Aviation
SAA targets Ghana for hub
SAA planned to meet with rival operator Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise as it considered plans to establish a hub in west Africa, spokesman Tlali Tlali said yesterday. The continent’s biggest carrier was targeting Ghana as the preferred location for a base and wanted to work on the plan with Asky Airlines from Togo, in which Ethiopian Airlines had a stake, he said. SAA initially considered Senegal as a possible hub as it looked to compete with Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways in tapping traffic beyond their home markets. That strategy was abandoned as not commercially viable. “We’re now focusing on Ghana as we operate on the Johannesburg-Accra sector,” Tlali said. – Bloomberg
Transport
Transnet staff houses stoned
Two houses of non-striking Transnet workers were damaged at Motherwell in the Eastern Cape when they were stoned early yesterday morning, the company said. The houses were those of Transnet employees at the Ngqura container terminal, Siyabulela Mhlaluka, the general manager of terminals in the province, said. This appeared to be part of “a co-ordinated campaign of terror and intimidation”, he added. The National Union of Metalworkers of SA has been on strike at the terminal over transport allowances, working hours for particular tasks, and the use of labour brokers. The union could not be reached for comment. – Sapa
Housing
Sanral offers land to evictees
The SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) had offered other land it owned as a more permanent home for the people it had evicted from Lwandle near Cape Town, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said yesterday. “Sanral has given us pieces of land and we agreed we would dispatch a team to investigate the land,” Sisulu told Parliament. She said the team comprised community leaders and officials of Sanral and the Housing Development Agency. On this new piece of land, yet to be chosen, residents would be provided with building kits, basic electricity, water and basic ablution facilities, “all of those things that will make it possible for them to regain their dignity and to lead lives we would like to live”. On Monday and Tuesday, about 846 families living on Sanral land next to the N2 highway in Strand were evicted under an interim court order. – Sapa
Construction
R52m upgrade for Witkoppen
Witkoppen Road in Randburg, Johannesburg, also known as the R564, would get a R52 million upgrade, the Gauteng Transport Department said yesterday. Transport MEC Ismail Vadi announced the upgrade while conducting a site inspection of a damaged drain on the road, spokeswoman Octavia Mamabolo said. A 3km section, from Main Road towards Rivonia Road, would be rehabilitated, while another stretch would be widened. “This will involve the upgrading of the road, the reconstructing of existing culverts, the construction of pavement layers, the erection of new road signs and markings, and landscaping,” Mamabolo said. “The R52m contract has been awarded to Phagama Civil and Maintenance and should be completed by December this year.” Construction would begin within weeks. – Sapa