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/ 14 January 2005
South African fixed-line monopoly Telkom and the Department of Communications portfolio organisation noted on Friday that Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri’s liberalisation determination on public payphones was a deviation from the Telecommunications Act.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has said Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is to blame for what has been described as exorbitant and monopolistic tariffs introduced by dual-listed Telkom. But the Communications Users’ Association of South Africa said the full blame should not be focused on Telkom.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=177438">Telkom is ‘milking’ locals</a>
In expressing its dismay at Telkom’s new tariffs for 2005, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday accused the fixed-line monopoly of "milking" poor South Africans to support tourists. Telkom has increased the cost of local calls and calls to cellphones while reducing international rates.
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/ 13 December 2004
Musica has launched South Africa’s first large-scale music download service on its website. It is comparable with any overseas service, legal and priced affordably for the country’s market, the music retail group announced on Monday. Music lovers will be able to download songs of their choice for R10 a track.
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/ 6 December 2004
South African unlisted firm Hymax Telecoms looks set to reduce telecommunications costs by up to 40% from 2005 on the back of the imminent deregulation, Hymax chief operating officer John van den Munckhof said on Monday. The firm provides telecoms solutions and services to South African companies.
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/ 22 November 2004
South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin on Monday launched the country’s first initial public offering (IPO) reference manual, which contains detailed information on the steps required to execute a successful IPO. The manual outlines challenges involved in IPO processes.
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/ 19 November 2004
The statutory Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has called for comment from interested parties on its discussion document issued this month regarding fixed-line telephone price-cap regulations. Icasa spokesperson Vimla Maistry on Friday said the closing date for comments is December 7.
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/ 19 November 2004
Shares in information and communications technology (ICT) group Dimension Data (Didata, DDT) spiked sharply on Thursday on the back of an impressive set of financial results on Wednesday, an ICT analyst said. Its adjusted profit was recorded at $11,434-million (R68,604-million) — a recovery from an adjusted loss of $36,356-million.
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/ 18 November 2004
Following a flurry of comments around Telkom’s proposed tariffs for 2005, Telkom spokesperson Ravin Maharaj on Thursday said public hearings into the proposed Telkom price controls will be held in December. The group has announced that it has filed for an average tariff increase of 0,2%.
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/ 15 November 2004
South African-based Vodacom said on Monday that it was still interested in pursuing business opportunities in Nigeria, and planned on evaluating other opportunities in Africa. Vodacom is a pan-African mobile group providing GSM services to more than 13-million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=125539">Vodacom revenue up 20,3%</a>
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/ 11 November 2004
Amid conflicting reports about the state of affairs at national daily <i>ThisDay</i>, its executive director Gbenga Oni-Olusola dismissed suggestions that the newspaper owners were planning to quit, adding that their plans to resume publication "soon" remained on track. Oni-Olusola said the newspaper’s owners were continuing to investigate ways in which they could resuscitate the newspaper.
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/ 2 November 2004
Following a week of uncertainty about the future of South Africa’s newest national newspaper <i>ThisDay</i>, the newspaper’s executive director, Gbenga Oni-Olusola, said that publication will resume in the near future. The newspaper failed to appear last Monday, and the company is currently dealing with its financial difficulties, he said.
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/ 26 October 2004
Minister of Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri on Tuesday announced that the third, unnamed bidder for the second national operator (SNO) failed to meet the required deadline and subsequently was disqualified. As a result, the unsuccessful bidder leaves the competition open for Tata Africa Holdings and Old Mutual Asset Managers.
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/ 19 October 2004
Telecommunications group Alcatel’s South African operation — in partnership with its empowerment partners, New Seasons — is set to explore information and communications technology (ICT) investment opportunities in South Africa and across the continent, Alcatel South Africa chairperson Peter Vundla said on Tuesday.
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/ 14 October 2004
Nasdaq-listed multinational technology group Novell fully backs the black economic empowerment (BEE) charter for the sector and is looking forward to concluding a BEE deal soon, Novell SA managing director Stafford Masie said on Thursday.
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/ 13 October 2004
Information technology group Dimension Data (Didata) said on Wednesday it is not planning to shed jobs in its Johannesburg global services centre (GSC) in favour of India, or relocating its local call centres to India. Singapore-listed subsidiary Datacraft Asia has launched a GSC in Bangalore.
