Day: July 7, 2022

GENEVA— The World Health Organization reported two new deaths from monkeypox since its previous disease update on June 27, bringing the total to three since the start of the year and said the disease had spread to new areas.

Cases have shot up 77 per cent since the last report to 6,027, the WHO said, with the bulk of them reported in the European region. However, all three deaths have been reported in Africa, the report showed.

The update also showed that over 99 per cent of the cases for which gender information was available were among men.

“The outbreak continues to primarily affect men who have sex with men who have reported recent sex with one or multiple male partners, suggesting no signal of sustained transmission beyond these networks for now,” it said.

The Geneva-based UN agency will reconvene a meeting of the committee that will advise on declaring the outbreak a global health emergency, the WHO’s highest level of alert, in the week beginning July 18 or sooner, its director-general said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is also due to meet with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday morning, a WHO spokesperson confirmed, without giving details. Spain has reported 802 cases so far, WHO data showed.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

The Western Cape Government is delivering for you, despite national load shedding.

The illegal industrial action at Eskom has ended with the signing of a pay increase deal, but the power utility has warned that the country will still have to endure varying stages of load shedding for weeks to come, to allow power generation to fully recover to pre-strike levels.

The Western Cape Government (WCG) would like to assure the province’s residents that its departments are doing everything they can to ensure that they continue to deliver, for you.

Our departments have taken the necessary measures to ensure their work is not affected as far as possible by the ongoing rolling power cuts, and in doing this, are still able to deliver quality services to our communities.

When stage 6 load shedding – the worst round of power cuts since December 2019 -was implemented late last month, the WCG’s risk mitigation processes kicked in.

With a strong team in place, we have managed to avoid severe disruptions to services, and remain vigilant to any further risks.

Our various departments have implemented strategies to ameliorate this prolonged crisis:

Department of Local Government, Environment Affairs and Development Planning:

The Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC) plays a key role in coordinating and supporting emergency measures, in the event load shedding is further escalated.

The centre remains on high alert and has been communicating with Eskom on a regular basis on changes to load shedding stages. It is also in close contact with municipalities across the province. Furthermore, the Provincial Electricity System Emergency Plan requires each department to set up Provincial Government Departmental Response Teams, which are in place. These teams are tasked with ensuring the continuity of operations in the event of a major emergency.

Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Minister, Anton Bredell, said: “The current uncertainty created by Eskom is taking its toll on all of us, and as a government, we are very much aware of this. I have written to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is responsible for disaster management on a national level, asking for a coordinated approach. Although Eskom is a national issue, it affects all people on a local level. The Western Cape Department of Local Government, through the Provincial Disaster Management Centre, is playing a strategic role to provide support to all municipalities in the province. In this way, we can identify problems relating to basic service delivery quickly and provide support, if needed.”

Department of Economic Development and Tourism:

The Western Cape’s Department of Economic Development has launched the Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) initiative to support municipality’s in becoming energy resilient.

Over the last financial year, as part of this project, significant work has been completed on unlocking municipal direct procurement of renewable energy from Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

To support this work, the Municipal Energy Resilience Fund was set up to fund 13 preparatory studies at 8 Western Cape municipalities. These studies include Electricity Master Plans, Energy Master Plans and Cost of Supply Studies, and are currently underway.

The City of Cape Town, in particular, is making great strides and has already gone out to tender for 300 MW of power.

The Department is also focused on enabling the private sector to take up renewable energy. In particular, significant time is being spent on the enablement of electricity wheeling on municipal grids, which enables private sector entities to transport power over the grid to another business or facility. The Department is also focused on driving the uptake of small-scaled embedded generation in the private sector. Currently 21 out of 24 municipalities allow small-scale renewable energy on the grid, and 20 have feed-in tariffs that allow households and businesses to be compensated for feeding excess energy back into the network.

