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Thursday, April 15, 2010.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines today:

South Africa's high level of unemployment has prompted the Industrial Development Corporation and the Unemployment Equity Fund to launch a 2-billion-rand fund to assist local industries to create new and preserve permanent jobs.

The fund will be capitalised by the UIF through a five-year listed private placement bond that will be registered with the JSE and which will mature in 2015.

The IDC will manage the facility and will assess applications for loans on a case-by-case basis.

The fund will be made available to start-up companies, to provide a debt portion of expansionary acquisitions for existing businesses and to facilitate working capital funded expansions.

Companies can borrow between 1-million and 100-million-rand from the fund.

South Africa's retail sales unexpectedly fell in the year to February, suggesting consumer demand might take longer than forecast to recover after last year's recession.

The data leaves a chance of another interest rate cut to help rekindle growth after the downturn slashed about 900 000 jobs.

Statistics South Africa said retail sales contracted by 1.5%t year-on-year in February at constant prices, after a revised 1.5% decline in January.

Also making headlines:

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan calls on Chancellor House's shareholders to "do the right thing" and deal with any conflict of interest arising from business dealings of the ANC's investment arm.
Airbus hadn't increased the A400M price when South Africa cancelled their deal last year.
The South African-designed and built Jonker JS-1 Revelation sailplane is awarded its type certification by South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority.
And, South Africa's satellite will soon complete its commissioning, despite problems.

That's a round up of news making headlines today.