The Parliamentary portfolio committee on human settlements has decided to redraft the proposed Rental Housing Amendment Bill, committee chairwoman Nomhle Dambuza said on Wednesday.

"Applying for a redraft of this amendment bill requires that another set of public hearings be held and we believe that this will give an opportunity to the parties who did not comment during the first round," Dambuza said in a statement.

She said she decided to revert the bill to the committee and not the department because of the proposed amendments.

The committee decided to redraft the amendment bill so that it covered aspects raised by the department of human settlements and addressed the loopholes and ambiguities identified in the Rental Housing Act and the Rental Housing Amendment Act.

Dambuza said the Rental Housing Amendment Act had gaps which could lead to people's exploitation.

"Complaints... suggested that there are lot of problems in the rental sector and we hope that redrafting this bill will minimise those challenges.

"In our view, the redraft provides a balanced view of how challenges faced by landlords as well as tenants should be addressed," said Dambuza.

Rental Housing Tribunals

Last year, the department sought to amend the Rental Housing Act to make MECs responsible for establishing Rental Housing Tribunals and to extend the powers of tribunals so that they could withdraw or vary any rulings.

However, Dambuza said the committee noticed that the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants were not clearly spelled out and that some of the public comments raised during the department's public hearings were not accommodated in the proposed amendment bill.

The proposed redraft obliged landlords to: reimburse rental deposit with accrued interest, provide regular maintenance to tenants' properties or rooms and written agreements and receipts for every payment made, reserve the right to recover money owed to them, and terminate leases on grounds that did not constitute unfair practice and were specified in the lease.

Sapa

Opportunities, incentives, regulations, assistance.

South African researchers will conduct a R2-million research project in a bid to scientifically showcase the soothing, disease-prevention and weight-loss properties of rooibos tea, The Star reported on Wednesday.

The research, which will include examining the anti-ageing, anti-obesity and cancer-preventing properties of the tea, will be conducted this year, the newspaper reported.

The South African Rooibos Council has set aside a budget for the research.

There is a "long held belief" that a cup of rooibos tea helps one relax and cope better with stress.

The University of Stellenbosch biochemistry department research team, led by Professor Amanda Swart, found that the tea contains components that can help alleviate stress and anxiety.

The team has already identified two rare components of rooibos - aspalathin and nothofagin - that contribute to the stress-lowering effect. These findings were published last year.

Sapa

Opportunities, incentives, regulations, assistance.

BMW SA said on Monday that approximately 3 350 customers in South Africa would be affected by Mini's worldwide technical recall of Mini Cooper S and John Cooper Works models.

BMW SA spokesperson Guy Kilfoil said Mini was conducting a worldwide technical recall of turbocharged Mini Cooper S (R55, R56, R57 and R60 body derivatives), and Mini John Cooper Works models (R55, R56, R57 body derivatives) built between March 2006 and October 2010, due to a potential fault with the additional water pump fitted in these models.

"Approximately 3 350 local customers will be affected," Kilfoil said in a statement this week. "These customers will be notified to arrange for the replacement of the additional water pump free of charge during January 2012.

"It is anticipated that it will take no longer than an hour to replace the affected part."

Under high operating temperatures an electro-migration can occur at the circuit board installed in the additional water pump, leading to a failure of the additional water pump. The potential exists for this failure to manifest itself in an overheating of the circuit board, BMW South Africa explained.

"Mini has not received any reports, nor is aware of any accidents or injuries relating to this matter, and owners are still able to drive their vehicles," Kilfoil said.

"However, we recommend that owners of affected vehicles, who receive a letter asking them to have this service performed by their authorised Mini Dealer, do so as soon as possible."

Affected owners can contact their nearest Mini dealer or Mini Customer Care on 0800 696 464 to make the necessary arrangements for the replacement.

Sapa

Opportunities, incentives, regulations, assistance.

South African logistics group Transnet and Swaziland Railways have agreed to jointly develop a 146-kilometre railway line from Lothair in Mpumalanga to Sidvokodvo Junction in Swaziland, as well as upgrade the adjacent railway networks in both countries.

According to a Business Day article on Friday, the R17-billion project will be the biggest railway investment in southern Africa since 1976.

The cost of building the main "Swazilink" railway line would be R7.3-billion, Business Day reported, with R8.6-billion to be spent on 600 kilometres of adjacent lines. Swaziland will be responsible for providing about R5-billion of the investment amount.

Once completed, the new rail line is expected to create additional capacity of 15-million tons, which will predominantly be general freight volumes from the existing coal export rail line.

"This is the first large-scale rail investment in Southern Africa since the construction of the Richards Bay line in 1976," Transnet CEO Brian Molefe said in a statement this week.

He added that the investment was complementary to the company's other large coal investments, still to be rolled out, including the Waterberg line and Eskom's road-to-rail migration programme.

