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.

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On 18 June 2019, the Gauteng High Court “set aside and declared unlawful all the decision-making processes through which Eskom had concluded [a] contract with McKinsey”. The contract in question had resulted from McKinsey South Africa's turnaround proposal to the struggling electricity utility in February 2015. Although McKinsey SA had experienced difficulties with a Transnet contract in 2013, the organisation had decided that working with Eskom, its client since 2005, on this project was a risk worth taking.

By September 2019, six months had passed since KPMG South Africa had released its integrated annual report titled Rebuilding Trust, Redefining Professionalism. Since 2017, the firm had lost R3 billion ($204 million) in revenue and suffered significant reputational damage, after being caught up in a number of scandals involving corruption and unethical conduct. The report detailed the progress it had made in rebuilding itself, enhancing the quality of its work and restoring good governance.

Steven Fitzgerald looks relaxed as he arrives home from his fourth trip to South America this month. The chief executive officer of Andbeyond (originally Conservation Corporation Africa), a leader in luxury ecotourism, is taking his company to new climes. The company started in South Africa in 1990, spread its wings to other African countries and then ventured into India in 2004, where it has been successful – although with a few initial surprises.

From her office on her farm in the Eden District of South Africa’s Western Cape province, Wendy Crane, who had for many years been involved in the conservation efforts of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR), drank in the view of the Langeberg Mountains. Her pleasure was a bit diminished by the knowledge that, like so many parts of the GCBR, this area’s environment was under threat.

In July 1997, Maurice Radebe moved from a successful, eight-year career at Shell Oil South Africa to take up the position of retail manager at Exel Petroleum, a black economic empowerment (BEE) company newly started by energy and chemical company Sasol Oil and a consortium of black shareholders. His career prospects at Shell had been good. But South Africa was at an interesting juncture in its history, spirits were high because of the successful 1994 elections, and BEE was in its infancy.

It was the night before Wits Business School (WBS) economics professor, Eve Smith, was to teach a case for the first time ever in her 12 years as a university lecturer. As she thought about the session the next morning, her major concerns were whether the case would achieve her objective of integrating the theory that she had presented in the previous lecturers, and whether she would be able to keep the discussion focussed so that the session would cover all the necessary material.

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By March 2021, two years had passed since Deloitte South Africa (SA) had released its Transparency Report which detailed its journey of self-reflection as a firm and the ways in which it intended to rebuild trust and restore professionalism. Since 2017, the firm had lost R3 billion ($204 million) in revenue, and suffered significant reputational damage, after being caught up in several scandals involving corruption and unethical conduct.

In June 2020, Ken Njoroge and Bolaji Akinboro[1], co-founders and co-CEOs of Cellulant, a Pan-African financial technology (fintech) company that provided a digital payment infrastructure, had important decisions to make regarding the future of their company. The digital payment environment in Africa had always been competitive and challenging, and it had only become more challenging with the impact of COVID-19.

It was the night before Wits Business School (WBS) economics professor, Eve Smith, was to teach a case for the first time ever in her 12 years as a university lecturer. As she thought about the session the next morning, her major concerns were whether the case would achieve her objective of integrating the theory that she had presented in the previous lecturers, and whether she would be able to keep the discussion focussed so that the session would cover all the necessary material.

No. Pages: 4