Day: July 26, 2022

Over R 7 billion investment on the horizon as Premier Maape engages with Harmony Gold on its North West operations

North West Premier, Kaobitsa Bushy Maape has lauded Harmony Gold for its forthcoming investment in its Klerksdorp operations in the City of Matlosana Local Municipality. Premier Maape said the investment will preserve much needed jobs in the province. The engagement with Harmony Gold by Premier Maape forms part of ongoing efforts by provincial government to build partnerships towards growing the economy and creating an enabling environment for job creation.

“The unemployment rate in our province is standing at around thirty five percent and this situation is unsustainable. Hence our drive to engage with different stakeholders to see how best we can deal with these challenges and in particular bring these numbers down. Our engagements with the private sector are encouraging because investment is continuing and this will assist us in dealing with the scourge of poverty and unemployment confronting our province” Premier Maape said.

The management of the mine has indicated that a total over seven billion rand will be spent on two capital projects.

These include Zaaiplats which is an extension of the existing Moab-Khotsong operation which will see the lifespan of the mine extended by a further eighteen years, preserving over six thousand jobs. The Kareerand expansion project will increase the lifespan of mine waste solutions by sixteen years creating various socio-economic opportunities for locals. Chief Operating Officer Beyers Nel said the company has over the years spent over five hundred million on Black-Owned Entities.

“Responsible stewardship is our first strategic pillar at Harmony. Through our collaborative efforts with government, we can truly demonstrate what it means to be a good corporate citizen, addressing the many socio-economic problems confronting our host communities” said Nel.

The company has also committed to help government deal with the challenges of unemployment and poverty in the province through various Social and Labour Plans as well as Corporate Social Investment initiatives. Ends

Source: Government of South Africa

GQEBERHA - Swift response to information received resulted in the arrest of a 24-year-old Despatch man and the confiscation of illegal drugs worth R20 000-00.

It is alleged that last night, 25 July 2022, at about 23:20, SAPS Despatch police members responded to information about drugs at a residence in Khozi Street, Kayamnandi. The owner was requested to open the gate and after some delay, members heard a commotion in the backyard. They immediately climbed over the gate and caught the owner throwing dagga and bags containing cash into a 25 litre and he was immediately arrested. The premises was searched and 153 plastic bags containing dagga, several plastic bags containing tik, mandrax tablets, tik pipes, cash and a toy gun were seized.

The suspect is due to appear in the Kariega magistrates’ court on Wednesday, 27 July 2022 on a charge of dealing in drugs.

Source: South African Police Service

Swellendam Railton projects unlock economic opportunities for local SMME’s and job market

Construction at the Swellendam Railton Housing Development project commenced in September 2021 and the local community is reaping the economic benefits. To date, 60 job opportunities have been created at this project, with 44 of these being women and youth. The local Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME’s) have been promoted, as four (4) companies have been appointed to provide security and construction services.

This development forms part of the Integrated Residential Development Programme (IRDP) and has a budget allocation of just over R 76 million. During the first phase of construction, the project will deliver 965 serviced sites and is expected to be concluded by the end of February 2023.

Minister Simmers said: “This project has brought much needed hope and revived the local economy amidst a tough economic climate in this region. It is through such projects, that as the Western Cape Government we seek to rebuild our economy and provide our citizens with services. I welcome the advancements that the project has made in its first 10 months of operation.”

The project has already delivered over 450 serviced sites, upon completion of the project beneficiaries will be sourced from Swellendam and the surrounding farming areas.

Source: Government of South Africa

President Cyril Ramaphosa proudly congratulates Professor Tshilidzi Marwala on his new appointment as the Rector of the United Nations University.

In an announcement made by the United Nations yesterday, Prof Marwala’s appointment is with effect from March 2023 in Tokyo.

Prof Marwala is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg and the Deputy Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

The President describes this appointment as well deserved, referring to Prof Marwala as an accomplished intellectual, having obtained numerous academic qualifications from various universities nationally and internationally and having held various key roles in the global academic landscape for development.

The President expresses appreciation to Prof Marwala for his noble contribution to the country’s knowledge base and wishes him great success in his new role, where he is confident that Prof Marwala will fly the South African flag higher and further.

