Новости за 13.12.2021

The American Society of Travel Advisors (Asta), the Association of South African Travel Agencies (Asata), the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (Acta), the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Associations (Ectaa) and World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA) are calling on government leaders to expedite the lifting of all country- and region-specific travel bans. Many countries follow strong biosecurity protocols, including the wearing of masks... Читать дальше...

Hardly had Qatar Airways, the national flag carrier of Qatar, announced that it was resuming outbound passenger flights from South Africa, than it has had to postpone their implementation. These flights would have been from both Johannesburg and Cape Town. “Due to operational reasons, Qatar Airways has unfortunately had to postpone the restart of outbound passenger services from South Africa for a short period of time,” said the airline in a statement received by Engineering News Online on Monday. Читать дальше...

Renewable energy company Scatec has entered into a lease agreement with electricity company Eneo in Cameroon to deliver two hybrid solar and storage plants totalling 36 MW solar and 20 MW/19 MWh storage. The plants will supply low-cost, clean and reliable electricity in Maroua and Guider in the Grand-North of Cameroon, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is partnering with Scatec’s Release to realise these redeployable projects.

Financial services firm Standard Bank has issued its first local Tier 2 capital qualifying green bond to finance renewable energy projects in South Africa and increased its social bond issued in August to finance mortgage loans in the affordable housing target market, with a focus on women borrowers. The new ten-year, R1.4-billion bond is listed on the JSE Sustainability segment and proceeds will be used to finance renewable energy projects in South Africa.

More than 4.3-million individual non-provisional taxpayers filed their income tax returns by the extended deadline of December 2, which is a 46% increase over 2020, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on December 13. “This increase in voluntary compliance was made possible through a virtual filing season, which aimed to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on taxpayers, our staff and other citizens. The shift towards a virtual tax filing season is also directly aligned to our vision of building a smart... Читать дальше...

Efforts in the steel industry to increase the metal’s environment friendliness – a process known as “green steel” – will assist diversified miner Anglo American in reducing its Scope 3 emissions, outgoing Anglo American CE Mark Cutifani has said. Speaking during an investor day on December 10, he said that although the world needed the metals and minerals Anglo produced, the work the company has done to lower its carbon intensity in its portfolio over the past eight or nine years has set it up for a “very different future”.

State-owned electricity utility Eskom continues to maintain that its revenue application, including the implementation of regulatory clearing account (RCA) decisions already made, would translate to a 20.5% increase in the standard tariff on April 1, rather than the 32.15% hike outlined in a ‘pro forma’ table produced by the regulator. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) figure, which has been shared with Engineering News & Mining Weekly, is based on revenue from standard... Читать дальше...

Europe-based global major aerospace group Airbus has announced that it is strengthening both its research capabilities regarding the future use of hydrogen in aviation and its innovation infrastructure in Spain. It was doing so by creating a new entity within its wholly-owned innovation subsidiary Airbus UpNext, and establishing a third Zero Emission Development Centre (ZEDC), both of them located in Spain. “Establishing Airbus UpNext and the ZEDC in Spain strengthens our Research & Technology... Читать дальше...

The production and export of green hydrogen is one means for countries to contribute to the global energy transition, with other elements being renewables, energy-efficient design principles and behavioural changes. “There is significant potential for South Africa to create a whole new industry that can help stimulate its economy by building and growing a hydrogen export value chain. "In addition to creating opportunities for skills development and work opportunities at hydrogen harvesting plants... Читать дальше...

Next year is likely to hold many possibilities for companies and cybercriminals alike, says cybersecurity company Trend Micro Cloud and Alliances. Business development manager Willem Barnard and Trend Micro sub-Saharan Africa senior cybersecurity sales engineer Yash Pillay, therefore, advise organisations to build out and implement strategies to proactively mitigate emerging cybersecurity risks.

South Africa’s Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Defence has affirmed that the government should give the country’s defence industry the support it needed to ensure its sustainability. The committee did so in a statement released on Friday, in which it reported that it had received the ‘controlled item transfers’ reports, covering both defence imports and exports, for the second, third and fourth quarters of this year. “The committee noted that the impediments to exports that are creating a backlog of R3.5-billion in orders... Читать дальше...

Most of the road construction industry will shut down operations on December 15 and resume on January 10, although some projects will continue during the holiday period. As the holidays are fast approaching, the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) urges motorists to rest, ensure their vehicles are roadworthy, obey speed limits, look out for pedestrians and be patient in areas where roadworks are continuing.

South Africa should see new energy production within the next 12 to 18 months, signalling a fundamental shift in how electricity is produced to a greener, lower-cost and more reliable future, says business organisation Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso. Future rounds of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme will diversify power sources substantially, which is key to long-term supply stability, she notes.

South Africa's biggest supermarket group Shoprite Holdings said on Monday its upmarket grocery chain Checkers has entered into a joint venture agreement with its delivery partner RTT Group, as part of a push to grow its e-commerce business. After years spent lagging much of the world in terms of e-commerce, South African retailers and delivery startups have generated record online sales as consumers avoided shops during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Airbus Helicopters has announced that it delivered the first production example of its new-generation H160 multimission civil helicopter to All Nippon Helicopter (ANH) in Japan on Friday. The aircraft was handed over at the Airbus Helicopters facility in Kobe, and will be employed in the electronic news gathering role. “It is an honour to have ANH as our very first H160 operator,” highlighted Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even. “I would like to thank ANH for their continued trust and confidence in our helicopters. Читать дальше...

The South African National Space Agency (Sansa) has reported that South Africa’s second satellite, Sumbandila, deorbited on Friday, and almost certainly burnt up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Sumbandila – the name meant ‘pathfinder’ in the Venda language – was the country’s first ‘official’ satellite, having being commissioned by the then Department of Science and Technology in 2005. (SumbandilaSat, as it was also known, was preceded by SunSat, which was an initiative of Stellenbosch University.) Originally... Читать дальше...

Quiet and unassuming, nestled in the seaport town of Gqeberha, there exists a factory, founded by Jimmy Price, where iconic American Shelby Heritage cars are produced for the local and global market. Through the Hi-Tech Automotive factory, the full range of Shelby Mustang conversions are available in the country, enabling Mustang owners to access an extensive range of upgrades and conversions to enhance the performance and appeal of this model.

The adoption of a cleaning method from the oil and gas industry has allowed the decontamination of pipe sections from the former Harwell nuclear research site in the UK. As a result, instead of having to be stored as low-level nuclear waste, the sections of pipe can be recycled. “By adapting a proven technology and applying it to the treatment of the pipework, the amount of waste that would otherwise need to be consigned to the low-level radioactive waste repository has been drastically reduced and... Читать дальше...