Dis-Chem didn’t meet its profit targets for the 2019 financial year; accordingly (though looking at other businesses by no means inevitably) the pharmacy retailer’s top managers took a drop in take-home pay. Take Mr. Saltzman himself, for example: while his salary was up marginally to R12.48m, he received no bonus, for a total drop in the old package of around 21.87% compared to last year. Total remuneration paid to all executive directors was down by 19.7% to R34m. What’s the thinking? “The remuneration committee also considers the bonuses, which are discretionary and based upon general economic variables, the performance of the company and the individual’s performance and certain other employee benefits and schemes,” according to a statement for the group, whose earnings were hit by strike last year which cost the business R50 odd million.

Comment: Tying executive remuneration to actual performance is a custom observed more often in the breach. A welcome move.

Retail legend and former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy has been publicly excoriated by the man who appointed him, ex-board chair Lord MacLaurin, who used expressions like “arrogant”, “extravagant”, “pear-shaped,” “haywire”, and “went to pieces a bit” in his takedown. Tesco in the meantime is developing a cashier-less store based on AI-powered camera networks and sensors on shelves that will allow punters to stroll out without, apparently at least, paying for stuff. Across the channel, Carrefour have agreed to flog 80% of its Chinese business to electronics retailer Suning for €620m, allowing it to focus on the home front, where it has come under increasing pressure from traditional rivals and from Amazon. German outfit Metro, you will recall, is attempting to beat a similar retreat from that vast but tricky market.

Comment: It’s not beyond the bounds of the possible that the Chinese retail sector, having seen off foreign competitors, might one day wish to dip a toe in their home markets.

Big up to Woolies this week, which has announced its first intake of candidates from the Youth Employment Services (YES) programme, a government-led partnership with business, labour and civil society which aims to empower one million young South Africans by offering paid, quality work experience, and which will see the Dapper One recruiting 450 learners for work experience in 108 stores in South Africa and at their head office for a year. And to SPAR, inviting Kirkwood Wildlife festival-goers in the Eastern Cape to ‘Take a Walk on the Waste Side’ through a maze that illustrates the various alternative ways in which plastics may be used, as part of their project of reducing the use of single-use plastic. And newly-prominent independent group Kit Kat have donated over 700 blankets to local community members, hospitals and schools as the winter sets in.

Comment: Good things are all around us, if you know where to look.

Tongaat Hulett, which is now being mentioned in the same breath as Steinhoff, is implementing various emergency measures to staunch the bleeding which has seen it lose 75% of its market value on the news of an accounting scandal in which it seemed to book profit on certain transactions before they were finalised, thus overstating the profitability of the overall business. These measures include, sadly, the loss of up to 5,000 jobs (with a number of senior management staff already gone) and a review of assets, some of which may be restructured and others sold outright. The property division is under particular scrutiny. Also under scrutiny, by the South African Police no less, is an unnamed former executive against whom a criminal case has been opened.

Comment: Tongaat Hulett will survive, according to pundits. But no doubt much reduced, and chastened.

To Standerton, where Astral Foods have entered into an emergency agreement with the municipality, which has undertaken to provide the business with 2 megalitres of treated water a day for use in its Goldi processing plant. Interruptions in its water supply have cost the business R85m in profits, contributing to a -68.9% decline to the bottom line of its poultry division. Previously, Astral had secured a court order against the municipality, obliging it to furnish a long-term plan on how it intended repairing and improving the municipal water supply infrastructure. There was a point in the ongoing crisis when Astral did not receive any water for a period of seven days

Comment: Over to you, hopping mad CEO Chris Schutte: “We are continuously bombarded (coughpresidentcyrilcough) with rhetoric about global competitiveness, the need for growth in rural agroprocessing, creating jobs in rural communities and ensuring food security, while Astral, the largest producer of affordable chicken in SA, is left to fend for itself with little more than a bucket-system supply of water.” Ouch.

Lies, damned lies and the jobs report During his State of the Nation speech, the Pres announced a target of 2 million jobs by 2030, a number certain gloomy economists say we are going to battle to meet if StatsSA’s recent Quarterly Labour Force Survey is worth the paper it’s printed on. While total employment was up by over 6,300 jobs per month YoY for the quarter through March, this falls 10,000 jobs short of the target. While the mining sector gained 6,000 jobs, transport lost 3,000, trade 8,000 and construction 1,000. In fairness to the economists and their gloom, the numbers are confusing at best, seeming to indicate that while employment overall is increasing, with 76,000 more people employed in the formal economy since March last year, this growth is far outstripped by the increase in the number of job seekers. Comment: A silver lining here is the continued existence of StatsSA, which may not always deliver good news, but gives us the numbers we need to make sense of our economy, timeously and accurately.