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"Obviously,
it had had enough." - Pretoria State Theatre acting CEO Sikkie Kajie.
Rescue workers sift through the rubble
on Thursday after the dome of the Strijdom Square monument in central
Pretoria collapsed in the early hours of the morning, taking with
it a bronze bust of apartheid leader JG Strijdom and a huge section
of the concrete slab over the State Theatre's underground garage.
Experts have blamed the collapse on structural failure, concluding
that the coincidence with the 40th anniversary of apartheid SA's
Republic Day was just that - a coincidence. Pic: Colin Hossack
On the same day, Internet portal WOZA, a pioneer
in South African cyberspace, announced that
it will close with immediate effect. WOZA co-founder
Kevin Davie says that the network of sites has shown 37% growth
to 5.5 million pages a month in the last quarter as measured by
internet standards body Abis.
(© www.woza.co.za)
Wanted:
advisers for a R120bn portfolio
Public works to call for tenders from multidisciplinary teams in
the private sector
(© www.bday.co.za)
Vaal
Triangle casino takes shape
Emerald Safari Resort, a R240m casino development on the banks of
the Vaal River outside Vanderbijlpark, could be a catalyst for development
in the town, or sink it with the social ills which accompany gambling
(©www.bday.co.za)
$1,5bn
Maputo iron and steel project to advance
Mozambique and the US oil and gas company Enron Corporation have
signed a $1,5 billion agreement for the Maputo Iron and Steel Project
(MISP), it was disclosed on Monday
(©www.bday.co.za)
Domayne
lifts profit base
Domayne Leasing Consultants is looking at property investment broking
as a new source of business, having concluded deals worth R150m
in 12 months
(©www.bday.co.za)
Consortium
assembled to develop R20m Steenberg retail centre
Retail Africa Property Developments, headed by Angus Mackay, has
assembled a consortium of Cape Town investors to develop a R20m
retail centre at Steenberg, on the edge of the Westlake development
in Constantia
(© www.bday.co.za)
Property
portfolio on stream
LIBERTY Properties, the property management division of the Liberty
Group, has automated its billing, collection and financial systems
to control the day-to-day running of its R11,5bn managed property
portfolio. Harvey Stott, head of asset management at Liberty Properties,
says the division manages R11,5bn worth of property assets for the
Liberty Group, Standard Bank Group Retirement Fund, Mines Pension
Funds, Transnet Pension Fund and other third-party consortium investors.
(© www.bday.co.za)
ArabellaSheraton
is to develop Cape Town hotel
CAPE TOWN The ArabellaSheraton Group has been named by the Convention
Centre Company (Convenco) as the preferred developer and operator
for the Cape Town International Convention Centre's hotel. According
to an economic impact study done on behalf of ArabellaSheraton,
the R400m hotel development will give rise to an estimated 8500
direct and indirect jobs during construction, with 2200 more jobs
created once operations are under way.
(© www.bday.co.za)
Bateman
in $900m Russian fuel project
ENGINEERING and project manager Bateman has won a major new contract
in Russia to develop a Siberian oil and gas field and construct
an oil refinery, in a project worth about 900m. CE John Herselman
said Bateman had been approached by the local community in the Sakha
autonomous region, which had wanted to develop the promising oil
and gas reserves but lacked the business background to put the project
together. "We supported them in their bid, which we were successful
in," he said. "Now we have been asked to lead the development of
the field."
(© www.bday.co.za)
Pretty
penny needed to light SA torch of liberty
Grandiose ideas don't come much grander than Port Elizabeth's latest:
a gigantic statue of Nelson Mandela at the entrance to the harbour,
bigger even than New York's 93m-tall Statue of Liberty
(© www.bday.co.za)
Inner-City
redevelopment
Johannesburg's struggling central business district (CBD) is set
to become one of the biggest benefactors of the Gauteng government's
commitment to increase fixed investment.
