Municipal Focus Volume 56

South African Municipal Magazine

www.municipalfocus.co.za

Volume 56

Leaders in Local Government Business Intelligence &

DIALE LODI

Chief Director: Integrated Development and Spatial Planning Gauteng CoGTA

ELECTORAL COMMISSION

By-election season begins

POLOKWANE

John Mpe Re-elected as City Mayor TECHNOLOGY

MUNICIPAL FINANCES

MUNICIPAL NEWS

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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

DIALE LODI: SPEAKS ON INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT AND SPACIAL PLANNING

PUBLISHER'S NOTE I’d like to welcome our readers to journey with us this year as we showcase the work, progresses and successes of government, highlight mutually beneficial public-private partnerships, and look at critical issues that affect the work of municipalities and the livelihood of the communities within them.

In this edition of Municipal Focus our cover story features the journey of Diale Losi, a man whose journey through life from a single parent upbringing has brought him into the urban and development planning space in Gauteng, as Chief Director Integrated Development and Spatial Planning at the Gauteng Dept of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and whose role is critical to bring about and ensure spatial integration and transformation in the province.

The interview with Cheryl Chetty, the recently appointed CEO of CIGFARO, reveals her sterling background in local government finance, her views on accountability and governance, and her passion to gear CIGFARO towards being the “professional body of choice” and to further build on the Institute’s relationships with SALGA, CoGTA, and the SETA's.

In the run-up to the by-elections that occur in wards where a councillor has resigned, is suspended or is deceased, Electoral Commission CEO Sy Mamabolo and Chairperson Glen Mashinini urge South African citizens to take up this opportunity to vote directly for the councillor they want to represent their ward i.e. to vote directly for the individual representative from a political party or an independent candidate.

Nardine Nelson Publisher & CEO Kweda Media & Communications

As the President brought in the year messaging the nation on a turnaround, Saldanah Bay IDZ CEO, Kaashifah Beukes, speaks to Municipal Focus about their mission to foster responsible investment into the region by empowering local businesses and creating sustainable prosperity for all.

In Municipal News we look at the reelected Executive Mayor of Polokwane, John Mpe, who retains the reigns of the municipality, and whose aim it is to work on the city’s poor audit to bring it up to par with Capricorn DM, where as Mayor, the municipality achieved a clean audit opinion for the 2019/20 financial year from the Auditor-General.

In the Honourable President’s 2022 new year’s message he stated that government; “will dedicate all its energies to create work and fight hunger”, “build on the important progress that has been made in ending state capture and fighting corruption”, “continue to prevent corruption”, “and successfully work together to deal decisively with rising levels of violent crime-and with the sabotage of our economy.”

2022 is a year of recovery. A time to build.

Enjoy the read!

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Municipal Focus

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FOCUS

Leaders in Local Government Business Intelligence &

WATER

MUNICIPALITIES

ELECTIONS

INFRASTRUCTURE

LOCAL

GOVERNMENT

COVER FEATURE

10 DIALE LODI: SPEAKS ON INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT AND SPACIAL PLANNING FEATURES

16 CIGFARO: Interview with Cheryl Reddy 20 Africa Beyond 4IR 24 By-Election Season Begins 28 City of Joburg 32 Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone 36 Huawei CLOUD: The Six Public Sector Trends For 2022 40 CSIR - A Circular Economy

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WATER

MUNICIPALITIES

ELECTIONS

INFRASTRUCTURE

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GOVERNMENT

44 Trade and Investment Kwazulu-Natal 48 Mianzo Asset Management FEATURES 52 Altron: Improving customer experiences with more effective applications

54 Amadlelo Agri - Sharemilking provides pathway for rural communities 58 The Innovation Hub: New Class of Entrepreneurs 62 Deregulation and Technology will Fulfil South Africa's Power Needs 66 NFMW - A Trusted Custodian

MUNICIPAL NEWS

68 Kimberly 70 Polokwane Municipality 72 Steve Tshwete Municipality 74 Knysna Municipality

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South African Municipal Magazine

www.municipalfocus.co.za

Volume 56

Leaders in Local Government Business Intelligence &

DIALE LODI

Chief Director: Integrated Development and Spatial Planning Gauteng CoGTA

ELECTORAL COMMISSION

By-election season begins

POLOKWANE

John Mpe Re-elected as City Mayor TECHNOLOGY

MUNICIPAL FINANCES

MUNICIPAL NEWS

ON THE COVER

DIALE LODI

Speaks on the importance and benefits of spacial planning Photo by: phathu@thephotographichouse.co.za

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All editorial, business and production correspondence should be addressed to Municipal Focus, PO Box 12454 Plumstead 7800. Manuscripts, illustrations and other material must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. No responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited material. The editor reserves the right to amend and to alter copy and visual material as deemed necessary. Copyright by Kweda Media & Communications. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any form or any means without prior permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed in Municipal Focus are not necessarily those of the publishers.

EXECUTIVE MAYOR CITY OF JOBURG

INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT AND SPATIAL PLANNING

Diale believes that Urban Planning is a calling that is deeply rooted on contributing to the improvement of the quality of lives of disadvantaged communities.

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Municipal Focus

DIALE LODI Chief Director: Integrated Development and Spatial Planning, Gauteng Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

D

iale has over 20 years experience in the urban and development planning profession. As a qualified Urban and Regional Planner, Diale works in the areas of Spatial and Collaborative Planning and Governance, Land Use Management and Planning, Geographic Information Systems, Urban Development and Management, Urban Policy Development and Implementation, Integrated Development Planning and Intergovernmental Planning.

Coming from a disadvantaged background, where he was raised by a single parent, his mother, who worked as a domestic worker, Diale became the first to graduate from a University in his family. Diale went further to become one of the first black students to obtain a degree in Town and Regional Planning at the University of Pretoria. In addition,

Diale was the first black person to lecture at the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Pretoria. His motivation to study Town and Regional Planning stems from a desire and a vision to improve the quality of lives and living conditions of disadvantaged communities that Diale experienced first hand while he was growing up. Diale believes that Urban Planning is a calling that is deeply rooted on contributing to the improvement of the quality of lives of disadvantaged communities. He says, "The way we plan and design places where our communities live, the spatial location of these communities, the facilities that exists in these communities, contributes a lot to the opportunities that young kids, and women can access in order to lead and successfully pursue their dreams". The diagram (Fig 1) illustrates how the apartheid spatial planning pattern operated in order to separate development by race.

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INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT AND SPATIAL PLANNING planning and intergovernmental planning, urban management and spatial planning. Nationally, he has worked in the Department of Cooperative Governance where he led the implementation of the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) and subsequently formed part of the team leading the development and implementation of the District Development Model (DDM). As part of his career, Diale participated in programmes, conferences, and seminars across the country and globally, i.e. Germany, Italy, London, Ethiopia, Tanzania, The Netherlands, Russia, Morocco, Ecuador, etc.

FIGURE 1: The model Apartheid city, showing residential and industrial areas and central business districts (CBD), adapted from Davies (1981).

Diale started his career in the private sector, where he worked as an assistant town planner in the early 2000s. This is where he fell in love with integrated development planning, popularly known as IDPs. Shortly after, he proceeded to work in the development cooperation sector, after which he joined academia for four years. Since then, he has spent most of his career in the public sector, particularly in provincial and national government. Working in these diversified environments gives him the comparative advantage and agility to combine and use his academic skills, the skills he obtained from the private sector and public sector in order to lead and manage programmes successfully.

In provincial government, Diale worked in the Western Cape, briefly in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng where he held senior management positions in the areas of integrated development

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In his career he has collaborated with various partners such as the World Bank, the Swiss Development Cooperation, the United Nations, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the German Development Cooperation, the South African Planning Institute, and others. He strongly believes that there is value in partnering between government and various stakeholders especially those outside government. One of the key lessons that he has learnt from various

engagement with partners outside government, was their willingness and readiness to collaborate and partner.

This is perhaps against the popular narrative that the private sector does not want to work with government, it actually does, and is willing to do so. All that government often needs to do is reach out, be clear on what they need, and provide the necessary leadership and support in a way that is not bureaucratic.

One of the highlights of Diale’s career was the four years he spent as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria. As a first black lecturer at the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Pretoria, in his young age, he taught modules in Integrated Development Planning, Development Planning, Participatory Planning, Policy Development and more.

Currently Diale works as a Chief Director in the Gauteng Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs, where he leads Spatial Planning, Land Use Management, Integrated Development

Planning, Geographic Information Systems, and the implementation of the District Development Model in Gauteng.

Diale believes in the power and ability of urban/town planning through various tools at national, provincial and local spheres of government to guide integrated service delivery, integrated human settlements, reduce duplication and wastage of resources but also to created integrated and prosperous communities. While planning remains a scares skill, it is nonetheless a critical skill in the country and in Gauteng that needs to be recognized and afforded its rightful place. Urban planners have a multitude of skills that allows them to be agile, and engage with multidisciplinary teams in the built environment, the economic and social environment.

Urban planners are generally equipped with rare skills that enable them to have a holistic perspective and an integrative perspective on a number of development areas. Urban Planning is one of those rare disciplines that also teaches one critical thinking skills, analytical skills, and the ability to see interrelationships and connections between various issues.

As the Executive Manager responsible for the implementation of the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) at national COGTA, Diale dedicated a lot of effort in ensuring that national government provides the necessary leadership and guidance on how our National

Urban Policy, one of the best in the continent (adopted by cabinet in 2016), must be implemented.

One of the founding ethos of the IUDF is the important role of cities to improve the quality of lives of people. Cities are at the centre of the entire government system, if our cities do not function effectively, the implementation of the majority of our programmes may not succeed.

Cities are the engine of growth and development, especially the metropolitan municipalities. Every programme that government develops gets implemented within a city space and city spaces are where our communities live. It is where we all live.

During his tenure at national COGTA, Diale made a huge effort to strengthen the implementation of the IUDF in intermediate cities, popularly known as secondary cities, primarily because these cities are experiencing increased population growth and urbanization, which means focussed urban management programmes, support, tools are critical. Historically, a lot of effort has been spent on our large cities, i.e. metropolitan municipalities, which is indeed the correct focus but focusing only on these large cities at the expense of intermediate cities could have a negative impact in the long run. Some of the key programmes implemented during his tenure at national government on this programmes include the Intermediate Cities Support Programme and the Integrated Urban Development Grant.

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INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT AND SPATIAL PLANNING The GSDF provides a long term spatial vision of the province. When completed, the GSDF, has the power to guide and coordinate programmes and projects of provincial sector departments in order to ensure spatial integration and transformation, which is a critical outcome that will address the legacy of spatial apartheid planning. The implementation of the GSDF is critical because it also ensures that government coordinates their projects and programmes in a manner that saves costs and ensures integration and focuses on targeted areas. In Gauteng, we are using the GSDF to guide where provincial sector departments must prioritize their programmes and projects in order to maximise impact, create spatial transformation and integration and unlock economic development.

These complementary interventions sought to ensure that, amongst others, intermediate cities develop long-term infrastructure plans, popularly known as the Capital Expenditure Frameworks (CEFs), with an overarching aim of inculcating a culture and ethos of long term planning in intermediate cities. Knowledge exchange programmes also became a critical feature of the work done with ICMs on the implementation of the IUDF, with the aim of unearthing good practises between the cities, underpinned by the ethos of building on what works as opposed to focusing mostly on problems and challenges. Some of the strategic partners that Diale worked with in this programme included the Swiss Development Cooperation, the German Development Cooperation, the World Bank, and ICLEI. During his departure from national COGTA, work was underway to mainstream Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to support the IUDF in intermediate cities.

The knowledge exchange platform that was created through the intermediate city support programme was special. Local intermediate cities

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were twinned with cities of a similar characteristic in Germany. Municipal officials were allowed to travel between two countries to exchange knowledge and share good practices with one another. Knowledge products were developed that could be used to reach a wider network of intermediate cities and allow them to learn from this exchange. This is another classical example of some of the successes that are possible through a partnership arrangement.

Diale leads a team that is currently working on the review of the Gauteng Spatial Development Framework (GSDF). This is a project that is critical in providing spatial direction in the Gauteng City Region. All provinces are required to develop, implement and review the Provincial Spatial Development Framework, herein referred to as the Gauteng Spatial Development Framework (GSDF) in terms of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, Act 16 of 2013. Amongst others, the GSDF aims to coordinate, integrate and align provincial plans with policies of national government, provincial government and municipalities.

As part of the process to review the GSDF, we work closely with local municipalities, parastatals, strategic national departments and other critical stakeholders. We anticipate that the reviewed GSDF will be concluded after June this year. As part of this process, communities and organizations in the province will be afforded an opportunity to provide comments to the draft reviewed GSDF before it is adopted by our provincial cabinet.

The other important provincial government programme that Diale is currently leading is the District Development Model (DDM). The DDM was introduced by the President in his Budget Speech of 2019. It was further adopted by Cabinet in August 2019 and Gauteng adopted the DDM in June 2020.

While working at national DCOG, Diale got the rare opportunity to work closely on the conceptualization, piloting, and the early stages of the roll out of this programme. As part of this core team he was instrumental in mobilizing the participation of the United Nations in the DDM in the three pilot sites. While it is still in its infancy, if implemented according to its noble intentions, the DDM has great potential to improve how the entire system of government works.

"Working in the public sector for over 10 years has granted me many opportunities to lead, manage and contribute to programmes, policies and projects that are set to improve the lives of people."

The DDM carries forward previous government programmes, policies and plans such as the IUDF, municipal IDPs and others. It amplifies and fast tracks their intent and impact. The DDM is premised on the ethos of a whole of government approach, which is founded on the principle of cooperative governance and joined-up governance that is in-turn embedded in the Constitution of South Africa, building a social compact emphasized in the IUDF and the whole of society approach which is also emphasized in the IUDF. The distinguishing feature of the DDM is long term planning expressed through the One Plans, wherein all 52 district spaces develop these One Plans. The other critical feature of the DDM is the emphasis on spatial referencing and budgeting with the overall intention of ensuring that all spheres of government locate their projects in spaces where they are implemented and these projects are also costed and communicated with communities.

