Donwald Pressly

Mo Shaik, brother of fraud convict Schabir Shaik, has taken the helm at the Nkobi Group, the firm that has a key stake in South Africa’s arms deal. This was confirmed by Mo, who was previously a senior official in the Department of Foreign Affairs, at a media conference held at the Cape Talk radio offices in Cape Town on Monday.

The Revenue Laws Amendment Bill introduced to the National Assembly on Thursday provides for complete tax relief on imports by Fifa-related organisations in the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Introducing the measure, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said these organisations could import inventory for sale at designated sites.

The Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) telecommunications cable running down the west side of Africa was "at full capacity" and the planned eastern cable linking East African and Southern African states was key to providing affordable broadband to ordinary South Africans, South African Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said on Tuesday.

The impact of the second national operator, Neotel, was likely to be felt by Christmas, said South African Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri. Answering a question from African National Congress MP Elliott Sibiya in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday afternoon, she noted that it had already been launched at the end of August.

Regional integration is rightly being pursued in the Southern African Development Community as it is a critical instrument to boost economic growth and raise living standards — but it has to be sustainable, says South African President Thabo Mbeki. In his regular Friday internet column, <i><a href="http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/" target="_blank" class="standardtext">ANC Today</a></i>, the president said regional integration in the developing world "has all too often been a graveyard of failed expectations".

The 2007 medium-term expenditure framework provides for R9,5-billion to be spent on 2010 World Cup stadiums and their supporting infrastructure, raising the total contribution from the national fiscus to R14,9-billion, the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement reported on Wednesday.

South Africa’s Department of Public Enterprises intends to create a broadband infrastructure company — called Broadband InfraCo — based on the long-distance fibre-optic network created by power parastatal Eskom and transport parastatal Transnet, says Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin.

The imposition of quotas on Chinese textiles "is going to present challenges" to the South African Revenue Services (Sars), its commissioner Pravin Gordhan told Members of Parliament on Wednesday. He said South Africa had, in terms of the memorandum of understanding with China, taken the responsibility "for controlling the quota".

The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) involvement in the new national lottery operator, Gidani, has come under fire from Independent Democrats (ID) chief whip Avril Harding in Parliament. In a member’s statement to the National Assembly, Harding said despite its strong objections to the lottery, Cosatu has emerged as one of the major shareholders in Gidani.

The rail parastatal, Spoornet, could not become just a "two-commodity business" — focusing on its iron and coal lines — and that was why it was focusing a lot of money on the general freight business, Transnet group chief executive Maria Ramos said on Tuesday.

South Africa will add two key issues to the agenda of the group of 20 (G20) when it takes over the helm as chair in November from Australia — financial stability and creating fiscal space, said Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on Monday. He was speaking at a joint press conference at Parliament with Australian Treasurer Peter Costello — who began a three-day visit to South Africa on Sunday.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) on Friday came out in support of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Federation of Unions of South Africa and the National Congress of Trade Unions in their backing of the clothing and textile deal between the South African government and the People’s Republic of China.

Recent interest-rate adjustments may have a negative impact on output in the short term but they will ensure that inflation remains within the target band over the long run, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Monday. He said this in turn will be beneficial for competitiveness and hence sustainable growth over the long run.

The task team appointed to assess the fiscal regime applicable to windfall profits in the liquid-fuel sector is expected to report to government only at the end of September, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Friday. It is also premature to comment on the impact of the proposed tax.