This article from TravelHub says it like it is regarding tourism stats in SA which are only reliable from overseas markets as most African arrivals are just border shoppers. The stats also reveal a similar situation for Zimbabwean "tourist arrivals" which far exceed those from any of the overseas markets but given the economic meltdown in that country these "tourists" are more likely to be refugees, economic or political, fleeing that country.

SOUTH AFRICA WOULD BE IN A FAR BETTER POSITION SHOULD THE FOLLOWING GET DONE.


Govt's under-spend shocker

Jul 31 2007 09:40 PM


Johannesburg - While a large monthly budget surplus in June was in line with expectations, under-spending of government departments' capital budgets persists, an independent economic analyst told I-Net Bridge on Tuesday.


"Several national government departments have spent barely 10% of their capital budgets in the first quarter of the fiscal year. The worst-performing departments in this regard are also responsible for some of the largest capital budgets," said the analyst.


"The Department of Home Affairs, despite having the fourth-largest capital budget of any national department, had only spent R11.6m, or 1.6% of its R726.8m budget.


"The Department of Public Works had spent just R52.4m of its R815.5m capital budget, or 6.4% of its total," the analyst noted.


"The enhanced ability of the national government to collect and to spend its budget is encouraging, but the same concerns remain over the ability of provincial government to spend its budget, and the ability of national government departments to spend their national budget," stated the analyst.


Data released on Tuesday showed the national government recorded a fiscal surplus for June of R20.3bn from a deficit in May of R6.5bn.


Revenue figures were up at R60.5bn from R34.3bn in May, with the analyst saying this was due largely to the collection of R29.0bn in company tax revenues.


"Cumulative revenue collection for the first three months of the fiscal year stands at 22.2% of budgeted revenue for the year, compared with 21.7% for a similar period in the previous fiscal year," adds the analyst.


"Cumulative expenditure for the first quarter of the fiscal year stands at R125.7bn, or 23.5% of budgeted expenditure for the fiscal year.


"This compares favourably with the cumulative expenditure of 22.9% of the budget for the previous fiscal year in the first quarter of that year. The cumulative deficit for the first quarter of the fiscal year is R4.9bn," concluded the analyst.


Analysts had been anticipating the increase in revenue collections in June because quarterly company tax receipts increase substantially in this month.


Government revenue:
June 2007: R60.5bn
June 2006: R52.9bn


Government expenditure:
June 2007: R40.2bn
June 2006: R38.1bn


Budget surplus (deficit):
June 2007: R20.3bn
June 2006: R14.8bn

Spoornet to spend R34bn on turnaround
The company will refurbish and build new railway lines linking the country's economic centres.

Sapa
31 Jul 2007 17:23
Transnet Freight Rail, formerly Spoornet, will spend R34bn over the next five years as part of its turnaround strategy, CEO Siyabonga Gama said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Johannesburg, Gama said the overall turnaround strategy entailed refurbishing and building new railway lines linking the country's economic centres.

It also included improving morale of workers and customer relations.

In 2005 Spoornet lost R21m because of most of the train fleet was old and because of a lack of customer orientation.

"Goods trains would be late and no-one would explain why trains were late," he said.

Trains derailed because they were very old, with an average age of 32-years as compared to 12-years in other countries.

Seventy percent of goods trains were now on time and, as a result, at the end of the previous financial year Spoornet had a profit of R1,8bn, Gama said.

He said the coal line linking Richards Bay and Ermelo was starting to show some results with 47m tons of coal transported between Richards Bay and Ermelo.

The Natal Corridor had also showed significant improvement with 48 trains moving between Johannesburg and Durban on daily basis.

New routes would be developed to transport goods between South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

As part of the strategy, Transnet had recruited 300 technikon graduates to be trained as artisans and train drivers to ensure there was no skill shortage.

"We have arrested our past decline and have firmly grounded along the path to becoming a world class railway," Gama said.

The Natal Corridor had also showed significant improvement with 48 trains moving between Johannesburg and Durban on daily basis.

Thats a lot of trains

It is a lot, but the number of trucks between Joburg and Durbs gives the indication that more trains are needed.

Buthelezi: Zim refugees threaten SA stability

The tens of thousands of Zimbabwean refugees streaming south are a threat to South Africa's stability, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Their numbers had increased from 4 000 a month in 2004 to 20 000 a month, he said in his weekly newsletter on Friday.

"The flood of refugees is. .. having an impact on South Africa's economic and social stability.

"Economists believe we have shed 3% of our annual GDP [gross domestic product] because of the cost of taking care of [them]," he said.

At the Musina border crossing, police believed illegal immigrants were crossing at a rate of 3 000 a day.

"They manage to intercept less than 200 of them," said Buthelezi, who is a former minister of home affairs.

He said South Africa had a moral obligation to help the refugees, but Zimbabwe's crisis should not divert attention from those back home who needed help in the face of acute poverty.

He said strong and properly resourced local government was needed to lead the fight against poverty.

"Local government is closer to the hopes, needs and aspirations of the people. It is also closer to practical solutions," he said.

On Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said the influx of Zimbabwean refugees was a "serious problem" requiring action. -- Sapa

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=315805&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/

SA won't impose windfall tax on synfuel firms
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=114067

Government would not impose a windfall tax on synthetic fuel producers, such as Sasol and PetroSA, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday.

The State scrapped the idea of imposing additional taxes on the synthetic fuel industry, which was cashing in on soaring global oil prices, when the oil price reach a certain level, in the interest of a “conducive environment for additional investments in domestic fuel security”.

Manuel said, however, that government agreed that windfalls had been generated in the domestic synthetic fuel industry, but that it could not be concluded that the profits were as a result of structural or permanent changes in the oil price.

Public interventions would rather be focused on facilitating the expansion of liquid fuel supply capacity in the interest of domestic energy security and macro economic stability.

Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria, he said that government had opted instead for a “partnership” that would ensure that companies invested a significant share of its profits in expanding production capacity in the country.

The two companies, which would have been affected by the proposed tax were State-owned PetroSA and Sasol, which was privatised in the late 1970s.

Sasol CEO Pat Davies "warmly welcomed" the National Treasury's announcement.

"We are enthusiastic about the role we can play in enhancing South Africa’s energy security and have started the first phase of significantly expanding our existing synthetic fuels capacity in Secunda, South Africa. We also confirm that we are proceeding with a prefeasibility study into a greenfields coal-to-liquids (CTL) facility in partnership with government."

The pre-feasibility study of the project, known as Project Mafutha, is expected to be completed during 2008.

Shares in Sasol, which produces fuel from coal, leapt as much as 8,81% on the news on the news, to R284,00 a share.

In May 2006, Manuel appointed a task team to investigate reforms to the fiscal regime applicable to windfall profits in the sector, with particular reference to synthetic fuels.

The team, led by Zavareh Rustomjee, released its final 183-page report for public comment in February.

One of the proposals was to impose a possible tax on windfall profits, which would kick in when the price of oil were between $45 and $55 a barrel of crude. Sasol, however, claimed that additional taxes would create a “real disincentive” to new domestic investment.

Sasol would be a “very important” player in the production of liquid fuels in the long run, Manuel said, adding that the government would be holding the company to its commitment to significantly expand its synthetic fuel production capacity.

“It is a matter of national interest that Sasol’s valuable intellectual capital, cofinanced by the government over the years and acquired through intensive domestic research, is further developed to keep South Africa on the cutting edge of synthetic fuel technology. We have weighed this strategic consideration against the possible benefits of a windfall tax,” the National Treasury said.

The task team also proposed an incentive arrangement for new investment in liquid fuel production capacity, and he said that the government agreed to explore an incentive regime for investments to boost the production of liquid fuel in new synthetic plants.

Government also said that it would consider recommendations on royalties through the process to finalise the Mineral and Petroleum Royalty Bill.

“Like all other inputs into this process, the government will consider such proposals within its policy framework based on gross sales as the tax base, while providing appropriate relief for marginal mines,” it stated.

South Africa would not implement a progressive tax regime for upstream oil and gas companies, Manuel added.

The task team recommended that tax authorities should either introduce a linkage between royalty levels and the respective commodity price curve in the Royalty Bill, or incorporate a progressive tax mechanism into the schedule of the Income Tax Act, that replaced the OP26 mining lease currently in operation.

The National Treasury said that the OP26 lease had been replaced by the Tenth Schedule to the Income Tax Act, in line with the mining and exploration rights regime, in October 2006, and that the new legislation was capturing most of the fiscal provisions in the former agreements and that it did not see the need to change the policy.

The State would also not tax the “must have volumes” supplied by Sasol to the inland market, but it would explore a levy on refined products to contribute to the construction of excess capacity in relation to the proposed new multi-product pipeline.
Edited by: Liezel Hill

Isint the governmnet the biggest shareholder in both those companies?

Isint the governmnet the biggest shareholder in both those companies?

I know they still own something in Petro-SA, but SASOL??? Oh, by the way the government owned PIC still owns some 15% stake in them.

SASOL used to be wholly state-owned until 1984 when the former NP government privatised it, but the state kept a small stake in it since just like it does with Iscor, which was privatised in 1989 by FW de Klerk but was bought by the multinational Mittal Steel group in 2004. Not likely that the ANC government will relinquish it's small stakes in these enterprises given their strategic importance to the party regarding transformation. It is possible that the state-owned pension fund called PIC will buy more stakes in these enterprises which would amount to creaping nationalisation through the backdoor.

Neotel inks deal to land submarine cable connecting SA to India, Europe
By: Matthew Hill
Published: 7 Aug 07 - 16:19
South Africa’s fixed-line competitor to Telkom, Neotel, has signed an agreement with Seacom, to land a new submarine cable system in South Africa, which would connect to Asia and Europe, and provide cheaper internet prices, it said on Tuesday.

Through the partnership, Neotel would own the cable landing station and all facilities in South Africa, and would operate them on an open-access basis.

The cable would be funded through private equity.

The Sea cable system would connect South Africa to Europe and India, with the route passing along the East Coast of Africa, and through the Red Sea, before terminating in Italy. In addition, it would land in Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates along the way.

Construction would start on the cable later this year, and Seacom was hoping to have it finished in the first quarter of 2009.

“We would like to see multiple options opening up for international connectivity from South Africa, and remain committed to the success of the various international projects,” Neotel MD Ajay Pandey said in an emailed statement.

South African telecoms incumbent Telkom holds monopoly rights on access to and pricing of international bandwidth on the current Sat-3 submarine undersea cable, although its exclusivity will expire later this year.

The company has indicated that current capacity, made up of Sat 2 and 3, would be absorbed in the not too distant future, despite the fact that capacity on the route had only recently been upgraded from 40 Gbit/s to 120 Gbit/s.

Last week, the South African government, which has identified lowering telecoms costs as a key priority, said that it would build a cable to Brazil by 2009, and would also build one to England.

The $700-million project was aimed at reducing broadband costs in South Africa, as well as the rest of the continent, as Nepad member countries would enjoy free access to it to the cables, the government said at the time.

Private companies also plan to build another cable along the coast of East Africa, dubbed EASSy, but government has thrown whether this project will land in South Africa into doubt.

“We believe that with competitive international capacities available, pricing for international services will become more reasonable, serving to stimulate demand further,” Pandey said. “We believe that a strong business case exists for the Sea cable system.”

Source: engineeringnews.co.za

Not sure where to put this, but I thought it was worthy of posting.

South Africa: President Fires Deputy Health Minister

South African President Thabo Mbeki has fired his deputy health minister amidst controversy over a foreign trip and reported disagreements with the health minister over HIV/Aids policies.

In a late-night news release issued by the presidency, Mbeki said he was relieving Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge of her duties with immediate effect. He thanked her for her "participation in government over the years" and said that a new Deputy Minister of Health will be appointed "in due course".


The decision comes after media reports that Madlala-Routledge went on an unauthorised trip to Madrid, with her son and a consultant, costing R160,000.

Madlala-Routledge is best known for being the outspoken and fiercely independent deputy to South Africa's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. She has reportedly taken a stronger line on the HIV/Aids pandemic than her minister.

After a recent newspaper expose on an Eastern Cape hospital, Madlala-Routledge visited the hospital and declared conditions a "national emergency". Mbeki, however, backed the defence of conditions offered by his health minister. Plans are now underway to upgrade the hospital.

Madlala-Routledge, who has been praised by civil society for her stance on the HIV/Aids pandemic, was recently elected to the central committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP). The SACP is in a tripartite alliance with the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Reports of infighting in the alliance have proliferated ahead of the scheduled election of the ANC's president in December.

Mbeki's decision was attacked today by South Africa's official opposition in Parliament. Mike Waters, health spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance, said the dismissal was "a disastrous blow for the war on Aids".

http://allafrica.com/stories/200708090531.html

Here's another article that talks about the former deputy's track record.

South Africa: Old Hand Madlala-Routledge Has Good Aids Record

THE election of Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge to the South African Communist Party's (SACP's) top brass might have come as a surprise to some, but she is an old hand in the party.

Madlala-Routledge, the deputy of controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, is outspoken and independent. A member of the SACP since 1984, she served in the party's underground during the time of its banning and later emerged as the regional chairwoman of the Lower South Coast district in KwaZulu-Natal.

Madlala-Routledge, who is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), says there is no contradiction between her political and religious beliefs.

"The quest for social justice, equality and the value of the individual who is part of society represents a common bond between me being a Quaker and a communist," she says.

Her views on HIV/Aids are clear and have sometimes put her at loggerheads with the health minister. Unlike Tshabalala-Msimang, she enjoys a close relationship with the Treatment Action Campaign and has championed its demand for the roll-out of antiretrovirals.

Madlala-Routledge says she endorses the SACP's decision to hold its members who serve in the government to stricter account. "It makes a lot of sense. When comrades are invited to join the African National Congress' (ANC's) election list it is because of the recognition that they can play a particular role. I feel I have been able to bring the policies of the SACP and the ANC on HIV/Aids into my work."

The deputy minister says the resolutions on HIV/Aids of the SACP's special congress in 2005 are now reflected in the government's comprehensive plan to combat the pandemic.

On the ANC's call for a state-owned pharmaceutical company to combat the rising costs of drugs, she says the key issue is not ownership, but affordability.

"I would support more (pharmaceutical) companies being set up because competition will mean cheaper drugs, and it will lessen our dependency on a single source of supply. Producing drugs locally is also in line with the African Union ministers of health decision to increase Africa's capacity to develop cheap drugs," she says.

Madlala-Routledge is passionate about the fight to lower the cost of drugs, and says international trade rules resulting in unfair trade and rules around intellectual property in the World Trade Organisation need to be challenged.

When she served as deputy defence minister, Madlala-Routledge championed the rights of HIV-positive soldiers.

She serves on a number of organisations, including WOW, a local network of women.

Born in KwaZulu-Natal, she is married with two children.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200707160432.html

That is a disgrace that Thabo fired the wrong person when he should of gotten rid of Dr Beetroot. He should make Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge the new health minister because of her outspoken stance on AIDS and her respect earned fromthe Health and NGO sectors. President Mbeki is making a mistake by keeping Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who is the problem and needs to be axed.

That is a disgrace that Thabo fired the wrong person when he should of gotten rid of Dr Beetroot. He should make Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge the new health minister because of her outspoken stance on AIDS and her respect earned fromthe Health and NGO sectors. President Mbeki is making a mistake by keeping Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who is the problem and needs to be axed.

Mbeki likes to be surrounded by yes men and from her past utterances, she was not one of those. That is why he is getting rid of her. The so called "unauthorized" trip to Spain is an excuse used to get rid of her.

I agree with you Kulani and Mosi. The health department is SA sucks and she was outspoken about it and Mrs Beetroot never bothered to improve it. Its the same with crime issue Ncqakula and Selebi are not fired because they don't do anything about crime and all those who are outspoken about it are lashed.

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Charles Ncqakula are the worst cabinet ministers in the government.

dont forget poison Ivy

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Charles Ncqakula are the worst cabinet ministers in the government.

Be careful not to put two click consonants together

Durban ICC battles to keep flag high as it loses out to Cape Town


By SLINDILE KHANYILE

Durban - The Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) was urging tourism stakeholder bodies and businessmen to improve the image of the city and reclaim the market share lost to the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Miller Matola, the chief executive at the ICC, said on earlier this week.

Matola said the excellent service provided by the ICC was not enough to attract more business. He said customers were concerned about the image of the city a convention centre was located in, as they were about the quality of the service.

"If we improve as a city, as a venue we can attract business and this we can do with partners such as Durban Africa, Tourism KZN and Durban Chamber of Commerce," said Matola.

"Through other partnerships we have to address the issue of safety and crime. I believe the current interventions will shift the scale to our favour," he said.

The ICC contributed R565.6 million to the city's economy through the 27 conferences and an exhibition it hosted in the 2006/07 financial year. This increased from R520 million in the 2005/06 financial year.

Its contribution to foreign exchange was R267 million and it created 2 670 jobs.

Matola said that the convention centre had exceeded earnings expectations in the past five years, despite losing market share to its Cape Town rival.

"When we began, we were dominant, but we have seen a number of events going to Cape Town. That is because as a destination it is well known. Also because it's a new thing and people want to explore. They have eaten quite a bit of our market share," said Matola.

Cape Town will only release the figures for the 2006/07 financial year in October, but according to the 2005/06 figures, the centre contributed R1.5 billion to the country's gross domestic product. It created more than 5 000 jobs.

The CTICC also generated an operating profit of R19.9 million for Convenco, its holding company which is owned by the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape government and SunWest International.

The ICC was launched in 1997. It has since held 261 meetings and contributed just more than R5 billion to Durban. The CTICC, which was only established in 2003, has hosted a total of 1 647 meetings and contributed R4.5 billion to the city.

It was expected that ICC's contribution would reach R8.3 billion by 2010, while the CTICC was expected to rise to R13.9 billion by 2011.

Matola said they would also use the new ICC Durban Arena, an indoor events venue launched in April, to grow their business.

"The market is becoming very competitive and we need to grow and expand the business through diversification. The arena gives us a competitive advantage. It is a venue for entertainment and special events, which gives us a new market because it is not necessarily for conferences and meetings," said Matola.

He said that the centre was also looking at opportunities that would be presented by the 2010 soccer World Cup. It was also reviewing its green policy.

"We understand that our business has an impact on the environment and clients are increasingly demanding an environmentally friendly policy. We are looking at ways to lessen our impact on the environment," said Matola.

Cheers to Miller Matola for going on the record with those comments. We all know that the foreign conventioneers have been going to CPT in increasing numbers, and we all know the reasons. But when a major Durban institution such as the ICC can speak openly and highlight some of those reasons, then I think progress in the CBD will happen more quickly.

Cheers to Miller Matola for going on the record with those comments. We all know that the foreign conventioneers have been going to CPT in increasing numbers, and we all know the reasons. But when a major Durban institution such as the ICC can speak openly and highlight some of those reasons, then I think progress in the CBD will happen more quickly.

So you agree that more progress needs to take place in the CBD and more quickly?
I really wish that the IBC was awarded to DBN instead of JHB, it would have accelerated the need to ensure that the ICC surroundings and the CBD were in a better condition for the media of the world. Its also funny that an on-site hotel needs to be built at Nasrec when hotels are with walking distance of both the CTICC and ICC.

So you agree that more progress needs to take place in the CBD and more quickly?
I really wish that the IBC was awarded to DBN instead of JHB, it would have accelerated the need to ensure that the ICC surroundings and the CBD were in a better condition for the media of the world. Its also funny that an on-site hotel needs to be built at Nasrec when hotels are with walking distance of both the CTICC and ICC.

The three-star Garden Court Milpark in Auckland Park is not far from it. It was recently revamped after it was converted from a Holiday Inn to a Southern Sun.

The three-star Garden Court Milpark in Auckland Park is not far from it. It was recently revamped after it was converted from a Holiday Inn to a Southern Sun.

I do wonder what Nasrec scored for hospitality, time to nearest hotels etc.

I do wonder what Nasrec scored for hospitality, time to nearest hotels etc.

Probably not good but Nasrec unlike CTICC, Durban's ICC and the Sandton CC was built 25 or so years ago when there was no demand for hotels or convention delegates for that matter during the apartheid era so it will need to be revamped if it is going to compete with Sandton.

So you agree that more progress needs to take place in the CBD and more quickly?

I've never denied that the Durban CBD looks rundown in comparison to CPT. (It beats JNB and PTA by miles though.) Unless there's been dramatic improvement in the past year, I think Durban still has a long way to go to catch up.

I've never denied that the Durban CBD looks rundown in comparison to CPT. (It beats JNB and PTA by miles though.) Unless there's been dramatic improvement in the past year, I think Durban still has a long way to go to catch up.

That's true. There is no major CBD in South Africa that has gone as far as Cape Town has but I think that Durban's CBD ranks second and is much further than Joburg or Pretoria. In fact I think that Pretoria's is now falling behind Joburg's as there is alot of new development going on in Newtown and Braamfontein. As far as decentralized CBD's in SA, they all seem to be doing very well: Sandton in Johannesburg, Century City in Cape Town, Umhlanga in Durban and Centurion in Pretoria.

I've never denied that the Durban CBD looks rundown in comparison to CPT. (It beats JNB and PTA by miles though.) Unless there's been dramatic improvement in the past year, I think Durban still has a long way to go to catch up.

I was not asking if it needed to progress more to compete with CT, I am more interested in the small upgrade of squares, pavements, and the input from business that eventually lead to a great CBD space.

I was not asking if it needed to progress more to compete with CT, I am more interested in the small upgrade of squares, pavements, and the input from business that eventually lead to a great CBD space.

I understand.

Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:18PM IST

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday that the G8 should eventually become the G13 adding China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa to the existing group of leading industrialised countries.

"The G8 should continue its slow transformation," Sarkozy said in a speech to French ambassadors.

"I want the G8 to become the G13."

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldN...29172820070827

CITY CALLS ON INDUSTRY TO ESTABLISH AN EVENTS COMMISSION – A FIRST IN SA

The City of Cape Town has set the ball rolling for the establishment of an Events Commission, focusing on Business Events (events, meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions). The City has invited a task team - an interim committee of events industry stakeholders comprising of industry associations, industry heads and the public sector, to start the process of establishing the Cape Events Commission.

Cllr Simon Grindrod, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic, Social Development and Tourism, says: "We are delighted to support this major initiative as we believe it will give the region a major boost in terms of developing first class international events. Partners can share best practices, identify new opportunities for growth, attract new audiences and potential funders, whilst promoting Cape Town’s international reputation for hosting major events. Business Events are a key economic growth driver for the city. Cape Town is currently ranked as the 29th most popular city to host congresses and conventions internationally by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), and we aim to be part of the top ten by the FIFA World Cup in 2010. ”

The task team will define the mandate of the Cape Events Commission, whose primary objective is expected to be to position Cape Town and the surrounding region as the top business events destination in South Africa, Africa and a world leader in the market. In addition to this, the Cape Events Commission is also expected to assist in accelerating job creation, skills transfer and transformation.

The announcement has been met with enthusiasm by the private sector. Brian McDonald of Global Conferences Africa, a former chairperson of the South African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI), says: “Cape Town continues to attract international conferences to the city and the combination of South Africa’s six top tourist attractions being within an hour of Cape Town, the world class Cape Town International Convention Centre and our first class service providers make a dynamic package“.

Lance Gibbons, editor of The Event Newspaper, a national industry publication, agrees: “It’s important that the national and international market sees that local government is supporting the business events industry. The launch of the Cape Events Commission sends out a clear message to potential national and international clients that the public and private sector are working together in Cape Town and the surrounding region to make sure that we offer a business events experience comparable with the best in the world, at a time when the eyes of the world are on Cape Town as we prepare to host a semi-final of the FIFA World Cup in 2010“.

One of the Cape Events Commission’s first tasks will be to conduct comprehensive research on the business events industry in Cape Town. The conference industry has been seen as a R21 billion industry within South Africa, but recent research conducted on behalf of the Exhibition Association of South Africa (EXSA) has suggested that exhibitions alone contributes more revenue than this. When considering the economic impact, the Business Event industry as a whole has a significant influence on GDP.

In a further show of support for this burgeoning industry, the City has also announced that they will be further capacitating the current Events Permitting Office by increasing the staff from two to seven to meet rising demand.

The expansion of the Events Permitting Office and the creation of the Cape Events Commission will add infrastructural backbone to the industry, which has also been boosted by the recent news that the Cape Town International Convention Centre was named Africa’s Best Convention Centre at the World Travel Awards and is in the process of finalising an expansion project which will see it double it’s exhibition space.

SA GDP running at five percent
(Finance) JOHANNESBURG (August 29) - Overall gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2007 rose by an unexpected 4,5% quartrer-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualised rate (saar), compared with the first quarter’s 4,7%.

Consensus expectations, according to Absa, had been for GDP to rise by 4,2%. Excluding agriculture, GDP posted a 4,4% rise, slower than the 4,6% recorded in the first quarter. On an annual basis, GDP was recorded at a still buoyant 5%, lower than the first quarter’s 5,4%.

Of the ten sectors, the finance, real estate and business services sector made the largest contribution to GDP, contributing 1,5 percentage points. This was followed by the transport, storage and communication and wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants sectors respectively contributing 0,6 percentage points to GDP. Sectors, such as manufacturing, construction, as well as general government services reflected a decrease in their value added to economic growth compared with the first quarter. Manufacturing, which carries the second largest weighting in GDP, contributed just 0,1 percentage points to GDP, down n from the 0,8 percentage point contribution recorded in the previous quarter.

The agricultural sector recovered after several quarter’s of negative growth, rising by 10,5% q/q saar from 6,1% in the first quarter. Statistics SA attributed the quarterly growth to improved livestock performance. However, persistently poor performances from field crops and horticulture continue to act as a drag on overall agricultural growth. In the six months to date, agriculture declined by 1,2% and this poor performance is expected to continue for the remainder of 2007 as unusual drought conditions plague certain parts of the country.

Surprisingly, Absa notes in its review of the GDP data, manufacturing, which made a strong positive contribution to GDP in the past year-and-a-half, posted growth
of 0,5% q/q compared with 4,7% in the first quarter. Growth also slowed down from a year ago, with manufacturing rising by 4,8%, almost a full percentage point lower than the first quarter’s 5,7% increase.

“The poor quarterly performance of the manufacturing sector can be attributed to a number of major manufacturing divisions reporting lower production, which according to Statistics SA was largely as a result of unforeseen longer maintenance periods, replacement of local demand by imports and changing international trading conditions.”

While construction growth slowed to 14,4% q/q from 21,3% in the first quarter, it was underpinned to some extent by the rise in non-residential buildings.

Nonetheless, tighter borrowing costs, the erosion of disposable incomes (on the back of higher food and fuel costs) and an increasing lack of affordability have had a negative impact on the residential segment of the construction sector.