(© www.fm.co.za)
Durban
CBD
To outsiders, there is a certain charm about Durban's Grey Street
precinct. Its rundown buildings are crammed with bustling bazaars,
crowded shops and alley stalls.
(© www.fm.co.za)
Taken from Personal Wealth Quarterly Second Quarter
2000 - see link in Special Reports
(© www.fm.co.za)
Analysis
of South African Office Market Returns A Focus on the Gauteng Cbd
Market
The year 2000 South African IPD/SAPIX (South African Property Information
Exchange) report offers an interesting insight into the returns
of the South African office investment market and the Gauteng CBD
office market in particular.
(© www.viruly.co.za)
Cape
CBD crime rate drops by half
The crime rate in Cape Town's Central Business District was slashed
by up to 46 percent in the first four months of this year since
the implementation of a city improvement district in November last
year.
(© www.iol.co.za)
Johannesburg
CBD to boom 'within 3 years'
The Gauteng government has projected that within the next three
years the Johannesburg central business district (CBD) will be booming
and property values will rise dramatically. This assessment was
given by Gauteng MEC for Finance and Economic Affairs Jabu Moleketi,
addressing an Inner City Investors briefing hosted by the City of
Johannesburg.
(© www.iol.co.za)
Architects
blow away the energy woes
London - The Royal Institute of British Architects plans to make
its headquarters the first building in London to be powered by wind
energy, according to a press report on Friday. The highly rated
institute has lodged an application with Westminster council for
permission to erect a wind-measuring machine on the roof of its
offices in Portland Place.
(© www.iol.co.za)
Empty
buildings to shelter homeless children
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya has started moves to turn
empty buildings into shelters for homeless children in the Johannesburg
and Pretoria central business districts.
(© www.iol.co.za)
Taxi
millions blown in failed KZN scheme
Millions of rands in taxpayers' money have been blown in a failed
state-funded scheme set up by the KwaZulu-Natal department of transport
to empower taxi operators and drive the recapitalisation of the
taxi industry in the province. Launched amid much fanfare in Durban
two years ago with seed capital of R8-million from the provincial
department of transport, the Umthombo Investment Company has now
ground to a halt, with 11 of its 14 taxi co-operatives having collapsed.
(© www.iol.co.za)
Upgrade
raises Cape Town's parliament hopes
A huge spending programme to upgrade parliament and its environs
has raised hopes that the government has been convinced to keep
parliament in Cape Town.
(© www.iol.co.za)
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| On
the side... |
DA
launches first unicity budget
Party approves a flat rates increase in an attempt to avoid
legal challenges CAPE TOWN The Democratic Alliance (DA) yesterday
stamped its mark on the unicity council by instituting a 7%
across-the-board rates increase in the first budget to be passed...
(© www.bday.co.za) |
Aveng
shrugs off losses in Australia
AVENG, the listed construction group, insisted yesterday that
its results for the current year would not be badly dented by
recent losses in an Australian subsidiary. This followed market
concern at the news that McConnell Dowell, an Australian engineering
and construction company in which Aveng has a 64% stake, is
not likely to trade profitably for the six months to June. An
analyst said last night: "This development could lead to a reduction
of a few percent in Aveng's profit. However, this Australian
operation is not a major component of Aveng's business."
(© www.bday.co.za) |
Hijacking
victim wants to reverse negative perceptions about SA
CARLOS Pone, the local CE of ABB, the Swiss-based international
construction and engineering company, has called for closer
efforts by business and government to reverse growing negative
perceptions about SA.
(© www.bday.co.za) |
Avmin
heading for big platinum league
Joint venture with Impala could yield up to 170000oz a year
ANGLOVAAL Mining (Avmin) could soon be playing in the bigger
platinum league after acquiring the rights for the platinumrich
Dwars Rivier farm in Mpumalanga in a joint venture with Impala
Platinum. Avmin and Impala paid R551m to acquire the platinum
and associated surface rights. Talk in the market was that the
property could fetch R300mR500m. Other parties, including Lonmin
Platinum and mining house Metorex, were believed to have taken
a close look and tendered for the property.
