PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT, ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

Terror on Tuesday

SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS

Waterfront project clears finance hurdle
The Durban unicity approved a finance package yesterday for the city's R657 million Waterfront marine theme park but refused to divulge details of the deal until next month. "We've been waiting for this for 26 years, so another month [won't matter]," said Andrzej Kiepiela, the mayor's spokesperson, citing the desire to have all stakeholders around the same table as the reason for the delay.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Point waterfront development is set to take off next month
DURBAN The long-awaited Point waterfront development will be officially launched in mid-October after the R657m financing package for the marine theme park, which will kick-start the venture, went through the final tweaking yesterday.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Durban and USAid sign grant agreement
DURBAN A $750000 grant agreement signed this week between the Durban unicity and US Agency for International Development (USAid) was but one part of the $50m annual commitment the government agency has towards SA development.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Tenders issued for Durban port berths
As part of the R1,34-billion Port of Durban Development 2005 project, National Ports Authority will be building five new deep-water berths to replace under-utilised shallow-water berths, reports port engineer Patrick Raw.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Colliers RMS aims for comeback
New CEO Odendaal ordered to put group on top again after its founding directors are ousted COLLIERS RMS's new CEO, Jaco Odendaal, has been ordered to reassert the group as SA's leading property services business. The instruction was issued last week...
(©www.bday.co.za)

Property shouldn't be out of bounds
Larendra Beni sees it as his mission to attract and develop South Africans from disadvantaged backgrounds into careers in the property industry. Beni is KwaZulu-Natal's regional manager of Propnet, the property division of Transnet. It is his job to turn around and make good returns on Transnet's commercial property portfolio. "The opportunities in property are immense, and capacity still exists for a lot more people in the built environment," he says.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Major contributors to job creation
THE potentially harmful social effects of casinos can be questioned, but it is a regulated industry that contributes to job creation and to the economy, says Howard Berchowitz, owner of the Piggs Peak casino.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Property players woo exhibition's selectors
LOCAL property players will be turning on the charm in the next few weeks in a bid to woo the team that will be selecting 13 organisations for the SA national pavilion at Mipim 2002.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Interest in Gautrain project steams ahead
The world's largest rolling stock manufacturers, rail operators and financiers are keen to buy into Gauteng's proposed rapid rail system. If undertaken as proposed, the R7 billion Gautrain project will link Johannesburg, Sandton, Pretoria and Johannesburg International Airport through 80km of new rail lines by 2006. Project co-ordinator Jack van der Merwe said this week four of the major rolling stock manufacturers, including Bombardier, Alstom and Siemens, had attended a conference for investors in Sandton this week.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Concor set for further expansion
CONSTRUCTION Group Concor managed to bounce back to profitability in the year to June, and is set for further expansion. This followed a decision to close down its loss-reporting property division.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Troubled constructor in turnaround
Mid-sized South African construction company Concor is in the throes of a far- reaching restructuring exercise in order to reposition the once troubled company for growth.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Basil Read interim h'line loss per share 63.2c
Engineering and construction company Basil Read on Friday reported a headline loss per share of 63.2 cents for the six months ended June 30 compared with EPS of 4.2 cents a year ago.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Firm attempts biggest shutdown ever
South African synthetic fuels (synfuels) giant Sasol Synthetic Fuels (SSF) is gearing up for the largest shutdown it has ever executed, consisting of more than 80 000 activities and 600 000 workhours, reports shutdown co-ordinator Raymond Owen.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Ceramic posts good results for year to July
CERAMIC Industries, the tile and sanitaryware manufacturer, has produced sound results for the year to end July, but its share price closed 13,24% lower yesterday in keeping with the trend on the JSE Securities Exchange SA.
(©www.bday.co.za)

NEWS FROM AFRICA

Sasol deal will limit profit
CAPE TOWN Sasol has put on a brave face following a deal which will prevent it from making excessive profit from its planned R10bn pipeline project to bring gas from Mozambique into SA. An agreement was announced yesterday between government and the petrochemicals and synfuels giant which will ensure that the price Sasol will charge for the imported gas is not excessive.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Idi Amin building in Uganda
KAMPALA Former dictator Idi Amin, who has lived in exile in Saudi Arabia since his 1979 downfall, is building a house in his home village in Uganda for some of his 48 children, the Sunday Vision newspaper reported yesterday.
(©www.bday.co.za)

HOUSING NEWS AND LAND ISSUES

Jail proposed for land grabbers
Changes to law to criminalise invasions will include up to two-year sentence, fine or both
(©www.bday.co.za)

Courts to decide on fate of scenic beauty
To many Wiehahn, owner of land on the slopes of Table Mountain, is just the custodian of an asset that belongs to SA
(©www.bday.co.za)

