down on his desk, looked out on the busy scrapyard below his window in Epping, Cape Town and pondered the company’s growth. In 2001, the company had expanded to Gauteng, and its operations there were fast exceeding his expectations. The question confronting him was multifaceted, given the high standards achieved by SA Metal in the Cape.

With IT playing an ever more fundamental role in daily business activity, there is a growing acknowledgement that IT influences organisational success. Businesses rely on IT for competitive advantage, but often board and management expectations of IT are not aligned with reality. A deluge of virus attacks and the ominous threat of personal liability for failure to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable IT risk have businesses in a panic over improving IT governance.

It was December 2009, just over a year since Remgro Limited (Remgro) had completed the distribution of its indirect shareholding in British American Tobacco plc (BAT): 90% of its shares had gone to its shareholders, while the balance of 10% went to a new investment vehicle listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, called Reinet Investments. The shares received by Remgro in Reinet Investments were also distributed to its shareholders.

On 1 July 2013 Claire Reid, founder and director of Reel Gardening, a manufacturer of prefertilised vegetable and herb seed strips, met with Emily Jones, head of Reel Life, the community-focused arm of Reel Gardening. Reel Life aimed to address food security in South Africa by helping low-income communities plant food gardens using Reel Gardening’s products. Reid was concerned that Reel Gardening was not making the profits it needed to fund the growth she envisaged for Reel Life.

It was almost three years since the South African subsidiary of the London-listed financial services organisation, Old Mutual (OMSA), had signed an information technology infrastructure outsource contract with CSC. Thus far, the contract had worked out well for both companies and the relationship between them was good, but the two groups were about to enter a new phase in the agreement. OMSA was CSC’s first outsourcing contract in South Africa. The focus during the first three years had been on establishing the relationship between the two companies and bedding down systems and procedures.

This is a background note on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in South Africa. The note defines and explains PPPs as an alternative service delivery option for the public sector, highlighting the legislation that governs PPPs and the Project Cycle. The debate for and against the PPP option for service delivery and PPP performance are examined.

Case relevant to the following topics:  Public Sector service delivery, Other, Strategy

Part A of the case is set on the morning of 13 May 2003, when Sean Summers, chief executive officer (CEO) of Pick 'n Pay, one of South Africa's largest supermarket chains, received a registered parcel containing three items of food and a letter. The letter said that these items had been poisoned and that, unless Pick 'n Pay cooperated and paid over a sum of money, the author would put poisoned food items on Pick 'n Pay shelves.

It was the beginning of December 2001. The revised “go live” deadline of 1 March 2002 for IST’s ERP implementation programme was approaching fast and Nico Scholtz, IST’s ERP project manager was not sure that the system would be ready by that date. Moreover, there appeared still to be some strong internal resistance to the system. Scholtz had to recommend a course of action to IST CEO, Harry Coetzee. This is the third in a series of three cases that looks at the ERP implementation process at IST.

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