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Wednesday, March 18, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

South Africa's largest labour federation has threatened another national strike should power utility Eskom's tariff application come in at or above the price path outlined by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa last year.

Congress of South African Trade Union's general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said that it had never agreed with Nersa's price path, which hinted to increases of 20 to 25% over the next three years. He said the union would oppose any move to grant such material increases.

Vavi also said that it wouldn't accept any upward revision until a national tariff policy had been properly established, with guarantees that the poor would be protected in an instance where tariffs rose materially.

In June last year, Nersa revised the 2008/9 power-tariff increase from the 14,2% sanctioned in December 2007, to a nominal 27,5% for the 12-month period ending March 31st, 2009.

The Department of Transport is planning to establish a bicycle manufacturing or assembly plant in South Africa. The plant will produce bicycles for its Shova Kalula, or Ride Easy, project. The DoT has issued an expression of interest in this regard.

The project aims to ensure the roll-out of one-million bicycles by 2014. It forms part of government's programme of action. It's expected to contribute to government's anti-poverty strategy and second economy interventions.

It's also expected to promote the use of non-motorised transport, especially for low-income households.

DoT spokesperson Sam Monareng said that only one manufacturing plant was being planned and that a specific province or region hadn't been determined.

Also making headlines:

Work at the King Shaka International airport is back to normal following a two-day strike last week.
Transnet's acting CEO, Chris Wells, defends the company's pipeline tariff application.
Tata Communications is named as Seacom's anchor tenant.
And, the Gautrain project will create 148 000 jobs in the next 20 years.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.

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