In Gauteng, intergovernmental teams have been set up to lead and guide the development of the DDM One Plans in all five regions. These One Plans were prepared through a collaborative process that is guided by six pillars focusing on people development, economic repositioning, integrated service provisioning, spatial

restructuring and environmental sustainability, infrastructure engineering and governance. In addition, we have embarked on a process to spatially reference all the sector departmental projects that are currently being implemented in each of the five regions. We are introducing a dashboard, through a Geographic Information System in order to track the implementation of these projects.

We have also started a process to mobilize strategic partners in the development cooperation sector, and research institutions and community development organizations to support the implementation of the DDM in the province.

As a relatively young senior manager who has worked in the public sector for over 10 years, I have learnt that there are senior managers in government who are dedicated, committed and determined to ensure that government programmes succeed. I have met and worked with such inspirational managers. The challenges are that one hardly gets to hear about the great work that they are doing and their amazing work ethic. Similarly, I have had a great privilege to work with Ministers who are diligent, committed and eager to get things done and improve the quality of lives of our people. These experiences and encounters, have left a positive impact in my life and career.

On the other hand, I have learnt that sometimes government does tend to lack the understanding of the importance of the resources that are often required to get programmes and projects off the ground. Over time, I have learnt that, while dedication will be given to conceptualizing programmes and projects, the same level of dedication diminishes when resources must be dedicated to the implementation of these programmes.

Lastly, there is also often a challenge in sustaining programmes, in other words, the majority of programmes that government often introduces change too soon, before real impact and proper implementation can be measured.

It is certain that urban planning and urban planners have a critical role to play in the development of South Africa, that this is a profession that needs to be more and better recognized., and that Government has over time introduced legislation, policies, programmes and plans that have the ability to ensure integrated and sustainable delivery of services.

In order for these to succeed it is critical to sustain the implementation trajectory, form partnerships with the private sector, and boost the capacity of the government by attracting and retaining best skills available in the market.

Municipal Focus

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CIGFARO

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INTERVIEW WITH CHERYL REDDY – CIGFARO PRESIDENT 1. Brief introduction of yourself?

The Chartered Institute of Government Finance, Audit and Risk Officers (CIGFARO) is recognised by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) as a professional body furthering the interests and best practices regarding financial management in the public sector. CIGFARO seeks to further the interests of the public sector in the financial, internal audit, and related monitoring and management professions by advising institutions, commissions and other bodies and persons.

They advise within the national and provincial government spheres, as well as at related institutions and other recognised national associations, on matters affecting the public sector and the financial viability and sustainability.

During 2018-2021 I was Vice President Technical of CIGFARO and have served on the Board since 2012.

Previously, I was the KZN Chair of CIGFARO from October 2012 to October 2014.

I am the Deputy Municipal Manager: Finance Services (Chief Financial Officer) at King Cetshwayo District Municipality. I have been the CFO since April 2011. In addition, I have acted as Municipal Manager for King Cetshwayo DM when the Municipal Manager post was vacant.

I have over 19 years’ experience in local government finance, of which over 12 years was at a Senior Manager level covering the following sections: Revenue, Expenditure and Assets, SCM, Budgets and Reporting, Annual Financial Statements, and investments. Prior to joining Local Government, I worked in Private Sector Finance.

I have a passion for education and find myself constantly wanting to expand my knowledge. I am currently studying towards my Doctorate in Business Leadership. I have completed the CPMD programme with WITS University.

2. What it meant to be elected the President of CIGFARO? The past Board have done a sterling job and we certainly would want to do the same and leave a legacy for the generations that follow.

The Board has started its journey with great zest and enthusiasm, meeting immediately after our annual conference. The plan for the year has been concretized at the recent strategic session that was held early in January 2022. Ours as the new Board is to continue with the baton that has been handed to us but in saying that the strategy and approach may differ as we would like to ensure that CIGFARO is prepared for any “New Normal”.

3. What changes would you like to implement in your term of office?

The passion to be the professional body of choice is high on the agenda and receiving much attention and thus continued engagement with SALGA, National Treasury and the SETA’s.

In addition, the engagements with Tertiary Intuitions are also ongoing and CIGFARO continues to share many platforms to engage on topics of mutual interest. New CFO’s will also

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CIGFARO be appointed when contracts end, and we would want to position ourselves as the institute that can assist COGTA and SALGA with orientation of newly appointed CFO’s and MM’s.

4. Are there any strategies CIGFARO has in place to promote accountability and good governance?

Ethical behaviour and leadership is key for CIGFARO as our members must be seen to be accountable to our code of conduct and we need to take a firm stand when it comes to consequence management however a due process must be followed.

In addition, we must continue to be the voice of CFO’s, Finance and Governance Officials as we should be having their best interest at hand and thus advice etc must be readily available to them. The commission of inquiries has negatively impacted on the image and reputation of the public sector finance official, as the question always asked was “what did you as the CFO do when you discovered this problem?”

5. What needs to be done in the broader sense to guarantee municipalities and other government departments are financially sustainable?

As our immediate past President – Mr Peet du Plessis alluded in one of his many interviews, Local government is in the exclusive position of being able to raise its own funds. This opportunity is not afforded, to the same extent, to provincial and national government levels – where the main income streams come from taxation and the raising of funds falls within the domain of a small number of departments.

To ensure sustainability, local government needs to ensure the level of services being delivered is balanced to the economic constraints being faced and the revenue potential for their area. Thus the standard operating procedures at municipalities must be very strict to ensure that checks and balances exist at every critical

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point of decision making. The billing of correct and accurate information is critical to ensure that the credibility of the municipality is maintained at all times, and this should assist with credit control and recovery of debts.

6. Key message to fellow colleagues?

As we commence our term as the new Board there are many obstacles that one may see, finances, service delivery challenges, COVID 19, etc, however we must remember the words of Nelson Mandela “Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.”

CONTACT DETAILS Physical Address: 28 Fortress Street Kempton Park, Johannesburg, 1620 Postal Address: PO Box 4003, Kempton Park, 1620 Telephone: +27 (11) 394 0879 Email: ceo@cigfaro.co.za Website: www.cigfaro.co.za Social Media: Twitter: @ cigfaro_editor Facebook: @ InstituteMunicipalFinanceOfficers Facebook: Chartered Institute of Government Finance, Audit and Risk Officers Instagram: CIGFARO LinkedIn: CIGFARO

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AB4IR’S DIGITAL HUB

AFRICA BEYOND 4IR A ccording to the Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Survey for the fourth quarter of 2020 released on February 202, South Africa’s unemployment rate increased by 1,7 percentage points to 32,5% in Q4:2020 compared to Q3:2020. Approximately 3,1 million (29,8%) out of 10,3 million young people aged 15-24 years were not in employment, education, or training (NEET). The overall NEET rate declined by 2,2 percentage points in Q4:2020 compared to Q4:2019.

Effectively South African youth aged 15-24 years and 25-34 years recorded the highest unemployment rates of 63,2% and 41,2% respectively. The unemployment rate among the black African (36,5%) population group remains higher than the national average and other population groups. Black African women, like the youth, are the most vulnerable with an unemployment rate of 38,5%.

These statistics reflect the impact of COVID-19 related lockdown restrictions and the junk status pronounced by the rating agencies on the eve and during the lockdown restrictions.

Overall, South Africa and its youth faces the following challenges: • • • •

•

Unemployment rate is increasing unabated year on year.

Lack of access to ICT resources for disadvantaged communities.

The growing gender and digital divide.

Clients demand for competitive pricing and quality goods and services.

Insufficient programs to convert income seekers to entrepreneurs that own sustainable business.

To address this challenges, nonprofit

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organisation AfricaBeyond4IR’s (AB4IR’s) Digital Hub will be hosting their second instalment of the Digital Youth Festival during June and overlapping into the first week of July 2022. In 2021 the event was hosted in three provinces, Gauteng, Limpopo, and Eastern Cape. The event has since grown in leaps and bound to include two more provinces taking the number of the provinces to be visited to and the provinces are now as follows: Gauteng, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Northwest, Free State.

Digital Youth Festival (DYF) is aimed at creating a platform for exposing South African youth from disadvantaged communities to digital creative industries opportunities? The COVID19 pandemic inevitably accelerated and forced the world into the digital space where 4IR (the fourth industrial revolution) took the center stage.

Whilst this could be viewed as further widening of the digital divide, it created an opportunity for AB4IR to create an enabling environment for the youth to explore and exploit benefits of the digital revolution. The inaugural festival in 2021 was hosted as a hybrid (physical and virtual) event in Gauteng Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces during the Youth month of June. The vision for the event has been and remains to offer host the event in all nine provinces. In the 2022/23 financial year we are growing the event from three provinces to five provinces with the help of partners and sponsors.

The objectives of the Digital Youth Festival are to:

CEO of AB4IR: Kelebegile Molopyane

• •

In 2021, the festival was a great success and it attracted over 7 000 participants. The festival is expected to be bigger and better in 2022 and it will discuss the following topics: • • • • • • •

•

Raise awareness of opportunities inherent in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and beyond Encourage youth to be innovative

Design thinking and Ideation Aviation opportunities Gaming and animation Future jobs and skills Funding opportunities Digital trends Entrepreneurial journey

The festival will offer the following elements: •

•

and participate in technological revolution and the digital economy Promote innovative entrepreneurship.

Encourage youth participation in the digital economy.

• • •

Exhibitions and technology demonstration Masterclasses Business pitching E-Sport tournament

AB4IR is a Digital Hub, located in Mabopane Odi Campus and is a collaboration between the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) and the Tshwane South Technical and Vocational Education and Training College and it empowers the youth in Mabopane, Hebron, Klipgat, Soshanguve and Garankuwa with a focus on technology, innovation and incubation. The facility provides services such as an incubation programme focusing on animation and gaming, as well as mentorship, networking and collaborative opportunities for entrepreneurs.

“Despite Africa being one of the fastest growing technology markets in the world, entrepreneurs’ participation in the gaming and animation technology sector remains considerably low. AB4IR aims to bridge the digital divide to empower communities through technology, innovation and incubation, As we empower the youth in the areas of technology, innovation, and business incubation, we understand how technology is a part of our daily lives and the fourth industrial revolution is upon us all. Our priority is to develop the youth and make sure that we empower them with future skills to take up space and ensure that they are included in the digital economy,” said Kelebegile Molopyane, CEO of AB4IR. The Digital Hub also hosts various events that are intended at empowering the youth and women and communities in Gauteng, amongst those programmes is the Drone Diva Programme, Women in Innovation Incubation and Technology Summit, Animation bootcamp and pitching session to ensure that the entrepreneurs businesses are accelerated to upsale and commercialise their technologies.

To learn more about AB4IR , kindly visit https://ab4ir.org/about-us/ 5454 Mangope Rd Mabopane Unit M Mabopane, 0190 Tel: 012 023 1761

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CELL C

WE OWE IT TO OUR CHILDREN TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IT’S ABOUT SOCIAL COHESION AND ECONOMIC INCLUSION he global pandemic has widely been touted as a disruption event catapulting the world into a digital future.

However, there will be no digital future for the majority of South Africans unless we build bridges – and fast.

For South Africa to reach its development potential, for millions of talented young people to become active participants in the new world, digital inclusion must be a priority.

Digital inclusion, at a high level, is where everyone has access to, and can use, information and communication technologies.

There is no way around it – connectivity enables communities to enjoy economic growth.

Opportunity shouldn’t be a dream; it should be a reality. Connectivity shouldn’t be a privilege. If anything, it explains why the UN issued a non-binding resolution in 2016 that said, “the same rights people have offline must also be protected online.”

Being connected, and having access to information, should be within the grasp of more people.

Access to knowledge and information should not be about class.

Digital access should be a leveller.

There’s work to be done and Cell C is ready to play its part. During the hard lockdowns schools closed and millions of children were sent home. As painful as it is to acknowledge, the children of wealthier parents were able to switch to online learning fairly easily. Indeed, it was an adjustment and came with various challenges, but by and large they had appropriate devices, were connected to the internet, and

interacted with teachers who also had the right devices connected to stable, fast internet.

Many more went home without devices, without fibre or stable mobile connections. Their schools and teachers did not have devices, or access to online resources, and were unable to beam education into the homes of equally talented children. This divide is unsustainable.

How, when the divide is so wide, do we tell our nation’s children, our future leaders, to have an opportunity mindset and to dream big? How do we convince them that the fourth industrial revolution offers unimaginable opportunities for young entrepreneurs?

This isn’t new. The #DataMustFall protests were borne from this frustration, and a broad sense that Wi-Fi is the preserve of the elite, a privilege for those that live in upmarket suburbs with access to public hotspots. R100 on data may seem like a small amount but if that data runs out before an assignment is submitted it could be catastrophic for a student working remotely.

Quality connectivity should be a given.

The only way the digital divide will be narrowed is by taking practical steps to facilitate more people connecting to the internet. This is why Cell C has been championing its Network Strategy to give its customers access to a quality, stable network at the best prices and value offers. Cell C contends that the network becomes invisible to the customer when there is quality connectivity. Then, the primary interest shifts to value offers and quality of service they receive. To achieve this, we are making good progress in decommissioning our physical radio access networks (RAN) to roam on partner networks.

This will see customers enjoy like-for-like quality connectivity, while benefiting from the best prices and value. Companies must think out of the box to develop innovative solutions that have the people of South Africa at heart.

Making access possible Finally, there needs to be access to the internet. Some of the biggest obstacles to broad connectivity have been a lack of area infrastructure, cost to the consumer, and contracts – which have tended to drive exclusion and are just not appropriate for price-sensitive customers such as irregular workers, grandmothers, single parents, or university students. Products need to provide an entry to the digital world for people who were previously excluded.

