JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African bank Absa (ASAJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will pay $1.2 billion for the store credit card business of unlisted domestic retailer Edcon, it said on Wednesday, bulking up its presence in the high-margin but riskier unsecured lending market.

Under the deal, Absa, majority-owned by Britain’s Barclays Plc (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), will also extend credit and sell other financial products to the nearly 4 million customers of South Africa’s biggest clothing retailer.

JOHANNESBURG, June 6 (Reuters) – South African bank Absa
will pay $1.2 billion for the store credit card
business of unlisted domestic retailer Edcon, it said on
Wednesday, bulking up its presence in the high-margin but
riskier unsecured lending market.

Under the deal, Absa, majority-owned by Britain’s Barclays
Plc, will also extend credit and sell other financial
products to the nearly 4 million customers of South Africa’s
biggest clothing retailer.

JOHANNESBURG, June 6 (Reuters) – Brtiain’s Aggreko
and its local joint-venture partner Shanduka Group will supply
107 megawatts of gas-fired power to Mozambique and South Africa,
the company said on Wednesday, helping to plug electricity
shortages in the region.

Countries in southern Africa have been struggling to meet
fast-rising demand for power, with the next two years seen as
particularly tight until new power plants start coming online.

JOHANNESBURG, May 31 (Reuters) – South Africa’s crude oil
imports from Iran fell 43 percent to 286,072 tonnes in April
from the previous month, customs data showed on Thursday,
indicating Pretoria could be cutting shipments to avoid looming
U.S. sanctions.

South Africa has come under Western pressure to cut Iranian
crude imports as part of sanctions designed to halt Tehran’s
suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons, but the response from
diplomatically non-aligned Pretoria has been unclear for months.

JOHANNESBURG, May 14 (Reuters) – It is five o’clock in the
evening in South Africa and the computer dials at the
nerve-centre of state electricity firm Eskom are cranking
towards the red as millions of people get home and turn on their
heating, hot water and cookers.

In the next two hours, demand will jump sharply, pushing the
grid towards its limits and a repeat of the emergency rolling
blackouts, known as ‘load-shedding’, that wreaked havoc on
Africa’s biggest economy in 2008.

PRETORIA, May 11 (Reuters) – A South African court on Friday
granted the mining ministry and politically connected Imperial
Crown Trading (ICT) the leave to appeal in a mineral rights case
against Kumba Iron Ore and ArcelorMittal South Africa
.

The decision could drag out a complicated case for partial
rights at one of the world’s largest iron ore mines. Critics
have said they were given to ICT – a company with no mining
experience but with business links to President Jacob Zuma’s son
- in a sweetheart deal.

KHOMANANI MINE, South Africa, May 9 (Reuters) – Anglo
American Platinum, the world’s top producer of the
precious metal, on Wednesday launched what is said is the first
fuel cell-powered mining locomotive, showing the technology’s
potential as a clean energy source.

The prototype – quiet, blue in colour and with the sharp
angles of a Lego toy – is one of five fuel cell locomotives that
will be tested for underground use at one of Amplats’ mines.

JOHANNESBURG, May 3 (Reuters) – South African papermaker
Mondi on Thursday posted a drop in first-quarter
underlying operating profit due to lower prices and volumes, but
said demand for its products was picking up.

Mondi, also listed in London, said first-quarter
underlying operating profit fell to 120 million euros ($157.82
million), compared with 179 million in the same period last
year.

JOHANNESBURG, April 30 (Reuters) – South African crude oil
imports from Iran rose to 3.37 billion rand ($434.8 million) in
March from 2.8 billion the previous month, customs data showed
on Monday, indicating Pretoria had not bowed to U.S. pressure to
curb commercial links with Tehran.

The Revenue Service said Africa’s biggest economy imported
505,908 tonnes of Iranian crude in March, up from 417,188 tonnes
the previous month.

MAPUTO, April 23 (Reuters) – Mozambique will buy 6 million
gigajoules of gas from South African petrochemicals group Sasol
to bring cleaner energy to the country, the head of
state-owned Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) said on
Monday.

Nelson Ocuane said ENH will need to build a 30-kilometre
(19-mile) pipeline from Matola, where Sasol’s current pipeline
passes on the way to South Africa, to the capital Maputo and
further north to the Maracuene district.