The Telegram RSA Sep23-Oct6

Eskom and the government's promises that by now load-shedding would be a thing of the past have not been marked with any fruits.

The momentum of rolling black outs is increasing in intensity instead of easing.

During his tenure as the country’s then deputy president, Cyril Rama phosa oversaw a war room that was created to turn things around at

Eskom.

On 2 September in 2015, Rama phosa promised the nation: “In another 18 months to two years you will forget that the challenges we had in relation to power and Eskom ever existed.”

Ramaphosa’s hollow promise came about as a response to ques tions from the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), where he declared load-shedding would be over no later than September 2017.

South Africans have not seen the promise come to light, seven years

later. South Africa’s energy problems have taken a turn for the worse.

Load-shedding, which has become palpable, is here to stay longer than we had anticipated. It has become so intense that Ramaphosa returned from England with a promise to end load-shedding, something he has done for the second time.

Cutting his visit short was presented as an attempt to ‘deal specifically with the country’s load-shedding crisis. On his return, Ramaphosa held a Cabinet meeting.

The meeting which began at 8am

on Wednesday, 21 September was followed in the evening by a state ment from Cabinet spokesperson Phumla Williams who did not give citizens any hope.

All she revealed was that “the executive was still deliberating”.

Deliberation, as some have observed, will come to naught because seven years later, solutions to end load-shedding are always deliberated ad nauseam

Every day, people wake up to load-shedding, go to work while there is load-shedding and return

from work hours later to load-shed ding.

When they finally get a few hours to cook, clean, eat, help kids with homework, they do so in a hurry because before you know it, it is load-shedding again.

All that has been done by Eskom is taking the stages of load-shedding a notch higher.

In the updates that were uploaded on its social media platforms, it said blackouts would continue.

In a press statement issued on Friday, 23 September Eskom said: “The capacity constraints will persist throughout next week, and current indications are that load-shedding will be implemented at Stage 3 for most of the week.”

The announcement comes just after Public Enterprise Minister, Pravin Gordhan, said power cuts should ease.

Gordhan said electricity supply would continue to improve over the medium term as new investments bolster generation.

“We will have load-shedding for a while in South Africa,” Gordhan told Bloomberg TV

“But not of the order we’ve seen in the recent past.”

He added that there was no risk of prolonged outages.

When André de Ruyter was appointed Eskom CEO, he promised load-shedding would no longer be a reality… instead it has become worse.

Soon after De Ruyter became Eskom’s Group CEO, he promised Eskom would “significantly reduce load-shedding from September 2021”. He put it in plain words that Eskom was jacking up its main tenance plans, necessitating more load-shedding in the interim.

He announced: “We anticipate the maintenance programme will go on for about a period of 18 months.”

De Ruyter vowed Eskom would no longer defer maintenance as it was “now actively working on main taining its power stations”.

“In the past, we neglected to perform scheduled maintenance as required, and those legacies are coming home and causing us to have unreliable equipment.

“This will cause us to have an increased probability of load-shed ding over the medium-term as we fix the system,” said De Ruyter.

De Ruyter: hit or miss?

In July, City Press reported there

was hope of a light at the end of the load-shedding tunnel when De Ruyter was appointed CEO at the power utility two years ago, but that has not been the case.

On the contrary, Mzansi has been subjected to the most terrible cycles of load-shedding under De Ruyter and Eskom’s current executive committee and board. In various press briefings, the power utility’s leadership has blamed unidentified saboteurs for crippling capacity to provide continuous electricity.

In the City Press report, Duma Gqubule of the Centre for Economic Development and Transformation, said the elephant in the room was De Ruyter and the entire executive committee leadership, who are han dled with kid gloves, despite their incompetence.

“If André were a black person, he’d have been fired a long time ago. I think he’s protected because he’s white. We must tell it like it is. The level of incompetence of this leadership is incredible – and there’s

also no leadership from the top in terms of the President,” Gqubule told City Press Gqubule further stated: “They must stop scapegoating workers. We had three or four days of labour unrest and now they’re blaming workers for long-term systemic issues. These are systemic issues that have worsened under André’s leadership and the leadership of the board.”

Trade union Numsa, whose mem bers had embarked on what was termed an illegal strike over wage increases, said De Ruyter had been the wrong person for the job from the outset.

“In our view, he’s executing a mandate, which is to privatise Eskom. Stabilising the grid is some thing he has no understanding of, which is why we’ve experienced the highest level of load-shedding.”

On the other hand, economist Lumkile Mondi told City Press the problems at Eskom were beyond De Ruyter’s scope as the root prob

lem was a corrupt governing party that had run out of ideas. Mondi added that Eskom, like many other state-owned enterprises, had had its resources hollowed out.

Energy expert, Ted Blom, put it bluntly when he told the publica tion, “De Ruyter had long passed his sell-by date.”

“He’s done nothing – absolutely nothing – to fix Eskom.”

In an interview with East Coast Radio , following the recent bouts of blackouts, Blom said De Ruyter has failed to fulfil his promise to fix Eskom within 18 months.

“Whether he made that commit ment out of ignorance or arrogance, I don’t care anymore. Most South Africans are with me now in that we are saying enough is enough.”

Blom is not does not think the promises to minimise load-shedding will amount to anything. He told the radio station what is needed right now is urgent action.

"Three years ago, I put a solution on the table to get in emergency generated power at a rate of 1 giga watt every three weeks. We could've delivered the required amount of space that Eskom has been boast ing about for the last three years. We could've put it down in three months.

“The fact of the matter is that the proposal, I was told, will receive urgent attention from the Chief Operating Officer delegating to a senior manager. The senior man ager, after the meeting, said to me ‘watch this space’."

Blom called for “significant solu tions and a management shake-up at Eskom”.

Busa is concerned Business Unity SA (Busa) issued a media statement where it stated: “We are extremely concerned by the recent spate of load-shedding, which has, yet again, reached Stage 6. We recognise and appreciate that progress has been made in imple menting the Energy Plan announced by the President a few weeks ago, but the economic damage of the ongoing load-shedding is severe and there must be an immediate inter vention to deal with the crisis to, at

Story Continued from 1

Ted Blom reckonshat Eskom isn't telling us the entire truth.

least, manage load-shedding better.

“Stage 6 load-shedding is a major blow to an economy that is already battling to achieve growth, because of some global headwinds, but pri marily because the government is still not taking tough decisions on structural reforms and priority inter ventions to increase investment and stimulate growth.”

Busa said it has been “urging the government to urgently implement identified priority interventions”.

“The second quarter’s 0.7% decline in the economy was mostly caused by the continued blackouts, which have made this year the worst on record.”

The organisation further stated: “Estimations are that the current load-shedding is costing South Africa around R4 billion a day. The country cannot afford this, and it is exacerbating an already-strained socio-economic situation. Small and medium businesses are experiencing severe difficulties and many may not be able to recover from this. Also, the disruption to the day-to-day lives of ordinary citizens is severe.

“Business is assisting the govern ment with the President’s Energy Plan and we are ready to support immediate interventions to address the immediate crisis, or at least ame liorate it. We await the government's lead.”

Ramaphosa’s administration: is it leading?

Fed-up and frustrated citizens have expressed their rage on social media regarding the rolling blackouts.

Monique Walker from Centurion was so outraged that she said: “This man is great bullshitter.

“He is a true spin doctor and storyteller. They should make a sit com of the shenanigans from the President and his circus of Cabinet ministers,” she said.

Walker told The Telegram: “The only conclusion is that there’s no plan, and he’s running out of excuses now.”

Kamogelo Molokomme from Atteridgeville said the ANC has been programming people’s minds for two decades to accept mediocrity and reward it.

“By the time South Africans wake up, Zimbabwe would be comparable to paradise,” he said.

Kagiso Banda from Soshanguve

said a lot of people do not know on which stage we are on.

He also accused Eskom of export ing electricity while South Africans were subjected to load-shedding.

“Eskom is selling power to neigh bouring countries. We are also exporting huge amounts of clean, good coal,” he said, suggesting our government is more interested in helping everyone else, at the expense of its own people.

Ramaphosa’s unfulfilled promises; compiled by businessinsider.co.za

In 2019 Ramaphosa’s administration promised to take a direct interest in the ongoing electricity crisis, as record-setting stage 6 electric ity rationing was implemented in December of that year.

"Our immediate priority is to get as much generating capacity back on line within the shortest possible time. Eskom's emergency response command centre and technical teams are working around the clock to fix multiple breakdowns," he told angry and frustrated South Africans at the time.

In July this year, Ramaphosa

said the government was making real progress in dealing with load shedding, highlighting two things that should have provided relief to the grid in the short term: a wage agreement between Eskom and the unions representing its workers, and law enforcement work "to tackle sabotage, theft and fraud at Eskom to address the threat that these crim inal actions pose to the electricity system".

1. “The severe load-shedding of the last few days has reminded us how unstable our ageing power sta tions are... Solving the electricity crisis is necessary, if we are to real ise the potential of our economy,” wrote Ramaphosa in the 20 July edition of his From the Desk of the President newsletter titled Solving the electricity challenge is vital for South Africa’s investment drive.

2. “We will soon be completing detailed work and consultations needed to finalise these further measures. We will then, in the coming days, be able to announce a comprehensive set of actions to achieve much faster progress in tack

ling load-shedding,” he wrote in the 11 July 2022 edition of his From the Desk of the President newsletter titled We can and will do more to end load-shedding.

3. “Eskom has made much pro gress in implementing its nine-point plan, ensuring better maintenance of its generation fleet, reducing costs and ensuring adequate reserves of coal,” he said during his State of the Nation Address (February 2019).

4. “Eskom’s contribution to the health of our economy is too great for it to be allowed to fail… Restor ing energy security for the country is an absolute imperative,” Ramaphosa told the Cape Town Mining Indaba (February 2019).

5. “We want to put Eskom on a sustainable operational path, and we have seen great improvements. We are closely engaged with the situation at Eskom, with the imple mentation of the nine-point plan, strengthening the board and setting out a road map for the future,” Ramaphosa responded to a debate by Members of Parliament on his State of the Nation Address (June 2019).