Source: Government of South Africa

Statement delivered by the Minister of Transport on the occasion of the Rail Reconstruction and Recovery Oversight in Cape Town on 26 July 2022

This morning we undertook an oversight inspection of the rail reconstruction and recovery on the central line. This is in line with the commitment we made in May that services in areas that fall under Phase 1 of the recovery plan will be operational by end of July 2022. Today we are back here to deliver on that promise. As of this morning we resumed services on the following lines:

• Cape Town to Langa and Pinelands

• Langa to Bellville via Sarepta

President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his 2020 State of the Nation Address committed to a key priority of fixing commuter rail, which is vital to the economy and to the quality of life of our people.

We have been hard at work to realise this commitment and today we demonstrate the progress we have made.

We identified the Central line in Cape Town and the Mabopane line in Tshwane as priority corridors which are essential for the recovery of commuter rail services. It was on this basis that we invested R1.4bn in each of these lines to provide a safe, reliable and affordable service.

On this oversight inspection we have noted good progress in restoring commuter rail services, rehabilitating and upgrading rail infrastructure. Today, we mark yet another milestone towards the full restoration of commuter rail services in the earmarked ten (10) corridors.

I am pleased with the progress made in recovering a number of lines on the Central Line.

This corridor was closed in 2019 due to theft and vandalism and the recovery work of the corridor was further hampered by illegal occupations on the rail network during the hard lockdown.

To achieve reconstruction and recovery, PRASA had to rebuild the infrastructure from the ground up. Vandalized and stolen electrical cables, perway, and railway clips have been replaced. This also includes the rehabilitation of 5 vandalized substations that power the network.

On each station, PRASA recovered vandalised platforms, station lighting, ablution facilities for commuters and the station building. I am pleased to learn that work is currently underway to refurbish the Bontheuwel and Lavistown stations.

To safeguard the rail infrastructure, we have increased the number of security personnel on the ground to improve safety of our commuters and staff. We remain confident that the integrated security plan will turn the tide against theft and vandalism.

We have already implemented the plan on the Mabopane and Saulsville lines and we will give it a national footprint.

This project has created more than 600 employment opportunities to date and PRASA has spent almost R500 million towards the recovery of this corridor. The work which has been done internally by PRASA employees and as well as different contractors include the following:

• Perway,

• Overhead traction electricity,

• 3 Stations (Bonteheuwel, Lavistown and Heideveld)

• Security

The PRASA Western Cape region currently has a total fleet of thirty (30) old train sets. This is complemented by the thirteen (13) new Isitimela Sabantu trains that are ready for service. There are currently two old train sets that are operational on the Central Line between Langa and Cape Town.

Today, we resume the service that runs between Bellville and Cape Town via Lavistown. The Central Line will have a total of three train sets.

The trains from Bellville to Langa will stop at the following stations:

• Bellville,

• Sarepta,

• Pentech,

• Unibel,

• Belhar,

• Lavistown and

• Langa.

It is anticipated that this line will transport approximately one thousand six hundred and fifty (1,650) commuters per peak train set.

The resumption of the service on the line is a major milestone considering the challenges experienced with the relocation of illegal settlements as well as constant criminal attacks on the infrastructure and security personnel.

The project to relocate illegal settlements, led by the Housing Development Agency (HDA), is at advanced stage. This has enabled us to fine-tune our strategy to resume the much-anticipated commuter rail services on the Central Line which involved cordoning off the informal settlements for the safe running of trains ahead of schedule. Through community and stakeholder engagement, I am pleased with the progress made in recovering train services.

HDA has identified land for the relocation of illegal settlements on the Langa rail reserve that can accommodate over 1700 households and estimates to relocate over 1245 households from Langa by 30 November 2022 at a cost of approximately R102 million.

Provision has also been made to relocate a few hundreds of households from Philippi rail reserve to allow PRASA to start recovery work on that section of the line.

In conclusion, the work to reconstruct the infrastructure destroyed by acts of theft and vandalism is gaining momentum and will enable us to recover commuter rail services within the time lines we had committed to. Our key stakeholders, which include organised labour and communities have played a critical role in ensuring that the rebuilding of commuter rail capacity moves with the requisite speed.

I thank you.

Source: Government of South Africa

President Ramaphosa welcomes the Serum Institute funding initiative for establishment of AU Health Workforce

President Cyril Ramaphosa has, in his capacity as AU COVID-19 Champion, welcomed the Serum Institute of India (SII) ground-breaking initiative to provide an initial USD 2,500,000 that will support the AU COVID-19 Commission as it implements the mandate to establish an AU Health Workforce Task Team which will undertake the programmatic work, public engagement and consensus building towards a fit-for-purpose health workforce that can sustain Universal Health Coverage in Africa.

