News in Brief

THE MEDUPI power station’s unit six fired up its first gas burner this week, Eskom said yesterday. “The firing up of the gas burner supports the ignition of oil combustion for the first oil fire,” the parastatal said. “This activity follows on from the filling of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank with gas and the safety clearance of the distribution piping from the LPG tank to the LPG burner skids.” The burner was fired up on Monday. Parliament’s portfolio committees on public enterprises and energy visited the site on Monday to assess progress. “Positive feedback was received from the committees and this demonstrated appreciation for the progress achieved at Medupi given the magnitude of the project,” Eskom said. Unit six of the new power station, which has faced numerous construction delays, is expected to be synchronised at midday on December 24. Synchronisation, or first power, involves the generator being electrically connected to the power grid so that its power is aligned with all the other generators to generate and deliver electricity into the grid. It will take several months for the unit to reach full and stable power. – Sapa THE RAND rallied yesterday to trade briefly below R11 to the dollar for the first time since mid-September after the US Federal Reserve threw emerging markets a ray of sunshine.

The US central bank suggested in the minutes of its latest policy setting committee meeting that fragility of the global economy and a run-up in the dollar might deter the Fed from raising interest rates too soon following a spate of particularly strong US economic reports, including last Friday’s data showing employment picked up last month.

South African shares advanced the most in two months on the Fed news, led by shares of industrial and gold mining companies.

The FTSE/JSE Africa all share index gained 0.21 percent to close at 48 133.52. During the