They should provide good speed, be priced fairly, and should not force users into long-term contracts if that will exclude them.

It is important to acknowledge that, in the effort to deliver reliable connectivity, a good broadband LTE service provides a reliable substitute for fixed connectivity such as fibre.

A remote worker or university student should not have to forego the ability to participate in meetings or interact with course material if there is no fixed infrastructure in that area, or if price excludes them. Home Connecta Flexi makes access to fast, reliable connectivity affordable without contracts.

To change our world, we need practical solutions to immense challenges.

Poverty, unemployment, and inequality won’t necessarily be solved by providing an internet connection. But the door will be opened, and behind that door lies education, information and resources.

- Simo Mkhize, Chief Commercial Officer at Cell C

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Municipal Focus

WE’RE READY TO

CHANGE YOUR WORLD. Cell C is equipped to meet the needs of Government through tailor-made, innovative solutions.

Our strategic partnerships enable us to offer cost-effective and flexible packages complemented by quality network coverage.

Don’t you think it’s time to choose a truly South African telecommunications partner that is genuinely committed to local suppliers and uplifting our community?

CHANGE YOUR WORLD

BY PARTNERING WITH CELL C.

EMAIL: government@cellc.co.za

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ELECTORAL COMMISSION

BY-ELECTION SEASON BEGINS While national, provincial and local government elections command, and correctly so, the highest attention from the nation, by-elections are held throughout the year. These elections are a confirmation that the fundamental values of the South African Constitution continue to hold fast, and democracy continues to thrive and prosper, says the Electoral Commission.

T

he fifth term of local government has begun in earnest for the next five years, ending on 1 November 2026. The balanced election outcome on political office has mounted considerable pressure on the functioning of local government ensuring that citizens are receiving local services expected from government. The work of local government in the next few years will either further enhance or diminish the trust in state institutions and those elected into their offices.

While the constitutionally prescribed national, provincial and local government elections (which take place at intervals of two years) command, and correctly so, the highest attention from the nation, by-elections are held throughout the year. Added to this are political party’s own internal elective processes which create an environment that in reality South Africa is perpetually in an election mode.

A by-election is an election that takes place in a ward in a municipality, between general municipal elections, because vacancies have occurred.

The vacancies occur on the death of a ward councillor; or the resignation of a ward councillor from a political party or municipal council; or the expulsion of a ward councillor from a party or the municipal council.

On average, the Electoral Commission of South Africa holds 150 by-elections each year. Since the 2021 Municipal Elections, held on November 1, 23 vacancies have occurred and byelections have been called for wards in KwaZulu-Natal, the North-West, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.

These by-elections are scheduled for February 2 and 23 respectively.

In terms of the law, once a vacancy occurs, the MEC for Local Government must, after consulting with the Commission, call and set a date for the by-election in a notice in the provincial Government Gazette.

While by-elections, by their very nature, are small, their importance, as an act of strengthening the South African democracy, cannot be reduced. Since 2000, when the first “wall to wall” municipal elections were held, the Commission has presided over approximately 4 000 by-elections.

Voters at the 2021 Municipal Elections

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ELECTORAL COMMISSION

“You have the power to decide on the quality of life you want for yourself and your community, and even future generations.

Voting is your chance to stand up for the issues you care about. This is your life: take the time to help decide what's best."

Electoral Commission Chief Electoral Officer: Sy Mamabolo

These elections are a confirmation that the fundamental values of the South African Constitution continue to hold fast and democracy continues to thrive and prosper.

According to Sy Mamabolo, the Electoral Commission’s Chief Electoral Officer, municipal elections and byelections are about consolidating local democracy. For the Commission, they are also about strengthening the process of modernising business processes and enhancing the institution’s ability to deliver efficiently managed, free and fair elections.

Mamabolo said it was important for citizens to vote in every election and by-election.

stand up for the issues you care about.

This is your life: take the time to help decide what's best. Voting – rather than just venting on social media or protesting – is the best way to make your voice heard and make a positive input on the issues that concern you.

“New technology and connectivity means that the current generation is probably the best informed and equipped to vote in South Africa's history. Social media and the internet are giving us access to information which previous generations of voters didn't have. You are becoming the experts ahead of your parents and grandparents. Use that expertise to make sure our country heads in the right direction.”

“You may take your right to vote and all other rights in our constitution for granted, but 28 years ago most of the people in our country were not allowed to vote. Many of them were arrested and jailed for demanding this most basic human right. Others were tortured and killed. Because of their sacrifice, today you can vote simply by presenting yourself at a voting station with your identity document during a registration event that puts you on the voters' roll for life, and lets you vote in every future general and by-election in your area.

Glen Mashinini, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, said each election is confirmation that South Africa is still flying high the banner of electoral integrity, excellence, as well as free and fair elections.

“You have the power to decide on the quality of life you want for yourself and your community, and even future generations. Voting is your chance to

•

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Mashinini said over the past 27 years, South Africa, a country grappling with social, economic and political challenges, has remained firmly rooted in constitutional democracy He said the country has successfully held:

• •

Five national and provincial elections Six municipal elections Approximately 4 000 by-elections

‘Our electoral democracy remains among the highest quality in the world and whose elections have been conducted in line with our Constitution and electoral laws.

We also see a country that is proud to have upheld the highest standards of best international electoral practice in full conformity with the norms and standards set by the United Nations, African Union, Southern African Development Community and other world election bodies,” Mashinini said.

BY-ELECTIONS UNDER COVID-19 There can be no doubt that the deadly COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on lives and economies in South Africa. Millions of lives and livelihoods, globally, have been adversely affected by it.

Electoral processes have not remained untouched.

South Africa, like many other countries, has taken serious measures to save lives and stop the spread of COVID-19.

In implementing these tough measures, government has not only sought to protect and defend the way its citizens live, but to ensure that the pillars of the country’s constitutional democracy remain unmoved by this dreaded disease.

Mashinini believes that it is a pleasing testament to the growing strength of the South African democracy that the country held successful municipal

elections in 2021 and will hold forthcoming by-elections.

“All of this is possible because we, as a nation, led by the government, have been united behind efforts to fight COVID-19. The pandemic has introduced much doubt in our lives.

We doubted many things, including, in the main, whether or not we would be able to return to life as we know it.

“In times of crisis of the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic requires a nation to show resilience. And this South Africans have, and continue to show.

These times also require bold and visionary leadership. And this is what the Commission has provided at a time when the country needed it.

“Our previous elections, by-elections and the registration processes were used to road test and implement COVID-19 safety measures. We are happy to report that these measures, informed and in line with national standards and protocols, will be in place for all future by-elections,” Mashinini said.

On by-election voting days, the following measures will continue to be in place.

• •

Masks must be worn by all at all times Social distancing of 1.5m will be enforced

•

Voters must sanitise their hands on entry and exit of the station.

These measures have been developed in line with global and local health protocols as well as drawing on the experience of other countries around the world and the African continent which have successfully conducted elections under COVID-19 conditions.

Mashinini said: “We have had the opportunity to test these in municipal by-elections and the more than 150 by-elections over the past year and are confident that, when adhered to, they provide effective protection for voters, election officials, party agents, observers and security officials.”

The Commission pleads with South

Africans to cooperate with election officials at the voting stations in this regard. New technology will ensure that voters will spend as little time as possible in the voting stations.

The 2021 municipal elections have provided a number of lessons for those in state institutions and, in particular, the Electoral Commission.

Fresh recommendations are aplenty to explore in the next few months as preparations for the next general election get under way. The national and provincial elections, expected in June 2024, will be a further test of the proficiency of the Electoral Commission, and must show improvements from the last such elections in 2019, and the 2021 municipal elections.

“We have had the opportunity to test these [COVID-19 protocols] in municipal by-elections and the more than 150 by-elections over the past year and are confident that, when adhered to, they provide effective protection for voters, election officials, party agents, observers and security officials.”

Electoral Commission Chairperson: Glen Mashinini

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CITY OF JOBURG

CITY OF JOBURG The Golden Start marks the exciting beginning of the current five-year term of Mayor Mpho Phalatse

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Executive Mayor: Dr Mpho Phalatse

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he City of Johannesburg is embarking on a new journey, a new start as it carves a path in a quest to fully become a world class African city.

After the Multi Party Government (MPG) which was put together and announced amid excitement in December, the coalition government under the leadership of Mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse plans to hit the ground running.

To guide its work, the city has what it calls a Golden Start which is a roadmap with timelines of what needs to be done to turn the city around. The goal is to make Johannesburg a better and safe place for citizens to live and business to thrive.

The Golden Start marks the exciting beginning of the current five-year term with a government that will bring about real change and restore hope and dignity to the lives of the people.

The Golden Start plan which is contained in a document outlines what the multiparty government refers to as a compelling agenda which speaks to an impactful and effective project of service delivery.

The recently launched Golden Start will address key areas that are broken and need urgent fixing but also aims to achieve other goals in order to get the basics right. Phalatse and her team have interventions which will go a long way to restore hope and confidence of the people of Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub.

These interventions form part of the multiparty government’s broader

commitments to the city’s residents, which have been formulated as the seven (7) Mayoral priorities.

The priorities aim to address issues that include poor roads, power outages, water outages and a degraded living environment.

An ambitious target has been set with the newly put together government aiming to see drastic changes in the next six months.

Before the end of June, if everything goes according to plan, residents of Johannesburg will at last get a City administration that properly responds to calls, queries and even disputes.

The new government has pledged to improve communications and public relations. Residents will no longer dread having to reach out to the municipality to report some or other failure.

The new government has stated that it has already introduced a new programme to reduce cable thefts significantly.

Cable thefts are a significant cause of power outages which has become a big problem in the City of Johannesburg.

Reducing cable theft will immediately reduce the number of regular and problematic power outages.

The new administration views the impact of power failures so seriously that in June, it will host an Energy Indaba which seeks to find solutions that will guarantee energy supply security.

This will be a significant drawing together of all those in the energy space who can contribute towards coming up with solutions which could work for the City of Johannesburg.

Those who will be invited will be a diverse congregation of role players, suppliers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and academics from the entire energy supply spectrum.

The idea is to free Johannesburg “from the curse of the Eskom monopoly,” and put the city on a path to explore with the possibilities of not solely relying on the country’s main power utility. Phalatse believes that where there is guaranteed certainty of energy supply, everybody wins.

She believes that the impact of power failure is not just the impact on households but it also poses a big risk on businesses which may easily collapse with much-needed jobs being lost in the process.

The new multipart government believes that for jobs to be created and for economic growth to happen, the city’s key role is the provision of services.

This would among other require input from all role players including the city’s employees who need to recommit themselves towards a customer centric service delivery value chain.

Among some of the key priorities is getting the streets in various CBDs much cleaner through the inclusion

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CITY OF JOBURG of mechanization in the street sweeping. The city plans to reintroduce the community-assisted clean-ups known as A Re Sebetseng and a clamp down on illegal dumping.

The Golden Start is a pathway to getting basics right and creating a business-friendly city, a safe & secure city, a caring and smart city which is well-run city and inclusive.

By the end of June, performance should be improved to ensure that it is delivering at 50% of its current capacity.

Beyond June, the plan is to push to ensure that this plant operates at its optimal levels so that potholes become a thing of the past.

The bus lanes taken over by minibus taxis and private cars will be reinstated for use by public transport as envisaged.

The buses themselves will be more reliable through the Bus Refurbishment Programme which will increase the economic life of the fleet. By then R20m would have been spent on the Bus Refurbishment Programme.

Among other exciting projects is the Community Based Substance Abuse Program in Davidsonville which will be fully operational in the next few months.

There will also be 39 clinics providing Covid-19 vaccinations with space at 11 clinics being expanded as part of delivering the experience of a caring City.

Before the end of this financial year, the city plans to produce a plan to implement an environmental awareness programme for schools and targeted communities.

Through a partnership with civil society and the Johannesburg council, 10 000 trees will be planted within 20 weeks.

The management team in the department of Community Development have already committed

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to intensifying their support to communities through a “7 – 11 boots on the ground” programme. In terms of this programme, the department will deploy officials from 7 to 11am every day to public libraries and parks near you.

This is part of the plan to ensure that the improvement in service delivery is visible and evident.

The maintenance of traffic lights repairs will become more effective and efficient using UPS re-cabling, which is relatively cost-effective. This will ensure that traffic is largely free-flowing and the time spent on the city’s roads especially during peak hours getting reduced.

The multiparty government agrees that the state of Joburg’s road infrastructure network has deteriorated over the years to such an extent that many are riddled with potholes. This matter has also been prioritised.

Commitment has also been made that building plans needed to be approved within 5 days instead of the current 30 days. Beyond June, the city will aim to reduce this period even further.

The city plans to improve on police visibility and within the next two months there will be more JMPD officers with an additional 500 personnel being deployed in business nodes.

In these areas residents should be able to see an officer every five minutes as the city pushed to address crime of any kind.

The revision of the City Safety Strategy will be initiated with the launch of an upgraded and an all-encompassing law enforcement programme known as Buya Mthetho.

The various City-owned agencies responsible for economic development will also be reviewed for performance.

The city also plans to host a Business Collaboration event around mid-May which will involve participants drawn from a number of sectors including tourism, financial and other services, manufacturing, and even unlikely sectors such as agriculture.

Within the next five months there will be an institutional review, organisational development and filling critical vacancies in the city.

There also a planned turnaround plans to improve the operations and performances of key entities such as Metrobus, Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC) and Joburg Developing Agency(JDA).

The Golden Start to the new five year term aims among other to fix the city which is broken in an effort to help it restore its lost shine.