6. “We are addressing the Eskom

issue every day. I’m saying to the whole nation let’s not panic, let us join hands, close ranks and work together. That is why we are address ing it on an urgent basis. There is nothing much more urgent than restoring the power,” said Rama phosa on 23 March 2019, when SA was hit by ongoing load-shedding again.

7. “Our citizens deserve to be able to conduct their lives, go to school and operate their businesses confi dent that they will not be plunged into darkness without warning. At the same time, as citizens, we must understand that when we do not pay, we are part of the problem,” wrote Ramaphosa in his weekly newsletter in October 2019.

Way back… “In another 18 months to two years, you will forget the challenges that we had with relation to power and energy and Eskom ever hap pened,” Cyril Ramaphosa, (2 Sep tember 2015). He had been tasked by the Cabinet in 2014 to turn SOEs around and was reporting on his progress to the NCOP. –ANC Quotes, @QuotesAnc, (10 December 2019).

A shopkeeper waits for customers in his candlelit fast food store during a load shedding electricity blackout in Cape Town . Photo by Reuters

By Ethan van Diemen

After more than a decade, the inconven ience and deleterious impact on homes and businesses and the broader South African economy caused by power cuts has been well documented.

In July this year, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) noted that not only do Stage 6 blackouts have “devastating effects on households, communities and busi nesses, but also on economic growth”. Eskom’s inability to keep the lights on also “places local government in a very unfavourable position” as it impacts on “other services rendered to communities.”

“Water and electricity are intrinsically linked, where one cannot be supplied without the other,” the statement read, adding that “elec tricity is used in the water sector for pumping, treatment of raw water, distribution of potable water, collection and treatment of wastewater and water discharge. At reservoirs, some pumps push water into towers, which then provides enough pressure to feed the water supply net work, especially high-lying areas.”

“The pipelines in the network deliver this water to the taps at home, hospitals, schools and businesses. Pumps require electricity to work,” the Salga statement said.

In a statement on Sunday 18 September, the Western Cape government outlined its plans to ameliorate the impacts and prepare for higher levels of power cuts. Anton Bredell, MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, said: “We are monitor ing diesel levels for backup systems, security at critical infrastructure, and the situation at hospitals and old-age homes.

“Eskom cannot at this stage say for how long high levels of load shedding will be imple mented — we must ensure essential systems that provide for water and sewage can function on backup power for the near future.”

Potential impacts

A day earlier, the City of Cape Town’s water and sanitation directorate warned residents about some of the potential impacts of the latest level of blackouts. “Some higher-lying areas may experience low pressure or supply disruptions in the event of a power outage affecting the booster water pump stations which are required, in some areas, to convey water to the reservoirs supplying the higher lying areas across the City.

“Should residents in these areas - particu larly in the northern and southern parts of the city - experience low pressure, this could likely be due to the impact of load shedding.”

The provision of water in Johannesburg is also affected by the increased frequency and

duration of power cuts. The City of Joburg noted that “in the event of load shedding for the duration of four hours and more, pockets of areas of the city will have water shortages or low pressure” because Johannesburg Water uses electricity “to pump water from the reservoir into the towers”.

Criminal activity

Another consequence of rolling blackouts is their impact on criminal activity. Daryl Johnston, MMC for Utilities and Regional Operations in the City of Tshwane, noted on Monday 19 September a “trend” that network infrastructure is “deliberately targeted during load shedding by criminals to either steal or vandalise” critical infrastructure.

Daily Maverick has previously reported that Eskom’s relentless power cuts are being linked to an upsurge in crime in some Cape Town suburbs. The City’s Mayco member for safety and security, JP Smith, said at the time that “the lack of lighting in areas experiencing load shedding does make it more difficult for officers during their patrols and, of course, there is also an element of staff safety that comes into play”. Smith said the city had maintained, and in some cases redirected, resources to areas “particularly vulnerable to crime during outages” to ensure that its staff were on hand to deal with any incidents.

Agriculture

The impact of extended power cuts is also felt from farm to table. Agri SA, the largest body of agricultural organisations in the country, noted in July - when Stage 6 first hit South Africa - that “the extended period of Level 6 load shedding threatens the viability of the sector”.

“Electricity is central to modern farming prac tices and the recent increase in load shedding has seriously disrupted farming operations,” said Agri SA.

“Pumping stations, irrigation, cooling and other systems all depend on power supply. While some farmers have the means to move away from the power grid, most are unable to do so. This is especially true for the most vulnerable small-scale farmers.”

Agri SA said the “power outages are also causing waste and financial losses due to the impact on food storage. Retailers are starting to reject fresh produce, mainly vegetables, due to delays in delivery and disruption in the cold chain. In summer this challenge increases exponentially.

“This will reduce the amount of food avail able and increase its cost to the consumer.”

- dailymaverick.co.za

This article was first published in Daily Maverick.

History of load-shedding Graphic by dailymaverick.co.za

INCESSANT BLACKOUTS SPELL

DISASTER FOR THE FUNERAL PARLOURS

By Dimakatso Modipa

As the country wrestles with intense rolling load-shed ding, a number of busi nesses are severely affected.

For funeral parlours, it is a haunt ingly scary nightmare. This is on account that their primary job is to meticulously preserve bodies in good condition until the day of the funeral. It is becoming costly and almost impossible for them to function optimally as a result of the rolling blackouts.

In an interview with Drum , Morongwa Molefe, secretary general of the Funeral Industry Practition ers, said: “Some funeral parlours have generators and others don’t.

“It depends on how big the par lour. Some are just starting out and have not generated enough income yet to be able to make such pur chases.

“Generally, our fridges can keep the temperature cold between six to seven hours. But the on and off every four hours or so is damaging,” Molefe said.

“Our business is so badly affected that smaller parlours that do not have generators have to ask others if they have power or generators and often have to drive across town to make sure the bodies are kept cold.

Because sometimes the power will go off from the early hours of the morning, only to be back on at 9am then at 10am or 11am its off again for another four hours.”

Molefe further told Drum they are averse to taking the risk of leav ing corpses in fridges and hope that electricity will return when the schedule indicates it will be back “because sometimes munici palities always switch the power off for repairs, in addition to Eskom’s load-shedding”.

“The reality is that although cus tomers know the country is expe riencing load-shedding, they are not going to understand when we give them decomposing bodies that smell or have maggots and blame that on load-shedding.

“We have to come up with what ever alternatives in order to make sure the bodies are kept in the right conditions. This is really affecting our business badly. We are truly heading for disaster if we continue on this path.”

Funeral undertakers in Mamelodi, east of Tshwane, are gatvol with load-shedding and have demanded government to exempt their busi nesses from load-shedding.

The Telegram spoke to a number of funeral homes including a sales manager at Phokwane funeral direc tors, Mokgethi Mphego, who said their businesses have been running without problems since 2006, and the latest blackouts have increased their expenses.

“I'm so disappointed in our gov ernment because it has been years since they promised to solve the load-shedding issue but even today they fail to come up with a solu tion,” said Mphego.

He added that load-shedding was

affecting them immensely as they work with corpses all the time and if they (corpses) are not exposed to cold temperature they rot, which leads to a bad smell and this has a damaging impact on the business.

“We spend around R720 on fuel and it last for two days,” said Mphego.

He said they spend money on petrol and must service the gener ators as well. This is their second generator, the first one was dam aged and they had to buy new one, which cost them R15 000.

“I'm pleading with government to exclude undertakers from load-shed ding,” said Mphego.

Dimakatso Selota of Mohlabane Burials Services from Mamelodi west, said as a woman who runs a business it is not safe for her to travel to her business at night once the lights go off.

“I have to wake up at night when lights go off to go to my place of business to switch on the generator,

because I can't have corpses in a hot room - they will start to smell.

Selota said since the latest spate of load-shedding she has already had her fridges fixed twice already at a cost of around R30 000.

“Sadly, no one will refund me my money," said a dejected Selota.

“Our government procured our services during the Covid-19 pan demic but right now it feels as if they no longer care about us. It hurts me more to know that all the money I'm spending I won't get back but I keep spending due to load-shedding.”

Selota said she bought a big gen erator for R45 000 and also spends a lot of money on petrol to keep it running. She told The Telegram she spends on average R1 000 on petrol which lasts only for two days.

Owner of Matome Molefe Funeral Services Maggie Molefe said: “Load-shedding is taking bread from our mouths and this needs to stop. Government must exempt us from

load-shedding.”

She said paying her workers their full salary is becoming a challenge.

“A big chunk of our expenses now goes into running the generator.”

The costs are not limited to ser vicing the generators.

According to the Drum report, Morongwa said the state of affairs has become so bad that they have resorted to embalming bodies at a cost of more than R700 per body.

“We usually have bodies embalmed if they have to travel long distances to neighbouring countries and charge that to the customer and they understand,” Maggie explained.

“Now, we have to embalm even the local corpses because it helps to maintain the cold. But we cannot charge that to the customer. This load-shedding is draining us finan cially because it is the parlour’s duty to keep the bodies in good condi tion and we need to do whatever it takes to do that.”

HAVE TO CHILD AND

If your answer is yes, worry no more! The days of expensive adoption process, which can cost anything between R12000 to R20000 or more, are all gone. Government now offers a free service to qualifying Parents/Guardians who wish to adopt children. “The Gauteng Department of Social Development is leading this process in the province, and hereby wishes to inform the citizens about this new

What are requirements of a prospective adoptive parent?

(a) fit and proper to be entrusted with full parental responsibilities and rights in respect of the willing and be able to undertake exercise and maintain those responsibilities and rights. Over the age of 18 years. Properly assessed by an adoption Social Worker

Children’s Second Amendment Act, Act No. 18 of 2016 introduced the inclusion of a Social Worker in the employ of the Department of Social Development into the definition of “Adoption Social Worker” to render adoption services. These amendments have brought forth new and certain responsibilities in terms of its implementation of Adoption as a specialty service that Social Workers in the employ of the Department of Social Development did not possess. The Child Protection Organisations and Social Workers in Private Practice were championing this service in the province.

The South African Council for Social Service Professional (SACSSP) in conjunction with National Department of Social Development and the Services for Children Directorate has ensured that the Social Workers in the Province are well capacitated and registered with the SACSSP to render the adoption services.

a child a home and you are the of 18 years and meet the criteria, you can a

A child is the permanent care of a person in of a court

The Gauteng Department of Social Development is now rendering child adoption services to prospective parents at no cost.