Despite higher interest rates, the finance, real estate and business services sector posted growth of 7,6% q/q from 5,7% in the previous quarter. However, from a year ago, the sector grew by 6,4% compared with 6,6% in the first quarter indicating that higher interest rates have had some negative impact on the sector.

Commenting on the data, Absa says, domestic demand remained resilient in the second quarter despite 250 basis points of interest rate hikes, supporting the
SARB MPC’s decision to hike interest rates in August.

SARB Governor, Tito Mboweni has cautioned on the potential inflationary effects of strong GDP growth above the economy’s long-term growth potential, which is a primary concern for the SARB MPC. While the latest GDP data reflects a slowdown from the previous quarter, inflationary expectations remain on the negative side given the volatile oil price, unstable rand and global financial woes.

“Although we do not anticipate further tightening by the SARB MPC this year, upside risks to inflation and therefore interest rates remain.


Submitted: 29 Aug 2007

just posted an article in the durban thread related the big changes in the durban cbd

Eskom opens power stations

Cape Correspondent

CAPE TOWN — Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin yesterday warned the supply of electricity in summer was becoming “as nerve-wracking” as supplying SA with enough energy in winter.

Erwin said at the official opening of two new Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) power stations in Atlantis — one at Atlantis and the other at Mossel Bay — that while the recent winter had passed without major disruption, next winter would again be a “nerve-wracking period” for Eskom to prevent blackouts.

He said the public should be alerted to this.

The use of the two OCGT power stations, which combined, would supply about 1000mW extra to supplement peak-period electricity demand, had been the “saving grace” for Eskom which saw through the winter period without a major incident.


However, Erwin said there had been “big changes” to the structure of SA’s economy, either through rising standards of living or increased disposable income.

He said “in a few short years” the demand for electricity had grown dramatically while Eskom had to allow for the maintenance of its power generating plants.


Speaking at the same event, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said SA could give the Federation of International Football Association (Fifa) and the world the assurance that the country’s “ energy” would be ready for the event .

She said Fifa had “fussed a lot” about generators that were not linked to the electricity grid. She said they wanted complete energy security because the majority of the people that watch the matches “are not in the stadium, but all over the world ”.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said she wanted to assure Fifa that the country would be ready to give them “on and off grid support, whatever they want, they’ll get”.


She said the technology used in the OCGT power stations was such that it could be switched from liquid fuel operation to gas operation.

She said SA was talking to Namibia about the prospects of piping gas from off-shore fields to SA and the department of minerals and energy also had a memorandum of understanding with PetroSA on the issue.

just posted an article in the durban thread related the big changes in the durban cbd

cant find it?:ohno: :ohno: :ohno: :ohno:

Will try and find an article, but the JSE broke thru the 30000 mark, a huge achievement. Shows great confidence in the bourse and the economy as a whole, congrats JSE!

Inner city rejuvenation makes progress
Business Report, October 11, 2007
By Roy Cokayne

Pretoria - South African cities are slowly coming to terms with their inner city problems, according to a new report.

Pretoria is showing signs of moving out of the crisis in which it has been embroiled for several years but Johannesburg still requires time to learn those lessons, says the Trafalgar Inner City Report.

Released yesterday, the latest report says Durban and Cape Town have turned the corner as city management demonstrated its willingness to invest in large-scale projects that tackled the problems of poverty and unemployment to generate economically useful inner city residents.

Port Elizabeth and East London have problems linked to geography and investor reluctance but even these cities are moving in the right direction for rejuvenation, it says.

Neville Schaefer, the chairman of specialist property management company Trafalgar, stressed that inner cities around the world shared the same problems.

"Each one has experienced a time … where the degradation and neglect has created cesspools of slum lands rife for building hijackers, greedy slum lords and yet still home to thousands of people desperately seeking a better life."

Schaefer said there was a universal approach to a universal problem. When communities worked together, the result was an improvement in the apartment block, the city block, the area and the precinct.

Trafalgar managing director Andrew Schaefer said city improvement districts had a universal track record for resolving crime and grime, and when business played its part, supporting homeless eradication and employment creation initiatives, the effect was exponentially greater.

Balancing the demands for social housing for the poor and the private sector's need to generate profits was a worldwide issue. Legislating a proportion of developments as inclusionary housing aimed at lower income recipients was not without precedent.

The report says the growth of city shack settlements leaves little doubt that most migrants are trekking to urban areas for jobs and better access to schools and hospitals.

This flood is straining the infrastructure as the government spruces up the country ahead of the 2010 soccer World Cup but proposed law changes are affecting squatter communities and the homeless, it says.

Average sectional title flat prices in Sunnyside in Pretoria have grown from R45 000 in 2002 to R287 000, the report notes. Johannesburg's Berea prices have risen from R55 000 to R133 000 in that time.

The difference is attributed to Pretoria's core residential population being public servants, who have above-average skills and education, stay for longer in one place and have government-supported funding to buy property.

The Johannesburg central business district (CBD) is far bigger and more complex. Its 200 000-strong population probably has a much higher proportion of transitional residents, it says.

But the CBD is becoming the first-choice home suburb for the upwardly mobile venturing into Johannesburg.

Durban has the foundations of a world class city, it says, but its performance has been constrained by the lack of partnerships, excessive focus on major capital projects and too little attention to real urban management systems that alter the quality of living and working environments.

Cape Town's inner city partnership's innovative programmes are paying dividends. Business and the city have collaborated on social and economic processes, responding to grass roots issues.

Inner city rejuvenation makes progress
Business Report, October 11, 2007
By Roy Cokayne

Pretoria - South African cities are slowly coming to terms with their inner city problems, according to a new report.

Pretoria is showing signs of moving out of the crisis in which it has been embroiled for several years but Johannesburg still requires time to learn those lessons, says the Trafalgar Inner City Report.

Released yesterday, the latest report says Durban and Cape Town have turned the corner as city management demonstrated its willingness to invest in large-scale projects that tackled the problems of poverty and unemployment to generate economically useful inner city residents.

Port Elizabeth and East London have problems linked to geography and investor reluctance but even these cities are moving in the right direction for rejuvenation, it says.

Neville Schaefer, the chairman of specialist property management company Trafalgar, stressed that inner cities around the world shared the same problems.

"Each one has experienced a time … where the degradation and neglect has created cesspools of slum lands rife for building hijackers, greedy slum lords and yet still home to thousands of people desperately seeking a better life."

Schaefer said there was a universal approach to a universal problem. When communities worked together, the result was an improvement in the apartment block, the city block, the area and the precinct.

Trafalgar managing director Andrew Schaefer said city improvement districts had a universal track record for resolving crime and grime, and when business played its part, supporting homeless eradication and employment creation initiatives, the effect was exponentially greater.

Balancing the demands for social housing for the poor and the private sector's need to generate profits was a worldwide issue. Legislating a proportion of developments as inclusionary housing aimed at lower income recipients was not without precedent.

The report says the growth of city shack settlements leaves little doubt that most migrants are trekking to urban areas for jobs and better access to schools and hospitals.

This flood is straining the infrastructure as the government spruces up the country ahead of the 2010 soccer World Cup but proposed law changes are affecting squatter communities and the homeless, it says.

Average sectional title flat prices in Sunnyside in Pretoria have grown from R45 000 in 2002 to R287 000, the report notes. Johannesburg's Berea prices have risen from R55 000 to R133 000 in that time.

The difference is attributed to Pretoria's core residential population being public servants, who have above-average skills and education, stay for longer in one place and have government-supported funding to buy property.

The Johannesburg central business district (CBD) is far bigger and more complex. Its 200 000-strong population probably has a much higher proportion of transitional residents, it says.

But the CBD is becoming the first-choice home suburb for the upwardly mobile venturing into Johannesburg.

Durban has the foundations of a world class city, it says, but its performance has been constrained by the lack of partnerships, excessive focus on major capital projects and too little attention to real urban management systems that alter the quality of living and working environments.

Cape Town's inner city partnership's innovative programmes are paying dividends. Business and the city have collaborated on social and economic processes, responding to grass roots issues.

ive read the report for each city.

a lot of "general" comments but not enough "constructive" comment to make me feel as if this report has achieved something much. The reports are a bit all over the place, overly optimistic in some parts and surprisingly subdued about the successes of our cities in other parts.

India roadshow opens doors, says Pahad
October 15, 2007

By Evan Pickworth

Johannesburg - Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad, on Friday hailed a five-day investment promotion trip to India as a success as it had promoted greater partnerships between the private sectors in both countries.

"The trip was positive on both sides. The South Africans were very happy and I hear they have struck some partnership arrangements. The Indian business people I spoke to were equally confident," said Pahad.

He explained that the aim of the trip was to enable South African business people to meet with their counterparts in India and find synergies.

"It is good for us if they form partnerships," said Pahad.

"This is good for both countries where we face similar challenges of poverty and under-development," he added.


Pahad pointed out that trade between the countries was currently "relatively low" at around $5 billion and the aim was to get this up to $15 billion in the next decade.

Pahad explained that a report would be drawn up and presented to the department of trade and industry and follow-ups would be done and assistance given where it was needed.

He concluded that the Indian business people would do their own feasibility studies before finally committing to investments.

The business delegation comprised private sector companies, government departments and the International Marketing Council.

Cape Town Office Demand Set to match Growth Rate

15 Oct 2007 - Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments - Od Mutual Investment Group Property Investments

Intro
The demand for office space in the greater Cape Town metro area can be expected to grow in line with overall macro economic growth in South Africa, anticipated to be around 5% a year in real terms
This is one of the findings of a study of the city’s office and retail sectors. The study was commissioned by Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments (OMIGPI) which has just concluded the purchase of a vacant CBD site off Buitengracht from the City Council for R89,2 million.

The addition to Old Mutual holdings in the CBD is in line with OMIGPI’s aim to grow assets under management to R100 billion by 2015.

“The study indicates demand for office space in greater Cape Town can be expected to grow at an annual 107 000m² through to 2015,” says Brent Wiltshire, business development executive for OMIGPI.

“If Cape Town CBD maintains its 40% share of the metropolitan office market, demand for office space in the CBD will be about 43 000m² a year, according to the study.”

Wiltshire says the study found there are plans for an additional 60 000m² of office space in the metro area, 24 000m² of this being in the CBD.

He says the study notes office development typically comes in lumps, rather than an even distribution each year, with projects delivering more than the average annual demand.

“It also notes that after two decades of decline, with decentralisation and residential growth creating strong nodes away from the CBD, work done on improving the inner city has brought a change in fortunes.

“According to the study, it appears the CBD has turned a corner with total available office space increasing, total occupied office square meterage increasing and vacancy levels dropping to 6,5% for the period 2002 to 2007.

“The report says the growth in the office rental market is also good news for retail. Most shoppers in the CBD are people working in the city, it says, and the increase in workers will positively affect retail.”

More than 1,1 million passenger trips on public transport are made daily into the city, with rail accounting for 53% of the total, the report said.

Priority projects for the regional rail system included extension of the Khayelitsha line with two new stations, an increase in trains on priority corridors, upgrading of stations, and refurbishment of the fleet. Priority corridors had also been identified for road-based public transport.

A survey of 100 small, medium and large companies leasing CBD offices reflected the primary advantage of a city location was its central base, for clients and employees.

“A further component of the research found that four of five CBD residents worked in the city centre, the primary reasons being convenience to work and to retail facilities.

“The convenience benefit was also reflected in vehicle usage, with 44% of those households surveyed not having the use of a vehicle.”

Posted to the web on: 17 October 2007

Building costs soar as 2010 looms
Chantelle Benjamin

Chief Reporter

THE 2010 Soccer World Cup construction boom is pushing up the cost of building materials and construction, making it expensive to build hotels and forcing investors to look for more inventive methods of financing.

This is according to Joop Demes, MD of Golding Hotel Investment Consultants, speaking yesterday at the International and National Tourism and Hospitality Colloquium, at the University of Johannesburg.

Demes told the conference that prices for new construction projects were increasing rapidly.

“This is because of a scarcity of key resources such as labour and materials. We are simply running out of time and materials,” he said.

This comes as hotels experience a boom , reporting occupancy rates of 72,3% in the first four months of the year, up from 70,2% last year.

This has led to an increased rate of return of 14,4%.

Gauteng hotels are seeing the highest return on their investment at 20%.

Gauteng will host 21 of the 64 World Cup games, putting it under pressure to provide beds for the 358000 tourists expected to visit SA.

Demes said that at the moment it was cheaper to buy a four or five star hotel than it was to build a hotel from scratch.

A four-star hotel is 25% cheaper to buy, and a five-star 16% cheaper. A three-star hotel is still a good deal, however, working out 29% cheaper to build than to buy. Demes said it was a challenge to build new hotels.

“With the prime lending rate at 14% and a short-term moderate income yield versus good prospects on capital appreciating, investors will need more long term equity funding.

“There are companies willing to invest in the industry. We have the Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and the Blackstone Group just acquired the Hilton,” he said.


One method of unlocking profit in advance to get investment for hotel construction was the mixed-use hotel, which was gaining popularity worldwide, he said.

These involved “full residence,” such as apartments on top of hotels such as the Cape Grace, sectional title deals, such as the Victoria Junction Hotel or President Hotel in Cape Town, and fractional title deals which allowed multiple owners a certain number of days stay at a villa or apartments near the hotel.

Gillian Saunders, principal of Grant Thornton Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Consulting, warned more than 200 representatives from government and tourism that they had left it “almost too late to start marketing SA ahead of the World Cup” considering other countries had started five years earlier.

Saunders said SA should be taking advantage of Bafana Bafana international home games — when foreigners visit — to market the country.

“We need to maximise the country’s profile before the event, using brand development that is soccer linked, holding consumer and business tourism promotion campaigns and hosting international media and providing them with material and stories.”

Saunders said SA needed to focus its branding on the core markets that already come to the country and are taking part in the World Cup .

Research by Grant Thornton revealed that SA could expect 483257 foreign tourists to come to the event. Of these 51000 would be from Africa, and 125000 would be nonspectators. Together they were expected to spend R7,3bn .

This will be 3,1% more tourists than expected in 2010 if SA did not host the games, which is no small number if one considers the country is expected to attract 11,9-million visitors in any event.

Saunders said the World Cup would bring increased growth to the country, with tourism taking a dip in 2011, but steady growth from then on.






Sponsored links

Technology

Travel

Residential Property

Surprise ANC objections to land ownership study
18 Oct 2007 - Business Day - Business day

Intro
Cabinet-backed plans to limit foreign ownership of land ran into unexpected opposition in Parliament yesterday, when African National Congress (ANC) MPs criticised aspects of a report drawn up by a team led by Prof Shadrack Gutto

Their concerns echoed criticisms by the Democratic Alliance (DA), with one ANC MP warning against reintroducing race as a criterion for land ownership.

The report of Gutto’s expert panel, appointed in 2004, was approved by the cabinet in July and has since been published for public comment. It controversially recommended that the race and gender of those purchasing land be recorded on title deeds.

This led opposition MPs to say that nearly 15 years after the Group Areas Act was scrapped, the ANC was poised to introduce race declarations into the law. Yesterday ANC MPs joined the DA in calling for race not be included in the Deeds Act.

Land affairs official Sipho Sibanda, briefing Parliament’s agriculture and land affairs committee on the report yesterday, said that race and gender were recommended for inclusion so that the government could use the information to judge the success of land reform.

ANC MPs also criticised the length of time taken for the investigation. Hardline ANC MP David Dlali was concerned that the Land Use Management Bill was the chosen instrument of the department for achieving some of the recommendations.

“Come on, guys, the land use bill was started in 2001 and has only reached cabinet this year. This is a critical issue but we do not know how you are going to deal (with) it. It’s a joke,” he said.

DA MP Maans Nel said that including race in the disclosures required by the Deeds Act amounted to the “re-racialisation” of land ownership.

“You cannot go back to the past. This piecemeal approach is exactly how apartheid started,” Nel said.

He warned that property was the cornerstone of a free economy and the recommendations of the panel would result in disinvestment because banks would not grant loans in an uncertain environment.

ANC MP Salamuddi Abram said while he was in favour of controls over foreign land ownership “we must be extremely careful about returning into our law terms that caused considerable conflict in the past. To put race back into the law will be in conflict with the constitution.

“We should be talking about nationality and not race,” Abram said. “To put race back into the law will be in conflict with the constitution.”

He said the report and its recommendations were contradicted by the actions of the government. This was demonstrated by the fact that Cape Town’s prime Waterfront was sold by the government to an Arab-English consortium and not retained for all South Africans.

“But please, in God’s name, let the terms black and Indian never again appear in SA’s law,” Abram concluded.

DA MP Andries Botha wanted to know if with the introduction of race as part of the deeds disclosure there would also be a new race classification law.

“What are you going to do, go back to the pencil in the hair test? It’s ludicrous,” he said.

Sibanda, replying to the criticisms, said he appreciated the wisdom of the MPs but stuck to his guns on race being included because “we must look at the purpose for which it is included and that is to measure the success of land reform”.

Botha criticised the claims by the investigation that once the corporate ownership of farms in SA was unravelled it would show even higher levels of foreign ownership than now appeared. He said most commercial farms were registered as companies or trusts, and when this was taken into account the probability was the foreign ownership of agricultural land would be reduced rather than increased.

His colleague, Kraai van Niekerk, said there were many points made in the report such as black people being persuaded to front for white buyers, and the indiscriminate sale of municipal land in return for favours that the DA agreed with.

South Africa comes out tops

October 17 2007 at 11:22AM

South Africa has been voted the best and most interesting African travel destination in an annual Dutch online travel survey, SA Tourism said on Wednesday.

"We know that the Dutch are enthusiastic safari goers and that they also enjoy other nature and outdoor activities, so we're pleased that our marketing efforts in these areas have paid off," said Annemarie Ferns, South African Tourism's country manager in The Netherlands.

During a period of four weeks visitors to the online travel site - www.wereldwijzer.nl - had the opportunity to vote for their preferred holiday destinations and experiences.

The categories were: favourite or best destination in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America; best city trip; best camping experience; best cruise line; favourite hotel; best online travel agency, top study travel organisation and best airline.

A message on the website says that it is the biggest online travel community in the Netherlands with more than 30 000 registered members.

According to SA Tourism, it is visited by more than 120 000 Dutch and Flemish visitors every month.

The most popular destinations have their own travel forums. The South Africa forum can be found at www.wereldwijzer.nl/zuidafrika.

South African Tourism is the national tourism agency responsible for the marketing of SA as a preferred tourist destination. - Sapa

IBSA leaders challenge business
David Masango and Sholain Govender

17 October 2007

The leaders of three of the developing world's most influential nations have committed to increasing trilateral trade to more than US$15-billion by 2010, while also challenging business and industry players to be more ambitious and actually exceed that target.

President Thabo Mbeki, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazil's President Lula da Silva met in Pretoria this week for the second annual India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) summit, to promote trade and investment and discuss a wide range of issues.

These ranged from cooperation aimed at poverty eradication and development, further enhancing political and trade relations amongst the three countries and developments with regard to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations and the conclusion of the Doha Development Round.

The leaders also received reports from representatives of the various IBSA working groups including business, academics, the Parliamentary forum, civil society forum and the women's forum.

Addressing the media, Mbeki said the leaders concurred that the meeting was a successful one, with the three countries signing several agreements that further consolidate trilateral cooperation. Decisions taken at the summit collectively form the Tshwane IBSA Summit Declaration.

Read the full declaration here
The three countries signed new agreements on cultural cooperation, cooperation in health and medicine, and memoranda of understanding on social issues, higher education, tax administration and wind resources.
They also supported the establishment of two additional working groups on human settlement development and on environmental and climate change.

"We were pleased to listen to the various working groups and we are impressed with the work that is being done," Mbeki said.

He added that IBSA would be used to promote the causes of developing countries, such as demanding for the abolition of agricultural subsidies being given to farmers in developed countries and calling for fairer trade agreements during global trade negotiations.

The three leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the envisaged India-Mercosur- (Southern Common Market) Sacu (Southern African Customs Union) Trilateral Free Trade Area.

Pooling resources
Mbeki further highlighted the IBSA Fund, to which each member state contributes US$1-million dollars annually. The fund, he said, was meant to assist poorer developing countries, such as the recent assistance given to Guinea-Bissau.

Singh expressed happiness at the success of the meeting, which he said was constructive and deliberated on how the three countries could pool their resources for the collective benefit. He added that discussions "showed there was a convergence of views" in many areas.

He said one such similarity was in the way in which each of the three countries had to come up with creative social development initiatives to uplift the lives of its people.

For his part, Da Silva said the future success of agreements signed at this summit would be due to the political and ideological symmetry of the three countries, and expressed his confidence in the three countries being able to "do much more" than what they had already achieved.

Good news boys...

Broadband costs set to fall
Posted Thu, 18 Oct 2007


The cost of broadband internet access is set to drop significantly with the adoption in the National Assembly on Wednesday of the Broadband Infraco Bill.

The bill provides mainly for transferring Broadband Infraco Limited to the state from Eskom Holdings Limited.

It further licences Infraco under the Electronic Communications Act, and converts it into a public company with share capital.

Broadband costs in SA are considerably higher than the country's international counterparts.

Research shows that connectivity providers in SA — other than Telkom — have a cost structure where up to 80 percent of costs comprise those attributable to Tier One national backbone connectivity and Tier Three international connectivity. These are both supplied by Telkom.

By intervening to address these cost structures, government is expecting that Tier Two (the local metropolitan area network and last mile) connectivity providers will quickly pass the savings on to the market as a result of competitive pressure.

The bill also creates flexibility for funding and private sector involvement by allowing for the conversion of Infraco into a public company.

Public companies are generally recognised as the optimal corporate form to access capital markets and enable future private sector investment, where necessary.

In terms of the bill, the state will provide capitalisation for Infraco to the amount of R975-million.

Infraco's main objects are to expand the availability and affordability of access to electronic communications, including, but not limited to, under-developed and under-serviced areas, commensurate with international best practice and pricing.

Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin dismissed suggestions the state was getting too involved in "cabling".

"The specific proposals are the following: that we would take responsibility to lead the process for a west coast (communications) cable.

"This would be a very large capacity cable — we're quite certain bigger than the private sector itself would be prepared to invest in," he said.

The reasons for this included that SA needed very large capacity for the proposed Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project, to be centred mainly in the Northern Cape.

The country was also increasing capacity for science and research.

"So this is the kind of investment that was very unlikely to be made by the private sector," Erwin said.

If government's objectives were fully met in the foreseeable future, there was no particular need for Infraco to "automatically always stay in public hands".

"But the objectives of getting affordable, price-competitive broadband... must be met and retained at all costs," Erwin said.

The bill received the support of all parties in the House and now goes to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.

I'll believe the price drops when I see them. Government is already using Telkom for their own gain, so owning another operator can make things worse if so desired.

R400 billion to be spent on 2010 infrastructure

October 17, 2007, 17:30

Government plans are in place to spend more than R400 billion in developing and upgrading infrastructure, including public transport, in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

However, government officials warn that runaway inflation could have a negative impact on spending plans. This emerged during a briefing by the Economic Cluster of Directors General to the media in Parliament.

Railway stations are in the process of being upgraded in all major cities around the country, national roads are being expanded and Durban should have a brand new airport in time for the World Cup.

Transport director general Mpumi Mpofu says local bus manufacturing companies have also indicated that they are ready to increase production in preparation for 2010. Mpofu says the production of more buses will go beyond 2010 as there is currently a demand for public transport.

Containing inflation
But the fly in the ointment, as far as infrastructure development is concerned, is the runaway inflation.

Trade and industry director general Tshediso Matona says it will clearly impact on government's spending plans. Therefore Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni's steps to contain inflation should be welcomed.

Matona says they appreciate the Reserve Bank's concern on runaway inflation and have some understanding for the need to contain that through interest rate increases. The challenge the bank is going to face though is doing that without choking growth.

http://www.sabcnews.com/economy/business/0,2172,157659,00.html

Clogged city streets threaten economic lifeblood

Khulu Phasiwe


Trade and Industry Correspondent

TRAFFIC congestion in SA’s three major cities — Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban — could hamper economic growth if no preventive measures are taken now, says the national transport department.

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe says that the use of private cars has become a major problem.

Traffic volumes are growing at more than 7% a year, mainly because of a huge increase in the use of private cars to commute to and from work.

Between 1997 and 2004 the national percentage of people who used cars rose from 30% to 45%. In Gauteng, the figure was 55%.

Transport analysts say South Africans spend more than R200bn a year on private vehicles — about 15% of the country’s gross domestic product.


Although no formal study has been conducted on the monetary cost of congestion to the economy, the government and analysts say it is huge.


“Increasing congestion makes it impossible to sustain the economic growth of a city like Johannesburg on the basis of private car use,” Radebe said recently. “The future prosperity of the country depends on increased investment in public transport,” the minister said.


He said the effect of traffic jams also led to road rage and low productivity at work, and also cut into people’ s leisure and family time.


In a bid to combat congestion, the government has initiated a number of interventions, which include creating dedicated lanes for vehicles carrying more than three occupants.


The transport department has also encouraged people, including cabinet ministers and CEOs of parastatals, to use public transport, bicycles and motorbikes.

As far back as 2005, Radebe told the National Assembly that SA’s main challenge was “not so much car ownership, but car use”.


“We want our cities designed around efficient use of transport modes and these range from walking to public transport, including dedicated road space for public transport and infrastructure and facilities for pedestrians and cyclists,” he said.


Plans are under way to integrate the public transport system — a move that the government says will “radically transform” the way millions of people commute and will put the country’s public transport on a par with developed countries.


The department’s ambitious plan involves the integration of rail, buses, minibus taxis, metered taxis and long-distance intercity services ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

The reshaping of the public transport system will bring a number of changes, including the extension of operating hours to between 16 and 24 hours a day, having buses and trains arriving every five to 10 minutes during peak hours, and creating efficient feeder services including park-and-ride and taxi networks.


In Johannesburg, the new transport master plan involves integrating the timetables of municipal bus service provider Metrobus, commuter rail service provider Metrorail, and the high-speed Gautrain.

“We have begun to take necessary and real steps to build a lasting legacy in transport, not just for 2010 but for the benefit of our society beyond 2010,” the minister says.

“This reflects our collective effort as a nation to transform our public transport system to a more efficient and sustainable medium that supports growth and equitable access to opportunities and development.”

At least 12 cities and six districts are expected to be fully compliant with the new public transport plan within three years.


The treasury has already allocated R22,2bn to upgrade road and rail infrastructure in the nine cities that will be hosting the 2010 soccer.


The treasury also acknowledges in its budget review document that the soccer extravaganza has created an opportunity for SA to improve its public transport infrastructure.

“Hosting the World Cup provides an opportunity to reduce infrastructure investment backlogs in metropolitan areas and municipalities,” the treasury says.


“These investments will target a range of projects — from improving sports facilities to building roads and public transport networks — and serve as a catalyst for tourism promotion, sports development and voluntary community participation.”


