WEDNESDAY, 11.00PM
ZIMBABWE’s Stock market continued its downward trend on Wednesday when it recorded yet another sharp loss, shedding 281 points to close at 8 384.
Although the market remained active, it was weak, with declines in the share prices of most counters.
The Harare bourse has been on a free fall for the past two weeks, triggered by the uncertainties about war veterans’ pay-outs, the seizure of white farms and the unstable Zimbabwean dollar.
Although the market showed signs of stabilising last week it has been plummeting this week in the wake of the increases in income and sales taxes, as well as electricity and fuel prices by the cash-strapped government, which is hard pressed to raise Z$4-billion to pay war veterans’ gratuities and pensions.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
SABC KEEPS SISULU
THE SA Broadcasting Corporation board has renewed group chief executive Zwelakhe Sisulu’s contract for a one-year period, beginning October this year, the corporation said on Thursday. Sisulu, who has held the position since September 1994, said he will spend the next year consolidating the SABC’s achievements of the past years and lead it to become a financially self-sufficient organisation delivering quality broadcasting to South Africa and the African continent.
The SABC also appointed Anglo American Industrial Corporation executive director Neil Harvey as chief operating officer with the responsibility of running the operational and business areas of the SABC. He was seconded to the SABC for a period of two years from January 1.
Other appointments were those of Mandla Langa as television programme director, Rob Stevenson as television senior general manager: policy co-ordination and technical services, Eric Nhlapo as general manager of SABC1, and Theo Erasmus as acting general manager of SABC3.
BOTSWANA BOND IN DEMAND
BOTSWANA’s first bond issue was 47% oversubscribed ahead of its official launch on the local bourse on Friday, the Botswana Development Corporation said on Wednesday.BDC finance manager Kumbalani Munamati said the strong response to the 50-million pula issue has dispelled fears that the domestic market would be too small to absorb it.
SATRA INTERNET RULING POSTPONED
THE Pretoria High Court on Wednesday postponed until next February an application by telecoms parastatal Telkom to reverse a decision by the industry regulator excluding internet service provision from Telkom’s statutory monopoly. Telkom wants the ruling by the SA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority against a monopoly on internet access overturned. The court also denied a request by the Internet Service Providers Association for a temporary order restraining Telkom from refusing to supply new bandwidth to ISPs.
UPSWING WILL BE ‘DELAYED’
STELLENBOSCH University’s Bureau for Economic Research says the next economic upswing will kick in towards the middle of next year, rather than the beginning of the year. The bureau also revised its GDP forecast for the coming year. The BER says real GDP growth next year will be 2,8%, as opposed to the 3,4% earlier forecast.
CLINTON PLANS AFRICA TRADE TRIP
PRESIDENT Bill Clinton plans his first visit to Africa next year to promote a US-Africa trade and investment initiative. The Africa Trade Bill, to reach Congress by April, calls for a new US trade and investment policy for sub-Saharan Africa and an office responsible for promoting the region. Clinton’s trip, in the first quarter of the year, will include Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana and Mauritius — but not South Africa or Zimbabwe.