What I Need To Know (297)
THE National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) called for a raft of radical policy shifts yesterday to transform the local economy, proposing nationalising the banks, mines and the telecommunication sector, without compensation.
Critics say the union has stepped firmly into the vacant domain left by the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, which re-ignited the debate on nationalisation and placed it firmly on the ANC’s agenda.
Numsa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ second-largest affiliate, is adamant that the present economic trajectory would not stem the growing tide of inequality, poverty and unemployment in SA.
"If nationalisation is not the way to go, we must accept that the Freedom Charter must be dumped," said Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim, releasing the union’s draft policy documents ahead of its conference next month.
In the draft document, Numsa argues that should the ANC "dump" the Freedom Charter — which it uses to justify nationalisation — it would risk losing Cosatu’s support during elections.
"Once the Freedom Charter and its basic tenets have been dumped, we … shall be left with no option but to ask a secondary question: ‘Why must Cosatu call on workers to continue to vote for the ANC if it has taken a decision not to implement the Freedom Charter’," the document reads.
Numsa also wants to ensure that the ANC leadership elected in December at the party’s national conference is "equal to the task of implementing the Freedom Charter".
The union further wants the state to take control of the Reserve Bank, a complete overhaul of the country’s monetary and financial policies, for an industrial strategy focusing on creating jobs and for the ANC to initiate a process of review of the constitution.
"We are convinced that the time has come to end the sunset clauses and to do a thorough review of the performance of the 1996 constitution with a view to exposing the extent to which it has helped SA undo its apartheid capitalist features in the economy and society," said Mr Jim, referring to the property clause.
Mr Jim rejected the ANC’s report on nationalisation — the study advised against "asset grabs" and buying stakes in mines — saying the team that produced the report had failed in its task.
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Developed countries must deliver on their promises to Africa
As the G8 leaders meet in the United States this week, agriculture and food security must be at the forefront of the discussions, and ways to prevent price volatility, including halting grain-based biofuels production, establishing grain reserves for emergency use, eliminating food export bans and increasing the transparency of food and agricultural market information, should be addressed.
Most importantly, the G8 leaders should fulfill their commitments on global food security.
In 2009, G8 leaders made considerable financial commitments to global agriculture and food security, pledging to mobilize $22 billion over three years through a coordinated, comprehensive strategy focused on sustainable agriculture development. But as of May 2011, it was estimated that only 22 percent of these commitments had been disbursed.
In addition to the G8 leaders, the heads of states from Ethiopia, Ghana, Benin and Tanzania will take part in the summit discussions. The direct participation by these African leaders underscores the seriousness of the food security situation on the continent, where more than 220 million people are undernourished. Millions suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, a total of 100 million women and children are iron deficient, and 33 million children have Vitamin A deficiencies. The 2011 Global Hunger Index, a combined measure of the proportion of undernourishment, child malnutrition, and child mortality, shows that Sub-Saharan Africa is home to all the countries with "extremely alarming" scores and many of the countries with "alarming" scores.
In addition, it is projected that smallholder farmers, particularly those living in the highland areas and semi-arid savannahs in Sub-Saharan Africa, face increasing natural resource scarcity risks, including land degradation, which can cost as much as 10 percent of national GDP. Many parts of the region are extremely vulnerable to both man-made and natural shocks. Last year, more than 13 million people were affected by the drought in the Horn of Africa. This year more than 15 million people across seven countries in the Sahel region are already suffering from severe food insecurity or at risk.
It is crucial that developed countries take action to fight starvation in Africa. The cost of hunger is high, and the damage is irreversible.
For over three decades now, the International Food Policy Research Institute has been engaged in promoting the transformation of smallholder agriculture across Africa through evidence-based research and support to country-driven development initiatives. Priority areas include: building capacity for agricultural and food policy analysis and supporting country-led development strategies; improving nutrition along value chains to increase poor people's access to nutritious foods and increasing the availability, access, and intake of nutrient-rich, biofortified staple foods for the poor; resilience-enhancing schemes such as productive social safety nets, weather insurance index, and other risk management tools that help reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience to shocks and contribute to overall long-term growth and prosperity.
