African Business articles from February 2002

African Business archives from February 2002

Letters.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... GANDER SAUCE I am moved to write regarding your editorial last month (January 2002) titled What is sauce for the goose...' What struck me about this piece was a curious parallel with the feature article on Transparency International's...

SA consortium on track to buy Zambia Railways Services. (Business Briefs).(South African)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... A consortium led by South Africa's Spoornet has been short-listed to manage and operate Zambia Railways as part of the country's privatisation programme. The 25-year concession entails running freight services linking the main mining towns, and...

Angola's missing oil billions. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... A study into Angola's revenue accounts that compares state and oil company financial data has found that billions of dollars are missing. Numbers that do nor tally occur mainly in the vast oil-backed loans used by the state to buy arms and...

AGOA benefits to be spread more widely. (Business Briefs).(Africa Growth and Opportunities Act of the US)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... The US government is to press for broader regional benefits under its Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA). Currently 35 African nations are eligible for Agoa benefits but, because of US customs, visa systems and other administrative...

NGO to battle SA arms deal. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Anti-arms activists acting "on behalf of all poor South Africans" will slug it out in court with the SA government in a legal challenge against its R60bn arms spending spree. International NGO Economists Allied for Arms Reduction has asked the...

Miss World takes Nigeria by storm. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Scenes of pandemonium greeted the newly crowned Miss World 2001, 18 year old Agbeni Darego, when she returned to her homeland shortly after her stunning achievement. Thousands of supporters greeted her at Muhamed Murtala International Airport,...

Moz sugar threatened by imports. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Increasing production by Mozambique's rejuvenated sugar estates is battling for domestic market share as cheap, illegal imports continue to flood the country. Increased cane production and milling activity has set the country on track to...

Africa's first high-speed train gets off drawing board. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Gauteng Province in South Africa is planning a $500m high-speed rail project. Construction of the 80km of track will begin in 2003 which will link Pretoria, Johannesburg and Johannesburg International Airport. It is planned to be operational by...

SA man gets top UN commodities post. (Business Briefs).(South African Sugar Association's David Williers)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... South African Sugar Association's David Williers has become the first African to be appointed to head up the United Nations International Sugar Organisation (ISO) in New York. In a history making move, Williers also became the first person...

AIDS support for women. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Women bear the brunt of the aids pandemic in Africa - and with high unemployment, securing work is difficult enough without the stigma and discrimination that accompanies those that disclose they are carriers of the disease. Working on this...

Mugabe - saint or sinner? .(Brief Article)(Editorial)
February 1, 2002... Anver Versi Is Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe a bloodthirsty dictator who will stop at nothing to retain power, or is he a true patriot determined to right old wrongs at all costs? The answer lies in the point of view you take. If you believe...

Mwanawasa rules a house divided. (Cover Story: Zambia).(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... Zambia's new President, Levy Mwanawasa scraped into office by the skin of his teeth and amid allegations of vote-rigging by the opposition. He now presides over a very finely balanced parliament. The question is will the new leader, whose...

Africa's bouncing bourses. (View from the City).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... Despite the vagaries of the global financial markets in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, some sub-Saharan stock markets, notably South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Nigeria and Ghana have outperformed most emerging markets (excepting...

Why is the rand falling? (Finance).
February 1, 2002... South Africans, from the most erudite economist to the humblest citizen Joe, are in a cauldron of confusion about their currency - the rand. Why does it keep losing value when there seems to be no economic justification for this? Is there a...

East African Community: Will the unity hold? (Special Focus).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Previous attempts at cross-border political bodies in East Africa have floundered because of jealousies and economic imbalances. Many of those imbalances remain but there are reasons to believe that the East African Community may stand a better...

Safer oven prevents burn injuries. (Products & Processes).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... A simple, low-cost safety oven has led to a Johannesburg man being named one of the best inventors in the world. The idea for 53-year-old Ken Hall's Cobb plastic mini-oven was born when the inventor read of how many people, mainly children, in...

Sun + Ozone = pure water. (Products & Processes).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... An alternative method of the of water in rural purification areas could be on the cards if trials currently being carried out in KwaZulu-Natal are successful. Scientists are testing solar-powered sanitation units using ozone technology rather...

All you need is the sun. (Products & Processes).
February 1, 2002... Still on matters solar - all you need is a clear day, a cardboard box, tinfoil and a black pot and you have a cheap, clean and very effective stove powered by the rays of the sun. Durban, South Africa inventor, Richard Pocock, points out that...

Monstrous salmon on the way. (Products & Processes).
February 1, 2002... For anglers, the news is sensational, but ecologists are horrified at the thought. The European Patent Office has granted a Canadian organisation, Seabright, a patent for a genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon that will make it grow eight...

Smart Websites. (Products & Processes).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... There was a time when company websites were built by solitary web-masters using simple elements. Today, building websites is a challenge in an environment where sites are becoming more complex, expensive, human resource and time intensive. ...

SA's miracle sugar cane. (Products & Processes).(South AFrica)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... The story of South Africa's 'miracle' sugar cane variety actually begins nearly 60 years ago. Incredibly it was the result of a breeding programme that went wrong. In the years that followed, variety NCo376 set the standard for cane growing...

Desert beetle inspires water system. (Products & Processes).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... A British architect is working on a revolutionary new building concept that could benefit regions afflicted by water shortage. His development won an architectural award from at Britain's Royal Academy of Art Summer exhibition. The...

