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May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 27 2012 11:49
The country's 200 000-odd Tupperware agents are angry about the counterfeit products being sold as the real McCoy.
May 27 2012 11:05
As far as repayments on home loans are concerned, South Africans are in a much more favourable position than their foreign peers.
Johannesburg - South Africa has invited bids from local and international firms for the construction of two open cycle gas turbine plants with a combined generation capacity of 1 000 megawatts, the government said on Monday.
In a paper presented at a four-day hydropower and sustainable development conference, the department of minerals and
energy (DME) said the plants would be built in the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces.
An official with the department declined to give the cost of the project, expected to be completed by 2008, as these details
were part of the bidding process.
The evaluation and negotiation of bids will start in March next year.
South Africa has been experiencing power outages, which have raised fears that the country may be running out of
generation capacity earlier than anticipated.
Demand for electricity in Africa's largest economy is expected to outstrip supply in 2007.
The DME said it had opted for independent power producers to finance the project because of the government's strategy
to attract foreign direct investment and raise the number of players in the electricity market.
This will be the first project of its kind in the country.
State-owned power utility Eskom will be the main customer.
"The DME will be responsible for managing the procurement of the generation capacity through a competitive tendering
process. It will assist with the environmental impact assessment and the procurement of the land," it said.
Legislation for the project will be submitted to parliament in July this year, with the request for proposals expected in
August.
South Africa is seeking new energy sources to meet rising demand and facilitate the government's plans to raise
economic growth to 6% by 2010 from 4.9% currently.
Eskom, which has not built power plants in recent years, is refurbishing three mothballed thermal power stations and
building two open-cycle gas turbine plants near Cape Town.
It takes about 18 years to build a thermal power station.
There are also plans to build a new technology pebble bed nuclear reactor at the Koeberg nuclear power station within the
next 10 years. Eskom will spend R93bn over five years on new energy sources.
South Africa's demand for electricity is increasing at an average rate of 1 000 MW a year.