From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

South Africa still had a problem filling senior positions in the public service sector, with gender equality being a particular hurdle, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Tuesday.

Over one quarter of the 131 deputy director-general posts nationally were vacant, she told reporters at a briefing in Pretoria.

At the director-general level, there were four empty positions - three at the national level and one at provincial level, with Fraser-Moleketi highlighting the Northern Cape to be experiencing particular difficulties procuring management with the required skills.

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South Africa was considering measures to limit the exportation of scrap metal to allow for sufficient supply to the domestic market, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a briefing of the Economic Cluster, held at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, Mpahlwa said scrap metal was an important source of inputs for downstream manufacturing and adequate supply could help to reduce input costs for key industrial users.

He stressed the government was not aiming to completely stop the exportation of scrap metal, but argued that a balance was needed to ensure adequate supply to local industry so that only surplus scrap was exported.

Mining companies in Ghana are negotiating with the government to seek a reduction in a 100 percent power rates increase resulting from an official move to cut electricity subsidies, the mines chamber said on Tuesday.

Ghana's government announced last week it would cut electricity subsidies for mining companies from July 1, as record oil prices threaten to eat into the country's budget and growth rate. Ghana's finance minister said the measure went into force on Tuesday as scheduled.

The government had informed companies operating in the country, Africa's second-biggest gold producer after South Africa, that they would from now on be paying an average 22 cents per kilowatt hour, up from the current 11 cents.

Also making headlines:

Sasol says it is optimising output at its Qatar Gas-To-Liquids plant
PetroSA seeks strategic engineering partner for massive Coega refinery
South Africa to decrease food weight in new CPI basket
Metorex reports fire at Ruashi concentrator
Lakshmi Mittal considers stake in Rio Tinto, a newspaper reports
And, ferrochrome prices at record levels on supply deficit and could rise further

In political news:

Zimbabwe dismisses calls for Kenya-style coalition
Protesters march over Kenyan-Libyan hotel saga
UN's Ban Ki-moon calls on China to be bigger peacemaker
And, the National Intelligence Agency is still waiting for "Browse" report

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit engineeringnews.co.za, miningweekly.com and polity.org.za