Новости за 01.09.2021

Power utility Eskom says the Koeberg Unit 1 reactor tripped at 16:30 on August 30, as a result of a fault on the electrical breaker to one of the primary coolant pumps. "Eskom can confirm that the reactor was then safely shut down by the operators, in compliance with the operating procedure.

Egypt has signed a $4.45-billion deal for a high-speed electric rail line to link its Red Sea and Mediterranean coasts that contractor Siemens dubbed a "Suez Canal on rails". The contract between Egypt's National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) and a consortium including Siemens Mobility, Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors will cover design, installation and maintenance of the rail link over 15 years, a cabinet statement said on Wednesday.

South Africa may limit the use of public amenities to the people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19, the country’s health minister said. While a decision hasn’t been taken it is being discussed by the government, Joe Phaahla, the minister, said in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday. The Department of Labour and Employment has already given directives allowing employers to make the decision on whether to make vaccination a requirement, he said.

South Africa said the private group looking to take a majority stake in the country’s dormant national airline is close to completing due diligence ahead of a planned resumption of flights later this month. The Takatso consortium has yet to identify any material issues that would scupper the South African Airways deal, the Department of Public Enterprises said in a presentation to lawmakers on Wednesday. The group is made up of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns new domestic airline Lift... Читать дальше...

The Western Cape Department of Human Settlements plans to launch a contractors’ framework that is geared towards attracting construction companies that have women ownership of 51% and above before the end of this year. Western Cape Human Settlements Minister Tertuis Simmers says the new framework will serve as an invitation to female-owned built environment professionals, suppliers and service providers to register with the department for projects and work that will be allocated during the 2022/23 financial year and beyond.

While the speedy, effective roll-out of vaccinations is fundamental to South Africa’s economic recovery, the Covid-19 Delta variant has changed the way the disease can be passed on. To make all indoor spaces as safe as possible, sufficient ventilation to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission must be ensured, says ventilation organisation GreenFlag Association chairperson Norman Khoza.

The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), on September 1, announced the newly elected board members for the 2021 to 2023 tenure. The elected board members are said to be “experienced tourism industry professionals who are expected to direct the strategic objectives of TBCSA, while directing the achievement of the council’s objectives”.

The 'State of Cyber Security in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe 2021' report, released by information technology services multinational Liquid Intelligent Technologies (LIT) on September 1, shows that a majority of organisations in these countries experienced an increase in cybersecurity threats and attacks during the past year. Some attacks have affected businesses' ability to capitalise on business opportunities and led to financial losses owing to lost business and revenues, as well as owing to cyber-enabled financial fraud... Читать дальше...

To contribute to efforts to lower South Africa’s ever-increasing unemployment rate, technology services provider EOH has partnered with youth social services organisation PrimeStars in its ‘Step Up 2 A Green Start Up’ campaign. The campaign is aimed at inspiring young entrepreneurs to find opportunities in the green economy, through the provision of practical processes that young entrepreneurs can follow to start their green businesses.

Agricultural sustainability company Trace & Save has reaffirmed in a case study that a lower environmental impact is directly linked with higher profitability in the South African dairy farming industry. The company, in partnership with Nedbank and the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA), set out to investigate the association between the economic and environmental facets of sustainability related to milk production on pasture-based dairy farms in South Africa.

State-owned power utility Eskom has launched the Renewable Energy Tariff pilot programme to assist businesses who have corporate renewable energy commitments. This, the entity said on September 1, enables customers to source a blended electricity supply with up to 100% of their electricity from one of the utility’s renewable sources.

New-vehicle sales in August increased by 24.6%, to 41 425 units, compared with the same month last year. Out of the total industry sales an estimated 83.6% represented dealer sales, with 12% of vehicles going to the rental industry. Around 2.5% of new vehicles were sold to industry corporate fleets, with the remaining 1.9% procured by government.

