Liberty Two Degrees (L2D) has posted a big decline in 2020 earnings, but says shoppers are returning to its malls across South Africa after they were left empty during the hard lockdown last April. And while numbers were still down on 2019, the landlord says customers spent more when they visited.
While conventional wisdom was that smaller, local shopping centres were faring better because of Covid-19 restrictions and customers shopping closer to home, footfall at L2D’s centres picked up towards the end of the year, with Sandton City back at 72% of December 2019’s levels and Nelson Mandela Square at 62%.
Sandton Convention Centre
Sandton Convention Centre
The Sandton Convention Centre, in the suburb of the same name, was the venue of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. The centre is close to many of the city s top hotels and is within a block or two of the Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square shopping malls, which are considered the best in Africa. They contain banks, travel agencies, shops and restaurants. The suburb also hosts the headquarters of many of the city s top businesses.
The centre is in the middle of a busy business area, but parking is not a problem. Accessed controlled basement parking to the centre is available. There is also parking available in Nelson Mandela Square and the Sandton City. From here you are able to access the Sandton Convention centre via the skywalk. Sandton can also be approached along a number of arterial roads and the route and signposts to the suburb make it easy to get there.
S Africa’s plan to record babies’ biometrics raises fears
Thomson Reuters Foundation, JOHANNESBURG
Plans to photograph and fingerprint every baby born in South Africa for a digital register could lead to data leaks and identity theft without robust safeguards, rights experts said on Thursday.
The South African Department of Home Affairs’ new draft policy aims to capture detailed biometrics unique physical traits of every child born in South Africa and link this data to parents’ identity numbers, which are printed on all identification documents.
The government hopes the registration system would prevent corrupt officials selling birth certificates to foreigners to illegally secure South African citizenship and protect children who otherwise risk going undocumented.