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Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

On Monday, South Africa's national planning minister Trevor Manuel said that he wasn't all-powerful in setting economic policy.

Manuel, a former finance minister under ex-President Thabo Mbeki, is loathed by powerful unions who see him as a champion of business-friendly economic policies and fear he still wields undue influence over policy.

He said, during a public lecture in Johannesburg, that for once in his deployment, he didn't hold the big stick.

Manuel was excluded from the cabinet's economic planning and decision making clusters last week. That, and the resignation of key government policy advisor Joel Netshitenzhe, fuelled investor concern that President Jacob Zuma's allies may be pressuring him to change policies.

The country's powerful Cosatu trade union federation has condemned Zuma's choice of Manuel to lead a key economic planning commission which aims to guide the country out of its first recession in 17 years.

South African industrial group Bidvest debuted on the Namibian Stock Exchange on Monday, raising 313,6-million-Namibian-dollars.

Namibian investors bought all of the 50,7-million shares on offer. The stock was listed at 720 Namibian cents.

Bidvest Namibia, which houses the group's fishing interests as well as businesses offering services and products such as stationery, said it will use the cash to explore acquisition opportunities in Namibia.

Bidvest, whose activities cover food distribution, auto retail and freight services, said the listing of its Namibian unit resulted in the dilution of its stake in the business to 52% from 89%. The company said the dilution was part of its drive to meet Namibia's black economic empowerment action targets.

Also making headlines:

The consulting engineering industry's confidence levels deteriorate.
Paper and packaging group Mondi says its South African unit is under pressure.
Eskom's independent power producer cost claims may be misleading.
And, a decision on the Gautrain's completion for the World Cup is delayed until December.

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