The treasury says infrastructure investment will continue to make up a “steadily increasing share of general government expenditure” during the next few years. “Investment in infrastructure will lead to rapid economic growth and alleviate the traffic congestion which is a major concern in all our cities.”


Associated Press reports that a recent study by the Texas Traffic Institute has found that most US drivers waste nearly an entire work week each year sitting in traffic on the way to and from their jobs.


The report said that the nation’s drivers languished in traffic delays for 4,2-billion hours in 2005, or 38 hours a driver. The number was up from 4-billion previously. It said drivers wasted 2,9-billion gallons of fuel while sitting in traffic, and that lost time and traffic delays cost the country $78,2bn.


“Things are bad and they’re getting worse,” Alan Pisarski, a transportation expert was quoted as saying.

“We’ve used up the capacity that had been bequeathed to us by a previous generation, and we haven’t replaced it.”

if they want to see traffic they should go to sao paulo

if they want to see traffic they should go to sao paulo

But that is no excuse for them to be complacent and not do anything about the problem because there is worse traffic elsewhere including in some African countries to our north like Cairo in Egypt.

Coega likely to get R39bn refinery
2007/10/25

The state-owned oil company, PetroSA, has announced that it intends to build a 200,000 barrel a day oil refinery and though the details are not finally nailed down, it is most likely to be located at Coega in the Eastern Cape.

Announcing this at a media briefing in Parliament on Wednesday, chief executive Sipho Mkhize said that the hunt is on for an equity partner or partners who would like to get involved in the project which at present estimates will cost R39bn.

At present PetroSA supplies around 7% of South Africa's fuel needs, and by the time the new refinery is running at full capacity the aim is that the company will supply as much as 30% of the fuel sold here.

"The demand for white products is showing an upward trend," Mkhize said. He said that the company will be approaching specific partners to co-invest.

"Such partners might include people willing to supply us with crude oil, or to off-take the white product."

The company said it expects to turn the first sod on the project in 2010, and that the refinery will be up and running in 2014 or 2015.

Ten thousand construction jobs will be created, according to Joern Falbe, the vice president for new ventures. He said that the refinery will itself directly employ 1,000 people. It will provide jobs for another 5,000 people indirectly.

Government has not yet given its full assent to the project, but Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica has had discussions about it.

"She said she will want to see the total studies when they come up," Mkhize said.

The studies currently being undertaken will also involve investigations into how the company's oil-from-gas plant at Mossel Bay can be fitted into the plan.

The Mossel Bay plant is due to run out of gas supplies within the next four years, unless further exploration shows more satellite gas fields. – Michael Hamlyn, I-Net Bridge

The Associated Press
Published: October 24, 2007


CAPE TOWN, South Africa: Living standards have vastly improved in South Africa since the end of apartheid, although large disparities in education remain between the white minority and the black majority, according to a government survey released Wednesday.

The survey also found the nation's population had grown to 48.1 million, from 44.8 million at the last census in 2001. Black South Africans account for 79 percent of the population, it said.

"Substantial progress has been made with regard to improving the living conditions of South Africans," Stats SA said in releasing the results.

The survey showed large gaps remain in education. It said 12 percent of blacks over the age of 20 have no schooling — half what it was at the first census in 1996 — compared with just 0.6 percent of whites. Only 5.6 percent of blacks go on to higher education, compared with 31 percent of whites.

But generally, it painted an upbeat picture about advances since the 1994 end of apartheid, which condemned the black majority to a life of deprivation and discrimination.


The survey said that housing conditions had improved, with 71 percent of homes classed as "formal dwellings" rather than as shacks, compared with 64 percent in 1996, when the first post-apartheid census was conducted.

It said 80 percent of households now use electricity for lighting and 67 percent use it for cooking, compared with 58 percent and 47 percent, respectively, in 1996.

The majority of households — 88 percent — now have access to indoor plumbing, said the community survey, which was based on 255,000 households.

Households still using bucket toilets halved to just over 2 percent, though just over 8 percent still had no access to any toilet facility.

The survey found that the number of households owning a mobile phone more than doubled from 32.3 percent in 2001 to just under 80 percent this year.

Those owning a computer almost doubled to 15.7 percent, but only 7.3 percent had Internet access at home.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/24/africa/AF-GEN-South-Africa-Living-Standards.php

25 Oct 2007
By Gordon Bell

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African public finances are sound and the financial system is healthy, while strong economic growth will continue, albeit as a slower pace, Moody's Investor Service said on Thursday.

But political and socio-economic risks may dampen investor sentiment and cloud prospects for a ratings upgrade.

"South Africa's foreign exchange reserves have strengthened markedly since our last upgrade in 2005, which helps provide momentum for the foreign currency ratings," Moody's Vice President Kristin Lindow said in an annual country report.

"In addition, the current economic upswing, already in its eighth year, might be extended for another few years, though at a slower pace in the near term."

Africa's biggest economy expanded by 5.0 percent last year, just off 2005's two-decade record of 5.1 percent, but short of government targets considered sufficient to slash unemployment of around 25 percent.

Growth is widely expected to ease over the next two years, pinched by higher interest rates aimed at taming inflation.

Moody's said the rate hikes -- which have lifted the repo rate 350 basis points to 10.5 percent since June last year -- and a new credit law should ease growth amid signs the economy was overheating.

It forecast expansion of 4.7 percent this year, slowing to 4.0 percent in 2008.

Moody's said monetary tightening should be near a peak although there was a risk of a wage-price spiral if inflation expectations are not brought under control.

AIDS, CRIME A THREAT

Official data on Wednesday showed targeted CPIX inflation jumped to a four-year-high of 6.7 percent year-on-year in September, further above the central bank's 3 to 6 percent band.

Moody's said a marked improvement in South Africa's external credit-worthiness suggested a two-notch gap between its foreign and domestic currency ratings could be reduced by raising the foreign currency rating.

The agency lifted the outlook on the "Baa1" foreign currency rating to positive in June, while leaving unchanged the stable "A2" domestic currency rating.

However, high unemployment, an HIV/AIDS epidemic, wide income disparities and rampant crime may contain ratings.

"Left unaddressed, these problems would pose concerns for longer-term economic and political stability," Lindow said.

Presidential succession was also an source of uncertainty.

President Thabo Mbeki's desire to stand for a third term as head of the ruling, and overwhelmingly supported, African National Congress at a December congress -- even though he cannot serve as the country's president after 2009 -- had complicated matters.

Mbeki's bid could be seen as a way to stay deeply involved in decision-making and to thwart a campaign by opponent and sacked deputy president Jacob Zuma, Moody's said.

It added that South Africa had a well-balanced external debt profile and growing reserves that helped to mitigate concerns over a large current account deficit.

"In Moody's opinion, South Africa's free-floating exchange rate combined with the relatively low external debt burden suggests that the financial consequences of an outflow or reduction or foreign capital to finance the current account deficit, would be mild."

Moody's predicted the current account deficit relatively steady at 6.8 percent of GDP for 2008, and the rand currency at 6.90 to the dollar at end-2007 and 7/dlr at end-2008.

wouldent a refinary at RB be a better option ie closer to Gautingaling?

wouldent a refinary at RB be a better option ie closer to Gautingaling?

Eastern Cape desperately needs investment. Lets rather spread the wealth my friend.

It is definately a pity about the Eastern Cape province, there has been so little progress in that province. The roads are horrific in many places and PE just doesn't seem to get their things off the ground easily. Good news about East London upgrading their beachfront and the new shopping centre being constructed. Coega will hopefully help the province somewhat. However, if the inefficacy of the provincial government and local municipalities isn't kept in check, the Eastern Cape will continually remain behind the rest of South Africa.

Also, other provinces have automatic catalysts for growth. Gauteng is the economic powerhouse and has gold reserves. The NorthWest and Limpopo have massive mineral reserves including Platinum and massive economic spin-offs have been felt. Mpumalanga has major coal reserves and the massive pull of being the hub of game park tourism. KZN has the busiest port in Africa, Durban as an activity hub and major tourism, the Western Cape has Cape Town, which speaks for itself and the largest argricultural economy in SA, the Northern Cape and Free State have diamond and gold respectively and huge agricultural economies too. The Eastern Cape seems to be the poor stepsister, although gorgeous in many locations, looses out on major tourism and with lack of major resources, has little to fall back on.

What the Moody's report highlights is that SA's economy is slowing down from a GDP growth rate of 5.0% last year to 4.7% this year and 4.0% in 2008.

business.iafrica.com

Thu, 25 Oct 2007

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said on Thursday it would pay $5.5-billion for 20 percent in South Africa's Standard Bank, in the largest Chinese acquisition in the financial field ever.

"We will become the top shareholder in the bank," ICBC, China's biggest lender by assets, said in a statement. "The two sides will develop their strategic cooperation in a broad area."

The announcement comes at a time of growing focus on China's role in Africa, and on its financial muscle underpinned by the world's largest foreign exchange reserves of more than $1.4-trillion.

"This means that China's largest commercial bank and Africa's largest commercial bank are joining hands," ICBC Chairperson Jiang Jianqing said in the statement.

More internationalised

Standard Bank said on its website it had total assets of about $156-billion as of the middle of 2007, and employed over 46 000 people worldwide.

It had 713 branches in South Africa and 240 in the rest of Africa, with representation in 18 African countries and 19 countries outside of Africa, it said.

Given the bank's reach, local economists argued that the deal made a lot of sense from ICBC's point of view.

"ICBC has so far been mostly a domestic bank, and this will help it become more internationalised," said Zhang Taowei, a finance professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

"China's banks still don't have the means to buy American or European banks, and anyway Americans and Europeans adopt rather restrictive attitudes."

Jiang, the bank's chairperson, said the deal was "in accordance with the common economic interests of both sides, and will also help the economic and trade relationship between China and Africa develop further."

Allay fears on China

"We hope that with this we can build a bridge linking China and South Africa, linking Asia and Africa," he said in the statement.

Trade between China and Africa is estimated to have increased tenfold between 1999 and 2006, with Beijing keen to find alternative sources of oil and other natural resources to fuel its economic drive.

Both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have toured Africa in the last 18 months, partly in order to allay fears about China's motives and announcing further rounds of soft loans and debt cancellations.

In a sign of unease in some quarters, Hu had to scrap a scheduled visit earlier this year to a Chinese-run copper mine in northern Zambia — where 50 Zambians perished in a mine explosion in 2005 — to avoid planned protests.

China itself remains a magnet for foreign investment, but increasingly it is also a source of outward investment spending, not least in the financial field.

Strategic investment

China's CITIC Securities and Wall Street icon Bear Stearns announced a strategic alliance earlier this week. The deal involves investments of at least two billion dollars.

Earlier this month, China Minsheng Bank said it planned to buy 9.9 percent of UCBH Holdings Inc for up to $317-million in the first strategic investment by a Chinese lender in a US bank.

ICBC itself is one of the most expansion-minded Chinese lenders, saying in August it would take an 80 percent stake in Macau's Seng Heng Bank for $583-million.

"With this strategic cooperation with Standard Bank, ICBC will continue to optimise its global asset allocation," ICBC Chairperson Jiang said.

AFP

It is definately a pity about the Eastern Cape province, there has been so little progress in that province. The roads are horrific in many places and PE just doesn't seem to get their things off the ground easily. Good news about East London upgrading their beachfront and the new shopping centre being constructed. Coega will hopefully help the province somewhat. However, if the inefficacy of the provincial government and local municipalities isn't kept in check, the Eastern Cape will continually remain behind the rest of South Africa.

Also, other provinces have automatic catalysts for growth. Gauteng is the economic powerhouse and has gold reserves. The NorthWest and Limpopo have massive mineral reserves including Platinum and massive economic spin-offs have been felt. Mpumalanga has major coal reserves and the massive pull of being the hub of game park tourism. KZN has the busiest port in Africa, Durban as an activity hub and major tourism, the Western Cape has Cape Town, which speaks for itself and the largest argricultural economy in SA, the Northern Cape and Free State have diamond and gold respectively and huge agricultural economies too. The Eastern Cape seems to be the poor stepsister, although gorgeous in many locations, looses out on major tourism and with lack of major resources, has little to fall back on.

Well said and I support your statement, but lately EC have embarked on the project to fix their roads and the N6 renovations have been completed. Early this year they were busy with N2 and other roads, I hope they either done or will be done soon.

PE has waken up to the challenge and the renovations in the city are picking up well. Govan Mbeki and President Streen are currently being pedestrianised and Duncan is also busy renovating some of his property at last. In general there has been more action this year in EC and we will see how it looks in 2010. I hoped that the statue of freedom would have been completed but it seems like it wouldn't be started by 2010.

Is SA biz prop popular globally?
2007/10/26

The globalisation of the commercial property investment market is something that has been gathering pace for the last few years.

This is according to Tony Bales of Bales Delaporte Commercial Property Dealmakers, who says that it is only recently that we have seen the larger worldwide players actually starting to transact on our local shores.

However, the question remains: Are these once-off transactions or is this something South Africans need to get used to?

"During the last decade a lot of residential properties have been bought by foreigners, many of whom can be regarded as the international elite. These wealthy individuals and families holidayed on South African shores, playing golf and drinking our local wines."

"However, more recently, some of the world's top property investors have been seen discreetly eating out at restaurants or enjoying the bush and the beaches," says Bales.

"The good news about South African lifestyle and property has been whispered around the world and many businessmen are now considering increasing their investment in South Africa to beyond that of just a holiday home."

Bales advises that these larger international commercial property investors will only look at meaningful investments of about R100m or more.

"If their South African holiday homes cost as much as R40m, then a commercial investment of R100m really is a small portion of their wealth. Many have stated that it is not worth investing less."

Bales tells of having met with a founder of one of the world's leading property companies at his Constantia holiday home.

"This investor only wanted to invest in prime retail property of R200m or above and his preferred type of investment was narrowed down to the main shopping centre in Constantia, or something similar. When told that if the centre did come on to the market, it would likely sell for close to R1bn, he said the size of the investment was not an issue as he had the funds available."

"In South Africa, direct investments in larger commercial properties are changing hands at prices equating to forward yields of about 7% to 8%. The JSE listed property sector is generally priced about 1% lower than this with an average historical yield of 6,5%," says Bales.

"Internationally, good commercial investment properties are selling at forward yields of 3% to 6%. While larger retail centres trade at the lower end of the yield spectrum, smaller investments, tenanted for example by banks with long leases, trade at forward yields as high as 6%.

"International listed property companies are priced about 1% lower than their direct counterparts (average historical yield of 4,1%), depending on the asset profile of a fund. In the USA, for example, historical yield profiles range from 7,6% for a hospitality related fund down to 2,42% for a fund that is the largest office landlord in New York City."

With South African commercial property generally yielding double that of most of the more established international markets, it is no wonder many global players are looking at raising their holdings in the country.

"Until the adoption of the internationally recognised Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) structure in South Africa, we will probably not really know what discount foreign investors will pay for commercial property in the country. One thing's is for sure, and that is that South Africa's commercial properties will continue to attract significant international interest as long as income yields are double those of other markets," Bales says.

New Clicks to open 38-40 new stores
2007/10/26

South African retail group New Clicks (NCL) said on Thursday it plans to expand its retail space by 5% by opening a total of 38 to 40 new stores in 2008.

However, it is expecting a more challenging trading environment for the new financial year.

"A tougher trading environment is expected with a slowdown in sales driven by consumer sentiment and modest inflation," said David Kneale, CEO of New Clicks.

The retailer, whose brands include Clicks, Musica and The Body Shop, on Thursday announced a 12% increase in turnover for the year ended August 2007 in its financial year-end results presentation.

During the year New Clicks sold Discom, which led to the closure of 25 stores. Of those, six stores were converted to Clicks and one to Musica.

Clicks expanded its store base to 320 and opened a further 21 dispensaries to bring the national pharmacy network to 125. One of its targets for 2008 is to have 15 new stores with dispensaries, and 15 to 25 additional dispensaries in existing stores.

Musica had seven stores opened during the year, and has 20 new stores planned for 2008.

The Body Shop opened four new stores, which helped boost turnover to 26,3%. One of the four stores was the first to be opened in Namibia.

In 2008, it plans to have three to five new stores and three refurbished stores.

Oct 30 2007 06:42 PM

Greta Steyn

BYE-bye to 6% economic growth. We won't see that level by 2010, as originally targeted by government. And we may not see it soon afterwards, either.
That's one of the main messages that I took away from Tuesday's mini-budget. (The document is officially called the medium-term budget policy statement, or MTBPS, and says it doesn't aim to be a mini-budget. But it's stuck with that name.)

A very interesting aspect of the document is its economic forecasts. It has significantly revised downwards the rates of growth for 2008 and 2009 from the estimates given in the February budget. In addition, the document has for the first time provided an estimate for 2010.

The MTBPS document provides an economic growth forecast of 5.3% for 2010 - still some way off the magical 6% targeted by the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for SA (Asgisa). Asgisa set a target of an average annual growth rate of 6% between 2010 and 2014.

Forecasts revised downwards

For 2008, the economic growth rate is revised downwards to 4.5% from the Budget's estimate of 5.1%, while for 2009, the rate is predicted at 4.8% from 5.4% previously. These estimates appear to be more realistic than the February forecasts, which were still based on the pipe dream that SA would either come close to or hit its 6% target by 2010.

Manuel's forecast for 2007 growth appears to be a bit on the optimistic side, given quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) releases we've seen so far this year. He is expecting an economic growth rate of 4.9% for 2007.

The document says the expected moderation in 2008 is largely the result of two factors: slower growth in developed markets as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States and the associated credit crunch; and slower, more sustainable growth in domestic consumption as the effect of higher interest rates takes hold.

"Although commodity prices have risen over the past year, record-high oil prices will act as a drag on growth. In addition, higher oil and food prices have put pressure on unit labour costs and domestic inflation," the document says.

Large swathes of the document implies that there's a good chance SA won't hit the 6% growth level even after 2010. This is implicit in the caution which saw Manuel decide to unveil small budget surpluses for the next three fiscal years. Previously, small budget deficits had been pencilled in.

'Fat build-up'

Manuel keeps on implying that SA has to build up some fat so that it has something to fall back on in the lean years. If he was confident about SA building up to a 6% growth rate, he wouldn't be so worried about the lean years.

This approach of avoiding even a small budget deficit suggests an excessively cautious approach; one that's not in keeping with SA's status as a country with extreme developmental needs.

The size of these needs is evident from the document. Though the statement notes that the proportion of the population living in poverty has declined, the figure still stands at 43.2%. That means that millions and millions of South Africans are still living in poverty despite economic growth averaging 4.5% a year since 2003.

Against this backdrop, it's very difficult to argue in favour of a budget surplus unless you have very good reasons. Manuel's basic argument is that cyclical factors have pushed revenue up, and have resulted in a budget surplus. The document says it's wrong to use revenue from cyclical factors for permanent tax reductions.

There's some merit in the argument, of course. But the fact is that government is still sitting on a mountain of cash that it has left over from last year and which is deposited with the Reserve Bank. Manuel could make use of some of that cash without changing tax rates. One example of something he could use the cash for is recapitalising Eskom - which is asking for an 18% increase in electricity tariffs.

Budget balance

Interestingly, in the document Manuel introduces the concept of a structural budget balance. The idea is that the budget balance - the deficit or surplus - should be viewed with cyclical factors stripped out. That means that, in good times - as we've been experiencing - revenue will be adjusted for positive cyclical factors and vice versa for bad times. The result is supposed to be a truer reflection of the underlying budget deficit or surplus.

The introduction of this concept allows Manuel to run a budget surplus while pretending to run a small budget deficit. The document says that, adjusted for cyclical factors, the underlying deficit averages 0.6% over the three-year period of the MTBPS.

It has to be borne in mind, however, that for the public sector as a whole - that is, including Eskom and Transnet - there's still a deficit. But this is also tiny, rising to only 1.2% of gross domestic product in 2010/2011.

No-one is saying that the public sector should go out there and borrow like crazy, getting the country into the same kind of debt trap that the National Party did. Manuel's achievements in getting the country out of that hole are well appreciated. But the pendulum seems to be swinging too far to the other side - which could inhibit the economy's ability to reach the 6% growth target.

- Fin24

Im very sceptical about growth rates actually released and even if not official I think we will have reached 6% growth

Im very sceptical about growth rates actually released and even if not official I think we will have reached 6% growth

That's wishful thinking. Also the unemplyment rate is unchanged meaning that whatever the growth rate is, it is not making headway as far as reducing poverty.

SA invests in aquaculture

5 November 2007

After being neglected for much of the past, South Africa is giving its small-scale fisheries industry a major boost by investing R100-million over the current financial year to establish aquaculture projects in all four of country's coastal provinces.

Addressing delegates at the National Summit on Subsistence and Small-Scale Fisheries in Port Elizabeth on Thursday, Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the initiative was a new milestone in crafting policy and ensuring proper management of subsistence and small-scale fisheries.

"We acknowledge that this sector of the fisheries has not received the attention it deserves, as we have in the past not had a dispensation for small-scale fishers," Van Schalkwyk said. "I am proud of the partnership that has been developed between our department, communities and [non-governmental organisations]."

He explained that the R100-million Marine Aquaculture project would consist of various developments in the four coastal provinces for 2008/09, including:

An abalone farm in Gansbaai, Western Cape.
A finfish farm for silver cob or yellow tail in Saldanha Bay, Western Cape.
Abalone ranching in Port Nolloth, Northern Cape.
A finfish farm in Qolorha, Eastern Cape.
A finfish farm in Sokhulu, KwaZulu-Natal.
The development of a state hatchery.
The global demand for fish products, the minister said, had increased in recent years, while supply capture fisheries had been decreasing.
"Following this trends, capture fisheries in our country are in decline, affecting some 28 000 direct jobs that are allocated in areas characterised by high unemployment," he said.

Van Schalkwyk also pointed out that South Africa imports more fish products than it exports, with studies showing that the country imported 200 000 tons of fish per year, valued at about R700-million, between 2000 and 2004.

"In this context, aquaculture presents a good opportunity to diversify fish production to satisfy local demand, export opportunities, and the creation of new jobs.

"Currently the marine aquaculture industry in South Africa contributes 0.005% to the country's GDP (gross domestic product) and provides 1 200 direct jobs," he said.

"This is modest compared to countries like Chile, with a GDP contribution of 1.4% and 60 000 direct jobs, a GDP of 1% and 4 200 direct jobs in Norway, and a GDP of 0.06% and 670 000 jobs in Vietnam."

South Africa: Chinese Investors 'More Worried' By Crime

http://allafrica.com/stories/200711010722.html

DESPITE a R36,7bn direct investment by the state-controlled Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Standard Bank is seen as a sign of China's confidence in the South African economy, crime remains the biggest deterrent to an increase in Chinese investments in the country.

Zhou Yabin, director-general of the African affairs department in China's commerce ministry, said on Monday that Chinese businessmen interested in investing in SA, but were becoming "more worried" that an increasing number of their compatriots were being affected by rampant crime and insecurity in SA.


"When they read about that (crime) on the internet mainly, they are not willing to risk their lives by investing in SA," Zhou said.

He believed most of those reports were blown out of proportion and that the South African media should adopt a more responsible approach when reporting on security issues.

"I have been to SA several times and there is a real difference between what I have seen there (in terms of crime levels) and what the press usually reports," Zhou said.

Another reason there seemed to be little interest among Chinese companies in moving into SA was that most of those interested in breaking into the continent were still learning to find their feet in emerging markets, Zhou said.

"They are still young (in terms of experience in investing abroad), so they are going step by step.

"In comparison, South African companies moving abroad, like those present in China, have experience in international business and usually benefit from a favourable investment climate," he said.

But things could change rapidly as ICBC's entrance into the African financial scene would increase China's footprint on the continent -- including SA.

He says the deal will give Chinese investors -- especially ICBC's clients -- access to Africa's vast mineral resources market.

Zhou believes that the deal, which comes nearly a year after China launched the $1bn China Africa Fund, will make more financial resources available for those companies willing to invest in Africa, and that SA will benefit from such a development. "When ICBC, the biggest bank in the world in market value, decides to invest in SA, don't you think it is a good thing for that country?" he asked.

SA has become China's main trading partner in Africa over the past few years -- its trade with China accounts for more than 5% of total Sino-African trade -- and ranked 21st on the list of the Asian giant's trading partners worldwide.

There was no reason such trade flows could not be followed by investment flows, Zhou said. Trade between SA and China stood at $9,9bn last year, which represented a 36% increase on the previous year.

For the first nine months of this year, figures indicate that the value of trade reached $10bn, and that it will total $13bn by year's end.

" Chinese investments in SA, except for the ICBC deal, might not be big but you should now expect a steady increase," Zhou said.

When the ICBC deal was concluded last week, South African analysts said it would give Standard Bank access to the world's fastest-growing major economy.

For the Chinese bank, Standard would offer a chance to enlarge its footprint in Africa, a region of increasing importance to the resource- and trade-hungry Chinese economy.

Indian vehicle manufacturer to assemble locally


By: Irma Venter
Published: 9 Nov 07 - 0:00
Indian manufacturer Tata Motors is set to start vehicle assembly in South Africa in 2008.

Tata Motors head of corporate communications Debasis Ray says plans are to assemble both commercial and passenger vehicles in South Africa - which has become the company's largest international market.

Tata Motors sells a range of trucks in South Africa, as well as passenger vehicles, such as the Indica hatchback, Indigo sedan, and Indigo Marina station wagon.

The proposed assembly plant is earmarked for Gauteng.

Ray says Tata Motors' sister company, Tata Africa, has acquired two properties from Nissan, in Rosslyn, Tshwane.

"These will be developed for assembling our vehicles."

Tata Motors plans to initiate completely knock-down manufacturing of three next-generation vehicles in South Africa, namely a hatchback car, a pick-up, and a one-ton payload mini truck.

In addition to this, light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles chassis will be assembled from semi-knock-down kits.

With regards to production volumes, Ray notes that the company is looking at "encouraging volumes, in keeping with the response we have already seen to our vehicles in the South African market.

Ray adds that it is not possible to "share investment figures at this stage."

Tata Motors is currently in discussion with several local component manufacturers to enable its local assembly programme.

"We would like to maximise local content, while taking into account financial perspectives," says Ray.

There is also the possibility that these component manufacturers will be able to supply other Tata Motors production sites, should it prove economically viable.

Tata Motors has been in the South African market for more than ten years.

"As part of its strategy to concentrate its international business on select geographies, Tata Motors has specially focused on South Africa, in both commercial and passenger vehicles for about three years now.

"The response has been very encouraging, which is why we are considering local assembly. The project signifies our commitment to South Africa," says Ray.

Exports are also on the table, as South Africa's trade agreements - such as with Europe and the US - allow for favourable vehicle export conditions.

"We are aware of such potential, but are yet to reach definitive conclusions," notes Ray.

Tata has sold 11 604 units into the South African market at the end of September 2007.

Sales volumes for 2006 were 14 659 units.
Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

Eastern Cape desperately needs investment. Lets rather spread the wealth my friend.

