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PROPERTY
DEVELOPMENT, ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION
SA
firm to supply 205 km of pipe
Local pipe manufacturer Hall Longmore, a Murray & Roberts company,
has won a multimillion rand contract to supply line pipe for the
205 km South African portion of Sasol’s Mozambique to South
Africa Natural Gas Pipeline project.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Cluster
owners need permission to resell
Buyers signing up for home in a group housing or “cluster”
development should be aware that they will probably not be able
to resell that property without the permission of the homeowners’
association (HOA).
(©www.property24.co.za)
Don
Group transfers its property portfolio to Ellwain for R105m
Pretoria - Shareholders of the Don Group, the listed suite hotel
chain, on Friday approved the transfer of the group's property portfolio
to Ellwain, a private consortium, for R105 million.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
Jigsaw
aims to double its 8,5c headline earnings a share
Pretoria - Jigsaw Holdings, the listed property investment and management
company, was targeting to double its headline earnings a share for
the full year from 8,5c in the six months to August this year, Gian
Sdoya, Jigsaw's chief executive, said yesterday.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
This
may be the last summer for overheating property sector
This could be the last Christmas for investors with a preference
for the listed property sector of the JSE Securities Exchange SA
as fundamentals in the property industry deteriorate. Having outperformed
equities and bonds in the past three years, the sector has been
receiving a tally of praises. For its lack of volatility it has
been declared a safe haven for risk-averse investors.
(©www.bday.co.za)
R1,7bn
economy booster under way
The R1,7-billion initiative of the Gauteng provincial government,
Blue IQ, set to boost economic infrastructure development around
around the tourism, technology transport and high value-added manufacturing
sectors is well under way.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
The
leader of the top 10 project show
The global outreach by the Gauteng Provincial Government to kindle
interest in its R1,7-billion mega-project initiative is eliciting
encouraging response with only the first leg of the international
programme completed and two still to go.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Gauteng
will spend R200m to make CBD livable
In a bold move to provide housing in the Johannesburg city centre
and avoid having a city that "dies at 5pm", the Gauteng
government has launched plans to spend at least R200m turning parts
of the central business district into residential areas.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Court
the cornerstone for further development
South Africa’s new Constitutional Court will serve as the anchor
for further developments at the Constitution Hill site in Johannesburg,
said Brian Orlin, Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) project
manager for Constitution Hill.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
BEE
wins court construction contract
Black economic empowerment (BEE) enterprise Rainbow Construction
has been awarded the R87,5-million tender for the construction of
South Africa’s new Constitutional Court and related buildings
in a joint venture with WBHO.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Development
fund makes up for fewer DBSA loans
Johannesburg - The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) will
have spent 20 percent of its R80 million development fund by the
end of the year, to infuse municipalities and other clients with
the necessary capacity to develop basic services.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
Murray
& Roberts -WBHO wins R460m deal
Cape Town - A joint venture between construction firms Murray &
Roberts and WBHO has won the principal contract for the Cape Town
convention centre hotel, the R460 million ArabellaSheraton Grand
Hotel Cape Town on the foreshore.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
Liberty
Life may be shopping at Canal Walk
Cape Town – Canal Walk at Century City in Cape Town, one of
the largest shopping centres in the southern hemisphere, was likely
to be sold to Liberty Life Properties in a deal expected to be announced
later this week, industry sources said yesterday.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
Old
Mutual wins UCT deal
Old Mutual Properties' facilities management arm has won a contract
to survey the University of Cape Town's property assets. It will
produce a list of property assets owned by the university. As asset
surveys are normally followed by condition audits and the setting
up of planned maintenance regimes, the contract could pave the way
for Old Mutual to become the university's property and property
asset manager.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Risk
study casts doubt on Zeconi plant site
Capricorn Business and Technology Park's developers are keeping
their fingers crossed that Zeconi Optic Fibre will settle on their
Muizenberg site. Engineers involved in erecting the R250m Zeconi
plant have cast doubt on the viability of setting it up in the park.