SALDANHA BAY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ZONE

"Our mission to foster responsible investment into the Freeport starts with empowering people and businesses, creating sustainable prosperity, and developing a profitable business environment open for all" – CEO Ms Kaashifah Beukes

SBIDZ Access Complex building and SBIDZ greenfield land

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CREATING AN INCLUSIVE,

SUSTAINABLE AND GROWING FUTURE

F

rom its inception in 2013, the objective of the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone Licencing Company SOC Ltd (SBIDZ-LC) was to promote sustainable national economic growth by attracting foreign and domestic investment and technology within the greater Saldanha Bay area. Our vision is to be Africa’s premier maritime, energy, and logistics Freeport, offering a world-class integrated shipyard, engineering, fabrication, logistics, services Freeport environment to zone users and tenants.

Ms Kaashifah Beukes, CEO, SBIDZ

To achieve this, the SBIDZ-LC would need to be commercially viable, offering accessible infrastructure and facilities to open markets and create a conducive and collaborative business environment. And importantly, it would have to engage and support the local communities and businesses to enable them to reap the benefits of this environment.

SBIDZ-LC CEO Ms Kaashifah Beukes said, "Our mission to foster responsible investment into the Freeport starts with empowering people and businesses, creating sustainable prosperity, and developing a profitable business environment open for all. To overcome the historical and persistent social and economic underdevelopment of our economy, we have to develop the Freeport in

a way that is accessible to the local workforce, businesses small and big near and far and the global markets.

We do this together with our longstanding public sector partnerships, such as, with the Saldanha Bay Municipality (SBM), the Transnet National Port Authority (TNPA), the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the DTIC), the Western Cape Government, and the SETAs, to mention a few."

SBM Municipal Manager Heinrich Mettler said, "We recognise that existing poverty and unemployment cannot be corrected without economic growth. Therefore, an important part of our Integrated Development Plan (IDP) was to identify potential growth industries and put in place processes that would attract

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SALDANHA BAY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ZONE these industries." He added that the partnership between the SBM and SBIDZ is vital and is a priority in its Economic Recovery Plan.

Beukes added that the other critical “stakeholder group” are the decisionmakers within the maritime, energy, logistics and related engineering and services sectors. Before anything else, these leaders are primarily concerned with the sustainable growth of their businesses' income and profitability universes in a ramping up of regional competitiveness and climate change.

Therefore, the SBIDZ business purpose must be to offer an optimally managed, skilfully facilitated, worldclass business destination that

enables the Freeport and the Port of Saldanha to take its place alongside other, more established maritime and energy ports across the world.

It will achieve this by providing an operating environment for clients that emphasises the ease of doing business and the convenience of on-site access to private and government business support services, competitive facilities and infrastructure.

Addressing the increasing awareness and impacts of climate change, another important initiative is the start-up of the Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus. The world is changing and the development of technology, through research and tested applications, will be

Mr Heinrich Mettler, Municipal Manager, Saldanha Bay Municipality

the cornerstone of a relevant “just transition” to lower carbon-intensive manufacturing and shipping activities.

The Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus aims to facilitate such collaboration between business, academia, community and government which will intentionally advance the daily use of innovation and produce novel technologies and research for the marine and energy sectors. In doing so, Saldanha will become a leading catalyst for creating solutions to the most pressing challenges and enhance the global, sustainable competitiveness of industries within the region.

A recent example of this was the DroneTech Innovation Challenge to showcase innovative applications of drone technologies across industries.

After a round of submissions, ten businesses were selected to participate in the final pitching event.

The Freeport has also proactively engaged schools, through its High Schools' Development Programme, which seeks to galvanise and harness the intellectual capacities and imaginations of the young people and teachers of Saldanha Bay. Teachers within nine public schools recently completed a mathematics digital teaching and learning initiative in collaboration with the Universities of Stellenbosch and the Witwatersrand.

Map of SBIDZ Development Programmes

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Alongside this, the SBIDZ has engaged in several community-directed skills training and development initiatives to enable new economic and social possibilities for the majority

of working-class communities in Saldanha Bay. SBIDZ Executive Development Programmes Patrick Lakabane describes his work as "building local capabilities to maximise local beneficiation". The programme aims to enable and empower through a collaborative approach to upskilling with citizens and the effective use of local businesses within the development of the SBIDZ, in support of its economic development strategy.

The Smart Skills Centre will be one such programme to lay the foundation for 4IR relevant skills and training development with key partners from CHIETA and many more. The Smart Skills Centre will offer demand-led digital literacy and fluency skills solutions in the areas of robotics, internet of things, 3D printing, augmented and virtual reality and artificial intelligence through blended learning for the maritime and energy sectors. The Freeport has undertaken many skills development programmes over the last seven years, and recently celebrated the training of over one hundred candidates on programmes supported by Merseta, Chieta, and the LGseta.

Local enterprise development initiatives are advanced through our enterprise and contractor development strategies which are strengthened by the SME Co Lab Centre, which offers free shared office space to local SMEs, and the inclusive local Project Management Team approach which facilitated local

Signing of the MOU between CHIETA and SBIDZ L-R: Mr Ashvir Isseri, Executive Grants & Strategic Projects; Mr Yershen Pillay, CHIETA CEO; Ms. Kaashifah Beukes, CEO of the SBIDZ; and Mr Patrick Lakabane, Executive: Development Programmes, SBIDZ

contractor procurement of over 95% of our target contraction work packages since 2017.

A big milestone last year was the completion of the pre-feasibility study of a potential R3.5 billion new port infrastructure project for the marine transport and manufacturing sector.

Ultimately, in conjunction with the TNPA, it would enable us to offer a greater variety of services and a diversity of docking facilities. Beukes pointed out that their approach to catalysing investment towards these projects is to conceptualise them as a long-term partnership between government, its institutions, and the private sector.

Globally, the big milestone last year was the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference – referred to as COP26 – where it was acknowledged that climate change is a real threat to our survival. It also recognised that

Teachers from 9 schools in Saldanha Bay participating in the Schools Development Programme

the actual implementation of net-zero emissions remains a conflicted and complicated process. One significant development that emerged from COP26 was that France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States pledged R130 billion to South Africa to speed up the country's decarbonisation efforts. Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said that the R130 billion was linked to three government projects: Eskom's just energy transition, green hydrogen and locally produced electric vehicles (EV).

“The reliance on and use of fossil fuels will continue for many years,” said Beukes. “But we need to start planning now for a world that will embrace decarbonisation and an industry – maritime, energy, logistics and related engineering and services sectors – that will depend on and invest in those who have the foresight to adapt, grow and build a sustainable economy that is resilient and inclusive.”

SBIDZ is striving to achieve a future that delivers growth, sustainability, and inclusion. Our promise to the people and businesses of Saldanha Bay is the opportunity to encounter new possibilities for employment, acquire new skills, and engage meaningfully with new economic and human development possibilities. It provides tangible evidence of how, through collaboration, cooperation and partnerships, the government, business and civic society can transform the social and economic landscape of South Africa.

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HUAWEI CLOUD

THE SIX KEY PUBLIC SECTOR

CLOUD TRENDS FOR 2022

T

he public sector continues to face a combination of technological challenges which tests its resilience and ability to digitally transform.

In the face of a world that has been completely impacted by the pandemic, it has become imperative then to have new technological solutions which will positively impact the citizens, workforces and economies. This largely places innovation, agility, data and analytics including new methods of working at the doorstep of cloud technology.

Jay Zhou, Huawei CLOUD South Africa Managing Director

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According to Gartner, a research firm, today, the cloud underpins most new technological disruptions, including business, and has proven itself during times of uncertainty with its resiliency, scalability, flexibility and speed. The company states that hybrid, multi-cloud and edge environments are growing and setting the stage for new distributed cloud models.

In the past two years, cloud computing services have exploded as companies have gone virtual and many have embraced hybrid work environments.

This adaption to the global pandemic has seen a strong focus on the delivery of various digital transformation strategies. In 2022, it's expected that an upward trend of this growth and uptake will continue.

Jay Zhou, Huawei CLOUD South Africa Managing Director and Frank Shi, Business Development Manager, are of the view that the industry should brace itself for a shift from the deployment of cloud tools and platforms (team meetings) to allencompassing strategies focused on enterprise-wide cloud migration.

In this vein, the duo have shared a forecast of the top trends in public sector cloud for the year ahead. They strongly believe that among other pertinent factors, increasing the abilities and skills of entirely remote and hybrid work environments will

“With Huawei as the chosen platform for government cloud, public sector departments are expecting more and more from us, specifically to service the citizen service needs in the cloud.” stay in 2022, however there will be consistent innovation in cloud and data centre infrastructure. With this context in mind, it is essential to unpack several key points of how this will occur in 2022.

Hybrid cloud blurs the distinction between public and private clouds When businesses begun their cloud migration journey, they had two options. First was accessing pay-asyou-go public cloud solutions or going with tailored and flexible private cloud solutions. In more modern times, we see cloud conglomerates expanding their rollout of hybrid models that use a best of both worlds approach. Data that is required on hand can be kept on a certain provider while sensitive data can be stored on private services where it is closely monitored and accessed through proprietary applications.

According to Jay Zhou, Huawei CLOUD South Africa Managing Director, this may become more popular as companies use a multi-cloud strategy.

“With Huawei as the chosen platform for government cloud, public sector departments are expecting more and more from us, specifically to service the citizen service needs in the cloud.

The Huawei Public Cloud platform is an extension of the Sita Cloud platform and is able to meet the demand for commodity citizen services in a pay as you go model giving departments the ability and flexibility to move between two cloud platforms.”

The rise of cloud native A unique and key hallmark of the public cloud strategy, this means that enterprises no longer have to be tied down to long-term contracts where they rent servers for storage. According to Zhou, with serverless, pay-as-yougo means you can scale invisibly as an application or as the business requires it. “With the cloud service provider taking over the management, configurations and technicalities of the server, companies can rest assured that they're placing their data in the hands

of a capable and innovative partner like Huawei,” said Zhou.

Cloud evolves with exciting new use cases A leading university in the Western Cape required an existing application to be loaded onto the cloud for long term native retention. Zhou says Huawei was the only cloud provider which could accomplish this. “This was a strong case of how our services are uniquely created to solve problems.

The university had a large load of data that was continuously being processed. Creating a reliable link which could work effectively with the app and cloud was exciting for us. In 2022, there’ll be more cases like this, as the public sector adopts cloud in the main to work efficiently and in an agile manner,” said Zhou.

Another instance where use cases will pop up extensively, is in government organisations, says Langeveld. “The public sector is choosing Huawei

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HUAWEI CLOUD

There's no doubt that the public sector is focused on sovereignty.

This has led to working with cloud vendors to ring fence control, costs, transparency and compliance to build trust between citizens and the government.

CLOUD as their new home for business continuity also in a bid to counter the threat against the increase of cyber and ransomware threats. This results in better service delivery and availability of services: That means no more: “Sorry, we are offline Sir.”

improving electrical efficiency via clean energy is priority. Lastly, effective routine maintenance will help ensure that equipment continues to operate at its best.

A greener cloud leads to sustainability

With the Covid 19 pandemic drastically changing the face of how schools and offices function, this has placed pressure on the working world and education sector to stay ahead through new way of working. This has led to the adoption of learner management systems and office hubs, such as Huawei’s IdeaHub, a native hybrid LMS service. According to Shi, the IdeaHub platform enables workers and learners to communicate effectively as they work remotely, mirroring a state-of-the-art model in which anti-cheating during exam taking and efficient collaboration for employees can take place. Another partnership with a leading local black Moodle service provider that helps customers get their model solution cloud ready, migrates the solution to the Huawei CLOUD, and now integrates Moodle on Huawei CLOUD into leading capabilities. This is supplemented by their team of local content creators to meet the varying learning modalities today which has proven to be effective in today’s changed world.

At the Huawei Connect conference in Shenzhen, China, which also serves as the tech giant’s headquarters, guests were treated to the welcome news that data centres are going green.

What does this mean? Huawei CLOUD Business Development Manager Frank Shi explains that it’s not only a matter of resource saving, it’s understanding the precious carbon footprint that companies need to be cognisant of.

“Going into 2022, as Huawei we’re putting our communities first and ensuring that our data centres are fully integrated in being green friendly.

We want to have a legacy of trust and that begins with protecting our environment. Forecasts show that climate change will cost companies up to $1,6 trillion per year by 2025.”

Shi further outlines a four step process beginning with effective construction goals such as natural cooling systems, second is suitable cooling schemes encompassing implementing confined cold aisles, row-level air conditioners and heat pipes, which combine to use between 20-to-40% less energy than traditional schemes. In the third step,

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Collaboration gets a smarter look

become an undeniable concern which companies have to address in fast manner. They cite Snapt and Kemp, two companies they partnered with to provide cyber security services to VICIT which in turn enables a stable security system for the highest office in the land. “At Huawei we believe in this and have partnered with various industry leaders to hep respond to this changing threat. With our partners, we provide proof of value services that help you chart your way forward to deal with these threats,” concluded Zhou.

There's no doubt that the public sector is focused on sovereignty. This has led to working with cloud vendors to ring fence control, costs, transparency and compliance to build trust between citizens and the government. With trust at the centre, Zhou is of the viewpoint that Huawei CLOUD can play a pivotal role in building partnerships that will deliver public policy objectives.

Cloud sovereignty at the forefront

CONTACT US

Zhou and Shi stress that security has

Email: huaweicloudsa@huawei.com Website: www.huaweicloud.com

Together, we can build a capable, ethical & developmental South Africa.

Strengthen

Establish

• • • • • •

• • • • •

Service delivery Reputation & credibility Ethical practices Audit outcomes Risk identification & mitigation Management

A robust ethical approach Stronger stakeholder relationships Efficient & economic ways of working A competitive edge Full control through performance measurement

Ensure

Decrease

• •

• • •

Accountability Employees are highly skilled & competent professionals through up-skilling

Costs Wastage Complexity

Assisting Local Government and Municipalities to strengthen their Procurement & Supply Chains and help deliver better services to communities. Now is the time.