Technological innovations such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, and biofortification are crucial to increasing agricultural productivity, building resilience to weather-related shocks, enhancing the nutritional value of food crops, and ensuring food safety. Biotechnology has great potential to improve crop yield, nutrition and resilience to weather shocks, which will be even more frequent in the future due to climate change.
As the world's population increases, there is enormous pressure on the planet's ecosystems. The most reasonable solution to feeding the ever-growing population is sustainably producing more food on the existing land. Scaled-up investments in science and technology and support for improved country capacities are essential to accelerate progress and achieve development objectives.While the governments of developing countries have taken important steps to boost food security-related investments, support from the G8 countries remains critical.
(ChinaDaily.com)
Government remains committed to e-tolling and will appeal the High Court in Pretoria's interim order halting the implementation of the system in Gauteng, spokesman Jimmy Manyi said on Thursday.
"Cabinet has taken a decision to appeal the interim order to stop the e-tolling," Manyi told a fortnightly post-Cabinet briefing.
He said the government only received a written copy of Judge Bill Prinsloo's April 28 judgment late on Wednesday.
"As we are sitting here, our lawyers are studying the judgment and will advise the executive in due course."
He added: "Cabinet reiterated its commitment to the user pays principle and its decision on e-tolling as an efficient mechanism of collection."
Manyi said Cabinet also made plain it would not allow the embattled SA National Roads Agency Ltd to default on the debt it incurred to complete the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).
"As a country we need to demonstrate unequivocal commitment to meet all our contractual obligations, including repaying the debt incurred in the construction of GFIP. Defaulting on our debt is simply not an option." - Sapa
The Energy Ministry came out with all guns firing for hydraulic fracturing – referred to cautiously as the “f-word” yesterday – as it could help turn around Africa’s energy fortunes, reduce dependence on dirty fuels like coal and create masses of jobs in the Karoo.
It is the strongest signal yet that the government is about to end the moratorium on exploration for shale gas. Last week, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu promised that the cabinet would decide on fracking by next month.
At an oil and gas conference hosted by Ostrac, an empowerment group involved in gas and oil industry training, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters entered the fray and spoke of the untapped wonders of hydraulic fracturing, which Western Cape Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde would only refer to as “the f-word”.
Noting that the International Energy Agency had declared that the world was entering “the golden age of gas” and it was necessary to “enter a conversation… including (about) the f-word”, Peters said she was a member of the cabinet which had decided to place a moratorium on exploration for shale gas but she “wished at the same time” that when the report emerged there was a “safe way of going ahead with this”.
While the report by a multi-departmental task team was still secret, Peters was optimistic it would deal properly with the concerns of water contamination and environmental “considerations” while tapping into the Karoo’s potential, including that relating to tourism.
Exploration work has been halted for nearly 18 months in the Karoo but the minister’s remarks indicate that the government is poised to give the industry a green light with the Science and Technology Department helping to ensure that the controversial procedure uses technology that limits environmental damage.
Fracking involves injecting vast amounts of water deep underground – with various chemicals – to extract natural gas from shale rock. Environmentalist groups such as Treasure the Karoo, headed by Jonathan Deal, have long argued that the process could severely damage underground aquifers in the semi-desert area.
Deal said yesterday: “One doesn’t have to be a palm reader to know where they’re heading.” In 140 places around the world there were reservations about fracking. And in Romania and Germany, two-year moratoriums were being considered, he said.
Speaking at his farm in the Karoo, Deal said South Africans should not be seduced by promised economic benefits. “We’re not opposed to economic development. We want South Africa to flourish, but it has to be sustainable and sensible.”
Peters, meanwhile, made no bones about her focus on the gas part of the oil and gas equation. Picking up on Winde’s hope that an industrial development zone would be declared by year-end, she said the proposed zone at Saldanha Bay would be a suitable storage hub for liquid fuels.
