Plan under way to salvage Braamfontein
PROPERTY owners in and around Braamfontein are working on a plan to prevent the district from suffering the kind of decay that sank the Johannesburg central business district (CBD) a few years ago.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Mercantile Registrars set to relocate to new offices
THE merged operations of Mercantile Registrars and Computershare are to relocate to 70 Marshal Street in the Johannesburg central business district from two city buildings, 11 Diagonal Street and 40 Fox Street. The relocation in September will leave 12000m² of vacant space in Johannesburg's landmark "diamond building", 11 Diagonal Street, which is owned by ApexHi.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Rosebank on the rise
Business is investing more in Rosebank, which until a few years ago was Gauteng's forgotten business node. But bumbling metro officials are hobbling the suburb's revival. Rosebank has been improving steadily ever since businesses formed a city-improvement organisation called Rosebank Management District (RBMD), and owners upgraded their properties, notably The Zone and The Mall.
(©www.fm.co.za)

Sandton office rentals considered reasonable
SANDTON office rentals are perceived to be the highest in the country when, in many cases, they represent the most affordable option for top grade office space, says RMB Properties director Hugh Basel. Basel says the latest SA Property Owners' Association figures indicate that the average gross rentals for A grade space in Sandton are a "reasonable" R65/m². He says this is equal to the average rental in Rosebank and Illovo and lower than the average R67/m² in neighbouring Hyde Park/Dunkeld and R70/m² in Houghton/Killarney.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Sycom adds five top office blocks to its portfolio
Pretoria - Sycom, the listed property fund, has just acquired five A-grade office blocks in the north of Johannesburg for a total of R215 million. Chris Fleming, the executive director of Corovest-NIB Property Asset Managers (Coronib), the asset managers of Sycom's portfolio, said yesterday the acquisitions would boost the value of Sycom's portfolio to R1.4 billion.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Mvelaphanda buys 50% stake in Broll
Johannesburg - Mvelaphanda Strategic Investments, the empowerment group, had acquired a 50 percent stake in Broll Properties Group, South Africa's leading property services company, which would be capitalised through the Absa Private Equity Fund to the tune of R500 million.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Residential property is regaining its lustre
Pretoria - Institutional investors were at last embracing residential property again and adding thousands of rental apartments to some key commercial properties, Neville Schaefer, the chief executive of Trafalgar Properties, the national residential property company, said yesterday.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

R75m residential project in Cape
CAPE TOWN A R75m residential property development has been launched in the Somerset Ridge area of Somerset West.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Ministers delay construction of Tusk's R187m casino complex
Durban - KwaZulu-Natal is involved in another casino wrangle, this time between Tusk Casinos and Ministers Eternal, a church group which is opposing plans to build a R187 million complex in Richards Bay. Danny Moffat, the mayor of uMhlathuze, said the church group's objections were based on town planning principles, but "the disputed site is well placed and not too close to residential areas". The municipality is a co-respondent with Tusk in the case.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Investec offers to help Sabex grow its business
Durban - Investec Bank had offered Sabex Air Brake Systems "any assistance it required" to expand its manufacturing business, George Green, the chief executive of Sabex, said yesterday.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Heritage watchdog considers prosecuting Sabex
Durban - Reeling from claims of having made unauthorised alterations to various rented premises, Sabex Air Brake Systems now faces possible prosecution from Amafa, the KwaZulu-Natal heritage watchdog, for illegally demolishing heritage property.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

SARS will put property owners on the map
THE SA Revenue Service (SARS) has started trawling through public house and car ownership records and is comparing them with information in its own database in a bid to catch tax offenders
(©www.netassets.co.za)

P21m settlement between Cape plc and asbestosis sufferers hangs in the balance
Cape Town - The P21 million settlement reached with South African victims of asbestos-related diseases could be in jeopardy. Richard Meeran, a London lawyer, said yesterday that if Cape plc, the British multinational which was going to pay victims P21 million, was named again as a co-defendant in multimillion-rand damages actions brought against four South African mining companies, the prior settlement might be at risk.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