Purpose of adoption

a) To protect and nurture children by providing a safe, healthy environment with positive support: and b) To promote the goals of permanency planning by connecting children to other safe and nurturing family relationships intended to last a lifetime.

Who can be adopted?

Any child may be adopted if –

(a) The adoption is in the best interest of the child.

(b) The child is an orphan and has no guardian or caregiver who is willing to adopt the child.

(c) The whereabouts of the child’s parent or guardian cannot be established. (d) The child has been abandoned.

(e) The child is in need of a permanent alternative placement.

(f) The child is the stepchild of the person intending to adopt. (g) The child’s parent or guardian has consented to the adoption

Who can adopt child?

A child may be adopted –

(a) jointly by –(i) a husband and wife (ii) partners in a permanent domestic life-partnership or (iii) other persons sharing a common household and forming a permanent family unit.

(b) a widow, widower, divorced or unmarried person.

(c) married person whose spouse is the parent of the child or by a person whose permanent life-partner is the parent of the child. (d) biological father of a child born out of wedlock or (e) foster parent of the child.

Adoption is a statutory process facilitated through the Children’s Court and there are strict legal procedures that promote the goals of permanency planning that connects children to nurturing family relationships intended to last a lifetime; it requires continuous monitoring, support, and it must be rendered by registered and accredited Social Service Practitioners as it is now a field of specialty.

Where can you go to apply for adoption in Gauteng?

This message is brought to you by the Gauteng Department of Social Development Growing Gauteng Together

THOUSANDS OF BARRELS OF OIL STOLEN DAILY BY CRIMINALS IN NIGERIA

An average of 437,000 barrels of oil is stolen on a daily basis by criminals in Nige ria according to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPCL).

According to Premium Times’ data analysis, between January and July, Africa's biggest oil producer lost an average of 437,000 barrels of oil a day to criminal entities and individuals who illicitly tap pipelines onshore and offshore in the Niger Delta region.

Group Managing Director of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, has blamed

a section of Nigerian society for complicity that has led to the loss of thousands of dollars in the oil theft, undermining the country’s oil production.

Nigeria recorded lower produc tion in the first seven months of the year. In January the production stood at 1.4 million barrels per day but as of July, the production went lower to 1.1 million barrels per day.

Pipeline fires are commonplace in Nigeria, in part because of poor maintenance but also because of thieves who vandalize pipelines to siphon off petrol and sell it on the

black market. Crude oil is tapped from a web of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks.

According to industry sources, Nigeria loses around 200,000 barrels of crude to oil thieves, vandals and illegal refining operators daily.

Most people in the Niger delta live in poverty even though the country is the biggest oil producer on the continent, with an output of around two million barrels per day.

Africa's largest oil producer has drawn only a small fraction of global petroleum investments to its

industry, long troubled by corrup tion, inefficiency, high production costs and security concerns.

These losses come at a time when Nigeria passed a fuel subsidy in April.

But some have been upset by steps to deregulate and end the costly interventions.

International lenders have long urged Nigeria to ditch them and the authorities came under fresh pres sure as they scrambled this year to secure billions in emergency fund ing to plug the budget.

Economist Michael Famoroti said

the corruption-riddled subsidy sys tem that allowed some to profit hugely was simply no longer sus tainable.

“For a long time, people have been calling on the government to scrap the subsidies and allow petrol stations to charge the actual price of petrol..

“When the global price of oil crashed and Covid hit, the Nigerian government was very short on cash. So like a lot of countries, it had to find money to stimulate the econ omy,” said Famaroti - africanews. com

EU IMPORTS OF COAL SURGE EIGHT-FOLD

By Rédaction Africanews

Coal sales from South Africa to Europe rose eight-fold during the first six months of 2022 compared with last year as demand for the fossil fuel surged ahead of a ban on Rus sian coal according to Thungela Resources, a South Africa-based thermal coal exporter.

The European Union banned Russian coal imports in response to the invasion of Ukraine in April but it was not until 10 August that the ban fully took effect as part of

the wide ranging sanctions.

European countries which pre viously imported 45% of their coal from Russia, and have been switch ing away from expensive natural gas to coal, ahead of the ban, started to source the fossil fuel from other countries.

That has included Colombia, Australia and the United States and also South Africa.

Thungela, a leading South Afri can coal exporter said Europe was competing with Asia for South Afri can coal.

The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Denmark, France, Italy

and Ukraine are among European countries were importing growing quantities of coal from South Africa.

In the first five months of this year, European countries imported more than 3 million tonnes of coal from South Africa.

This is over 40% more than the total volume in 2021.

The figures from South Africa’s Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) showed it delivered 3,240,752 tonnes of coal to European coun tries by end-May this year, 15% of RBCT’s overall exports, up from 2,321,190 (4%) in 2021.

- africanews.com

An illegal oil refinery destroyed by members of the NNS Pathfinder of the Nigerian Navy forces in the Niger Delta region. Photo by Stefan Heunis/AFP

South African coal exports to Europe have surged eight-fold.

Photo by oilprice.com

SADC TO STEM THE TIDE OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY

By Lilita Gcwabe

With at least 13% of women in developing coun tries bearing children while they are still kids themselves, four global health giants have joined forces to end the scourge of teenage pregnancy.

To counter this, the 2gether4SRHR programme, which combines efforts of UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, hosted a dialogue earlier this month.

The discussion titled, Building Back Better , discussed high-impact practices to prevent pregnancies among teen agers in the Southern African Development Community region. Together, they aim to improve the sexual and reproductive health and the rights of all people, especially adolescent girls and young people.

Key drivers of teenage pregnancy

University of Cape Town Researcher, Silinganisiwe Dzum bunu, said key drivers of teenage pregnancy include poverty, natural disasters and climate change which lead to food and resource insecurity and harmful cultural norms.

“These factors can cause adolescents to engage in risky sexual behaviour,” Dzumbunu said.

The “Seeing The Unseen” report compiled by the UNFPA highlights that 13% of all young women in developing countries bear children while still children. The report states that the prevalence of pregnancy among adolescent girls and young women (10 to 24 years) in Eastern and Southern Africa is 25%.

Current teen pregnancy trend ‘alarming’ Anne Githuku-Shongwe, UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Director, said it is “alarming” to see how society has normalised young girls bearing children at such young ages.

“We have been challenged by many young people saying to us: ‘Why do we even use the term teenage pregnancy?’” she added.

Githuku-Shongwe said when the term is used, the burden of the pregnancy is placed on the teenager instead of talking about the defilement and the abuse that happens to the young girls. She called for the protection of human rights of young boys and girls, including their sexual reproductive rights. The director also emphasised the need to hear and listen to the voices and opinions of the youth.

Empowering pupils to prevent teenage pregnancy

Executive Director of Zvandiri, a Zimbabwe-based youth organisation, Nicola Willis, agreed. She said young people need to be at the centre of youth-focused interventions and services, such as contraceptives. Willis quoted a young mother in Zimbabwe living with Aids, who said: “They say family planning is exactly that, planning for a family. As they don’t think I’m ready for a family, they don’t think I need access to information about contraceptives.”

Coceka Nogoduka, Chief Director of the Care & Support in Schools programme at the Department of Basic Education (DBE), said education systems have a crucial role to support and educate adolescent mothers.

“While we look at the health of both the adolescent mother and the child, we also need to empower pupils with issues of self-esteem and ambitions,” she said.

Nogoduka highlighted that “as the DBE, we are looking at our schools and how educators respond to pregnant adolescent girls”.

Health and social interventions

The discussion was a call to action for decision-makers and public health professionals. Speakers said governments and organisations also need to strengthen access to informa tion for young mothers living with HIV, their partners and communities. This includes scaling up mental health and services that prevent and respond to gender-based violence for young mothers living with HIV.

Meron Negussie, Adolescent and Youth Programme Spe cialist at the UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office, said there is a correlation between gender inequality and teenage pregnancy.

“Unless we start working on gender inequality, it will be difficult to address teenage pregnancy,” Negussie said.

She noted the importance of not leaving boy children out.

“Unless we empower boys and men, it would be difficult to meet the commitments we have made of making universal access to sexual reproductive health and rights a reality,” Negussie said. – Health-e News

DIGITAL TECH SKILLS NEED TO BE INCLUDED AT ALL LEVELS OF EDUCATION

By Luis Monzon

Education is, without a doubt, a fundamental human right. And today, digitalisation enables us to improve educa tion and provide equal access to all.

But where do we even begin? In a world where everything is online and any business that isn’t online is losing money, failing to teach our children digital skills for today and tomorrow will only widen our continent’s skills gap.

This is due to the fact that more than half of today’s professions demand technical abilities.

So, why is it critical for the tech nology industry to be involved in education at all levels?

Nurture future champions of the industry

Technology literacy and digital lit eracy are crucial for Africa’s future. And while we are making progress with the introduction of coding in primary schools in countries like Kenya and South Africa, we still have a ways to go.

“We know that every technology business is hampered in its growth by a severe lack of talent across Africa, and it is up to us as a part of that ecosystem to help develop and nurture future champions of the industry,” says Sean Riley, CEO at Ad Dynamo by Aleph.

“Unfortunately, there is still a substantial skills gap in Africa, and to solve it, we must begin at the grassroots level. We live in an increasingly digital world, so it is only logical that we begin teaching digital skills,” adds Riley.

Provide more flexible pathways

According to a World Economic Forum report, 65% of today’s pri mary school children will even tually be working in job types that do not exist yet, while the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that by 2030, more than 230-million jobs in Africa will require digital skills.

“It is therefore clear that emerging economies face signifi cant upskilling challenges, which need to be addressed throughout the educational careers of young people. Businesses and educational

institutions must work together to ensure that learners are equipped to handle the ever-changing nature of work.

The business sector, in particu lar, should take the lead in this regard, whether through training sessions, providing more flexible skills pathways, or through the recognition of short courses, as well as online and self-learning,” says Vanashree Govender, Huawei SA spokesperson. Technology innovation is hap

pening so quickly that training must now be adjusted constantly, almost in real-time, as new sys tems, applications, and devices come to market.