Working with China, it was possible that Saldanha would become “a halfway storage point for the West (and) a pick-up point for the East”. Oil and gas could be exported to China and other emerging countries from the Western Cape.
Peters added that the government’s growing support for fracking was based on its job potential. She referred to the affect it would have on reducing the number of people on security grant, which is a particular problem in the vast Karoo. The money could be used instead “to support the economy”.
The value of gas exploitation in the US was being felt, said Peters. In Europe and the UK, the gas price had “gone south” at the very time there was upward pressure on the oil price.
(Donwald Pressly - BusinessReport)
Once, not too long ago, teenage boys would collect cellphones with flat batteries from their village in Malolo, in Congo Brazzaville, and run 27km to Makabana - the nearest village with electricity.
There they would have the phones charged at the homes of sympathetic residents and run back to Malolo in the evening. Their payment? A banana or a paw-paw.
But this exhausting exercise came to an end when a group of South African farmers saw the youngsters' daily struggles.
"These farmers just laid an electric line to an old woman's house. They developed, in an hour or two, a cellphone charging bank with about 40 plugs at which the local community can charge their cellphones," said Theo de Jager, vice-president of AgriSA.
De Jager and Andre Botha, President of Congo Agriculture, have been in negotiations with the Congolese government since its invitation to South African farmers to bring their expertise to the country.
Thirty-nine farmers were lured to the Congo to bring food security to the country.
Everything has to be imported in to the Congo - a 6kg box of practically rotten tomatoes, for example, costs about R700, according to De Jager.
The state made 85000ha of farmland available to the farmers, of whom 13 have moved to the country on a "semi-permanent basis".
Thirteen others commute between South Africa and the Congo every two weeks. The 13 who are based in South Africa, do administrative work, including finances and logistics.
The first 13 farmers - known as the voorspan or advance team - arrived in the village of Malolo just before Christmas last year.
At first they cleared 1200ha for maize. They worked around the clock in shifts and within a few months they produced a "beautiful" crop and sold it to the government for R2400 a ton. The neighbouring American farmers sell their maize for R3000 a ton.
"The Americans next door got 20000ha in 1999 and they only managed to clear 300ha and plant on it," said De Jager.
In addition, the South Africans planted 80ha of soya.
They have also improved residents' lives. By fixing old pipes and pumps they gave the locals access to tap water for the first time, and they employ 200 people on the farm. The local baker no longer sells bread slices - he sells 200 loaves every day and has employed the local chief, his wife and son.
"The cost of electricity is much lower than in South Africa. Also, there are no trade unions on the farms so you don't have strikes the moment harvest time begins," said De Jager.
Farmers, including Neil Karg, whose wife and housekeeper were murdered on his dairy farm in KwaZulu-Natal in 2010, and former Angolan prisoner-of-war Wynand du Toit, joined the community in the Congo.
Pieter Mulder, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Freedom Front Plus leader, said South African farmers are being forced to leave this country because they face an uncertain future.
"Maybe the two or three years listening to Mr [Julius] Malema wasn't a positive contribution either," said Mulder.
Now, he said, there is a government that "appreciates us".
Mulder visited the Congo earlier this month and said President Denis Sassou Nguesso and Agriculture Minister Rigobert Mabondou were impressed with the South Africans. He said their success is a "bitter-sweet" story because South Africa has lost valuable expertise.
(TimesLive)
Mozambique as the neighbouring country can produce the commodity more cheaply.
About 800 South African farmers have crossed the border to farm in Mozambique, and many more are to follow.
Pieter Mulder, deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries and Freedom Front Plus leader, said he was approached in December by the deputy minister of agriculture in Mozambique who was interested in recruiting more farmers to join the South Africans farming there.
Mulder said there were 60000 commercial farmers 15 years ago. Now there are 37000.
