President Jacob Zuma has announced his new Cabinet, appointing the country's first black finance minister.
Nhlanhla Nene replaces Pravin Gordhan, who has been moved to cooperative governance.
As expected, Cyril Ramaphosa will be the deputy president.
Zuma, in making the announcement, created several new ministries.
"We have established a ministry of telecommunications and postal services," Zuma said while making his Cabinet announcement.
"Our country has a fast growing telecommunications sector which in 2012 was estimated at being worth R180bn."
The aim of the new ministry was to get more value out of the telecommunications sector, he said. READ MORE
Source: www.news24.com
Click here for an interactive list of Ministers
Wednesday, 28 May 2014
EU imposes emergency control measures on South African citrus
The European Commission has decided to introduce stricter rules for
imports of South African citrus in order to protect local crops from
citrus black spot (CBS). In a release today, the Commission said new measures would include recording pre and post-harvest chemical treatments and mandatory registration of packing houses, as well as on-site official inspections at citrus orchards.
South African authorities will also need to take a sample of at least 600 of each type of citrus fruit per 30 metric tons (MT).
“All fruit showing symptoms will be tested. Moreover, a sample per 30 tonnes of ‘Valencia’ oranges will also be tested. No distinction between citrus fruits for fresh consumption and citrus fruits for processing is made,” the release said.
The new rules were endorsed by member state experts and are expected to be adopted in the coming days.
“Plant protection on EU territory is of the utmost importance and the EU had no choice but to impose a stricter inspection regime for South African citrus fruit. Systematic sampling and testing of consignments should prevent this harmful plant disease from taking hold in Europe’s citrus orchards to the detriment of our farming sector,” Commissioner for Health, Tonio Borg said. READ MORE
Source: Freshfruitportal.com
Thursday, 22 May 2014
Eskom braces for tough winter
State-owned power utility Eskom will scale down its plans to repair power plants during winter to ensure the country has sufficient electricity supply during this period, Energy Minister Dikobe Ben Martins said during a New Age breakfast briefing, held in Midrand, Johannesburg, last month.
He added that power station maintenance would be reduced “as much as possible over winter”.
Additionally, Department of Energy (DoE) deputy director-general Dr Wolsey Barnard, while addressing the 2014 Power & Electricity World Africa conference, in Johannesburg, in March, stressed that the utility had undertaken the bulk of its maintenance from December 2013 to January 2014 to ensure that minimal maintenance would be required during winter.
“We are all well aware that there is a tight balance between supply and demand. . . to date, we have only had one day of load-shedding in March. The grid is going to be under tremendous pressure during winter; however, the DoE does not foresee that there will be any load-shedding during this period,” stated Barnard.
Further, he warned that the grid would remain strained over the next 18 to 24 months, but emphasised that no load-shedding was expected to take place over this period unless “extraordinary situations occur, such as the reoccurrence of wet coal supplies entering the power generation system”. READ MORE
He added that power station maintenance would be reduced “as much as possible over winter”.
Additionally, Department of Energy (DoE) deputy director-general Dr Wolsey Barnard, while addressing the 2014 Power & Electricity World Africa conference, in Johannesburg, in March, stressed that the utility had undertaken the bulk of its maintenance from December 2013 to January 2014 to ensure that minimal maintenance would be required during winter.
“We are all well aware that there is a tight balance between supply and demand. . . to date, we have only had one day of load-shedding in March. The grid is going to be under tremendous pressure during winter; however, the DoE does not foresee that there will be any load-shedding during this period,” stated Barnard.
Further, he warned that the grid would remain strained over the next 18 to 24 months, but emphasised that no load-shedding was expected to take place over this period unless “extraordinary situations occur, such as the reoccurrence of wet coal supplies entering the power generation system”. READ MORE
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Building a bridge — From agriculture to African prosperity
Africa’s recent economic growth has been impressive; as demonstrated in the Africa Progress Report 2014, entitled Grain, Fish Money — Financing Africa’s Green and Blue Revolutions, which was launched in Abuja, Nigeria, on May 8 2014. But as the report also shows, agriculture needs a boost so that the related economic growth can reach and improve the lives of many Africans.