If thats the case then it should be in Keepmanshoop in the northern Cape. Surely spearding the weatlh or investment is not an emotive decition but one built of sounmd financials and a half decent feasabilty not a politivcal decition to try and save a disaster of a decition to build a new deep water port 30km from an existing one instead of beefingf up the 2 biggest natural harboyrs in Africa namely RB and Saldahna?

Foreign investment set to increase
2007/11/13

The South African listed real estate sector is likely to see foreign investment increase from the current low 3%.

"Keen interest was shown in South Africa and the listed real estate sector on a recent road show to London and New York," says Craig Ewin, CEO of SA Corporate Real Estate Fund.

A team from SA Corporate, which is managed by Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments, had 25 one-on-one sessions in the two cities with potential investors, mainly larger asset managers and some hedge funds, as part of the Macquarie International Real Estate Conference.

The conference drew representatives from real estate companies around the world, including two other South African companies, Growthpoint Properties Ltd and Apex Hi Properties Ltd.

"Interest was particularly keen in the United States where there is significant domestic money looking for offshore investment opportunities," he says.

"Foreign investors are likely to pursue funds of size and with adequate tradability. However, expectations on the timing of meaningful investment need to be realistic to allow investors to complete a detailed analysis on South Africa, the sector, the funds and to get to know management."

Ewin says SA Corporate has less than 1,5% of its units held by foreign investors.

He says the likely inclusion of South African listed real estate in the EPRA NAREIT index was seen as positive by potential investors.

"The potential investors, particularly US based investors, were less sensitive to income yields and more driven by potential capital upside in a stock."

Areas of concern to them were the relationship between long bond and listed real estate yields. This inevitably led to discussions around the impact that interest rate increases were having on the economy, and the effect on demand for space by tenants.

The existence of differing legal structures in South Africa, being property unit trusts and property loan stock companies, was seen as confusing. It was generally accepted that property unit trusts are recognised as REITs while property loan stock companies have REIT-like attributes.

However, once finalised, the common structure currently being developed in South Africa will clear any confusion and be beneficial for promoting and marketing SA listed funds.

Here is a complete list of the 15 hotels in Africa as was mentioned in the earlier article posted in the Cape Town Discussion. South Africa wins hands down.

1. Table Bay Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa: 96.8

2. Cape Grace, Cape Town, South Africa: 94.7

3. Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza, Cairo, Egypt: 93.0

4. Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at The First Residence, Cairo, Egypt: 91.0

5. The Plettenberg, Plettenberg Bay, South Africa: 90.6

6. Radisson Hotel Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa: 86.0

7. The Westcliff, Johannesburg, South Africa: 85.9

8. La Mamounia, Marrakech, Morocco : 83.6

9. Grace in Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa: 82.5

9. JW Marriott Hotel, Cairo, Egypt: 82.5

11. Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa: 82.4

12. Mena House Oberoi, Cairo, Egypt: 82.1

13. Westin Grand Arabella Quays, Cape Town, South Africa: 80.8

14. Cairo Marriott Hotel & Omar Khayyam Casino, Cairo, Egypt: 79.6

15. Sofitel Winter Palace, Luxor, Egypt: 78.9

wow thats great. add it to the hotels thread for cape town

wow thats great. add it to the hotels thread for cape town

Already did with the Cape hotels highlighted.

Surprised to see that the Radisson Hotel Waterfront made it on the list for the first time and is the 3rd best in the city ahead of the Mount Nelson and the Westin Arabella.

Already did with the Cape hotels highlighted.

Surprised to see that the Radisson Hotel Waterfront made it on the list for the first time and is the 3rd best in the city ahead of the Mount Nelson and the Westin Arabella.

whats that like 5 cape town hotels in the top 15 in africa in a radius of like 2km?

whats that like 5 cape town hotels in the top 15 in africa in a radius of like 2km?

That is right. Similar readership and industry surveys done by Travel & Leisure (T&L) as well as the World Travel Awards have shown CT hotels to feature in their top 10 lists. In these surveys I have seen both the Twelve Apostles Hotel and the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay make their lists. But what is a regular occurance on all the lists is the highest placement made for the Cape Grace and Table Bay hotels with the Cape Grace usually coming out ahead although the Table Bay comes out first like on this list. In 2000, the Cape Grace hotel actually was rated the best hotel in the world on the Conde Nast readership survey with a score of near 100.

That is right. Similar readership and industry surveys done by Travel & Leisure (T&L) as well as the World Travel Awards have shown CT hotels to feature in their top 10 lists. In these surveys I have seen both the Twelve Apostles Hotel and the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay make their lists. But what is a regular occurance on all the lists is the highest placement made for the Cape Grace and Table Bay hotels with the Cape Grace usually coming out ahead although the Table Bay comes out first like on this list. In 2000, the Cape Grace hotel actually was rated the best hotel in the world on the Conde Nast readership survey with a score of near 100.

I suppose if we did pursue an Olympic bid we could say something like, "some of the best hotels in the world in a radius of 2km"..

G20 finance ministers begin talks in South Africa

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gezQaD6qBDur3_uFuF4-j0DiiaEQ

2 hours ago

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Finance ministers from the world's largest 20 economies began talks Saturday in South Africa focusing on reforming the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The two-day gathering in Kleinmond, near Cape Town, is the first time the G20 group of bank chiefs and finance ministers has met in an African country.

It is also the first time the new head of the World Bank, the American Robert Zoellick, and the new head of the IMF, France's Dominique Strauss-Kahn, will hold round-table talks with the G20.

The conference will hear calls for the modernisation of both institutions.

"The subject will be at the heart of our talks," South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said at a preliminary press conference.

"The unequal power balance in the world economic system" will be brought up, South African Central Bank governor Tito Mboweni said.

Many emerging powers within the G20, such as South Africa, believe that the current set-up of the IMF and the World Bank do not take into account the demands of developing countries.

"The world has changed, it is not like it was 50 years ago. Countries like Brazil, India or South Africa need greater consideration," Strauss-Kahn admitted recently.

The G20 represents nearly 90 percent of the world economy and two thirds of its population.

It includes the wealthy G-7 nations -- the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Britain and Canada -- as well as the European Union, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.

Strauss-Kahn, a former Socialist finance minister of France, took over at the IMF this month. His candidacy was backed by South Africa on the condition that the developing world's representation in the 185-nation institution would be significantly increased on his watch.

Zoellick, who became president of the World Bank in July after being hand-picked by US President George W. Bush, gained experience of the developing world with previous posts as number two in the State Department and as US Trade Representative from 2001-2005.

The meeting comes at a precarious time in the global economy with the price of a barrel of oil nudging 100 dollars and the sub-prime mortgage problems in the US affecting other lenders worldwide.

SA vehicle exports set to top R60bn

Mathabo le Roux

PROVISIONAL National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) figures show that vehicles with a value of R55bn were exported last year. That figure is set to rise to R60bn this year and projections suggest substantial growth next year.


The association conducted an assessment of the effect of the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP) since its inception in 1995 — ostensibly to counter perceptions that the programme had been costly to the country and boosted the profits of a few multinational companies at the expense of the fiscus and South African consumers.


Despite growing exports the industry, however, remains a net user of foreign exchange.

The industry’s trade deficit last year widened to R33,4bn, from the previous year’s R27,7bn as imports grew to feed the strong demand for vehicles in the local market, while the relative strength of the currency temp-ered export growth. But Naamsa expects the deficit to narrow as exports gain momentum .


Naamsa’s figures show the industry and related sectors now employ 323900 people and last year contributed 7,53% to gross domestic product.


Naamsa said that investment growth was substantial over the duration of the MIDP to date, with fixed investment in the vehicle assembly sector, for instance, growing to R6,2bn last year, compared with a modest R492m before the programme started.


The marathon review of the MIDP to determine the structure the programme will take from 2012 onwards has been the cause of much acrimony between vehicle manufacturers and the trade and industry department .


It appears, however, that the industry and the department have buried the hatchet as the department moved to improve communication on the process.

The department has made firm commitments to unveil preliminary findings before the end of the year while the completed review would be released in the first half of next year.


Naamsa executive director Nico Vermeulen this week said the industry’s confidence in the review process had been restored.


The MIDP is being reviewed by Anthony Black of the University of Cape Town, the original MIDP’s author, and Justin Barnes, who heads consultancy B&M Analysts.

Black said this week that the move to a new architecture for the programme was on track, but that the details of the new MIDP would take time to finalise because of the complex nature of the process. It is understood, although unconfirmed by Black, that the automotive industry would be briefed on the process next Friday.


He confirmed that the review team was closely scrutinising the Australian version of the MIDP — the Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme (ACIS) — as it was an important model.

ACIS evolved from an export-based incentive to a production allowance, to align the programme with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

The protection levels of that programme were also reduced drastically, but Black gave the reassurance that the MIDP would not take its cue on protection from ACIS with no threat of lower protection levels in the short to medium term.

Another massive boost for Coega

Bob Kernohan BUSINESS EDITOR

IN YET another major scoop for the Coega harbour development, the world‘s largest steel company has teamed up with a South African empowerment group in a R4,2-billion partnership to build a manganese smelter in the industrial development zone.

The international joint venture between Indian-based ArcelorMittal and Kalagadi Manganese will result in the first major manganese project to be built in South Africa within the past 30 years.

The partnership was announced in Johannesburg yesterday by Kalagadi Manganese chairman Daphne Mashile-Nkosi.

“The deal is particularly important as it comes at a time when we are spearheading the trend towards backward integration into raw materials,” she said.

Sixteen international companies had expressed interest in the project, and Kalagadi and ArcelorMittal would be 50-50 partners in the deal.

An ArcelorMittal official said: “The Kalagadi manganese project will not only prove to be an important and competitive source of manganese for our plants, but a notable contribution to the economy of South Africa.”

The steel giant already operates the former Iscor steel plants, making it the largest steel-maker on the African continent, producing 7,1 million tons of liquid steel a year.

It has 320 000 employees in more than 60 countries and its production is equivalent to about 10 per cent of world steel output.

Both companies said the venture to develop Kalagadi‘s manganese resources would lead to the development of a mine, beneficiation plant and sinter complex in the Northern Cape, as well as the smelter at Coega.

Sintering is a method for making objects from powder, by heating the material until its particles adhere to each other. It is used in making precision parts for industries like vehicle and aircraft manufacturing.

Kalagadi‘s manganese resources are situated near Kuruman in the Northern Cape.

The companies said they intended establishing the manganese mine and sinter plant at Hotazel, near Kuruman. It would ultimately produce 2,4 million tons of sinter product a year.

The Coega smelter would handle 320 000 tons of ferromanganese alloy a year.

The latest announcement follows a series of investments in the Coega IDZ, now totalling about R30-billion.

This includes a R5,6-billion Straits Chemicals chlorine refinery and the R19,2-billion Alcan aluminium smelter,

Dynamic Commodities is also setting up its production facilities in the agro-processing cluster of the IDZ.

Local investor Cerebos is expanding and relocating to the IDZ in an R85-million project.

German company Ferrostaal‘s R1,1-million stainless steel precision strip mill is being executed in two phases and R500-million will be spent on each phase. A R1-billion ferromanganese smelter complex is already under construction.

It will be amazing if SA gets this bid (which has been going on for quite a few years now).

--------------

SA confident of winning mega-telescope bid

Cape Town, South Africa

22 November 2007 02:35

A final decision on which country will host the giant Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope is now expected in 2011, the Cabinet announced on Thursday.

South Africa was confident it would win the bid, government communications head Themba Maseko told a media briefing at Parliament on Thursday, following the Cabinet's fortnightly meeting the day before.

South Africa and Australia are the two short-listed bidders for the €1,5-billion project.

Contacted for comment, SKA South Africa project director Dr Bernie Fanaroff told the South African Press Association both countries had planned smaller versions of SKA, and "site construction on these ... will only start next year".

The decision on which country would be given the project would be largely based on the success of the smaller versions, he said.

The SKA will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built, comprising thousands of dishes, each 10m to 15m in diameter. Its total receiving area will add up to about one million square metres.

If the decision goes South Africa's way, the core of the SKA will be erected in the Northern Cape. Outer stations will fan out from the core in a spiral pattern, with proposed remote stations in several other African countries and neighbouring islands.

Its designers are hoping the mega-telescope "will unravel the mysteries of the origins and age of the universe".

According to the project's website, the SKA will help answer fundamental questions about the laws of nature, including data on dark energy and dark matter, and when the first stars and galaxies were formed.

"If there is life somewhere else in the universe, the SKA will help us find it," they said.

An international consortium of countries is contributing towards the cost of designing and building the giant telescope.

South Africa is set to start building a mini-SKA, dubbed MeerKAT, near Carnarvon in the Northern Cape next year. -- Sapa

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=325679

UCT ranked 200 in the world

By Education Reporter

The University of Cape Town has been ranked as one of the world's top 200 universities.

The only African university listed, UCT is 200th on the Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings.

Last year it was 257, but rose 57 positions this year.

'It is a tremendous honour for UCT'
The list is drawn up each year by the supplement and an education specialist organisation, Quacquarelli Symonds.

Professor Cheryl de la Rey, deputy vice-chancellor at UCT, said: "We are delighted that UCT made it into the top 200.

"It is a tremendous honour for UCT."

When ranking universities, education specialists look at several indicators, including a peer review by international academics.

They also look at the number of international students and staff members, as well as research activities.

There is also a recruiter review, in which 1 482 international companies are required to list the universities whose graduates they prefer to hire.

According to the ranking score sheet, UCT performed well in the research section and on the number of international staff and students it attracts.

De la Rey said the ranking reflected UCT's "international reputation for academic excellence".

The university "continually strives to improve its performance in research and teaching".

It constantly assessed the quality of teaching and the pass rate and monitored the length of time it took students to graduate.

"We also try to track what happens to our students following graduation for example, how long it takes them to become employed and how highly graduates are rated in the marketplace.

"The latter approach fits well with the recruiter review in the survey."

This year, US and British universities dominated the top 10 spots.

Harvard took the top spot for a second year in a row, followed by Cambridge and Oxford universities, which tied in second place.

Thirteen US universities featured in the top 20.

British universities also scored well, with 32 UK institutions making it into the top 200.

Thanks for putting SA on the map, JHB!

----------------------

Jo'burg stands tall among centres of commerce

Johannesburg, South Africa

27 November 2007 04:01

Johannesburg has been ranked as one of the top 50 cities in the world that are hubs of the new worldwide economy, according to an index released on Tuesday.

Johannesburg -- the only African city to make the top 50 -- was ranked 47th in the MasterCard "Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index".

"There are a lot of things to be grateful [for], but the typical complaints have been proven, like crime and skills [shortages], in a ranking game [using] sophisticated international ranking practices," said Mike Schussler, senior economist at T-Sec.

The index -- developed by a worldwide panel of economic, urban development and social science experts -- ranks the top cities according to six measures: legal and political frameworks, economic stability, ease of doing business, financial flow, business centre and knowledge creation, and information flow.

London is first in the index, followed by New York, Tokyo, Chicago and Hong Kong. Singapore, Frankfurt, Paris, Seoul and Los Angeles complete the top 10.

Schussler said while there is no doubt Johannesburg is a world-class city, it needs to strive to improve its knowledge base, network capabilities and transport infrastructure.

He said the knowledge base of a city measures both the whole input and output of education.

Schussler said factors taken into account include how many patents per resident per year are registered, how many school leavers and tertiary students there are and how many medical and masters of business administration students there are.

He said the education situation and the "dire" skills shortage in Johannesburg need to be addressed. "The skills shortage is not a legend -- it is a fact." The city needs to import skills to overcome the shortage.

Schussler said crime and law enforcement are both issues in which Johannesburg scores poorly, according to the index. There is a problem with the administration of law, he said.

Johannesburg has done well in terms of financial markets, and stock and bond market turnovers. Gross domestic product growth could be better, while inflation is relatively stable.

Schussler said Johannesburg lost many points because of South Africa's volatile rand currency.

While public transport is not viewed as adequate in Johannesburg, the traffic jams in the city are not yet as bad as in some other big cities such as New York and Los Angeles.

He said Johannesburg needs to improve broadband access and speed to be able to compete globally.

Originally, about 300 cities were considered for the centres-of-commerce index. This was whittled down to a list of 89 cities and then down to 63 cities.

Cairo is the only other African city featured in the index -- in 63rd position. Cape Town and Lagos fell out of consideration in the second round, said Schussler. -- Sapa


http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=326154&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/

A New Business Outsourcing Facility for Cape Town

BuaNews (Tshwane)

NEWS
26 November 2007
Posted to the web 26 November 2007
Johannesburg

The decision by TeleTech, a multi-national business processing outsourcing (BPO) giant, to establish a facility in South Africa proves the success of the country's marketing campaign to attract new foreign investment.

Ms Yvonne Johnston, Chief Executive Officer of the International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC), a body that is responsible for promoting South Africa as a preferred trade and investment destination, said TeleTech's decision will further stimulate global interest in the country's advantages in the fields of BPO and call centres.

The new facility will be built in Salt River, Cape Town.

TeleTech is the first multinational company to benefit from a new incentive plan launched by the Department of Trade and Industry which has identified the business process outsourcing sector as a major future source of employment.

"The BPO industry is poised for significant growth in the near future and South Africa is an ideal location to set up base," said Ms Johnston.

"We deliver competitive advantages compared with other countries in terms of our geographic location and time zone, the quality of our infrastructure, our human resources and the widespread usage of English."

The Colorado-based TeleTech Holdings Inc is one of the largest global providers of BPO solutions.

TeleTech has already announced that it plans a number of new facilities in South Africa.

This will lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs in the BPO industry.

The company already employs more than 50 000 people in 18 countries and Cape Town is its first base on the African continent.

Ms Johnston said the TeleTech investment is a high-profile example of the success of the trade and investment missions organised jointly by the IMC and the dti.

"For the past five years, we have conducted at least one mission a year - twice to the USA, Europe and the UK, and in October this year we went to India for the first time.

"We use these missions to inform the business communities in these countries about opportunities and prospects for trade and investment and to connect them with local contacts.

"I am optimistic that we will see an increasing flow of trade and investment from companies that have come to know South Africa better through these visits," said Ms Johnston.

Business Day

Posted to the web on: 28 November 2007

Mariam Isa

Economics Editor

ECONOMIC growth surged unexpectedly in the third quarter of this year, buoyed mainly by rapid expansion in the finance sector and giving the Reserve Bank ample scope to raise interest rates again at its meeting next week.

Growth in gross domestic product (GDP) quickened to 4,7% from a revised 4,4% in the second quarter, beating forecasts for a slowdown to 4,2% and showing the economy is more resilient to higher interest rates than widely believed.
Statistics SA (Stats SA) yesterday also revised its estimate for growth last year from 5% to 5,4% — a new 25-year peak — again mainly due to robust expansion in finance, real estate and business services, the economy’s biggest sector, comprising a fifth of GDP.
“We believe the GDP data remove the last credible argument for the Bank to leave interest rates on hold next week,” Absa Capital said in a research note.
“A more relevant question now is whether a December rate hike would be the last,” it said.
The Bank has already raised lending rates by a cumulative 3,5 percentage points since June last year in a bid to quash soaring inflation, which has breached the upper end of its official 3%-6% target for six months in a row.
So far tighter credit has had a muted effect on consumer demand, while the financial services industry appears to have shrugged off the trend — growing 12,1% in the third quarter of this year, versus an upwardly revised 10,4% in the second.
Putting the role of the finance sector into perspective, Stats SA said if its contribution was excluded, the economy would have grown just 3% in the third quarter. The data are seasonally adjusted and annualised.
A construction boom fuelled by the government’s R482bn infrastructure spending drive continues to play a bigger role, with the sector growing 14,7% in the third quarter and accounting for 3,4% of GDP — up from 2% a couple of years ago.
But manufacturing output, which comprises more than 16% of GDP, contracted 2,5% in the third quarter after a revised 0,1% decline in the second — putting it into a recession and clouding official plans to boost exports.
“The big picture is clear,” said Razia Khan, Standard Chartered Bank’s regional research head for Africa in London.
“Despite the anticipated weakness in manufacturing ... GDP remains firm and with price stability the main priority, the way is open for the Bank to raise interest rates a further 50 basis points next week.”
Consumer inflation data due today are expected to show that the annual increase in the targeted CPIX index climbed to 7% last month from 6,7% in September — a new four-and-a-half-year peak.
The main culprits are rising global costs for both food and fuel, but with price pressures spreading, the Bank has good reason to raise interest rates again — especially in the absence of a real slowdown in the economy.
Growth in SA’s retail and tourism sector slowed to 4,5% in the third quarter from 4,7% in the second, but still contributed 0,6 of a percentage point to overall growth, versus 0,5 from construction.
“The realignment of growth away from consumer to investment demand appears on track, which is encouraging for long-term growth sustainability,” said Citigroup economist Jean-Francois Mercier.
“But the economy is still showing resilience to past monetary tightening. On balance, today’s data strengthen the case for a December rate hike,” he said.
Stats SA revised its growth estimate for 2004 up to 4,9% from 4,8%, while the figure for 2005 was revised to 5% from 5,1%. It routinely revises annual growth figures in November each year with data from quarterly surveys.
But both official and independent estimates still predict a slowdown in the annual pace of growth next year, with estimates between 4% and 4,5%.

Business Day

Opinion & Analysis

Posted to the web on: 28 November 2007

RESILIENT was the word more than one economist used yesterday to describe SA’s economy, which beat expectations to grow 4,7% in the third quarter despite higher interest rates.

Not only was the quarterly growth rate faster than the market’s expected 4,2%, but the economy is growing off a higher base than earlier estimates showed.
Statistics SA routinely revises annual growth numbers at this time of year, in the light of more comprehensive data. And the revised figures show the economy last year grew 5,4%, the fastest rate in 25 years. That compares with the 5% estimated previously, with revisions now showing the average economic growth rate was comfortably above 5%, at 5,1% for the past three years, compared to 3,2% in the previous five years.
SA’s economy, in other words, is running a lot faster than it used to, even if the Asgi-SA growth target of 6% is still not exactly in sight. But the third-quarter figures are showing distinct signs of slowdown. And though there are some bright spots, there are some trends that are worrying, especially if we’re hoping for more jobs and more exports.
For the pattern of growth that’s evident in the third-quarter figures is peculiarly unbalanced. To some extent, it does show the shift from consumption- to investment-driven growth that would be desirable to build the economy’s productive capacity to ensure growth can be sustained into the future. But the mix of growth is not that simple.
The two sectors that were really pumping in the third quarter were construction and finance. Construction, which has shown double- digit growth for the past 11 quarters, was growing at 14,7%. That was higher than the second quarter’s 11,8%, though not as high as the first quarter’s spectacular 29,1%. What’s important, though, is that the effect of the public sector infrastructure investment drive is clearly being felt, adding to continued high levels of private sector investment.
Financial services was the surprise that caused the Stats SA figures to beat market expectations. The sector, which also includes business services and real estate, grew 12,1% in the third quarter, up from 10,4% in the second. Consumer credit may be slowing, but clearly banks and estate agents are still doing well, as are services businesses meeting the needs of a growing corporate sector.
The bleak bit, though, is manufacturing. The sector was again in recession in the third quarter, contracting 2,5%. It is no good having investment-driven growth if we aren’t exporting or making many of the capital equipment or other goods that feed into the infrastructure drive. At least some of manufacturing’s third-quarter woes were strike-related. But the sector, the economy’s second-largest, has been up and down over the past two or three years. It doesn’t bode well for SA’s balance of payments, nor for the quality of economic growth.
Trade, too, has slowed down, though the sector was still growing at a respectable 4,5% in the third quarter. That might be good in that it suggests consumer spending is coming off the boil. But one problem with a slowdown in this sector is it has been the economy’s fastest job creator, with employment growth running ahead of output growth. One hopes the job creation won’t come off the boil as well. That’s especially so since expansion in some of the other fast-growing sectors — notably construction — is not proving to be nearly as labour intensive as it used to be.

Business Day

Opinion & Analysis

Posted to the web on: 28 November 2007


Finally a decade of economic reform has begun to pay off. Unemployment should start falling more precipitously soon.

Finally a decade of economic reform has begun to pay off. Unemployment should start falling more precipitously soon.

I think we would need growth of 6% or more to make a serious effort to reduce unemployment which officially stands at 25.5% (almost 40% by the broader definition) and has remained at the same level over the last year. The 6% level is widely accepted as the target needed for SA to meet it's UN Millenium goals. As the last article stated we are still far from that with GDP growth of only 4% to 4.5% projected for next year and it looks likely that 2009 will be less than 5% growth rate. This is because of rising inflation and the prospect of more interest rate rises. So we are not going to reach the most important UN Millenium target of cutting unemployment in half by 2015.

I wonder how they came to that 6% number. 4 - 4.5% is still well above the annual population growth numbers. So per capita GDP is rising, and wages have consistently risen at a faster pace than per capita GDP growth in South Africa so that added spending should result in less unemployment. The 40% number includes the number of people who are able bodied but not seeking employment (in theory because they've given up hope that they will find jobs). I wonder if growth of 4 - 5% creates enough jobs to employ many of those who are seeking work (the 25.5%) but causes people who previously did not seek employment to start looking for work thus keeping the unemployment numbers static. They've been quoting 40% for nearly a decade now that I wonder.

Does growth of 6% create additional jobs at the very lower end of the market so that the many unskilled South Africans can also find work, thus lowering overall unemployment? Or did the government, the UN, economists and businesses one day decide that 6% looked like a nice number to aim for?

South Africa still 'Jewel in Africa's conference and incentive crown'

Monday, December 03, 2007
South Africa has been described as “the jewel in Africa´s conference and incentive crown” in an international trends and market share report released at the EIBTM Global Meetings & Incentives Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain (27 – 29 November 2007).

The EIBTM 2007 Industry Trends & Market Share Report, an evaluation by EIBTM Industry Analyst and Senior Lecturer in Business Travel and Tourism at the University of Westminster, Rob Davidson, says that South Africa´s popularity is set to receive a boost in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The report points out that Cape Town and the Western Cape´s “business tourism calendar for 2010 is filling up rapidly as South Africa, its people and infrastructure developers prepare for the event”. It also makes mention of the fact that the destination can already be looking forward to at least 10 conferences and conventions in 2010, expected to attract a combined 16 300 business tourists and an economic impact of approximately R166.3 million to the destination.

A team from the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention and Events Bureau attended EIBTM in Barcelona where they promoted the city and province as a preferred business tourism destination, gathered business leads and assisted conference organisers, and association and incentive buyers who are strongly considering bringing their business to the destination, with information and advice.

Calvyn Gilfellan, acting chief executive of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the official tourism destination marketing organisation for Cape Town and the Western Cape, says that the international recognition bears testimony to the country and the destination’s growing international standing as a great place to do business. “Cape Town and the Western Cape has considerable experience in hosting events, ranging from tailored incentive trips and association meetings to trade and consumer exhibitions and major conferences. This, and investment in world-class infrastructure all point to increased growth prior to, during and post 2010”.