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/ 29 September 2004
The Pretoria High Court has given Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and Nexus Connexion, led by Kennedy Memani, until October 12 for the parties to resolve the impasse relating to the second national operator (SNO) composition.
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/ 17 September 2004
Although the entrance of the country’s second national operator (SNO) is seen as a threat to Telkom’s future revenues, the dual-listed telecommunications giant on Friday said it welcomes Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri’s granting of the licence to the second operator.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=122326">Government grants SNO licence</a>
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/ 13 September 2004
South African media group Kagiso Media on Monday announced that its headline earnings per share (HEPS) had improved by 15,6% to 70,2 cents per share for the year ended June 2004 from 60,7 cents previously. The company reported a 19,6% improvement in net profit to R90,104-million from R75,316-million. It also announced its final dividend of 42 cents per share compared with 20 cents previously.
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/ 8 September 2004
Business Banking, a division of Nedbank Corporate servicing medium-sized businesses, has shown a strong commitment to black economic empowerment (BEE) with the national roll-out of its empowerment strategy — driven by Portia Nondo, head of BEE at Business Banking.
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/ 7 September 2004
South Africa’s largest mobile telecommunications group, Vodacom, on Tuesday unveiled the country’s first initiative to make cellular communications accessible to all South Africans, especially people with disabilities. The phone enables blind people to access voice and text services via text-to-speech technology.
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/ 3 September 2004
Shares in the South African telecommunications titan Telkom plummeted on Friday morning following the telecommunications industry liberalisation announced by Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri on Thursday afternoon. The minister unveiled sweeping changes in the sector.
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/ 2 September 2004
South African media and entertainment group Primedia on Wednesday announced it has received regulatory approval for its proposed acquisition of 100% of the issued share capital of New Africa Media Holdings and, as a result, the acquisition of 66,5% of the entire issued share capital of KFM.
South African media and entertainment group Primedia on Tuesday reported a 195,7% rise in headline earnings per share to 68 cents for the 12 months ended June 30 2004, from 23 cents a year ago. Commenting on the group’s performance, Primedia CEO William Kirsh said: "Primedia has had a very good year."
The multinational group Unilever on Monday launched its corporate brand with a new logo and mission at a function at Johannesburg’s Constitution Hill attended by business leaders and dignitaries, including Deputy President Jacob Zuma. Unilever brands include Sunlight, Omo, Dove, Axe, Rama, Joko, Knorr and Mrs Balls.
Grahamstown will in September host the eighth annual Highway Africa three-day conference — the largest annual gathering of the continent’s media professionals. Information and communication technologies policy makers, journalists, academics and students will debate new media possibilities in Africa.
The working group for the black economic empowerment charter on information and communications technology (ICT) has released its fourth and last working draft, six months ahead of its planned implementation. The charter proposes that all ICT companies in the country should be 45% to 50% charter-compliant by February 2006.
South African media group Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers (Caxton) reported a 15,6% increase in diluted headline earnings per share from 64 cents to 74 cents for the year ended June. The group on Tuesday said it has declared a dividend of 35 cents per share compared with 30 cents for the previous comparable period.
South African mobile operator MTN and the South African National Taxi Council on Tuesday launched the Ring’uvaya (phone while you travel) initiative, which will equip South African taxis with pay phones, enabling commuters to make phone calls in the taxi. KwaZulu-Natal is the first province that will get Ring’uvaya phones.
Telecommunications giant Telkom will go ahead with its plans to acquire South Africa’s fourth-largest internet service provider in the dial-up market, Tiscali SA, allegedly for R400-million despite "strong opposition" from a number of industry players. The Internet Service Providers’ Association has accused Telkom of being anti-competitive.
New York-listed Computer Science Corporation has announced a black economic empowerment (BEE) alliance with two of South Africa’s leading black-owned SAP implementation specialist companies, Cornastone Technology Holdings and Nokusa Consulting.
The Competition Appeal Court will on Friday hear South African telecommunications giant Telkom’s appeal against the Competition Tribunal’s procedural decision which allowed private company Orion Cellular access to certain documents which Telkom wanted to restrict only to their legal representatives.