Old Mutual Healthcare’s deal with Kwacha announced recently is about improving their equity standings before they bid on the government’s civil service medical aid scheme, say analysts. The spokesperson for the Medical Schemes Council, described the deal as ”part of the mad scrambling to get BEE administration companies in place” to tender for the government medical aid scheme.
The government’s Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) paid out more than R2,1-billion last year to 500Â 000 unemployed people, but has little grasp of the skills challenges the country faces. The now self-funding UIF uses a database to match the skills of unemployed people with those of vacancies but does little or no follow-up.
The South African National Taxi Council has on the whole welcomed the taxi recapitalisation programme roll-out plan announced recently, but it has questioned key elements of the strategy. Santaco spokesperson Reggie Mutsi said that council welcomed the strategy as most of the issues it it had raised during its input into the revised programme had been incorporated in the new plan.
The South African anti-retroviral industry is booming, with market leader Aspen Pharmacare seeing its share price rise by more than 1 000% since it listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in 1998. Aspen, founded in 1998 by businessman Stephen Saad, produces generic ARVs among a number of other pharmaceuticals.
In a move that could soon be outlawed, a senior Independent Communications Authority of South Africa official has joined a private company shortly after its licence was amended, allowing it to become a major player in the broadband industry. Former Icasa councillor Mbulelo Ncetezo, joined Wireless Business Solutions in August as head of legal and regulatory affairs.
The European Commission’s proposals, announced this week, to reform the sugar industry are expected to have little impact on the South African industry. Experts are predicting dire consequences for lesser developed countries, but the effect on South African producers is expected to be limited.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is to probe the subsidisation of cellphones with a view to ensuring that customers benefit from number portability and shorter contracts. A discussion document released by Icasa proposes a regulatory framework to govern the use of subsidised handsets.
Hillbrow’s once-dilapidated Smithshof building has undergone an extreme makeover by the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) — while tenants continued living in it. The renovation, which took place over six months, is seen as breaking new ground in the field of affordable inner-city housing.
On July 1 the country’s 185 000 mini-bus taxi drivers will join the ranks of the formally employed, enjoying the benefits of a minimum wage, unemployment insurance and paid leave for the first time in the industry’s history. The sectoral determination on the taxi industry announced by the Department of Labour recently, aims to formalise the sector from the bottom up.
A new study commissioned by the South Africa Foundation into the cost of telecommunications in South Africa has highlighted the "excessive" pricing structures of Telkom and has recommended an increase in competition and regulation in order to bring South Africa in line with international best practice, promote economic growth and create jobs.