It requires a tower between 12 and 15 storeys high, which must be
supported by strong foundations. This can be achieved by using pilings
that reach down to bed rock. Bed rock at Capricorn is found at depths
of 18m to 50m, which by normal standards is too deep to be economically
viable.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Gateway
to Robben Island now open
The R40m Gateway To Robben Island project, not to be confused with
the Robben Island Museum, opened on Saturday, two years after the
island was declared a World Heritage Site. The centre, built at
the Clocktower Precinct of Cape Town's Victoria & Alfred Waterfront,
embraces the vision and collective experience of all political activists,
including those who served their sentences in other apartheid prisons.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Firm
wins dock-renovation contract
Cape construction firm Vusela Construction has been awarded one
of the contracts for the continuing maintenance programme being
carried out at Simon’s Town Naval Dockyard.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Demand
drives strong Natal revival
Shortage of quality stock is a feature of the Natal property market,
with demand rising on both the north and south coasts of KwaZulu-Natal.
Demand is being underpinned by low interest rates and the realisation
that property is an attractive investment compared with the highly
volatile stock exchange, say local property agents and brokers.
For the moment it is still a buyer's market in most areas, they
say, but there are signs that this could soon change as demand picks
up in most areas.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Durban
can now ensure a positive travel experience
Durban International Airport can now ensure a positive travel
experience for airport users with world class lounges such as the
SAA Business Class Lounge and the British Airways Terraces Lounge,
a better quality food and beverage offering via Panarottis, Spur,
the House of Coffees and the Gass Cigar Bar.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
Upgrade
based on sound principles and research
The R125 million upgrade of Durban International Airport was based
on sound business principles and research. The Airports Company
South Africa (Acsa) factored in tourism and retail developments
such as the R1,4 billion Tsogo Sun casino, the R750 million start
to the Point Waterfront development and Gateway, the largest shopping
and entertainment complex in the southern hemisphere.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
Big
review of La Mercy airport this month
The Airports Company of South Africa's (Acsa's) board of directors
will review the report on the proposed relocation of Durban International
Airport (DIA) to La Mercy, being compiled by the company, at its
sitting this month, CEO Monhla Hlahla tells Engineering News.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
NEWS
FROM AFRICA
Chambishi
mine on course to reopen
The Zambian subsidiary of the China Non-Ferrous Metals Corporation
(NFC) said yesterday that a $150m rehabilitation of its Chambishi
mine, which began last year, remained on course with the completion
of the first phase. According to Wang Peng, spokesman for NFC Africa,
which owns Chambishi mine, the firm installed new equipment shipped
from China and redesigned the mine to ensure faster, more efficient
extraction of copper concentrates.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Nam
harbour contract for South African firm
The Namibian division of StonCor Africa’s Pro-Struct has played
a significant role in a massive concrete and steel repair programme
in Walvish Bay Harbour where extensive rehabilitation of the harbour’s
syncro-lift dry-dock has been necessary.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Moz
natural gas to SA by 2004
With the South African Parliament’s unanimous approval of the
Gas Bill, Sasol’s pursuit to bring natural gas from Mozambique
to South Africa is set to become a reality during the first half
of 2004.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
$199-m
budget for gasfield developments
As part of the $1,3-billion venture to bring natural gas from Mozambique
to South Africa by 2004, Sasol Petroleum International will undertake
an initial $199-million investment project to develop the Temane
and Pande gasfields in Mozambique and explore for additional gas
reserves.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
HOUSING
NEWS AND LAND ISSUES
State
takes a different approach to housing
Government is moving to accelerate housing delivery in a departure
from the way it has been implemented, while also seeking to curb
land grabs. Currently, subsidised housing policy apparently does
not take into account as it is supposed to, people's migratory patterns
from the rural areas to the cities. There has also been the anomaly,
according to one official, where rural mud houses have not been
considered as adequate shelter, while less durable informal settlements
were.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Tougher
land grab proposals on ice
Government has done an about-turn on plans for a more aggressive
law against land grabs, putting the proposals on ice while it focuses
on developing and improving its policy on the controversial issue.
