Tuesday, July 6, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.

Making headlines:

A newly released comparison of the proposed municipal electricity tariff increases for 2010/11 shows that business and industrial consumers in the Ekurhuleni metropolitan area of Gauteng province will be confronted with a 57% surge in prices when compared with 2009/10 tariffs, while the average proposed increase across 11 large municipal areas surveyed would be 22%.
The study, prepared by utility pricing company NUS Consulting South Africa, was based on the "highest voltage maximum demand" tariffs available to clients requiring an electrical capacity of 1,5 MVA over a 12-month period. Customers falling into this bracket would include large manufacturing companies, or enterprises such as large bakeries or paint producers, or even large commercial or retail complexes.
NUS GM Stephan Dolk says that the comparison was based on the proposed increases submitted for approval by the municipalities to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and were, in the main, at the upper end of Nersa's recommended increase range.

Swedish Migration Board director-general Dan Eliasson accused European countries on Monday of failing the world's most endangered refugees by offering only minimal opportunities for permanent settlement.
His strictures come as Antonio Guterres, head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) calls for more countries to step forward to help fill a widening gap between the places available and the number of people needing new homes.
Eliasson says that the failures in Europe leave him seriously concerned for refugees suffering in camps and cities around the world. The UNHCR estimates that by next year, there will be a record 805 000 people needing, for various reasons, to be moved from temporary shelter, mainly in developing countries, to long-term residence in richer States. Guterres adds that resettlement is all the more important as new crises continue to displace more people while old conflicts are failing to be resolved.
Eliasson said that the US and Canada, which resettle between them some 75 000 refugees from countries such as Somalia, Myanmar and Iraq every year, are setting an example to the rest of the industrialised world.

A distinction should be made between parastatals and State departments spending money on 2010 FIFA World Cup tickets, Minister in the National Planning Commission Trevor Manuel said on Monday. This follows an outcry over State entities spending millions on soccer tickets.
Manuel said that parastatals are business entities that need to make profits by engaging on a social level with clients. This is "building the business," he said, but when a local authority or a government department spends taxpayers' money on themselves, then it is a different issue.
The Sunday Times reported that Eskom spent R80-million on 2010 FIFA World Cup tickets, South African Airways spent R23-million on tickets, two months before getting a R1,6-million bail-out from the government, PetroSA and Transnet jointly spent R24-million and the Free State provincial government and the Mangaung municipality spent almost R22-million on tickets.

Also making headlines:

The National Prosecuting Authority reports that special World Cup courts have dealt with 216 cases and found at least 100 people guilty of offences related to the soccer tournament.
East Africa's Intergovernmental Authority on Development promises to send 2 000 additional peacekeepers to Somalia, where an almost powerless government is hemmed into a few streets of Mogadishu by Islamist militants.
The South African Presidency announces three more departures by senior officials in its office but denies that there is a "crisis" in the institution.
And, the Africa Finance Corporation says that foreign investors stand ready to pump billions of dollars into Nigeria's dilapidated power sector if the government can sort out its regulatory framework.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.