Email saenquiries@cips.org.za to find out more.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

CSIR LAUNCHES INITIAL FINDINGS ON THE OPPORTUNITIES OF A CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN SOUTH AFRICA The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched early findings: its ‘science, technology & innovation for a circular economy’ (STI4CE) project

T

he report highlights findings on what a more circular economy could mean for South Africa in terms of much-needed social, economic and environmental opportunities.

Releasing an introductory note and seven short think pieces, the CSIR aims to inform public and private sector responses on where immediate circular economy opportunities are achievable within the mining, agriculture and manufacturing sectors for human settlements and mobility, and crosscutting issues – energy and water.

South Africa has a very linear, resourceextractive-based economy, with large throughputs of resources, predominantly inland extraction and manufacturing of goods; export of resources for further international beneficiation; little resource ‘investment’ in local stocks; and even smaller resource returns into the economy.

This places the country at risk in terms of resource depletion or overexploitation, with the potential to directly disrupt the South African economy. At the same time, there is growing demand by industrialised countries to have access to finite resources.

The South African government recognises the benefits that a transition to a more circular economy

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As outlined in the White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation, “The circular economy is recognised as a new source of growth for South Africa, together with other gamechanging developments such as the fourth industrial revolution could provide the country. Speaking after the launch of the STI4CE Circular Economy Project on 23 November 2021, Dr Henry Roman, Director for Environmental Services and Technologies at the Department of

Science and Innovation said a circular economy would create economic opportunities as new services and business models emerge, transforming the relationship between producer and consumer, and products and their users.

As outlined in the White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation, “The circular economy is recognised as a new source of growth for South Africa, together with other gamechanging developments such as the fourth industrial revolution,” said Roman. The circular economy has largely been misinterpreted as a waste issue, often used interchangeably with waste recycling. “The circular economy is about so much more than waste management,” noted Prof. Linda

Godfrey, principal scientist at the CSIR, and manager of the STI4CE Project. “The circular economy is about sustainable resource management. It is about managing South Africa’s future development risks by understanding the availability of resources and keeping these resources circulating productively within the economy,” says Godfrey.

The circular economy has gathered international support, with countries recognising the importance of understanding national resource availability, scarcity and consumption.

“Access to resources is the foundation of every economy,” she says. But what does the circular economy mean for a relatively resource-rich country

The circular economy is about sustainable resource management. It is about managing South Africa’s future development risks by understanding the availability of resources and keeping these resources circulating productively within the economy such as South Africa, and do the circular economy ideals of the global north have relevance in a developing country? With its multisectoral expertise, the CSIR is well positioned to answer these questions through

science, technology and innovation.

“It is important for us to understand what the circular economy means for South Africa, and where our unique opportunities lie,” says Godfrey.

“It is also clear from our initial studies that the circular economy is not new to South Africa. There are a lot of activities already underway aligned with the principles of the circular economy. However, we have not yet achieved the scale required for meaningful impact,” continues Godfrey. “We must find ways to encourage and incentivise circular interventions to create a space for the demonstration and piloting of ideas, in order to fast-track their uptake in South Africa,” concludes Roman.

Municipal Focus

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CSIR LAUNCHES ROADMAP TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES THAT HINDER SMART SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

A ROADMAP TO UPSCALE TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION IN SOUTH AFRICAN HOMES AND COMMUNITIES HAS BEEN LAUNCHED The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) partnered with the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation (DHSWS) to come up with a Science Transformative and Innovation for Sustainable Settlements Roadmap. The roadmap was created to clarify obstacles that stand in the way of the development of smart settlements.

The roadmap identified several major challenges, namely a general lack of innovation updating and mainstreaming in the housing sector; a lack of investment in innovation; sector conservatism; and a less modernised approach to human settlements.

The Science, Technology, and Innovation for Sustainable Human Settlements Roadmap is a strategic transformation framework that lays the groundwork for planning, coordination, and decision-making in the Department of Human Settlements, Water, and Sanitation. These efforts are aimed at transforming human settlements into smart CSIR OFFICE: Tel: + 27 12 841 2911 Email: enquiries@csir.co.za Physical Address: Meiring Naudé Road, Brummeria, Pretoria, South Africa Postal Address: PO Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa

and sustainable ones, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and harnessing the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution.

This places the country at risk in terms of resource depletion or overexploitation, with the potential to directly disrupt the South African economy. At the same time, there is growing demand by industrialised countries to have access to finite resources.

The CSIR study shows that transitioning to a more circular economy has the potential to create value across all sectors of the economy – opportunities to decouple development from resource consumption and, in so doing, improve the local and global competitiveness of the South African manufacturing sector; improve food security through regenerative agriculture; create more sustainable, liveable cities; improve economic development through efficient mobility systems; and decouple economic development from the demands placed on our energy and water systems, which are already under considerable strain in South Africa.

TIKZN

KwaZulu-Natal contributed roughly 16.3% to the national gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, has the highest export propensity in the country, has the second highest level of industrialisation (as proxied by manufacturing output size) and boasts two industrial zones.

TRADE & INVESTMENT KWAZULU-NATAL POSITIONING KWAZULU-NATAL AS A PREMIER INVESTMENT DESTINATION

T

rade & Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN) is a South African outward trade and inward investment promotion agency, established to promote the province of KwaZuluNatal as an inward investment destination and to facilitate outward trade by assisting local companies

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to access international markets. The organisation identifies, develops and packages investment opportunities in KwaZulu-Natal; provides a professional service to all clientele; brands and markets KwaZulu-Natal as an investment destination; retains and expands trade and export activities and links opportunities to the

developmental needs of the KwaZulu-Natal community.

TIKZN came into being following the national government’s decision to delegate investment promotion to the provinces rather than retaining it as a national function as had previously been the case. Internationally, the

Department of Trade, Industry and Competition promotes the country, but TIKZN represents a seamless trade and inward investment promotion agency for KwaZulu-Natal. The agency hails the region as an investment destination and facilitates trade by assisting local companies to access international markets or bringing direct foreign investment to our shores. This means the investment promotion agency can speak as a single voice for KwaZulu-Natal, thus promote the province for individual domestic and international investors.

As a provincial investment promotion agency, TIKZN has facilitated more than R15 billion in new ventures since inception, bolstering job creation and economic growth and development.

TIKZN professionally identifies,

develops and packages KwaZuluNatal investment opportunities; brands and markets the province as an investment destination; retains and expands trade and export activities and links opportunities to community development needs.

Currently the country’s second-largest economy, KwaZulu-Natal contributed approx. 16.3% to the national gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, has the highest export propensity in the country, has the second highest level of industrialisation (as proxied by manufacturing output size) and boasts two industrial zones, namely the Dube Trade Port and Richard’s Bay Industrial Development Zone. The Dube Trade Port SEZ since its inception has attracted investment with a value of over R1.8 billion. The province is home to the King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) which is the third largest airport in the country and is home to the ports of Durban and Richards Bay which are important for export trade.

TIKZN has tailored training and employs a team of export specialists with international business experience and international business contacts to provide export training in the province, build capacity and assist with export planning. The Agency has assisted provincial exporters in accessing more than fifty new markets and enabled the participation of eight companies in the TPT Kaizen Program which commenced in September 2021, with all companies already

completing awareness sessions and operational assessments. The Agency also facilitated Export Marketing Plan Training for four Emerging Exporters and two Advanced Exporters during the period spanning September to December 2021. In assisting local exporters increase their access to market, TIKZN’s Export Promotion Unit plans and participates in numerous outward selling trade missions; jointly participates with KwaZulu-Natal companies at exhibitions; implements exporter trade programmes and disseminates information.

Currently around 65% of South Africa’s exports pass through KwaZulu-Natal via its two seaports in Durban and Richards Bay, via air through the King Shaka International Airport and Dube Trade Port and along its road network, most commonly the N3 between Durban and Gauteng. The agency has exposed specifically emerging and smaller companies to the potential for exporting, also recognising the larger ones which have their own marketing and export divisions and thus are not as dependent on TIKZN for assistance.

The ongoing COVID-19 induced global economic recession has brought into sharp focus the need for retaining support for domestic and international investments that had already been made into KwaZulu-Natal, also underpinned by the volatile domestic economic environment. Trade & Investment KwaZulu-Natal through

Municipal Focus

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TIKZN

its Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) Unit also assists municipalities, industry associations and businesses develop linkages and opportunities in a host of sectors including metal fabrication, chemicals and agroprocessing, tourism, infrastructure, business processing outsourcing and off-shoring (call centres). The Agency is also very instrumental in boosting the automotive cluster, information communication and technology (ICT), new innovations and research, development-led investments, and the energy sector, specifically where it develops skills and transfers new technology into the KwaZulu-Natal economy. In the past five years the BRE Unit has worked with municipalities and industry associations to implement appropriate interventions for companies in terms of their respective business development needs and business linkages.

KwaZulu-Natal is a significant role player in both manufacturing and transport and logistics sectors in South Africa. With two of Africa’s busiest ports and world-class road and rail infrastructure, KwaZulu-Natal enjoys the strategic comparative and competitive advantage of being a global gateway for trade into Southern Africa and to the world. Its strategic location and advanced industrial sector ensure a competitive edge for both local and foreign investors and unique advantages for local exports.

Inward investment into KwaZulu-

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Natal continues to emerge as a major contributor to South Africa’s growing economy and the favourable business environment has made the province a sound investment destination for investors from around the world.

The investment opportunities that exist in KwaZulu-Natal: The year 2008, saw TIKZN establishing a Gauteng office which currently has competent hardworking staff members who report directly to the CEO’s office. The Gauteng office is key to the Agency meeting its vision and it expands on the Agency’s mandate to promote inward investment, support export trade opportunities and link investor requirements to the provincial socio-economic needs. This means assisting inbound delegations, identifying leads, promoting KwaZuluNatal’s various competitive advantages and consulting with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) and other relevant government departments to raise the province’s profile when investment opportunities arise.

The Knowledge Management Unit (KMU) enhances TIKZN’s research and knowledge capabilities to effectively disseminate comprehensive business intelligence to stakeholders. The KMU incorporates information and research; sector intelligence development and projects and deals structuring. In striving to achieve its mandate and

attain key milestones, the agency has worked tirelessly to share knowledge in the region. The Agency continues to play a significant role in compiling publications like Emnothweni and Ezomnotho in collaboration with the provincial Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Department (so named after the May 2014 general elections); in policy advocacy; in the packaging of key projects; in establishing a resource centre for investors and stakeholders; in developing renewable energy maps for investment purposes; in establishing a green economy blog in line with global demands for information on environmentally friendly resources and activities and in enhancing information technology (IT) systems to ensure TIKZN efficiently handles its business. More importantly, the province was the first nationally to undertake an investment climate survey; develop an investment protocol and sign up for the provincial investment monitor.

KMU also improves the organisation’s effectiveness and efficiency via the provision of IT services. The KMU’s research initiatives are formal or informal, ranging from reading the newspapers to identify opportunities when announcements are made about government officials speaking to different industries, companies seeking new sourcing initiatives or wanting to use greener technology, to formally studying policy documents.

Partnerships in research is important to the KMU’s success. TIKZN works alongside municipalities, educational institutions and other provincial agencies to secure the relevant answers to a research question.

Projects are packaged by identifying focus areas, building on competitive advantages and also factoring-in the benefits for developing rural areas.

For instance, an opportunity evolved from the announcement that a motor manufacturer wants to build lighter vehicles, paving the way for proposed investments into fibre crop production for the door panels.

SECTORAL CONTRIBUTION TO SOUTH AFRICAN GDP

SECTORAL CONTRIBUTION TO KWAZULU-NATAL GDP

5,4 %

KWAZULU-NATAL - GROWING THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY When you buy local, you are helping unlock the agricultural potential of the province & encouraging trade with small businesses like the fresh produce corner shop owned by uCynthia - a young woman who’s growing her business and boosting local economy.

You are attracting investment to KwaZulu-Natal & helping people like Cynthia feed and educate her family while feeding her community, you’re helping create jobs and creating hope for small business owners who take pride in sourcing and supplying local goods.

www.tikzn.co.za/support-desk whatsapp 063 692 1634

WHEN YOU BUY LOCAL, YOU GROW LOCAL

2,7 %

MIANZO ASSET MANAGEMENT

SMMEs AND LOWINCOME INVESTORS TO BENEFIT FROM

MIANZO’S TRANSFORMATION DRIVE

F

rom its humble beginnings, Mianzo Asset Management (Mianzo) has within 12 years grown into one of the formidable black-owned asset managers holding their own against strong competition from established players.

Founded in 2010 by Luvo Tyandela, portfolio manager, who was subsequently joined by Thembeka Sobekwa, also a portfolio manager, Mianzo entered the asset management industry during a period the sector was relatively untransformed and overwhelmingly dominated by white-owned firms.

Since those days, there has been transformation that has taken place but change is yet to tilt the balance in favour of black firms. In spite of this reality, Mianzo is among a growing number of black companies that are operating in the sector.

The Cape Town-based company manages and invests about R12 billion on behalf of its clients, mainly institutional and retail investors.

In terms of size of assets under management, Mianzo is ranked in the top 15 out of 51 black-owned asset management firms that exist in South Africa today.

In 2009, there were only 14 blackowned asset managers that managed R91 billion.

However, the number of black asset managers has since grown to 51 in 2020, managing about R668 billion (about 9% of total industry assets), according to the 2020 BEE. conomics survey.

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From its inception, Mianzo has always been a company characterised by humility even though driven by hugely ambitious founding members.

Its name, ‘Mianzo’, means ‘new beginnings’ in Swahili and reflects its vision to create an investment business with the best people, state-of-the-art systems, and an enabling environment for its people to apply their minds when it came to investing.

Even though the company was established immediately in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, it was determined to build an environment where its staff thrives both professionally and personally.

Driven by this vision, the firm has evolved over its 12-year history to becoming a well-established asset manager with a wide client base and a diverse product offering.

