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/ 23 October 2003

World markets, rand send JSE south

The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) retreated like a fox chased by a pack of hounds on Thursday morning as weak world markets and a strong rand took their toll. Basket-selling by futures players added to the bourse’s weakness. At 12.01pm, the all-share and all-share industrial indices were down 1,35% and 1,01% respectively.

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/ 23 October 2003

Making banks serve the people

South Africa has world-class financial architecture but faces the conundrum that the majority of the poor do not have access to these globally competitive financial services. With more than six in 10 South Africans classified as "unbanked", the challenge is to localise services while continuing to be globally competitive.

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/ 23 October 2003

Mbeki urged not to sign new postal law

Democratic Alliance MP Vincent Gore confirmed on Thursday that he had sent a letter to President Thabo Mbeki requesting him not to sign the Postal Services Amendment Bill into law. The party — mirroring courier industry complaints — says that the Bill could affect the business of couriers in the under-1kg parcel and letter market.

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/ 23 October 2003

Telkom defeated in call-routing case

The Pretoria High Court has ruled against Telkom in its bid to have the sale, distribution and use of Leased-Cost Routing (LCR) equipment prohibited. Least cost routing systems enable customers to connect GSM-based equipment to a PABX which can then take advantage of the better call rates offered when dialling from one cellular device to another.

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/ 23 October 2003

Rwanda has the most women MPs

Rwanda has beaten Sweden by getting the highest proportion of women into Parliament, voting them on to 39 seats in the lower chamber of deputies, a level amounting to 48.8% of the seats. In the voting, which began on September 30, women won 15 of the seats that were also open to men.