Provincial Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities pointed out: “In almost every single engagement I have had, I have been told one thing: give us the power we need to run or expand our business.” The Minister added: “We however acknowledge that much more needs to be done right now, given the severity and escalation of the crisis, and so I have tasked our Department of Economic Development and Tourism with determining additional emergency intervention that can be considered immediately so that we buffer the impact.”

Department of Health and Wellness:

One of the most critical services delivered by the Western Cape Government are its health services.

The Western Cape Health and Wellness Department is prepared for load shedding.

Provincial hospitals have generators and many of our clinics are also equipped with generators or UPS systems. The department has also increased fuel levels to ensure generators can run during longer periods of load shedding. This is closely monitored through a fuel level dashboard.

Where a clinic does not have a generator, service delivery might be slower than usual as we will have to revert to a manual patient system.

Department of Education:

The department is doing its best to ensure that teaching and learning proceed when the power goes off. Schools have been taking steps to ensure that they have a more reliable power supply. Some of the measures implemented are:

• The department has received 41 applications from schools so far seeking approval for the installation of solar panels;

• Implementation of an LED lighting project, in partnership with the University of Stellenbosch, which replaces outdated fluorescent lights with more energy-efficient LED lights. This initiative has projected savings of 11 742kWh per year per school.

• During exam periods generators are used for computer-based practicals.

Provincial Education Minister David Maynier reiterated: “We will continue to do everything we can to support schools in managing the impact of load shedding, to ensure that no matter what stage the country finds itself in, quality education can continue in the Western Cape.”

Department of Transport and Public Works:

From an infrastructure perspective, over the past few years, the department has been proactively preparing for energy resilience by installing generators and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in some buildings owned by the WCG. In buildings where generators have been installed, service delivery downtime is limited to the time it takes for automatically activated generators to switch on. Buildings with solar panels use less grid electricity. Reducing power consumption in this way in WCG-owned buildings helps mitigate the severity of load shedding on all the province’s electricity users and reduces WCG running costs.

“From a mobility perspective,” said Mobility Minister Daylin Mitchell, “on the roads which fall under the department’s jurisdiction, Provincial Traffic Law Enforcement deployments are bolstered to keep traffic flowing when traffic lights are off due to load shedding.”

Department of Agriculture:

As part of the department’s sustainability initiatives, it has increased its energy resource efficiency by installing a photovoltaic (PV) battery storage and inverter system at its head office. More than 500 kilowatts per hour of locally manufactured lithium-ion batteries were installed in 2021, giving the building electricity straight from the batteries during power cuts. By doing this we can ensure that the services we provide to the agriculture sector are not disrupted by load shedding. Among these services is supporting numerous research projects, which are extended to and benefit the broader agriculture sector. These initiatives also reduce strain on the grid.

Minister Ivan Meyer emphasised: “Three critical input factors drive agriculture production costs: fertiliser, water, and energy. With the current load shedding, farmers are experiencing pressure. Some have already started investing in alternative and renewable energy.” He added: “During my recent meeting with the banking sector and organised agriculture, we went through the various financial products which the sector offers to farmers eager to invest in renewable energy. Agriculture is resilient. The sector will push forward and continue to support the economic recovery of the Western Cape.”

Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport:

The WCG’s cultural and sports initiatives should also not have to suffer at the hands of persistent load shedding. Affiliated museums throughout the province have implemented a variety of measures to remain operational. These include:

• Generators;

• Battery backup systems and

• Visitor booking options.

By way of an example is the Bartolomeu Dias Museum in Mossel Bay which ensures it keeps its aquarium operational by using backup generators to protect its aquatic life.

Heritage Western Cape Council (HWC) and Committees have adopted an online and virtual operational model system since Covid-19. Council and Committee members can therefore convene meetings unhindered to process heritage applications. But the HWC also revises its meetings around load shedding schedules or hosts in-person gatherings, where necessary, to keep its operations on track. The provincial archives are also still able to operate thanks to backup generators.

Unfortunately, some services at the province’s public libraries do face strain during load shedding.

