Star 2022-09-19

The State-owned entity is facing an emergency to fix broken coal plants, replenish diesel for its generators ESKOM, which resorted to load shedding Stage 6 early yesterday morning, faces an emergency to fix broken coal plants and replenish diesel and pumped storage water emergency capacity, and will go to the market, possibly this week, to source up to 1 000MW of existing capacity. This was according to Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter, who said in a briefing yesterday that the additional 1 000MW would likely be sourced from companies who already have their own installed capacity, such as some mining groups and Sappi. He said the intention was to bring the capacitThe Stat-owned entityy online as quickly as possible, based on the price of Eskom’s most…

Edward West PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa met with US President Joe Biden in the White House on Friday, where relations with Russia, climate change and trade with South Africa’s third biggest trading partner after China and the EU were discussed. Biden has led an international coalition to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the near-seven month war in Ukraine, while South Africa has maintained warm diplomatic relations with Russia. Other topics discussed included trade, climate and energy, Reuters reported. A joint task force on trade and investment will be established to expand bilateral economic ties. The two leaders committed to addressing some of “the world’s most urgent challenges over which we both share concern, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its negative consequences for food security in Africa.” Reuters reported that Biden…

Bongani Hans COSATU spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said yesterday that South Africa’s banks were taking advantage of the State’s weaknesses by behaving as a law unto themselves and arbitrarily terminating their clients’ bank accounts. Pamla made this comment during an interview with Independent Media in which he commended the Competition Tribunal for ordering major banks to withdraw or reverse their decisions to terminate the bank accounts of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings and its group companies, which include Independent Media. He described the banking sector as an apartheid oligarch that was offensively opposing transformation. “But we can be comfortable with the fact that the tribunal has corrected what is considered to be an overreach on their part,” Pamla said. The tribunal granted the Sekunjalo Group interim relief last Friday by ordering Nedbank, Absa,…

QUEEN Elizabeth II embraced techno- logy over her long reign of 70 years. When she delivered her Christmas message in 1957, she was the first British monarch to use television in her Christmas broadcast. In 1997 Buckingham Palace established a website and later started using social media, such as an official You Tube channel in 2007, Twitter in 2009, and Instagram in 2013. Unlike former president Trump, a prolific Tweeter, it is doubtful whether the Queen ever in her personal capacity sent a Tweet or uploaded any media to You Tube or Instagram. However, the Queen’s greatest contribution to technological innovation lies in the various honours she bestowed on leaders in technology – her own knights of the technology table. To commemorate her prodigious contribution to technology it is worthwhile…

THE LOW PRODUCTIVITY growth (labour productivity and total factor productivity) particularly for the SMMEs, is hampering efforts to improve economic growth and the competitiveness of South Africa, according to Productivity SA board chairperson Professor Mthunzi Mdwaba. Speaking at the entity’s Annual General Meeting on Friday, he said it was an undisputed fact that productivity improvement was the most effective to ensure long-term competitiveness, long-term business success, economic growth and, should be addressed holistically if the country was to tackle the challenges of unemployment, poverty, inequality, and exclusion. Low competitiveness was cited as a fact, with SA’s global competitiveness ranking at a low 62nd place out of 64 countries last year, and 60th out of 63 countries this year. Infrastructure (including education and innovation systems) and business efficiency (including productivity…

WHILE Jagersfontein Developments, the company that owns the tailings dam that collapsed in Jagersfontein, hasn’t said anything, it does appear as if this is the end of its operations, according to Richard Spoor, a public service lawyer. This follows the collapse of the tailings dam last week, leading to the death of one person and the displacement of many others. The cause of the collapse has yet to be determined. According to Spoor, Jagersfontein Developments produces vast quantities of tailings and needed a dam to dump them. Without the tailings dam, they won’t have anywhere to dump them. “I think they generate about 300 tons per hour of tailings, and you need a place to dump that. And they have stated previously that it is too expensive. It’s not economically…