(©
www.bday.co.za) |
V&A
revamp aims to attract investors
CAPE TOWN The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront Company is to be
restructured in a bid to open the way for outside investment.
Company MD Derick van der
Merwe said yesterday the existing company will be restructured
into a holding company, V&A Holdings, under which will sit V&A
Management, V&A Marina and V&A Property. In the present company
structure, Transnet owns V&A Management, and the three Transnet
pension funds together own V&A Marina and V&A Property.
(© www.bday.co.za) |
Numsa
disappointed at first round of talks
THE National Union of Metal Workers of SA (Numsa) has expressed
disappointment at the failure of the Steel Engineering Industry
Federation of SA (Seifsa) to table a wage offer at the first
round of wage negotiations on Friday.
(© www.bday.co.za)
|
Mines
urged to modernise survival gear
LIVES are lost in SA mines because of failure to introduce state-of-the-art
survival equipment, says Wouter van Deventer, CE of Kairos,
which makes the equipment.
(©
www.bday.co.za) |
Strike
threatens 200 jobs at Palabora
TWO hundred miners could lose their jobs at the Palabora Mining
Company if the two-week-old strike at the mine continues past
tomorrow.
(©
www.bday.co.za)
|
Mozambican
steel plant a threat to SA producers
Tax breaks and cheap power accords expected to make for 'lowest
costs in world',
(©
www.bday.co.za) |
Prison
population almost back to square one
SA's efforts to reduce prison overcrowding are in trouble. Despite
having released thousands of prisoners in September and October
last year, the number of inmates had spiralled back to nearly
the same point by February this year.
(©
www.bday.co.za)
|
Investments
rise 43% to R412,1m
SMALL business financial services provider Business Partners
has increased its investments in small business projects by
43%, to R412,1m from R288,2m, for the year to March 31.
(© www.bday.co.za)
|
Strong
organic growth for Investec
Reflecting 22 years of uninterrupted growth, SA specialist banker
Investec reported a 25,5% growth in headline earnings to R1,3bn
for the year to the end of March
(©
www.bday.co.za)
|
Incubation
centre is bent on hatching jobs
A R3m incubation centre designed to help start-up technology
companies has been opened by the Cape Town Information Technology
Initiative (Citi). Dubbed the Bandwidth Barn, the private and
public sector initiative is in Lower Long Street...
(© www.bday.co.za) |
Durban
hit by 28% rise in price of water
Rising financial shortfalls and backlogs in water delivery to
poor areas in the Durban unicity have prompted an "unavoidable
tariff increase" of between 7 percent and 33,3 percent, with
an average hike of 28 percent, for the city's residents.
(© www.iol.co.za) |
Massive
fraud scam uncovered in East Cape
A massive fraud syndicate involving government employees and
suppliers has been uncovered by Eastern Cape police and the
provincial finance department and has already led to the murder
of one of those involved, Finance MEC Enoch Godongwana said
on Monday.
(© www.iol.co.za) |
Richway's
A-Grade strategy prevails in property sector
Pretoria - Richway Retail Properties, the listed property company,
was likely to become a core holding for investors in the listed
property sector if its management successfully achieved its
aim of creating a focused retail fund with sufficient critical
mass and exposure to A-Grade regional shopping centres, according
to an analysis by Barnard Jacobs Mellet (BJM) Securities.
(© www.iol.co.za) |
Cape
Town awaits unveiling of its master plan
A five-year, 187-page master plan for Cape Town, which includes
detailed studies of the huge challenges facing the city, will
be unveiled at a special budget meeting on Wednesday. The report,
entitled the Interim Integrated Development Programme (IDP),
will be the basis on which mayor Peter Marais and his executive
will run the city during their term of office.
