Category: Business & Finance

Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, says as in as much as it is government’s responsibility to promote and advance national reconciliation through progressive policies and education, reconciliation must begin with the individual and attitudes.

“We should not despair at the actions of the few, who still cling to the attitudes, behaviour and language of the past,” Mthethwa said.

Delivering the Day of Reconciliation keynote address virtually on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mthethwa said it will soon be the end of what has for many been a difficult year.

“In our communities, at our places of work and study, and in our homes, South Africans have had to confront many challenges,” Mthethwa said.

Mthethwa said South Africans had to deal with the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with rising food and fuel prices, catastrophic flooding in some parts of the country and ongoing load shedding.

“It is therefore particularly distressing that, amidst all these challenges, there have been several incidents of racism and intolerance. We have witnessed racists acts in our universities, schools and other public places,” Mthethwa said.

Mthethwa said while it is deeply disturbing that these attitudes continue in society, South Africans must take heart from the fact that the perpetrators of racism have found neither sympathy nor condonation from broader society.

“Time and again, our nation has shown its true character in times of need. In the darkest days of the pandemic, during last year’s unrest and in the aftermath of the floods earlier this year, South Africans came together. Communities reached out to each other.

“The same can be said for the incidents of racism that took place this year. Civil society mobilised against the racists. Pressure was placed on the institutions involved to take swift and appropriate action. Acts of racism will not be suppressed, buried or rationalised. They will be publicised, filmed, and put on full public view for all to see.

“No matter how great the difficulties we may be facing, we cannot turn on each other. It is up to each one of us, whether as families, parents, educators or as communities to do more to build bridges of understanding.

“It cannot be that bringing about reconciliation should be the responsibility of the formerly oppressed. Instead of retreating into our cocoons of race, language, ethnicity and class, let us use today, and indeed every day, as an opportunity to play our part,” Mthethwa said.

This year’s Reconciliation Day is being held under the theme: “National Unity, Healing and Renewal”.

South Africa marks National Reconciliation Day on 16 December annually to focus on promoting social cohesion, healing, unity, nation-building and renewal.

Source: South African Government news Agency

BEIJING, China last week played host to the 2022 Africa-China Poverty Reduction and Development Conference in Beijing aimed at enhancing solidarity and focus of cooperation between the two sides.

The inaugural forum, that is part of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation framework, saw China and Africa unveil an alliance for poverty alleviation. The two sides believe the alliance is an important platform to promote cooperation in poverty reduction and development as well as share China’s experience in poverty reduction for African countries.

During the inaugural ceremony, participants discussed topics such as food security, employment and green development. The delegates unanimously noted that eliminating poverty and achieving sustainable development remains an important area to be explored in the Sino-Africa cooperation.

“The Africa-China Alliance for Poverty Alleviation is a platform, through which the AU can harness the Chinese experience as relevant practical experience to contribute to African poverty reduction,” said Rahamtalla M. Osman Elnor, permanent representative of the African Union to China

The United Nations Resident Coordinator in China Siddharth Chatterjee said China can remain a strong development partner for the Global South: to share its resources, expertise and knowledge with other countries, including those in Africa.

“The UN in China remains committed to supporting China’s international development cooperation efforts, to ensure alignment to recognized international norms and standards, and with a view to accelerate global progress on the SDGs,” he said

During the ceremony, the Vice Administrator of the National Rural Revitalization Administration of China, Xia Gengsheng, argued that while eradicating its own poverty, “China has always been an active advocate, a strong promoter and an important contributor to the international cause of poverty reduction and rural development.”

On his part, the Special representative of the Chinese Government on African Affairs Liu Yuxi noted that China provides the international community with valuable experience in poverty reduction especially having lifted more than 700 million people out of absolute poverty, solving a historical problem that has plagued the nation for thousands of years, and.

“China is willing to share its thoughts, ideas and practices on poverty alleviation and contribute the country’s wisdom to the international cause of poverty reduction. It is also looking forward to strengthening exchanges with Africa and other countries to identify more cooperation opportunities to jointly promote modernization,” said Liu

Liu disclosed that China and Africa plan to set up 20 China-African model villages for agricultural development and poverty reduction in Africa, which have already been implemented in Kenya and Zambia.

“China always firmly support the revitalization of Africa. Hope the newly-founded Africa-China Alliance for Poverty Alleviation will advance Africa development,” Director General of African Affairs at Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wu Peng said

With the help of e-commerce and other forms of digital platforms, Chinese officials pledged to continue promoting the export of African agricultural products to China, and continue to expand the visibility and reputation of African products in the vast Chinese market.

The conference lauded cooperation strategy between China and Africa on poverty reduction in various fields including agriculture, health, education, human resource development cooperation, infrastructure construction and digital economy cooperation.