In reassuring the public, Minister Anroux Marais said: “We will continue working closely with our various stakeholders to ensure that we keep on delivering services and support events. We are committed to finding innovative ways to ensure that our services continue and that we offer visitors to our province the opportunity to support the arts, culture, and sports through visiting museums and heritage sites, attending live performances, and participating in and attending live sporting events.”

The WCG is confident that with all these measures in place it can help shield the public – and our service delivery offering – from some of the inconveniences and disruptions that accompany load shedding. We are also confident that the interventions of our economics department will bolster the entire grid, enabling greater energy security throughout our province into the future, and we will continue to focus relentlessly on this imperative. We know that load shedding is tough for residents and businesses, and we are therefore doing all that we can to ensure that in our province, service delivery remain strong, for you.

Source: Government of South Africa

African and European researchers are meeting in France to give fresh impetus to Africa’s ambitious Great Green Wall project, intended to fight climate change and support communities across the Sahel region. Much of the area is plagued by conflict and hunger, but scientists are looking at new ways to move ahead.

It’s been slow-going building Africa’s so-called Great Green Wall of trees and bushes intended to stretch nearly 8,000 kilometers from Mauritania in the west to tiny Djibouti in the east. Fifteen years into the project set to be complete in 2030, only a fraction of the reforestation has been realized. Eight of the 11 countries involved are grappling with unrest. Funding hasn’t matched the development challenge.

Still, environment professor Aliou Guissé points to tangible successes. In the Sahel area of his native Senegal, reforested areas are gaining ground. He said they’re home to larger and more diverse populations of animals, birds and insects than areas where trees haven’t been planted. Scientists are finding health and other benefits of local plants like desert date palms, which are valued by communities, might be commercialized and generate revenue.

Guissé is co-director of the Tessekere Observatory in northern Senegal, which seeks a holistic approach to Green Wall development spanning areas like health, agriculture, the economy — and of course, the environment.

He and other experts meeting this week in the western French city of Poitiers want to widen their collaboration, currently happening in Burkina Faso and Senegal, to include researchers from other Sahel countries like Niger, Chad and possibly Mali. Despite unrest in those countries, they say progress — like building baseline data — can happen.

The Tessekere Observatory’s other co-director, French anthropologist Gilles Boëtsch, said another goal is building partnerships between researchers and government agencies managing Green Wall development. The group is diving into new areas, like exploring the impact of animal-to-human-transmitted diseases, such as Ebola and COVID-19.

Boetsch says their research doesn’t just benefit Africa’s Sahel, but also countries like France — already facing the fallout of a warming and changing climate.

Source: Voice of America

NAIROBI— African airlines are expected to record a $4.1 billion loss this year on the back of expensive fuel that is eroding the gains made by a recovering business.

Africa Airlines Association (AFRAA) says expensive jet fuel and other expenses involved in running the airlines will weigh down on the profits.

Kenyan airlines have had to adjust their fares upward because of a sharp rise in the cost of fuel, which accounts for a significant portion of the expenses involved in running the aircraft.

The cost of jet fuel has hit a high of Ksh148 ($1.25) a litre from Ksh100 ($0.85) in January, piling pressure on airlines at a time when the demand for flying has remained low as the industry still recovers from the effects of Covid-19.

“Full-year revenue loss for African airlines for 2022 is estimated at $4.1bn, equivalent to 23.4 percent of the 2019 revenues,” said AFRAA.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) had earlier warned that rising jet fuel prices were likely to cause airfares to increase this year, as airlines grapple with higher operating costs.

“We have had to adjust our fares because of expensive fuel that has increased our operation cost,” said Jambojet chief executive officer Ndegwa Karanja.

Karanja, however, said the prices would be reviewed downwards in the coming days depending on the cost of fuel.

Safarilink chief executive officer Alex Avedi said the high cost of fuel has been passed on to the cost of tickets, making them pricier.

