Thabang Mokopanele

South African motor manufacturers expect 2006 to be yet another year of buoyant economic circumstances and increasing prosperity for the country — in an environment that is likely to see the continuation of strong demand for new passenger cars during the coming year — after a record-breaking 2005.

The levels of unemployment in South Africa continued to be one of the biggest challenges of 2005, together with the growth of casualisation and a reduction in the quality of jobs, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said that the income gap, unemployment, casualisation and a reduction in the quality of jobs were among the reasons for a number of strikes in 2005.

The CEO of listed plastic packaging group Astrapak, Ray Crewe-Brown, on Monday said that if the plastic industry can manage to come up with a technology that will enable the shelf life of beer in plastic to stretch to 24 months, then some parts of the beer industry might switch to plastic packaging.

South African packaging group Nampak on Wednesday reported an 18,5% decrease in fully diluted headline earning per share to 118,4 cents for the year ended September 30 2005, from 145,3 cents a year ago. The group declared a final dividend per share of 56,6 cents, unchanged from 2004.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday said that it is to conduct a survey of workers, union members and non-members to get their views on the labour movement and how well it is meeting their needs. South Africa’s largest union federation will be 20 years old on December 1.

Beneficiaries of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) have been given until November 1 to put their bank accounts in order. Those who are without any accounts are running the risk of experiencing unnecessary delays in the payments of their UIF money once this deadline has lapsed.

The profile of well-heeled South Africans is changing dramatically and financial institutions need to recognise these changes and accommodate them, according to the CEO of First National Bank (FNB) Private Clients, Eric Enslin. He was speaking at the introduction of FNB’s new private-banking initiative on Wednesday.

South African automobile parts group Tiger Wheels on Wednesday reported a 9,4% decrease in headline earnings per share to 214,1 cents for the year ended June 30 2005, from 236,3 cents a year ago. The group is to distribute to shareholders a portion of the share premium account in lieu of a dividend.

South African media and entertainment group Primedia on Tuesday reported a 39,7% increase in headline earnings per share to 95 cents for the year ended June 30 2005, from 68 cents a year ago. In line with the policy of maintaining a cover of two times, Primedia resolved to pay a total distribution of 56 cents per share.

Listed packaging group Nampak has reached agreement to conclude a 10% black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction pursuant to which approximately 5% of the issued share capital of Nampak will be owned by Nampak employees and 5% will be owned by BEE groups comprising a broad base of black people.

The JSE is set to start Wednesday’s session in negative territory taking its cue from a weaker close on the United States markets overnight, traders said. By 8.40am, near-dated all share index futures (Alsis) were 53 points weaker at 14 250 after 130 contracts had changed hands, while industrial index futures (Indis) were untraded after finishing at 11 575.

The Business Connexion group on Tuesday reported headline earnings per share of 74,9 cents for the year ended May 31 2005, from 34,2 cents a year ago. The group declared a normal dividend of 20 cents per share and a special dividend of 17 cents per share.

Diamond group De Beers Consolidated Mines on Friday confirmed that the National Union of Mineworkers has indicated its intention to declare a dispute with the company. According to De Beers, this follows a series of meetings between the parties on annual substantive negotiations.

Risk-management group TransUnion on Wednesday announced that it has completed two separate black economic empowerment (BEE) transactions, with a market value of more than R80-million, in the local credit-data sector. The deals involved the Cida Empowerment Fund and Safika Investments.

Close to 3 000 members of Solidarity and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa are on an indefinite strike at steel producer Highveld Steel’s Witbank plant. Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said the unions are standing firm on their wage demand of an 8% increase.

Trade union Solidarity on Wednesday expressed its misgivings about the course of the Department of Labour investigation into the cause of the Sasol Unit 24 explosion last September. Solidarity said in a statement that it is also concerned "that lego-technical procedures may affect the legitimate outcome of the investigation".

The South African Local Government Association (Salga) on Tuesday said it was dismayed to find out in the media that municipal workers will embark on another three-day strike next week. A South African Municipal Workers’ Union spokesperson said the union will give formal notice for the strike before the end of the week.

The Nation Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Solidarity on Monday said they are still consulting their members on whether to accept the new wage offer from electricity utility Eskom. Numsa spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said that Eskom has increased its wage offer from 5,5% to 6,5%.

Business and labour have expressed satisfaction that they will be able to "influence" the final draft of the empowerment codes of good practice that measure the implementation of black economic empowerment (BEE), BuaNews reported on Wednesday. The codes of good practice were released last month.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Wednesday stated that after reaching an agreement on benefits and conditions of employment with platinum producer Angloplat, it is confident that a settlement on wages will be reached. The NUM cut its wage demand from 15% to 8% while Angloplat had increased its initial offer of 2,5% to the level of CPIX inflation, currently running at around 4%.

The Johannesburg municipality says that essential services won’t be affected by Tuesday’s strike as it is putting contingency plans in place to minimise disruptions. South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) spokesperson Chichi Selepe has warned that essential services will be affected by the protest.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) on Friday said that a one-day wage strike on June 27 in the steel industry would continue as planned. The union said that this came after wage talks between itself and the Steel Engineering Industry Federation Of South Africa failed.

After a series of wage negotiations between the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the Steel Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (Seifsa), there seems to be no end in sight to the wage impasse. This week’s wage talks between the two parties failed yet again to yield positive results.

Black-owned agricultural services company Umlimi Services on Tuesday announced in a statement that it has launched as an empowered service provider to the agricultural sector. Umlimi will act as a service agent to farmers and manage the substantial chain of costs that occur beyond the farm gate.

Listed South African retailer Woolworths on Friday expressed its disappointment at the stance taken by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) — including the South Africa Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union — on the ongoing dispute over locally produced goods versus imports.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is planning mass action against retailers after the Competition Commission found that there would be no competition concerns should retailers sign Cosatu’s proposed code of conduct, which sets a target of 75% local content for clothing products on retailers’ shelves.