JOHANNESBURG (Sapa) - Black South African investors currently own 18 percent of the available share capital in the top 100 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

This is according to a JSE study released on Wednesday.

"There has been much debate about black ownership on the JSE," CEO Russell Loubser said.

"Various and quite divergent numbers have been mentioned."

Loubser said the JSE's top 100 companies by market capitalisation were taken as the study universe.

This represented 85 percent of the total market capitalisation of the exchange.

The study was conducted by independent research house Trevor Chandler and Associates.

Chandler said shareholder data had been obtained from the JSE and the top 100 companies were requested to provide input to the study.

"We asked for audited or verified information and we even looked at some companies' annual reports."

Loubser said those who had previously supplied numbers where black ownership on the JSE was concerned, probably "got it wrong."

Trade numbers between two of the world's most ambitious developing countries, India and South Africa, were on the rise, with bilateral trade reaching $2,75-billion in the first quarter of this financial year, spurring hopes that the $10-billion trade target could be reached before the set date of 2012, said India Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Monday.

He added that even though bilateral trade did take a dip in 2009, reaching around $7-billion, all indications were that if trade continued on its current trend for the next three quarters, the $10-billion target could be reached as soon as March 2011.

Speaking at the India Show in Johannesburg, South African President Jacob Zuma said that it was clear that South Africa's relationship with the world's largest democracy was starting to "bear fruit", especially after his official State visit to India in June. During the visit, over 200 business delegates accompanied Zuma and three different memorandum of understanding towards the strengthening of trade ties were signed.

Also speaking at the event, the Confederation of Indian Industry president Hari Bhartia agreed, saying that India was one of South Africa's top ten investors, and that a further target of $25-billion had been set for bilateral trade by 2015.

"These targets are achievable by establishing coordination on the highest levels of government, but also through the private sector engaging in cross border trading initiatives."

South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday it was against the blanket nationalisation of mines and urged the government instead to invest in the sector through a state-owned company.

Talk of nationalisation of mines in South Africa -- the world's biggest producer of platinum and ferrochrome and the fourth-largest gold miner -- has raised concerns among investors, who already grapple with rising costs and dwindling output, Reuters reports.

Despite repeated assurances from government officials that nationalisation was not government policy, Julius Malema, the outspoken youth leader of South Africa's ruling ANC, has said the topic is under discussion by the ANC's National Executive Committee.

NUM called on the ruling ANC to encourage more debate on the issue, adding that the ruling party should push for a state-owned mining investment firm instead.

"A state mining company should be operationalised and used as a government vehicle to invest only in strategic minerals (such as) platinum, coal, uranium, iron ore and manganese," the NUM said in a statement.

A senior official in the mining ministry told Reuters last week that the department would soon approach the cabinet with a proposal for a state-owned mining company, which could be formed before the end of this year.

The Department of Defence is dismissing claims that military personnel will be joining the public service strike. It was reacting to reports to that effect in today’s media. "These media reports are not true. The SANDF is continuing to provide support to government in line with the Constitution and the Defence Act, says the department.

DoD spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini said in a statement that the “SANDF is a responsible organisation and its members would not break the law or undermine the very Constitution they are supposed to defend. Therefore members of the SANDF will not join the strike as doing so will be going against the prescripts of the Constitution and the Defence Act.”

News24 reported SA National Defence Union (SANDU) spokesman Jeff Dubazana said the “problem is, if this problem [the public sector strike] is not solved, there's a possibility that we might be seen as scab labour. We are not going to allow our workers to be seen in that particular fashion. That is why we are planning action.” He said the union would announce on Friday if it would take part in a secondary strike.

The military is however specifically excluded from the Labour Relations Act that governs industrial action. Any strike action would thus be necessarily unprotected and unlawful. The reports also come exactly a year after a riotous mutiny at the Union Buildings by SANDU in support of better pay and service conditions.