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Th
is podcast is brought to you by Mercedes Benz Commercial - the right partner.
Friday, August twenty-two, 2008.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Guy Copans.
Making headlines today:
Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Thursday that South Africa would put in place measures to ensure that diverse energy resources are available to the economy. The energy sources should be in sustainable quantities and at affordable prices.
She said that the legislation was a "concerted effort" to ensure uninterrupted supply of energy.
Sonjica stated that the new Energy Bill was seeking to guarantee the adequate investment in energy infrastructure. It would also seek to put in place measures for the holding of "strategic or contingency" energy feed stocks and energy carriers at a national level.
On Thursday, Gauteng local government MEC Dorothy Mahlangu said that the conversion of electric geysers to solar-powered geysers by Eskom was "not working well". She said incentives were needed to ensure that individuals actively take up the process of the conversion of geysers.
Mahlangu emphasised that the country needed to ensure that it acted collectively to promote security of supply of electricity.
She said that South Africans needed to start "thinking out of the box" to ensure that they conserved resources for security of supply for future generations.
DRDGold CEO-designate Niel Pretorius said on Thursday that the troubled deep-level ERPM gold mine was "very close" to break even. This was after eliminating water pumping costs and laying off 239 people.
Pretorius said that the age-old Boksburg gold mine had succeeded in a government-backed water-plugging project that would save the company 49-million rand a year.
ERPM had succeeded in isolating its orebody from the rest of the Central Rand Basin in the last quarter. The mine has been bearing water-pumping costs since its inception.
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Also making headlines:
July inflation is likely to accelerate on increased power prices The International Iron and Steel Institute says world steel output was up 6% in July Eskom shuts down a unit at the Koeberg power station Canadian and Chinese owners target 2011 commercial start-up for a new DRC copper mine Xstrata eyes a 15-billion dollar loan deal for its Lonmin purchase And, DRDGold says its Top Star mining right has been granted
In political news:
South Africa honours Nelson Mandela with a statue outside a prison where he was held It's show time for Barack Obama and John McCain at the US conventions Zambia's president is to be buried on September the third And, Climate talks start in Ghana
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