Just as a bridge at Kazungula is needed, a bridge needs to be built between agriculture and African economic growth. The stakes are high. African agriculture could not only lift rural communities out of poverty, it could feed the whole continent, and help feed the rest of the world, too.
Governments are well aware of this as they signed the Maputo Declaration in 2003, pledging to commit 10% of public spending to agriculture. But more than 10 years later, only seven countries have met that pledge and, in 18 countries, spending on agriculture is actually falling. As a result, agricultural research (a vital element of “green revolutions” in other parts of the world) has been starved of funds.
As well as keeping their agriculture spending promises, governments need to implement policies that help to build (or fix) the networks upon which agriculture depends.
One huge gap is in access to financial services. Two-thirds of African adults don’t even have a bank account. Governments need to make it easier for farmers to borrow and to buy insurance. Indeed, insurance, which helps farmers cope better with risks, and hence enables crucial investments in seeds and fertiliser, is more important than ever as climate change leads to more extreme weather.
As a result of the barriers to agricultural growth, African countries import $35 billion worth of food a year. But only 5% of their cereal imports come from countries elsewhere in Africa, which is a clear indication that there is urgent need to improve intra-regional trade in agricultural products, notably by removing all tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
There is also urgent need to help farmers get their produce to markets, by improving infrastructure such as ports, energy networks, roads and bridges.
Kazungula, after all, is more than a symbol; a bridge would connect as many as seven African countries to ports, such as Durban in South Africa and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Instead, this crossing point has become a bottleneck. READ MORE
Just as a bridge at Kazungula is needed, a bridge needs to be built between agriculture and African economic growth. The stakes are high. African agriculture could not only lift rural communities out of poverty, it could feed the whole continent, and help feed the rest of the world, too.
Governments are well aware of this as they signed the Maputo Declaration in 2003, pledging to commit 10% of public spending to agriculture. But more than 10 years later, only seven countries have met that pledge and, in 18 countries, spending on agriculture is actually falling. As a result, agricultural research (a vital element of “green revolutions” in other parts of the world) has been starved of funds.
As well as keeping their agriculture spending promises, governments need to implement policies that help to build (or fix) the networks upon which agriculture depends.
One huge gap is in access to financial services. Two-thirds of African adults don’t even have a bank account. Governments need to make it easier for farmers to borrow and to buy insurance. Indeed, insurance, which helps farmers cope better with risks, and hence enables crucial investments in seeds and fertiliser, is more important than ever as climate change leads to more extreme weather.
As a result of the barriers to agricultural growth, African countries import $35 billion worth of food a year. But only 5% of their cereal imports come from countries elsewhere in Africa, which is a clear indication that there is urgent need to improve intra-regional trade in agricultural products, notably by removing all tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
There is also urgent need to help farmers get their produce to markets, by improving infrastructure such as ports, energy networks, roads and bridges.
Kazungula, after all, is more than a symbol; a bridge would connect as many as seven African countries to ports, such as Durban in South Africa and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Instead, this crossing point has become a bottleneck. READ MORE
Have an agribusiness idea? Write it down in 500 words for chance to win.
Enactus Kenya and Syngenta have announced the launch of an Africa Agribusiness Competition and have invited youth across the continent to generate creative business ideas that would improve the agricultural productivity of crop value chains.
Through the online platform www.agribiz4africa.com, youth aged between 18 and 30 from sub-Saharan Africa are invited to submit 500-word business ideas that will be judged by leading agribusiness academics from East and West Africa.
The best 25 contestants will each receive a $1,000 grant to test the viability of their idea.
The best three among them will then be selected by a recognised panel of agribusiness leaders and invited to attend the AGRF Forum on African agriculture to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in early September, where they will have a chance to mingle with some of Africa’s most influential thought leaders and receive due recognition for their ideas.
In recognition of the need to position agriculture as an attractive occupation for young people, youth with talent in the creative arts have a special category in which to compete, dubbed the Agriculture Video Messaging Competition. Read more
Through the online platform www.agribiz4africa.com, youth aged between 18 and 30 from sub-Saharan Africa are invited to submit 500-word business ideas that will be judged by leading agribusiness academics from East and West Africa.
The best 25 contestants will each receive a $1,000 grant to test the viability of their idea.