The AU COVID-19 Commission supports President Ramaphosa in its role as COVID-19 Champion.

It partners with Africa CDC (which forms the technical arm of the Secretariat), Serum Institute of India and Seed Global Health to execute this mandate.

This comes as the partner organisations take stock of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and the need for sustained financing for health workforce development. The initial funds provided by the Serum Institute will galvanise investment into an African and global health workforce.

The SII announcement follows a meeting held on Tuesday 12 July to commemorate the first anniversary of the AU COVID-19 Commission, ahead of President Ramaphosa formally submitting a progress report to the 4th Mid- Year Coordinating Meeting between the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and the Regional Mechanism on 17 July 2022.

President Ramaphosa established the COVID-19 Commission in 2021 to strengthen the continental institutions established as part of the AU’s continental response to COVID-19. This includes the Africa Joint Continental Strategy on Africa’s COVID-19 Response, the African Medical Supplies Platform, the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) and others established during South Africa’s tenure as AU Chair in 2020.

President Ramaphosa seeks to align political, health and economic leaders with a long-term transformational plan to train and retain a complete health workforce in Africa through a compact amongst member states. He has secured a mandate to prioritise the health workforce agenda and maintain political attention on the issue.

The African Union Health Workforce Task Team (AU-HWTT) is an ambitious new initiative which aims to develop a comprehensive framework to build a full African healthcare workforce - in pursuit of economic recovery and global health security.

Health workforce development is a critical pillar of the AU’s New Public Health Order towards universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness and health security.

Data has shown that the social and financial returns on investing in the health workforce are estimated to be 9 to 1, and in some health areas such as midwifery, there is a 16-fold return for every dollar spent on training a new midwife. For countries or continents where the youth population make up over 50 per cent, the health workforce represents a pathway for job creation, economic recovery and social inclusion.

The AU COVID-19 Commission will oversee Africa CDC’s implementation of the initiative in partnership with Seed Global Health. It is anticipated that SII’s initial donation will act as a catalyst and “global rallying cry” for other investors, charities and governments to step forward and help build the systems needed to recover from COVID-19.

President Ramaphosa has welcomed this seed funding from Serum Institute of India, saying:

“I am pleased to see that Serum, as the producer of medical countermeasures, understands that it is the health workforce that delivers these lifesaving tools to the people. We welcome this contribution to kick start the continental health workforce initiative and call on businesses, donors and other investors to follow Serum’s example.”

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India said:

“We have a long history of providing healthcare support in Africa, including billions of affordable routine vaccines against diseases such as measles and polio, and the development of new vaccines to protect against meningitis and malaria.

“But the pandemic has taught us the need not only for life saving medicines but for the life-saving health workers to administer them.

“The AU Health Workforce Task Team, will mark the first step in the building of the African healthcare workforce of the future.

“We call on governments, charities and companies alike to step forward and contribute to this historic process and empower the experts at the African Union and Seed Global Health to make this lasting systemic change. This will not only help to ensure more people in Africa get vaccinated to finally end the acute phase of Covid-19 and prepare the continent for the health threats of tomorrow.”

Dr Ahmed E. Ogwell Ouma, Acting Director of Africa CDC has also welcomed this investment, adding:

"Africa CDC welcomes the support from the Serum Institute of India to support a key pillar of Africa's New Public Health Order. This is also in line with our vision of respectful and action-oriented partnerships."

Dr. Vanessa Kerry, CEO and founder of Seed Global Health, said:

“We are grateful to Serum Institute of India for their inspiring commitment which helps champion the necessary investments in the health workforce. Having worked alongside partners to help train over 36,000 health workers to meet patients’ needs, Seed has seen first-hand the damaging impact of not having enough health workers.

COVID has exponentially exacerbated the crisis. Governments have committed to vaccine donations but rarely to the essential human resource infrastructure needed to deliver them. The compact is ambitious–we should be too. It will require historic up-front investment as well as investments in Universal Health Coverage grounded in the principles of access, quality, and financial protection.”

Along the SII announcement, President Ramaphosa also announced the introduction to Africa of the oral therapeutic Paxlovid that can now be purchased by AU member states at cost price. Paxlovid is cheaper than other oral therapeutics, reduces death and hospitalisation by 89 per cent, is easy to administer, has few side effects and works against the Omicron variant.

This, coupled with increased vaccination, will significantly reduce the burden on Africa’s health systems that are being rebuilt to recover routine services and for future pandemic preparedness.