Property Rates Bill 'not punitive'
The Property Rates Bill, which is expected to be enacted early next year, is not designed to be "punitive" but to regulate property rates in accordance with the Constitution, says the provincial and local government minister
(©www.bday.co.za)

PAC refuses to explain farm murder claims
THE Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) stood its ground yesterday, saying it would not be hauled before any body to explain its allegation that farm killings were politically motivated.
(©www.bday.co.za)

MINING NEWS

Batepro painted into a corner
BATEPRO is worried that it is heading for a bottleneck. This innovative company has evolved from providing certain skilled services for those engaged in the extraction of minerals to become a far more rounded service provider...
(©www.bday.co.za)

Senet wins Uzbekistan 4m gold mine order
GERMISTON engineering and project management company Senet said yesterday that it had won a 4m order for four conveyors and a tripper car for a gold mine in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Group's hopes rest on seabed crawler State-of-the-art vehicle must deliver
THE Namibian Minerals Corporation's (Namco's) Ya Toivo marine mining vessel sailed from Cape Town harbour in April carrying the state-of-the-art Nam 2 seabed crawler and the future of the group
(©www.bday.co.za)

Investment boosts province
DEMAND for residential property in several Northern Province centres is set to increase dramatically as new commercial and industrial projects worth R2,4bn come on stream, says Homenet regional convenor Jack Schofield.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Affirmative action moving slowly
AFFIRMATIVE action in the estate agency industry is moving slowly, says Halley Properties CEO Cecil Halley.
(©www.bday.co.za)

US terror likely to slow local market
Property commentators stunned by the scale of the disaster unfolding in the US said last night it was too soon to predict how big an effect the multiple terrorist attacks would have on the local real estate market, but noted that it was unlikely to escape the immediate impact on all sectors of the world economy.
(©www.property24.co.za)

Assets wiped out as flat values fall
Billions of rands have been wiped off the personal asset tallies of hundreds of property owners with a decline of as much as 87 percent in the value of flats in South Africa's inner cities over the past seven years.
(©www.property24.co.za)

Stands well-priced at The Highlands
The Cavaleros Group, Standard Bank Properties and Sable Homes have joined forces to create a new residential estate to the east of Dainfern in Fourways , the 'new city of the North'.
(©www.property24.co.za)

Sectional Title: Noise and nuisance
Many nuisance complaints in sectional title (ST) schemes are about noise – and especially, at this time of year, about banging, hammering, drilling and cutting noises as sections are renovated.
(©www.property24.co.za)

The history of interior design
In the modern world, human life experience is largely played out in interior spaces. We may love the out-of-doors for the sense of open air and sky, for the escape it offers from life inside enclosure, but the very joy of being outside reflects the reality that so much of life is spent inside.
(©www.arcitectureweek.com)

Expanding your practice through web marketing
Every architecture firm, it seems, has a web site, but how effective are these sites as marketing tools? It depends how you use them. During the 1990s, many firms placed their billboards on the information highway by setting up a promotional web site. It might have included a portfolio of work, some high-sounding statements of design philosophy, perhaps a client list, and news of current projects.
(©www.arcitectureweek.com)

ISO Certification: How to Get it and Why
More organizations are becoming ISO-certified than ever before, and many are limiting their business relationships to similarly certified companies. Learn how your company could benefit from ISO certification.
(©edge.lowe.com)

CPD SEMINAR
The Gauteng Chapter are also presenting a CPD seminar shortly:
When? 18 September 2001 at 14:00 18:00 (13:30 for 14:00)
Where? Room 3-3, Boukunde Building, Main Campus, University of Pretoria Lynnwood Road, Pretoria
What? VALUE MANAGEMENT: CREATING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
How long? Four hour afternoon lecture Points?
Category 1: 4 hours - 8 points
How much? R150.00 per delegate
Browse to http://www.asaqs.co.za to dowload the full program.

What is earned value management?
Earned value is a management technique that relates resource planning to schedules and to technical cost and schedule requirements.
You will find more links at the main site at http://www.acq.osd.mil/pm/index.html
(©www.acq.osd.mil)

The Value of Project Management
Continuing with The Value of Project Management Series we now take a look at the next step in the management process:
8.0 Manage Documents
The larger a project is, the more difficult it becomes to smoothly share information between all the team members and stakeholders. This is especially true when more than one person works on large deliverables. This step discusses the storing and sharing of electronic and paper documents.
Click here to read on.
(©www.tenstep.com)

Remain updated on the BEP Convention
The Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS) together with other built environment professional associations are jointly organising a conference in May 2002. The theme is “Sustainable Development” and on of the main objectives of the convention is to formulate a joint opinion from the professional in anticipation of our participation in the “Earth Summit” (Rio + 10) which will be held in South Africa in September 2002.
Click here to find out more

New members to the CUG
A warm word of welcome to the following members who have joined us in the CUG during the past week:

Matlali Panyane
Arthur Petersen

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.