Cape Town is currently ranked the top convention destination in Africa and secures more than half of the conference business coming into the continent. It also enjoys the 29th position on the International Congress and Convention Association’s (ICCA) Global Ranking Report.

National research commissioned by the Exhibition Association of Southern Africa (EXSA) shows that exhibitions in South Africa now account for an average 49% of total venue revenue with continued growth of between 7.5% and 10% annually.

“Cape Town and the Western Cape has an established a reputation as an international conference and incentives destination and the improvements being made for the 2010 World Cup will consolidate this. But our greatest endorsement is the estimated 35% of business travellers and conference delegates who return to visit our destination again as leisure travellers,” says Gilfellan.

According to the 2007 EIBTM report, “In terms of number of meetings, the USA and Germany are the number one and two countries respectively. In terms of conference cities, eight out of the top 10 are destinations located in Europe, including three newcomers in the top 10: Prague, which is eighth, and Copenhagen and Lisbon, which share ninth place”.

The global outlook for the meetings and incentives industry for the next year is influenced by macro-economic indicators such as the cost of oil that affects the price of air travel, currency fluctuations and property prices.

But according to the EIBTM report, there are also a number of key trends experienced by the industry worldwide that are expected to have a considerable impact on the industry.

These are being quoted to be:



* The growth in low-cost long-haul airlines entering the market
* Green/environmental issues – creating pressure on individuals and organisations to travel less often or apply carbon offset for their travel
* Corporate social responsibility – encouraging use of destinations where they can contribute to the local area and population beneficially
* The growth in travel from emerging markets
* The change to US passport rules earlier this year – expected to result in more US citizens with passports and therefore a higher percentage finding it easier to travel outside North America
* The rapid pace of development in hotels, venues and infrastructure which could result in more competitive pricing and, in turn, increased demand.

I wonder how they came to that 6% number. 4 - 4.5% is still well above the annual population growth numbers. So per capita GDP is rising, and wages have consistently risen at a faster pace than per capita GDP growth in South Africa so that added spending should result in less unemployment. The 40% number includes the number of people who are able bodied but not seeking employment (in theory because they've given up hope that they will find jobs). I wonder if growth of 4 - 5% creates enough jobs to employ many of those who are seeking work (the 25.5%) but causes people who previously did not seek employment to start looking for work thus keeping the unemployment numbers static. They've been quoting 40% for nearly a decade now that I wonder.

Does growth of 6% create additional jobs at the very lower end of the market so that the many unskilled South Africans can also find work, thus lowering overall unemployment? Or did the government, the UN, economists and businesses one day decide that 6% looked like a nice number to aim for?

My younger brother just got a job at a bank after almost 7 years of being unemployed. He only had a grade 12 certificate and decided to join the banking SETAs. So jobs are trickling through which means that people are now probably actively starting to look for employment. This year will be a much better Christmas for him. I am really happy for him.

That's awesome man congrats to him.

Inner-city prices on the rise
Xolile Bhengu Published:Dec 05, 2007

Joburg tops Cape Town on property prices this year for the first time

Inner-city building prices are still on the rise but the rate of increase of suburban property prices is slowing.

A survey released this week — the Lightstone Inner City Index, compiled by mortgage-risk management company Lightstone — said price inflation for inner-city properties in the middle of this year was 27percent, whereas national house-price inflation was 15percent.

Lightstone tracked the price inflation of more than 52000 sectional-title properties in central business districts and development zones from 2000 to 2007.

The inner cities surveyed included those of Tshwane, eThekwini, Joburg, Port Elizabeth and East London.

Lighthouse said Joburg outperformed Cape Town this year for the first time by generating more than R1-billion from 3000 sales . Joburg’s sales were driven by price and volume growth, and the city is expected to end the year with sales of R1.6-billion.

At 41percent, the inner city of Johannesburg also had the largest annual growth rate. Tshwane had 23percent growth, but eThekwini declined from a peak of 58percent in 2004 to the slowest growth rate in South Africa today of 6percent.

Cape Town had 10percent growth. Port Elizabeth and East London combined achieved 33percent.

Lightstone’s director of business development, Andrew Watt, said Cape Town had the highest property prices, with an average sale price of R620000.

“It’s not surprising, given the high- quality accommodation in the city, lack of urban decay and the presence of businesses,” Watt said.

Other average inner-city property prices were eThekwini (R275000), Tshwane (R310000), and Port Elizabeth and East London (R340000).

Fast Facts & Quick Stats About South Africa

Source: http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/fast_facts_and_quick_stats/index.html


- South Africa was ranked as the 18th most attractive destination for Foreign Direct Investment by global strategic management consulting firm AT Kearney.
- Three South African cities were voted amongst the world's top 100 Most Liveable Cities in a study conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Cape Town was ranked in 85th place, Johannesburg 90th and Port Elizabeth 97th.
- Since the 1940s, South African golfers have won more golf majors than any other nation, apart from the United States.
- South Africa has been ranked 28th among 108 countries measured for responsible competitiveness, according to the global think tank AccountAbility.
- Johannesburg has been ranked as the eighth cheapest city in the world for expatriates, according to the most recent Cost of Living Standards Survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
- 20 South African beaches were awarded Blue Flags, an international indicator of high environmental standards for recreational beaches in 2006.
- More than 12,000 'Black Diamond' families (South Africa’s new black middle class) - or 50,000 people - are moving from the townships into the suburbs of South Africa's metro areas every month, according to the UCT Unilever Institute's Black Diamonds 2007 survey.
- South Africa is ranked 18th out of a total of 115 economies in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2006, ahead of many developed nations, including Belgium (20th), the United States (23rd), Switzerland (26th), Austria (27th) and France (70th).
- South Africa ranks 52nd out of 157 countries in the world in terms of economic freedom, ahead of Italy (60th), Brazil (70th), the United Arab Emirates (74th), Greece (94th), India (104th) and China (119th), according to the Index of Economic Freedom 2007
- Two young South Africans have been named Rookie of the Year in their respective sports in 2006. Golfer Trevor Immelman was named best new player by his peers on the prestigious PGA Tour and after a sensational 2006 season, 18 year old Jordy Smith took the coveted Vans Triple Crown of Surfing ‘Rookie of the Year’ award, considered by the surfing world to be second only to the world title in prestige.
- The black middle class grew by 30% in 2005, adding another 421,000 black adults to SA's middle-income layer and ramping up the black population's share of SA's total middle class to almost a third, according to the Financial Mail. Between 2001 and 2004, there were 300,000 new black entrants to the middle class.
- South Africa ranks in the top four countries worldwide in terms of the transparency surrounding its budgets - ahead of the US, Norway and Sweden - according to the Open Budget Index.
- South Africa is ranked 29th out of 175 countries for ease of doing business - ahead of Austria, France, Spain, Brazil and India - according to Doing Business 2007, a joint publication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
- Cape Town has the fifth-best blue sky in the world according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory
- La Colombe restaurant in Constantia, Cape Town, was voted the 28th best restaurant in the world by the UK's Restaurant Magazine
South African media ranks 31st out of 167 countries in the Worldwide Press Freedom - Index 2005, higher than any country in Asia, the Middle East or South America, and ahead of Japan, Spain, Italy and the United States.
- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange was the 7th best performing stock market in 2005, according to the World Federation of Exchanges
- Home ownership in SA has increased from 64% (5,12m households) in 1994 to 78% (7,9m households) in 2004, according to a South African Advertising Research Foundation development index
- Pretoria has the second largest number of embassies in the world after Washington, D.C.
- In 2005, interest rates were at a 25-year low
- Johannesburg is the 117th most expensive city out of the 144 measured by Irish business website finfacts.com
- South Africa accounts for almost 45% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy three times the size of the second biggest (Egypt)
- Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on education
- The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is the largest correspondence university in the world with 250,000 students
-In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to protect the Great White shark
- Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world
- In 2005, Time Magazine hailed President Thabo Mbeki as the Most Powerful Man in Africa
- According to the Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report, South Africa ranks 38th out of 127 countries in terms of ecomomic freedom, tied with France and ahead of Israel, India, Italy, China, Brazil and Russia.
- The rand, the world's most actively traded emerging market currency, has joined an elite club of 15 currencies - the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) - where forex transactions are settled immediately, lowering the risks of transacting across time zones
- The Singita Private Game Reserve in the Kruger National Park was voted the best hotel in the world by the readers of travel publication, Conde Nast Traveller
- The South African Rand was the best performing currency against the US Dollar between 2002 and 2005, according to the Bloomberg's Currency Scorecard
- South Africa has 37 000 high net-wealth individuals (holding at least US$1million in financial assets) in 2004, according to the World Wealth Report
- South Africa's per capita GDP, corrected for purchasing power parity, positions the country as one of the 50 wealthiest in the world
- Worldaudit.org ranks South Africa as the 32nd most democratic country out of 150 nations
- Stellenbosch University was the first university in the world to design and launch a microsatellite
- South Africa is the 32nd best place in the world to do e-business (tied with Poland), according to the Economist Intelligence Report.
- South Africa is the best-ranked country in terms of price stability, our fiscal policy is ranked 11th, our international trade competitiveness 21st, and we are the 28th most-attractive destination for foreign direct investment, according to the World Competiveness Yearbook 2005
- South African business owners of mid-size companies are the second most optimistic worldwide about their economic prospects of the year ahead, according to the annual Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey for 2005.
- South Africa houses one of the three largest telescopes in the world at Sutherland in the Karoo
- South Africa is the first, and to date only, country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme
- The value of South African real estate improved by 30% over the past 5 years
- Since 1994, 500 houses have been built each day for the poor
- Tax revenue in SA has increased by 220% over the past 10 years
- In 2005, 10 million South Africans benefited from access to social grants
- The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 116% since 1994
- Over the past 5 years, Consumer Confidence in SA has improved by 43%.
- In the global measure of women in Parliament, South Africa ranks 8th in the world.
- Of the 10 LSM levels ( LSM1=poorest; LSM10 wealthiest ), the average SA family located in LSM6
- The current police to population ratio is 1:304.

wow some very intresting facts

Yip, Its amazing how much we don't know about our own country.

Club Med eyes SA beach resort

4 January 2008

Europe's largest resort operator, Club Méditerranée (Club Med), has reportedly been scouting the scenic north coast of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province for what would be its first resort in southern Africa.

Local newspaper The Mercury reported in November that Club Med bosses had made trips to potential sites that included the iSimangaliso (formerly St Lucia) Wetland Park World Heritage site and the eLan Group's Blythedale resort location near Ballito north of Durban.

Thierry Orsoni, spokesmen for the French-based luxury resort group, confirmed this, telling The Mercury that while a final decision had yet to be made, Club Med hoped to make an announcement in early 2008, with an eye to opening the new resort in time for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

The KwaZulu-Natal north coast was being considered "because of the region's good weather, which permitted an all-year-round operation," Orsoni told The Mercury. "The new King Shaka International Airport at the Dube TradePort, which would make this destination easily accessible from Europe, and South Africa's hosting the Fifa World Cup in 2010, were also significant considerations."

There has reportedly been strong interest from local and international tourism investors since the iSimangaliso Wetland Park put a number of resort development sites out to tender in September.

Terri Castis, commercial director of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, told The Mercury's Suren Naidoo that securing good operators for the facilities in iSimangaliso would raise the park's profile and increase the number of visitors to the region.

"Importantly it will also result in significant economic ownership, jobs and SMME opportunities for local community partners," Castis said. "The projects will also provide a direct link to Durban's iNkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre and the new King Shaka International Airport."

SAinfo reporter

just 1 question it says the police ratio is 1:3 thats quite alot of cops does that include police reservists""or what ever u call them the casual dudes

^^ 1:304

Haga backs fish farm
05 Jan 2008 - Inet Bridge -

Intro
Multimillion plan to double abalone export to China

By Nicolette Scrooby

Haga Haga residents on Saturday gave the thumbs up for a multi-million rand plan to start an abalone drying plant near the seaside hamlet.

The operation would be an extension of an existing abalone farm near Haga Haga.

Following a meeting with Wild Coast Abalone at the Haga Haga community hall, residents applauded the fact that income and about 100 new jobs would be generated.

The impact on the environment appeared to be minimal, although an environmental impact assessment was still to be done.

Wild Coast Abalone managing director Richard Clark said the existing farm, established in 1998 at Marshstrand, currently employed about 100 staff members.

They export fresh live abalone directly to Hong Kong.

Clark said the growth in the Chinese economy had fuelled the demand for abalone, which fetches high prices overseas.

Although Wild Coast Abalone do not provide tinned produce, one tin of about 213g can fetch about R250.

With the expansion, they plan to produce dried abalone for export. They anticipate this will see their output and staff complement being doubled.

ᦙ3;Currently we produce 150 tons a year, but we will double this to 300 tons,ᦙ3; Clark said.

The expansion plans include additional culturing ponds, an abalone processing plant and the construction of managerial dwelling units.

Among the residents at Saturday's meeting was homeowner Roger Ellis, who said: "The impact on the environment appears minimal. The benefits far exceed any negatives.

"We need to piggyback on this idea, which will bring in money and create jobs."

Ellis said the abalone farm was a much better investment than a housing development in the area.

Haga-Haga Conservancy chairman Roger Rensburg said: "In the long run, the abalone farming
facility should reduce the pressures on the natural sea life. We are not against the expansion of the farm, as long as it is controlled correctly so no problems arise."

Environmentalist Alan Carter was also positive. "There are some environmental impacts, but the benefits are real. A resource is being developed and jobs created," he said.

Haga Haga Ratepayers' Association member Charles Green had a list of issues to be addressed in the pending environmental impact assessment.

"People are concerned about noise and light pollution and how this will affect Marshstrand residents. We also want to know what the effect of discharge water will be on the coast," he said.

"There will be even more traffic on the roads and local government needs to be approached to upgrade the roads from gravel to tar.

"But we have a very good working relationship between residents and the Wild Coast Abalone management. "Their doors are always open to us and they are willing to listen," Green said.

Clark said the the environmental impact assessment should be complete in six months time.

‘Centre of ethical excellence' envisioned for SA organic cotton industry



By: Christy van der Merwe
Published: 11 Jan 08 - 10:29
About 30 ha of organic cotton have been planted and will be harvested in May 2008, in a pilot project taking place in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces, which aims to stimulate the production of South African organic products and establish a sustainable value chain.

Local retailer Woolworths leads the project, with involvement from the ComMark Trust, the Organic Exchange (OE), and CottonSA. The Agricultural Research Council conducts the research.

Global consumer demand for all things organic presents an opportunity for South African, and particularly small-scale, farmers, to take advantage of this trend.

In addition to its benefits for the environment, this project seeks to establish a sustainable value chain and give the end-product a distinct selling point. Certain brands and retailers in the US and UK wish to expand their organic and ethically produced ranges, and the vision of this project is that the region can become a "centre of ethical excellence from sowing to sewing", which will assist the development of local farmers' livelihoods.

"From the farmers' point of view, the inputs are far less costly for organic cotton production. In other parts of the world, the production of organic cotton has shown that yields a hectare, while initially lower than conventional cotton production, gradually increase to the same levels," ComMark Trust textile and apparel specialist Andy Salm told Engineering News Online.

All fibre produced will be used for the production of apparel for the Woolworths organic range. The fibre will be spun, knitted or woven, dyed and assembled into garments in South Africa, and the first products should be in store for summer 2008.

The project seeks to stimulate the production of all South African organic products, which will give both a perceived and real competitive advantage. One of the major challenges, in the textile industry particularly, is to remain competitive with major producers in the East such as China, India, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Although the technology to grow organic cotton exists, the knowledge has not been widely disseminated. "The lessons from the South African pilot projects will be incorporated into a broader project to develop training materials and conduct farmer training throughout the region. ComMark and the OE will be involved in a number of pilot projects in the region, including Madagascar, Zambia, and Uganda, with a range of different partners," stated Salm.

The OEs Phil Monday will be based in South Africa, and guide and develop the infrastructure and supply technical support and training development for the project.

ComMark, which receives the bulk of its funding from the Department for International Development (the foreign aid department of the UK government), has contributed about R1-million to the project for its first year. This would assist in covering some of the farm inputs, the research and monitoring.

Once the cotton is grown it would move through the production process under normal commercial conditions.

The global demand for organic textiles and apparel is growing, and global retail sales of products using organic cotton fibre were expected to top $2-billion in 2007. The number-one consumer of organic cotton is US retail giant Wal-Mart, followed by Nike, and recently announced in third place globally, was Woolworths.

Woolworths introduced clothing made from 100% organic cotton in 2004, and continues to work towards establishing a local supply chain, and fostering the growth of a local organic cotton industry.

"Organic fibre production must continue to increase at a rate of 40% a year to meet the anticipated demand," OE programme director Rebecca Calahan Klein commented.

The benefits of organic cotton production are the same as all organic agricultural production, in that no agricultural pesticides or fertilisers are used, which maintains the integrity of the landscape and its natural biodiversity.

"While 2,5% of the world's arable land is currently used for growing cotton, some 25% of all agricultural chemicals are used on this cotton. Lack of training and inadequate safety precautions on poisons kills a large number of farmers throughout the world," affirmed Salm.


Edited by: Mariaan Olivier

^^ 1:304

okay forgive ive been away from varsity for a month the brain's got a couple of spiders webs

State financier sets sights on enlargement of SA merchant-marine fleet

By: Terence Creamer
Published: 14 Dec 07 - 0:00

State-owned financier the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) is earnestly pursuing plans for the enlargement of South Africa's relatively under-developed merchant-marine sector.
Transport unit head Kugan Thaver tells Engineering News there is a real opportunity to open the industry to South African entrepreneurs, particularly in light on of current (and anticipated continued) commodity-export growth.

However, he acknowledges that there are still some serious hurdles to overcome, from legal and tax issues, through to the fact that black South Africans have had little exposure to the sector.

The main constraint, though, is the fact that the sector is still taxed on revenues rather than volumes, as is the case in other markets, which have large merchant-marine fleets.

It is understood that National Treasury is looking at the introduction of a so-called ‘tonnage tax' which could ease that limitation. But until the system is altered, it is anticipated that vessels will continue to be registered in jurisdictions with more ‘maritime-friendly' tax systems.

Thaver also stresses that the unit (which is one of several within development finance institution) is on steep learning curve, and will have to lean heavily on established market participants, such as JSE-listed Grindrod and Safmarine, itself part of Maersk, especially in the initial stages.

Hitherto, the IDC has mainly pursued empowerment opportunities in the road-freight sector, which is less complex, understood by private-sector funders, and involves assets that are far more affordable. By contrast, freighters can cost between 30-million and $40-million each.

Preliminary work by the organisation has indicated that the initial opportunities appear to be aligned to the commodity sector, which is currently benefiting from strong market conditions.

Thaver says that it will be looking to engage with miners to secure long-term contracts, which would provide the guarantees and security necessary for entrepreneurs to invest in modesty-sized bulk or break-bulk cargo vessels. The key lever is likely to be the mining empowerment charter, which calls on miners to developed procurement strategies that support empowerment.

Equally, opportunities could arise through partnerships with established industry participants, which will also be looking to earn credits under the emerging maritime empowerment charter and associated scorecard. A process of engagement with these companies has started, with Thaver revealing that it has offered the IDC insight into the sector and the potential pitfalls.

Safmarine corporate affairs director Fred Jacobs tells Engineering News that he agrees that expansion of the maritime sector could create more opportunities for black economic empowerment (BEE), but cautions that there should be an upfront acknowledgment of the cyclical nature of the industry.

He stresses that Safmarine fully supports empowerment, and has played an active role in the creation of the maritime charter and scorecard, but notes, too, that most of the empowerment spin-offs have arisen in support areas, such as trucking and container depot operations, where there is a greater market appetite at present.

Thaver believes the reticence to engage in the marine opportunities is due to a lack of understanding of the industry. However, he is convinced that, once tax and legal impediments are sorted out and the charter is finalised, interest could surge and there will be a real opportunity to more fully integrate the merchant-marine fleet into the domestic logistics value chain.

He also believes there could be various spin-offs into downstream services such as ship repair, financing and brokering. But here again, here is a need for greater industry intelligence, with the IDC hoping to garner best-practice funding experience from abroad. "We understand that financing ships is different to financing trucks, but we believe we need to make a start," Thaver avers, revealing that it is looking to pursue relationships with marine-focused funders in Germany, the UK and Greece to work with it on shipping finance.

"We believe we can begin making an impact over the next three to four years," he states, adding that similar attention is now being given to opportunities that could arise in the airfreight market.

In aviation, the IDC is pouring of possible business prospects for black entrepreneurs arising from burgeoning intra-Africa trade, but Thaver admits that the key constraint is that many of the routes only offer one-way payloads and return leg opportunities will have to be developed to make such enterprises viable.

Work starts on R4,2bn harbour revamp

link to article (http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20080117064526288C211836)
Babalo Ndenze
January 17 2008 at 11:08AM

The massive upgrade of the Port of Cape Town, which will almost double the harbour's capacity and cost R4,2-billion, has finally started.

The five-year construction programme started this week and is part of Port Terminals' parent company Transnet Ltd's R28-billion investment into port-related projects, from an overall R78-billion planned for overall transport infrastructure investments over the next five years.

Transnet Port Terminals was formerly known as South African Port Operations. The upgrade will almost double Cape Town's capacity.

The expansion is expected to relieve mounting pressure by enabling the terminal to improve from the current 740 000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) a year to 1,4 million TEUs by the end of 2012. A TEU is the capacity of a standard size shipping container.

Oscar Borchards, business unit executive at the Cape Town Container Terminal, said that the main contractors had arrived on-site on Monday to work.

"Initial work will entail refurbishing the quay and deepening the berth and Ben Schoeman Basin to 15,5 metres," said Borchards.

A consortium comprising southern African construction firm WBHO and Cape Town-based Civil and Coastal would be responsible for deepening the berth, while a Danish subcontractor, Rohde Nielsen, would complete the subsequent dredging work required at the harbour to allow bigger vessels to pass through.

Borchards said other construction activities planned for 2008 include the building of a crane erection site to assist in the assembly of the first two new Liebherr ship-to-shore cranes and the terminal's conversion from straddle carriers to a rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) crane operation.

Currently Pier One in Durban is the only South African terminal using the high-tech RTG cranes.

The project includes the demolition of non-essential infrastructure and buildings, reconfiguration of the terminal to maximise container stacking capacity, a reefer (refrigeration) point expansion programme, as well as the buying of new, specialised equipment including Liebherr ship-to-shore cranes and 32 RTGs.

The quayline will also be extended by 10 metres to accommodate the new gantry cranes.

Borchards said that productivity would be maintained during construction by diverting container vessels with their own ships' gear to Cape Town's multi-purpose terminal.

"We are confident that our current plan satisfies all requirements and will assist Transnet Port Terminals to promote efficiencies, reduce the cost of doing business and improve service delivery to customers, as dictated by Transnet's four-point turn-around strategy," said Borchards.

The upgrade has also received the full support of the Cape Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Managing director Albert Schuitmaker said it was a very positive move by Transnet.

"It's exciting and it's long overdue. It will elevate the Port of Cape Town to meet the demands of the future so the new-generation container ships can get into Cape Town. The benefits are that we will have a smoother flow of transport, reduce transport times, because as you know, time is money. Refrigerated goods will spend less time in the ports and in transit," said Schuitmaker.

He said more jobs would be created as a result because the port would be more productive.

babalo.ndenze@inl.co.za

GMSA to spend R481m to upgrade facilities, still sees market gaps

By: Irma Venter
Published: 1 Feb 08 - 0:00
Vehicle manufacturer General Motors South Africa (GMSA) will invest R481-million in its operations this year, upgrading its production facilities and tooling.

In addition, construction is well under way at the company’s new vehicle conversion and distribution centre in Aloes, a multimillion-rand storage and logistics facility.

The centre is due to open during the second quarter of this year.

Other plans for GMSA include the launch of ten new products during the course of the year, in an attempt to boost market share. This continues the trend set last year, when the company also launched ten new vehicles.

GMSA’s retailer network, now standing at 152 outlets, invested R812-million over the past few years in upgrading its facilities.

GMSA sales and marketing vice-president Malcolm Gauld says the company remains confident that its portfolio of new products will provide greater choice to customers.

“It also allows us to compete aggressively in this extremely competitive market.”

Gauld adds that although the company expects the South African vehicle market to decline by between 2% and 3% in 2008 – which is slightly inside what others in the industry are forecasting – long-term growth still remains positive.

He emphasises that opportunities remain in the vehicle market, even though the industry faces significant challenges this year, such as higher interest rates, inflation, petrol prices and general erosion of consumer disposable income.

However, Gauld notes that he remains positive about the future of the industry.

He says the South African vehicle market enjoyed a buoyant performance over the last few years, and that the current slowdown is normal if one considers the interest rate increases and the introduction of the National Credit Act last year.

“With the 2010 soccer World Cup on our doorstep, we have to look positively at the demand for new vehicles.”

A key area for GMSA going forward is the light commercial-vehicle (LCV) market, where it secured an overall share of 23% in 2007, through buoyant sales of the Isuzu KB and Corsa Utility pick-ups.

“Even though the LCV market is likely to remain relatively flat versus 2007, we will be looking to continue growing our volumes in 2008,” says Gauld.

PLATINUM mining stocks on the JSE lifted the bourse from its depressed state today, helping it close firmer as a record white metal price gave mining shares a reason to celebrate.

By the end of trade, the JSE’s broader all share index edged up 0,42%, with the platinum mining index collecting 3,07%. The gold mining index gained 3,24% and resources improved 0,47%. Industrials were up 0,63%, but financials lost 0,11% and banks were down 0,2%.

The rand was bid at R7,66 to the US dollar from R7,52 when the JSE closed yesterday, while gold was quoted at $901,50 a troy ounce from $888,70/oz at the JSE’s last close.

"The JSE is looking a lot better than its open, as we were down by as much as 800 or 900 points today," said a local trader, but he said that he did see the JSE come off a bit when Wall Street opened.

He said that most gains for the day were led by commodity stocks, as gold stocks were firm because the gold price had crept back over the $900/oz level, and platinum shares lifted higher because the platinum price had hit a new all time high today.

The platinum price hit a fresh all time high of $1,816,50 an ounce this afternoon. By the JSE’s close, it was at $1,813,50/oz, up $46 or 2,6% from its overnight close.

"The JSE is probably setting itself up for another big drop," said the trader. He said that even though Wall Street was up fractionally, European markets were down. By the JSE’s close, the DJIA was up only 0,13%.

"If the Dow doesn’t hold on to its gains, this market will drop," he said.

Traders also said that BHP Billiton’s share was being hit by corporate activity.

BHP Billiton increased its bid for rival Rio Tinto today, offering 3,4 BHP Billiton shares per Rio Tinto share - up from its previous three-for-one offer.

