Pick ‘n Pay Stores, one of Africa’s largest food and general merchandise retailers, is expected to post a 20% rise in its fully diluted headline earnings per share for the year to the end of February 2004 when it releases its final results on Tuesday April 20. Dividends for the year are forecast to rise by 17,8%.
Listed furniture, electronic and electric appliance retailer JD Group expects its basic headline earnings per share for the six-month period ending February 29 2004 to be more than 50% higher than those reported for the previous corresponding period.
![]()
Unbowed New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Thursday vowed to continue advocating its reconciliation message as espoused in the coalition agreement with the ruling party. He would do this even though it might not be popular among the electorate.
Special Report: Elections 2004
South Africa’s unit trust industry saw total assets leap to R243-billion in the quarter to the end of March 2004, from R230-billion in the previous quarter, on the back of continuing strong inflows and impressive performances in many sectors for the 12-month period to the end of March.
![]()
As expected, the race for control of the South African provinces of the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal remains tight. In the Western Cape, with 23% of the votes counted, the African National Congress was only slightly ahead of the official opposition Democratic Alliance, with figures indicating that a hung legislature could result.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Slightly more than 45% of registered voters in the Western Cape had cast their vote by 2.30pm on Wednesday. An Independent Electoral Commission officer said there had been numerous complaints from political parties contesting the elections, and long queues had formed in areas such as Guguletu and Langa.
![]()
Former South African president FW de Klerk, who voted at the Sonop Primary school in Paarl on Wednesday morning, said his old party — the New National Party (NNP) — ”might come up with a surprise” in the national election on Wednesday.
![]()
Election day dawned mild and misty in Cape Town’s southern suburbs on Wednesday, with apparently more people lining up to vote than five years ago. A snap Sapa survey of polling stations in Plumstead, Wynberg and Constantia showed queues starting to form outside the venues from about 6.30am.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should be held accountable for crimes against humanity, delegates attending the Second World Bar Conference of the Forum for Barristers and Advocates heard in Cape Town on Tuesday.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille has emerged as the favourite opposition politician in South Africa, according to a Markinor survey. The survey also showed the ANC has the backing of 72,3% of registered voters.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk promised jobs, more police officers, teachers, the rapid roll-out of anti-retrovirals and the rights of parents in school governing bodies while touting family values at a rally at Eastridge, Mitchells Plain, on Monday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Cape High Court prosecutor Carine Teunissen on Thursday called for ”at least 20 years” jail for Mitchell’s Plain magistrate Sithembele Elvis Tebe, who a year ago shot dead an inebriated motorist in a hit-and-run road rage incident in Khayelitsha.
You are a junior nurse and the specialist surgeon constantly makes suggestive advances, but you keep quiet for fear of recrimination — this is the sort of scenario a sexual harassment campaign aims to address at Groote Schuur hospital. The hospital launched its campaign on Thursday.
The messages sent out to South African youths by the government’s loveLife Aids prevention campaign are ”inadequate and dangerous”, says the African Christian Democratic Party. The campaign sends out mixed messages and causes passions to become ”inflamed by their explicit advertising with sexual images”, the ACDP said on Thursday.
Leading international drinks companies Heineken, Diageo and Namibia Breweries have finalised the shareholder agreements for their new joint venture company in South Africa, the companies announced on Thursday. The joint venture combines the sales, marketing and distribution businesses in South Africa of the three shareholders.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has requested the country’s four major commercial banks to introduce a payment validation system on each of their electronic banking applications to prevent incorrect electronic tax payments. Sars said on Wednesday First National Bank will be the first to begin in April.
The results of a survey conducted to find out whether President Thabo Mbeki is doing a good job show that sentiments vary according to race, location and age — but the bottom line is that Mbeki’s popularity is improving. According to the research, 47% of respondents said Mbeki is doing a good job, compared with 27% in February 2002.
Cape High Court Judge Hennie Erasmus on Tuesday afternoon set aside the immigration regulations published by Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The interim regulations in force before Buthelezi’s immigration regulations were gazetted on March 8 will now continue to remain in force.
The increase at midnight on Tuesday of the retail price of petrol and diesel will further dampen economic growth in South Africa, says official opposition energy spokesperson Ian Davidson. "All taxes and duties that currently make up almost 40% of the fuel price should be reviewed," he said.
Four countries — China, Iran, the United States and Vietnam — accounted for most of the 1 146 known executions carried out around the world last year, says human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI). In a statement on Tuesday to mark the release of its annual report on death sentences and executions, AI said the true figure could be much higher.
The South African Human Rights Commission must protect the national organiser of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), Mangaliso Kubheka, and retract its hate-speech finding against him, the LPM said on Tuesday. Kubheka was reported to have said that LPM members would ”take farms and chase away white farmers like dogs”.
Road accidents are the biggest cause of death in South Africa among children between the ages of four and 15, and a national plan of action is needed to combat this ”epidemic”, Western Cape provincial minister of health Piet Meyer said on Tuesday. He said on average two children die every day on the country’s roads.
A 16-year-old surfer was in a critical but stable condition in the Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic in Cape Town on Monday after he was attacked by a shark off Muizenberg Beach, a spokesperson for the clinic said on Monday. On Monday evening the boy, identified by SABC News as John Paul Andrew, underwent surgery and his condition was critical but stable.
Heavy rains over parts of the central Karoo at the weekend have inflicted millions of rands of damage to roads and bridges in the region, and caused at least one dam to overflow, the Western Cape government reported on Monday. Communities downstream have been warned about possible flooding.
As the clock ticked away before new immigration regulations come into effect at midnight on Tuesday, litigation challenging the regulations was adjourned in court on Monday. Allegations were made that Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi had acted in a mala fide manner by agreeing to a court order to publish the controversial regulations.
![]()
The Democratic Alliance’s attorneys will approach the Cape High Court’s judges’ chambers on Monday morning to inform the presiding officer in an urgent application that an out-of-court settlement had been reached over the weekend.
Special Report: Elections 2004
South African-listed diversified industrial company Bidvest Group has made an offer of Aus$6 per share to buy out minorities in Bidvest plc, its food service distribution subsidiary listed on the Luxembourg and Australian Stock Exchanges in which it has an 81% interest.
Sales at South Africa’s 30th annual Nederburg Auction on April 2 and 3, arguably the highlight of the wine industry’s calendar, saw wine sales fall by 11,2% to R6,73-million from the record R7,58-million achieved in 2003, the first time a decline has been recorded since 1993.
South African Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe has announced that Umthunzi Telecoms Consortium is the preferred bidder on the MTN tender that was placed on September 19 last year. The government expects the transaction to be about R2,5-billion.
![]()
The Democratic Alliance has accused the NNP/ANC alliance of trying to buy the votes of ”70 000 poor people” in Cape Town by reducing the rental debt for council tenants. Nevertheless, the DA still welcomed the relief being granted on rental arrears to reduce the debt burden on struggling families.
![]()
Freedom Front Western Cape leader Corne Mulder is suing the Democratic Alliance’s provincial election coordinator, Robin Carlisle, and his party in the Cape High Court for damages to the amount of R250Â 000. The damages are being sought for alleged slander and damage to Mulder’s reputation.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The South African Revenue Service was just more than R500-million short of its revenue target of R303,3-billion at the end of the 2003/04 financial year, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Thursday. The Budget deficit for the financial year is likely to be less than the 2,6% of gross domestic product estimated in the February 2004 Budget.