Conscious of the need for tech nology-driven upskilling, Huawei has built strong relationships with training and education institutions, and established programmes such as our ICT Academies at universities and TVET colleges, and our Seeds for the Future programme which aims to develop skilled, local, ICT

talent.

Contextual education Education needs to be contextual.

“It should enable children to understand things around them and prepare them to be ready for real-world challenges. As technol ogy has become ubiquitous, it is important to teach children how it impacts the world and help them understand how it can be utilised to solve various problems,” says Andrew Bourne, Regional Manager,

Africa-Zoho Corp.

Prepare students for an evolving workplace Students require more than a func tional knowledge of digital and technological skills to succeed in the world.

By incorporating these technolo gies into the normal curriculum and ongoing activities, institutions ensure that their students are more equipped for the modern workplace. - itnewsafrica.com

LOAD-SHEDDING HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE WORK AND LIVE

By Luis Monzon

We survived masks and lockdown restrictions during the pandemic, only to be confronted by a new challenge: load shedding.

With Eskom’s ageing infrastructure and the slow pace of the transition to renewable energy alternatives, load shedding is likely to become more frequent in the foreseeable future, and it will continue to affect the way we work, live and play.

The rising cost of fuel has also made remote working an appeal ing option for those struggling to keep up with transport costs. Why spend time and money commuting to work when you can get the job done remotely?

The way we work By creating cloud-based work spaces, teams can work together even when they’re unable to col laborate in real-time because of load shedding or different time zones. “The real strength of asyn chronous communication lies in collaboration. With the right tools, it’s possible for a person to start a project in one office before some

one in another country is able to review it and add their feedback,” says Andrew Bourne, Regional Manager, Zoho Corp.

Zoho believes that real-time

or synchronous communica tion and asynchronous commu nication - which can take place independently of time - should complement each other, and has

designed its collaboration software with this in mind. Furthermore, this software can help to cultivate a vibrant workplace culture even if some people are working remotely.

“The same tools can be used to share images and newsletters, and engage in town halls and brain storming.”

A people-centric approach to the use of technology can make col laboration during load-shedding and other disruptions as effective as synchronous communication.

The way we live Solar panels have become a com mon sight on rooftops in many neighbourhoods as homeowners look for ways to keep the lights on and save on electricity costs.

“Rising energy costs and chang ing regulations that make it pos sible to privatise energy supply will encourage more residents to include sustainable features into the home,” says Carl Coetzee, CEO of BetterBond.

It’s possible to reduce energy costs and dependence on the grid with a few changes and upgrades, says Coetzee.

Features such as skylights and floating staircases will let in more light without having to rely on

lights. Opt for LED bulbs where possible and use solar lamps in out side areas to illuminate your home. Invest in a battery and inverter so that you can store solar power to use during load shedding or to reduce your dependence on the grid.

The way we play

Without electricity to power the electronics that keep us enter tained at home, many people have reverted to more traditional games and activities to pass the time. Card games, like Cards Against Humanity, Codenames and good old Uno, are great fun, and add some competitive spice to a virtual night in with family or friends.

Load shedding-friendly restau rants do well when the power goes off, as it is just easier for some people to eat out than to plan their meals around the load shed ding schedule. For those wanting a home-cooked meal, a braai may be the best option during a power outage.

With regular bouts of load shed ding becoming the new normal, more families will be looking for ways to stay entertained without having to worry about the power going off. - itnewsafrica.com

Load shedding has altered our lives. Photo by mybroadband.co.za

Tit for tat is a universal principle.

Unfortunately, this leaves the cycle of vengeance unbroken. Oth ers perpetuate evil because they know no better. They have no other models to learn from, apart from their own experience.

Instances of this happens when the former oppressed employ the very same methods as their former oppressors.

The ANC has somehow taken copious notes and lessons from the apartheid government. The party has, after all, inherited all the repressive apparatus of apartheid. Every evil trick that is reminiscent of apartheid is now in full opera tion. Instilling fear, use of force and abuse of the courts are mechanisms deployed to cow disgruntled citi zens into silence.

The July 2021 social unrests are a case in point. Claims of insurrection by President Cyril Ramaphosa are unfounded. The July 2021 unrest is a result of the ANC’s failure to resolve the grotesque structural ine qualities and the attendant degrad ing poverty.

The Washington Post (19 July, 2021) is spot-on in arguing that “what happened in South Africa is what happens when the gross inequality that shapes a whole society boils over”. The paper also notes that “the celebrated rainbow nation is the global poster child of economic inequality, where deep poverty sits in the shadow of astro nomical wealth”.

For the New York Times (28 July, 2021) the genesis of the unrest is to be found in the “deep rot of South Africa’s social and political orderrife with racial tension, communal mistrust, injustice and corruption - [which] is now on full display.

The rainbow nation, the supposed beacon of reconciliation, is falling apart” (28 July, 2021).

Instead of addressing these structural challenges, the ANC has resorted to finding scapegoats.

There is nothing new about this. This is history repeating itself.

During the apartheid years, the then government blamed commu nists.

Nelson Mandela’s response is instructive: “I have done whatever I did, both as an individual and as a leader of my people, because of my experience in South Africa.”

The unrest of 2021 is no differ ent. People took to the streets, not because of some instigators. Social unrest was triggered by people’s experiences and a sense of outrage at what they considered to be an injustice meted out on former pres ident Jacob Zuma.

In jailing Zuma, the Constitu tional Court introduced apartheid’s detention without trial into the new dispensation. It does not mat ter how much the Zuma hating brigade wants to spin, the former

president was jailed without a trial. Facts speak for themselves.

Zuma was given a longer sentence than that prescribed in law and was subjected to detention without trial. Secondly, the Constitutional Court pretended to be oblivious of the fact that Zuma had taken Justice Raymond Zondo’s refusal to recuse himself for review.

The minority judgement was cor rectly scathing. It argued that “the main judgement develops the law to meet the peculiarly frustrating circumstances of this case. It leaves in its wake a law that is not only bad, but also unconstitutional. It is, undoubtedly, an unprecedented case, but the law we apply must always be compliant with the Con stitution”.

In this regard, the Constitutional Court failed the most basic test of judicial restraint.

To this end, these judges proved once more that they are mere mor tals, no different from the egoma niacs among us.

Evidently, judges of the Constitu tional Court missed the wise coun sel of Lord Atkin in the Andre Paul v Attorney-General of Trinidad, AIR 1936 PC 141 case.

Atkin opined: “Justice is not a cloistered virtue. She must be allowed to suffer the scrutiny…We ought never to forget that the power to punish for contempt, large as it is, must always be exercised cau tiously, wisely and with circumspec tion. Frequent or indiscriminate use of this power in anger or irritation would not help to sustain the dig nity or status of the Court but may sometimes affect it adversely.”

Professor Ziyad Motala of How ard Law School in Washington DC captured the ordinariness of the judges of the Constitutional Court.

In his article headlined: “What has gone wrong with our Consti tutional Court?” (Sunday Times, 19 August, 2021), Motala argues that recent judgments of the Consti tutional Court “smack of personal predilections and politicking…Of

late, some important court deci sions represent a prattle of non sense leading to whispers that our apex court at times projects as a junior moot court bench.” Amen to that!

The consequences are ghastly.

As Motala notes that “making up stuff from thin air based on the personal predilections of the judges, like the Constitutional Court, is haemorrhaging into lower court decisions”.

Arguably, ordinary people seem to have a far greater sense of justice than those we have entrusted to dispense justice.

In his memoir My Own Liberator , former Deputy Chief Justice, Dik gang Moseneke, could have been making the same point about jus tice when he writes that “lack of formal tuition does not deprive a person of common sense and native intelligence. A sense of self-worth is not dimin ished by illiteracy alone. Many in my and other literacy classes [on Robben Island] were leaders of the movement in their own right and understood well the repulsive exclu sion of the political arrangement of colonialism and apartheid”.

Indeed, South Africans can see and smell injustice from afar.

The social unrest of 2021 started as nothing more than an expression of righteous anger against injustice.

The nation-wide arrests of so-called insurrectionists is some thing that comes directly from apartheid’s playbook.

Like the apartheid regime, Rama phosa’s government finds it incon ceivable that the oppressed could take to the streets without being instigated by some provocateurs. A protest against an adverse ruling by a court or against a sitting president does not amount to an insurrection.

Only a desperate and paranoid regime would invoke such terms. Besides, insurrection refers to acts or instances of “revolt against an established government”.

No single government building

or official was targeted during the unrest. Protesters focused mainly on looting shops for food and house hold items.

The arrests are a convenient diversion. As the Washington Post pointed out, South Africa’s chal lenges are to be found in the “social and political order - rife with racial tension, communal mistrust, injus tice and corruption”.

Arresting individuals for express ing their outrage against the ruling elite on social media should send chills down our spines.

Shockingly, instead of being alarmed, some media houses have joined the witch-hunt, scouring through WhatsApp groups to out possible culprits.

They have become reliable col laborators in clamping down those seen as threats to the current regime.

Indeed, the ghosts of apartheid have resurrected to haunt us. Steve Biko could as well have been refer ring to the ANC when he observed that “black people should not at any one stage be surprised at some of the atrocities committed by the government…To expect justice from them at any stage is to be naive… There is only one way of showing that upper hand - by ruthlessly breaking down the back of resist ance among the blacks, however petty that resistance is”.

In the current conjuncture, belonging to a WhatsApp group can easily render you an enemy of the state. Be warned.

Dictatorship does not announce itself. South Africa is on a slip pery slope of totalitarian state. The unleashing of terror through the use of state apparatus like the police, the military, the intelligence services, the National Prosecuting Authority are all meant to suppress any form of hope against unseating Ramaphosa.

W. H. Auden’s phrase: “those to whom evil is done, do evil in return”, taken from a poem he wrote on 1 September, 1939 to commemorate the inva sion of Nazi Germany, states the obvious.

Professor Sipho Seepe is Deputy Vice Chancellor - Institutional Support at the University of Zululand

The July 2021 unrest is a result of grotesque structural inequalities and the attendant degrading poverty. Photo by Samora Chapman

WHEELS FALLING OFF ESKOM’S SKOROKORO

The state of affairs at Eskom is calamitous and has thrust the country past the tipping point. Our nerves are about to snap.

With each intense load-shed ding moment, it becomes diffi cult to hope that Eskom will be able to fix the problems afflict ing its power stations because our political leaders are not keen to do what is right.

