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/ 27 March 2006

Telkom blamed for insincere offer

Trade unions in a wage dispute with Telkom on Monday accused it of making a revised offer in bad faith, after it emerged that the company had decided to renege on its revised offer due to the one-day strike. Telkom said it had made a revised offer to its employees "on condition that employees do not engage in industrial action".

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/ 8 March 2006

Sekunjalo snaps up top BEE award

Listed Cape Town-based Sekunjalo Investments on Wednesday received the <i>Financial Mail</i> Top Empowerment Companies Award, which is conducted in partnership with black economic empowerment ratings agency EmpowerDEX.
Iqbal Survé-led Sekunjalo’s overall BEE score came in at 76,44%.

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/ 14 February 2006

Spend more on social services, urge unions

While calling for increased expenditure on social services such as health and education, which they argue would result in affordable or free quality service, trade unions believe that Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s 10th Budget will not have a serious effect on the fight against poverty.

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/ 8 February 2006

People’s Budget coalition unveils proposals

Extending the basic income grant (BIG) to all citizens and a halt on cutting personal and company taxes are some of the Budget 2006/07 proposals that a coalition of three civil formations has made in a bid to eradicate poverty. Financing a universal BIG to all South Africans, the coalition said, would require between R15-billion and R32-billion a year.

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/ 2 February 2006

Unions hand memorandum to Transnet

As the strike by Transnet employees in KwaZulu-Natal ended on Wednesday, four trade unions handed over a memorandum to Transnet management. In the memorandum, directed to Transnet CEO Maria Ramos, the unions urged management to respect processes and structures established for the purposes of negotiating.

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/ 25 January 2006

Govt should ‘halve unemployment by 2014’

The negligible rise in the country’s employment rate is "a cause for great concern", Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Wednesday. Reacting to the labour-force survey data released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday, he said the fact that 658 000 jobs were created during the year ended September 2005 is encouraging.

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/ 11 January 2006

Gold up slightly in volatile trade

Gold was higher in choppy and highly liquid trade on Wednesday afternoon amid a firmer euro. At 2.46pm, gold was quoted at $544,20 a troy ounce, up $1/oz from its previous close. "It has been quite a choppy and volatile day. We’ve seen extremely high levels of liquidity," a Johannesburg-based trader said.

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/ 4 January 2006

New year may bring lower phone bills

While 2005 brought deregulation and the licensing of the second national operator, South African telecommunications users are set to experience tariff reductions as a result of regulatory changes and increased competition for fixed-line, mobile and data operators in 2006.

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/ 22 December 2005

MTN shares hit all-time high

Shares in MTN Group extended their winning streak to reach a fresh all-time high of R62,50 in early trade on Thursday on the news that the JSE-listed cellular operator is part of the consortium vying for Egypt’s third mobile-network licence that would compete with Cairo-listed Vodafone Egypt and Orasscom.

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/ 9 December 2005

Icasa licenses second national operator

Following the licensing of the second national operator to compete with Telkom, South Africa is finally set for a duopoly of fixed line operators, possibly from 2006, it was announced on Friday. Although the SNO licence issued by the Independent Communications Authority (Icasa) entitled the new player to compete with Telkom on the public switched telecommunications service front, the unbundling of the local loop has been delayed until further notice.

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/ 24 November 2005

Johncom announces R160m profit

Johnnic Communications (Johncom) announced on Thursday that its interim headline earnings per share increased 156% to 179 cents for the six-month period ended September 30. The media and entertainment group said its profits increased by 24% to R160-million, while revenue jumped 14% to R2,2-billion.

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/ 21 November 2005

Community is the star on new Soweto TV

The free-to-air Soweto Community TV service is to launch on November 26 despite a shortage of funding required for licensing fees and administration costs among other expenses, station CEO and head of marketing Tshepo Thafeng said on Monday. The project should be able to start airing from Saturday November 26 as scheduled.

