Star 2024-10-09

Ibrahim said at the African Oil Week 2024 conference in Cape Town that establishment documents and agreements had been signed and reached between APPO and the Afrexim- bank in June, after “good progress” had been made to establish the bank over the two-and-half years since it was first mooted. He said critics had initially argued that there was no funding to establish such a bank for the continent, and that it was unlikely to succeed, but 45% of the bank’s estimated $5 billion founding capital had been funded by APPO member countries even before the founding agreements were signed. The bank would be headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. APPO’s 18 member countries are Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Namibia, Niger,…

Mantashe says there’s high interest in SA’s petroleum exploration projects South Africa could potentially raise its gross domestic product (GDP) by 5% to 8% with the development of the upstream oil and gas industry, Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe said at a conference yesterday. In an address to the Africa Oil Week 2024 conference in Cape Town, Mantashe said unlocking South Africa’s oil and gas exploration opportunities for investment could have the same impact as it had in Namibia, where recent sizeable offshore oil and gas finds were already boosting its economy. His views, however, come at a time when TotalEnergies recently announced its exit from one of South Africa’s biggest offshore gas exploration finds off the southern Cape coast, which has subsequently raised questions about foreign…

As South Africa grapples with alarming levels of food insecurity, with reports indicating that up to 20 million citizens are severely affected, the emphasis has never been greater for farmers to innovate and adopt new methods. According to the latest PwC Agribusiness Thought Leadership report released yesterday, there has been a concerning decline of more than 3% in the volume of food and beverages sold per capita nationwide over the past year. PwC said this decline can be linked to the tightening of consumers’ purchasing power amid soaring inflation.Andrew Dale, PwC Africa’s Agribusiness Leader, highlighted how the economic situation has forced many South Africans to cut back on their food purchases. “People were simply able to do less with their salaries and wages as their income failed to keep up…

The rand fell by nearly 1% to its weakest in three weeks yesterday on the back of stocks on the JSE also plunging as global investors were disappointed by the lack of any anticipated big measures to revive China’s economy. Late last month, China unveiled comprehensive economic support measures including a reduction in banks’ reserve requirements and key lending rates, with markets now awaiting signals of further policy support from the fiscal side. However, gains were capped after Chinese authorities announced no new major stimulus plans at a highly anticipated economic briefing. The Chinese Hang Seng instead fell by 10% yesterday, prompting Satrix quantitative portfolio manager Siyabulela Nomoyi to say on X: “Looks like the ‘stimulus’ announcement has just turned out to be a ‘we were only playing’.” The domestic…

We keep stressing that South Africa is a water stressed country and that we are reaching the limits to what the resource can offer in terms of demand and growth. Yet it is unfortunate and unacceptable that in these times nearly 50% of all treated water supply by our municipalities is lost before it reaches paying or needy customers as a result of failing infrastructure together with poor governance, vandalism and theft. The alarming issue is that in some areas these losses reach levels of nearly 70%. The current situation is so alarming and together with poor water use behaviour, puts our habitats and security at risk. On the 7th of October we marked World Habitat Day and as we enter a critical period in Gauteng with the closure of…

For a brief moment in spring last year, the bird-like features of bespectacled British-born researcher Geoffrey Hinton were poking out from TV screens across the world. Hinton, a big name in the world of artificial intelligence but largely unknown outside it, was warning that the technology he had helped to create - for which he was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize - could pose an existential threat to humanity. "What do you think the chances are of AI wiping out humanity," a reporter from the US network CBS News asked in March last year. "It's not inconceivable," replied Hinton, making a very British understatement. A few weeks later, he had walked away from his job at Google and was giving interviews to media across the world, quickly becoming the poster-child…