Unions and management have agreed on wage increases at the Northam Platinum mine in Limpopo, while a deadlock continued at two other large platinum mines near Rustenburg on Thursday. Lower level workers at Northam would get an 8,5% increase, middle level 8,25%, and higher level workers 8%, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Archie Palane said.
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa, which reached a record high in early trade, remained in positive territory in noon trade on Thursday buoyed by a weaker rand. By 12h00, the all share index was up 0,74% at 12,012.990 after hitting an historic high of 12,054.690 in opening trade. Industrials were 0,71% stronger.
African Nobel Prize laureates and heads of state gathered on Wednesday in the Senegalese capital for an African Union-sponsored conference on peace and the continent’s renaissance. Former South African president FW de Klerk, who earned the peace prize in 1993 with icon Nelson Mandela for their efforts to end apartheid in South Africa, and Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1986, were on hand for a gala evening in their honour.
Cocoa producers have until July 1, 2005 to prove that their beans were produced without child labour, to be able to sell on the international market, the Ghana News Agency reported on Wednesday. Kwame Sarpong, chief executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board said that the certification had become necessary because of concerns raised by global consumers over the use of child labour in the cultivation of cocoa beans.
A suspect has been arrested in connection with the murder of former Umtshezi municipality speaker Stanley Chetty, police said on Wednesday. Chetty was gunned down on September 20 when he and board members of the Inkomfe Cluster Project were taking a break following a board meeting.
A British entrepreneur has proposed turning a Sydney house where a Filipino-Australian slaughtered his family into a gruesome museum commemorating one of the city’s grisliest crimes. The neat brick home in the affluent suburb of Epping has been dubbed Australia’s house of horrors after student Sef Gonzales (24) killed his father, mother and teenage sister in 2001.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the construction of a R2,1-billion water project that will pump water from the Vaal Dam to an existing water supply infrastructure near Secunda, Mpumalanga, the department of Water and Forestry said in Pretoria.
The City of Johannesburg has expressed satisfaction with the Constitutional Court’s ruling holding landlords responsible for non-payment of municipal services by their tenants. City of Johannesburg spokesperson Gabu Tugwana said the judgement confirmed that the city was applying best practises in dealing with its clients.
The Special National Federal Council of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) has discussed its next leadership ahead of the annual congress next month, marking the black business body’s 40th anniversary, a statement said on Wednesday.
Sudan bowed to a five-point plan tabled by British Prime Minister Tony Blair during talks in Khartoum on Wednesday, which included accepting the free movement of 3 500 African Union troops as ceasefire monitors in Darfur province. Blair also urged Sudan to return its troops to barracks and accept a deadline of December 31 for an agreement on devolution for the south of the country.