Had they been eager, with their heads out of the sand, they would have long found solutions to the power utility’s problems. All suggested solutions have not been put to effect, cour tesy of corruption. Failure to act decisively has created even deeper and possibly permanent socio-economic problems. As the latest severe load-shedding takes its toll on a range of primary sectors of the economy, Eskom’s leaders remain in the dark while the government bombards the nation with pie-crumbs prom ises and lies. The lies have taken different hues over the years and the governing party wants us to believe all the gobbledygook spewed by its mandarins. They must think we are numbskulls to believe they possess the where withal to solve the country’s electricity crisis.

We have been systematically lied to over the years, that we are no longer sure who to trust or what to believe. When the load-shedding switch started tripping way back in 2007, the official rumour machine spewed something about sabotage.

As load-shedding’s dark and punitive hand tightened its grip around the country’s neck, we were sold some fairy tales about wet coal. The fairy tales later shifted to low-quality coal as the cause.

Over the years, the blames have extended to skills short ages, insufficient coal stockpiles, dwindling water reserves at hydroelectric plants, electricity exports to neighbouring states, shortage of diesel, disintegrating silos and a lack of maintenance. Sabotage continues to feature as one of the causes of load-shed ding. They can believe their own lies and peddle unfulfilled promises, but the country needs uninterrupted electricity supply. There could be a probability that our tongue-tied leaders do not appreciate that electricity is a representation of a lot of things in a country’s development. Electricity is indispensably cen tral to the economy and involves a variety of systems that have to function on a continuous and uninterrupted basis.

There is also the unfortunate part where the production of electricity also represents abun dant opportunities for corrupt activities. There is empirical evi dence to prove this. Corruption at Eskom is well-detailed in the Zondo Commission report.

In July, President Cyril Rama phosa told us via his weekly bulletin that somewhere in the brightly lit vaults of the govern ment called war rooms, some thing was being done.

“Yet, while load-shedding seems to worsen, the reality is that we have already taken sev eral important actions to address the shortfall in electricity supply.

“Our immediate priority is to stabilize the electricity sys tem. As the system recovers and generation capacity is restored, Eskom will be able to reduce load-shedding to lower stages,” he wrote. The President cut short his overseas voyage to come and tell us: “There are no easy solu

tions to our electricity crisis. But we are committed and deter mined to explore every avenue and use every opportunity to ensure that we generate enough electricity to meet the country's needs.”

If only this was something leaning on the truth, it would boost our already-damaged morale. The latest events tell a different story. The past decade and a half have been squan dered. As citizens of this dark Republic, we are now living with the consequences of ANC fail ures and it shall be so for years to come. In October 2021, Energy Thought Leader CEO, Mike Ros souw, told 702: “Eskom is near total collapse.”

In 2014, Rossouw, who is the former chair of the Energy Inten sive Users Group, was roped in as an advisor at Eskom, reporting to then CEO, Collin Matjila.

“I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, I see a big train coming down the tunnel at us. We’re going to see a lot more load-shedding and for much longer.

“We’re definitely going to have to get used to being in the dark,” Rossouw warned.

To give a clearer picture of the state we are in because of all kinds of real and imagined reasons, Rossouw said: “This is much worse than Covid.”

He also highlighted: “The moment Eskom reaches a point of collapse, everything will crumble with it - services, everything.”

His chilling warning, which is not far fetched, was: “It could result in more and more violence. I don’t even want to think about it, but it doesn’t look good.”

The unspoken damages

In an article published in busi nesstech.co.za, CEO at Pan-African Investments and Research Ser vices, Dr Iraj Abedian, is quoted telling 702 that load-shedding also carried a host of ‘silent’ costs to the economy.

There is no way to quantify the damage done by load-shed ding, he said, because the num bers and models simply cannot estimate what could have been, had load-shedding not existed or had been dealt with expedi tiously.

Some of these ‘silent’ costs to the economy include:

● Tens of thousands of jobs are lost as a direct result of load-shedding.

● Hundreds of thousands of jobs could have been created had load-shedding not happened.

● South Africa’s reputation glob ally.

● A loss of confidence by the citizens in the government.

● The loss of skills and expertise due to emigration.

“It’s not just energy that has been allowed to degenerate to this level of dysfunctionality and disruption and damage,” Dr Abe dian said.

“Increasingly, our rail is the same, our ports are the same. That’s pretty disastrous. A turn around strategy is needed badly, and there should be absolutely no talk – only action.”

Rossouw put it crisply when he pointed out the only salva tion is for South Africa’s political leaders to straighten up, fly right and take the blame for the elec tricity disaster we find ourselves in. “Unfortunately, what has to be done is going to be unpleas ant, politically and otherwise.

“We don’t have the luxury of choices anymore,” declared Rossouw.

NKRUMAH’S DREAM OF A UNITED AFRICA SHUTTERED

The humiliation of being hauled in a public transport to the continent’s colonial master’s final send-off will probably serve as a historic record of African leaders’ participation at Queen Eliza beth II’s funeral.

Ghanaian President Nana Aku fo-Addo’s queen praise-singing would surely stand out. For no reason at all, he proclaimed the queen as a good ruler.

“She brought about the dramatic transformation of the Commonwealth into a global force for good during her 70-year reign,” he beamed.

All that notwithstanding, I single out Ghana as a nation that has offered the most historic African symbolism to concur with the burial of the British monarch.

On Tuesday, 20 September, Ghana ian Interior Minister Ambrose Dery announced that Wednesday, 21 Sep tember, which marks Kwame Nkru mah Memorial Day, was to be a Public Holiday. 21 September is Nkrumah’s birthday, he was born on this day in 1909.

Although this is not happening for the first time, this being the fourth of such a holiday declaration since the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day was approved by Parliament in 2019, this year’s announcement is momentous.

Nkrumah is a symbol of a struggle against colonial imperialism, British colonial imperialism in particular. Nothing is more befitting to accom pany Queen Elizabeth - a symbol of Africa’s dispossession with Nkrumah - a symbol of Africa’s fight for inde pendence.

Nkrumah is credited as the first leader of an African country to lead a liberation struggle for independence from the British colonial masters in 1957. This Pan Africanist championed the formation of the Organisation of African Union (OAU).

With this initiative, Nkrumah was able to mobilise the continent for the total liberation of Africa from all forms of colonialism.

In 1874, Britain took control of parts of Ghana, naming them the Brit ish Gold Coast. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, hav ing led the Gold Coast to independ ence from Britain.

Britain was weakened by the efforts of World War II and following a rising

desire for independence, Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve independence.

Nkrumah was the driving force behind the independence of Ghana from British rule and founded the Convention People’s Party.

Nkrumah will always be remem bered for the powerful speech he delivered on the day Ghana gained independence, proclaiming, "Ghana will be free forever”, from British rule to millions of Ghanaian gathered at the Independence Square now Black Stars Square. The speech was signifi cant as it relinquished British control over the Gold coast.

In February 1966, while Nkrumah was on a state visit to Vietnam and China, his government was over thrown in a military coup. Nkrumah never returned to Ghana and died in exile in April 1972.

Dishearteningly, we, the people of South Africa, beneficiaries of Nkru mah’s teachings as one of Africa’s foremost freedom fighters, nation alist, writer and thinker who was to influence a generation of Pan-African nationalists and freedom fighters, are notorious the globe over as Afropho bic.

As Ghana remembers this continen tal hero, we are such a damp squib to both Ghana’s symbolism of Nkrumah and the principles that he stood for.

We are a betrayal to the continent’s agenda to our own detriment.

Nkrumah was a founding member of the OAU that championed free dom from colonialism for all African nations, our own most notably. His dying wish was unity among Africans proclaiming: “Africa is one continent, one people, and one nation.”

It was his view that “independence was only a prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs,” - a point he made in his speech at the founding of the OAU in Addis Ababa, 24 May 1963.

This exact sentiment was to be made many years later by South Afri ca’s President Nelson Mandela who proclaimed: “The truth is that we are not yet free. We have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.”

Mandela espoused Nkrumah’s ide als of African unity.

“I dream of the realisation of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses,” he said.

He even saw our freedom as shal low if it did not recognise that we are about the freedom of others and that our right to vote was not itself an end but the beginning of the struggle for the attainment of justice.

Every bloke who can lay a hand on a microphone today ensures that the grandchildren of Nelson Mandela have no desire to follow the teachings of Nkrumah.

Our so-called leaders are shattering Nkrumah’s ideals in a heart-wrenching brother-against-brother Afrophobic hate calling for Africans to be kicked out of our country. Little wonder we are a global laughing stock and a subject of humiliation even by the bereaved.

As Mzwakhe Mbuli would say: “What a shame Africa, what a shame.” XABA

African leaders were transported in a bus like schoolchildren while the president of the US, Joe Biden, was permitted to bring his convoy. Photo by Twitter

THERE’S A THIN LINE BETWEEN TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD

Lies, lies, damn lies and copi ous amounts of bullshitting are the major and powerful currency in politics.

In South Africa and the rest of the world, a greedy and twisted breed of politicians is flourishing. For them, lying and bullshitting are an intrinsic part of their daily fixation. This sick ening fixation earns them popular appeal in some circles and extensive loathing in others.

My ancestors know; I truly wish to comprehend why lying and bullshit ting are so prevalent and effective in some groupings.

Our country is replete with liars who occasionally glance at the truth with pretentious care. This group has the tenacity of a bullterrier when it comes to preventing others from accessing the truth.

The bullshitters do not give a stinking damn about the truth. As they journey through the sewer, they couldn’t care about the difference between the truth and fallacy of their proclamations. Bullshitters have an eerie ability to just rake in crappy ideas, or worse, make the crap up, to go well with their twisted purpose.

Sometimes, the line between bullshitting and lying can be thin. We should know. We have lived through it for nearly three decades.

Over these decades the ever-ex panding lies have held the voters hostage by a party that is infested with maggots. The party has done well by playing on people’s pain of the past so much that the impor tance of truth, competence, care and commitment to public service has been kicked to the curb.

I also suffer from lying to myself about a future when the thieving, lying and dishonest comrades of the party that lied about being leaders of society will disappear like an unwel come smell of a vile fart.

