The JSE Securities Exchange was ensconced in firm territory, with the exception of gold shares, just after noon on Wednesday as the rand faltered off the day’s stronger levels. The positive close on United States markets overnight and the gains on European bourses assisted the JSE’s rise.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) customs division has raked in R200-million in extra revenue from the oil industry in the past financial year, MPs were told on Wednesday. There has been limited auditing of the oil industry’s accounts but this has now changed considerably.
World oil prices simmered close to record high levels on Wednesday as Opec producers, under heavy pressure from consumers to raise production, gathered in Beirut for a meeting overshadowed by a weekend terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia. European Union finance ministers late on Tuesday expressed concern that skyrocketing oil prices could jeopardise Europe’s fledgling economic recovery, calling on Opec again to act to calm the market.
Tax offenders had collectively been sentenced to 84 years of imprisonment in the last financial year, says South African Revenue Services (Sars) commissioner Pravin Gordhan. Addressing Members of Parliament serving on the ad hoc finance portfolio and select committees, Gordhan on Wednesday said there had been 1 558 convictions and fines amounting to R4,5-million.
School fees are preventing vast numbers of Aids orphans from getting an education and improving their future prospects, a UN official said.
The World Economic Forum conference on Africa was due to open on Wednesday in Mozambique to work out how a homegrown economic rescue plan could turn the world’s poorest continent into a global player. A focal point is the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), an amibtious plan to pull the continent out of poverty by encouraging investment and embracing good governance and financial transparency.
The deadline for doctors to obtain dispensing licences was extended by the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. Doctors, who were supposed to have obtained the licence by Tuesday, now have until July 2 to do so. Acting Judge Johann Kruger said it would not be in the interests of justice to allow the regulations to come into force before he had decided on their constitutionality.
A South African diplomat kidnapped in Malaysia on May 23 and later released was apparently mistaken by his abductors for a foreign tourist, South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Department said on Tuesday. Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said Nicky Scholtz, deputy high commissioner in Malaysia, was kidnapped while walking along Jalan Ampang, between the KLCC Suria and the Hotel Nikko in Kuala Lumpur.
Heavy fighting broke out early on Wednesday as Congolese troops and fighters loyal to a renegade commander battled for control of the centre of the troubled Congolese city of Bukavu, residents said. United Nations peacekeepers were blocking the advance into Bukavu of the bulk of troops loyal to Nkunda, UN spokesperson Sebastien Lapierre said.
A 16-year-old KwaZulu-Natal schoolboy has died after allegedly being beaten by his principal, police said on Tuesday. Mthokozisi Zuma, a grade 10 pupil at Phezulu High School in Hammarsdale, was beaten with a stick, allegedly by his principal as
punishment for coming late to school. The boy was taken to a nearby clinic where he was pronounced dead on arrival.