Shoks Mzolo

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".

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Listed cellphone company MTN Group on Wednesday reported a 30,8% rise in adjusted headline earnings per share to 222,5 cents for the six month period ended September 30, versus 170,1 cents reported last year. In South Africa, MTN’s customer base grew by 12% to 8,9-million.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The South African government will not interfere in Transnet’s bid to find a broad-based empowerment partner to buy the parastatal’s 5% stake in the MTN Group, it emerged on Wednesday — a day after Transnet announced it had ended months of talks with Umthunzi Telecoms Consortium.

Listed media group Primedia on Monday announced the first step in a new black economic empowerment (BEE) deal whereby the economic value of the stake held by BEE shareholder the Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC) will increase from approximately 6,7% to about 20%.

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.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) last week approved Telkom’s new tariff structure in spite of the rise in installation and rental fees, it was announced on Monday. The government is planning to hold a second colloquium on telecommunications pricing next month.

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.

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.

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 […]

Following the introduction of MTN Banking, a joint venture between MTN Group and Standard Bank, more than 20-million cellphone users will now be a phone call away from a MobileMoney account. The venture takes a revolutionary approach and builds a mobile bank that primarily resides on a SIM card.

The Communication Workers’ Union on Thursday welcomed the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) public hearings aimed at regulating the subsidisation of cellphone handsets. Addressing the Icasa panel, Cell C and MTN representatives said they support the removal of subsidies.