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/ 4 November 2005

Vodafone buys 1% in Venfin on open market

London-headquartered Vodafone on Thursday purchased 1,03% in VenFin’s issued share capital for R213,9-million in open-market transactions, the cellular giant disclosed to the JSE on Friday. Vodafone acquired 4,6-million VenFin shares in 18 deals for amounts ranging from R44,75 to R46,60 per share.

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/ 3 November 2005

Vodafone’s vote of confidence in SA

London-headquartered Vodafone’s offer to increase its stake from 35% to 50% in local mobile network Vodacom was on Thursday hailed as a vote of confidence in South Africa’s political landscape and economic prospects. Vodafone has offered to acquire VenFin’s 15% holding in Vodacom for an estimated R16-billion.

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/ 2 November 2005

Telecoms stocks reach new heights

Shares in South African telecommunications companies MTN Group, Telkom and investments holdings company VenFin rallied to all-time highs on Wednesday. An equities dealer said these stocks were under pressure lately due to cellular operators’ announcements of reduced tariffs, but these cost-cutting initiatives have proved benign.

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/ 1 November 2005

MTN expected to enter Botswana, Tunisia markets

In addition to its bid to buy a stake in Tunisie Telecom, MTN Group this month also looks set to unveil expansion plans into the Southern African market of Botswana. Sources close to MTN intimated on Tuesday that the South African cellular services provider was apparently planning to enter the Botswana market, where Mascom Wireless and Orange Botswana mobile operators serve 576&nbsp;000 customers.

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/ 24 October 2005

New Cuasa boss to keep up the pressure

Communications Users’ Association of South Africa (Cuasa) new chairperson Edwin Thompson says the organisation will continue to lobby for legislative and regulatory pressure to yield effective competition in the telecommunications and other information and communications technology (ICT) sectors.

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/ 5 October 2005

Cell C enters pricing fray

While describing its rates as "some of the lowest", Saudi-owned Cell C has entered the cellular-pricing fray by enhancing its "Friends and Family" product to provide its customers with the lowest tariffs in the market. Cell C’s enhanced offering follows Vodacom’s and MTN’s recent price-cutting moves.

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/ 29 September 2005

Altech posts rise in earnings

South African information and communications technology company Allied Technologies (Altech) posted a 15,3% rise in headline earnings per share to 181 cents for the six-month period ended August this year, from 157 cents reported a year earlier. Revenue jumped by 11% to R2,933-billion.

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/ 16 September 2005

Govt IT agency boosts profit

The South African government-owned State Information Technology Agency’s net profit after tax for the period ended March this year jumped by 69% to R59,303-million from R35,085-million reported previously, Sita CEO Mavuso Msimang said on Friday. Revenue grew by 14,5% to R2,636-billion.

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/ 6 September 2005

Icasa finalises SNO process

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) hopes that the long-awaited second national operator (SNO) will be licenced as speedily as possible, Icasa councillor Lumko Mtimde said on Tuesday. Mtimde said the authority was now conducting the regulatory analysis ahead of the issuing of the licence.

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/ 24 August 2005

Lower Telkom tariffs delayed

Fixed-line consumers will not enjoy lower telecommunication costs on September 1, as Telkom is yet to reply to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) correspondence in which the regulator asked the company to rework some of its proposals, it emerged on Wednesday.

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/ 23 August 2005

SABC increases revenue by 18%

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Tuesday reported an 18% increase in revenue for the year ended March 31 2005, to R3,314-billion from R2,711-billion a year ago. Profit after tax rose to R240,3-million from R1,7-million, according to the SABC’s chief financial officer, Robin Nicholson.

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/ 22 August 2005

JSE seen up despite the rand

Global positive sentiment looks set to help the JSE start the week on a firm footing, despite a slightly firmer rand. By 8.45am, near-dated all share index futures (Alsis) were 73 points higher at 14 195 after 49 contracts had changed hands, while industrial index futures (Indis) were untraded after finishing at 11 616. The rand was […]