Business News Online

Cellphone service providers Vodacom and MTN were having serious network problems on Thursday, the companies said.

“We are currently experiencing network issues in some areas. Our engineering team is working hard to resolve the problem. We apologise to all affected customers,” said Vodacom spokesperson Ashleigh Dubbelman.

The contact number provided was a Vodacom number, with no landline number supplied, so further details were not immediately available.

However, the company used Twitter to apologise, reply to questions and post short updates, repeating several times that it was not related to the Rica deadline to register sim cards.

“We’re aware that certain customers are experiencing an inability to call or SMS. Sincere apologies, we’re working on a fix :-/,” one of the posts read.

In another post they wrote: “…there is a network wide issue on Voice and SMS that some customers are experiencing, we are attending to this.”

Technicians were working on the problem.

MTN echoed this, also offering apologies. Read more…

WASHINGTON — This is one anniversary few feel like celebrating.

Two years after economists say the Great Recession ended, the recovery has been the weakest and most lopsided of any since the 1930s.

After previous recessions, people in all income groups tended to benefit. This time, ordinary Americans are struggling with job insecurity, too much debt and pay raises that haven’t kept up with prices at the grocery store and gas station. The economy’s meager gains are going mostly to the wealthiest.

Workers’ wages and benefits make up 57.5 percent of the economy, an all-time low. Until the mid-2000s, that figure had been remarkably stable — about 64 percent through boom and bust alike.

Executive pay is included in this figure, but rank-and-file workers are far more dependent on regular wages and benefits. A big chunk of the economy’s gains has gone to investors in the form of higher corporate profits.

“The spoils have really gone to capital, to the shareholders,” says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates in Toronto.

Corporate profits are up by almost half since the recession ended in June 2009. In

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The new online system for mineral rights applications, shut down for two days earlier this week, may be experiencing bigger problems than the department of mineral resources is willing to admit.

There is evident concern among mining companies, as well as other participants in the sector, about the extent of the problems with the new technology.

According to at least two major mining companies who did not want to be named, the system, known as the South African Mineral Resources Administration online system, or Samrad, is believed to be awarding dual rights to companies over the same areas and minerals, among a host of other technical deficiencies.

The mineral resources department shut down the system over Monday and Tuesday this week, after it received complaints from companies about Samrad.

The technology was introduced earlier this year by the department in a bid to streamline its rights-application processes and combat the potential for corruption in its manual applications process. Read more…

Carol Rosenblatt of Washington, right, and others, take part in rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, in support of the plaintiffs in a case of women employees against Wal-Mart. AP Photo

FILE – In this March 17, 2010 file photo, a worker gathers shopping carts near a Wal-Mart store in Washington Township, N.J. The Supreme Court has ruled for Wal-Mart in its fight to block a massive sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of women who work there.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court blocked the largest sex-discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history on Monday, siding with Wal-Mart and against up to 1.6 million female workers in a decision that makes it harder to mount large-scale bias claims against the nation’s other huge companies, too.

The justices all agreed that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could not proceed as a class action in its current form, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. B

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St. Joseph, MI — It’s no day at the beach for businesses near Silver Beach. Cooler, wet weather is hurting the bottom line.

At Cabana’s Ice Cream the cones and creams may taste like paradise, but the weather certainly hasn’t felt like it.

Alicia Sass is the owner. She said the difference in temperature is something she has been able to feel and see.

“Over Memorial weekend we were out the door,” Sass said. “It was great. We sold out.”

Just, a few days before, Mother Nature served up another helping of cloudy skies and rain.

“We were hoping, waiting for customers to come in,” she said.

The WSBT StormTracker Forecast Center only recorded four 90 degree days on the shores of Silver Beach since the season began on May 1. And it was also the second wettest May on record.

Attendance at Silver Beach that month was down 30 percent this year compared to last year. T

Read more…

Only one percent of Canada’s post-secondary students are interested in starting their own business this summer, according to a recent BMO Bank of Montreal survey.

Maybe that’s because businesses appear to be hiring for the summer season. In the same survey, 69 per cent of post-secondary students say they have found a summer job.

“We are seeing that business owners are increasingly willing to invest in growing their business, including hiring new employees,” said Gail Cocker, Senior Vice-President, Commercial and Treasury Management, BMO Financial Group.

(Read more about the BMO Bank of Montreal survey.)

So looking at it from both sides…

First, as a small business in Canada, here’s What You Need to Know About Hiring Employees.

Second, if you’re in that one percent and want to start your own business for the summer, here are several resources that will help you get your new business going: