The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
The University of Cape Town’s Energy Research Centre has published a report entitled “An assessment of new coal plants in South Africa’s electricity future: the cost, emissions, and supply security implications of the coal IPP programme”. Authors Ireland and Burton find that the two proposed coal-fired power stations which are …
A new multimillion-rand telescope in the Karoo will offer astronomers an unprecedented view of the stars. The MeerLICHT instrument in Sutherland will be specifically linked to the MeerKAT radio telescope array near Carnarvon in the Northern Cape. Unlike its bigger brother SALT (Southern African Large Telescope), the MeerLICHT is meant …
Southern Africa faces an energy crisis. Despite efforts to increase electricity generation, the region still struggles to meet rising demand. How can countries work together to develop a secure low-carbon energy infrastructure to meet increased demand and ensure universal energy access? This paper identifies how centralised and decentralised approaches might …
South Africa is set to commission its first solar powered desalination plant at the end of October 2018 in Witsand, Hessequa Municipality in the Western Cape. The project, initiated by Prof Erwin Schwella, Professor of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch and Tilburg Universities together with the municipality, is co-funded by the …
There has been a dramatic drop in the number of rhino poaching cases on privately owned game reserves in KwaZulu-Natal following an intensive de-horning project in the last three years. Chris Galliers‚ head of the Project Rhino anti-poaching umbrella group‚ says an analysis of poaching statistics shows that nearly 25% …
While the South African city of Cape Town drew international attention when it warned it could run out of water this year, an international charity focused on global water supplies says "slow burning" droughts have wreaked even worse devastation in other parts of Africa. Jonathan Farr leads work on water …
While the South African city of Cape Town drew international attention when it warned it could run out of water this year, an international charity focused on global water supplies says "slow burning" droughts have wreaked even worse devastation in other parts of Africa. Jonathan Farr leads work on water …
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has published the long-awaited Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill. The publishing paves the way for much stricter tobacco laws that will for the first time bring e-cigarettes into the regulatory fold. The bill was approved by Cabinet in April and published in …
California, Brazil and South Africa have all recently experienced major drought, threatening serious disruption to supplies for major cities ('Day Zero' events). How can England prepare for drought without harming the environment or driving up water charges? Dr. Matthew Ives and Mike Simpson of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute, discuss their …
The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture decided to ban agricultural imports from South Africa over the outbreak of deadly listeria bacteria in South African agricultural products, official MENA news agency reported Thursday. The Egyptian ministry's Central Administration for Agricultural Quarantine also banned issuing any import permits related to agricultural products from …
The Select Committee on Land and Mineral Resources has called for harsher consequences for mining companies who neglect workers’ health and safety. The committee said Sibanye-Stillwater mine should face the wrath of the law if it is found to have neglected measures to avert fatalities that occurred last week. “Although …
The doomsday scenario of Cape Town’s taps running dry has been averted this year, after its 4 million residents slashed their water consumption and supply was cut off to farmers, but the crisis confronting South Africa’s second-biggest city is far from over. The city’s six main dams are now on …
South African police clashed on Monday with residents in the township of Soweto who staged a protest after squatters tried to erect shacks in nearby fields — the latest of many flare-ups over the vexed issued of land distribution. The central province of Gauteng, which includes Soweto, has witnessed several …
Spanish multinational Abengoa will officially launch its third large-scale solar thermal plant in South Africa on May 18, near Pofadder in the Northern Cape. It is expected to have an impact on the local community and demonstrate the viability of renewable energy as a sustainable source of electricity. The parabolic …
Cape Town's dam levels remain very low at 20.9% on 7 May. But a closer look at the data gives the city's residents reasons to be optimistic for 2019. In the same week last year the dam levels were 22.4% only 1.5 percentage points higher than now. But a key …
MUMBAI: South Africa seems to be keen to take a leaf out of India's book in its bid to fight infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB). A team from the healthcare ministry of the province of Western Cape in South Africa will visit Dharavi for clues on Friday to understand how …
Health officials in South Africa say there are now more than 1,000 laboratory-confirmed listeriosis cases tied to the Enterprise Foods production facility at Polokwane with 55 of those cases reported after the tainted ready-to-eat processed meats were recalled on March 4. More than half of those cases occurred in Gauteng …
Two miners were killed and five others were still missing underground after an earthquake hit the Masakhane gold mine west of Johannesburg, the Sibanye-Stillwater company said on Thursday. Thirteen miners were initially trapped about 3km below the surface but rescuers managed to get several out, company spokesperson James Wellsted told …
South African gold producers have reached a settlement with lawyers representing thousands of miners who contracted fatal lung disease, in the country's largest-ever class action suit. Officials said the six mining companies involved agreed to the 5bn rand ($395m) settlement on Thursday, Reuters news agency reported. The lawsuit was filed …
New rules governing black ownership of South Africa’s mining industry will be completed “very soon,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a Japan-Africa trade forum in Johannesburg. “The mining charter will be finalized very soon and we have set a deadline,” Ramaphosa said, without giving details of the timing. Africa’s most-industrialized …