Theo de Jager, who is vice-president of AgriSA, said Mozambique, in particular, is turning the farming community in South Africa "upside down" because they are recruiting aggressively.
But Bennie van Zyl, GM of the agricultural union TAU SA, cautioned farmers not to be too hasty to leave South Africa.
"Farmers have burnt their fingers and returned," said Van Zyl.
He urged farmers to get agreements in writing and have "all their ducks in a row" before investing elsewhere.
Van Zyl said in addition to the rest of Africa, local farmers are working in Canada and Georgia. He has also received requests from the Ukraine and Croatia.
There are 15 farmers who have moved to Georgia and more are investigating the prospect of moving there.
(TimesLive)
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has found the Western Cape government's multimillion-rand communications contract to be “invalid”, City Press reported on Sunday.
In her preliminary report, Madonsela said the provincial government should “immediately terminate the further execution” of its contract with TBWA Hunt Lascaris.
The contract, signed in 2010, is capped at R70 million a year for two years for “ongoing costs”.
It also provides R1.5 million for “once-off deliverables”.
City Press said the report could still be changed by Madonsela.
Zille's department told the weekly Madonsela had not considered the adverse impact of terminating the contract and the legal difficulties of doing so.
She should withdraw her recommendation to terminate the contract, the province reportedly said. - Sapa
African agriculture is undergoing a transformation, creating a new era of opportunity for both farmers and investors, according to African and global leaders at the World Economic Forum on Africa.
The Grow Africa Investment Forum, convened jointly by the African Union, Nepad and the World Economic Forum (WEF), engaged over 270 leaders at the gathering in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday.
These included heads of state and government from Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania, as well as leaders of African and global business, international and donor agencies and farmer organizations.
Huge investment potential
Forum participants noted that African agriculture offers tremendous growth potential to investors, which in turn promised to strengthen food security and economic opportunity on the continent.
Greater private-sector investment and improvements to the business enabling environment were needed to capture this potential, delegates were told.
The leaders noted that much of the continent's agricultural potential remains untapped. "We have scratched the surface, but we haven't yet broken the mould," said Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. "When we do that, you will see the explosion of development in Africa."
During Thurday's session, seven countries showcased specific investment and partnership opportunities aligned to their national priorities for agricultural transformation.
'We are ready to do business'
"We are ready to do business; that's why we came to this meeting," said Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, noting that Tanzania's agriculture investment strategy prioritized groups that could most benefit from new market opportunities.
"When we bring in the private sector, it is to benefit the smallholder farmers," Kikwete said. "We need to modernize agriculture and make it more attractive to youth."
President Kikwete added that governments had an important role to play in providing support in areas of irrigation, inputs and building commodity markets. However, private sector investment was also essential in order to avoid over-dependence on subsidies.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said that African countries could "mobilize farmers into an entrepreneurial mindset and create new opportunities for women, youth and rural entrepreneurs."
'New ways of leveraging the agriculture sector'
The Grow Africa partnership has developed significant momentum since it was launched at the 2011 World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.
A total of 116 companies participated in the Grow Africa Investment Forum, including 49 African and 47 multinational companies, plus 20 from other regions such as Asia and the Middle East.
"Much of the investment in Africa can come from Africa if we provide the right financing mechanisms and policy environment," said African Export-Import Bank president Jean-Louis Ekra.
According to Unilever executive vice-president Frank Braeken, African leaders "are defining new ways to leverage the agriculture sector as a driver of inclusive and sustainable growth. This offers new agribusiness opportunities that are increasingly attractive to investors."
Empowering African farmers 'crucial'
Participants agreed that empowering African farmers would be central to the future of agriculture on the continent.
"Smallholder farmers are a sleeping giant in Africa," said Dyborn Chibonga, CEO of the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi. "That sleeping giant needs to be mobilized into collective action groups."
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the way to realize this was through increasing the productivity of small farmers and having them well organized and collaborative in order to take advantage of supply chains and investments
Ethiopia has achieved significant gains in agricultural productivity using this model in recent years, setting aside 16% of its national budget for agriculture - well above the 10% to which all African governments have committed themselves.