According to Dow Jones Newswires, the sweetened offer values Rio Tinto at $173,6bn.

The UK Takeovers Panel had given BHP Billiton until today to clarify its intentions regarding its plans to merge with Rio Tinto.

Could this be our salvation?

-------------------------------

Smart meter plan to halt blackouts
February 8, 2008

By SLINDILE KHANYILE

Durban - Eskom would spend between R2 billion and R6 billion rolling out a technology to reduce the number of times it cut power to households, Andrew Etzinger, the general manager of resources and investment strategies, said yesterday. Eskom hoped to start the process before the end of the year.

Etzinger said the smart meter technology would be installed in at least 3 million houses in predominantly upmarket areas.

He said the Eskom Investments Committee had given the concept the go-ahead but it was still awaiting final approval from the board of directors.

The technology will replace the present electricity board. It will allow both the consumer and Eskom to remotely control the switches.

The customer will also be able to classify appliances as either primary or secondary and, when the power has to be cut, only the secondary appliances will then be switched off.

The new technology will also enable consumers to control the switches via the internet and cellphones. It also allows for two-way communication between the consumer and the power utility.

Etzinger said the concept, which could also detect faults and electricity theft, had been successful in other countries.

"We cannot guarantee that there will not be load shedding anymore, but this will greatly reduce the number of times that we have to shed load," he said. "This will not be economically viable for houses that do not have a geyser, because their consumption of electricity is too low."

There are 8 million households in the country that have electricity. Two million to 3 million of those houses consume 20 percent of the country's power during peak times.

Etzinger said this technology could help these households drop that to 10 percent. "And that could prevent load shedding."

Once the board of directors' approval has been obtained, Eskom will go to the market to source service providers through a tender process.

The cost will be finalised once the negotiations with the supplier have been completed.

Indicatively, Eskom would pay between R1 000 and R2 000 each for up to 3 million houses, Etzinger said.

Safesky Africa Technology, owned by former Bafana Bafana coach Jomo Sono, is working on plans to become one of the suppliers, together with an Israel-based company called Computerised Electricity Systems, whose general manager, Lupu Wittner, demonstrated the system yesterday.

But Etzinger would only say about possible suppliers: "Several service providers have approached us with the technology; they (Safesky) could very well be one of those."


Ayal Rossenberg, the chief technical officer at Safesky Africa Technology, said that with just 500 000 households fitted in Gauteng, the province would be spared the power cuts. For the whole country, it would take 2 million houses.

Rossenberg said the system had been implemented in countries such as the US and Spain.

"What this system does is enable Eskom or the municipality to reduce the amount of power you are using in your house, instead of cutting it off completely. With the current system, if Eskom has to shed load, it is either 100 percent or nothing," said Rossenberg.

Eskom and the municipalities would also be able to send an e-mail to customers, telling them if they were using too much electricity, and suggesting what they should switch off to cut the usage by a certain percentage, said Rossenberg.

Another message would drop into the customer's inbox once the acceptable level had been reached.

Mike Sutcliffe, the eThekwini city manager, said it also had plans to introduce the technology and it had been in discussions with Eskom, but no details had been finalised.

Louis Pieterse, the general manager for supply availability at City Power, confirmed that it would also be taking the smart meter route in Johannesburg's suburbs.

Cape Town could not be reached for comment.


Benefits: How innovation can help keep power usage down

Enables the utility to downscale during peak demand by cutting supply by the required percentage and enforcing less consumption instead of cutting it off completely.

Allows consumers to decide which appliances to switch off during load shedding.

When excess demand is over, allows disconnected load to be turned on again, either automatically or manually.

Protects appliances against lightning. In case of overheating or fire, it automatically cuts off the electricity supply to the faulty circuit, thus preventing additional damage.

Produces an alert signal when a significant change occurs in the use of electricity by an appliance or an electricity branch, usually as the result of some failure or malfunction.

Provides efficient and economic automatic meter reading via its two-way communication capability. Electricity providers will be able to reduce consumption to a critical minimum on a case-by-case basis.

Source: Safesky Africa Technology

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=566&fArticleId=4244067

This is really funny. Eskom's GM for Resources & Investment Strategies was interviewed by Moneyweb. At the end of the interview, David Shapiro, a commentator, says:

DAVID SHAPIRO: There's just one thing. We're not allowed to use the word "blackout" any more.

MONEYWEB: Why not?

DAVID SHAPIRO: No, we now use "previously lit". :lol:

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page55?oid=190508&sn=Detail

Africa's biggest science institute for South Africa



By A’EYSHA KASSIEM

THE biggest science institute on the continent - estimated to cost R500 million - under construction at the University of the Western Cape should give South Africa and Africa a scientific edge.

University vice-chancellor Brian O'Connell said while SA produced only 23 PhDs for every million people, other countries were far ahead.

"In Australia, the ratio is 230 PhDs for every million people, which is 10 times more than ours, and in Asian countries, it's between 150 and 160.

"We are in desperate trouble."

O'Connell said the Life Sciences building will include departments such as medical bioscience, the SA Herbal Science and Medicine Institute, and biotechnology, and is expected to house some 2 500 staff and students.

Construction began in September last year and the six-storey building is expected to be completed in September next year. Various sources have funded the project, including international donors and the national Education Department, which put in 200m. UWC has also done its own fundraising.

"We want this to be a cathedral to science. We want to change young people. We have difficulty with the absence of a learning culture at schools.

"With 500 separate research benches, we will encourage an interest in science and enable students to do science up until the highest level ... which will put us in competition with other countries," he said.

According to O'Connell, the establishment of the "iconic" building had long been a "hopeless dream" that was finally starting to take shape and become reality. He hoped it would encourage an interest in science among young people and tackle the overall attitude of "apathy" that pupils and students had towards learning.

"It is part of our national development that we also develop sub-saharan Africa and this will be an important place where African scholars can come to," he said.

The project has also recently received a R20m donation from the American Kresge Foundation based in Detroit, Michigan.

Senior programme officer at the $3.9 billion private foundation, Bill Moses, said the donation was the biggest grant they had given outside the US.

The foundation also has other initiatives with higher education institutions in South Africa, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Wits and the University of Pretoria.

Moses said it was "amazing" that within a few years, some of the "finest researchers on earth" would make use of it.

I don't see how a device that allows the 'merchant' to limit what the customer buys is much of a salvation. It's a temporary fix to help reduce blackouts, but it's hardly a viable long-term solution if SA hopes to continue its economic growth.

By the way, the 'previously lit' joke is hilarious!

Date: 08 Feb 2008
Title: SA invests R2.3 bil to develop industries
---------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------

By Michael Appel; tel: (012) 314-2419

Parliament - In line with South Africa's objective to strengthen and diversify the industrial sector, government has pledged R2.3 billion over the next three years to support industrial policy.

Delivering his State of the Nation Address at the opening of Parliament on Friday, President Thabo Mbeki explained that government - as part of its objective to further accelerate economic growth - will implement the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP).

"In this regard, R2.3 billion has been budgeted for industrial policy initiatives and a further R5 billion in tax incentives over three years will support industrial policy," said the president.

The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) finalised the IPAP and it was endorsed in July 2007.

The policy focuses on unlocking South African industrial development in a sustainable manner by identifying strategic industrial interventions.

The Action Plan ensures the fast track implementation of development in the four lead sectors of the South African economy namely capital/transport equipment and metals; automotives and components; chemicals, plastic fabrication and pharmaceuticals; and forestry, pulp and paper, and furniture.

Maintaining the momentum of certain sectors identified within the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) such as Business Process Outsourcing and Offshoring (BPO&O), tourism and biofuels is also a component of the IPAP.

AsgiSA aims to achieve six percent annual economic growth by 2010 and halve poverty and unemployment by 2014 in the country.

Mr Mbeki said government will develop as urgently as possible, key action plans in sectors where such plans do not exist, such as mining and minerals beneficiation, consumer durables, retail with a focus on improving support to small enterprises, construction, agriculture and agro-processing.

"I would like to emphasise that we remain determined to support the automotive sector and will therefore ensure that the support given to this sector through the Motor Industry Development Programme is maintained.

"At the macro-economic level, we will continue to maintain a fiscal posture that supports continued economic growth and development and reducing our external vulnerability," he said.

To speed up the process of building infrastructure in the country, government has planned the finalisation of an integrated infrastructure plan, paying particular attention to energy efficiency in the wake of the electricity shortage affecting the country at the moment.

South Africa has introduced a number of industrial policies since 1994; however, the cabinet adoption of the National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF) in January 2007 signalled government's renewed commitment to industrialisation.

According to the dti, the major weaknesses identified in South Africa's long-term industrialisation - which the NIPF and IPAP will look to address - is the decline in the share of employment in the country's traditional tradable sectors of mining and agriculture.

The main objective of the NIPF is therefore to facilitate diversification beyond South Africa's current reliance in traditional commodities and non-tradable services. - BuaNews

SA 'has the edge' in telescope bid
Shaun Benton
http://www.ska.ac.za/visuals/ska_view_01.jpg
11 February 2008

Time is on South Africa's side in its bid to host the giant Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope project - expected to cost some €1.5-billion - according to South African astronomer Professor Phil Charles.

Speaking to BuaNews, Charles, who is director of the South African Astronomical Observatory, explained that the technology needed to cater for the bandwidth, computer processing power and data storage requirements of the SKA project does not as yet exist.

Once finished, the SKA is likely to be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever, consisting of thousands of dishes between 10 and 15 metres in diameter.

Currently, South African and Australia are the only remaining candidates to host the telescope. A final decision on the host site is expected by 2010, and construction is expected to start by 2014.

Charles told BuaNews that he believed the required technology - demanded by the combination of the spatial and temporal resolution of the SKA telescope - would be available in between five to eight years.

Charles calculated this on the basis of what is known as Moore's Law, the theory arising from the current rate of technological innovation that assumes that raw processing power and hard disk capacity will double every two years.

In the meantime,he said, South Africa needs large investments in bandwidth capacity to bridge the digital divide and, more specifically, for a high-speed academic internet backbone.

Plans are in the pipeline for an African equivalent of the European GÉANT2 network, which currently provides an academic backbone through Europe of 10 gigabits per second - at least 1 000 times faster than what is currently available in South Africa.

SALT
Already, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) that was inaugurated in November 2005 is working around limitations in data transmission by using a dedicated 1.5-million bits per second data line between Sutherland, where the telescope is located, and Cape Town.

This "uncalibrated" data is then reduced through processing to a point where SALT's partnership scientists can access it over the internet from the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

However, Charles argues that better bandwidth ias needed as, without it, the pathfinder radio telescope arrays being constructed by South Africa (and Australia) in preparation for the SKA will have a limited capability.

'Quiet zones'
From the initial four regions of the world that expressed an interest, South Africa and Australia have been short-listed as potential hosts for the SKA, mainly because scientists examining the various bids found that the ionospheric background in the Earth's atmosphere was less apparent in the southern hemisphere.

Charles explained that the ionospheric background in the Earth's atmosphere - the upper part of the Earth's atmosphere that is affected by radiation from the sun to the point where it impacts on the propagation of radio signals - was not uniform over the whole planet.

"The quietest parts [of the earth's atmosphere] are actually southern Africa and Australia," said Charles. "You can see this background during the day, and there are times when it just sort of flows from south America up across north Africa and across China and, during the most sensitive observations, that would limit the sensitivity of the [proposed SKA] telescope."

Charles points out that the southern hemisphere already has more large telescopes than the northern hemisphere because of its competitive edge over the north, in part because the galactic centre goes directly overhead in the southern hemisphere, giving astronomers in the south "the best view of the centre of our own galaxy".

In the south, South Africa has a further competitive edge because world-class research requires access to dark, clear skies at regions preferably above 1 500 metres above sea level, and for this only Chile and South Africa qualify because of the lower altitudes of Australian optical observatories.

Already, Chile is home to the European Southern Observatory, which has four eight-metre telescopes situated in the country.

South Africa was favoured for the SALT telescope, which is situated in a quiet part of the Karoo - in Sutherland - that is largely free from human interference in the form of night lights, television signals, cellphone signals and other waves, all of which cause radio interference.

South Africa moved to strengthen this advantage last year by passing the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Bill, which seeks to preserve and protect areas within South Africa that are uniquely suited to optical and radio astronomy.

MeerKAT
In the meantime, work goes on at the South African Astronomical Observatory in Observatory, Cape Town, and in Sutherland, while work has begun on the SKA "demo model", the world-class MeerKAT telescope whose 12-metre dishes will be spaced over 10 kilometres in the Karoo.

Should South Africa win the SKA bid, there will be antennae scattered all over the southern African region, with the main site in the northern Cape. It will have an effective data collecting area of one million square metres, making it the most powerful radio telescope on Earth, Charles said in the South African science magazine Quest last year.

South Africa needs the project, said Charles, and not just for studying the skies. "Astronomy is a fantastic way of inspiring young people into science," he said. "[It is also] one of the most superb ways of actually teaching people basic physics and mathematics."

The country, he said, "desperately needs a scientifically, technically literate workforce if it is truly going to make the transformation that we hope for".

Construction works estimated to have reached R46bn last year

By: Irma Venter
Published: 8 Feb 08 - 0:00
Total construction works in South Africa reached an estimated R46-billion during 2007, a 32% increase in real terms from the R34,72-billion achieved in 2006.

South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC) economist Pierre Blaauw says the estimate for 2007 is an annualised figure derived from Reserve Bank data, with the final number due around March.

"Turnover this high was last seen during the construction boom in the 1970s, when the industry for the first time recorded a figure breaching the R40-billion mark."

Construction works do not include the residential and non-residential building sector, but refer to the civil engineering sector, including infrastructure development, such as roads, dams, and power plants, along with some mechanical and electrical work.

"SAFCEC's numbers indicate growth between 25% and 30% for the civil engineering industry alone in 2007," says Blaauw.

He says the good news is that spending on government's R482-billion infrastructure budget really only started last year, and that 2008 and 2009 should see further growth for the civil engineering industry.

"We expect a 13% to 16% increase in civil engineering industry turnover in 2008. It may sound small compared to 2007's record number, but remember that this will come off a higher base.

"Despite challenging macro-economic conditions - such as higher interest rates - infrastructure spending is steaming ahead, which bodes well for the industry."

Blaauw believes government's infrastructure budget will remain largely unaffected by the changes in the political environment.

He says infrastructure spending "is not luxury spending, but compulsory spending", and a prerequisite to maintain the current economic growth rate.

Blaauw believes the biggest challenge the civil engineering industry will face this year will be that of capacity.

Companies will need to grow their order book availability through the acquisition of new capital assets, locating and securing the necessary skills, buying up smaller firms, and expanding their education and training budgets.

"There will definitely be more supply-side constraints than demand-side constraints within the industry," he notes.

According to Stats SA, the South African construction industry showed the biggest jump of all economic sectors in acquiring capital assets from 2005 to 2006, recording a 73% increase.

Salaries and wages within the industry also increased by 16,6% from 2005 to 2006.

Employment numbers in the construction industry grew from 107 000 in 2006, to 117 000 in 2007, with 150 000 possible by 2009, says Blaauw.

In 2004, the industry employed 80 000 people.

Blaauw says it is likely the South African construction industry will double in size by 2009 from 2004 figures.

ESKOM CONTRACTS
Power utility Eskom has a R1,2-trillion budget up to 2025 to develop and refurbish power plants, with R400-billion of this estimated to be construction-related, says Blaauw.

"It would be tragic if foreign construction companies - most notably the Chinese - were awarded these contracts.

"The industry has nothing against competition from abroad, but Chinese companies often receive financial backing from the Chinese government, which means you can not really compare apples with apples when it comes to tender pricing."

Blaauw says the embattled power utility will be one of the civil engineering industry's most important clients over the next 20 to 25 years.

"Eskom has an immense project pipeline. They will make such a positive contribution to the local civil engineering industry if they spend their money locally."

Blaauw says there is no doubt competition is heating up in the local industry.

In 2006 there were four large international construction firms registered with the Construction Industry Development Board, growing to 11 in 2007.

"We are likely to see a further increase in competition from abroad over the next two to three years, as well as from smaller companies growing into larger firms able to compete for bigger contracts."

Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

"It would be tragic if foreign construction companies - most notably the Chinese - were awarded these contracts.

"The industry has nothing against competition from abroad, but Chinese companies often receive financial backing from the Chinese government, which means you can not really compare apples with apples when it comes to tender pricing."

I find this sort of statement farcical. If the SA companies dont have capacity (they are always in the gulf trying to get SA guys to go back as they are seriously short of skills) then must the SA population sit and wait?
Compitition is always healthy and if SA companies who are stretched to capacity want their cake and want to eat it , then they should consider moving to cuba or some other controled enviroment.

Those statements are very naive.

whos mine or theirs?

whos mine or theirs?

theirs. typical "china is the enemy" perspective.

ageed

BUDGET

Manuel gives transport a boost

Michael Hamlyn
Wed, 20 Feb 2008

Another R6-billion over and above the allocations already made in the Medium-Term Budget policy statement last year will be spent on building public transport, roads and rail infrastructure, and another R6-billion will be spent on housing, water and sanitation.

At the same time, Transnet — the state-owned rail freight and ports utility — is planning to spend R78-billion in the four years to 2011/12 to upgrade its infrastructure, having already spent R11.7-billion last year.

According to the Budget Review, the largest share — about 45 percent — of Transnet's capital investment leading up to 2011/12 will be spent on improving the freight rail business, with a focus on infrastructure and rolling stock.

Projects include expanding the coal line (R4.9-billion) and the ore line (R3.8-billion).

To expand port capacity, Transnet is widening and deepening the entrance to Durban harbour, and (at R7.6-billion) building a new container terminal at Ngqura expanding the Cape Town container terminal and buying new equipment to handle projected volume increases. Transnet is also building a multi-product pipeline between Durban and Gauteng at a cost of R9.3-billion.

The cash for public transport infrastructure and systems will bring the total allocation for this to R10-billion over the medium term. And this year will see the start of construction of the Gauteng freeway improvement scheme. The Budget Review notes these costs are to be recovered over time through toll revenue.

The review also notes that the first phase of Johannesburg's Rea Vaya bus rapid transit system has begun, and that the first phase, which runs through 2010, covers 126 kilometres and 150 stations, and that environmentally-friendly propulsion systems are being considered for the buses. The city has allocated R2.2-billion over the medium term period.

Operating costs will be covered by the bus fares.

An additional R2.4-billion is being allocated to consolidating the commuter and long distance rail networks into one organisation. Another R1-billion is being used for upgrading 1400 train coaches.

Expansion of the road network will be financed mainly through tolls, although another R800-million is being given to the Roads Agency for upgrading the elderly roads, improving 3398 kilometres and maintaining 32 262 kilometres.

I-Net Bridge

http://business.iafrica.com/budget_2008_2009/budget_news/943560.htm

120 billion on education and 75 billion on grants..i think our priorities are a bit skewed.

^^lmao, only now you realised that

In what way are they skewed? Are you saying we spend too much on grants?

Or too much on education? =S

What was the Foreign direct investment in South-Africa in 2007?
Was it 5 billion dollar?

too much on grants.

treat the cause not the symptoms.

well when you have 40% unemployment R7 billion in grants is not actually that much. The apartheid education system meant that the symptoms will take decades to treat. You have to put in the systems for economic growth but growth is not the only answer as growth can often leave the poorest of the poor behind.You cant just leave people to starve.

Wow, this is shocking... but if we "conservatively" have 44 million people in SA and 40% are unemployed, that means 17.6million are jobless. Thus R7billion between all of them is an average of R397 per year per person! That's actually so damn little... I guess we can give the jobless that at least, eventhough as a taxpayer it makes one cringe.

well when you have 40% unemployment R7 billion in grants is not actually that much. The apartheid education system meant that the symptoms will take decades to treat. You have to put in the systems for economic growth but growth is not the only answer as growth can often leave the poorest of the poor behind.You cant just leave people to starve.

75 billion not 7 billion.

im all for the national social security plan to be introduced by 2011 (prob 2013-2015) . might choose that as thesis topic...the pain.

The government pension is so little... only around R950 per month.

Wow, this is shocking... but if we "conservatively" have 44 million people in SA and 40% are unemployed, that means 17.6million are jobless. Thus R7billion between all of them is an average of R397 per year per person! That's actually so damn little... I guess we can give the jobless that at least, eventhough as a taxpayer it makes one cringe.

40% of the labour force, not 40% of the total population in the country. The labour force numbers around 20 million.

Hi guys.

Why has no one even metioned the excon relaxtation?
This is probably the biggest step taken in Maneuls 12 years.

Hi guys.

Why has no one even metioned the excon relaxtation?
This is probably the biggest step taken in Maneuls 12 years.

Yea i agree the exchange controls relaxtion is a major step towards a free-er market economy.

Economy remains resilient
Feb 26 2008 9:21PM

Pretoria - South Africa's economic growth jumped unexpectedly in the fourth quarter of 2007, keeping expansion for the year near a two-decade record at 5.1% as buoyant corporates outweighed slower consumer spending.
Africa's biggest economy has remained resilient despite higher interest rates, although growth is likely to slow in 2008 when power cuts add to a further easing in household demand.

Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday quarter-on-quarter annualised growth climbed to 5.3% from an upwardly revised 4.8%, lifting the number for the year to just off the more than two-decade high of 5.4% for 2006.

"We certainly did not expect such a high number," said Russell Lamberti, economist at independent market analysts ETM.

"From a broader perspective it looks as though the investment spending drive is proving to be a strong driver of growth," he said, referring to huge government capital expenditure.

Economists had predicted a slowdown to 4.3% on growing evidence a series of interest rate hikes since June 2006 was crimping spending.

Retail sales have declined and new motor vehicle sales have been weak.

But Stats SA said the manufacturing sector rebounded from a strike-affected slowdown in the third quarter, while agriculture jumped and construction growth stayed in double-digits.

'Corporate sector still going strong

Growth in finance and real estate - the biggest economic sector at 20.4% of GDP - eased slightly, as did wholesale and retail sales, reflecting the pressure on households.

"We can see that there is an impact in the sectors that affected households (the trades and residential construction), but the corporate sector in still going strong," said Kedibone Mokone, Stats SA manager for GDP.

The central bank left its repo rate at 11% last month, citing signs of slowing growth, after raising it 400 basis points in 18 months.

Growth in 2008 may not match the strong performance of the past four years, analysts say.

Ageing infrastructure and waning capacity has left electricity utility Eskom unable to meet demand, resulting in crippling blackouts that have hit businesses and households hard.

The world's biggest platinum mines and key gold mines were forced to halt production for five days in January after Eskom cut supply to protect the grid. Output is still not up to full strength.

The crisis will slash mining growth in the first quarter of 2008, but the impact should be felt far wider. All energy consumers have been asked to cut demand for the next five years while Eskom moves to rebuild capacity.

"The data is incredibly upbeat overall, but questions are still going to be asked about how much deterioration we should expect in Q1 2008, when we see the worst of the energy crisis impacting on growth figures," Razia Kahn, regional head of research for Africa at Standard Chartered, said.

The Treasury has forecast 4.0% growth in 2008 - a forecast some analysts see as too optimistic.

Tourism to South Africa increased by 8.2% in 2007! The country attracted 9,207,698 tourists compared to 8,508,806 in 2006!

Those are great news thanks Greg, lets hope this year it will grow further as the police have intesfied strategy in fight against crime. I know I might get bitten for this but I must be honest and say that I'm happy that police are now shooting these bustards in the head. We need to see more of them dying as they are of no use.

I seriously hope Mugabe is dethroned and Simon or Morgan takes over. Imagine SA and without the burden of it's economic asylum seekers? It will alleviate stress on the infrastructure and Zim will be able to follow BW and Nam and work on theirs too.

Swaziland & Lesotho needs to be sorted as well. One of their biggest revenue source is the SA Customs Union. Basically duty that you & I pay on imports.

South Africa: Sarkozy's Visit to Yield SA-France Agreements


BuaNews (Tshwane)

27 February 2008
Posted to the web 27 February 2008

Michael Appel
Pretoria

South Africa is looking forward to signing a number of bilateral agreements with France during a state visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week.

"The intention is that there is a number of bilateral agreements that will be signed, some of them are works in progress and will depend on the outcome of the discussions," said Foreign Affairs Director General Gert Grobler on Tuesday.

President Sarkozy is due to arrive on Thursday accompanied by his wife, former supermodel Carla Bruni and some 40 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from major French companies.

The delegation will sign an array of bilateral agreements aimed at further strengthening relations between the two countries.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Union Buildings, Mr Grobler said there was proposed agreements on science cooperation, transport agreements, energy, the Kyoto Protocol and a tourism agreement.

There is also a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) which is to be signed.

"President Sarkozy has in the months that he's been in power, spoken often about Africa and has said France will continue to be Africa's resolute advocate in Europe...and that Africa will remain a priority of France's foreign policy," said Mr Grobler regarding France taking the helm of the European Union (EU) later this year.

France is also a key global player and permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Mr Sarkozy has said France is committed to helping Africa achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and this did not necessarily mean more aid.

The MDGs are a set of goals which aim to halve poverty, stop the spread of HIV and AIDS and provide primary education by 2015.

Within this context, South Africa will be looking to further engage with France on a number of international issues of safety and security including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chad, Sudan, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan and Kosovo.

"South Africa and France enjoy cordial and close relations characterised by regular high level dialogue, diverse bilateral cooperation programmes and growing bilateral trade.

"France has a high regard for President Thabo Mbeki's work on the continent and South Africa is regarded as a capable and credible interlocutor in promoting in promoting peace, stability and development on the continent," said Mr Grobler.

France is the largest donor and trading partner to Africa and is an increasing major investor on the continent.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka visited France in October last year where the ground work was laid for much closer cooperation in the area of JIPSA skills development, said Mr Grobler.

He added that a formal MoU was now ready to be signed.

Bilateral trade between South Africa and France totalled some R26 billion in 2006 and 2007, with the trade balance favouring France.

Mr Grobler said South Africa will be looking to increase and diversify exports to that country.

There is currently about 160 French companies in South Africa including massive industry players like Renault and Lafarge.

What is South Africa's GDP and budget in €uros plz? no more use of $ which is losing value like ******** ?

Im not sure whether NIGERIA or South Africa has a better economy and stronger military? [Im not talking about average income or HDI)

I wonder who is the better country. I think most people believe it is Nigeria, but I'm not taking sides.

What is South Africa's GDP and budget in €uros plz? no more use of $ which is losing value like ******** ?

Haven't you heard of www.google.com , just type South Africa GDP and viola, there is your answer.

Im not sure whether NIGERIA or South Africa has a better economy and stronger military? [Im not talking about average income or HDI)

I wonder who is the better country. I think most people believe it is Nigeria, but I'm not taking sides.

I'm not certain of the military, but South Africa by far has a larger economy. 45% of all sub-Saharan manufacturing and industrial output is South African. Also most of Africa's electricity production is produced here. We have by far the most intricate road, motorway and rail network and there is no doubt, no other African country has a more "first-world-like" financial and services sector.

