Economy
1. The rand was the best performing currency against the US Dollar
between 2002 and 2005 (Bloomberg Currency Scoreboard)
2. South Africa has 55,000 high net-wealth individuals holding at least
US$1million in financial assets (World Wealth Report 2008)
3. South Africa has the 27th biggest economy in the world, with a Gross
Domestic Product of US$254 billion (World Bank)
4. South Africa accounts for almost 25% of the GDP of the entire African
continent, with an economy more than twice the size of the second biggest –
Algeria. (World Bank)
5. Gauteng is South Africa’s smallest province but produces 34% of South
Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (Stats SA)
6. The JSE Securities Exchange is the 14th largest equities exchange in the
world, with a total market capitalisation of some R2.3 trillion (JSE)
7. More than 12,000 'Black Diamond' families (South Africa’s new black middle
class) - or 50,000 people - are moving from the townships into the
suburbs of South Africa's metro areas every month (UCT Unilever Institute)
8. The black middle class grew by 30% in 2005, adding another 421,000
black adults to SA's middle-income layer and ramping up the black
population's share of SA's total middle class to almost a third. Between 2001
and 2004, there were 300,000 new black entrants to the middle class
(Financial Mail)
Infrastructure
1. South Africa generates two-thirds of Africa’s electricity (Eskom)
2. South African power supplier provides the fourth cheapest electricity in
the world
3. Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is the biggest hospital in the
world
4. Durban is the largest port in Africa and the ninth largest in the world.
5. There are 39 million cell phone users in South Africa (International
Telecommunication Union)
Tourism
1. The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 200%
since 1994, from 3 million to over 9 million in 2007 (Dept of Environment
and Tourism)
2. The Singita game reserve was voted the best hotel in the world by the
readers of a leading travel magazine (Conde Nast Traveller)
3. The world's best land-based whale-watching spot is located in
Hermanus in the Western Cape.
4. In 2002, South Africa was the world’s fastest growing tourist
destination. In 2006, South Africa’s tourism grew at three times the global
average.
Sport
1. South Africa hosts the largest timed cycle race in the world (the Cape Argus
Cycle Tour), the world's oldest and largest ultra-marathon (the Comrades
Marathon) and the world's largest open water swimming event (the
Midmar Mile).
2. South Africa will become the first African country to host the Soccer World
Cup in 2010 … and only the second country in the world to have hosted
the Cricket, Rugby and Soccer World Cups.
3. Since the 1940s, South African golfers have won more golf majors than
any other nation, apart from the United States.
4. In 1994, we won 11 medals in the Commonwealth Games. In 2002, we
won 46.
SA Teaching the World
1. South Africa houses one of the three largest telescopes in the world at
Sutherland in the Karoo
2. South Africa is the first, and to date the only, country to build nuclear
weapons and the voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons
programme
3. South Africa Constitution is widely regarded as being one of the most
progressive in the world, drawing from the experiences of the world’s
most advanced democracies
4. The South African oil company Sasol has established the only commercially
viable oil-from-coal operations in the world.
5. Two of the world's most profoundly compassionate philosophies
originated in South Africa – Ubuntu (the belief in a universal bond of sharing
that connects all humanity) and Gandhi's notion of "passive resistance"
(Satyagraha), which he developed while living in South Africa.
Education
1. Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on
education
2. The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance
education and is the largest correspondence university in the world
with 250,000 students.
3. Our learner to teacher ratio has improved from 1:50 in 1994 to 1:34 in
2004
4. South Africa’s matric pass rate has improved from 49% in 1994 to 70% in
2004, but student’s receiving university exemptions has remained at 18%
5. The first MBA programme outside of the United States was started by
the University of Pretoria in 1949.
Social
1. Over thirteen million South Africans (a quarter of the population) have
access to social grants (Department of Social Development)
2. Since 1994, 500 houses have been built each day for the poor and 1,000
houses per day have received electricity
3. Seventy percent of South Africa’s population is urbanised
Environmental
1. The Kruger National Park supports the greatest variety of wildlife
species on the African continent
2. The Cango Caves near Oudsthoorn is the world’s longest underground
cave sequence
3. South Africa is the only country to house an entire floral kingdom
(fynbos), one of only 6 on the planet
4. In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to protect the
Great White shark.
5. South Africa has the oldest meteor scar in the world, at the Vredefort
Dome near Parys. The scar is 2 billion years old.
6. South Africa has the 3rd highest level of biodiversity (SA Tourism)
7. The Cape Hyrax’s (dassie) closest relative is the African elephant
8. South Africa has embraced the concept of trans-frontier ‘peace parks’,
linking ecological reserves across national borders
General
1. South Africa is the cradle of mankind
2. Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world
3. The Western Deep Levels is the world’s deepest mine at 3777 metres
4. South Africa has the world’s largest deposits of gold, chromium, platinum
and manganese
5. The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize winners is
in Soweto. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both have houses
in Vilakazi Street, Orlando West.
6. South Africa has the world's second oldest air force, established 1920.
7. South African Breweries (SABMiller) ranks as the second largest brewing
company in the world. It supplies up to 50% of China's beer.
