While delegates at last week’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) conference on poverty and development pulled up in taxis and luxury cars to the Mauritian conference centre, Linda Marie L’Acariate took a bus to work at the canteen of the Sacota textile mill, just outside the town of Rose Hill.
Government’s drive to use cheap electricity as a development tool has cost R142-billion, enough to build two giant coal-fired power stations. Cheap power — government has kept electricity price increases at below the rate of inflation for more than a decade — has also seen industry being given preferential rates.
In the Southern African Development Community about 45% of the population lives in extreme poverty. For many poor people in the region informal trade is the only way to sustain themselves and their families. Governments in the region, however, ignore this parallel economy, hampering their citizens’ attempts to survive, say experts.
There may be a glimmer of good news on the horizon for consumers. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has raised its eyebrows at Eskom’s requested 53% hike in electricity tariffs. And if the total increase is granted, energy-intensive users could carry a large part of the burden.
A bumper maize crop this year could see food prices fall, offering welcome relief to consumers facing rising interest rates and fuel costs. With this large crop South Africans can expect to see the maize price move closer to export parity prices, which should offer consumers some relief.
South Africa has “shocked” its African counterparts by objecting to a strongly worded ban on cluster bombs at a meeting of African countries in Livingstone, Zambia, this week. Cluster bombs are deadly weapons deployed from aircraft and helicopters. They open in mid-air and scatter over a large area, often injuring civilians.
Careful of loose talk; BHP Billiton is about. The mining giant’s much-publicised halt on all business with Standard Bank, after ”a senior bank executive” suggested it close down its Hillside aluminium smelter to save energy, has been criticised as censorship, writes Lynley Donnelly.
Last week’s launch of the Diamond Trading Company Botswana represents a dramatic change in beneficiation processes that come from the global diamond trade. The 50:50 partnership between the Botswana government and De Beers will see Botswana become one of the world’s most advanced sorting and valuing operations.
Eskom’s application to the national energy regulator for a 53% hike in electricity prices could well have been an application to Reserve Bank boss Tito Mboweni for yet another interest-rate hike. Experts estimate that, if granted, Eskom’s request to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa could hike the annual rate of inflation by at least 2%.
Designers are looking beyond fashion weeks and promo speak and are calling for policy intervention, writes Lynley Donnelly.