Lead free fuel for Africa? (Products & Processes).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Lead in petrol should be phased out in Africa and replaced by ethanol, a cleaner, cheaper alternative, says leading environmental scientist Valerie Thomas of Princeton University in the United Stares. Speaking to the New Scientist magazine,...

Nigeria dumps fuel subsidies. (Oil and Gas).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... The Nigerian government has announced the withdrawal of all subsidies on crude oil and refined petroleum products in January 2002, following a two year struggle to force through the move. During the first half of 2001, trade unions threatened...

Exxon, Phillips decline opportunity. (Oil and Gas).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Us giant Exxon - Mobil and independent Phillips Petroleum have turned down the opportunity to become the operators of deepwater blocks OPL 214 and OPL 318 respectively. Along with the other 'winners' of the 2000 licensing round for deepwater...

OPEC cuts production. (Oil and Gas).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... OPEC has cut oil production by 1.5m barrels per day for a period of six months from 1 January 2002, bringing its total cut for the year to five million barrels The organisation was able to announce the move, after non-OPEC major oil producers,...

BP draws blank in Angola. (Oil and Gas).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Despite two years of exploration efforts, BP is yet to find oil on its concession in Angolan Block 31. The government earned around $1bn when it sold three concessions in the block. In 1999, the Angolan government sold three concessions for...

'My way or the highway' - Bush. (Dateline USA).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... President George W. Bush is proposing US aid cuts to sub-Saharan Africa in fiscal 2002: $789m as opposed to last year's $794m. If approved it will put an end to the steady increases achieved during President Clinton's last five years in office....

NEPA switches on - at last: Nigeria's notoriously erratic power supply may soon become a dim and distant memory if all the projects currently in the pipeline are carried through to completion, Neil Ford reports. (Energy).(National Electric Power Authority)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... Nigeria's National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) has met its target of providing 4,000mw of generating capacity to the nation by 31 December 2001. The revelation was made by Information and National Orientation Minister, Jerry Gana, at the...

Ghana's Petroleum Corporation fights for life. (Energy).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Following the recent crisis in the company, the government of Ghana is attempting to save the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) through severely restricting the scope of its interests and imposing massive job losses. Ghanaian...

Are GM crops the answer for Africa? (Technology).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... While the developed world is polarising between two camps - those for and against - genetically modified food, where does the developing world stand on the issue? The implications for the future, either way, are immense but the lack of...

Asia invests in biotechnology. (Technology).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... Countries in Asia are giving high priority to biotechnology. In the lead is Singapore which is channelling billions of dollars in development funding to become the hub of biotechnology in the region. China is nor far behind. Human and...

Mercedes' new SL: Technology heaven. (Wheels).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Mercedes Benz has manufactured close to half a million SL Roadster sports-cars since it launched the legendary "gull wing" SL300 in 1954. The introduction of the fifth generation, possibly the company's most important launch in recent year, has...

Malaria may have met its match - in a goat!. (Health).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... Scientist in America are developing a vaccine against malaria, administered using milk from goats. Stephen Williams reports on developments in the search for a cure against the deadly disease. In their quest to mass-produce an effective...

US out for revenge. (Countryfile: Somalia).
February 1, 2002... The US military has Somalia in its cross hairs. With members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network on the run in Afghanistan the Pentagon has stepped up its surveillance activities over Somali territory with Navy P-3 planes flying out of Oman in...

Hunger returns after war. (Countryfile: Eritrea).(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... Although armed conflict against neighbouring Ethiopia ended with the signing of a peace agreement in Algiers in June 2000, the troubles are far from over in Eritrea, whose population of about four million is in continued need of food aid....

Mohammad Ali: Through the Eyes of the World. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Edited by Mark Collinges [pounds sterling]20 Sanctuary Press ISBN 1-86074-401-X If Muhammad Ali's achievements had been solely confined to the boxing ring, his life would still be considered extraordinary. The fact that he was the...

North Africa Travel. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Edited by Barnaby Rogerson [pounds sterling]10 Sickle Moon Books ISBN 1-900209-19-5 North Africa Travel is an annual collection of travel-writing from North Africa and the Sahara. Its geographical frontiers stretch from the...

The Fever Trail.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... THE HUNT FOR THE CURE FOR MALARIA By Mark Honigsbaum [pounds sterling]18.99 Macmillan ISBN 0-333-90185-1 This 'Roll Back Malaria' campaign, a programme that aims to cut mortality from malaria in half by 2010, is just the...

AB guide to African currencies.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... AB Guide to African Currencies Country CURRENCY [pounds sterling]STG Algeria (Dinar) 112.57 Angola (New Kwanza) 46.34 Benin ...

Victory for asbestos victims. (Countryfile: South Africa).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Cape plc, which mined asbestos in South Africa for several decades, has finally agreed to a compensation settlement of $40m for thousands of South African asbestos victims. The settlement, agreed just before last Christmas, will be paid out...

Chemical ban threatens tobacco. (Countryfile: Malawi).
February 1, 2002... Malawi's tobacco industry, already facing a difficult future because of the plummeting demand for the leaf, has received yet another body blow. Environmentalists are calling for the ban of menthyl bromide which has traditionally been used by...

Lissouba gets 30 years hard labour. (Countryfile: Congo - Brazzville).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Congo's former President, Pascal Lissouba, has been sentenced, in absentia, to 30 years hard labour by the High Court in Brazzavile at the end of December. Describing his crimes as high treason, the court ordered him and four former...