The lying voice in my head keeps telling me that maybe a day shall dawn when the current epidemic of lies and bullshit will come to a wel come end. Because a lie is sometimes easy to believe, I will stick to my false notion that in 2024 Amasela will Not Come back

Government always lies

The ANC government is one that has an insatiable appetite for lies. It lies because it is led by comrades who have long forgotten the difference between the truth and cock-and-bull stories. I am making a dangerous assumption that our comrade leaders ever knew the truth to begin with.

Party leaders lie because the back benchers stand ready to dress the lies with golden robes. Cabinet ministers and all other leading party syco phants lie to get votes so they can access power and ill-gotten money. They lie because it is the easiest and rewarding thing to do.

We have seen the pathological liars slithering out from every nook and cranny of government officialdom. They do not come out of their hovels of pilfered treasure for sunshine but to tell more lies.

They unashamedly lie because lying has never caused any harm on their political careers.

When there are endless and dev astating blackouts, they grab any available microphone to tell lies on a grand scale and when taps run dry they not only resort to an epic scale of lying, but also bullshit us.

When some of them are caught with their filthy thieving hands in a cookie jar they cook up a nause ating stew of lies and bullshit. They go back to their normal ways after the rancid smell of their toxic stew disappears.

This is a government peopled by individuals who understand and have fully embraced the potent political power purchased using the currency of lies. This lame-duck sixth admin istration, like the previous one, is full of hyenas, charlatans and clowns. Where there is supposed to be good governance, there is an echoing chamber of falsehoods.

The tall tales help comrade leaders to leap from one scandal to the next. These range from Life Esidimeni, the Marikana massacre, toilets worth mil lions of rands, a supposedly revamped ramshackle stadium that looks like an abandoned shack worth 15 Million to the scandal about dodgy financing of party campaigns. We shall leave the Ankole and buffaloes to graze peacefully while we wonder how millions of dollars ended up stuffed under a mattress.

The unbridled patronage, the narcissism and the epic abuse of power are so rife that some people are no longer shocked. They have come to accept that some greedy political knuckleheads will always treat our democracy with contempt. The thievery by the political ego

maniacs knows no bounds. They stole millions meant for Covid-19. In KwaZulu-Natal, some politicians commandeered water trucks meant to assist disaster-stricken communi ties to their palatial homes.

Heartless, I say.

My good friend and brother, Neo M Matsunyane, put it well when he said: “It takes a very cruel, selfish and hard-hearted person to be a politi cian. These people are COLD!”

This is an administration fond of lies. It lies despite the fact that none of its fabricated stories it tells itself make sense to the citizens. It lies because the much-vaunted New Dawn has not made it beyond dusk. In its place, a beast called austerity has sauntered into the socio-eco nomic stage and devoured whatever little hope we had.

Austerity measures, we were lied to, were meant to ‘manage the country’s fiscal, diligently’. This is a monumental blunder that could only be born out of the figment of politicians’ imagination.

The ANC peddled lies when it said: “The sixth administration will enable the government to focus on generating higher economic growth, create more jobs and serve the people of South Africa better.”

They lied to the nation because numbers keep telling us unemploy ment and inequality are headed for the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

At some point, they have sold themselves as an administration of entrepreneurs but the obnoxious bureaucracy is crushing entrepre neurship. They feed us falsehoods because it is convenient to lie, then accede to the truth. This has seared our hopes to ashes.

The comrades are so lost in delu sion they believe their lies – a trade mark of good liars. They lie because they have taken a gamble that a nation where trust has faded away will be easier to reign in than a buoyant one that demands higher standards from leaders.

Purveyors of bullshit

There are nitwit political leaders such as Gayton Mackenzie and Herman Mashaba who, through their inflam matory remarks about migrants, have made themselves bullshit artists, par excellence

Their political bullshit is buoyed by bizarre utterances. Mackenzie has called migrants, mostly of African descent, a “stain”.

Mackenzie’s utterances such as “If there's a South African and a Zimba bwean and the Zimbabwean or Mozam bican is on oxygen and here's a South African citizen, born and bred in South Africa, I will turn that off as a leader. It is my duty”, directly feeds the false narrative that migrants have made South Africa crumble. In his and Mashaba’s immature political minds,

migrants are frustrating the will of the people of South Africa.

This is the trademark of bullshit ters. These leaders are always in search of all forms of garbage to shape public opinion by distributing bullshit. They thrive on and rejoice in the mishmash of lies, exaggera tion, double entendre and hollow gobbledygook.

There are some in the ANC, and other political parties, who practice a rather refined type of bullshit. These are the ones who enable and lend credibility to rumours or blatant lies. They use this technique to dehuman ise other people.

Their utterances and actions unfor tunately have serious consequences. Getting bullshitters to see the folly of their ways is difficult. They are canny when it comes to choosing their use of language. They do it in a way that decimates the border between what is true and false.

These windbags are shored up by ludacris modes, such as toxic patriotism and conspiracy. Their bullshit finds audiences because it corresponds with an accumulation of prevailing lies and bigotry.

Reducing the oxygen supply to bullshit artists and liars who are the leaders of our country will take emboldened citizens to stand up and engage in a desired social appraisal to thwart our leaders’ delusions of grandeur.

Cartoon by Carlos/New Frame

ASoshanguve-based community theatre group is working to highlight greed, corruption, gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide that is prevalent in their community through their award-win ning drama production titled, The Iron, which is enjoying a four-week season at the South African State The atre till 2 October after opening on Friday, 10 September.

The production was awarded a Best Script With Potential accolade by the SAST’s Mayibuye Community Out reach (MCO) when the group partici pated in the development programme in 2018 and 2019.

Written by Emmanuel Mashigo and directed by Sphiwe Malusi Geld enhuys, who are stern community theatre makers, The Iron follows a series of circumstances that unfold when a blacksmith is entrusted with the responsibility to fix a pure gold antique steam iron.

The spellbinding drama sets all eyes on the iron as chaos erupts with greed, corruption, lust, GBV and murder.

Applying cinematic and symbolic visual effects, the production uses the antique steam iron as a symbol to showcase malignance and animosity in society. For many years, Emmanuel and Sphiwe have been using their craft to influence social change in communities. While Sphiwe is cur rently doing dramatic development in schools, correctional centres and community theatre fieldwork, Emmanuel has showcased work in the Department of Social Devel opment’s programmes that raise awareness on social and health issues, including GBV and HIV/Aids that affect communities. “Telling stories of

where we come from encourages and inspires artists not to stop believing in telling stories that address social issues. This makes people to relate to true events that we are facing on a daily basis,” says Emmanuel.

“We are raising awareness about GBV, corruption and greed ekasi. We

are fighting against this through sto rytelling.”

With the full season at the SAST after exiting the MCO, the group and their production follow on the foot steps of other northern Pretoria town ships’ graduates of the programme, who are today accomplished artists

our production and created exposure for artists by giving us a platform to perform and also created employment for artists in Soshanguve.

“We have been equipped with skills like script-writing, acting, directing and production management by professional and experienced artists who trained us in the Mayibuye pro gramme,” Emmanuel adds.

Facilitated by the Education Youth Children’s Theatre department, the MCO programme is a field project by SAST aimed at unearthing talent in the community theatre space and shine the spotlight on those who keep the fires burning in conditions where theatre is unimaginable to take place.

The two-year development pro gramme encompasses artistic work shopping in directing, choreography, stage management, script-writing and development, business and arts administration, plus masterclasses from industry experts.

As part of the training, in their first year, community groups are chal lenged to perform a South African published script, before they present their own the following year.

The Iron is shown in the iconic Sibusiso Khwinana Theatre that has been earmarked by the SAST to be a stage for developing artists to mature through their works.

The auditorium is named after the slain theatre and film maker Sibusiso Khwinana who was also a product of the SAST’s development programmes. - citylifearts.co.za

Tickets are selling for R120 on Webtickets, which is available at the SAST, Pick n Pay stores, and online https://bit.ly/3c3NY7t

in mainstream theatre.

These artists include Winterveldt’s multi-award-winning writer and direc tor Sello Maseko and Soshanguve’s choreographer Mdu Nhlapo who is the SAST’s new Associate Artistic Director.

“The State Theatre has developed

CRIME IN SOUTH AFRICA

By Simone Haysom

The cover and title of the jour nalist Don Pinnock’s Gang Town seem to promise a sen sational tour of meth dens and children caught in the crossfire.

Instead, the book patiently explains something far more grim: what hap pens when the legacy of South Africa’s 1950 Group Areas Act, and decades of impoverishing and alienating policies, meet an unprecedented increase in youth population.

Pinnock, who is also a criminolo gist, draws on 30 years of research and journalism to conduct a survey of the many roots causes and contributing factors that come together in Cape Town’s gang phenomenon.

He traces the history of the city’s gangs, from their origins as vigilante groups in District Six - a mixed, mostly coloured, neighbourhood that was razed to the ground when its desirable inner city land was proclaimed to be for whites only – to their evolution into more violent and more organised entities in the far-flung, anonymous Cape Flats suburbs that the city’s black and coloured populations were r elo cated to.

The array of issues this tackles along the way – including 80 years of history, reflections on rites of passage and masculinity, and academic stud ies dealing with the link between early childhood development and aggression, to the structures and tac tics of transnational organised crime - seem daunting. But what Pinnock does especially well is tell this story without losing the reader, or the com plexity.

Gang Town ’s focus on Cape Town’s longue durée corruption of the social fabric of working class com munities is a sobering complement to high-pitched debates about the criminal acts of those in power.

The book sketches a city that has repeatedly deformed and destroyed social institutions that would other wise channel the natural rebellions of young people away from gangs, drug abuse and violence.

In a particularly insightful passage Pinnock describes how forced remov als under the Group Areas Act ripped up “networks of streets, houses, corner shops and shebeens, but also social webs of kin, friendship, neighbour hood and work.

They were a mix of rights and obligations, intimacies and distances, providing a sense of solidarity, local loyalties and traditions.”

Gang Town gets down to the nuts and bolts of how such policies turned neighbourhoods toxic and families violent.

Pinnock is not gloomy. The final chapters suggest solutions and provide resources for parents, teachers and community workers.