The Grow Africa partnership, coordinated by the African Union, Nepad and the WEF, aims to "galvanize sustainable investment into African agriculture based on country-led priorities," the WEF said on Thursday.
According to the WEF, Grow Africa builds upon the CAADP, which works to boost African agricultural productivity through sector development plans. Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia are the first countries to engage with Grow Africa.
"The Grow Africa platform is open to all countries, and can accelerate the implementation of national investment plans developed through the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme," said African Union chairperson Jean Ping.
The potential seen in African agriculture presents a transformational opportunity, according to WEF vice-chairman Josette Sheeran. "Working together, we can ensure that when we meet in 10 years, it will be in an Africa that is not only feeding itself, but helping to feed the world."
(Sainfo)
WASHINGTON — A rodeo cowboy, a Chinese businessman, a Vietnamese nail salon owner and a US antiques expert are among eight people snared so far this year in the largest rhino horn smuggling bust in US history.
US investigators say more arrests are on the way as a new task force sets its sights on a motley crew of organized crime players that experts say is driven by smugglers from Ireland, China, Vietnam, the United States and elsewhere.
Their product is more valuable than cocaine or gold. A single rhino horn can sell for up to half a million US dollars in Vietnam and parts of Southeast Asia where urban legend touts it as a potent aphrodisiac and even a cure for cancer.
"It is a substantial problem," said Edward Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
He described his agency's efforts to halt illegal rhino horn trafficking as a "priority."
"The middle men here are buying rhino horn for $5,000 a pound and by the time it makes it to Vietnam it is selling for $25,000 a pound," said Grace, adding that a 20-pound rhino horn could fetch up to $500,000 at its final destination.
To get a share of the cash, would-be profiteers in the United States are scouring for rhino horns, mainly from trophies of the animals that were hunted legally in South Africa and brought back to the United States in recent decades, Grace said.
Meanwhile in Europe, thefts from museums, zoos and auction houses have escalated.
Last year alone, Europol documented 60 thefts -- including 74 rhino horns and eight rhino heads -- from nearly every country in Europe.
"This has turned out to be involving so many different countries that Irish police reached out to us and we got involved," said Soren Kragh Pedersen, chief of media and public relations at Europol.
In July, Europol issued a warning that "significant players within this area of crime have been identified as an Irish and ethnically Irish organized criminal group, who are known to use intimidation and violence to achieve their ends."
Indeed, it was a pair of Irishmen who first drew the attention of US authorities in 2010.
Richard O'Brien and Michael Hegarty of Rathkeale in County Limerick were arrested after paying undercover agents in Colorado about $17,000 for four black rhino horns. They said they would ship them to Ireland with furniture to avoid detection.
They were charged with conspiracy, smuggling and money laundering, and served six months in a US prison.
Grace described the men as belonging to a gang known as the Rathkeale Rovers, "an organized crime element out of Ireland dealing in rhino horns."
They also are known to belong to the Irish travellers community, historically caravan-dwelling nomads with their own distinct culture and traditions.
Grace said he believes the illegal rhino horn trade "is really being fueled by the Irish travellers."
After those two arrests, the US Fish and Wildlife Service put together a task force to investigate rhino horn theft cases nationwide.
In February, a sprawling operation that involved 150 agents from the Homeland Security Department and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as FWS undercover buyers of rhino horn, orchestrated a major takedown.
It was prompted by the discovery of $337,000 cash in the luggage of rodeo cowboy Wade Steffen at Long Beach Airport in California.
Grace described Operation Crash, in which "crash" refers to a herd of rhinos, as "the largest seizure and the largest number of arrests at one time in the United States involved in a rhino horn investigation."
Though no Irish were nabbed in the takedown, which involved 37 horns at a value of $8 million to $10 million, more arrests are expected in the coming months, Grace said.
"This case also involves other Irish buying rhino horns in the United States," he told AFP. "I can't go into a lot of details on it."
