JOHANNESBURG – The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) said on Tuesday that it had noted with alarm that the insidious dumping of chicken from Brazil that plagues the local industry has also taken root in Namibia. Izaak Breitenbach, general manager of SAPA’s broiler division, said that it was increasingly clear that Southern Africa was now in the crosshairs of exporters looking for markets for the unwanted leg quarters that are the byproducts of their lucrative breast-meat exports to the US and Europe. Breitenbach said that given similar experiences with the effects of…
Read MoreDay: Apr 2, 2019
KZN to open coffin manufacturing plant
The KwaZulu-Natal government will on Tuesday open a government owned furniture manufacturing plant, specialising in building coffins. According to KwaZulu-Natal Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Sihle Zikalala, the factory has created more than 600 jobs and has provided training to 10 000 emerging furniture builders. Besides affordable coffins, Zikalala said an assortment of timber products are produced and sold out to a diverse clientele. “This unique factory uses timber cuts from alien invasive trees. It is therefore part of our Invasive Alien Species Programme aimed at eradicating invasive…
Read MoreTransformation and job creation in agriculture- OPINION
OPINION / 2 APRIL 2019, 09:00AM / EUSTACE MASHIMBYE JOHANNESBURG – Land reform is one of the political hot potatoes of our time and remains one of the more contentious policy issues. However, for the existing 250 000 or so emerging farmers, access to land has not been their most pressing problem, nor will providing more small-scale black farmers with land be the silver bullet that will increase much needed transformation in the agricultural sector. It is still fair to say that most of the large-scale commercial farmers in both crop and livestock farming are…
Read MoreSqueezed consumers see new vehicle sales drop
JOHANNESBURG – Data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) showed that pressure was mounting on the new-vehicles sector due to consumers’ depressed disposable income and the weaker rand. Naamsa said new vehicle sales dropped 3.1percent year-on-year to 47718 units in March. Mike Mabasa, executive director of Naamsa, said prospects for domestic new vehicle sales, particularly the new car market, would continue to be affected by the depressed macro-economic environment and pressure on household disposable income. “Higher food, fuel and electricity prices, a weaker exchange rate…
Read MoreTMH Africa to unveil locomotives assembly plant in SA
JOHANNESBURG – Railway engineering company TMH Africa will on Tuesday unveil its 45 000 square metre rolling stock manufacturing and service plant in Boksburg which it acquired from DCD Group last year as part of its R500 million investment in Africa. The facility is part of the R40 billion investment that the Gauteng government says a number of companies have committed to collectively investing into various corridors in the province. It will manufacture, assemble and service locomotives and other rolling stock for the African continent and will further contribute to skills- and small…
Read MoreEskom rolling powercuts hurting small businesses
JOHANNESBURG – The Small Business Institute (SBI) has urged the government to redouble efforts to end the rolling power blackouts implemented by struggling power utility Eskom, which it said were having a crippling effect on the sector in South Africa. Eskom, which has failed to produce electricity at full capacity mainly due to breakdowns in its generating units, appeared to be easing off on the rotational powercuts or load shedding implemented last week, in which it suppressed as much as 4 000 MW of demand at a given time to…
Read MoreCrowdfunding: an untapped funding resource for renewable energy
DURBAN – Small and innovative renewable energy projects battle to raise funds through formal channels. One possible solution is to reach out to communities with an interest in those projects to help fund them through crowdfunding initiatives. While there has been a marked increase in the number of renewable energy projects being funded globally, these are traditionally larger projects generating in excess of 5MW, funded by traditional funders in the form of commercial banks and development finance institutions. Yet smaller projects around the 5MW mark are becoming increasingly attractive to development…
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