No matter the weather in London, Investec is in a fog
Welcome to London, where Investec's shares started trading this week and immediately fell below their P8.30 listing price, succumbing to the market malaise that has led others to pull their floats.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Reopened plant to benefit 500
Durban - About 500 workers would benefit when the Keats Drift shoe factory reopened as a co-operative in October, Bongiyise Khanyile, the director of development in the department of public works, said yesterday.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Rail link may assist container movement
Durban - A feasibility study for an integrated freight rail link between Richards Bay and Durban ports and Gauteng will form part of a study to improve the efficiencies of container movements. KwaZulu-Natal minister of economic development and tourism Michael Mabuyakhulu has signed an agreement with the US trade and development agency, which will fund the R12 million study.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Fedusa expands its ranks with 13,000 new members
Johannesburg - Two trade unions representing workers in a variety of sectors have joined the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa), Fedusa secretary general Chez Milani said on Tuesday. He said the Professional Transport Workers Union of SA (PTWUSA), and the Renaissance Workers Union (RWU) would add 13,000 new members to Fedusa. According to Fedusa it currently has 515,000 members.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Meeting the challenge of implementing successful joint ventures
Joint ventures, while increasingly a part of the business landscape, are according to Kaplan and Norton, the authors of The Balanced Scorecard, an operational challenge for many companies. The prime challenge is defining goals that both parties have for the venture.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Southern Sun drives clean-up of South Beach
Durban - The Southern Sun group, which has significant business interests along the Durban beachfront, is driving an initiative to tackle crime and grime in the area. It hopes to boost hotel occupancy and increase rental returns and property values.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

ABB's local operations see huge growth
THE SA operations of Swiss-based engineering multinational ABB saw phenomenal growth in the first half of this year, according to local ABB CE Carlos Poe.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Upgrade brings new jobs
SA Five Engineering has been awarded a multimillion dollar contract for the upgrade of the floating, production, storage and offloading vessel Glas Dowr.
(©www.bday.co.za

Dorbyl's shareholders may benefit from approval of Midas sale
SHAREHOLDERS in engineering group Dorbyl might soon benefit from the disposal of its 74% stake in automotive parts distributor Midas, Dorbyl CE Bill Cooper said last night.
(©www.bday.co.za)

R45bn transport renewal project gets going
The long-awaited period of infrastructure renewal and extension at State-owned transport and logistics company, Transnet, is beginning to take shape with the announcement of R45,8-billion-worth of capital expenditure to run from this year until beyond 2006.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Transport group's earnings rise
South Africa's Transnet yesterday reported a 30% surge in operating profit in the year to March 2002, despite a slump in major markets, and said it expected the trend to continue over the next four years.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Oil giant makes eighth oil find in Angola
US oil major ChevronTexaco yesterday announced that it has made a significant discovery in Angola's prolific deepwater Block 14. The strike, its eighth in the block, is situated to the south of the existing Tombua discovery.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Study for SA electricity trading advances
It is anticipated that the Departments of Minerals and Energy and Public Enterprises will appoint a consultant during the course of August to study the appropriate market designed for electricity supply industry (ESI) trading arrangements in South Africa.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Oz gas-to-liquids prospects 'positive'
South Africa’s petrochemical giant Sasol has refuted recent press reports that the Australian government has refused a request by South African-US energy group SasolChevron Holdings for financial assistance for its proposed multi-billion-dollar gas to liquids (GTL) plant in Western Australia.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

SAFCEC NEWS

CONTRACTS CLAIMS COURSE
SAFCEC will present a one-day course on Contract Claims on Wednesday, 28th August 2002, in Construction Centre, 12 Skeen Boulevard, Bedfordview, commencing at 08:30.
The course is targeted at Site Agents and Contract Managers and is designed to sensitise this level of management to the possibility of claims and how to deal with them.

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Stock picking is key to property investment
It is not just the South African commercial property market that has been under pressure. It is a global phenomenon. Globally, there is an oversupply of commercial property relative to demand, which continues to exert downward pressure on rentals. This trend may continue for a while, as any imbalance between supply and demand tends to take a long time to correct itself. Despite this, listed property has outperformed equities so far this year.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Look into good ' deals
A SERIES of seminars is being held in different cities in SA featuring apartments at Kew Riverside development in London. These appear to show that provided a deposit of £100000 can be put down, the purchase of a £500000 apartment would be self-financing.
(©www.bday.co.za)

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Low-cost housing initiatives stumble
Johannesburg - Two initiatives set up by the government and the banks in 1995 to tackle the problems of low-cost housing have achieved marginal success to date. The first was a memorandum of understanding signed by the government and the banks, which created the Mortgage Indemnity Fund (MIF), a wholly owned government company.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Villagers to gain from Mpumalanga airport
VILLAGERS near the new R350m Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport in Nelspruit will be watching the jets taking off and landing with more than the usual interest they have a 10% stake in the project.
(©www.bday.co.za)