From Engineering News

By: Keith Campbell
Published: 29 Feb 08 - 0:00
The fact that the creation of a South African Space Agency is now only a matter of months away is attracting international interest, including proposals for technological cooperation, to this country. "Word has gotten out that South Africa is very keen on putting together a space agency," reports Department of Science and Technology (DST) Space Science and Technology Manager Dr Val Munsami, "and people, internationally, are approaching us, in terms of becoming partners on new generation satellite programmes, so these are opportunities. We are targetting a number of international partnerships, in terms of being able to build competencies here."

"Obviously, our main focus is on our own indigenous satellite programme," he asserts. "The future satellite programme will be situated inside the space agency, and, once the agency kicks off, there is a whole business plan for the agency, and that includes a satellite programme. So, we might use these partnerships to build capacity - as long as, at the end, we can put our own satellites up. I think that's very important."

The DST is hopeful that the space agency could receive parliamentary approval by at least June. "It's a process," he points out. "It needs Cabinet and parliamentary approval. We're trying to put together an interim arrangement for the agency." Thus, when final Cabinet and parliamentary approval is granted, the space agency will be able to start its work immediately.

South Africa already has some of the best space infrastructure in Africa, and the new space agency will incorporate existing institutions. Which ones these should be has been debated for years. It has finally been decided that, initially at least, the space agency will take over, and be based upon, two established organisations. These are the Satellite Applications Centre (SAC) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and the Houwteq division of State-owned defence industrial group Denel.

"SAC is obvious. Its main focus is on satellite telemetry, tracking, and control. There's a lot of business opportunities it brings from this arena into the country," explains Munsami. "It's also quite critical for the space agency, given that we'll need mission control for our own satellites. So there are a lot of competencies within SAC that we are going to need for the new space programme."

Houwteq is a facility left over from the old, military, space programme of the 1980s. "But its infrastructure is quite critical in terms of the assembly, integration, and testing of our satellite platforms," he highlights. South Africa's second satellite, SumbandilaSat, which hopefully will be launched later this year, has been tested at Houwteq. "At the moment, Houwteq sits with Denel and we are busy in discussions with them regarding the acquisition of Houwteq," he adds. A lot of the infrastructure at Houwteq is now relatively old and will need replacing in the next few years.

The space agency will be an autonomous agency, owning and managing its own facilities and assets, which will interact with private companies, manage State investments in the public interest on a long-term basis, have high degrees of indepedence and focus, and attract the necessary skills. The space agency executive will report to a space agency board, which will be assisted by a Space Advisory Committee of experts, which could include international experts. Regulatory oversight will be provided by the Space Affairs Council.

The DST has a ten-year plan for the space science and technology, which includes the agency. At the end of the first year, the intent is to have the interim form of the agency in operation; to have gained approval of the National Space Science and Technology Strategy; and to be running continuing technology programmes and partnerships. By the end of five years, it is proposed that the space agency will be fully established, appropriate technology platforms (satellites) will be in space, human capital development will have been stimulated, and strategic international partnerships and projects established. By year ten the hope is that the space agency will be globally positioned, the counrty will have a resident space capacity in place, and the agency will be delivering appropriate services and products relating to space applications.

The space programme will have three key focus areas - innovation and economic growth, environment and resource management, and, safety and security. Innovation and economic growth will include agriculture, communications, mining, space science and exploration, and space technology transfer and spin-offs. Environment and resource management will include land management, rural development and urban planning, meteorological monitoring, hydrological monitoring, and ocean, coastal and marine management. Safety and security will encompass, amongst other things, disaster monitoring and relief, hazards forecasting and early warning, asset monitoring, and defence, peacekeeping and treaty monitoring.

read "mandelas Nuclear nightmare" and "those who had the power" for an eye opening account of what Sa's capabilty in missiles and space technology during the 80s and 90s-Scary stuff

Im not sure whether NIGERIA or South Africa has a better economy and stronger military? [Im not talking about average income or HDI)

I wonder who is the better country. I think most people believe it is Nigeria, but I'm not taking sides.

Sa has a more divierse economy as Nigeria is pure Hydro carban based. Also Sa has a much newer (new fighters, corvetts , subs etc) and bigger military machine both as a standing defence force and as a defence industry (planes,vehicles and ships built in SA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_South_Africa
vs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Nigeria

Im not sure whether NIGERIA or South Africa has a better economy and stronger military? [Im not talking about average income or HDI)

I wonder who is the better country. I think most people believe it is Nigeria, but I'm not taking sides.

I travel overseas at least once every few weeks and meet hundreds of people. I have never heard a single person say they think Nigeria is a better country than SA. I think the fact that there are so many Nigerians in SA (vs. the other way around) is testament to which country is perceived to be better even amongst Nigerians themselves.

Re: military and economy - there's no comparison. SA dwarfs Nigeria on both counts, several times over.

The IMF ranks SA's ecomomy as the 20th largest in the world and SA's stock exchange is ranked amongst the world top 15. Take away exchanges that have resulted from merges between countries and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange ranks amongst the top 10 worldwide.

In fact, SA's economy is so big on its own (IMF: SA 2007 GDP PPP = $663,950), it would take the next two biggest African economies (Egypt and Algeria) combined to rival it (IMF: Egypt 2007 GDP PPP = $387,900 [ranked 31st biggest economy in the world]; Algeria (IMF: Algeria 2007 GDP PPP = $278,889 [ranked 39th biggest in the world]).

Nigeria doesn't even feature in the top 50 (it's ranked 52nd; 2007 GDP PPP = $196,760).

SA also has the most sophisticated and extensive rail, road, telecommunications, financial, and legal network (amongst others) on the continent. By far. By very far.

As SABOY stated, Nigeria's economy is too dependant on oil. If the oil price plummets for whatever reason, Nigeria's GDP will plummet with it.

Local manufacturer ranks in world’s top ten

Published: 22 Feb 08 - 0:00

Year-end global sales results for Toyota Motor Corpora- tion (TMC) rank Toyota South Africa in the top ten in Toyota’s key world markets, including Japan. The total global sales for Toyota for 2007 were 8 429 422 vehicles. Of that total, 2 620 826 were delivered in North America and 1 587 335 in Japan.

The next-largest region was China with 499 230 vehicles sold. Toyota South Africa was ranked ninth in total sales with a contribution of 152 821 sales, marginally ahead of Indonesia. This total excludes export sales by Toyota South Africa of 59 378 vehicles for the year. Toyota South Africa’s total of domestic and export sales for 2007 were 212 559 vehicles, or 3,1% of the total sales by TMC, outside Japan.

When Japanese domestic sales are excluded to provide a ranking of export markets only, Toyota South Africa is ranked eighth, with total export sales for TMC at 6 842 087.

“Viewed in the context of Toyota South Africa’s position in TMC’s global markets, the importance of South Africa as a top-ten global market for the company is apparent. Toyota South Africa’s performance as the market leader in South Africa for the past 28 years has been fundamental in the development of Toyota South Africa as a significant manufacturing hub that feeds into the Toyota global vehicle manufacturing network,” Toyota South Africa president and CEO Johan van Zyl says.

He says that this supports the TMC philosophy of manufacturing vehicles as close as possible to the markets in which they are distributed. In Toyota South Africa’s case, this represents markets in Africa and Europe.

“As we progress through 2008, the full impact of the massive investment that has taken place in Toyota South Africa over the last five years will be realised, as we ramp up to our full designed production capacity of over 200 000 vehicles a year.

At that time, the planned schedule is for us to effectively produce one vehicle for export for every one produced for the local market,” Van Zyl comments.

He continues to say that the effec- tiveness of the programme can be judged by the fact that Toyota South Africa has entrenched itself, not only as the largest vehicle manu- facturer on the African continent, but also as the leading exporter of vehicles in South Africa. In 2007, the company’s export sales totalled 59 378, or 34,7% of all vehicle exports from South Africa.

“This was achieved with more to come as we prepare for the full-scale export of the Corolla to European market destinations. “The current exports of the Corolla, which began in the latter part of 2007, reflect units delivered to Africa only.

“Deliveries to European destinations will start during the first quarter of 2008 as Toyota South Africa builds up to its full export potential of over 100 000 vehicles a year. TMC has a forecast for overseas production (excluding Japan) in 2008 of 4,58-million vehicles. Toyota South Africa will contribute more than 4% to that production total,” Van Zyl concludes.

TMC has forecast worldwide production of Toyota vehicles for 2008 to be 8,88 million. In addition, the company expects production of Hino trucks to be 950 000 for the year and production of Daihatsu vehicles, a company in which TMC has a controlling share, to be 120 000 for a group total of 9,95-million.

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=126421

The Great Trek begins

Exodus out of Joburg as people flee crime

By Ella Smook

South Africa is experiencing a wave of north-south migration last seen in the mid-1990s, property industry experts say.

Estate agents say their phones are ringing off the hook as Gautengers leave in droves to relocate to the Cape, citing rampant crime and more severe load-shedding there.

Recently, "a clear crisis of confidence" has caused an "upsurge in interest to relocate to the Cape", says Ian Slot of Seeff.

Rael Levitt, CEO of Alliance Group, agrees that there seems to be "a lot of negativity" in the Gauteng area.

Various offices in the group have found that "a lot of people in Johannesburg (are) selling" their properties, he says.

Their primary destination seemed to be Cape Town and, after that, the Southern Cape, says Levitt.

Both Slot and Levitt say their companies have been inundated with relocation inquiries, and Slot added that these queries were not limited to a particular population or income group.

While Johannesburg power distribution company, City Power, last week announced a new load-shedding plan which could see consumers there facing up to four hours of blackouts at a time, Cape Town on Monday indicated that electricity usage was under control and that power cuts were unlikely in the Western Cape this month.

In fact, should the province continue on its current savings path, it could make a case for being "ring-fenced" out of Eskom's load-shedding schedule entirely.

Slot told the Cape Argus last week that clients had also expressed concern about a run of high-profile "horrific deaths" in Johannesburg, which made them lose confidence in "the ability of the state to deal with crime".

The latest police executive summary of crime statistics confirms that car-jackings and house robberies "most frequently occur in the more affluent suburbs of Gauteng" and that this increased "the chances of somebody well-known being targeted and even killed".

However, because these "5 percent of South Africa's contact crime" were selectively reported, the perception was created that these areas were more dangerous.

But Slot adds that "perception is reality" and statistics meant little to those who lived "behind locked doors" because they considered themselves not to be safe.

"In Cape Town there is not that same perception, people don't live the same way," he says.

Levitt says the mid-90s saw a similar wave of relocations or "semigrations" as they are now called in property circles to Cape Town, which later slowed down and reversed, with people packing up to move back to Gauteng.

"But the trend seems definitely to be reversed again," Levitt says.

Homecoming Revolution, a non-profit organisation which encourages and assists South Africans abroad on their return, said returnees who were not Capetonians were also increasingly choosing the city as their new base in South Africa.

"It is now a lifestyle choice and they opt for Cape Town instead of Johannesburg," said spokesperson Megan Woods.

Employment agencies partnering the Homecoming Revolution had also reported "a lot more interest" in and "significant growth" of the job sector in Cape Town, Woods said.

While many relocators set up their families in the Cape and commuted to Johannesburg for business, many businesses were also opening shop in Cape Town.

Cape Town property guru Theodore Yach said office space vacancies in the CBD currently at 4 percent were at "record lows".

Yach said the reasons for Cape Town being a popular choice to live and work in were self-evident, as the Cape Town Metropole was "generally better managed than elsewhere in South Africa" and offered a "better lifestyle" along with "world-class business infrastructure in all the major office nodes".

Echoing the sentiments of Cape Town Partnership CEO Andrew Boraine, Yach said he would like to believe that the influx into Cape Town was as a result of "pull" and not "push" factors.

Mo, we did it again! Just posted this article in Joburg and Cape Town dicussions a couple minutes ago. The ESP's getting creepy! Stop Xavier from Xmen-ing me!!! :nuts:

Well done CT, we actually are creating too many middle class and I guess we have to pass some to CT. We are South African David and the rest of the country is Goliath so I guess its too early to celebrate, we gonna hit back.

WTF:ohno:
05/03/2008 08:01 - (SA)

James-Brent Styan, Beeld

Johannesburg - All new construction projects countrywide that are bigger than a residential home will be blocked by Eskom for the next four to six months.

New townhouse complexes, petrol stations, factories and all other construction projects where electricity provision needs to be obtained from Eskom in advance will be delayed by up to six months.

New construction projects must obtain electricity certificates before construction can begin. Eskom will delay this process by provisionally not issuing any certificates.

Tito Zwane, a regional manager at Eskom, in charge of consumer services, disclosed the news on Tuesday during a social event with Johannesburg's City Power for enterprises in the city. Tony Stott, a senior manager at Eskom, later confirmed this new strategy.

Limit economic growth

Mike Schussler, an economist from T-Sec, says this decision could significantly limit economic growth. "Job creation is going to take a severe knock. Fourteen guys that could've been employed at a new petrol station are now going to remain unemployed for longer."

Schussler says he believes that the four to six month time period is merely an indication and that they expected it to take longer than six months. "Projects that now have to wait six months will only be able to be helped in six months or longer."

Stott said the delay period will be applicable to all big developments in all Eskom service areas countrywide. "We don't want to kill growth but we definitely don't have enough power for 9% growth in Johannesburg anymore."

Eskom will still have to fulfil the requirements for all projects to which it bound itself until the middle of February. "All projects thereafter will fall under the new plan," said Stott.

Hugh McGibbon, Eskom's distribution manager in the central region (which includes Gauteng), said the message to developers was that projects would have to be delayed for the next four to six months. "That includes big expansion projects at existing developments."

No power available

Silas Zimu, chief executive of City Power, said that whereas other public service providers continue to approve new projects, power suppliers can no longer do so. "There simply isn't any more power available on the networks for additional consumers," he said.

Keith Brebnor, chief executive of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce, said economists have already said the country's desired 6% economic growth was unattainable. "The new delay of development projects causes the Chamber of Commerce to worry even more about the prospects for economic growth in the future."

An official at the Johannesburg Department for Economic Development who wished to remain anonymous said the power crisis must be taken into account when considering economic growth. "We can't run from the crisis. Fortunately South Africans are particularly good at crisis management," he said.

That's not good at all. That means major proposed projects such as the CT ICC expansion, various Umhlanga Town Center developments, new projects in Sandton etc, will be stopped from proceeding? Could jeopardise the completion of these projects for 2010. Not good at all.

We are so stuffed! Other words do spring to mind.

Follow-up: Article in Engineering News stated today that this manouvre could immediately push South Africa into recession.

OMG wtf? The idiots running that company I tell you...

doubt eskom has that sort of power, would be total bullshit and cities esp host cities wont allow such bullshit...there are deadlines to be met for 2010 and placing them under pressure would be retarded.

Western Cape growth rate moving towards 6%

The Western Cape’s gross domestic product (GDP) has maintained an average growth of 5% over the last four years and currently stands at 5,8%, said Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool in his State of the Province address last month.

This growth rate, which is an improvement on the 3,9% recorded four years ago, was achieved with the support of the Western Cape Investment and Trade Promotion agency (Wesgro), as well as the provincial governments sector-specific vehicles, Rasool commented.

As a result, the Western Cape facilitated 270 investment projects, valued at R6,4-billion, ultimately creating 61 746 jobs since 2004, Rasool added.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Rasool commented that a total of R252,1-million was realised through the careful release of the provincial government’s property assets and investment in health and education infrastructure.

The provincial government invested R2,8-billion to improve and extend the province’s road infrastructure.
Road infrastructure projects included the widening of the N2 and the Oberg interchange, besides other road infrastructure projects.

The Premier also said that R184-million had been spent on upgrading taxi ranks, public transport routes, paths for bicycles and pedestrians, and disability access.

“We have just developed a Public Transport First policy, that involves investment in bus and minibus taxi lanes, and the renewal of railway systems,” he said.

WORLD CUP INFRASTRUCTURE
Rasool gave the assurance that the province is making good progress in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

“Together with the host City of Cape Town, and our national partners in the 2010 organising committee, we are well on track for the game that is to be played in Cape Town on June 11, 2010.”

He says that the Green Point stadium is on track to be com-pleted by December 15, 2009.

The upgrade of Cape Town Central station is also on track, with tenders for this project currently being issued.

Rasool said that the upgrade of the station should benefit the commuters of Cape Town, as well as the 2010 FIFA World Cup guests.

“The government is also support- ing our South African Rail Commuter Corporation (SARCC) colleagues to deliver the rail connection between the upgraded Cape Town International Airport and the Central Cape Town station by 2010,” stated Rasool.

The partnership between the Cape Town International Con-vention Centre and the National Department of Public Works is currently in the planning phase, and the Western Cape government is also involved in detailed planning for emergency services and disaster management.

Rasool mentioned that safety and security strategies are reaching advanced stages as the region prepares to submit plans to FIFA in June.

STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE
“The public transport system remains the backbone of the province’s Strategic Infrastructure Plan,” said Rasool.

Rail infrastructure is a critical part of the public transport plan, and the SARCC, together with the City of Cape Town, is driving a project that will link the airport to the main rail system, he added.

The construction plans for the link are scheduled to start early 2009, and represent R1-billion worth of investment in the Western Cape.

The current priority projects that form part of the ongoing investment in road networks in the region include phase 1 of the Koeberg interchange, as well as the infrastructure upgrade at the N2 corridor.

The airport access interchange at Cape Town International Airport is to be upgraded, and by mid-2009, the Klipfontein and Lansdowne corridors are expected to be at an advanced stage.

The Western Cape government has also improved its capacity to spend the region’s housing budget that grew, from about R500-million, to over R1-billion over the last four years, said Rasool.

Seems Cape Town has once again told incompetence where to shove it! No wonder there is a North-South surge in migration. We may be Slaapstad, but seems when crises occur, our God-Zille's little minions come out tops in the competency scale.:)

Eskom gives economy a 'kick in the teeth'

Click here!
By Henri du Plessis and Ella Smook

Furious developers, builders and unions say Eskom's strategy to delay electricity certificates for new projects by up to six months will hit the poor the hardest, cost thousands of jobs and deal a heavy blow to the construction industry.

But the City of Cape Town indicated on Wednesday that for now it would be business as usual for new projects that take their electricity from the municipality.

Construction industry insiders said they were devastated by Eskom's announcement on Tuesday night, warning that it would substantially increase costs and shake investor confidence.

Eskom made a surprise an-nouncement earlier this week that it would delay for four to six months applications for electricity certificates for new building projects that required more than 100kVA.

It said this was in order to "stabilise" demand for and supply of electricity.

Eskom spokesperson Tony Stott and Andrew Etzinger confirmed the plan on Wednesday.

Etzinger said although the utility could only apply the strategy to areas it supplied directly with power, "municipalities will have to follow suit".

But the City of Cape Town's manager of public lighting, Charles Kadalie, said today that the city had jurisdiction over its own network and would continue to operate as usual.

Developers said the plan would end up hitting low-income residents the hardest, as housing complexes and low-cost housing projects would take the brunt of the strategy.

Marketing manager Tony Clarke of developers Aska said the delay in issuing certificates would affect a "large spectrum" of housing.

Flats and group developments for lower-income groups would be affected, as such developments would require more power than the 100kVA limit drawn by Eskom.

"The knock-on effect will be delays in the provision of housing and rising costs. It makes no sense," he said.

"It does not look as if it is a co-ordinated response - we are not getting straightforward, reasonable answers.

Rob Johnson, executive director of the Master Builders Association in the Western Cape, said members were "absolutely horrified".

"The worst (aspect) is we were never consulted," he said.

"It is devastating. It has come out of the blue, it is something we will have to work around. But how we address it in the short term I don't know. It will have an immense effect on the industry."

Rodney Damon, executive director of the Building Workers' Union of SA, said it was disturbing that Eskom could not deliver on its basic task.

"Everybody has been raving about them not being able to deliver or put contingencies in place," he said.

"Construction, clothing, mining, these are the economic drivers of the country. I am concerned that Eskom gives the impression they are an entity on their own."

Janine Myburgh, chairman of Chamsa Western Cape the umbrella body for organised business said the poor and marginalised were "once again going to be the ones who suffer and are penalised" by job losses.

But Kadalie said the city was in control and had full jurisdiction over the Cape Town metropole.

"I don't think it's the right message they are sending out. We would rather push for the 10 percent saving strategy and encourage people when they do build, to ensure they have energy-efficient electrical paraphernalia. That would be a lot better message to send."

The Cape Town Partnership's Andrew Boraine described the move as a "kick in the teeth" for new development.

The Partnership would call on Eskom to reconsider.

Dr Gerald Wolman, president of the Cape Regional Chamber said: "There is no doubt that this drastic measure will slow economic growth and job creation and send a very negative message to potential investors in this country."

There were existing commitments in many industries, such as tourism, where accommodation and facilities had to be developed for the World Cup. Delays would be disastrous.

Seems Cape Town has once again told incompetence where to shove it! No wonder there is a North-South surge in migration. We may be Slaapstad, but seems when crises occur, our God-Zille's little minions come out tops in the competency scale.:)

Eskom gives economy a 'kick in the teeth'

I agree that Helen Zille's mayoral leadership in Cape Town explains why there are very few blackouts in the city while in Johannesburg and Tshwane, intermittent powercuts are frequent. That is why there is an exodus of skilled middle class people from Gauteng to Cape Town and it isn't just whites who are relocating to Cape Town even though the ANC will like to misrepresent the facts so that it can portray the Cape as a white enclave when in fact Zille's administration is the most competent in the country. Eskom should be privatised completely.[/QUOTE]

[I]But the City of Cape Town's manager of public lighting, Charles Kadalie, said today that the city had jurisdiction over its own network and would continue to operate as usual.

Developers said the plan would end up hitting low-income residents the hardest, as housing complexes and low-cost housing projects would take the brunt of the strategy.


But Kadalie said the city was in control and had full jurisdiction over the Cape Town metropole.

"I don't think it's the right message they are sending out. We would rather push for the 10 percent saving strategy and encourage people when they do build, to ensure they have energy-efficient electrical paraphernalia. That would be a lot better message to send."


There is no way Eskom can stop new developments in Cape Town as new developments fall under the city. If Eskom wants to fight them then go right ahead. Helen Zille will be more than happy to take them on.

The Great Trek begins

Exodus out of Joburg as people flee crime

By Ella Smook

South Africa is experiencing a wave of north-south migration last seen in the mid-1990s, property industry experts say.

Estate agents say their phones are ringing off the hook as Gautengers leave in droves to relocate to the Cape, citing rampant crime and more severe load-shedding there.

Recently, "a clear crisis of confidence" has caused an "upsurge in interest to relocate to the Cape", says Ian Slot of Seeff.

And why is that? Because of the fat cats sitting in Johannesburg's council and City Power. I reackon they have not learned from the mistakes when there was a flight of people and capital from the inner city in the 1980's which the city has not recovered completely from. I guess they want to turn Sandton and Rosebank into slums when all the middle classes move to the Cape.

I am back and glad to see that you are still on the forum. I would have thought that most of you would have emigrated by now given the mess this country is in right now with a crook like Zuma in charge of the ANC and the nightmare of rolling blackouts that certainly will not go away anytime soon but will be with us for the next eight years. The last three months have been the worst crisis to hit SA since 1994 as CarteBlanche put it when it aired the programme on the Eskom crisis.

Western Cape growth rate moving towards 6%

The Western Cape’s gross domestic product (GDP) has maintained an average growth of 5% over the last four years and currently stands at 5,8%, said Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool in his State of the Province address last month.

Rasool is delerious if he thinks that the Western Cape will continue to grow by 6% as it has over the last four years. Sure the Western Cape is less affected by powercuts as it consumes less electricity than even Mpumalanga as it does not have any mines but the steep drop in business confidence and the global economic turmoil means that it be affected too. I think that the Western Cape's economy will slow to below 4% this year and will struggle to maintain 4% growth over the next five years due to the power situation.

As for South Africa as a whole I think that GDP will not reach 3% this year and will struggle to maintain 3% growth over the next five years. This is what I said after Zuma got elected and I think that at this stage I am being an optimist. We certainly won't see the 5% growth that we saw in the last four years. I doubt we will see it for at least another 10 years as long as we do not have enough electricity from Eskom and until all the new power plants are built, the two six-pack coal stations in the north of SA.

doubt eskom has that sort of power, would be total bullshit and cities esp host cities wont allow such bullshit...there are deadlines to be met for 2010 and placing them under pressure would be retarded.

I would not underestimate them as the electricity situation in the country is very serious. I think we can forget about 2010 as it is just not viable to build all these new stadiums (many of which will become white elephants after the event) and instead focus on preventing the country's electricity and water infrastructures from collapsing. We have to get the basics right which is something that Thabo and the leadership of the ANC and their people in charge of Eskom haven't yet done. Otherwise we will become like the rest of Africa where they have lots of showpiece stadiums but have no infrastructure and currently face power and water problems far worse than SA does at this time.

I would not underestimate them as the electricity situation in the country is very serious. I think we can forget about 2010 as it is just not viable to build all these new stadiums (many of which will become white elephants after the event) and instead focus on preventing the country's electricity and water infrastructures from collapsing. We have to get the basics right which is something that Thabo and the leadership of the ANC and their people in charge of Eskom haven't yet done. Otherwise we will become like the rest of Africa where they have lots of showpiece stadiums but have no infrastructure and currently face power and water problems far worse than SA does at this time.

i dont think the stadia will be white elephants. its so easy to blame the building and funding of stadia for the electricity crisis, when funds existed all along to solve the issue. its just government that never accepted the warning signs.

As for the Western Cape I anticipate 5% over the next four years. I don't think we've seen the true potential of Cape Town and the Western Cape and the 2010-2014 period could be fruitful.

I would not underestimate them as the electricity situation in the country is very serious. I think we can forget about 2010 as it is just not viable to build all these new stadiums (many of which will become white elephants after the event) and instead focus on preventing the country's electricity and water infrastructures from collapsing. We have to get the basics right which is something that Thabo and the leadership of the ANC and their people in charge of Eskom haven't yet done. Otherwise we will become like the rest of Africa where they have lots of showpiece stadiums but have no infrastructure and currently face power and water problems far worse than SA does at this time.

I would appriciate if we would be like the rest of Africa because our economy will grow more than 8% like Mozambique's one, build infrastructure like Angola, Nigeria and other African countries. We tend to forget that our resources are actually benefiting more because of these power problems but we just focus on the negetives only. Yes, it was bad planning by Mbeki and his guys but we just need to take the opportunity that the situation creates and make more cash instead of always bitching.

Mosi, I will pretend as if you never said that we need to forget the 2010 SWC. Relax buddy, we all hate what the government did over the electricyt issue but life still goes on and the gas sellers are making more money than ever before. It is good to live in this kind of the country where the problems we face help to create more enterpreneurs fo which is what we need.