Its team has expanded to 15 professionals with varying backgrounds and experience,

all of whom are from previously disadvantaged groups. Mianzo’s investment team has combined experience of over 80 years, with three of the four portfolio managers each having experience of over 20 years.

“The Financial Services Sector is very technical. It is important for us to play our part to transform this sector and empower the youth.

One way we do this is through skills transfer. Our graduates gain practical relevant experience and knowledge transfer in core investing activities from experiences investment professionals,” explains Tyandela.

The core team comprise of Tyandela, who is the head of the absolute return platform and Sobekwa, who was instrumental in setting up Mianzo’s platform and processes. As part of her responsibilities, she is managing some of Mianzo’s active equity portfolios and index-tracking funds.

The Cape Town-based company manages and invests about R12 billion on behalf of its clients, mainly institutional and retail investors.

Managing Director and Portfolio Manager: Luvo Tyandela

Municipal Focus

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MIANZO ASSET MANAGEMENT

There's no doubt that the public sector is focused on sovereignty.

This has led to working with cloud vendors to ring fence control, costs, transparency and compliance to build trust between citizens and the government.

Along the way, Mianzo has made key appointments that has given the business traction and scale. One of those appointments is Mark Lamohr, who joined the firm in 2013 as head of equities and the other is Mohamed Shafee Loonat, a seasoned portfolio manager, who joined Mianzo in 2018. Lamohr and Loonat previously worked with Tyandela at Abvest and Associates.

“Mianzo offers a unique investment philosophy that is based on our belief that superior investment performance is achieved by investing in companies that are priced below their intrinsic value with a sufficient margin of safety.

Mianzo has a contrarian value style that is benchmark cognisant,” says Tyandela.

The evolution of Mianzo, which

celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2020, has seen the company entering the retail space, where it wants to promote financial inclusion and promote the culture of saving amongst low and middle-income earning South Africans.

Last year, the company launched a R100 million SME Fund in partnership with the Black Umbrellas that extends loans to black-owned small, micro and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs).

In November 2020, Mianzo introduced two affordable unit trusts products to help low and middle-income retail investors grow their wealth through investing in the stock market.

Since their launch, the unit trusts products, Mianzo Equity 27four Unit Trust and the Mianzo Inflation + 3% 27four Unit Trust, are gaining traction in the market.

These products have been designed for ordinary South Africans, particularly blue-collar workers, mid- level office professionals, emerging business owners, and informal traders, who are eager to invest in the stock market (equities) and listed-debt market (money market and bonds).

The launch of the Mianzo Black Umbrellas SME Debt has been a strong indicator of Mianzo’s commitment to supporting SMME development and employment creation.

The Fund is managed on the Mianzo’s Alternative Platform by investment professional Mr Sifiso Simelane, who has extensive experience in financing broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) transactions.

By investing in the fund, corporate investors will earn Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) points on their B-BBEE scorecards. Furthermore, development finance institutions, pension and retirement funds that invest in the fund will be able to contribute to investments that stimulate the economy and job creation.

The evolving nature of Mianzo and its commitment to deepening transformation through financing black owned SMMEs and serving the low to middle-income investors bodes well for the future of the asset management firm.

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GROW YOUR MONEY SECURE YOUR

FUTURE

Join Mianzo Asset Management in an exciting new journey to invest in a stock market through affordable unit trusts.

For as little as R199 per month or a lump sum of R1999, you can grow your money more than keeping it in a normal savings bank account. Pay low fees and partner with Mianzo’s investment team with 80 years’ experience and strong track-record in growing money for clients.

Mianzo’s unit trusts were created with a sole purpose of helping ordinary South Africans to invest in the stock market and other inflation-beating assets in order to grow their money faster.

Mianzo has developed two unit trusts: MIANZO EQUITY 27FOUR UNIT TRUST: This unit trust will solely invest funds in JSE-listed shares has a potential of generating higher returns relative to other asset classes like bonds and cash.

MIANZO INFLATION +3% 27FOUR UNIT TRUST: This is a diversified portfolio fund designed to beat inflation and preserve the buying power of investors’ money. The fund will invest in shares, bonds, cash, and money market instruments. It will also invest in stock markets outside of South Africa.

Mianzo Asset Management (PTY) LTD an authorised Financial Service Provider, FSP 43114 Registration No 2009/021221/07 | Level 1 B-BBEE Contributor info@mianzo.co.za | www.mianzo.co.za |+27 21 552 3555

ALTRON

IMPROVING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH MORE EFFECTIVE APPLICATIONS

The role of applications in driving an improved customer experience (CX) in today’s digital world should not be underestimated

W

hen companies’ business applications fail to work as advertised, it could have a negative impact on the organisation’s reputation.

Furthermore, the desire for an instantaneous response is so great today that from a user experience point of view, in all likelihood, an application that takes too long to load can lead many customers to move on to a competitor.

Venter notes that this is where the Full Stack Observability (FSO) solution comes in, as this provides insights into each touchpoint that connects an application to its user. From the internet, network, and cloud to the application and infrastructure, there are many dependencies along an application’s journey, he adds, which is why eliminating silos and increasing collaboration between the various teams is so vital.

End-to-end view

This is a huge risk and something companies need to consider when developing applications, suggests Charl Venter, Practice Lead for IaaS at Altron Systems Integration (ASI). What they should be asking themselves is, what is the cost to the business if customers cannot transact on the application? What sort of monetary loss might we be facing, and what sort of damage will it do to our reputation?

“The real issue is that if there is a problem with the application, the traditional siloed war room approach, means that there will be little collaboration between the teams to solve the problem, increasing the length of meantime to innocence” he says.

“What is needed is a way of bringing everyone from the relevant operations teams - namely infrastructure, network, development and security - together in a way that allows them to collaborate in order to quickly determine where the problem lies and how it can be eliminated.”

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Because the different teams are connected, it is easy to track exactly where the outage occurred as well as the cause, he says. More- over, by providing an end-to-end full stack observability, it enables repairs to be affected rapidly. Ultimately, it reduces the potential downtime from days to hours, a critical difference in a world where uptime is more valuable than gold.

“ASI is the first systems integrator in the country to offer FSO as part of a new ap-pro- ach to IT management, where we are able to provide a zerotouch, AI-assistedmulticloud system.

This can be provided to clients as a stand-alone solution that we implement, or it can form part of our managed services offering, Digital Operations Centre (DOC). “Our DOC team is highly certified and has many years of experience in dealing with these types of environments. You could say we have learned from past experiences and are able to leverage our vast professional experience

CHARL VENTER, PRACTICE LEAD FOR IAAS AT ALTRON SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

and technical knowledge to deliver a world-class managed services offering.”

In fact, continues Venter, ASI is confident enough in its offering that it is prepared to offer customers a proof of concept (PoC) at no cost, to allow them a clearer under- standing of how this solution can really benefit them.

“Once we show the customer the type of insights, we can gather from their applications and how quickly challenges can be overcome and prevented, they are able to understand the true value of the solution.

“In the end, our goal is to move IT operations from reactive response to pre-emptive action, while enabling predictive remediation. FSO is the enabler for this, allowing companies to optimise their costs, reduce downtime, and improve productivity and capacity,” he concludes.

Municipal Focus

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AGRICULTURE

Amadlelo Agri’s vision is born out of its strong conviction to contribute to South Africa’s economic transformation agenda through unlocking latent land potential to empower black people and give them a strong foothold in the agricultural sector.

Amadlelo Agri CEO Simpiwe Somdyala

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SHAREMILKING PROVIDES PATHWAY FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES to participate in dairy industry

A

madlelo Agri has a long-term vision of turning dormant land into productive farms.

This vision is born out of Amadlelo’s strong conviction to contribute to South Africa’s economic transformation agenda through unlocking latent land potential to empower black people and give them a strong and sustainable foothold in the agricultural sector.

The company, which operates five dairy farms in the Eastern Cape, has adapted New Zealand’s sharemilking model for rollout in South Africa, where it enters into partnerships with land-owning communities to establish dairy farming operations on suitable, high potential unused farmland.

Under a sharemilking contractual arrangement, Amadlelo (the sharemilker) is responsible for hiring labour, deploying highly skilled Dairy Managers, day-to-day management, finding buyers for the milk, and ensuring compliance with industry and food health standards.

On the other side of the coin, the communities own the land and fixed infrastructure, which effectively gives the company access to milking

parlours, fields, pastures, and barns.

In essence, this is a marriage between a herd-owning sharemilker and landowning communities.

“Sharemilking has had a substantial and positive impact in the communities in which we operate our farms. Since we started our first dairy operations in 2008, Amadlelo has paid R869 million into communities in the form of wages, profits, and land rentals,” explains Amadlelo CEO Simpiwe Somdyala.

Amadlelo, a 72% broad-based black-owned company, operates dairies in Alice, Middledrift, Shiloh, Keiskammahoek, and Ncora. The company is also a strategic investor in a macadamia farm, a piggery, and food manufacturing company Coega Food Group. From its dairy farms, the company produces 28 million litres of milk per annum. The entire South African industry produces 2.8 billion litres a year.

The company has access to 2205 hectares of irrigated land, where it keeps 10, 024 cows including heifers and calves. On the irrigated land, Amadlelo plants maize, lucerne, and other animal feed.

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AGRICULTURE To date, the land under Amadlelo’s management is valued at just over R400 million.

Amadlelo acts as an aggregator for the land-owning communities based mostly in the rural Eastern Cape, which often do not have expertise and investment capital to produce milk on a large, industrial scale to compete with established players.

“With land parcels ranging from 0,5ha to 5ha per household, rural communities lack economies of scale that enable them to be competitive and to exploit market opportunities.

“Rural communities cannot compete with established local and global producers that produce on a scale, thus these communities also need scale to be competitive. The market we compete in requires scale and consistency of supply, quality and predictability,” explains Somdyala.

Somdyala’s assessment has been collaborated by a recent study by the Competition Commission, which found that there had been a 73% drop in the number of milk farmers between January 2007 and January 2021 from 3,899 farmers to 1,053 farmers.

This huge decline was due to the reality of small-scale farmers’ inability to reach economies of scale that enable them to reduce costs and increase revenue in order to be profitable.

The concentration of production power in the hands of a few large farmers has created barriers to market entry and reduced the chances of small black farmers and rural communities entering or participating in the dairy market and its supply chains.

Sharemilking, as practiced by Amadlelo, has made it possible for rural communities it has partnered with to participate in a highly competitive and commercialised South African dairy industry.

In New Zealand, the world’s leader in dairy farming, sharemilking dates back to over a century ago. In that country, young dairy farmers have used sharemilking to accumulate experience and wealth, often using it to buy land from farm owners over a period of time. At the same time, former or retired dairy farmers use

sharemilking to rent out their farms to earn income.

Dairy farming is a tough business that can be impacted by a number factors including rising input costs, fluctuations in milk prices, drought, disease outbreaks, covid-19 pandemic, and socio-economic challenges like crime, community infighting, and inadequate delivery of social services.

However, Amadlelo has persevered through these challenges by forging close collaborations and partnerships with key stakeholders, land-owning communities, government, and investors to mitigate the challenges and risks facing the industry.

Despite the challenges, Somdyala sees an upside in dairy farming and encourages investors to take advantage of available opportunities in the industry.

“We have capacity to scale up the current farms in the Eastern Cape.

Furthermore, the scope for expanding to other provinces is enormous because our country is endowed with ample arable land. The dairy industry value chain has a potential to create jobs and facilitate economic development in rural areas,” he concludes.

CONTACT DETAILS Zipho Makwabe Phone: 063 634 8363 Email: zipho@amadlelo.co.za Address: 23 Lourie Street, Fort Beaufort, 5720

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IN-HOUSE SECURITY SERVICE PROVIDERS

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF PSiRA IS TO REGULATE THE PRIVATE SECURITY INDUSTRY

F

rom March 2020, South Africa’s economy came to a standstill due to the Corona Virus pandemic. This shift from the norm resulted in many industries shutting down according to the lockdown levels. The private security industry remained resilient with its own challenges of having clients closing their businesses for good.

Job insecurity was at its highest among security officers and security businesses. These security providers were registered with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSiRA). The function of PSiRA is to register security service providers. As part of this process, screening is required for all persons intending to enter the security industry for purposes of ensuring that persons with serious criminal convictions do not participate in the industry. The inspection of security providers, being security officers and businesses, is a very important function undertaken by PSiRA. This function determines the level of compliance with the law, and if non-compliance is detected consequences follow in the form of prosecution of the non-compliant security provider.

In-house registration in respect of security providers has increased over the years.

For instance, many government departments, state owned entities and municipalities prefer to in-source security officers as opposed to contracting out to service providers to render security services. This form of on-boarding of security officers has been seen in parastatals such as the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo, City of Joburg Municipality in Gauteng, and eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, to name but a few. As the Authority, we require that in-house security providers must appoint a supervisor or manager who is trained, in possession of at least a Grade B certificate, and registered with PSiRA. All security officers employed by an in-house entity, department or company must be registered with PSiRA. Compliance within the private security industry is of paramount importance and an in-house government department, SOE or Municipality must ensure that security providers in their in-house space is in line with all legal prescripts. Inspections are conducted

by PSiRA’s inspectors that robustly check for compliance. Annual Fees are required from security providers and these are paid by May.

It is paramount to check that every security officer is registered with PSiRA, Security Officers can be verified on the PSiRA App, which is available on Google Play and Apple Store.

WWW.PSIRA.CO.ZA.

THE INNOVATION HUB

NEW CLASS OF ENTREPRENEURS

make their mark in science and innovation to drive significant positive social impact and positively influence the environment.

“Innovative thinking is the key to finding new and exciting solutions to the problems South Africans face with regards to the environment, technology and job creation. In this space, the 2021 pool of graduates stand out as entrepreneurs to watch.”

The Business Incubator Programme Class of 2021

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eventeen entrepreneurs with innovative start-up businesses graduated from The Innovation Hub’s Business Incubation Programmes at the end of November.

With creative solutions to local needs and challenges, these companies look set to become leaders in diverse fields ranging from ICT and manufacturing to the green economy and the township economy, notes The Innovation Hub Acting CEO Tsietsi Maleho.

As the innovation agency of Gauteng, The Innovation Hub strives to assist start-ups and small businesses grow and flourish into sustainable companies by providing critical skills training, business development support, mentoring, and access to funding opportunities.

To graduate from its various Business Incubation Programmes, companies are evaluated on the growth of the start-up in relation to job creation,

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commercialisation, income growth, and overall business management.

“These are vital requirements for ensuring that start-ups remain sustainable once they have exited our incubation programmes. We have been extremely proud to see the progress that these entrepreneurs and their companies have made during their time at the Hub, and we feel privileged to have experienced and played a part in developing this level of innovation within our country,” says Maleho.

Notably, according to the National Development Plan, it is hoped that small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMMEs) will generate 90% of the 11 million new jobs targeted by government’s economic strategy.

Pointing to these figures, Maleho adds that The Innovation Hub’s Business Incubation Programmes specifically focus on start-ups with the potential

The Innovation Hub offers five flagship Business Incubator Programmes, including the Maxum Smart programme targeting the ICT and advanced manufacturing sector; the Biopark@Gauteng programme targeting the health, agro-processing and industrial sectors; the green economy programme by the Climate Innovation Centre South Africa (CISCA); and the eKasiLabs programme which focusses on entrepreneurs in operating in township economies.

The companies that graduated from the Maxum Smart programme are: •

iFOUNDiT: Offers a shopping app which rewards users with points for visiting stores, scanning barcodes, and uploading receipts on the app following purchases.

•

Shape: Provides novel and innovative medical products, devices, and mobile applications for the healthcare industry.

Lepsta: Developed a Space decode, or a software product that enables software developers to build, test, and continually deploy application updates using a single tool, and without having to manually set up hosting infrastructure such as servers for their applications

•

•

Westudio: Offers gaming and software development services for clients. This business has also established a gaming studio that has launched several titles in entertainment gaming.

•

I am Emerge: Offers bulk purchasing for spaza shops via its Vuleka app, which provides an easy purchasing platform. I am Emerge began in Alexandra, and is currently expanding to Soweto.

•

eKasiGaming: Exposes disadvantaged youth from townships to gaming and the world of e-Sports.

•

Eco Fineness: Manufactures and supplies health and hygiene products. These products include cleaning detergents, hand and body lotion, hair products, and hand sanitisers.

•

The companies that graduated from the Biopark@Gauteng programme are: •

•

The graduates from the CICSA green economy programme are: •

Kusini water: Developed industrial solar-powered Polyvinylidene Difluoride (PVDF) filters for fully automated water treatment systems for use within the African continent.

manufactures a roof paint that is environmentally friendly and keeps the house both cool in summer and warm in winter.

•

LooAfrique: Manufactures advanced toilet technology products in the water and sanitation sector. The company aims to improve sanitation measures including by saving water. The products are made of plastic material which is durable and environmentally friendly.

•

Alex Industries: Manufactures products that are developed using hybrid cycles and machines.

•

Deaf Language Training and Projects (VOICEOUT): An agricultural company founded by deaf community members that produces organic crops and vegetables.

The companies that graduated from eKasiLabs are:

•

African Applied Chemicals: Manufactures yarn hiking socks that are designed to slowly release liquid actives such as repellents over an extended period.

Cabblow Studios: A Proudly South African medical animation and illustration company.

Technotherm: A company specializing in Waste to Energy (“W2E”) plants that offer a clear solution for the disposal of waste, and the generation of renewable energy.

Artero: A service-focused ICT company with expertise in computer networking. This company strives to maintain service excellence, and is focussed on building mutually beneficial relationships with customers and suppliers.

•

Mokati Cleaning Chemicals: Manufactures and supplies cleaning chemicals.

Following their graduation, these companies will each be invited to join The Innovation Hub’s alumni programme, which provides business support services through either a 12-month pre-commercial programme, or a 36-month postcommercialisation programme.

•

Teayehm Holdings: Offers a wide range of services including energy consulting, renewable energy and energy efficiency advice, water management, roof refurbishments, and electrical installations and maintenance. Teayehm also

“As both The Innovation Hub and as fellow South Africans, we look forward to seeing what the next chapter for these companies holds as they make their mark on the local business scene,” concludes Maleho.

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ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

The Innovation Hub, an innovation agency of the Gauteng Province was established to spur the growth of the Gauteng economy through fostering of innovation and entrepreneurship. The Innovation Hub offers a range of enterprise development programmes in the Smart Industries (ICT and advanced manufacturing), Bioeconomy (Health and Agroprocessing) and the Green economy (Water, waste and energy) and in addition offers skills development and innovation enabling programmes both within the Science and Technology Park and throughout the Gauteng city region through its eKasiLabs which are situated in the townships.

Our enterprise development programmes comprise, the Maxum Business Incubator which offers business development support to companies with innovative technologies within the Smart Industries; Maxum Digital incubation programme was established to identify and support students, developers, technical professionals and the creative community in the province in all aspects of digital (i.e., gaming, animation, virtual reality and digital). BioPark@Gauteng, provides business development support to start-ups in the health (biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics, indigenous knowledge-based neutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, cosmetics), agriculture (agro-/food-processing, bioprocessing, smart agriculture) in industrial biotechnology sectors. Climate Innovation Centre South Africa (CICSA) provides business development support to start-ups in the South African green economy focusing on Water, waste and energy and eKasiLabs programme is an extension of The Innovation Hub’s service offering. It is micro innovation hub facilities spread across the 5 economic corridors in Gauteng where we foster and cultivate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in townships. The facilities are located in Mohlakeng, Sebokeng, Garankuwa, Soweto, Tembisa, Alexandra, Mamelodi, Kagiso, Kathorus and Mabopane.

InnovHubZA

InnovHub

@InnovHub

INNOVATION ENABLING PROGRAMME

The Skills development programme comprises CoachLab® postgraduate leadership development programme focussing on ICT and engineering sectors, internships and learnerships. Fablab, a school Programme aimed at promoting the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at school level and creates a platform for identification and nurturing young entrepreneurs at an early age. FabLab create prototypes using world-class, cutting edge machinery, through this programme learners can design, 3D print and manufacture using advanced manufacturing technology and use their prototypes to create a business. Codetribe which is hosted in collaboration with mLab Southern Africa focuses on software and code development.

The Innovation enabling programme comprises a range of initiatives aimed at building an innovative Gauteng City region, such as the OpenIX for linking solution providers with challenge owners, thereby fast-tracking commercialisation of technology, enhancing competitiveness and service delivery. The Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) an annual Innovation Competition looking for innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs that are working on novel technologies that will improve the efficiency of government service delivery, increase the competitiveness of the local economy, and enhance the quality of life of ordinary citizens.

The Innovation Hub has created unique spaces, such its Conference Venue facility and office space for innovators, entrepreneurs, world-class businesses, academics, researchers, and funders throughout the Gauteng province to network and advance their businesses.

Tel: +27 12 844 0000 | Web: www.theinnovationhub.com The Innovation Hub is a subsidiary of the Gauteng Growth & Development Agency, an agency of the Gauteng Department of Economic Development.

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Deregulation has always been a big talking point for South Africa’s energy sector, but we are seeing more political impetus to change the status quo. Last year President Cyril Ramaphosa has set up a presidential task team to explore the best ways to address the two big issues of power generation and energy debts.

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DEREGULATION AND TECHNOLOGY WILL FULFIL SOUTH AFRICA’S POWER NEEDS

By Caspar Herzberg, President, Middle East and Africa, Schneider Electric

S

outh Africa has long dominated Africa’s growth charts. And I believe that South Africa has the potential to be the fastest growing economy on the continent again. There’s one issue that we must address, and that’s the issue of electricity. Simply put, South Africa must fix its power shortages and bring the load shedding to zero. To do this, we must talk about deregulation and technology.

I had the pleasure of speaking about this issue recently on a session organised by the Renewable Energy Solutions For Africa Foundation. South Africa has long been a beacon for developmental progress throughout the region’s economy, and the country has an opportunity to lead again in this age of renewable energy solutions.

Although South Africa was one of the pioneers of the Renewable Energy programme in Africa (2007), the reality is that it is still off the pace when it comes to incorporation of renewable energy in its overall energy mix. Much of the country’s energy is derived from coal-fired power plants (>86%).

Coal was once one of the cheapest sources of power, but those days are long gone. Now, renewables are the cheapest source of power on the planet. And they’re quicker and cheaper to scale up.

Why are we struggling to do this?

There are two challenges. The first is the issue of who controls the power network. Eskom owns most of the generation and transmission assets.

In 1998, South Africa was the first subSaharan African country to come up with the idea of privatisation; however, this has proved controversial.

What has changed is costs and supply - South Africa has moved from inexpensive to expensive electricity in recent years. It is estimated that since the events of 2008, the average electricity tariff increase in South Africa has been around 300%. And electricity tariffs will continue to increase in the future at a higher rate, which is unsustainable in the long run.

At the same time, there’s not enough power to meet the needs of South Africa’s people and businesses.

The introduction of a deregulated electricity market could induce more competitive prices as proven in other countries, with a particular focus on renewable energy integration.

And this is especially important.

The country faces a major shortage in power generation, with load shedding expected to continue for the coming five years. For an economy the size and importance of South Africa, we can and will do better.

Deregulation has always been a big talking point for South Africa’s energy sector, but we are seeing more political impetus to change the status quo. Last year President Cyril Ramaphosa has set up a presidential task team to explore the best ways to address the two big issues of power generation and energy debts.

One recommendation may be to come up with an independent

Caspar Herzberg, President, Middle East and Africa, Schneider Electric

company to manage the national grid.

Another may be to deregulate energy distribution.

Both suggestions would be a fascinating step, as they’d allow for the opening up of the energy sector to new, independent power providers.

The political will is there, and there’s a realisation that renewables are the solution to South Africa’s energy needs. The latest renewable plants produce electricity at a cost lower than would be the case from new coal or nuclear power stations, which has been the preferred choice for a long time.

Let’s talk about the grid itself now.

The majority of our existing electric grids are decades old and were built

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SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC when electricity needs were simple.

South Africa is no different in this respect. Our current grids aren’t designed for today’s requirements, let alone our future needs. And they’re also a major cost.

Globally, transmission and distribution losses amount to USD 200 billion per year. In Europe alone, annual electric distribution losses represent EUR 5 billion in waste. In South Africa, Eskom and municipalities lose close to R20 billion in losses every year. The ever changing and rising energy demands of the 21st century necessitates modernization in our electric grids.

This is especially true in South Africa.

A smart grid is an intelligent digitised energy network that delivers energy in an optimal way, from source to consumption. Smart grids integrate information, telecommunication, and power technologies with the existing electricity system. It introduces a two-way dialogue where electricity and information can be exchanged between a utility and its customers.

Smart grids are more efficient, more reliable, more secure and greener.

provide detailed information on usage, making it difficult to manage.

A smart grid is far more responsive to ever-changing environmental and load conditions. The amount of data generated and aggregated will be used to make the grid more reliable, optimize its efficiency and speed up the shift toward renewable energy transition. In effect, this is digitalization at its best, which will support the other two big electricity trends – population growth and decarbonization.

Why does this matter? There’s three key reasons why. Today, when power lines break or power plants can’t produce enough power, black outs occur and that is a problem. At the same time, today’s grids often rely on a single power source and doesn’t

Smart grids encourage the growth of renewable energy by using solutions like Distributed Energy Resources.

The smart grid enables newer technologies to be integrated such as wind and solar. The power generation can now be distributed across multiple

sources, so the system is more stable and efficient. Second, smart grids empower consumers and businesses with real-time information on their energy usage, allowing them to understand how they’re using energy, which is going to spur behavioural change (research shows that when consumers and businesses know exactly how much energy they consume, they’re likely to look for ways to reduce their energy use).

Third, the technology behind smart grids helps utility companies to reduce power surges and outages.

One example of this is the self-healing grid we’ve developed with Stedin, one of the largest utilities in the Netherlands, for a self-healing grid solution in downtown Rotterdam.

A blackout caused by a broken cable was resolved in 18 seconds thanks to the network automatically reconfiguring itself to resupply affected customers via another path. It could have taken hours to fix this fault if we were talking about a traditional grid.

Given South Africa’s growth, we must make use of the time we have now to transform the energy sector and realize a green recovery. South Africa’s population is expected to grow by ten million by 2030, up from the current 58 million today. And many more people will be living in South Africa’s cities. South Africa’s population is expected to increase by about 27%

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by 2050 and to become increasingly more urbanised – four out of every five people will be living in South Africa’s cities by 2050. When you combine this with the government’s ambitious National Development Plan that aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030, it is obvious that we have to future-proof the country’s electricity supply. If we’re going to keep pace with the demand for electricity, it must be through digital transformation. And that means smart grids and deregulation.

There’s another reason why we need change. This is the year of COP26, when countries are being urged to do more on carbon emissions. South Africa is proposing to deepen its emissions cuts by almost a third in 2030, according to a draft climate plan published this year.

Under this plan, South Africa will cut emissions by 28%, compared with its 2015 pledge. This plan relies on “a very ambitious power sector investment plan” and the implementation of a green transport strategy, energy

efficiency programmes and a carbon tax to meet the goal.

But we believe the country can do much more – 86% of the country’s electricity in 2020 was generated by coal, making South Africa the most coal-reliant among G20 economies. There’s hunger to invest in renewables, and South Africa has everything needed to generate all the

power it needs from solar, wind and other renewable sources.

South Africa must seize this opportunity to stimulate investment in renewable energy solutions through deregulation and technology upgrades. What we need is the courage of our convictions to make this happen, to realize a brighter, cleaner future for all South Africans.

ABOUT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC Schneider’s purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On. Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency.

We drive digital transformation by integrating worldleading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries.

We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.

WWW.SE.COM

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RETIREMENT SAVINGS

NFMW – A TRUSTED CUSTODIAN

who grows members’ investments and keeps them informed along the way to a secure retirement he National Fund for Municipal Workers (NFMW) has grown to be the largest fund within Local Government and with a membership base of more than 55 000 (employees and councillors) throughout South Africa, it is clear we are the fund of choice.

Our members are at the centre of what we do, our decisions, our behaviours and the strategies that we employ in the management of the fund. We pride ourselves in providing excellent service and the administration cost is of the lowest in the industry; this translates to less of our members’ contributions towards cost and more towards retirement savings.

Our excellent long-term investment performance track record puts us on par with the best global balanced managed portfolios in South Africa and ahead of our peers in Local Government.

The fund has won numerous Institute of Retirement Funds Africa Best Practices Industry Awards. These awards are a testament to the fund’s compliance with all regulatory and other statutory requirements and above all, recognition for setting he benchmark of excellence in Local Government.

THE NFMW SUPPORTS THE SOUTH AFRICAN BARGAINING COUNCIL IN THE RETIREMENT FUND RATIONALISATION (FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION) EXERCISE. The NFMW is in full support of members being given freedom of choice to belong to a retirement fund of their choice within Local Government. Given our commitment to governance, impactful investing with financially

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sound investment returns, care for our members and responsible leadership, value to our members is guaranteed.

We look forward to continuing to serve our members beyond the rationalisation of retirement funds exercise. .

With effect from 1 July 2022, the South African Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) will be allowing employees of Local Government the freedom to belong to retirement funds of their choice. The NFMW is the Fund of Choice.

Not yet an NFMW-member?

Scan the QR code to complete and submit your information online and we will do the rest to assist you in becoming a member of the Fund of Choice in Local Government.

Therefore, we urge all Local Government employees to join the NFMW to benefit from all we are doing for our current members, i.e., offering lower administration fees, more benefits, more towards retirement savings, keeping members informed, good governance, among other elements of our superior value proposition for our members and their beneficiaries.

The NFMW will participate in the SALGBC accreditation process in order to extend its value proposition to new members.

MUNICIPAL

NEWS K E E P I N G YO U U P -T O - D AT E W I T H T H E L AT E S T A N D M O S T R E L E VA N T N E W S I N S O U T H A F R I C A

KIMBERLY

The History, Heritage & People The mention of the name Kimberely evokes images of diamonds, wealth and the world-famous big hole.

POLOKWANE MUNICIPALITY

John Mpe Re-elected as New Mayor of Polokwane STEVE TSHWETE LOCAL MUNICIPALITY A sterling model of effective and high quality municipal service delivery KNYSNA MUNICIPALITY Welcomes New Chief Audit Executive

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MUNICIPAL

NEWS KIMBERLY

The history, heritage & people The mention of the name Kimberely evokes images of diamonds, wealth and the world-famous big hole.

The city may have been founded on the precious stones but here in the capital of the Northern Cape Province, visitors are likely to be pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful city filled with tree-lined streets, pretty parks, lovely hotels and plenty of trendy boutique shopping spots. It is a city that pays homage to its past through numerous tours, memorials and statues, and visiting Kimberley is like taking a snapshot tour of significant and authentic parts of our country’s rich history.

In the highstakes world of the diamond rush, as many as 30 000 diggers would scour the soil for their fortunes, with some striking it rich and others finding only misery.

Many of those who got lucky made enormous sums of money from the diamond trade and by the turn of the century, Kimberley had become the

undisputed diamond capital of the world. Yet this was a town founded on greed and it resembled, in many ways, something out of the Wild West, with gambling, prostitution, mobsters and disease rife.

Despite this, the city retained it’s architectural elegance and Kimberley’s

oldest residential suburb, Belgravia, dates back to the 1870s, bearing testament to the success stories of the time, with many of these massive homes built during the peak of the diamond trade. It’s said that there was once more millionaires in this area than anywhere else in the world.

The Big Hole located right in the middle of town is a huge crater dug almost entirely with picks and shovels in an effort to reach the stones. The pit measures over a kilometre deep, with a surface area of 17 hectares, and here men, with little more than man-made tools, managed to remove three tons of diamonds and 22.5 million tons of earth in the process. Today it has been converted into an open air museum with a rather daring lookout point directly over the hole.

Adjacent to the Big Hole is the Kimberley Mine Museum, which displays just how the city was

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during the frenetic days of the diamond rush. A guided underground tour (some 840 metres beneath the earth’s surface) of the De Beers diamond mine is fascinating, there is certainly plenty more to Kimberley than remnants of the diamond rush and workings of an old diamond mine.

The historical city centre is full of monuments, museums and art galleries, many of which can be found inside some of the stunning old Victorian homes, while the Town Hall is a stunning example of late 18th century architecture. Naturally, there are many jewellers to be found in this city, with great deals on precious metals and gemstones to be discovered. There’s also the Kimberley ghost trail that reveals all the haunted corners of the city.

Art lovers are also in for a treat as there are numerous galleries that showcase art from the San rock art through to 16th and 17th century Flemish, Dutch, English and French masters and contemporary artists.

For the historians, Kimberley offers up much in the way of battlefields tours, including Battle of Magersfontein site, just 30 kilometres from the city. There is an observation point from which there are good views of the battlefield and the trenches. There is a small museum with a collection of weapons and uniforms.

It’s about 500 kilometres or a five-hour drive from Johannesburg and serves as a perfect detour on the N12, just off the N1, that functions as an alternative route between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

BEST TIME TO VISIT The cooler months in spring (August, September) and autumn (March, April) are recommended. Kimberley can get very hot in summer (December to March) and very cold in winter (May, June and July).

GETTING AROUND Kimberley is the only South African city with an operational tram system, dating back to the time of the diamond rush.

IT’S CLOSER THAN YOU THINK: HOW TO GET THERE

WHERE TO STAY

You can fly directly to Kimberley from all the major cities in South Africa.

Kimberley has a number of luxury hotels, B&Bs and guest-houses in the

historic part of town, many of them in buildings dating back to the diamond days, come highly recommended.

EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF:

Tel: 053 839 4600 Web: www.thebighole.co.za

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MUNICIPAL

NEWS POLOKWANE MUNICIPALITY

John Mpe Re-elected as New Mayor of Polokwane Mpe replaced Thembi Nkadimeng as Mayor of Polokwane, three weeks after Nkadimeng resigned to be redeployed as the Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet reshuffle.

Executive Mayor Cllr. Mose Mpe

John Mpe, Chairperson of the ANC Peter Mokaba Region in Limpopo, has been re-elected unopposed as the Executive Mayor of Polokwane Municipality. The inauguration ceremony took place at the Ngoake Ramatlhodi Indoor Sports Complex in Seshego, outside of Polokwane.

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During his time as Capricorn District Municipality Mayor, John Mpe, achieved three consecutive unqualified audits and two clean audit opinions by the Auditor General. Mpe vouches, that under his leadership as District Mayor of Polokwane, he will work on the City’s poor audit outcome and avoid its fruitless and wasteful expenditure. He hopes to make Polokwane, which is the biggest, richest and the most influential municipality in the province, “the first Metro of the Limpopo Province.”

Mpe has nine years of past banking experience, where he focused on credit assessment, product marketing and credit control; and has worked in local governments and gained experience focusing on supply chain management, operations management, and monitoring and evaluating projects. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, a Bachelors Degree in

John Mpe left Capricorn District Municipality with a clean audit and now vows to work on Polokwane’s poor audit outcomes and avoid fruitless expenditure.

Management and Leadership, and a Certificate in Program Management Development and Finance.

With Mpe’s solid background in finance, he has belief that he will bring stability and growth, making use of the municipality’s accountants as far as they could, not using outsource functionality with prior planning and using the grants that is received to its maximum.

During his acceptance speech at his inauguration, it was said that he wants to establish respect and emphasize the importance of keeping partnership between the municipal workers, communities, the traditional healers and the many businesses alike.

Mpe spent his first few days engaging with stakeholders in the municipality on what kind of challenges they might face and what they can overcome, and focus on what he has mandated to do.

Mpe knows full well, that his time at the local municipality is challenging compared to the time he has spent at the district municipality, and is aware of the responsibilities that may come with a large city. Under his leadership, nepotism is a big no-no, working for the municipality depends on skills and the development of skills.

With Mpe’s solid background in finance, he has a firm belief that he will bring stability and growth to the municipality.

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MUNICIPAL

NEWS STEVE TSHWETE LOCAL MUNICIPALITY A sterling model of effective and high quality municipal service delivery Steve Tshwete Local Municipality spokesperson, Prudence Magutle, said their municipality is “a progressive and thriving municipality with a worldclass infrastructure and an extensive road network that is well-constructed and regularly. “

Executive Mayor: Cllr. Mhlonishwa Masilela

Newly elected Mayor, Mhlonishwa Masilela, starts the new dministration’s term with confidence as he believes that Steve Tshwete Local Municipality will keep on attaining the excellence it’s known for from 2022 and beyond.

The municipality, which sits in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, has a good story of impressive service delivery to tell.

Unlike some of the municipalities in the province and the country which have regular challenges of lack of service delivery and non-payment of municipal rates and services, Steve Tshwete is in a league of its own.

It is a relatively small municipality with its municipal area covering approximately 3993 square kilometres and includes towns such as Middelburg, Mhluzi, Hendrina, Kwazamokuhle, Rietkuil and Pullenshope among others.

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She said they are proud to have the highest level of water management and quality, certified with a Blue Drop Status and “the most Blue Drop awards in the province with six awards.”

She said their financial position, boosted by their impressive consistent revenue collection rate, is what has enabled the municipality to deliver services seamlessly. With a revenue collection rate which has hovered around 100% for years, the municipality has been able to get roads including in its main township Mhluzi tarred, well-maintained and with clear road markings.

“Financially, the municipality has the exemplary record of a 100% payment

rate since 2005. As a result of this achievement, we have become a model of effective and high quality municipal service delivery for the rest of South Africa,” she said.

The municipality is one of the 27 in the country to receive clean audits in the 2019/2020 financial year, and the municipality’s five clean consecutive audits awards shows that proper financial processes are consistently adhered to.

The municipality has also managed to build well-equipped public amenities including parks. Infrastructure such as street lights and water mains are regularly maintained, with locals rarely experiencing water cuts due to faults caused by ageing or unmaintained infrastructure. The infrastructure in Mhluzi which includes traffic lights and CCTV cameras ranks better than many other SA townships. Surveillance cameras were installed by the municipality along the main roads in the township to help prevent crime

and ensure a much quicker reaction by law enforcement agencies and emergency services.

Henry Masango, community member and former councillor, described the municipality as “an epitome of what local government can be in SA”.

“It’s a norm in Middelburg to pay for services, so the municipality doesn’t struggle to serve the community with all the basket of municipal services, it’s a give and take situation,” Masango said.

The municipality has more than 30 accolades won in just the last 10 years, including being Mpumalanga’s greenest and cleanest town. It also won accolades for being the best municipality in the province and for achieving clean audits.

Masango said residents know that if there’s a pothole developing, it would get attended to in no time and it’s the same for overgrown grass in open areas because that’s “the give and take contract” which exists.

Even the opposition in the town, the DA, agrees that their municipality is one of the best performing in the country.

Johann Dyason, DA caucus leader in the Steve Tshwete Local Municipality, recently said the council has been doing well for decades now. “If you look at our roads they are wellmaintained, our street lights are working, there’s water and sanitation, services are rendered at our municipality,” Dyason said.

Dyason said as the opposition, they too deserved credit for all the good work happening in their municipality as they provide good oversight work.

“The opposition party keeping the ruling party on their toes is what we do best; we don’t let go, we bite like a bulldog and keep on until everything is done.

power stations makes it a viable investment destination.

Stainless steel manufacturer Columbus Stainless is also based in Middelburg, providing hundreds of job opportunities to local communities.

“It has been like this for the past 20 years that we’ve had services, we’ve had this tradition of being a good municipality from 1994 right through until now,” Dyason said.

The municipality is situated near main road arteries such as the N4 freeway which connects the Mpumalanga capital, Mbombela with the Gauteng economic hub metros of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.

Steve Tshwete lies just around 150km from the capital, Pretoria and about 170km from Johannesburg. The fact that Steve Tshwete, a coal-producing region, is also home to three Eskom

Municipal Focus

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MUNICIPAL

NEWS KNYSNA MUNICIPALITY

Welcomes New Chief Audit Executive

and adequacy of controls, risk management, and governance processes.

Louw comes from the John Tado Gaetsewe District Municipality in the Northern Cape, where she developed and implemented Internal Audit strategic and operational audit plans.

She prepared implemented and monitored policies and procedures for the effective functioning of the internal audit unit.

Knysna Municipality Chief Audit Executive: Astrid Louw

Astrid Louw has joined Knysna Municipality in the capacity of Chief Audit Executive, responsible for the overall functioning of the Internal Audit Department, in providing independent assurance advice and insight on the effectiveness

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Municipal Focus

She obtained a BCom Accounting degree from the North West University, has been a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors since 2009, a seasoned internal auditor with over a decade of experience in the field.

Born and bred in George, Louw indicated that she is delighted to be back in the Garden Route, “closer

to home to plough back to the community that shaped me into the person I am today. I’ve always been chasing career progression and growth and I believe I have arrived home.”

Louw hopes to improve the effectiveness of the internal audit unit through value-adding assurance and strives to make a positive contribution in achieving a clean audit status.

Knysna is a town with approximately 76 000 inhabitants and is part of the Garden Route.

It is 55 kilometres east from the city of George on the N2 highway, and 33 kilometres west of the town of Plettenberg Bay.

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