Archive for category: Industry News

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the energy department will take over responsibility for overseeing state utility Eskom Holdings, which has been failing to meet the nation’s power demand since 2008. The change will be in line with a resolution adopted by the governing African National Congress at its national conference last week, which specified that state companies operating in specific economic sectors should be overseen by the relevant government departments. That could potentially signal a dissolution of the Department of Public Enterprises, which oversees Eskom, logistics company Transnet and several other entities.

The CEO of Eskom Holdings Andre de Ruyter resigned because “it’s a tough job,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, stressing that the government has a “cohesive” plan to resolve the national power shortage. Ramaphosa said the government is not “sleeping on the job,” with regard to the worst ever power cuts the nation has experienced and he has spoken to his ministers about the need for a uniform approach to the problem.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a specialist organisation of the United Nations system, highlighted on Friday that it has piloted a new training tool in Senegal, in support of the West African country’s plan to acquire a research reactor. The piloting of the new tool took place in Dakar, from December 12 to December 16. Designated the IAEA Human Resource Modelling Tool for New Research Reactor Programmes, the new training system is intended to help countries to determine and develop the skilled workforces they will need to implement new research reactor programmes. Using modelling, the tool will help these countries to address the human resources requirements of every step in such programmes, from planning research reactors to operating them.

JSE-listed multidisciplinary construction group Stefanutti Stocks has advised shareholders that it has submitted an overarching preliminary and general cost claim, as well as a subcontractor overarching preliminary and general cost claim, of R337-million and R193-million, respectively, in relation to the Kusile power project. In addition to a construction cost claim of R438-million and a finance cost claim of R171-million, the total of all provisional claims submitted to the experts is R1.14-billion.

South Africa needs to act now and transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and competitive economy to unlock new green opportunities and avoid the “massive” cost of inaction around climate change, a report recently published by the National Business Initiative (NBI), in partnership with Business Unity South Africa (Busa) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), has found. The NBI-Busa-BCG Climate Pathways project last week published the ‘Financing South Africa’s Just Transition’ and ‘South Africa’s Net-Zero Transition’ reports.