In addition to Steffen, the suspects have included Vietnamese import-export business owner Jimmy Kha and his girlfriend Mai Nguyen, who owned a nail salon where packages of rhino horns were allegedly being mailed.
Others arrested in Los Angeles include Chinese businessman Jin Zhao Feng who, according to the FWS, allegedly oversaw the shipment of dozens of rhino horns from the United States to China.
Two more arrests on the East Coast involved shadowy deals of rhino horns allegedly being sold outside a gas station off the New Jersey Turnpike and an American antique dealer who sawed rhino horns off a mounted trophy head in a motel parking lot, the FWS said.
"It is similar to an operation of a drug cartel. You have the higher ups who provide the money, the mid-level lieutenants who get the couriers and the smugglers, so you have the whole organized criminal element here," said Grace.
In the United States, it is illegal to sell most kinds of rhino horns across state lines and none may be imported or exported without a special permit.
The maximum penalties are a $250,000 fine and five years in prison for conspiracy and trafficking of endangered species, and $100,000 and one year in prison for violating the Endangered Species Act.
After the February arrests, US attorney Andre Birotti vowed to "continue to target traffickers in the United States who support a heinous industry without any concern for the welfare of this planet's overall environmental health."
Since illegal trafficking fuels poaching of endangered rhinos abroad, "part of the responsibility worldwide to help protect these species falls on the United States," said Grace.
(Kerry Sheridan - AFP)
South Africa: U.S. Agriculture Hosts Food Security Seminar.
Written by News Editor
By 2100 the world's population will exceed ten billion and more than 80% of that population will be resident in Africa and Asia, according to the United Nations. Right now, world population growth coupled with the economic crisis and its resultant higher food prices and falling consumption mean that the world, and Africa in particular, is facing a food security crisis.
The pressing issue of food security, or the availability of food and a population's access to it, will be dealt with extensively at the USA Food Security Seminar in Sandton, Johannesburg on Tuesday, 22 May, hosted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In this one-day seminar, American and South African industry leaders will provide insights on food security, nutrition, world food trends and practical solutions for cost-effective feeding of the people of Southern Africa, including the region's most at-risk demographic, children aged five and under. "We invite stakeholders and buyers from the Southern African food industry to join us, to listen and exchange views on the issues that will be put on the table, as well as be introduced to a range of quality, cost-effective food products from the USA," says Jim Hershey, seminar facilitator and executive director of the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) at the American Soybean Association (ASA).
Emphasis will be on protein-rich products.
Topics on the agenda include global food demand and rising food prices, the role of trade in transforming agriculture into food security and building a platform for long-term food security and trade in Africa, for good health and economic development.
"Among the food products that will be introduced and discussed, are dry beans, peanuts, dehydrated potatoes, value-added soy proteins and seafood. This emphasis on protein-rich products is deliberate in view of the role played by protein-deficiency in stunting and the prevalence of this condition in Southern Africa," Hershey adds.
Stunting, which is reflective of chronic nutritional deficiency and results in low height for age, affects an estimated 195 million children in the developing world. More than 90% of the world's stunted children live in Africa and Asia, and according to a January 2011 UNICEF news release, of the 24 countries that account for 80% of the world's stunting burden, seven are in the Eastern and Southern African region.
Soy is a step in right direction.
More sobering yet are the findings of South Africa's 2005 National Food Consumption Survey, which highlighted stunting as the most common form of nutritional disorder affecting South African children. The study found that 18% of children aged between one and nine were affected by stunting, while 5% showed signs of severe stunting.
"On a more positive note, the good news is that there are increasing numbers of companies in Southern Africa that are looking for ways to use soy protein in the foods they offer to the market, like soy-fortified maize flour, soy beverages and textured soy products like soy mince. This is absolutely a step in the right direction, towards a future where the phrase 'nutritional deficiency' has no place in the Southern African vocabulary," says Hershey.
(AllAfrica)