(© www.iol.co.za) |
|
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Development
has spin-off for residential sector in Eastern Cape
WELL-priced residential stock is selling almost as fast as it comes
on to the market in Port Elizabeth, says Alan Hancock of Pam Golding
Properties, who is upbeat about the city's prospects
(© www.bday.co.za)
New
rates for home owners
THE Democratic Alliance in Johannesburg urged home owners yesterday
to carefully scrutinise municipal bills and the metro council's
recent valuation of properties.
(© www.bday.co.za)
Latent
defects and voetstoets clauses
According to your agreement of sale, the house is sold voetstoets
... but what does this mean?
(© www.bondnet.co.za)
Western
Cape prices on the rise again
The value of Western Cape residential property sales totalled R2,
1bn in the four months to end April – an annualised increase of
8,3 percent – according to the Residential Property Price Ranger.
(© www.news24.cm)
KZN
market holding to positive pattern
The KwaZulu-Natal property market continues to perform well, showing
buoyancy at the upper end of the price spectrum. That’s the message
from the Re/Max group, which is well represented throughout Natal
and the Midlands.
(© www.news24.cm)
Economic
empowerment will boost rental demand
South Africa is short of rental accommodation almost
everywhere in every income category and demand will rise, not drop,
as South Africa’s per capita income increases. So says Neville Schaefer,
CEO of residential property management company Trafalgar, who quotes
statistics from abroad to prove “it’s a fallacy that people buy
more and rent fewer homes as their wealth grows”.
(© www.news24.cm)
Make
sure that extra space is legal
Home alteration is big business these days, with
many owners adding on offices, surgeries and studios for home-based
enterprises, and others building or converting space to accommodate
ageing parents. However, says ERA Chas Everitt MD Berry Everitt,
many of these additions and alterations are being built without
proper approvals from the local authority, thanks to severe backlogs
in council planning departments and, in some cases, a desire on
the part of owners to avoid additional rates and taxes.
(© www.news24.cm)
Estate
agencies set to become one-stop financial shops
Home buyers and sellers are about to experience their own version
of “convergence” - beginning with this week’s announcement by real
estate group Jigsaw Holdings that it will add a range of insurance
and investment products to the financial services it already offers
through its estate agency networks.
(© www.news24.cm)
|
| Special reports |
|
Prizes
lie beyond the horizon
Big is often better, as in the case of steel, financial
services and other sectors with a global profile. The question
is, how will the Competition Commission, led by commissioner
Menzi Simelane, respond to the need for rationalisation
to allow for big international players in, for example,
the steel business?
(© www.fm.co.za)
COMMERCIAL
PROPERTY
The pain and the gain
(© www.fm.co.za)
|
Now
you can manage your unit trusts online, realtime!
|
Rates
Offered
|
|
|
MIN
|
AVE
|
| Floating rate |
12.70%
|
13.59%
|
| Fixed rate |
13.70%
|
14.58%
|
| Prime rate |
14.50%
|
FROM 2001-04-30 TO 2001-05-18
These are the average interest rates offered by the Bidding Banks.
Average fixed rates are higher than average variable rates, as
banks absorb the risk of interest rate movements on behalf of
the client.
(© www.bondnet.co.za)
Application
for a bond from bidding banks through BondNet
|
|
Virus hoax
A virus hoax is doing the rounds again! This time the e-mail urges
people to delete a file from their Windows directory called SULFNBK.EXE.
This is a Microsoft Windows utility that is used to restore long
file names. You should not delete this file! If you are running
a reputable antivirus program with the latest updates and receive
e-mailed virus warnings, first check the web to make sure that you
are not dealing with a hoax.
Browse to our home
page to find out more.
Seen
on our website
Final score on
our poll
The final tally indicates that 40% of respondents believe that qs
students should be taught cost management for heavy engineering
projects during their normal course of studies toward a bachelors
degree, 29% believe that an additional specialisation year will
be required and the balance of respondents would like to see a correspondence
course introduced so that they may enroll. We have not received
comment from any of the universities or technikons on the matter.
Topics
: Extended construction periods - who's to pay, who's to blame?
