Tswana Steel shuts down

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Business

source: BOPA 08 January, 2009 RAMOTSWA – At least 250 employees of steel manufacturer, Tswana Steel, have lost their jobs after it resolved to close. Mr Jemister Chininga, the company’s managing director, says their operating costs had increased considerably, while revenues had plunged. This was mainly due to increases in the cost of raw materials [...]

South Africa: Airlines are Expecting Further Turbulence

8 January, 2009 in South Africa

source: allAfrica Business Day (Johannesburg) Julius Baumann 8 January 2009 Johannesburg — DESPITE fuel prices dropping to four-year lows at the end of last month, the airline industry ended the year on a dismal note with little to look forward to . Data released this week by the International Air Transport Association (Iata) show that [...]

Colliery fails production target again

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Business, Mining, Morupule, Palapye

source: BOPA 08 January, 2009 PALAPYE – Morupule Colliery failed to reach its coal production target in 2008 as was the case in the previous year. The failure of the Debswana owned coalmine to reach its budgeted coal production, was revealed by the Morupule Mine Manager, Mr Albert Milton when speaking during the seasonal party [...]

South Africa: `Stop deporting Zimbabweans`

8 January, 2009 in South Africa, Zimbabwe

source: News24 08/01/2009 13:30 – (SA) Johannesburg – Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thursday urged South Africa to stop deporting Zimbabweans fleeing the humanitarian disaster in their country and grant them temporary shelter instead. “To avoid deportation from South Africa, Zimbabweans currently have no option but to claim asylum, placing even greater pressure on a system [...]

Botswana diamonds `lure` African Queen from Mozambique

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Business, Mining

source: Mmegi WANETSHA MOSINYI Staff Writer Canada-based African Queen Mines has abandoned its Braganza gold project in Mozambique to focus on priority targets in Botswana and Namibia. The company last month announced that it had discovered diamondiferous kimberlites in the Okavango.African Queen said results of geochemical sampling from its Okavango property confirmed the presence of [...]

South Africa: No relief as fuel prices fall

8 January, 2009 in South Africa

source: IOL January 08 2009 at 10:02AM By Nompumelelo Magwaza Taxi fares and food prices are not likely to go down after a decrease in fuel prices. Although KwaZulu-Natal taxi associations have welcomed the drop in fuel prices they have indicated that taxi fares will remain unchanged. Petrol prices decreased by R1,65 a litre as [...]

HIV/AIDS hits Morupule Colliery

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Business, Mining, Morupule, Palapye

source: BOPA 08 January, 2009 PALAPYE – Botswana’s largest producer of coal, Morupule Colliery Limited is grappling with a high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate at more than 32. The Morupule Mine Manager, Mr Albert Milton, delivered the bad news during the Morupule Coillery employees Christmas party. Mr Milton said that the prevalence rate was an indication [...]

Metal price plunge triggers job cuts at BCL

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Business, Mining

source: Mmegi ONALENNA MODIKWA Staff Writer SELEBI-PHIKWE: BCL mine in Selebi Phikwe has announced that it will retrench 348 employees as a result of the commodity market crunch that has seen the metal prices dropping below the mine’s break even point. Nickel prices have dropped by 61 percent, copper by 47 percent and cobalt by [...]

Beer prices up next week

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Business

source: BOPA 07 January, 2009 GABORONE – Beer and soft drink prices are set to increase next Monday as Kgalagadi Breweries Limited has announced another price increase after the government imposed a 30 per cent alcohol levy late last year. KBL’s corporate affairs and strategy director, Mr Thapelo Letsholo, said the price of beer will [...]

South Africa: Hackers blow whistle on banks

8 January, 2009 in South Africa

source: IOL Beauregard Tromp January 07 2009 at 11:50AM Hackers have blown the whistle on banking fees – in a report banks hoped to keep buried. The Competition Commission, the authors of the 590-page report, had originally blacked out certain sections, which banks claimed were confidential. The commission has now opened a criminal case against [...]

BCP demands electric border fence for Bobirwa

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Zimbabwe

source: Mmegi ONALENNA MODIKWA Staff Writer SELEBI PHIKWE: Urgent implementation of delayed government plans to put up an electric fence along the country’s border with Zimbabwe will alleviate rampant cross border crime, according to a petition sent to Minister of Justice, Defense and Security, Dikgakgamatso Seretse, by the opposition Botswana Congress Party. The petition was [...]

Zimbabwe: MISA urges mobile firms to reconsider charging in forex

8 January, 2009 in Zimbabwe

source: SW Radio Africa By Lance Guma 07 January 2008 The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has expressed concern that the charging for mobile phone services in foreign currency by all the major networks is seriously impeding the right of Zimbabweans to communicate. Many people interviewed by Newsreel say they can no longer buy [...]

`Silly season` good business for the leisure sector

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Business

source: Mmegi LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI Correspondent Business was booming for most of the hospitality sector’s operations during the festive season. Chirne Christensen, the Marketing Manager of the Peermont group which owns and manages the Grand Palm Hotel, Casino and Convention Resort, the Mondior Hotel and Metcourt Hotels, says there was good business throughout the holidays. He [...]

Crucial MDC indaba begins in Johannesburg

8 January, 2009 in Zimbabwe

source: SW Radio Africa By Tichaona Sibanda 7 January 2009 Will they or won’t they? Only the top leadership of the MDC who are meeting in Johannesburg have the answer to this four month-long guessing game that has kept Zimbabweans on tenterhooks, since talks to form a new government stalled last year. All eyes are [...]

3 600 farmers get ISPAAD seeds

8 January, 2009 in Botswana, Business

source: BOPA 07 January, 2009 SEROWE – Some 3600 farmers in Serowe have so far received free seeds from the Ministry of Agriculture through the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture (ISPAAD). Mr Kabelo Molotsi, the Technical Officer, Farm Mechanization in the ministry’s Serowe district office, said the farmers have been given 6700 bags of [...]