Notes to editors

The AU COVID-19 Commission

The AU COVID-19 Commission was established by H.E. President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa upon his appointment as AU COVID-19 Champion in 2021. The Commission is mandated to support the President in his role by guiding the core response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the continent and to propose ways towards strong socioeconomic recovery for the continent.

The Secretariat of the Commission comprises the Office of the Presidency in South Africa and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Since its inaugural meeting in June 2021, the COVID-19 Commission has secured a number of key mandates to maintain the momentum of the core COVID-19 response and to build future health resilience. These include committing to two hundred million tests on the continent, of which nearly 111 million tests have been completed through community testing, sentinel and wastewater surveillance.

Other key mandates secured by the COVID-19 Champion in the AU are:

• The establishment of the African Pandemic Preparedness and Response Authority, which will prepare and respond to future regional outbreaks.

• The conversion of the COVID-19 Relief Fund to the Africa Epidemic Fund and the replenishment of that fund for future pandemic preparedness.

• The Establishment of the Alliance on Health Systems Strengthening, which will pursue the determinations of the Abuja Declaration

Seed Global Health

Seed Global Health, led by Dr. Vanessa Kerry, works in partnership with governments and academic institutions to train health workers across countries on the African continent – to date, which includes over 36,000 healthcare professionals who serve catchments of more than seventy million people. As a social enterprise, we are united in the belief that quality, dignified healthcare can and should be accessible for all. We have seen first-hand how dedication, discipline, and long-term investments in the health workforce can improve health outcomes in any setting.

Serum Institute of India

Driven by the philanthropic philosophy of affordable vaccines, Serum Institute of India Pvt, Ltd. is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally (more than 1.5 billion doses), supplying the world's least expensive and WHO-accredited vaccines to as many as 170 countries.

It was founded in 1966 with the aim of manufacturing lifesaving immunobiological drugs including vaccines worldwide. With a strong commitment towards global health, the institute's objective has been proliferated by bringing down the prices of newer vaccines such as such as Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccines.

SII is credited with bringing world-class technology to India, through its state-of-the-art equipped multifunctional production facility in Manjari, Pune and government agencies to transform emergency medicine and critical care along with spearheading the race of vaccine development against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Serum Life Sciences Ltd is a subsidiary company of Serum Institute of India, with a global sales office in London to market COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Serum Institute of India

Source: Government of South Africa

Premier Winde cautiously welcomes President Ramaphosa’s “set of actions” to tackle the energy crisis, but the challenge remains the implementation of measures.

After a lengthy wait, President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has finally announced his government’s plan to tackle the long-running and damaging energy crisis.

The Premier said: “I cautiously welcome last night’s announcement, but it is long overdue and speedy implementation is now critical.”

“While we are certainly not out of the dark just yet, all interventions, rolled out efficiently and in an accountable manner, are needed to end this crisis,” he said.

Premier Winde is of the view that collaboration is key to addressing this crisis: “The Western Cape Government is willing to work with National Government, local government, Eskom and the private sector to help deliver on what is needed. We will also play our part by driving our province’s energy resilience.”

“Western Cape residents are indeed justifiably angry, after more than a decade of load shedding, so now is the time for action,” the Premier remarked.

Premier Winde welcomed the move to increase Eskom’s maintenance budget over the next several months, along with the acknowledgment of the importance of renewables, as well as completely removing the licensing threshold of 100 MW for embedded generation.

Eskom has identified land in Mpumalanga to accelerate the development of renewable energy operations. “We will also be approaching Eskom to see what land can be identified in the Western Cape, for the same purpose,” said Winde.

Winde continued: “It is currently not clear whether the proposed streamlining of legislation and regulations includes processes for municipal IPP procurement. This will need to be clarified. In the Western Cape, we are working closely with municipalities so that they can develop the capacity to procure directly from IPPs, through our Municipal Energy Resilience Programme, and so this is important.”

Commenting on the skills-gap that exists at Eskom, the Premier said: “I am pleased with the intention to bring back former employees to the utility to try to fill the skills shortfall.”

The Premier called on every former Eskom employee in the Western Cape to seriously consider going back to work at Eskom, for the sake of the country.

But Winde is alarmed at the ongoing crime affecting the power company. He said: “I am disturbed at the sabotage, corruption, and fraud at Eskom. Those responsible for these offences must be arrested and speedily prosecuted.”

Source: Government of South Africa