I would appriciate if we would be like the rest of Africa because our economy will grow more than 8% like Mozambique's one, build infrastructure like Angola, Nigeria and other African countries. We tend to forget that our resources are actually benefiting more because of these power problems but we just focus on the negetives only. Yes, it was bad planning by Mbeki and his guys but we just need to take the opportunity that the situation creates and make more cash instead of always bitching.

Mosi, I will pretend as if you never said that we need to forget the 2010 SWC. Relax buddy, we all hate what the government did over the electricyt issue but life still goes on and the gas sellers are making more money than ever before. It is good to live in this kind of the country where the problems we face help to create more enterpreneurs fo which is what we need.

Guys, chill, its not the end of the world. I don't know why so many people are just holding their breath on every little problem. Power crisis has happened in the US and other countries due to bad planning. Sure its really a bad thing to happen to SA at the worst time, and i hope that someone gets fired and it never happens again, but its not the end of the world.

I agree Kulani, I was in the US in Cali in 2002 and it was hectic with the power outages and this is a state that if it wasa a country would have the 7th biggest economy in the world.
OZ has had power issues, so has parts of Europe etc. Its not new and we all remember the old ESKOM that had the world cheepest electricty and in fact had so much they mothballed power stations.

I agree Kulani, I was in the US in Cali in 2002 and it was hectic with the power outages and this is a state that if it wasa a country would have the 7th biggest economy in the world.
OZ has had power issues, so has parts of Europe etc. Its not new and we all remember the old ESKOM that had the world cheepest electricty and in fact had so much they mothballed power stations.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that we still have a first world power utility because we don't. The power situation in South Africa is far worse than anything you would find in the US, Europe or Australia. That is why SA people are emigrating to these countries. Because they have reliable power, honest cops that keep them safe and multiparty governments that are accountable to their people. Unfortunately we don't have that. We have yet to prove that we can try to remove a party from power without becoming another Zimbabwe.

I would appriciate if we would be like the rest of Africa because our economy will grow more than 8% like Mozambique's one, build infrastructure like Angola, Nigeria and other African countries. We tend to forget that our resources are actually benefiting more because of these power problems but we just focus on the negetives only. Yes, it was bad planning by Mbeki and his guys but we just need to take the opportunity that the situation creates and make more cash instead of always bitching.

Mosi, I will pretend as if you never said that we need to forget the 2010 SWC. Relax buddy, we all hate what the government did over the electricyt issue but life still goes on and the gas sellers are making more money than ever before. It is good to live in this kind of the country where the problems we face help to create more enterpreneurs fo which is what we need.

Sure Angola might have a 25% growth rate but where does it all go? Into the pockets of the MPLA elite that is busy siphoning off that country's wealth which does not benefit the Angolan people who have the worst HDI stats in the world. Even SA with it's lackluster growth of 2-3% is in much better shape than these countries you mentioned which have seen their infrastructures ruined by corruption and in the case of Angola by civil war. S

i dont think the stadia will be white elephants. its so easy to blame the building and funding of stadia for the electricity crisis, when funds existed all along to solve the issue. its just government that never accepted the warning signs.

As for the Western Cape I anticipate 5% over the next four years. I don't think we've seen the true potential of Cape Town and the Western Cape and the 2010-2014 period could be fruitful.

Sure the funding is there as SA has a budget surplus (not for long) but it is the priorities that I'm talking about. Let me ask you a question? Would you rather have a few big stadia and endure power cuts of five hours every day and boil your water as well or would you rather see no stadiums but power that works 24/7 and water your can drink from the taps. That is the dilemma SA is faced with in these uncertain times and if the country gets hit by the global financial pandemic I would rather see the stadiums halted than to see Medupi and Bravo power stations halted if it comes down to that and Manual's optimistic GDP projections of 4% GDP in the budget become way off the mark.

Sure the funding is there as SA has a budget surplus (not for long) but it is the priorities that I'm talking about. Let me ask you a question? Would you rather have a few big stadia and endure power cuts of five hours every day and boil your water as well or would you rather see no stadiums but power that works 24/7 and water your can drink from the taps. That is the dilemma SA is faced with in these uncertain times and if the country gets hit by the global financial pandemic I would rather see the stadiums halted than to see Medupi and Bravo power stations halted if it comes down to that and Manual's optimistic GDP projections of 4% GDP in the budget become way off the mark.

thats the same argument. there is no trade off between stadia and electricity/water. in the case and context of the 2010 world cup, having the stadia and hosting the event is a benefit we cannot simply pass by.

our electricity and water issues quite frankly have nothing to do with stadia and do NOT impact on the funding available to solve resource crisis'.

There simply is no dilemma. Green Point stadium is doing just fine, and Cape Town hasn't had major power cuts in a while now. Manage and work towards a solution for all our problems with funding that has always been available...its very easy to blame everything on 2010

As for the Western Cape I anticipate 5% over the next four years. I don't think we've seen the true potential of Cape Town and the Western Cape and the 2010-2014 period could be fruitful.

I don't think we will see the true potential of the Western Cape until 2015 when both Medupi and Bravo power plants and their combined 12-packs are all up and running and we get reliable power again. My projection is 3-4% GDP growth over 2010-2014 in the Western Cape and 2-3% in South Africa as a whole. We just do not have the infrastructural capacity in place and it would be wishful thinking to pretend we will go unscathed as the Eskom crisis will cost this country at least R100 billion in lost investment (foreign and domestic) over the next five years.

I don't think we will see the true potential of the Western Cape until 2015 when both Medupi and Bravo power plants and their combined 12-packs are all up and running and we get reliable power again. My projection is 3-4% GDP growth over 2010-2014 in the Western Cape and 2-3% in South Africa as a whole. We just do not have the infrastructural capacity in place and it would be wishful thinking to pretend we will go unscathed as the Eskom crisis will cost this country at least R100 billion in lost investment (foreign and domestic) over the next five years.

if power is managed in cape town and all effects of eskom's mess up are controlled as they are being controlled currently even without additional capacity then i dont see why 5% is unrealistic.

I don't think we will see the true potential of the Western Cape until 2015 when both Medupi and Bravo power plants and their combined 12-packs are all up and running and we get reliable power again. My projection is 3-4% GDP growth over 2010-2014 in the Western Cape and 2-3% in South Africa as a whole. We just do not have the infrastructural capacity in place and it would be wishful thinking to pretend we will go unscathed as the Eskom crisis will cost this country at least R100 billion in lost investment (foreign and domestic) over the next five years.

if power is managed in cape town and all effects of eskom's mess up are controlled as they are being controlled currently even without additional capacity then i dont see why 5% is unrealistic.

One good question with all of this that hasn't been mentioned.

Eskom when things run good makes about 40,000MW of power. They are right now belting out about 26,000MW. How about they fix the power plants they have? They make billions of Rand in profit, they can afford it.

The 2010 World Cup is a massive deal, and the ANC is having problems now - the world is wondering whether it will go down right. I've never heard any of that before from anywhere. The government needs to stop that, RIGHT NOW. That means they need to fix the problems with the infrastructure, even if it causes deficits in the near term. The Rand is strong, why are they not spending more to fix the problems?

The World Cup has the potential to be a rocket booster to South Africa's economy. The government needs to realize this. If it goes down really well, that 5% GDP growth could be 10 or even 15%. When Britain gave Hong Kong back to China, it caused such a boom in China's south, which then spread to the rest of the country. The 2010 SWC could do exactly the same for South Africa, which then could spread it to much of sub-Saharan Africa.

And if they want to find an easy way of making Eskom work better, sell off a majority share of it to the private sector. That worked in Argentina and Canada.

And do one more thing - keep Zuma responsible. The guy reminds many of us too much of Mugabe. And being that my father was from Rhodesia and I would slug Mugabe if I ever saw him, I don't want to see that happen to SA.

Eskom is only producing 26GW?! Is that right?

The world cup will have very little effect long term on SA's growth rate. The various bottlenecks on growth (and there are many - capital, crime, skills, uncertainty, infrastructure including electricity,overseas perception, corruption, red tape, logisitical bottlenecks,etc) will not go away because of 2 weeks of TV coverage of a couple of dozen football matches. Some might be improved, but then another will just kick in. The turnover due to the WC will make a measurable blip (particularly in forex) but to think it will do much else is just fantasy.

The main effect will be a tonic to the spirit of the nation if it all goes well however I doubt this will have much tangible economic effect - in the late 90s after the successful rugby world cup I still remember the economy being pretty bad.

Civil engineering powers ahead

12 Mar 2008 - Inet Bridge -


Thabang Mokopanele

While the residential and nonresidential construction market is heading for slow growth this year because of higher interest rates, the civil construction sector is expected to grow 33%.

Local construction companies stand to benefit from the boom that is expected to carry on until at least 2015, influenced largely by governmental infrastructure spending of R560bn over the next three years.

Coupled with this is Eskom’s R1-trillion budget to build power stations, Transnet’s building of railway lines, ports and fuel pipelines, and private sector expansion programmes.

Strong demand and rising commodity prices are also driving expansion in the mining sector, which will benefit the construction sector.

According to Reserve Bank data, the value of construction works reached an estimated R46bn last year, a 32% increase in real terms from R34,7bn in 2006.

South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec) economist Pierre Blaauw says the estimate is an annualised figure, with the final number due at the end of this month. “Turnover this high was last seen during the construction boom in the 1970s, when the industry recorded a figure breaching the R40bn mark for the first time,” Blaauw says.

“Safcec’s numbers indicate growth between 25% and 30% for the civil engineering industry alone last year.”

He says the good news is that spending on the government's R560bn infrastructure budget started only last year and that this year and next should see further growth for the industry.

“We expect a 13%-16% increase in civil engineering industry turnover this year. It may sound small compared to last year’s record number, but this comes off a higher base,” he says.

Despite challenging macro economic conditions, infrastructure spending is steaming ahead, which bodes well for the industry, which has experienced 80% growth in turnover since 2004.

Blaauw says infrastructure spending is a prerequisite to maintain economic growth.

Blaauw says the biggest challenge the civil engineering industry will face this year will be capacity constraints. Companies will need to increase their capacity by acquiring new capital assets, locating and securing the necessary skills, buying up smaller firms, and expanding their education and training budgets.

Most big construction companies are already at work on projects such as the Gautrain, stadiums, and upgrading of airports and ports.

The likes of Murray & Roberts, Aveng and Group Five are either part of infrastructure development programmes or are bidding with international groups to build power stations and big projects.

Cadiz African Harvest portfolio manager Rajay Ambekar says gross fixed capital formation had peaked at about 30% in 1976 but has since been coming down to the current 15% of gross domestic product (GDP). “The target is 25% of GDP,” Ambekar says.

International construction companies are partnering with local companies that are unable to cope with the load and lack expertise, especially for big projects. “No South African company can build a power station on its own. A lot of civil construction would be done by local companies while technical expertise is brought by international companies,” Ambekar says.

However, he says there is a risk of delays that are outside companies’ control, which could be costly. Blaauw agrees, saying there will be more supply-side constraints than demand-side constraints.

According to Statistics SA, the construction industry showed the biggest jump of all economic sectors in acquiring capital assets from 2005 to 2006, recording a 73% increase. Salaries and wages rose 16,6%. Blaauw says it is likely the industry will have doubled in size between 2004 and next year. .

In 2006 there were four large international construction firms registered with the Construction Industry Development Board, rising to 11 last year.

“We are likely to see a further increase in competition from abroad over the next two to three years, as well as from smaller companies growing into larger firms able to compete for bigger contracts.”

Source: Business Day

One good question with all of this that hasn't been mentioned.

Eskom when things run good makes about 40,000MW of power. They are right now belting out about 26,000MW. How about they fix the power plants they have? They make billions of Rand in profit, they can afford it.

The 2010 World Cup is a massive deal, and the ANC is having problems now - the world is wondering whether it will go down right. I've never heard any of that before from anywhere. The government needs to stop that, RIGHT NOW. That means they need to fix the problems with the infrastructure, even if it causes deficits in the near term. The Rand is strong, why are they not spending more to fix the problems?

The World Cup has the potential to be a rocket booster to South Africa's economy. The government needs to realize this. If it goes down really well, that 5% GDP growth could be 10 or even 15%. When Britain gave Hong Kong back to China, it caused such a boom in China's south, which then spread to the rest of the country. The 2010 SWC could do exactly the same for South Africa, which then could spread it to much of sub-Saharan Africa.

And if they want to find an easy way of making Eskom work better, sell off a majority share of it to the private sector. That worked in Argentina and Canada.

And do one more thing - keep Zuma responsible. The guy reminds many of us too much of Mugabe. And being that my father was from Rhodesia and I would slug Mugabe if I ever saw him, I don't want to see that happen to SA.

Simon Mann,

The 26K MW figure was the level in late January when Eskom had over 25% of power plants out of service due to maintenance and unplanned outages. Right now I think they are running at about 35K MW right now although I heard that the Duvha Power Plant is out of service due to technical hitches.

One good question with all of this that hasn't been mentioned.

Eskom when things run good makes about 40,000MW of power. They are right now belting out about 26,000MW. How about they fix the power plants they have? They make billions of Rand in profit, they can afford it.

The 2010 World Cup is a massive deal, and the ANC is having problems now - the world is wondering whether it will go down right. I've never heard any of that before from anywhere. The government needs to stop that, RIGHT NOW. That means they need to fix the problems with the infrastructure, even if it causes deficits in the near term. The Rand is strong, why are they not spending more to fix the problems?

The World Cup has the potential to be a rocket booster to South Africa's economy. The government needs to realize this. If it goes down really well, that 5% GDP growth could be 10 or even 15%. When Britain gave Hong Kong back to China, it caused such a boom in China's south, which then spread to the rest of the country. The 2010 SWC could do exactly the same for South Africa, which then could spread it to much of sub-Saharan Africa.

And if they want to find an easy way of making Eskom work better, sell off a majority share of it to the private sector. That worked in Argentina and Canada.

And do one more thing - keep Zuma responsible. The guy reminds many of us too much of Mugabe. And being that my father was from Rhodesia and I would slug Mugabe if I ever saw him, I don't want to see that happen to SA.

I think that 10% is out of the question even if Eskom had it's act together. I don't think the ANC will relinquish Eskom because of Cosatu.

As for Zuma, the only way to keep him "responsible" is to put him in jail. Otherwise you may be right we could get a Zumagabe. I think that Mugabe should have been shot long time ago, before he had a chance to take over and plunder Zim.

Gautrain, Pubble Reactor and Sasol.

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/adcentre/en/adclick.php?bannerid=1153&zoneid=774&source=&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.engineeringnews.co.za%2Fpage.php%3Frep_id%3D1386

that chicks head bobs too much when she speaks

Eskom is really fucking up the economy now when you read something like this

Smelter closures could hit 400

March 14 2008 at 06:49AM

By Marie Strachan

The Richards Bay economy will be feeling the pinch after the announcement this week that BHP Billiton would be closing two of the three pot lines at its Bayside smelter in the town.

The company refused to comment on how many jobs were at stake, but it was thought that more than 400 people were at risk.

BHP Billiton said that, despite its contract with Eskom which specified that power to the company's three aluminium smelters could only be interrupted about one percent of the time per calendar year, the company was responding to the existing electricity supply shortage by reducing its demand by 10 percent.







"Power reductions were initially achieved by reducing power by approximately 10 percent at all three of our southern Africa smelters.

"This operating methodology is unsustainable.

"As we understand that the power reductions are likely to last for a number of years, we have assessed our options to more effectively deal with a longer-term reduction in power," the company said.

"As a result we plan to take the bulk of the power reduction at Bayside while Hillside and Mozal will continue at reduced operating levels to comply with the 10 percent mandatory overall demand reduction.

"The total annual production loss will be just more than 120 000 tons across all three smelters, including 92 000 tons from Bayside," the company said.

It added that its 60 percent-owned manganese business Samancor was operating at 90 percent of normal peak power demand.

The company's coal operations have been minimally affected and the company has offered to help Eskom rebuild its coal stocks.

Zakhele Mnqayi, the mayor of uMhlathuze, said it was sad that Richards Bay residents could lose their jobs.

He said that he intended lobbying to find an alternative to the job losses.

Zululand Chamber of Business president Phiwo Thango said the chamber was shocked by news of the possible shutting down of a portion of Bayside.

SA signs $700m sea cable agreement

By: Reuters
Published: 14 Mar 08 - 17:19
South Africa has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to help fund a $700-million submarine cable to boost broadband capacity and ease Internet tariffs, a government official said on Friday.

"The shareholder's agreement will be signed on the April 15, 2008 with financial close the same day," Lulu Bam, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Enterprises, said in a statement.

Bam did not name the 11 companies involved.

South Africa's state-owned telecom infrastructure company, Broadband Infraco, will hold a 26 percent stake in the cable project with the remainder in to private hands.

South Africa, the continent's biggest economy, has only one cable linking it to the rest of the world and this has been controlled by former monopoly Telkom.

Telkom's market dominance is being challenged by Neotel, South Africa's second telephone network operator, which has signed an agreement to build a private equity-funded submarine cable along the country's east coast.

This cable, which will also boost Internet capacity, will connect South Africa to India and Europe and was expected to enter service by early 2009.

New R1,5bn biodiesel plant for Coega

By: Matthew Hill
Published: 15 Mar 08 - 9:00
Australian-owned firm Rainbow Nation Renewable Fuels (RNRF) was in the "final stages" of applying for a licence from government to produce 288-million litres a year of biodiesel from a R1,5-billion plant it was building at Coega in the Eastern Cape, it said this week.

The plant would be the biggest in Africa, using one-million tons of soybeans to produce 250 000 t of soybean oil and 800 000 t of animal feed.

It would use a portion of the oil to produce the biodiesel, provided it received a licence to do so from the Department of Minerals and Energy.

RNRF MD Geoff Mordt said that the company had already secured the 48 MW of power it required to run the plant, to be commissioned late 2009.

Initially, the bulk of the plant's soybean feedstock would come from abroad, with South Africa's current production at some 300 000 t/y, but Mordt said that the plant will support local commercial and small-scale farmers to grow the country's production.

He added that within five years, the company targeted sourcing nearly 100% of the soybean feedstock from South Africa.

RNRF had yet to conclude the sale of a stake in the company to a black-owned company, required by South African law.

The operation would create 350 new direct permanent jobs, and 725 indirect jobs, the company said in a statement.

RNRF's biggest shareholder is Australia-based National Biofuels Group.

French firms eye South African prospects in energy, transport and tourism

By: Jade Davenport
Published: 14 Mar 08 - 0:00
Trade between South Africa and its fourth-largest trading partner, France, amounted to R26-billion in 2006/7, according to Business Unity South Africa (Busa).

Speaking at the two-day South Africa-France business forum, in Cape Town, late last month, Busa president Patrice Motsepe said growth in economic relations between the two countries had “huge potential”.

The forum, which coincided with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s first State visit to South Africa, was attended by more than 200 South African and French businesspeople.

Motsepe said more than 170 French-owned companies operated in South Africa, employing more than 30 000 people.

Motsepe added that South Africa had a desire to become France’s largest trading partner in Africa, which would require the facilitation of many new trade and investment deals between the two countries through events such as the South Africa-France business Forum.

Leader of the French business delegation and president of nuclear group Areva Anne Lauvergeon said she shared this ideal and stated that French business also had an ambition to increase trade and investment between the two countries.

Four key areas were highlighted during the first day of the forum as being of vital importance to the growth in trade and investment between South Africa and France. These included energy, skills, transport and tourism. In this regard, both French and South African business executives addressed delegates, highlighting opportunities for French investment in the four sectors.

In terms of energy, which was emphasised as a key sector, Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa CEO Rob Adams explained that the country would particularly welcome French investment in local nuclear technology. This investment would assist in easing South Africa’s dependence on coal-generated electricity and take advantage of the global nuclear renaissance.

Motsepe elaborated that the discussions, focusing on energy, skills, tourism and transport, were a prelude to the engagement between South Africa’s and France’s heads of State, whereby a number of agreements were signed.

The contract between Alstom and Eskom was signed in the presence of President Thabo Mbeki and Sarkozy, as were a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Agence Française du Développement and Eskom regard-ing the financing of a wind farm project, and an MoU between Areva and the joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition regarding skills development.

As well as strengthening economic ties, the purpose of the business forum was to provide executives from both countries with an opportunity to exchange ideas and explore future business deals.

From: http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20080316091259988C213468

"The black diamonds, credited with contributing to the buoyancy of South Africa's economy, have contributed to a new economic bloc that keeps getting bigger.

The survey, released this week, significantly found that the average monthly income has risen from R2 435 in 1994 to R5 870 last year, doubling to allow the black middle class greater spending power."

Apparently these people constantly "fork out for homes, cars and luxury items such as computers, gaming consoles, DVD players and household appliances"

So they are counting R6k a month as middle class? Is that right? - thats only $740pm!

I think its radiculous to regard a person earning R5K a month as a middle classIf they saying a R5K net then I can some how regard him/her as a low-leve middle class. I think R10K will make more sense to me.

Work to start on hydro power plant
2008/03/17

Work on a multi-billion rand hydro-electric plant in Limpopo will start in September, with completion scheduled for 2015, the Sekhukhune municipality announced on Thursday.

It formed part of Eskom's capacity expansion programme aimed at resolving the country's energy shortages, municipal spokesperson Sizwe Yende said in a statement.

The starting date for construction was decided by Eskom, the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry on Wednesday, on completion of an Environmental Impact Assessment, he said.

The plant would go online on completion of the R9bn De Hoop Dam, presently being constructed at Ga-Magolego village near Burgersfort.

"Greater Sekhukhune has a number of unelectrified villages that are set to benefit from this project," he said.

Eskom and the municipality were now establishing a forum to drive the project and putting in place a technical team to formulate a development of economic empowerment charter.

The new dam would provide water for industrial and agricultural development in the area, households and the construction of houses, said Yende. – Sapa

I think its radiculous to regard a person earning R5K a month as a middle classIf they saying a R5K net then I can some how regard him/her as a low-leve middle class. I think R10K will make more sense to me.

Surely 10k would be very lower middle? I thought tradesmen and artisans made more than this. Unless middle class is considered a non-labourer/unemployed (which is not the definition elsewhere)
- 10k: after tax thats 7.5k?
- A small starter house costs around R1m right? Mortgage must = R4k?
- cheap car - loan+insurance = R1k
- I believe food must be R1k pm pp?
that leaves lik R1.5kpm for all other costs. that is nothing

From what mike2005 has told me the SA upper middle classes now earn on par with London which means starting from around R250k pm. This makes middle class too wide a band to be considered a real group.

Surely 10k would be very lower middle? I thought tradesmen and artisans made more than this. Unless middle class is considered a non-labourer/unemployed (which is not the definition elsewhere)
- 10k: after tax thats 7.5k?
- A small starter house costs around R1m right? Mortgage must = R4k?
- cheap car - loan+insurance = R1k
- I believe food must be R1k pm pp?
that leaves lik R1.5kpm for all other costs. that is nothing

From what mike2005 has told me the SA upper middle classes now earn on par with London which means starting from around R250k pm. This makes middle class too wide a band to be considered a real group.

I think R5K in as entry level payment for someone in the Call Center environment. Tradesmen and Artisans should be in the region of R10 on an entry level base. I agree with Mike when he says the upper middle class are earning from R250K.

Ok so a middle class family income is maybe R300k pa - R10m pa?

I have probably been out the country for while, I still felt the upper end there would be outside of "middle class" in SA. Obviously things have changed.

South African National airline grounds planes in profitability move

South Africa’s national airline, South African Airways (SAA), has grounded its entire fleet of Boeing 747-400 aircrafts in a move to achieve sustainable profitability, reports SAA spokesperson Robyn Chalmers.

The last aircraft made its final flight from Luanda, Angola, on November 1, 2007, after nine years of service on SAA’s fleet.

“Leases for these aircrafts, entered into between 1998 and 2000, were structured to ensure lower lease rentals early in the lease with big increases during the course of the lease, and balloon payments at the end of the lease. The result is that SAA was paying between 30% and 60% above current market rates for similar aircraft,” says Chalmers. She adds that the aging fleet of 747-400s also suffered a big cost disadvantage when compared with newer, more technologically advanced aircraft.

Chalmers comments that SAA will be able to attribute a saving of R600-million to the grounding of the aircrafts in the next 18 months. There are no further plans from SAA to ground any other aircraft fleets.

She adds that one of the 747-400s has been returned to the lessors, while a further two are planned for sublease, and one is planned for sale. “If no agreement is reached on the sale or the subleasing, the plan is to terminate the leases with a payment to the lessor. The termination payment will be negotiated in order to reduce costs for SAA.”

The grounding of the 747-400s formed a significant part of a restructuring initiative that SAA has embarked on in order to return the company to profitability. Other significant moves within the restructuring initiative include reducing the SAA management headcount by 30% and the ongoing renegotiations of SAA supplier contracts.

Chalmers reports that SAA has also restructured its routes in an effort to regain sustainable profitability.

SAA Commercial GM Rushj Lehutso says that Africa has been earmarked as an important growth area in the company’s restructuring initiative. He adds that routes in Africa contributed to about 16% of the company’s revenue in 2006, and that SAA’s flights to Africa were operating at 70% of full capacity over the same period.

In 2006, SAA carried over one-million passengers across the continent, which was an increase of 7% on the 2005 figure.

In September 2007, it was announced that SAA added Libreville, Gabon, to its destination list. Lehutso says that SAA will fly to Libreville four times a week, and is regarded by SAA as a prime business destination. Owing to the established trade ties with Gabon and Brazil, the Libreville flights will complement additional flights to Brazil that SAA introduced towards the beginning of 2007.

An extension to the Libreville route to include Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, was announced towards the end of 2007. The route will now operate from Johannesburg to Libreville to Abidjan, with a return trip in place. The route from Johannesburg to Accra, Ghana, will also include Abidjan.

Lehutso adds that SAA will also be adding capacity to 11 of its 19 African destinations in a profitability move.
In addition, Chalmers reports that SAA has also cut back on some of its international routes. “SAA has closed its flights to Paris and Zurich; however, a new route to Munich, Germany, has been added. Load factors on the route from

Johannesburg to Munich are averaging 80% at the moment, making it one of the most successful route launches in the history of the airline,” says Chalmers.

SAA is also putting systems in place to improve the quality of its first class lounges across Africa and to include first class lounges at various new African destinations. At the recent Skytrax World Airline awards, SAA’s first class lounge at OR Tambo International Airport was voted the fifth-best first class lounge in the world.

Chalmers concludes that SAA will be strengthening its focus on reducing the company’s high operating cost base and growing its revenue in order to achieve a 7,5% profit margin by March 2009. SAA has to achieve this mark in order for the airline to continue as a business and compete with rival airlines. She adds that the next big step within the restructuring programme is to unbundle SAA to establish seven independent subsidiaries, while SAA’s catering suppliers are to be sold outright.


http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=125108