The best three among them will then be selected by a recognised panel of agribusiness leaders and invited to attend the AGRF Forum on African agriculture to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in early September, where they will have a chance to mingle with some of Africa’s most influential thought leaders and receive due recognition for their ideas.
In recognition of the need to position agriculture as an attractive occupation for young people, youth with talent in the creative arts have a special category in which to compete, dubbed the Agriculture Video Messaging Competition. Read more
Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Ratings agencies will look at SA’s new cabinet
While politicians and political analysts will focus on the results of Wednesday’s polls, a more important issue for other South Africans and for offshore investors will be the composition of the next ANC cabinet.
While an unexpected electoral result could be an early sign of future power shifts in the country, it will be the newly appointed key ministers who determine government policy over the next few years.
A line-up of incompetents will condemn South Africans to another five years of going nowhere in slow motion – at best. And a collection of cronies, clowns and well-known crooks won’t go down well with the international investment community. Contrary to the perceptions of the party’s left wing, foreigners provide a vital input to the economy – money.
There isn’t enough domestic capital to fund a strong expansion of the economy, and without foreign capital the economy can’t thrive.
There are consequences to putting political considerations ahead of economic priorities or relying on short-term measures to boost growth. Over the past two months, two of South Africa’s Brics partners – Russia and Brazil – have had their credit rating cut from BBB to BBB- by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), leaving them one notch above junk bond status. The other two partners – China and India – have not come under attack recently, though India is one step above sub-investment grade. China is safely in investment territory. READ MORE
Source: Business Report (www.iol.co.za)
While an unexpected electoral result could be an early sign of future power shifts in the country, it will be the newly appointed key ministers who determine government policy over the next few years.
A line-up of incompetents will condemn South Africans to another five years of going nowhere in slow motion – at best. And a collection of cronies, clowns and well-known crooks won’t go down well with the international investment community. Contrary to the perceptions of the party’s left wing, foreigners provide a vital input to the economy – money.
There isn’t enough domestic capital to fund a strong expansion of the economy, and without foreign capital the economy can’t thrive.
There are consequences to putting political considerations ahead of economic priorities or relying on short-term measures to boost growth. Over the past two months, two of South Africa’s Brics partners – Russia and Brazil – have had their credit rating cut from BBB to BBB- by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), leaving them one notch above junk bond status. The other two partners – China and India – have not come under attack recently, though India is one step above sub-investment grade. China is safely in investment territory. READ MORE
Source: Business Report (www.iol.co.za)
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies on SA's 20 years of democracy
South Africa today is almost unrecognisable from the South Africa of 1994. In economic development terms, South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) has almost tripled from $136-billion in 1994 to a GDP of $384-billion in 2012. Many leading global brands have located manufacturing plants in South Africa and trade between South Africa and the rest of the world has grown massively.
However, this good economic growth performance masks a range of long-standing, structural shortcomings in the economy. The productive parts of the economy, such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing, have not grown fast enough to create sufficient new jobs, the economy remains relatively dependent on a few key sectors for both exports and growth impetus, and ‘inclusive growth’ has been elusive. Yet rapid growth in the productive sectors of the economy remains the main path to sustainable economic growth and large-scale job creation as centuries of economic history clearly demonstrates.
It is, therefore, encouraging that a growing global consensus is emerging around the role that industrial policy plays in signalling economic opportunities, addressing constraints faced by productive enterprises and developing purposeful collaborative actions of the state, business and labour to catalyse job-creating economic growth. In the UK, this approach has been termed ‘re-balancing’, while in the US, it is called ‘re-shoring’. The terminology may be different but the objectives of the re-balancing and re-shoring initiatives are the same to deepen industrial capabilities, grow the manufacturing sector and create jobs. READ MORE
However, this good economic growth performance masks a range of long-standing, structural shortcomings in the economy. The productive parts of the economy, such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing, have not grown fast enough to create sufficient new jobs, the economy remains relatively dependent on a few key sectors for both exports and growth impetus, and ‘inclusive growth’ has been elusive. Yet rapid growth in the productive sectors of the economy remains the main path to sustainable economic growth and large-scale job creation as centuries of economic history clearly demonstrates.