Source: Nam News Network

Deputy President David Mabuza will on Thursday, 17 November 2022, appear before a sitting of the National Assembly to respond to questions on wide-ranging issues related to a capable and developmental state, responding to HIV and AIDS epidemics, service delivery as well as others.

In response, the Deputy President will update the House on Government’s plans to build a capable and developmental state through the implementation of the National Framework for the Professionalisation of the Public Sector.

As the world prepares to commemorate the World AIDS Day on 1 December, the Deputy President as Chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) will appraise members on how the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB and STIs has positively impacted on combating HIV and AIDS in the last 5 years in South Africa.

The Deputy President will also update Parliament on progress made by Government regarding the delivery of socio-economic benefits for Military Veterans as well as the on the support by national and provincial Government to municipalities, to assist them to fulfil their constitutional mandate.

Deputy President David Mabuza is also expected to outline the support provided by South Africa in the negotiations to resolve conflicts on the continent in efforts towards building a better Africa and a better world.

Source: Government of South Africa

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) announced on Monday that September 2022 recorded more load shedding than the whole of 2020.
“September 2022 was an exceptionally high month in terms of load shedding. The year 2022 is the first year that the majority of load shedding has not been Stage 2, it was overtaken by Stage 4.”
In addition, the CSIR’s annual statistics on power generation in South Africa for the first half of 2022, showed that the Eskom fleet energy availability factor (EAF) continued to decrease in 2022, with an average EAF of 59.4%, compared to the EAF of 61.7% for 2021 and 65% for 2020.
“This is largely due to the increase of unplanned outages detailed by the unplanned capacity loss factor experienced by Eskom. This year overtook 2021 as the most load shedding-intensive year yet, concentrated in July and September.”
This means that in three months between July and September 2022, South Africa experienced more load shedding compared to the previous years.
“September 2022, the highest load shedding month ever, on its own, had more load shedding than the entire of 2020. This year’s Stage 6 load shedding has far surpassed 2019’s, the only other year that had Stage 6.”
Eskom announced it was moving from Stage 4 to Stage 6 load shedding in June this year, which had only been implemented once before in December 2019, when 6 000MW was shed from the national grid on a rotational basis.
The report, which zoomed into power cuts between 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2022, also looked into load shedding and energy availability factor (EAF) data up until 30 September 2022.
“In the first half of 2022, the total system demand was similar to the year before, but still 3.0 TWh (2.5%) below the pre-lockdown levels of 2019,” the data shows.
Meanwhile, coal, according to CSIR, still dominates the South African energy mix, providing more than 80% of the total system load.
The statistics include all utility-scale generation technologies in the analysis. Technologies include coal, nuclear, hydro, solar photovoltaics (PV), onshore wind, concentrated solar power (CSP), pumped storage and diesel-fuelled open-cycle gas turbines.
“The contribution of renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar PV and CSP increased in 2022 to a total of 6.2 GW installed capacity and provided 6.5% of the total energy mix.”

Source: South African Government News Agency

His Excellency Mr António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations,
His Excellency Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,
President of COP 27, Dr Sameh Shoukry,
Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,

We are gathered here for COP 27 on an African continent that is experiencing the worsening effects of climate change.

For the sake of our continent and the world, we need a dramatic increase in global mitigation ambition to keep the world on the 1.5-degree pathway.

Like other vulnerable regions, Africa needs to build adaptive capacity, foster resilience and address loss and damage, as we all agreed at Paris COP 21.

To achieve this, our continent will need  a predictable, appropriate and at-scale funding stream and technological support.

This must support our right to development, international equity and transitions that are just and inclusive.

This places a great responsibility on developed economies to honour their commitments to those countries with the greatest need and that confront the greatest environmental, social and economic effects of climate change.

The multilateral development banks need to be reformed to meet the needs of developing economies for sustainable development and climate resilience.

At present, multilateral support is out of reach of the majority of the world’s population due to lending policies that are risk averse and carry onerous costs and conditionalities.

We need a clear roadmap to deliver on the Glasgow decision to double adaptation financing by 2025.

Our emphasis must be on the health, well-being and food and water security of the most vulnerable.

At a national level, South Africa is fully committed to achieving the most ambitious end of the mitigation range in our updated Nationally Determined Contribution.

As a country, we are guided by a Just Transition Framework and an Investment Plan that outlines the enormous scale and nature of investments needed to achieve our decarbonisation goals over the next five years.

We are already scaling up investment in renewable energy, and are on course to retire several of our ageing coal-fired power plants by the end of 2030.

At COP 26 in Glasgow last year, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union offered support in the form of a Just Energy Transition Partnership.

