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Employment has not grown over the last 20 years in South Africa, and in fact there were net job losses, research from the SA Reserve Bank showed on Tuesday. In an article in the Reserve Bank’s new publication Labour Market Frontiers Thami Hlekiso said non-agricultural formal employment dropped from 5,1-million in 1980 to 4,7-million in 2001.
Canadian aluminium giant Alcan, which had been expected to announce its decision on the aluminium smelter project at Coega this month, said it would complete its review by the end of the year. Meanwhile it is continuing to examine the best value-creating alternatives the scheme offered.
Municipality workers, supported by tenants of flats owned by the North West Housing Corporation (NWHC), will strike on Wednesday to oppose the privatisation of services, the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Tuesday. It was recently reported that the NWHC was to close because it was operating on a deficit of almost R1-million a month.
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa was in positive territory in noon trade on Wednesday, propelled by a firmer close on Wall Street overnight and a slightly softer rand. However, volumes were very light as players took to the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee decision on interest rates due in the evening.
Standard Bank has introduced another first in South Africa, a prepaid foreign-exchange travel card known as TravelWallet. It has the advantage of allowing travellers to spend on their entire trip at the exchange rate at which they bought their foreign currency.
Getting older in Africa isn’t what it used to be. While some of the continent’s senior citizens may, in years gone by, have enjoyed a relatively quiet retirement, this prospect has largely been wiped out by the responsibility of caring for grandchildren who have been orphaned by Aids.
Information technology (IT) outsourcing revenue will show a compound annual growth rate of 15% over the next five years to reach nearly R5,25-billion by 2006, according to a recent study. South Africa’s telecommunications infrastructure has been mentioned as a vital consideration.
There can be no solution to the Middle East conflict without the involvement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, President Thabo Mbeki said on Tuesday. Mbeki was speaking at the United Nations African Meeting in Support of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
He served time for laundering the proceeds of an international heroin-trading ring. Now he’s on trial in Palermo, charged with belonging to the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. It is perhaps not surprising that 57-year-old Vito Palazzolo wants a change of image.
Granted South African citizenship in 1995, the alleged Mafia don changed his name to Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko.
When the fighting flared up again it looked like a resumption of the awful war in central Africa, but the rebels retreated, the peace accord survived and the Democratic Republic of Congo counted the cost of the crisis in dozens rather than millions dead.