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Monday, March 29, 2010.

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

Making headlines today:

Vehicle and asset finance company WesBank has established an alliance with Volvo Financial Services to launch a private label finance offering to support the Volvo Group's activities in South Africa, focusing on commercial vehicles.

This comes after the Volvo Group identified the need for a local finance source to support commercial vehicle sales in South Africa.

Local Volvo Group companies include Volvo Southern Africa, Nissan Diesel and Renault Trucks.

Under the alliance, WesBank will provide commercial vehicle finance and related financial services products to prospective customers for all of these brands.

Civil construction group Esorfranki Civils is working around the clock to ensure that the stretch of the R21 highway between Pomona road and the R24 split, in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg, would be ready before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Senior site agent for the project Morné Barnard said that this section of work near the OR Tambo International Airport had to be completed by May 28, before the World Cup starts on June 11.

This forms part of the work package J of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, which Esorfranki Civils is responsible for.

The highway is being widened to four lanes on each side, while a number of bridges have to be lengthened and refurbished and some pedestrian bridges removed.

Also making headlines:

The Solidarity trade union urges nuclear consolidation to save the PBMR skills.
South Africa faces an increased risk of power failures.
The DA writes to the World Bank about the Eskom loan.
And, Total South Africa and Qatar agree to invest jointly in production projects in West Africa.

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