Global rail renaissance

Molefe said that globally, rail infrastructure was undergoing a major renaissance as an investment and a vehicle to uplift citizens in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective manner.

"We are proud to be part of this revolution," he said. "As Transnet we have already done a high-level risk assessment to identify the strategic, planning, financial, construction and environmental risks to ensure that this great multi-infrastructural project sees its day."

He said the company expected the first train to run in three years' time after the necessary land purchase agreements and environmental approvals had been resolved.

SAinfo reporter

Amid calls for a more coordinated, flexible and differentiated education system capable of accommodating more of South Africa's school-leavers, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has reminded the country's post-matrics of opportunities available outside universities.

Higher Education South Africa called on Wednesday for the development of a coordinated, flexible and differentiated post-school education and training system that pulls in the country's universities, FET institutions, and agricultural, nursing and teacher training colleges.

Higher Education SA also pledged its support to any initiative aimed at providing a greater set of study opportunities for school leavers, following an incident on Tuesday where a parent was killed during a stampede by late first-year applicants at the University of Johannesburg.

Opportunities 'beyond universities'

Last week, Nzimande reminded school-leavers of the various options available to them, saying they should consider state Further Education and Training (FET) colleges, where a wide range of in-demand skills were on offer.

Nzimande said there were opportunities beyond universities - in learnerships, artisan training and internships, as well as in FET colleges, nursing and agricultural colleges.

"Public FET colleges, in particular, offer skills that are in line with the country's growth and development imperatives," Nzimande said.

"Even as we speak, our economy has a higher and more urgent demand for artisans, technicians, engineers and other scarce skills that can be sourced outside of universities."

Financial assistance at state insitutions

Nzimande added that there was financial assistance available for deserving students from poor families through the National Financial Student Aid Scheme.

He noted that students attending private higher education institutions did not qualify for government student financial aid.

Following Tuesday's incident at the University of Johannesburg, Nzimande said the government was considering halting the late application practice, and planned to roll out a centralised applications system of the kind already being used in KwaZulu-Natal.

Higher Education SA said that, in order to learn from the UJ incident, it would "examine the experiences of its 23 member institutions relating to admissions in 2012 with a view to analysing trends, distilling lessons and facilitating mechanisms through which promising practices could be shared across the university system".

Source: BuaNews

South African new vehicle sales remained strong in 2011, with figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) on Tuesday showing a 15.6 percent increase in total industry vehicles sales, to 570 012 units for the year.

2011 proven to be a very successful year for the country's vehicle industry due to high demand as a result of low interest rates, increased corporate activity and a number of new entry-level models entering the market.

For the month of December 2011, Naamsa data also shows an 11 percent year-on-year increase in total industry vehicle sales, to 43 790 units.

Chris De Kock, executive head of sales and marketing at WesBank, notes, however, that these figures exclude sales figures from one vehicle manufacturer. "If we assume that this manufacturer sold a similar number of vehicles in December 2011 as were sold in the previous month, we would actually be looking at year-on-year growth in December 2011 of around 16 percent."

WesBank book data also recorded an increase in credit applications in December 2011 to 91 091, compared with 88 429 recorded in the same period a year earlier.

"This positive consumer trend was also reflected across other book data, with a further reduction in the replacement cycle and an increase in the new versus used car purchase ratio," De Kock said.

"Looking forward, we expect moderate growth on these figures in 2012 as a result of price increases feeding through and the likelihood of a rise in interest rates.

"However, if market sales in 2012 match those seen last year, the industry should be reasonably happy.

Sapa

Opportunities, incentives, regulations, assistance.

Over 100 000 new jobs were created in South Africa in December 2011, with temporary work growing the fastest, according to the latest Adcorp Employment Index.

"A total of 103 327 new jobs were created in December 2011 - the fastest rate of growth in nine months," Adcorp said in a statement on Tuesday.

All employment categories reported growth in December, with the fastest being temporary work (15 percent) and permanent jobs (six percent), said Adcorp labour market analyst Loane Sharp.

He said labour agency work lagged behind with a growth rate of five percent, "possibly reflecting regulative and regulatory uncertainties regarding labour broking".

However, the number of jobs in South Africa was still 850 000 below the peak reached before the 2009 global recession.

The country had lost 1.56-million permanent jobs and created 0.71-million temporary jobs since then, Sharp said.

In December, the distribution and logistics sector grew significantly at 16 percent, as did the financial services (nine percent) and retail (eight percent) sectors.

The index found that no sectors had reported a decline in employment.

Job growth was fastest in the low-skilled and semi-skilled job categories.

Services workers grew at a rate of 11 percent, clerks at 10 percent and elementary occupations at eight percent.

