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        <title>Engineering News | Opinion</title>
        <description><![CDATA[Regular columnists and guest writers offer their commentary and opinions as well as analysis of current events in the energy, transport and economy sector to name but a few.]]></description>
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            <title>Lucky for some</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/lucky-for-some-2026-03-13</link>
            <description><![CDATA[On Friday March 13, 1981, the first edition of Engineering News, then a fortnightly tabloid newspaper, officially made its debut as a specialist business-to-business publication. The date itself may have alarmed the more superstitious among us, but the political-economy into which the venture was born was arguably even scarier.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: OUR ANNIVERSARY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Mediterranean migrants face rising deaths</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/mediterranean-migrants-face-rising-deaths-2026-03-13</link>
            <description><![CDATA[More than 500 people died in the Mediterranean Sea in the first 40 days of 2026 as they desperately attempted to make their way to Europe in search of safety or opportunity, which their often conflict-affected home countries could not guarantee. This figure, drawn from the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM’s) Missing Migrants Project, marks the deadliest start to a year since the agency started systematically recording deaths in 2014. The deadliest tragedy this year occurred on February 6, when 53 migrants capsized off the Libyan coast.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Zhuwakinyu</author>
            <category>AFRICA BEAT</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>The art of the Budget</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/the-art-of-the-budget-2026-03-13</link>
            <description><![CDATA[If US President Donald J Trump could have a book, The Art of the Deal, written by journalist Tony Schwartz and credited to him, then why can I not have a column credited to me that South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana essentially wrote? You will not have read about what follows in Godongwana’s 2026 National Budget speech, delivered on February 25; rather, what appeared in the Budget Review’s ‘Annexure C: Additional Tax Policy And Administrative Adjustments’.]]></description>
            <author>Riaan de Lange</author>
            <category>TRADE@WORK </category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>716525</a_id>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Now’s the time to match South Africa’s sound mineral potential with sound govt policy</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/nows-the-time-to-match-south-africas-sound-mineral-potential-with-sound-govt-policy-2026-03-13</link>
            <description><![CDATA[In a world that’s changing very fast, new opportunities are out there to attract investment but only for those countries that at least cut bureaucracy down to size. Just how badly South Africa fares has, once again, been embarrassingly highlighted by the latest Fraser Institute report, which ranks a well-endowed country like South Africa among the ten least attractive investment destination. This is in sharp contrast to neighbouring Botswana, which continues to hold its own in the top ten. South Africa’s abysmally low ranking must simply not be allowed to continue. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Creamer</author>
            <category>FIRST WORD</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Important shifts</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/important-shifts-2026-03-06</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The overarching theme of last week’s Budget was definitely the fiscal turning point that has now finally been reached. Debt is being stabilised and the trajectory of the deficit is narrowing, allowing the National Treasury to avert new taxes and revert to providing inflationary relief  to taxpayers. The two main underlying stories of the Budget, however, are moves to shift the composition of spending and to begin introducing structures that could start improving the quality of spending.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: BUDGET 2026</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <editor>Terence Creamer</editor>
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            <title>When elections turn bizarre</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/when-elections-turn-bizarre-2026-03-06</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Elsewhere in this edition, I report on upcoming elections in Africa, drawing attention to continental observers’ concern that outcomes that increase political risk could dampen both domestic and foreign investor sentiment. In that piece, I highlight misgivings about the contest in South Sudan – slated for December – which is going ahead without a census and a permanent Constitution. It’s hard to fault opposition politicians and civil society activists who are crying foul.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Zhuwakinyu</author>
            <category>AFRICA BEAT</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Prohibited and restricted goods</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/prohibited-and-restricted-goods-2026-03-06</link>
            <description><![CDATA[A topic that is very rarely written about or given the attention it deserves is ‘prohibited goods and restricted goods’. All countries have a ‘prohibited goods and restricted goods list’ of some description, which is either published as a single document or across customs authorities’ administrations.]]></description>
            <author>Riaan de Lange</author>
            <category>TRADE@WORK </category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>South Africa must go all out to accelerate  its ﻿reindustrialisation</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/south-africa-must-go-all-out-to-accelerate-its-re-industrialisation-2026-03-06</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The re-industrialisation of South Africa is an absolute must and it is good to see that public-private collaboration has been successfully applied to bring dormant industrial infrastructure back to life. South Africa’s once-huge ferroalloy business only came into being because of competitively priced electricity and it is only competitively priced electricity that can bring it back to life. The exemplary way that business and government have been working in the ferroalloys space must now be applied across the board to ensure that South Africa’s re-industrialisation is accelerated.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Creamer</author>