It is our hope that this partnership will offer a ground-breaking approach to funding by developed countries for the ambitious but necessary mitigation and adaptation goals of developing countries.

South Africa reiterates its support for the Egyptian Presidency and its confidence in the successful outcomes of COP 27.

I thank you.

Source: Government of South Africa

The majority of the country is currently reporting poor to reasonable veld and livestock conditions. Summer rainfall areas began receiving some rain, mostly later in October and farmers are preparing land for planting. Parts of the Western Cape, extreme western areas of the Northern Cape and the Sarah Baartman District of the Eastern Cape continue to experience dry conditions. The average level of major dams remains high in most provinces.

According to the Seasonal Climate Watch issued by the South African Weather Service, dated 1 November 2022, above-normal rainfall is expected for most parts of the country for the summer season. Minimum temperatures are expected to be above-normal countrywide, however, maximum temperatures are expected to be below-normal over large parts of the country during the entire summer.

The October Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) reported that Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes are expected to become more widespread in areas of southern Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique, as well as areas of Angola and much of Zimbabwe due to compounding impacts of poor 2021/22 rainfall, tropical cyclones, and domestic economic declines that started in October. Food security outcomes are expected to be most severe in southwestern Madagascar, where Emergency (IPC Phase 4) outcomes also started in October. The population in need is likely to steadily increase through early 2023. Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and northern Mozambique remains the primary driver of acute food insecurity with the disruption to livelihood activities. In Mozambique, the Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces experienced an escalation of militia attacks in September. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 15 400 people were displaced between late August and late September. In the DRC, the security situation in the eastern provinces continues to deteriorate, especially in Ituri. Households in conflict-affected areas continue experiencing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes and face difficulty engaging in the upcoming agricultural season.

FEWS NET further reported that across the region, poor households are engaging in off-season income-earning activities. While opportunities are currently limited, they were expected to improve to near-normal levels in October as land preparation started in most areas. November through December will likely see further improvements in agricultural activities, including planting. Predicted La Niña conditions are typically associated with average to above-average rainfall in Southern Africa. They will likely improve the availability of agricultural labour opportunities in most of the region. However, in areas like southern Madagascar, income from agricultural labour opportunities will remain lower than normal as better-off households have lower liquidity following consecutive droughts. Food prices are increasing as more households rely on markets for food, especially in areas where production deficits were observed in 2022.

This year, price increases have been accelerated by high fuel prices linked to high global prices, according to FEWS NET. Prices of maize grain are 70% to 180% above the five-year average in Malawi and up to 42% higher than the average in Mozambique. In the DRC and Zimbabwe, food prices are expected to remain above the five-year average throughout the lean season. In Madagascar’s southern drought-affected areas, dried cassava prices are 67% higher than average. In most countries, inflation has also been increasing, likely triggering more price increases for food. Poor households in the most deficit areas will continue struggling to access food commodities on the market due to weak purchasing power.

[The IPC is a set of standardised tools that aims at providing a “common currency” for classifying the severity and magnitude of food insecurity.]

With the current conditions in mind, as well as the seasonal forecast, dryland farmers are advised to wait for sufficient moisture before planting and remain within the planting window. Farmers in areas that have been constantly experiencing dry conditions should prioritise drought-tolerant cultivars. In regions that are in reasonable condition, farmers are advised to prepare in line with the expected conditions, i.e., in line with the seasonal forecast. However, they should not expand planting land unnecessarily. In addition, farmers should note that rainfall distribution remains a challenge, therefore not all areas might receive the anticipated above-normal rainfall that is well distributed.

Farmers are also advised to put measures in place for pests and diseases associated with wet and hot conditions as above-normal rainfall is anticipated. Moreover, it is important for farmers to follow the weather forecast regularly so as to make informed decisions. Farmers using irrigation should comply with water restrictions in their areas. Farmers must continually conserve resources in accordance with the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act, 1983 (Act No. 43 of 1983).

Farmers are advised to keep livestock in balance with carrying capacity of the veld, and provide additional feed such as relevant licks. Livestock should be provided with enough water points on the farm as well as shelter during bad weather conditions. Winter rainfall areas are becoming drier, increasing favourable conditions for veld fires. Therefore, the creation and maintenance of fire belts through mechanical means should be prioritised along with adherence to veld fire warnings.

Episodes of flooding resulting from rain bearing weather systems have occurred and will continue; precautionary measures should be in place. Heat waves have been reported and will occur during summer and therefore measures to combat these should be prepared. Farmers are encouraged to implement strategies provided in the early warning information issued.

The department will partner with all relevant stakeholders to continue raising awareness in the sector and capacitation of farmers on understanding, interpretation and utilisation of early-warning information for disaster risk mitigation and response.

Source: Government of South Africa