How should extensions of time be handled when consultants are operating
on a fixed fee basis?
Classifieds
: Q.S. with at least 5 yrs exp, in pre- and post contract work.
Must have Contractual Claims experience. Two year initial contract.
and
Third year student at UCT seeking employment during the June
vac.
and
Holiday accommodation - 3 bedroomed thatched cottage at Cintsa.
Magazine
: Giving our children what they need
CUG
Downloads : Time Weighted Internal Rate of Return. This
is the perfect tool for analyzing investment and savings programs.
Handles irregular payment amounts and dates. Allows you to compare
up to three different investment scenarios quickly and easily.
Library
: NCAC Practice Notes for advice on electronic communication, deviations
from the standard system, damage to unknown services, etc.
Get
10% discount on essential software now
We have negotiated a special deal on software that will ease your
task in handling the new JBCC, assist you in preparing feasibility
scenarios in a fraction of the time and get your fee accounts out
in a flash. Just click on the link above to make use of this offer
today!
GROW
your BUSINESS
The Business Day's new Enterprise series will help guide you through
the initial stages of setting up an enterprise -- from assessing
whether you are the stuff of which an entrepreneur is made and whether
the opportunity is worthwhile, to how to handle expansion and a
host of other common pittfalls experienced in small business. This
week they walk you through some of the paperwork you need to tackle
to comply with laws that will protect you and your business.
(© www.bday.co.za)
Gauteng Chapter
CPD Points scoring seminar -
8 Points
Computer presentation and Internet skills. To be held at the John
Moffat Building, Wits University Eastern Campus (Planetarium entrance)
on 13 June 2001 at 14h00-17h30. Cost is R150.00. Direct payments
in advance into the following account:
Account name : Gauteng Chapter of the ASAQS
Bank : ABSA
Branch : Sunnyside
Account no.: 4044991588
Please fax deposit slips
to Tjaart vd Walt at (012)318-4107
Enquiries : Roelf
Visser or Derek
Blanckensee (click to e-mail)
New members to the
CUG
We wish to welcome the following new member to the CUG:
Charlene Stuart
Cuan Nitsche
Pierre Burke
Louwrens Coetzer
Andre Crouse
Paul Schlaphoff
Estie Bodenstein
Carlien Steyn
Rhona Menzies
Please note
that your registration to the CUG will remain in force as long as
you remain a member of ASAQS and there is no need to register every
year. If you have not received an e-mail confirming your registration
contact ASAQS.
|
| Did you hear? |
| AnHow many English
council employees does it take to change a lightbulb? Doncaster
Council, in Yorkshire, is spending R45 000 to teach staff to
perform the simple task. Each course lasts about 2½ hours. "It
is a statutory duty to provide such information," the council
says. |
| Researchers for a UK Website company
say nearly 50% of office staff flirt to get their own way. Women
like to flirt with bosses, and men concentrate on junior staff.
"Functional" flirting can range from chatting up a secretary
on the phone, to using flattery for favours from colleagues.
The most popular reason is to persuade someone to do your work.
Others are to hide a mistake and to take time off. Nearly 50%
of workers admit to flirting to make their life easier, and
more than half say it makes the job "more fun". But 31% of workers
think flirting could undermine status and 17% want it banned.
|
| Seen in Maritzburg: a hearse sporting
an "Arrive Alive" sticker on the back. |
| The new Automotive Industry Development
Centre is a joint venture between the CSIR and Gauteng provincial
government to attract more motor industry investment to the
province. As part of the launch, officials prepared a glossy
information pack. In their enthusiasm to sell Gauteng, however,
they have been a little loose with facts. DaimlerChrysler builds
cars in East London, not Pretoria, where it has its corporate
HQ. Land Rover Defenders are still built by BMW, not Ford as
claimed. The AIDC even manages to get wrong the name of one
of its chief sponsors. It's the National Association of Automobile
Manufacturers, chaps, not Automotive. |
Now
read the rest of Did you Hear? in the Financial Mail
|