            <category>FIRST WORD</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Trading spaces</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/trading-spaces-2026-02-27</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Electricity trading in South Africa, as Etana Energy CEO Evan Rice explained recently, is at once active and in transition. Just how active, is reflected in a report commissioned by the South African Energy Traders Association and compiled by research firm Krutham. The report includes results from a survey conducted in February, showing that of the 4.7 GW of private-contracted power projects to have reached financial close in the period from 2023 to end-2025, projects with a combined nameplate of 2.6 GW, representing 56% of this category of projects, were underpinned by contracts with eight traders.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ELECTRICITY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>US deportation wave crashes again</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/us-deportation-wave-crashes-again-2026-02-27</link>
            <description><![CDATA[It all happened below the media’s radar, but we now know that in the dead of night on January 14 nine men and women were handcuffed, bundled onto a plane and flown from the US to Yaoundé in Cameroon, victims of Donald Trump’s third-country deportation scheme. Slightly more than a month later – on February 16 – and again under the cover of darkness, another eight men were dispatched to the West African country.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Zhuwakinyu</author>
            <category>AFRICA BEAT</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>715567</a_id>
        <updated>1771917089</updated>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Africa in an uncoupling world</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/africa-in-an-uncoupling-world-2026-02-27</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The African Union (AU) biannual summit and the Munich Security Conference both took place over Valentine’s weekend – traditional time for coupling – when much of the world is rapidly uncoupling, with implications yet to be recognised for the world and Africa’s place in it.   Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney, in a speech at Davos heralded as capturing the global moment, described the uncoupling as a rupture with the old order, outlining a defensive way forward for so-called middle powers.  US President Donald Trump’s response was a predictably incoherent social media lashing backed by fresh tariffs on Canada. ]]></description>
            <author>Tara O’Connor</author>
            <category>AFRICA IN FOCUS</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>715530</a_id>
        <updated>1771917089</updated>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Sugar, rising duties and shutdowns</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/sugar-rising-duties-and-shutdowns-2026-02-27</link>
            <description><![CDATA[“You wait ages for one – and then three come along at the same time!” You might well be familiar with this idiom, usually associated with a bus and used to describe a long period of waiting for something, followed by an abundance arriving simultaneously. Only this time it relates to ‘shugar’, the older spelling of the word originating from ‘śárkarā’, meaning ‘gravel’ or ‘sand’ and describing the texture of granulated sugar, or C12H22O11.]]></description>
            <author>Riaan de Lange</author>
            <category>TRADE@WORK </category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>715533</a_id>
        <updated>1771917089</updated>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Back-on-track independent ﻿State-owned transmission entity is very good news</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/back-on-track-independent-state-owned-transmission-entity-is-very-good-news-2026-02-27</link>
            <description><![CDATA[President Cyril Ramaphosa has brought the sudden uncertainty around South Africa’s electricity transmission future to a welcome end. In last week's far-reaching State of the Nation Address, the President made it clear that the new transmission entity will own and control powerline assets and not Eskom. It’s also good news that this year will see the first round of independent transmission projects that will enable private investment to expand South Africa’s national grid – and our economy along with it. Relying on a single supplier to meet energy needs is being avoided, thank goodness and in its place is a level playing field to enable economically crucial competition to be exercised.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Creamer</author>
            <category>FIRST WORD</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>715302</a_id>
        <updated>1771918632</updated>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Moral hazard</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/moral-hazard-2026-02-20</link>
            <description><![CDATA[There is currently a marked difference between how Eskom and Transnet are being assessed against their respective reform milestones. While the State electricity producer is being adjudged, correctly, as backsliding, its freight logistics counterpart is mostly being praised for the progress it is making in opening the port and rail networks to private participants. For instance, the latest Operation Vulindlela quarterly report assigns a green colour-code representing progress for all the reform components it is monitoring in the area of logistics, albeit with some delays. By contrast, two of the five electricity reforms being monitored – completing the restructuring of Eskom, and reforming the electricity distribution industry – are colour-coded orange, indicating that the reforms are facing significant challenges.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ECONOMIC REFORM</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>714977</a_id>
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        <editor>Terence Creamer</editor>
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            <title>Britain’s Rwanda reckoning</title>
            <link>https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com/article/britains-rwanda-reckoning-2026-02-20</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Regular readers of this column will recall the now scrapped and always controversial 2022 scheme under which the UK proposed to dispatch would-be asylum seekers arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel to far-off Rwanda. The arrangement was cobbled together when Boris Johnson was UK Prime Minister. This was his answer to what had become a serious illegal immigration problem, exemplified in recent years by 37 000 Channel crossings in 2024 and more than 40 000 in 2025 – the highest number since 2022, when nearly 46 000 made the journey.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Zhuwakinyu</author>
            <category>AFRICA BEAT</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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