Aviation digital ‘hub’ AeroTime has awarded an Aviation Achievement Award to South African pilot and ‘social entrepreneur’ Refilwe Ledwaba. This was in recognition of her creation and development of the non-profit Girls Fly Programme in Africa Foundation. She is the 23rd person to receive the award, and its presentation also marks the six-month milestone of AeroTime’s Women in Aviation campaign. To date, the Girls Fly Programme in Africa Foundation has reached more than 70 000 girls in four African countries (Botswana... Читать дальше...

Financial services provider Absa reports that its seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rebounded to 57.9 points in August. This followed the record single-month decline to 43.5 points in July, compared with 57.4 points in June.

Enel Green Power (EGP) Republic of South Africa (RSA) commercial office head Nontokozo Nkosi has been appointed to the board of the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) as a co-opted member. Having joined EGP RSA in 2016 as a commercial officer, Nkosi’s key responsibilities include identifying and originating new business opportunities. This entails scouting, origination, structuring and pricing of long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) for new renewable capacity around the world ...

The global representative body for the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (Iata), has reported that air cargo markets worldwide continued to register strong growth during July. (Because of the extreme market-distorting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, Iata used July 2019 as the basis for comparison.) Global air cargo demand rose 8.6%. This was significantly higher than the long-term growth trend of 4.7%. However, July’s growth rate was slightly less than that of June... Читать дальше...

UK-based industrial technology group Rolls-Royce announced on Wednesday that the prototype power gearbox (PGB) for its new-generation UltraFan jet engine had set a new world aerospace power record. The record was set in the group’s dedicated PGB test facility, in Dahlewitz, near Berlin, in Germany. In the record-setting test, the PGB reached 64 MW (87 000 horsepower). This was enough to power a city the size of Bath, in the UK (which has a population of roughly 89 000). Meanwhile, construction of... Читать дальше...

A report commissioned by the National Economic Development and Labour Council shows that, in the first year of the sugar tax’s implementation, there were 16 621 job losses across the industry, of which 9 000 job losses were in the cane growing sector alone. The South African (SA) Canegrowers Association says calls by some public health scholars and the Healthy Living Alliance (Hela) for the national government to double the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), commonly referred to as the sugar tax, “shows... Читать дальше...

The R93-million special maintenance project on the R75 from Wolwefontein to Jansenville in the Sarah Baartman district municipality, in the Eastern Cape, has been completed, the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) confirmed on September 1. The R75 is one of the major national roads within the Eastern Cape that links the coastline with its hinterland.

The South African extension of Germany-based Phoenix Contact has expanded its Value-Added Centre (VAC), based in Randburg, South Africa, as part of its continued efforts to provide its customers with manufacturing of their product solutions. Creamer Media journalist Simone Liedtke tells us more.

The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has launched a #RequestASlotGP campaign to enable driver's licence card holders to request and be allocated a booking slot. The campaign is aimed to run concurrently with the already successful Smart Mobility Weekends Campaign. As past of the campaign, a Web-based license renewal booking system has been created where cardholders can, at their convenience, request a slot.

The first Volkswagen manufactured in South Africa, a Beetle, rolled off the assembly line on August 31, 1951. This means the German manufacturer this year celebrates its seventieth anniversary of producing cars in South Africa

South Africa has seen a 6% fall in exports, from R253-billion in 2019 to R238-billion in 2020, which the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) largely attributed to the widespread impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic, it said, severely affected South Africa’s exports owing to the shutdown of economies implemented to contain the risk of spreading the Covid-19 virus.

Industry organisation the Beer Association of South Africa (Basa) recently made a presentation to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance on its opposition to above-inflation increases in excise taxes. This is the first of a number of engagements it plans to hold with government in the lead up to next year’s Budget speech.

JSE-listed Altron has appointed Kennedy Chinganya MD of Altron Nexus, with effect from September 1. He succeeds Mark Harris, who will now handle special projects until the end of November.