Housing Minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele moved quickly to outlaw
land grabs after the high-profile incident at Bredell, Kempton Park,
in August.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Squatter-camp
test for African Renaissance
Little has changed for the black residents of the sprawling Orange
Farm informal settlement in the south of greater Johannesburg, 11
years after former president Nelson Mandela was freed. Unemployment
remains high and the future is bleak, reflecting the unfulfilled
expectations of millions of black South Africans. Attempts by Mandela
and President Thabo Mbeki to bring the black majority into the economic
mainstream have created a few rich blacks. But that has made little
difference to people living at Orange Farm, a community of squatters
typical of poor black South Africans.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Zim
court rules land grab is legal
Zimbabwe's supreme court has declared the government's controversial
land-grab legal, Zimbabwe press reported on Tuesday. The Herald
said that the court decided that the government's actions in seizing
nearly nine million ha of white owned land - about 85 percent of
all land owned by white farmers was lawful, and did not violate
the constitution. It dismissed charges by the farmers' union that
the government had failed to restore the rule of law on the country's
stricken commercial farms. A total of 39 farm workers and nine white
farmers have been murdered since February last year when state-backed
militias began their violent invasions of over 2000 white-owned
farms.
(©www.bday.co.za)
MINING
NEWS
Investec
may back potential Kumba buyer
Investec may emerge as a backer of the Tiso Consortium, an empowerment-focused
investment group, which plans to buy a R400m stake in mining company
Kumba Resources. Kumba, in line with its stated strategy to bring
in black empowerment partners across all areas of its business,
said last week it had granted Tiso the right to buy a 5% "anchor"
stake in it before the end of March. The deal with Tiso has also
been interpreted as part of Kumba's defensive strategy against a
possible foreign suitor.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Iscor
share price surges, staff shrinks
The share price of integrated steel producer Iscor continued to
surge yesterday, as its workforce continued to shrink. Iscor steel
has been trading separately from mining group Kumba since Monday
last week, when the former parastatal was unbundled. Yesterday saw
the price of the stand-alone steel stock reach a new post-unbundling
high of R9,40, a gain on the day of 15,3%.
(©www.bday.co.za)
AngloGold
holds off higher broker fees
AngloGold Ltd, the world's biggest gold producer, on Tuesday said
it would defer its offer to increase broker handling fees in its
takeover bid for Australian producer Normandy Mining Ltd. The decision
follows news that U.S. group Newmont Mining Corp, which has launched
a rival bid for Normandy, had made an application to the Australian
Takeovers Panel challenging the modified broker fee proposal, AngloGold
said.
(©www.bday.co.za)
ARM
set to double output
African Rainbow Minerals, which plans to list its gold assets in
the form of ARM Gold on the JSE Securities Exchange SA next year,
is projecting net full-year earnings in excess of R1,33bn. The company,
which started in 1994 with a workforce of 30, now employs 8000 people
operating two mines, Orkney in the Vaal Reefs and Welkom in the
Free State. These mines together produce 550000oz of gold a year.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Clock
ticking in bidding war for Normandy
AngloGold is pulling out all the stops to get as many Normandy shareholders
on its side as possible before its offer for the Australian company
closes on December 27. The clock is ticking and with about three
weeks to go before AngloGold will have to draw a line under its
bid, Australia's largest producer of gold has decided to increase
brokers' handling fees for transactions of Normandy shareholders
who opt to accept the AngloGold offer.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Billiton
green lights new coal mine
BHP Billiton, the dual-listed Anglo-Australian resources and energy
group on Monday said it would proceed with the construction of the
Dendrobium metallurgical coal mine in the Illawarra region of New
South Wales, Australia, at a cost of $126-million. Construction
of the mine is to start immediately, first production is expected
in 2005 and full production in 2006, the group said.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Gold
producers are thriving on stable prices, weak rand
Johannesburg - Gold producers will find their Christmas stockings
stuffed to the brim with cash after raking in record profits from
sales of the metal in rand terms.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
ARM-Harmony
plans to add 3 000 Free State jobs
Johannesburg - A change of management at four AngloGold mines acquired
by a joint venture established by Harmony Gold Mining and African
Rainbow Minerals (ARM) could create 3 000 jobs in the Free State,
ARM said yesterday.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
R26m
fund steps in after crisis
Orkney - The Vaal Reefs Disaster Trust Fund held its annual general
meeting last week to explain the benefits of the fund and how the
money had been used for beneficiaries since its inception in 1996.
The fund was established after a cage accident in 1995 at the Vaal
Reefs mine killed 104 workers. Most of its beneficiaries are dependents
of mineworkers killed on the job.
(©www.busrep.co.za)
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LAST
BUMPER ISSUE FOR 2001
