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Jun
06
2023
By The African Mirror
Farming in South Africa is being hobbled by power cuts and poor roads. Rural towns are being hit hardest

Farming in South Africa is being hobbled by power cuts and poor roads. Rural towns are being hit hardest

NEWS
SOUTH Africa’s agriculture has had great consecutive seasons since 2019/20. The sector’s gross value added grew by 14.9% in 2020, 8.8% in 2021 and modestly by 0.3% in 2022. This was primarily supported by favourable weather conditions. Author WANDILE SIHLOBO, Senior Fellow, Department of Agricultural Economics, Stellenbosch University The current season is also likely to deliver solid growth for the sector, with variation across sub-sectors. We already see prospects of large crops across the country. Export performance is likely to be robust, especially with a weaker rand exchange rate, which makes South African products more competitively priced in the global…
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May
11
2023
By The African Mirror
Farmers in South Africa face power cuts and a weak rand – but a number of factors are working in their favour too

Farmers in South Africa face power cuts and a weak rand – but a number of factors are working in their favour too

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS
WINTER is an important season for South African agriculture, with some of its key field crops being produced during the cold months of June, July and August, and maturing after that, with harvesting in December. Preparation of the land for winter crops begins in April, which is also the same time harvesting of the summer crops begins. Author WANDILE SIHLOBO, Senior Fellow, Department of Agricultural Economics, Stellenbosch University Farmers in the Western and Northern Cape, Free State, Limpopo and other winter crop growing regions are making arrangements for growing winter wheat, canola, barley and oats. All of the country’s wheat…
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Apr
06
2023
By The African Mirror
South Africa fights to keep phone networks up as lights go out

South Africa fights to keep phone networks up as lights go out

NEWS
NQOBILE DLUDLA ON a recent Friday morning north of Johannesburg, the head of South Africa's largest telecoms company surveyed the arsenal of backup systems keeping just one of his 15,000 network towers online amid the worst power cuts on record. A diesel generator. Solar panels. A bank of expensive backup batteries, theft-proofed within a block of concrete. "Our costs have gone through the roof," lamented Sitho Mdlalose, managing director of Vodacom South Africa. As the national power grid crumbles, leaving Africa's most advanced economy in the dark for up to 10 hours a day, mobile operators including Vodacom, MTN and majority…
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Apr
02
2023
By The African Mirror
MTN invests $84-million in network security after vandalism, theft

MTN invests $84-million in network security after vandalism, theft

NEWS
NQOBILE DLUDLA ROLLING power cuts, vandalism and battery theft have forced MTN Group's South African arm to invest 1.5 billion rands ($84 million) to ensure its mobile network operates effectively. South African state electricity utility Eskom is implementing the worst rolling blackouts on record as its ageing coal plants fail, leaving households and businesses in Africa's most advanced economy in the dark for up to 10 hours a day. The telecom industry in particular is having to crank up diesel generators to power its vast towers, roll out additional batteries and increase security to protect them from theft and vandalism, costs…
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Mar
12
2023
By The African Mirror
SA power cuts hurts SMME industry

SA power cuts hurts SMME industry

NEWS
THREE of South Africa's top four lenders have warned that hours of daily power cuts could hurt small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are considered the backbone of the nation's economy. SMEs in Africa's most industrialised nation represent more than 98% of its businesses and employ more than half of its workforce, according to a McKinsey study. Issues affecting this sector could in turn further hurt the gross domestic product, which shrank a greater-than-expected 1.3% in the final three months of last year. State-utility Eskom implements daily power cuts, called load-shedding, in stages with Stage 1 being the lowest. At…
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Feb
09
2023
By NQOBILE DLUDLA
SA energy crisis: high consumer prices loom

SA energy crisis: high consumer prices loom

NEWS
SOUTH African manufacturers and retailers of food and other essential products warned that consumers will face much higher prices unless the government urgently finds solutions to the power cuts that are crippling the economy. Food, consumer goods companies and retailers in South Africa are cranking up diesel generators and spending more on backup power supplies, adding to the pressure from soaring costs for raw materials, transportation and packaging. South African businesses and households are spending between six and ten hours a day without electricity as state-owned utility Eskom implements some of the harshest blackouts in living memory owing to breakdowns…
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Feb
01
2023
By The African Mirror
South Africa’s ANC wants to use disaster rules to ease power crisis

South Africa’s ANC wants to use disaster rules to ease power crisis

NEWS
CARIEN DUPLESSIS SOUTH Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) wants to employ disaster management legislation that was used to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic to help end crippling power cuts, a top party official said. Struggling state utility Eskom has implemented power cuts every day this year, after a record number of days with outages last year. On Tuesday, it will ramp up power cuts to the highest level on record. "Our response to COVID was scientifically driven. Our response to dealing with load-shedding must be scientifically driven," ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula told reporters, using a term for power cuts. "The…
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Jan
27
2023
By The African Mirror
South Africa’s power cuts leave fruit farmers in despair

South Africa’s power cuts leave fruit farmers in despair

NEWS
WENDELL ROELF and KOPANO GUMBI ON the cusp of harvesting this season's first fruit, South African deciduous farmer Heinie du Toit frets as the worst power cuts on record threaten to take the shine off his apple and pear crop destined for foreign markets. Situated in Ceres, one of the country's major fruit-growing regions around 120km (75 miles) northeast of Cape Town, the century-old family farm "Remhoogte" needs a steady electricity supply for an automated irrigation pump network that sprays thousands of trees heavy with fruit. Too little water during the irrigation peak, from the end of November to mid-March,…
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Jul
06
2022
By The African Mirror
South African unions accept Eskom wage offer as power cuts bite

South African unions accept Eskom wage offer as power cuts bite

NEWS
BHARGAV ACHARYA and NELLIE PEYTON SOUTH Africa's state-owned utility Eskom and workers' unions signed a wage deal on Tuesday, paving way for a possible resolution to its worst power cuts in two years. Struggling Eskom and its three recognised labour unions signed the agreement for a 7% salary increase a week after Eskom started implementing prolonged power cuts, blaming them on striking workers hampering efforts to bring malfunctioning power units back online. Eskom said power supplies would still take time to recover and urged its staff to return to work to begin the process. "As a result of the strike,…
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