The Communication Workers’ Union on Thursday welcomed the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) public hearings aimed at regulating the subsidisation of cellphone handsets. Addressing the Icasa panel, Cell C and MTN representatives said they support the removal of subsidies.
Financial-services groups Old Mutual and Nedbank on Thursday announced one of South Africa’s biggest information and communications technology (ICT) deals to date, which will enable both companies to achieve collectively cost savings of more than R1-billion over the next five years.
Nedbank, one South Africa’s top four commercial banks, has reported a 44,5% rise in its headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of June to 354 cents, from 245 cents a year earlier. The group declared an interim dividend of 105 cents per share, representing a 139% increase on the 44 cents declared at the halfway stage last year.
World number four gold-miner Gold Fields on Thursday reported net earnings per share of 47 cents for the June quarter, up from 26 cents in the March quarter. For the year ended June, net earnings per share amounted to 92 cents from 121 cents for the year to the end of June 2004.
Heterosexual men who are circumcised are less likely to contract HIV/Aids from their female partners, according to ground-breaking South African research. In 2002, the scientists recruited more than 3Â 000 uncircumcised heterosexual men aged 18 to 24 from Orange Farm, a Johannesburg slum where about 32% of women have HIV.
The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> will launch a high court application to review and set aside or substitute Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s findings on the Oilgate scandal — not only his criticism of the <i>M&G</i>, but on the substantive findings too.
A Cape Town magistrate on Thursday authorised a warrant of arrest for Pan Africanist Congress leader Motsoko Pheko. The move followed a request by Bernhard Kurz, the attorney acting for the liquidators of Star Travel, one of the companies involved in the parliamentary travelgate saga.
Opposition parties have strongly rejected the idea of a South African loan to Zimbabwe without any conditions attached. The Democratic Alliance said the conditions attached to the loan had to be debated in Parliament as a matter of urgency.
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and the Namibian government are studying the possibility of building a dam on the lower Orange River. Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica said that the proposed dam would ensure a stable supply of water to the Northern Cape in the future.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday urged divided African leaders to forge a consensus on United Nations reform to keep the continent from losing out if the UN Security Council is expanded. The African Union opened a one-day summit aimed at overcoming rifts on how many seats should be added to the council, among other issues.