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Seizure of farms will continue'
HARARE A defiant President Robert Mugabe vowed to keep on seizing white-owned farms yesterday, saying growing international isolation and drought, not his policies, were to blame for food shortages threatening 50% of Zimbabwe ans with starvation.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Austria writes off Mozambique's debt
Austria has written off Mozambique's debt of €19-million, Mozambique's finance ministry has announced. The debt forgiveness is in line with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)-sponsored debt-relief initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), the statement said.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Harare comes under fire for food policies
USAid says decisions are turning shortage into famine ...
(©www.fm.co.za)

SADC unites on plan to sell ivory
Proposal focus on sustainable wildlife utilisation with responsible ivory sales ...
(©www.fm.co.za)

New African markets are opening up
Trend to source goods from SA rather than Europe, writes David Jackson
(©www.fm.co.za)

Tongaat-Hulett has no fear about investing in Africa
Durban - Tongaat-Hulett was neither nervous nor naive about investing in Africa, where it already had significant interests, Peter Staude, the group's new chief executive, said yesterday.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

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Avgold overcomes start-up troubles
AVGOLD increased its earnings in the June quarter as gold production at its new R2,1bn Target Mine lifted sales. The mine in the Witwatersrand Basin opened in March.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Gold leader attacks monopolistic steel
Gold-miner Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) launched a blistering attack on monopoly suppliers during its quarterly results yesterday, claiming that increased prices of steel, chemicals, electricity and water were adversely affecting the company’s cost performance.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

Company's ore reserves rise 48%
Gold company Harmony yesterday declared resources of more than 295-million ounces and reserves of 49-million ounces, which is a 48% year on year increase in reserves.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

Rising rand to take shine off gold earnings
After posting record-busting results in the early part of this year, some of the shine should come off South African gold miners in the June quarter after the rand bounced, analysts said yesterday.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

R1,6bn platinum project officially renamed
Mining giant Anglo Platinum and African Rainbow Minerals’ (ARM’s) 50-50 joint venture to undertake the mining on the farms at Maandagshoek on the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex is now fully operational.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

'Empowerment group did not sell golden shares'
A meeting facilitated by Minerals and Energy DG Sandile Nogxina to discuss allegations that a black empowerment firm, Simane, had broken a lock-up clause and sold the shares it holds in gold company Harmony, concluded that Simane had in fact not sold any shares.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

Department announces results of vanadium-mine probe
The Department of Minerals and Energy has released the results of its investigation into occupational illness at Xstrata’s Vantech vanadium mine, clearing the company of any negligence.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

Gem cutter reacts to Myburgh report allegations
Diamond cutting and polishing company Equity Diamonds says it has not had sight of the Myburgh Commission report, but has expressed its extreme surprise at the reference to it in the report.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

Study on to use mine-water in farming
Pumping out between 20-million litres and 40-million litres of underground mine water a day, and with a capital cost of about R250-million to construct a modular purification plant, there is definitely some incentive for mines to find alternative ways of managing their mine-water pollution, and even better if it could be done in a way that benefits the community.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

No word yet on SA coal merger
No announcement about a potential merger between Kumba Coal and empowerment company Eyesizwe can yet be made, state Eyesizwe CEO Sipho Nkosi and Kumba Coal MD Ras Myburgh.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

Coal giant's geographic diversification steams ahead
Earlier this month BHP Billiton Energy Coal president Mike Oppenheimer indicated the global company hopes, in time, to reduce its reliance on its South African arm, Ingwe.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)

Gold Fields backs bed of roses
Johannesburg - Gold producer Gold Fields has traded its picks and shovels for garden forks by backing a R70 million project to grow roses for export.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

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Cape values keep rising
Property values in most areas of the Western Cape have increased steeply in the past four years, with only one out of 13 districts showing a decline, according to the Institute of Estate Agents (IEASA).
(©www.property24.co.za)

Make sure the HOA's healthy
When you buy into an established gated community, you need to remember that the future value of your home will depend not only on its location and condition, but on how well the development as a whole is run by the homeowners' association.
(©www.property24.co.za)

Spotlight on: Royal Alfred Marina
Investors who bought early at the Royal Alfred Marina on the Kowie River in the Eastern Cape are reaping the rewards of their foresight as a resurgence of demand drives up stand and home prices.
(©www.property24.co.za)

