THURSDAY, 11.30AM
TRANSPORT Minister Mac Maharaj has accepted proposals on the easing of the Mulitlateral Motor Vehicle Accident fund’s growing deficit, which will likely see the fuel levy that finances the fund being increased.
Special adviser to the minister Joel Joffe said on Wednesday: “Every month that passes without changing the system adds R160-million to the deficit. Existing reserves, of about R1-billion, will be exhausted within three years, at which stage the fund will be unable to meet all its claims.
Joffe recommended that a higher levy be supplemented by other measures to cut expenditure, including caps on benefits and a limit on general damages. He said the average amount paid int to the fund by motorists was R200 a year which, he said, should be increased to about R500 a year.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
FOREIGN INVESTMENT SURGES FOREIGN direct investment in SA is surging, following a slow start after the 1994 elections. The Washington, DC-based Investor Responsibility Research Centre said fixed investment in new projects and reinvestment of earnings from existing projects by foreign companies in SA totalled R35,5-billion in the year to May 1 — triple the amount of the previous year.
BANK ‘NOT WEAKENING RAND’ RESERVE Bank deputy governor James Cross on Wednesday denied the Bank is engineering a weaker rand/dollar exchange rate in the wake of bullion’s price crash. “We are a constant buyer of any oversupply of dollars in the market against our forward book as people unwind their forward positions, but we have not been doing that to weaken the rand because of the weaker gold price,” said Cross
ASHANTI UNAFFECTED GHANAIAN Ashanti Goldfields says its plans to bring on stream two new mines next year are not affected by the recent crash in world bullion prices. A spokesman said the new mines are being funded by project finance, and are therefore unaffected by the gold price. Ashanti is controlled jointly by the Ghanaian government and Lonrho.
TANZANIA BREWS UP TANZANIA Breweries, owned by the Tanzanian government and SA Breweries is embarking on an ambitious $65-million expansion drive to double output capacity at its two plants to fulfill local demands and to allow the company to begin exports to other African countries.