"This is the first time since the 2009 recession that employment growth has been observed in the entry-level occupations," Sharp said.

Sapa

Opportunities, incentives, regulations, assistance.

Promoting intra-African trade and investment is a matter of urgency, and businesses will have to pay more attention to African markets in order to become more competitive and sustainable, President Jacob Zuma told the South Africa-Mozambique Business Forum in Maputo on Wednesday.

"The continent is rich in natural resources but above all, it has the resourcefulness of its people. The focus, therefore, must be on creating conditions that will release the creativity and productivity of the African people," Zuma told the forum.

Zuma was in Mozambique for a two-day state visit aimed at further strengthening co-operation between the two countries in trade and investment, energy, mining, agriculture, communications, water, environmental affairs, arts and culture and science and technology.

Market of one-billion consumers

African leaders have been talking about promoting intra-African trade in recognition of the fact that the African market of one-billion consumers can be a powerful engine for growth and employment for the continent.

Yet, despite the introduction of free trade areas, customs unions and common markets within the regions, the level of intra-African trade remains relatively low.

Infrastructure is a key enabler of trade and economic integration in Africa but is severely lacking.

"What is required is that we do things that go beyond the ordinary," Zuma said. "It cannot be business as usual on the African continent. In this regard, our continent needs to not only be characterized as a potential consumer market, but also ensure that we are at the forefront of production and innovation on our continent."

Zuma called for international collaboration in tackling Africa's infrastructure deficit and partnerships with established economies and the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) group of countries.

'Developmental integration' approach

He also called for a "developmental integration" approach among southern African countries, so as to create sustainable economies of scale and productive economies in the region.

Developmental integration, according to Zuma, places importance on building productive and industrial capacity in economies and addressing supply-side constraints such as limited road, rail, ports and energy infrastructure.

Turning to South Africa's relations with Mozambique, Zuma said that while these were strong, trade levels were still low.

He said the two countries were prepared to tackle the bureaucratic red tape that businesses encountered so as to create a conducive environment for trade and investment to flourish.

He said business has to tackle opportunities in the two economies innovatively, while encouraging investments on both sides to create jobs and help to improve the people's quality of life.

"These must be partnerships that ensure skills development, innovation, capital investments and technology transfer towards positive outcomes for our two economies," Zuma said. "The infrastructure is being created for these opportunities to be utilised."

The President commended projects such as Sasol's R9.2-billion, 865 kilometre gas pipeline that ferries natural gas from the Temane and Pande fields in Mozambique to a distribution network in Secunda in Mpumalanga province.

Source: BuaNews

President Jacob Zuma has called on South African and Mozambican companies to partner in investing and in sharing knowledge and expertise for the benefit of the people of both countries.

"I call upon both our private sectors to identify major investment opportunities for Mozambican companies in South Africa, share knowledge, expertise and technological know-how with each other and identify joint partnerships and joint ventures for the benefit of our people," Zuma told the Parliament of Mozambique on Wednesday.

The President, who was on a two-day state visit to Mozambique, said today's struggle was against poverty and underdevelopment.

"This struggle is proving to be more difficult than we thought," Zuma said. "It requires of us to work together in the same manner we did during the fight against colonialism and apartheid."

South Africa has emerged in recent years as the main trading partner for Mozambique and its main source of foreign direct investment. The two countries are already partnering in numerous areas, including energy, mining, agriculture and communications, and also collaborate in tackling cross-border crime, maritime piracy, human trafficking and rhino poaching.

Tackling rhino poaching

"We encourage our security agents to work together in dealing with the scourge of rhino poaching in our countries," Zuma said. "I believe that our joint efforts in dealing with the scourge of rhino poaching will slowly but surely deliver the desired results."

Describing Maputo as his second home, as he spent a significant number of years in exile there during apartheid, Zuma paid tribute to the people of Mozambique for the solidarity they had showed with the people of South Africa.

"The people of Mozambique faced hardships while supporting their South African brothers and sisters who were fighting the apartheid monster. They, however, soldiered on, and the people of South Africa will never forget what this country sacrificed for South Africa to be free."

Zuma, Guebuza hold talks

On Tuesday, Zuma held talks with Mozambican President Armando Guebuza.

Briefing the media after the talks, South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said Zuma and Guebuza had agreed that they would use the South Africa-Mozambique Business Forum, which took place in Maputo later on Tuesday, to promote increased economic cooperation between the two countries.

Nkoana-Mashabane said an agreement confirming the establishment of a bi-national commission had also been signed during Zuma's visit.

"This mechanism will essentially broaden the areas of focus, as opposed to the current Heads of State Economic Bilateral, which only focused on economic cooperation," Nkoana-Mashabane said. "With the signing of this agreement, we have taken our structured bilateral cooperation to a higher level."

Source: BuaNews