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The Sun King gets a licence to gild his ... Gold plummets as Switzerland jumps ship... Stals comes out smelling of rose... Stealing the show with icons of the mode... British investors give SA airship compan... |
BUSINESS DIGESTCRONJE NEW ABSA CHAIRMAN In a significant reshuffle at Absa Group, SA's largest bank, chief executive Danie Cronje will take over as group chairman with effect from November 1. Absa said in a statement on Friday that outgoing chairman Dave Brink would remain on the board as deputy chairman. Group executive director Nallie Bosman has been appointed managing director and would assume executive responsibility for Absa's business operations. In particular, "Bosman will continue to focus on the development of the intellectual capital and technological capacity at the bank". Cronje said his new role in the leadership structure would enable him to devote more time to strategic issues. Apart from Bosman, Jean Brown, Alewyn Burger and Alwyn Noeth have also been appointed to the Absa Group board. POWER STATIONS SCRAPPED Eskom has recommended that three power stations, built in the 1960s at a cost of R75-million each, be scrapped, Minister of Public Enterprises Stella Sigcau said on Friday. The market value of the currently decommissioned power stations "would probably be in excess of R10-million each", Sigcau said in written reply to a question by the DP's Kobus Jordaan. The three plants - Highveld and Taaibos near Sasolburg and Ingagane near Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal - have been mothballed since the late 1980s. Various studies had been conducted concerning the viability of the stations and Eskom's restructuring and transformation committee had recently agreed they should be scrapped.
TELKOM SEEKS NEW CE Telkom this week advertised for a chief executive - six months after Brian Clark suddenly vacated the position in early May. Defending the delay, Dikgang Moseneke, acting chief executive and chairman of Telkom, said it was necessary to integrate both SBC and Telekom Malaysia executives into the organisation. The two operators acquired 30% of Telkom for R5.6-billion in May. He said the successful candidate, who will be a South African, would be announced early next year. Moseneke said Telkom was on target to meet its tough roll-out targets. In terms of its licence conditions Telkom is required to install 360 000 new telephone lines in the current financial year to end-March 1998. "We may even exceed those targets slightly as we are ahead of schedule with five months to go before the year-end," he said. Telkom plans to spend about R40-billion on an expansion programme to roll out 2.8-million new telephone lines and upgrade a further 1.2-million lines over a five-year period. The company has, however, recently suffered a number of setbacks. The SA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority recently ruled against the parastatal on its claim to the exclusivity of the Internet and called on it to reverse its increased telephone rates to cellular phones. ý Reports by BT staff, Sapa-AP-AFP, Reuter
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