RED-TAPE ALERT

For several years, government has been promising to cut the unnecessary red tape undermining entrepreneurship and stifling investment. For this reason, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of... 

DEATHLY ROOTS

There is nothing startling in the report of the expert panel appointed to review government’s response to the July 2021 civil unrest. It confirms that factional politics is now having deadly... 

THE PPE WE NEED NOW

The final Special Investigating Unit report into fraud and corruption linked to the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as other works and services purchased in response to... 

PRICE SHOCK

As expected, none of the non-Eskom stakeholders who made oral representations to the energy regulator on Eskom’s request for a 20.5% increase had any sympathy for such a hike. Doubly so given the... 

ENSNARED BY AMBITION

Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s deeply offensive and unsubstantiated attack on the judiciary and her undermining of a constitution that she has taken an oath to defend has all the hallmarks of an... 

DUSTBIN OF HISTORY

South Africa simply cannot afford a repeat of 2021 this year. Further delays in dealing with the country’s big problems of load-shedding, economic and social crime, vaccine hesitancy and, most... 

(OMI)NOUS OR SIGNAL?

Given patchy global vaccination penetration and ongoing hesitancy at home, the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant was as inevitable as the fourth wave. Far less inevitable is the health risk posed... 

RUNGS OF HELL

South Africa’s deep electricity crisis has its genesis not in the past 18 months and not even in the past decade, although it was definitely made worse by the toxic State-capture years and... 

MOVE ON

Despite the advanced age of Eskom’s coal fleet, coal power will remain a significant part of the domestic electricity mix for many years yet, with the new Medupi and Kusile stations having extended... 

ENERGY SAPPING

There is no quick fix for South Africa’s growth- and confidence-sapping bouts of load-shedding. The coal fleet has been run too hard for too long and maintenance neglected. South Africa’s... 

HARD HAT

Besides being known as the ultimate African National Congress insider, Enoch Godongwana, South Africa’s new Finance Minister, is also known for wearing homburg hats, often with the feather on the... 

ENERGY SQUEEZE

Scottish rock band Stealers Wheel, sang about ‘Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right!’ in their 1970s hit song ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’. At the tail-end of 2021, South African... 

FLATTEN THE CURVE

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group 1 report, which assesses the physical science basis for climate change, points to a near-linear relationship between cumulative... 

LEAP OF LOGIC

While President Cyril Ramaphosa was urging investors to embrace green energy and calling on rich countries to support developed country energy transitions with concessional finance, his Mineral... 

REGULATORY RUCTIONS:

The decision of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to reject Eskom’s revenue applications for the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25 has created ructions. The decision is... 

NEW BARRIER

South Africans were rightly upset by the opaque, and seemingly non-scientific reasoning, behind the UK government’s recent decision to keep the country on its Covid Red List. The country’s exports... 

VOTER HESITANCY

Vaccine hesitancy is not the only form of hesitancy troubling South Africans. Many eligible voters are deeply uncertain about how best to exercise their November 1 municipal vote, despite chronic... 

APP(Y) DAYS

With signs of waning vaccine uptake, South Africa is set to join a growing list of countries that require either digital or physical proof of vaccination before an individual can participate in... 

VOTING FOR MANDATES

The announcement of South Africa’s municipal election date more or less coincided with Discovery’s announcement that the company intended moving to a mandatory Covid vaccination policy from January... 

FISSI(ON) THE MENU

Moves to open the way for 2 500 MW of new nuclear capacity raises a menu of questions. If new nuclear is affordable, why is there no allocation for it in the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP)? If it’s... 

GATEWAY OR WALL

South Africa’s ports have had a torrid two years: operations were hit hard during the early onset of the Covid-19 pandemic; the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng riots rocked the N3 corridor and the Port... 

NO TIME TO HESITATE

After an excruciatingly slow start and some bad luck, South Africa’s vaccination programme is no longer supply constrained. Demand, however, has become a new concern, with vaccine hesitancy the... 

REAL RISK

Yes, supporters of former President Jacob Zuma deliberately planned and executed a strategy to destabilise the country when they initiated attacks on key economic infrastructure following his... 

HACK WARNING

The recent cyber-attack on Transnet, which paralysed operations at the country’s ports only days after deadly rioting did likewise, was yet another warning of just how vulnerable the country’s... 

HORRIFYING REFLECTION

The recent insurrection, which triggered widespread and deadly violence and looting, was a test of both South Africa’s world-class Constitution and its maturing democracy. While both passed the... 

BUILDING BACK

The three C’s of ‘conspiracy’, ‘conditions’ and ‘capacity’ combined toxically this month when South Africa witnessed deplorable scenes of deadly violence, theft and destruction. The conspirators... 

RACE IS ON

For South Africa to have any chance of extending its 2021 economic rebound into a full-blown multidecade recovery, an Olympian effort has to be made to vaccinate as many people as possible in as... 

DELTA BLOW

As the Delta variant blows through South Africa and many other countries, the good news is that the vaccines remain effective. The bad news is that South Africa’s slow pace of vaccination has left... 

JABS & JOBS

There is little question that the mass Covid vaccination roll-out represents South Africa’s most important economic stimulus programme and will provide the foundation for job-creating investment.... 

TRANSMISSION TRANSITION

The creation, by year-end, of the Independent Transmission System and Market Operator, or ITSMO, is arguably the most important next reform required to align the electricity supply industry (ESI)... 

STEADY CLIMB

For years, South Africa has been promising reforms to stimulate growth, investment and jobs. Until this month, however, those pledges have not been translated into action. On June 10, President... 

IN THE COLD

It’s another winter of discontent, as Eskom once again resorts to regular power cuts to stabilise its unreliable system. Maddeningly, South Africa would probably be exiting its 13-year... 

MONSTROUS CURVE

South Africa’s official unemployment rate increased to a terrifying 32.6% in the first quarter of 2021, the highest level since the report was introduced 13 years ago. On the expanded definition... 

MUSCULAR EFFORT

South Africa’s phased mass vaccination effort is finally under way, with health workers and people over 60 receiving priority under the initial stage of Phase 2. Success in scaling up the campaign... 

PRICE GYRATIONS

The iron-ore price has come under the spotlight this month with both sharp daily gains and steep declines recorded. The volatility has led to questions about whether the iron-ore price is... 

WAVE WARNING

As South Africa faces a third Covid-19 wave, it’s crucial that we don’t let down our guard, despite the fact that we are all extremely tired of the living under ongoing restrictions. For now, mask... 

WEIGHED DOWN

Opposition to the South African government’s awarding of preferred-bidder status to power ships as part of a recent electricity procurement bidding round continues to grow. Besides ongoing... 

OWN GOAL

While football fans, especially in England, were angrily protesting a fatally flawed plan to create a closed-shop super league for a handful of elite European clubs, anger was growing in South... 

ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

South Africa is big on shiny new things, including mega infrastructure projects. The country is less big, however, when it comes to maintaining that infrastructure across its full life cycle. While... 

HIKES & LEVIES

The fuel price and power tariff hikes implemented at the start of this month bring back painful memories of surging energy prices ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic. They have also placed the spotlight...