With a few days and counting to the imposition of e-tolling, Fedusa has entered the fray - along with a range of other bodies - in an effort to halt what must be ranked as one of the most deeply unpopular moves on the part of government.
Fedusa has addressed an open letter to Zuma after, apparently, an earlier letter to him went unanswered - maybe he was busy on those wedding plans.
On the education front, we didn't come out of the recent World Literacy Summit in the UK smelling of roses because when it comes to literacy,
SA comes bottom of the class. Apparently the experts are puzzled as to 'how can this be?' Well, here are a couple of ideas for discussion... Under-trained teachers, bad management, lack of discipline in the classroom, lack of textbooks, a teachers' union that often seems more intent on striking than teaching... that sort of thing?
There's good news for those in ICT -
Cape Town is to host the international ICT Indaba 2012 and strategies on how Africa can be developed to be become the next boom market in the ICT sector look to be high on the agenda.
For our e-tag carrier enthusiasts, our motoring editor Henrie Geyser waxes lyrical on the Kia Optima, which Henrie describes as
smart, sensible and stylish... again, very much like our Henrie, then.
Surprise - some good news for a change from the Eastern Cape... If you're planning on flying anywhere in the next few years, there's good news for you... the man (or woman - must be PC) at the sharp end up at the front should be pretty good as an Eastern Cape pilot training school has linked up with Boeing to
train pilots.Finally - and still up in the air - kulula feels deeply for those of us who are brave enough to have four wives. So, appreciating that the cost of lugging her along with you can be heavy, the airline has just launched a
'4th wife flies free' offer. The only drawback we can see is that the offer is open to all fourth wives when the family travels together on the Joburg to Cape Town leg - so if you live in Durban, hard cheese.
Rod Baker, content director
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Standard Bank is offering Pastel's accounting package, My Business Online solution, through BizLaunch, which was created as the bank's response to the stubbornly high failure rate of start-up businesses. 
The average value of homes in the South African residential property market for which Absa received and approved applications for mortgage finance, is deflating. This is based on the bank's house price indices for the small, medium-sized, and large categories in the middle segment of the market. 
Nedbank has entered into an agreement with Central Property Developments Johannesburg to fund a rental housing development in Clayville, Midrand. The bank will be injecting over R100 million to address the needs of those who either earn too much to qualify for free subsidy housing, or too little to meet the qualifying criteria set out by financial institutions. 
In an open letter to President Jacob Zuma, the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) says it has referred the issue of tolling prices, and how they are calculated, to the Competition Commission. Fedusa is seeking an urgent meeting with the president to discuss the issue. 
The National Treasury is concerned that R3bn a year spent on leasing properties for state departments was too high, according to a report on Wednesday. Treasury deputy director-general for public finance Andrew Donaldson told Parliament's appropriations committee on Tuesday that state spending on leases had grown rapidly, Business Day reported. 
There has been a significant increase of e-tag registrations in Gauteng, the SA National Roads Agency Ltd said on Wednesday. Most of the registrations had taken place at mall outlets, it said in a statement. 
Short-term planning and political uncertainty could slow down its R800bn infrastructure spending plan, the government admits. 
The cost to administer and enforce the regulations for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), or e-tolling, just added to motorists' burden and a simple fuel levy would have reduced this, say the Cape and Durban chambers of commerce. 
