After reports were sent to cabinet, water test results have not been released for five years A countrywide water shortage is a decade away unless urgent action is taken to rehabilitate and preserve our rivers and catchment areas, fix and maintain crumbling infrastructure, and implement water re-use. Without intervention, South Africa faces a deficit of about 3,000 billion litres of water per year by 2030 the Department of Water and Sanitation told a ministerial interactive session on transformation in Boksburg on 15 February. That is three times more than South Africa’s total…
Read MoreDay: Feb 26, 2019
South Africa’s failure to create manufacturing jobs
To reduce unemployment South Africa needs to prioritise labour-intensive work instead of higher wages, write professors Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Nattrass W. Arthur Lewis is the only person of African descent to have won the Nobel prize for economics. Lewis, who might be considered the founding father of development economics in the 1940s and 1950s, combined writing and teaching with providing economic advice to policy-makers, including Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah. Lewis thought extensively about the path along which farming societies in the Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere could develop. He…
Read MoreN West ploughs into food security projects
Food security has been enhanced in the North West through the Department of Rural, Environment and Agricultural Development’s R5.5 million investment in agri projects. “Food insecurity remains a pervasive and serious problem. Too many North West residents, especially those residing in rural areas, still regularly find themselves living in poverty and without sufficient access to affordable and nutritious food,” said acting MEC, Dr Mpho Motlhabane. Speaking on behalf of MEC Desbo Mohono, Motlhabane said the projects across the province are helping residents to break the cycle of poverty, increase food…
Read MoreSA to develop Africa’s largest tech hub
Government is looking at developing the biggest tech hub in Africa, a coding and programming academy as well as co-working and co-creation spaces for the youth and start-ups in particular. “Through the Small Enterprise Development Agency (seda), my department, in partnership with the Department of Telecommunication and Postal Services, has started a conversation to develop the biggest Tech Hub in Africa…” Minister of Small Business Development Lindiwe Zulu said on Friday. She was addressing an engagement session with the creative industry in Johannesburg under theme ‘Leveraging on digital platforms…
Read MoreR5.5 billion zinc mine for SA
President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Thursday officially open the R5.5 billion investment zinc mine in the Northern Cape, the Presidency said on Sunday. The Gamsberg Mine near Aggeneys is located in the mining centre between Springbok and Pofadder and will contribute to job creation and skills development. The new mine is owned by India’s globally diversified natural resources company Vedanta Resources Limited as part of their Black Mountain Mining (BMM) operations. The Presidency said Gamsberg will exploit one of the largest known, undeveloped zinc ore bodies in the world and…
Read MoreSA shines at Wall Street summit
Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Bulelani Magwanishe has showcased South Africa’s Black Industrialists Programme at the 22nd Annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit in New York. “Our Black Industrialists Programme is deliberate in the advocacy of black participation in the mainstream economy. Through this, the Black Industrialists incentive supports companies pursuing productive sectors of the economy. “As we contest for liberty and economic empowerment, the South African government has channelled its mandate towards developing black pioneers engaged in industrial sectors,” said Magwanishe. The Black Industrialists Programme is one of government’s…
Read MoreBAIC sets new timelines for projected SA vehicle plant
Beijing Automotive International Corporation (BAIC), the Chinese state-owned company that committed to invest R11 billion in South Africa, now claims that production was set to commence before the end of this year at its vehicle plant in Coega. South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has a 35 percent shareholding in the project. BAIC in July held what it described as a “milestone event” to prepare for semi-knocked down (SKD) production of vehicles at the plant. The company said at the time that “full-scale production” of its X25 compact sport utility vehicle (SUV)…
Read MoreOPINION: Rumblings in the belly off the waters of Port Shepstone
CAPE TOWN – Here is an express announcement detailing plans and intent to drill for crude oil on the waters off the coast of Richard Bay all the way down to Port Shepstone in KwaZulu Natal. It arrives at a time when South Africa is gripped in a svengali hold of ever rising fuel prices. And before I get ahead of myself, let’s pay attention to the enormity of the announcement and the implication of what ENI of Italy and Sasol Oil intend to do. Besides, until we resolve the…
Read MoreThe golden age of hydrocarbons has finally reached SA
JOHANNESBURG – There is is no gentle way of announcing it, or more telling, a more sophisticated way of avoiding saying it, that South Africa has officially entered its golden age of hydrocarbon extraction. In spite of the voices of sceptics, their disbelief not so much the fact that we have entered the age, but that it is golden, it would be naiveté of a disturbing kind that the country keeps walking into an age unbeknown to the best of its talent. And that as it enters, it does so…
Read MoreSA infrastructure market is in crisis, says Aveng
PRETORIA – The South African infrastructure market was in crisis, says financially troubled listed construction and engineering group Aveng. Eric Diack, the executive chairperson of Aveng, said yesterday that this reflected the marginal economic growth experienced in South Africa, which was exacerbated by “unprecedented and widespread threats of violence, community unrest and protest action on construction sites which employers (clients) seemingly expect contractors to accept as the new normal”. The Aveng-Stabag Joint Venture (ASJV), in which Aveng wholly-owned Southern African construction and engineering business Grinaker-LTA was a 50 percent partner, terminated…
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