All three major rivers in the drought-hit Kruger Park dried up during Water Week last month, sparking a row between environmentalists, farmers and the department of water affairs. Kruger spokesperson Raymond Travers confirmed last month that the Crocodile, Letaba and Olifants rivers stopped flowing “for short periods”. They were now flowing again, but slowly.
Food prices are set to sky-rocket, as a devastating drought has forced maize farmers to their knees. The drought, along with competitive international markets, has lead to soaring maize prices in South Africa. Many farmers believe this is the worst drought in 40 years, and weather statistics have indicated they are not far off.
Is Jacob Zuma courting the Afrikaners? The question was asked this week after Zuma and a few well-known Afrikaners had a good old kuier at a braai at a guesthouse in Houghton, Johannesburg. This is not the first time Zuma has made overtures to the Afrikaner community.
A row has erupted over the dismissal of the environmental control officer from the Coega Development Corporation near Port Elizabeth, raising questions about the enforcement powers of Coega’s environmental monitoring committee. The committee was appointed to monitor developers’ compliance with the project’s environmental impact assessment.
Last year, education made up the biggest part of the corporate social investment of South African companies, continuing the trend that companies believe investing in a culture of learning makes the most sense. Almost all the big hitters in corporate social investment invested in the education sector.
Crime has been hitting the front page news during the past few months. Yet it is not an area corporations are budgeting big bucks for in their corporate social investment (CSI) budgets. Safety and security only got 1% of CSI funding overall, though 26% of CSI programmes are involved in safety and security programmes, reports The CSI Handbook.
A three-month dry spell could drive maize prices up to R2 000 a ton by the end of the month, in what farmers are calling “the worst drought in 40 years”. Maize farmers in North West and Mpumalanga have watched in horror as their crops have withered during the current drought. The Crop Estimates Committee put the forecast for the harvest at 7,757-million tons.
Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the pioneering Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change said this week that many of the technologies that will help solve the problem of climate change would come from South Africa, because of the country’s “world class” scientific community “pursuing innovative technology”.
Police are investigating possible links between the Boeremag, 23 of whose members are standing trial in Pretoria, and a far right-wing group called the ”Suidlanders” (South landers). The Suidlanders shot to public notice last week as the organisation behind the Nelson Mandela ”hoax emails” feverishly circulated on the internet.
Joe Seremane, a former inmate of Robben Island, member of the PAC and ANC Youth League, joined the then Democratic Party in 1994 to provide stronger opposition to the ANC. As national chairperson, he remains the only senior black official in the DA, which is desperately trying to attract more black support.