News
Oscar Pistorius murder trial set for March South African athlete Oscar Pistorius will stand trial in March next year accused of the premeditated murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The Paralympic star was formally charged with Ms Steenkamp’s murder on what would have been her 30th birthday at Pretoria magistrates’ court. Mr Pistorius was granted bail in February and denies murdering Ms Steenkamp. The double-amputee fired four shots through a bathroom door at his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day. He says he shot her after mistaking her for an intruder. The prosecutor in the case said the dates of 3 to 20 March had been mutually agreed for the trial and he handed over details of the prosecution’s case against Mr Pistorius, 26, including a witness list and forensic reports. If convicted, he faces a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison.
B u s i ness
South Africa’s Cell C announces Gauteng network upgrade Cell C, one of South Africa’s a leading mobile providers, will roll out an additional 100 sites in Johannesburg over the next three months to increase network capacity and improve quality, it has announced. The first 19 will be “on air” by the end of August and is “in addition to the existing 959 sites in Johannesburg,” the company said.
Some of the areas earmarked for additional sites in Johannesburg include Sandton, Fourways, Bryanston, Morningside, Soweto and Benoni amongst others. Cell C will also be building an additional 70 indoor coverage sites in Johannesburg and Pretoria. “Traffic on our network has doubled over the past year and we’ve been hard at work rolling out new sites and installing additional capacity to cater for this growth and restore quality,” said Alan Knott-Craig, Cell C CEO. “In particular, the network in Johannesburg and Pretoria has been taking strain. In addition to the new sites, we have also embarked on a project to optimise close to 900 existing sites in Johannesburg and Pretoria to improve coverage and minimise interference on the network in high-density areas. We expect these activities to be completed by the end of November 2013.” Knott-Craig added that Cell C will continue to roll out new sites, upgrade and optimise existing sites and add additional capacity across its network nationally.
B u s i ness
South African mining output slumps in June South African mining production decreased by 6.2 percent year-on-year in June, according to data released by Statistics SA during August. The 6.2 percent drop follows a series of unprotected strikes and violence that has rocked the sector, which has lost R10 billion in production in the past year. Output has also been hit by weak commodity prices and subdued demand from Asia. The largest negative growth rates were recorded for ‘other’ metallic minerals (-38.0 percent), diamonds (-22.9 percent), PGMs (-18.9 percent) and gold (-14.1 percent). The main contributors to the 6.2 percent decrease were PGMs (contributing -4.6 percentage points) and gold (contributing -2.3 percentage points). Iron ore (contributing 2.0 percentage points) was a significant positive contributor. Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 0.1 percent in the second quarter of 2013 compared with the previous quarter, Statistics SA said.
go to www.aFRICAoutlookmag.com/news for all of the latest news from africa
7