THE LITTLE GUY GETS A BREAK
By Sibonelo Radebe
Small and medium-sized enterprises have won significant concessions in the final draft of the black economic empowerment (BEE) codes of good practice approved by cabinet last week. That is the main change to the final codes, whic...

ZINC OR SWIM
By Nicky Smith
SA is sourcing more and more steel from India and China as the local industry cannot cope with ever-increasing demand from the construction industry. Imports of Indian steel were up 156% y/y to 146 000 t for the first nine months...

LONG DAYS, RED EYES
By Jeremy Maggs
Michelle Meyjes, MD of media planning and buying agency Mediaedge:cia, has become the first senior ad industry leader to acknowledge that a severe skills shortage in the sector has the potential to lead to executive burnout. Afte...

AN ECONOMY ON THE HOOF
By Shannon Sherry
Small-scale stock ownership provides an income for many people who eke out a living in SA's harsh rural environment. But sharply escalating stock theft in recent years has cost many emerging farmers their livelihoods. "It's a major ...

THAT'S NOT ALL, FOLKS
By Claire Bisseker
Evidence that tighter monetary policy is working remains too tentative to satisfy the Reserve Bank, making further rate hikes next year a real possibility. This should be chilling news for consumers. After all, the ratio of househo...

DRIVING ON ALGAE
By Martin Schneider
Bored in retirement, Frik de Beer started surfing the Internet for new mampoer recipes and discovered biodiesel instead. It was the beginning of a multimillion-rand business and the first commercial operation in SA's emerging biofuel...

TAKING THE BIOTEST
By Martin Schneider
Biodiesel quality is assessed against an SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) specification consisting of 26 tests. Producers can have their fuel tested by the SABS, the CSIR or private laboratories, such as Gauteng-based Bioservices, which...

THUMBS UP FOR STATE'S PLAN
By Shareen Singh
Government's biofuels strategy has brightened the prospects for a viable clean fuel industry. Motorists could be filling up with fuel derived from sugar cane and maize by late next year. The draft strategy, which is up for public co...

CT GIVES RED 1 THE FINGER
By Shareen Singh
Government's efforts to restructure the multi billion-rand electricity distribution industry have been dealt their sharpest blow yet with Cape Town's decision to withdraw from Red 1, SA's first regional electricity distributor. R...