November 13, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

State-owned utility Eskom says Westinghouse has withdrawn its urgent High Court application. 

More than 90 people are being quarantined following the death of a nurse in Mali due to Ebola.

And, KwaZulu-Natal is faced with tough economic times.  

Power utility Eskom said this week that Westinghouse Electric Belgium had withdrawn its urgent High Court application, which charged the utility with contempt of court, owing to what it said was Eskom’s failure to deliver documentation, as ordered by the court, to Westinghouse within five calendar days of September 5.

The matter would now be moved to the normal court role to be argued.

The documents in question related to the R4.3-billion tender for the replacement of steam generators at Eskom’s Koeberg nuclear power station, which the utility had awarded to France’s Areva.

Eskom reiterated that it had provided Westinghouse, through its attorneys Webber Wentzel, with all relevant documents leading up to and forming the basis of Eskom’s decision to award the tender for the steam generator replacement at the Koeberg nuclear power station.

The power utility stated that more than 600 documents had been provided to Westinghouse. However, Eskom said that, when Westinghouse’s attorneys made relentless demands for more confidential and commercially sensitive information, some of which Eskom said did not relate to the decision, the power utility resisted Westinghouse’s approach, which it viewed as constituting an abuse of court process.

The death of a nurse in Mali from Ebola promoted the quarantine of more than 90 people in the West African country's capital, as the World Health Organization (or WHO) said the disease had now claimed at least 5 160 lives.

The worst outbreak of the virus on record has ravaged the impoverished West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and led to a global watch for cases outside the region.

Mali must now trace other people who had contact with the 25-year-old nurse and three others infected, just as an initial group of people linked to its first case completed their 21-day quarantine on Tuesday. Ebola's maximum incubation period is 21 days.

The more than 90 quarantined in Bamako included about 20 United Nations peacekeepers being treated at the capital's Pasteur Clinic, where the nurse worked, officials said. Police locked down the clinic on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, in Sierra Leone, more than 400 health workers at one of its few Ebola treatment centres went on strike over unpaid risk allowances, but some returned later in the day.

KwaZulu-Natal MEC of Finance Belinda Scott said the province was facing some tough economic times. She was speaking at the African Economic Expansion Summit, in Durban, this week.

Scott said the province was the second-largest contributor to the country’s economy, at 16.5%. It had generated an estimated real gross domestic product of R328.9-billion in 2013 and was home to some of the country’s biggest infrastructure upgrade projects. 

However it was due for severe budget cuts between now and 2016 and it would take “a juggling act” to ensure services were not affected and that economic growth targets and job creation were achieved.

The expected budget cuts were a combination of the fiscal consolidation announced by Finance Minister Nhanhla Nene, which would see national spending cuts of R25-billion over the next two years, and a reduced allocation owing to a decline in the province’s population.

Scott explained that, in terms of the 2011 National Census, KwaZulu-Natal's population growth rate had declined and, therefore, the province’s equitable share reduction amounted to R5.6-billion over the 2013/14 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.

Also making headlines:

The South African government says it’s still hoping to bring back this weekend, all the mortal remains of the South Africans, who died when a church building collapsed in Nigeria in September.

Econometrix MD and senior economist Rob Jeffrey says that the “fundamental weaknesses” of renewable-energy sources currently precluded these projects from being able to provide affordable, reliable power to the national grid.

The US military force being sent to Liberia to build treatment facilities to combat the Ebola health crisis is expected to top out at about 3 000 troops in December, which is 1 000 less than initially approved.

And, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi told the Portfolio Committee on Communication that the establishment of the Department of Communications was on track.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.