It is, therefore, encouraging that a growing global consensus is emerging around the role that industrial policy plays in signalling economic opportunities, addressing constraints faced by productive enterprises and developing purposeful collaborative actions of the state, business and labour to catalyse job-creating economic growth. In the UK, this approach has been termed ‘re-balancing’, while in the US, it is called ‘re-shoring’. The terminology may be different but the objectives of the re-balancing and re-shoring initiatives are the same to deepen industrial capabilities, grow the manufacturing sector and create jobs. READ MORE
Small-scale farmers ‘central’ to African development – IFAD
In the run up to a regional International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) workshop for East and Southern Africa, IFAD director Périn Saint Ange has described the role of small-scale African farmers as central to the development of the continent, saying that these agriculturalists produced the bulk of the continent’s food.
“Despite this, small-scale farmers face daunting challenges of low productivity, poor access to markets, insufficient capital and the disruptive impact of climate change.
“We need to seize this moment of high economic growth in the region to provide small-scale farmers with the support they need to provide food and decent incomes for themselves and for the region as a whole,” he said, noting that the continent’s leaders were increasingly prioritising the agriculture industry in their development strategies.
Saint Ange’s comments came a day before the start of a six-day workshop in Livingstone, Zambia, to review lessons learned from IFAD-funded projects and identify strategies to address challenges faced during their implementation.
The workshop, which would be attended by Zambian Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda and Zambian Agriculture and Livestock Minister Wilbur Simuusa had attracted over 200 participants, including government officials, representatives of other United Nations (UN) agencies, bilateral development institutions, members of the private sector, civil society groups and partners from IFAD-funded projects in the region. READ MORE
“Despite this, small-scale farmers face daunting challenges of low productivity, poor access to markets, insufficient capital and the disruptive impact of climate change.
“We need to seize this moment of high economic growth in the region to provide small-scale farmers with the support they need to provide food and decent incomes for themselves and for the region as a whole,” he said, noting that the continent’s leaders were increasingly prioritising the agriculture industry in their development strategies.
Saint Ange’s comments came a day before the start of a six-day workshop in Livingstone, Zambia, to review lessons learned from IFAD-funded projects and identify strategies to address challenges faced during their implementation.
The workshop, which would be attended by Zambian Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda and Zambian Agriculture and Livestock Minister Wilbur Simuusa had attracted over 200 participants, including government officials, representatives of other United Nations (UN) agencies, bilateral development institutions, members of the private sector, civil society groups and partners from IFAD-funded projects in the region. READ MORE
Monday, 5 May 2014
WEF, partners double investment plans for African agriculture to $7.2bn
Investment commitments by partner companies of Grow Africa – a programme established by the World Economic Forum, NEPAD, and the African Union to accelerate the transformation of African agriculture – doubled to $7.2 billion in 2013.
The increase in committed funding is captured in the Grow Africa Annual report released Friday.
Of the $7.2 billion in new commitments, Grow Africa partners have already invested $970 million. This has directly led to the creation of 33,000 new jobs and the assistance of 2.6 million smallholder farmers throughout the continent.
Grow Africa measures both these metrics in order to ensure that investment contributes to both economic growth and food security. The assistance it provides to smallholders includes provision of new services, sourcing, contracts or training.
According to the report, most investment to date has been made by companies from within Africa. Half of all invested funds to date have been directed to Nigeria. This reflects the size of the country’s economy, but also renewed political commitment in the country to agriculture that has made it attractive for domestic and international investors. READ MORE
Source: www.businessdayonline.com
The increase in committed funding is captured in the Grow Africa Annual report released Friday.
Of the $7.2 billion in new commitments, Grow Africa partners have already invested $970 million. This has directly led to the creation of 33,000 new jobs and the assistance of 2.6 million smallholder farmers throughout the continent.
Grow Africa measures both these metrics in order to ensure that investment contributes to both economic growth and food security. The assistance it provides to smallholders includes provision of new services, sourcing, contracts or training.
According to the report, most investment to date has been made by companies from within Africa. Half of all invested funds to date have been directed to Nigeria. This reflects the size of the country’s economy, but also renewed political commitment in the country to agriculture that has made it attractive for domestic and international investors. READ MORE
Source: www.businessdayonline.com
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