World of Cops, Bribes and Drug Dealers

The Street: Exposing a World of Cops, Bribes and Drug Dealers is written by Paul McNally, a radio journalist and the Director of the Citizen’s Justice Network, a community radio project.

The Street is an investigation of the drug trade on one street on the west side of Johannesburg, the three degen erating police stations in its vicinity, and the symbiosis between them.

We follow this story through sev eral characters on Ontdekkers Road, each waging a different battle against police corruption.

Raymond, a sound-system dealer documents the bribes he sees police men take from dealers outside his store and implores police manage

ment to act against them.

Khaba, a painfully honest lieuten ant colonel at the local police station, tries to reform the police force from within and is despised by his col leagues for it. And Wendy, a police reservist, attempts to gather evidence on her own colleague’s crimes. A com plex but fascinating narrative emerges from minute observation of characters in their environments, interwoven with interviews and anecdotes from local gangsters, Community Policy Forum volunteers, and expert opin ion.

Over the course of two years, we watch these people being frustrated and painfully disappointed, with spo radic, tenuous, moments of success. But The Street is not, ultimately, a story of vindication.

This is a story of South Africans in humble settings who try to change the systems around them, mostly fail, and are forced, instead, to recalibrate their own morality in order to stay sane and safe and solvent in a world in which graft and impunity have become more powerful organising logics than rule of law.

For McNally, meaning is found in his character’s capacity for adaptation and survival. But the question of what these adaptations cost society remains an uncomfortable one.

Considering what it means that Raymond has found a way to be at ease with the drug trade around his business, McNally comments: "The atmosphere on this patch is calmer too, although I can’t decide if this leaves a deadness on Ontdekkers or

whether I am hearing a machine, finally functioning, giving a satisfied hum.”

Following Raymond’s journey from crusader to capitulator, one can’t help but consider the multiplier effect of such transformations, on thousands of unobserved street corners.

In a year dominated, more than usual, with tales of big men and their corrupt politics, these books tell com plex and illuminating stories of how crime and corruption play out at the street level.

Neither of these books is fatalis tic, but each offers insights and con clusions that often make the reader wince. Both are suggested reading for understanding the challenges that remain, no matter who gets hired or fired.

– africasacountry.com

CAN RETRACT A RESIGNATION?

Imagine this scenario: On 1 April 2021, A submits a formal letter of resignation. The letter expressly states that the resignation, due to ill-health, is with immediate effect.

On 15 April 2021, A submits another letter to the employer, except that on this occasion, A seeks to retract his letter of resignation.

Having not heard from the employer, A returns back to work on 19 April 2021. On the other hand, the employer argues that they did issue a response, dated 15 April 2021, notifying A that they do not consent to the withdrawal of their resignation letter dated 1 April 2021. A argues that in light of the following grounds, he is still an employee:

1. He returned to work on 19 April 2021, and the employer did not object to his return.

2. He only received a response from the employer, dated 15 April 2021 on 23 April 2021, well after he had returned back to work.

3. On 25 April 2021 he received his full salary.

To compound matters even fur ther, there happens to be changes within the management echelons, and another manager (to be referred to as C), while at the helm, accepts A’s withdrawal of resignation on 10 May 2021. The initial manager (referred to as B) returns to the wheel, so to speak, and reverses C’s decision. B also instructs payroll to terminate A from the system. As a result, A doesn’t receive his full salary for the month of May. Aggrieved, A turns to the courts, essentially seeking to have his withdrawal of resignation confirmed.

This is briefly what transpired in the matter between one Monareng vs the Dr JS Moroka Municipality, in a matter which was heard in the Labour Court on 16 March. Judgment was handed down on 18 March.

This case raises a couple of questions:

1.What is resignation?

2. When does it take effect?

3. Can a resignation be withdrawn, and under which circumstance is this permissible?

4. To whom must a resignation letter be submitted for it to be effective?

In this matter, the Labour Court held:

1. A resignation as, a voluntary act, is a unilateral act that ends an employ

ment relationship.

2. A resignation takes effect once it has been communicated to an employer. What is needed is proof that the employer received and read the intended message.

3. A resignation cannot be unilater ally withdrawn, unless an employer consents thereto.

4. Any person who is legally superior to an employee who resigns, within organisational structures, is permit ted to receive a resignation letter for such a letter to be effective. The court held that such a person represents an employer one way or another.

The latter point is critical in the context of this case in that A sought to argue that, at the time of his resig nation the position of the municipal manager was vacant, and therefore, in essence, there was no one who had the authority to assume the role of an employer.

If we are to take A’s flawed argu ment to its logical conclusion, the fact that there was no municipal manager who had been permanently employed implied that the municipality could not make any administrative deci sions, not limited to, but including decisions relating to its staff members.

It is patently clear that this line of thought is deeply problematic in that it ignores the fact that organisations, at one point or another, do have vacancies, and need to put in place persons to act in those positions.

It is common cause that, unless specified, those who are appointed to act, do so with the full authority to take necessary decisions, as and when required, to ensure that such entities are not rendered dormant on account of certain positions being vacant.

The court also found it ironic that A submitted his resignation letter to the same person B, only to later argue that B did not have the requisite powers to act on behalf of the municipality on account of the fact that B was merely acting as a municipal manager.

Why did A not wait for a per manent municipal manager to be appointed before he could tender his resignation, if it was his reasoning that only those who are permanently appointed have the authority to take decisions on behalf of an employer?

Answer: it would constitute the height of organisational absurdity to imagine a scenario where no persons can be hired, paid, trained, promoted, dismissed or resign simply because the head of the organisation or any other person with the delegated authority happens to act in a particular posi tion. It defies logic to argue along these lines.

In addition to the above after thought to bolster his case, A also argued that another manager C, had subsequently accepted his with drawal of resignation. In this regard, the court, rightly so, dismissed this argument, ruling that once B had accepted the initial resignation, the employer-employee relationship had ceased to exist, effective from 1 April 2021, with immediate effect, as per

A’s own resignation letter.

The only permissible thing that C could do was to rehire or re-employ A, subject to the applicable municipal rules and regulations, something that C had evidently not done, in any event, so that the purported rehiring or re-employment was also irregular.

Another argument that A put forth was that in light of the fact that he had not served any notice, in breach of his contract, it was found he had not resigned. This is yet another hobbling line of thought which was equally dismissed by the court.

You can very well imagine a sit uation where employees routinely resign on the spot, only to resur face later, arguing that an employer should ignore the fact that they have resigned, simply because they, on their own accord, and in breach of contract, failed to serve notice.

In this regard, the court took a view that it can be permissible for an employee to retract their resignation letter while serving notice, but not after the notice period had expired. Even then, the employer still needs to consent to such a retraction, it is not automatic.

In this case, A did not serve any notice. A’s case was made even more difficult by the fact that when C pur portedly accepted his retraction, the notice period that A was supposed to have served had in any event since lapsed.

Lastly, A raised two further points which are worth mentioning. One was that he had returned to work on 19 April 2021 without any objection from A. This, in his view, meant that A consented to his return to work. In this regard, the court held that silence, although golden, does not mean acquiescence.

The fact that A did not object does not imply consent. The second last argument was that on 25 April 2021, A received his salary.

The court held that this could have happened because ordinarily, payrolls are prepared in advance on a specific day, and it was possible that A was paid erroneously on account of the fact that the person(s) responsible for payroll of the municipality were not informed in time about his resig nation.

In the end, the court felt that did not, in any material way, assist A’s case much.

Photo by goldbergdevilliers.co.za

The era of the mighty V8 is hastily coming to an end. A new dawn, based on the the ory of Alessandro Volta and Gaston Plante, is overtaking every form of mobility.

Camille Alphonse Faure would have never imagined it would be pos sible not only to light a train carriage but actually move the entire train on battery power.

I have selected two most advanced electric-and petrol-powered beasts and set them side-by-side to dissect advan tages and disadvantages of combus tion vs battery power.

For this exercise, I have compared the SSC Tuatara with the Rimac Nev era.

SSC Tuatara

The SSC Tuatara is produced in North America’s SSC motors, formerly known as Shelby Supercar Inc. in collaboration with Jason Castriota. The first prototype was powered by a 6.9L Twin turbo V8 engine.

The production model will be pow ered by a 5.9L V8 with the ability to redline at a whopping 8.800rpm. This is totally insane engineering. This motor is paired to a seven-speed CIMA robotised automated manual gearbox.

The results are a staggering 1,000Kw of power on normal fuel or 1,300Kw on E85 ethanol. 0 to 100 is rated at 2.5 seconds while accelerating to a top speed of 483km per hour, which

will surely land you in C-max prison, if driven on public roads.

It takes the shape of all the hyperve locity cars that it competes with, like the Koenigsegg, Hennessey Venom, Bugatti Veyron and the Mclaren Speed tail. This is obviously due to counter aerodynamics and keep the vehicle from flying and being able to break.

The hyper sports car has three driv ing modes: Sport, Drag and Lift. Lift can be used on uneven roads to pro tect the car’s undercarriage.

There has been some disputes on the top speed. And two companies varied the third test run at around 475km/h. If you are a petrol head and an addict to a V8 sound, this is that kind of a car. But there is no sound measurement in the exhaust db. Being from Shelby, I expect it to be insanely loud from those snakes like customised sound pipes.

Although you will be extremely popular with petrol attendants due to the known Gluttony of the V8 engines, there are petrol stations in every corner of the country with an average filling time of five minutes. All these benefits will set you back around R32 Million before taxes and import duties.

Remac Nevera

This steed is from RImac Auto-mobile, based in Croatia, popularly known for its Pininfarina Batista.

Some years ago, battery power was associated with sluggish cars that could hardly keep up with bicycles. As the name suggests, this is a quick, sudden and mighty Mediterranean wind.

This beast has been designed and hand-crafted in Croatia. Just like the wind, there is no rumbling V8 sound - only the screeching Micheline 20s Pilot tyres!

This beast is powered by two motors. A 226Kw at the front and a 450Kw rear motor paired to two single-speed electric motor gearboxes.

The result is a whopping 1.427Kw of power and torque is quoted at 2.360Nm. The results are an acceler ation of 0 to 100 in 1.9 seconds. O to 300km/h in 9.3 seconds to a top governed speed of 412km/h.