“There has been a significant rise in the cost of fuel since January and this has had an effect on the cost of tickets,” said Avedi.

The projected loss for this year, however, is lower than what was recorded last year, a pointer that the aviation industry is recovering from massive losses witnessed in the last two years as Covid-19 disrupted the sector.

In 2021, African airlines cumulatively lost $8.6 billion in revenues due to the impact of the pandemic, representing 49.8 of 2019 earnings.

The Intra-African passenger traffic recovery was estimated at 74 percent in May due to the easing of anti-covid-19 restrictions in several African countries.

A total of 27 states in the continent have eased travel restrictions by removing the requirement for testing on fully vaccinated passengers.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

South Africa to host an Extra-Ordinary Summit of the SADC Organ

The media are invited to apply for accreditation to an Extra-Ordinary Summit of the SADC Organ Troika to be held in Pretoria on Thursday, 21 July 2022.

South Africa is Chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (Organ Troika) for the period August 2021 – August 2022. Other members are Botswana and Namibia.

It is envisaged that the Extra-Ordinary Organ Troika Summit will be preceded by meetings of Senior Officials (16-17 July) and the Ministerial Committee of the Organ (19 July 2022).

All media interested in covering the Summit and related meetings are requested to submit the following details to Ms. Patience Mtshali, mtshalip@dirco.gov.za(link sends e-mail) before Thursday, 14 July 2022.

Full Names and Surname

Identity number/passport number (date of issue and date of expiry)

Name of Media House

Designation/Role

Email address

Source: Government of South Africa

WINBURG – Two people who hijacked a truck driver at gunpoint after he gave them a lift were arrested at Ventersburg and will appear soon in the Winburg Magistrate Court.

On 05 July 2022 at about 18:00, a 52-year-old truck driver from George was refilling the truck with diesel when a person who introduced himself as Denver Jacobs asked for a lift together with his assistant. They travelled together until they reached the vicinity of Jakkalsdrift district Winburg when one of the suspects wanted to relieve himself.

He alighted from the truck and when he came back, he allegedly pointed the truck driver with a gun. The truck driver was tied on the neck and instructed to jump off from the truck.

The two suspects drove off in the Volvo truck with a load full of wheat. The truck driver managed to untie himself and asked for a lift from an Ambulance driving towards Ventersburg SAPS where he reported the incident. A case of truck hijacking was registered and Welkom K9 Unit was activated together with other Police Stations nearby. SAPS members were on the lookout until the truck was traced and identified at about 20:00.

The two suspects aged 25 and 27 years old from Western Cape and Phomolong Hennenman were arrested for possession of suspected stolen truck. A gas pistol was found in their possession.

The case will be investigated by Welkom Vehicle Crime Investigation Unit.

Source: South African Police Service

POTCHEFSTROOM – A 22-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday, 6 July 2022, for the alleged murder of his two-year-old nephew Neo Refemetswe Tlhame whose lifeless body was found in a shallow grave at Extension 3, Blydeville outside Lichtenburg on Tuesday, 5 July 2022. The suspect was arrested after being questioned and linked with the case.

According to the information received, police were called by Neo’s mother after they spotted a suspicious grave near the river. The grave was dug out and the decomposed body of young Neo was identified with the clothes he was wearing on the day of his disappearance.

Neo went missing on Tuesday, 24 May 2022, while with his grandparents. However, Noe’s disappearance was established by his mother when she went to fetch him after work. Subsequent to the fruitless search by the community members and Neo’s family, a missing person enquiry was opened for investigation. The police also joined the search but Neo was never found. The suspect is expected to appear in the Lichtenburg Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 8 July 2022, for murder.

The Provincial Commissioner of North West, Lieutenant General Sello Kwena congratulated the Lichtenburg Detectives for the quick response that led to the arrest of the suspect. Lieutenant General Kwena said the police take crimes against children and women very serious and that this arrest proves that those who commit such crimes will not be allowed to walk free in the province.

Source: South African Police Service