Board warns against blockbusting
The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) has warned Cape Town agents that it will take strong action against any agent using the city's new rates charges to coerce elderly or otherwise vulnerable property owners to sell prematurely or at knock-down prices.
(©www.property24.co.za)

Foreign buyers expect inspections
South Africans marketing their homes to international buyers need to be more aware of the expectations these buyers have as regards home inspections and warranties.
(©www.property24.co.za)

New homes in: Somerset West
A R75-million upmarket residential development has just been launched in the booming Somerset Ridge neighbourhood of Somerset West. Named de Waterbosch, it is centrally located, near Somerset Mall and the Lord Charles Hotel.
(©www.property24.co.za)

A delicate balance
Sales volumes have dropped by about 15% across the market, according to Lew Geffen Estates CE Lew Geffen."The stock is not selling as quickly as it was earlier this year, but prices are not falling."
(©www.netassets.co.za)

Seeff group moves into Zimbabwe
Pretoria - Seeff Property Services, the local property group, has expanded into the Zimbabwean market. Stuart Manning, the chief executive of Seeff Property Services, said at the weekend that the group had opened a licensed office in Harare.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

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Towards more effective and sustainable health facilities
CSIR Building and Construction Technology supports public and private sector planners, designers and managers towards more effective and sustainable facilities planning, design and management. The CSIR's research and experience in the planning, design and operation of health facilities has culminated in the publication of the following guides:
Hospital Starter Kits
Catering Services Guide
General Ward Guide
Primary Health Care Facilities Design Guide (Vol. I & II)
Operating Department Planning and Design Guide
Sterilisation and Disinfection Unit (SDU): Planning, Design and Management Guide
Laundry and Linen Service Planning, Design and Operation
These guides can be purchased online
(©www.csir.co.za)

Excel Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts
This page consists of many tips and tricks you can use in Excel, from shortcut keys to working with formulas and functions.
(©www.microsoftexceltraining.com)

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JSE follows the world into the red
Johannesburg - The JSE Securities Exchange succumbed to the gloomy mood hanging over global stock markets to fall to its lowest level in seven months. The FTSE/JSE Africa all share index slumped almost 300 points, or 2.93 percent, to 9920, its biggest one-day fall so far this year, while the FTSE/JSE Africa Top plunged 304 points, or 3.11 percent, to 9472.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

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Local currency enjoys firm rally against dollar, pound and euro
Johannesburg - The rand could be trading back around the R11 mark to the dollar by the end of the year and R11.50 by June 2003 as structural issues were still haunting the currency, according to Colen Garrow, an economist with Brait Merchant Bank.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Govt proposals rock Anglo
Shares in Anglo American have dropped by more than 8% following the release of the government's draft proposals for the mining industry, which could see companies being forced to give up large chunks of their operations.
(©www.news24.com)

SA TO BE LEFT BEHIND
Colombia is going to be the winner, at SA's expense, from BHP Billiton's future coal growth strategy - which explains CEO-elect Brian Gilbertson's relaxed attitude to SA's new minerals legislation
(©www.fm.co.za)

Phantom Links in Excel
If you regularly use MsExcel to do certificates or estimates you will know the problem well, Excel reports that it is linked to another workbook and you can't, for the all the tea in China, find the formula that links your current workbook to another workbook on your computer. What is worse, you don't know how an update on the "mystery link" is going to effect data within your current workbook. This handy tutorial tells you how to save workbooks that suddenly grow in file size and get rid of links you don't want. (©www.ozgrid.com)

Finally visit Microsoft and download the Delete Links Wizard. The Delete Links Wizard is an add-in file for Microsoft Excel that you can use to delete links to external files in one or more workbooks. Currently, the only way to perform this task is to manually delete the links or to use a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro to search, find, and delete the links. These methods may require a significant amount of time if you want to remove all the links to external files. Using the Delete Links Wizard is more efficient than manually deleting the links or running a macro because the wizard contains options that make deleting multiple links easier. (Note: Read the instructions that accompanies the wizard when you unpack the file)

Vote in our polls
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1. Click on the link above whilst connected to the Internet
2. Click on the register button at the top of the page and complete your details
3. Click on the FAQ button to find out more about using the forums
4. Vote on one of the topics or post a message of your own.

Seen on the ASAQS Calendar
Seize the Day! Personal Efficiency & Effectiveness - 1st August 2002
This course will be held in Port Elizabeth. For more info please contact Terry Deacon on 082 557 3119

Remember: Visit the ASAQS website for new updates!

New members to the CUG

Craig Pechey

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.

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