An average driver without advanced training will not be able to handle this kind of acceleration. To keep this naughty beast in check, you are treated to advanced hydraulic ceramic brakes. The light weight carbon fibre and aluminium body keeps the weight down for better take-offs and stoppages.

Production has been limited to only 150 units. As to how much the car costs, you would think it is an ambitious goal to sell the entire 150 units.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages and disadvantages of combustion engine vs electric motor combustion vehicles converts only 40% of gas into energy. This means for every litre used, less than half a litre is actually converted into energy.

Battery-powered vehicles convert around 85% of power into real mobil ity energy. Combustion engines have a ton of moving parts hence they tend to be unreliable.

EVs are extremely efficient, with less moving parts. As such, they are more reliable.

Combustion vehicles have an extensive network of technical sup port.

EVs are a fairly new technology, with only a handful of dealer tech nicians.

Combustion vehicles have a well-es tablished refuelling station through out the land. EVs have a limited net work of charging stations, mostly in big metros.

Combustion vehicles can be oper ated in all parts of the country with out any hustle.

EVs are well-catered for in devel oped countries, and there they are mostly used in cities.

Combustion vehicles have an expensive maintenance cost over time due to wear and tear of the moving parts.

EVs have less moving parts and the predicted running costs are less Combustion vehicles are not reli ant on electricity supply.

EVs, especially 500Kw charging, will need a reliable electricity supply.

Combustion vehicles released are well-known for their harmful gas emission to the environment.

EVs, on the other hand, run clean, but electricity generation is a dirty business in Africa.

In conclusion, it will be impossible to fully implement the EV mobility network in Africa.

Range will always be an issue. Also, electricity is a luxury in some parts of Africa. Metro commuting might be possible, but generally for now the V8 will remain the king of the African jungle

By Chris Gilili

● Several Gauteng learners from Sos hanguve Technical High School have built a one-of-a-kind solar powered train.

● Considering the country’s energy crisis and rising fuel costs, they started working on the locomotive in 2020.

● The train is powered by a solar panel, has power sockets and a TV screen. It currently runs at 30 kilo metres per hour.

Hard work and sacrifice have paid off for several learners from Soshanguve Technical High School of automotive specialisation. They designed and built a one-of-a-kind solar powered train locomotive.

Fondly named Modjadji, after the Rain Queen of the people of Limpopo, it is blue and white, with mirrors, wip ers, carpets and enough space inside for two passengers.

Grade 12 innovator Lethabo Nkadi meng said the country’s energy crisis and rising fuel costs inspired them to make a solar train. They started working on the locomotive in 2020.

“I’m honoured to have been part of such an innovation. We sacrificed a lot of our time and I’m grateful I never

gave up,” said Nkadimeng.

The train is powered with a solar panel, has power sockets and a TV screen. It currently runs at 30 kilo metres per hour. “We still want to extend the platform and make it longer, and to test its full speed.”

Nkadimeng said they were also hop ing to change the perception around technical schools and to inspire their peers to dream big.

“We also used a lot of theory which informed the practical side of building the train. We want to inspire other learners. We need to be innovative and think like entrepreneurs,” he said.

Nkadimeng said he has already received offers to study Computer Science at Stellenbosch University and Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town.

Mpho Bongwe, who also worked on the train, said while they were doing research for the project, they visited Transnet. He said one of the employees scoffed at their idea, saying it was “impossible”.

“But we never stopped and man aged to pull it off. We would like to inspire kids to also think beyond the impossible. I’m inspired by countries like China that support kids to be innovative. We hope the train will break the limits in the way we think,” he said.

The school operated as a techni cal high school after 1996 and was relaunched as a school of specialisa tion, with a special focus on the auto

motive sector in 2019. The school has over 800 learners. The school is also in close proximity to major automotive plants such as Nissan and BMW in the Rosslyn industrial area.

Principal Amos Mashiane told GroundUp that he couldn’t be more proud of the learners. “It stands for the core values of this school which are creativity and innovation. It took a year and a half to complete this train … On Christmas day and New Years those learners were working,” he said.

“We worked with the little funds … We are now asking for investment because it can work.” He said they needed to import a motor for the train from China because they could not find one locally.

Mashiane said the total cost of the train was just shy of half a million. He said a grant from the Gauteng Depart ment of Education helped them cover the cost of building the train.

The principal said he still hopes they can expand the school to accom modate more learners.

Kgomotso Maimane, who was mentoring the learners through the project, said, “Learners from differ ent trades within the school were involved in the project. It involved a lot of thinking outside the box. It was tough but you could see they were not giving up.

“The literature review and research alone, took them months. It was not an easy thing to do,” said Maimane. - groundup.org.za

“We sacrificed a lot of our time and I’m grateful I never gave up”

Learner Mpho Bongwe, mentor Kgomotso Maimane and learner Lethabo Nkadimeng (from left to right) of the Soshanguve Technical School of Specialisation show off their newly built solar train. Photo by Chris Gilili

On Thursday 8 September, the group exhibited their solar train at the Sasol Innovation Expo at Carnival City in Brakpan, Ekurhuleni. One of the learners will present and participate at Eskom’s expo for young scientists in Johannesburg in December. Photo by Chris Gilili

The limited options available for athletes in the global south points to the destruction of pub lic health systems due to priva tisation. In Kenya, for example, failed public healthcare is a legacy of policies promoting historical inequality which continue under the veneer of public private part nerships. A conversation about mental health in sports is funda mentally a public policy discus sion about economic investment in health systems.

4. Sportswomen deserve a more secure future Serena’s exit from tennis is accom panied by a financial exit strat egy – Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. The financial security built of decades of success in a sport does not translate in the same way in contexts shaped by vast economic disparities. Sere na’s context shows what needs to change.

In Kenya, coupled with the pressures of competitive sport, women athletes are also dealing

with the silence around intimate partner violence in the sports fraternity – highlighted by the murders of athletes Agnes Tirop and Damaris Muthee.

There are three interlocked issues here. The first is the absence of strong financial advice and sup port to athletes over the course of their careers.

The second is the vast societal inequalities that create undue pressure on young athletes who come into money to support their families financially.

Finally, the combination of class and gender demands that femicide and intimate partner violence are taken as seriously by sports associations as they do anti-doping campaigns.

Serena Williams’ journey of excellence and fortitude also shines a light on the negative outcomes that sit at the inter section of race, gender and class in sports specifically and society generally. As we hail the “Greatest of All Time”, African governments must take heed of the structural shifts required in our sports arena.

This story was first published in The Conversation.

Story Continues on Page 19

Photo by nyt.com

Photo by media.npr.org

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Photo by David Gray/AFP

US icon Serena Williams, considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, is retiring from professional tennis. Williams has won 23 grand slam singles titles, more than any other woman or man during the professional era, which began in 1995.

Coached by her father, she changed the face of the women’s game. In the pro cess, through speaking frankly about her life and career, she became a role model for many black women around the world.

Tennis Kenya secretary general and former player Wanjiru Mbugua Karani recently said: “Serena has been the ‘be-all’ for African tennis, and especially for girls in Africa.” We asked Kenyan polit ical sociologist and gender expert Awino Okech what lessons can be learned for African women in sports when reflecting on Williams’ career.

By Awino Okech

1. Public investment in sport pays off The story of Serena Williams and her sister Venus Williams, a fellow star player, is not one of privilege.

Serena’s success was initially nurtured at an old public tennis court in her neighbourhood. Her father gathered resources where he could find them to skill his daughters when he saw potential in tennis.

Across sections of Africa, we see the public divestment in sports through land grabs with public parks converted into office buildings and apartments, thus limiting space for recreation and sports. Secondly, the privatisation of sporting facilities limits public access as people have to pay to use them.

Thirdly, the under-resourcing of public schools results in limited, if any, investment in sporting facilities. The result is a class divide that writes out most young Africans from sporting opportunities. African governments need to make greater investments in public sports facilities and pro grammes targeting girls particularly in contexts where sports is not viewed as a viable career option.

2. Racism in sport must be eliminated

Serena and Venus Williams’ impor tance to world tennis lies in their being outliers in a sport that has

been historically dominated by white women and men. Consequently, Ser ena’s iconic stature as a tennis star has been coloured by the gender and racial dynamics that have shaped her treatment in the sport. She was sub jected to descriptions around her mas culinity, aggression, and her power as a player.

These are broader racialised tropes that link Black people to savagery and whiteness to evolved humanity. In the visual and verbal descriptions of Serena in the public media, we saw the use of historically racialised tropes of the angry Black woman and ani malistic caricatures by the media and social media users. This was intended to diminish her capabilities through psychological warfare.

Anti-Black racism in sport has been the subject of public debates and investigations. One study revealed that Black football players who missed penalties were the most abused play ers in the Euro 2020 championship final stage.

In Serena’s case, these experiences sit at the intersection of gender and race. All women share the experi ence of sexism – from pay disparities

to the lack of attention to women’s sports compared to men’s. However, the combination of race and gender doubles the battle that Serena Wil liams and other international athletes like South African sprinting champion Caster Semenya must contend with. Serena took a stand. She withdrew from and boycotted events such as the BNP Paribas Open in California because of racial slurs from the crowd.

The race problem in sports – which becomes visible through online abuse, spectator behaviour and overall sports management – is reflective of a broader problem. The anti-Black character of racism experienced by Serena will not be solved by more representation of Black women but by a systemic reck oning that challenges how race and gender disparities are entrenched in the DNA of competitive sport.

3. We need to talk about mental health in women’s sport Sexism and racism accompanied by the intense public scrutiny in com petitive sport have drawn attention to the critical question of mental health. We are now witnessing a generation

of younger athletes such as Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka and US gym nastics champion Simone Biles taking a stand. They have at times chosen mental wellbeing over participating in high pressured competitions. Serena Williams has played an important role in creating the space for a tennis player like Osaka to speak out.

These acts of courage take place in an environment in which a discussion on mental wellbeing is construed as weakness. They focus attention on a neglected area in sports, the need for a holistic health system that supports the pressure cooker environment of elite sports. The case of Kenyan mid dleweight boxer Conjestina Achieng, the first African woman to hold an international boxing title, is illustra tive. Achieng, who was diagnosed with mental illness, has been failed by a broader public health system. One that allocates too few resources to training mental health experts and providing specialist services in public hospitals.