BP in court bid to liquidate Velvet Sky
Low-cost airline Velvet Sky, which allegedly owes more than R29 million to BP Southern Africa, on Friday was given until March 5 to respond to BP’s application to provisionally liquidate the company. In the Pietermaritzburg High Court, Gerrie Roberts, senior counsel for BP, said Velvet Sky had breached its undertaking to pay arrears by February 17 and it had not kept up to date with current payments for aviation fuel. He said the airline had known two days before that BP would launch a provisional liquidation application on Friday, but had not responded. Farouk Moosa, senior counsel for Velvet Sky, said negotiations were taking place, denying allegations that pilots had not been paid. The case was adjourned to March 7. – Sapa
Zimbabwe pilots clip airline’s wings
Zimbabwe’s national airline had suspended all its flights indefinitely, after the latest revival effort collapsed last week, its chief executive said on Friday. “I can confirm all flights are suspended. We are grounded indefinitely,” Air Zimbabwe chief executive Innocent Mavhunga said. The airline had hoped to return to the skies last week, after its pilots walked off the job last year, saying wages had not been paid. “We are waiting for the government, our major shareholder, to intervene,” Mavhunga said. – Sapa-AFP
Chinese politicians outstrip US peers
The richest 70 members of China’s legislature added more to their wealth last year than the combined net worth of all 535 members of the US Congress, the president and the cabinet, and the nine supreme court justices. The net worth of the 70 richest delegates in China’s National People’s Congress rose to $89.8 billion (R689bn) last year, a gain of $11.5bn from 2010, the Hurun Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy, shows. That compares with the $7.5bn net worth of all 660 top officials in the three branches of the US government. – Bloomberg
Implats workers to lose their jobs
At least 2 200 workers will lose their jobs after a six-week strike at the Rustenburg mine of Impala Platinum (Implats). This is after the management agreed to rehire only 15 000 out of the 17 200 workers that were initially sacked for taking part in the illegal strike. page 17