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Roll on Zimbabwe - the idiotic statements by unionists who have never run a business are taking
it on themselves to tell businessmen how to run their businesses. All that has happened is that those with capital have invested it in mining operations elsewhere. To the loss of jobs in South Africa. And they, like the Eskom board & management team are so blind they don't see it until the lights go out.
by semaarnet

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02 September 2010 18:21

Will the unions kill the mines?

At Northam, union's "demand" of 15%, is in reality a ferocious 27%.

JOHANNESBURG - "We have no jokes", according to a statement by Ecliff Tantsi, the National Union of Mineworkers' chief negotiator at Northam, which operates the world's deepest platinum mine. NUM, part of umbrella union circus Cosatu, an alliance member of the ANC government, along with a pack of surviving communists, wants to go on strike at Northam for a "wage increment" of 15%, and a R3 500 "living out" allowance.

Analysis of the situation suggests that if the union's demands are met, once again, Northam may be no more in just a few years from...

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01 September 2010 17:07

Musa vs the rights of the poor

Life in the fast lane vs. poor pensioners pushing wheelbarrows carrying water.

JOHANNESBURG - It could be history in the making on September 22 and 23, when the High Court in Mafikeng hears oral argument on case number 805/2010, a monumental battle where 33 000 economically deprived members of the Bakubung-ba-Ratheo seek answers to what has happened to at least R500m in cash that belongs, simply, to them.

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27 August 2010 01:05

Watergate’s Africa spawn

Surely, the time is ripe to unravel the late Brett Kebble’s secret political career?

Andrew Minaar, the late Brett Kebble's Johannesburg butler, recently testified in the High Court case against Glen Agliotti. The smiling Agliotti, a convicted drug trafficker, is accused of Kebble's murder on September 27 2005, and of being involved in conspiracy to kill a number of Kebble's enemies.

Minaar, a slightly built man with a gentle voice, years ago made the best looking cappuccino I have ever seen. It also tasted good. In court, Minaar testified that Kebble had several sole-purpose mobile telephones that were used to speak with designated individuals. Minaar mentioned one erstwhile big name in the ANC Youth League, and one currently serving high up in the ANC government. This raises the question of when - if ever - Kebble's political connections will start to unravel.

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24 August 2010 01:12

BEE: No good deed goes unpunished

Is Kumba Iron Ore a victim of its own phenomenal BEE successes?

Nothing succeeds like success, as it is said, but it seems that sometimes, "no good deed goes unpunished" (courtesy Clare Booth Luce). This conundrum is where Kumba Iron Ore seems to find itself, given disparaging remarks made about Kumba by mines minister Susan Shabangu, seemingly into the face of one of the country's overwhelmingly - and rare - successful "black economic empowerment" stories.

Kumba, a 66% unit of transnational miner Anglo American, is now better known than ever thanks to its dispute over mineral rights at its major asset, the 74%-held Sishen Iron Ore Company (SIOC), in the Northern Cape, one of the world's biggest open pit mines, and No 4 in the seaborne iron ore trade, the world's most lucrative franchise. If that were not enough, SIOC is also one of the world's lowest cost iron ore miners.

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22 August 2010 22:50

Trails of slow motion journalism

Musa Capital: a wistful story from the brink of the South African dream.

For good chunks of this year, your humble correspondent has been involved in trying to figure out what has happened to more than ZAR 500m in cash, lost by 99% of a dirt poor tribe in a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal. We will get to the other 1% in due course.

Some members of the tribe, it turns out, were overly impressed by one or more gentlemen born in the US, who live, for some of the time at least, in and around Johannesburg.

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