8. South Africa has the second oldest film industry in the world
9. In 2007 South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa was included in the
Time 100, an annual list, assembled by Time magazine, of the 100 most
influential people in the world
10. Cape Town has the fifth-best blue sky in the world, according to the UK's
National Physical Laboratory
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
SA throwing away millions
The strike by municipal workers is costing the country in the region of R15-million a day, an economist said on Tuesday.
"The problem is, it's very difficult to work out [the cost]. I can't work out the damage of all the shops and the traders. It's a hassle factor.
"But the cost is around R15-million a day in workers' wages, I guess," economist Mike Schussler told Sapa.
He said the longer the strike continues, the more the cost escalates.
"By the second week it becomes a huge problem, because then a person pays out of his own pocket to remove his rubbish.
"All these factors have to be considered, so R15-million is a little simplistic but it's the best we can do at the moment," said Schussler.
Figures on the number of municipal workers arriving for work are also different.
Overwhelming, underwhelming
The unions claim "overwhelming" support, saying more than 150 000 out of a workforce of 190 000 did not show up work.
But the employer, the SA Local Government Association (Salga), says only 40 percent of workers participated in the stay away.
A strike by members of the SA Municipal Workers' Union and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union entered its second day on Tuesday.
Thousands of workers took to the streets on Monday to press for better wages, harassing hawkers and emptying rubbish bins.
Unions are demanding a 15 percent increase and Salga has tabled a new offer of 13 percent.
Sapa
"The problem is, it's very difficult to work out [the cost]. I can't work out the damage of all the shops and the traders. It's a hassle factor.
"But the cost is around R15-million a day in workers' wages, I guess," economist Mike Schussler told Sapa.
He said the longer the strike continues, the more the cost escalates.
"By the second week it becomes a huge problem, because then a person pays out of his own pocket to remove his rubbish.
"All these factors have to be considered, so R15-million is a little simplistic but it's the best we can do at the moment," said Schussler.
Figures on the number of municipal workers arriving for work are also different.
Overwhelming, underwhelming
The unions claim "overwhelming" support, saying more than 150 000 out of a workforce of 190 000 did not show up work.
But the employer, the SA Local Government Association (Salga), says only 40 percent of workers participated in the stay away.
A strike by members of the SA Municipal Workers' Union and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union entered its second day on Tuesday.
Thousands of workers took to the streets on Monday to press for better wages, harassing hawkers and emptying rubbish bins.
Unions are demanding a 15 percent increase and Salga has tabled a new offer of 13 percent.
Sapa
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Can Zuma walk his talk?
By Haru Mutasa, Al Jazeera's South Africa correspondent
South Africa has been rocked by violent protests in recent weeks, with last week being perhaps the most violent since the inauguration of Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, in May.
Police fired rubber bullets and teargas at protestors in the poor township areas who hurled stones at them.
Violent riots and threats of a fresh wave of crippling labour strikes may force Zuma to deliver quickly on election promises which include job creation and houses for millions of the poor.
But these socialist interventions by the government could scare away investors in Africa's biggest economy who want the current economic policy in South Africa to stay the way it is.
On the other end of the scale, the trade unions who helped put Zuma in power want left leaning economic policies.
Worrying reminder
While politicians try to find a middle ground, the battle over policies is being played out in the overcrowded townships where there is often no running water, electricity or adequate accommodation.
The people want their lives to improve and want the government to look after their needs before those of big business.
The recent township violence is reminiscent of the unrest witnessed during the apartheid years and the threats against foreigners are a worrying reminder of last year's xenophobic attacks.
In 2008, protests erupted across South Africa. They began as demonstrations over the government's failure to improve the plight of the poorest of the poor, but soon foreigners were being attacked in their shack settlements.
An estimated 70 people were murdered by the time the violence ended several weeks later.
South Africa has been rocked by violent protests in recent weeks, with last week being perhaps the most violent since the inauguration of Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, in May.
Police fired rubber bullets and teargas at protestors in the poor township areas who hurled stones at them.
Violent riots and threats of a fresh wave of crippling labour strikes may force Zuma to deliver quickly on election promises which include job creation and houses for millions of the poor.
But these socialist interventions by the government could scare away investors in Africa's biggest economy who want the current economic policy in South Africa to stay the way it is.
On the other end of the scale, the trade unions who helped put Zuma in power want left leaning economic policies.
Worrying reminder
While politicians try to find a middle ground, the battle over policies is being played out in the overcrowded townships where there is often no running water, electricity or adequate accommodation.
The people want their lives to improve and want the government to look after their needs before those of big business.
The recent township violence is reminiscent of the unrest witnessed during the apartheid years and the threats against foreigners are a worrying reminder of last year's xenophobic attacks.
In 2008, protests erupted across South Africa. They began as demonstrations over the government's failure to improve the plight of the poorest of the poor, but soon foreigners were being attacked in their shack settlements.
An estimated 70 people were murdered by the time the violence ended several weeks later.
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Mine deaths a disgrace - Vavi
Johannesburg - The number of deaths in South African mines was a national disgrace, Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Friday.
"Urgent action is needed to put an end to this carnage," Vavi told a memorial service for nine mineworkers who died on Monday at Impala Platinum's Rustenburg mine.
The company directors must be held "personally accountable" for the deaths, he said, adding that should an investigation find negligence or incompetence the directors should be prosecuted and punished if found guilty.
"Such fatalities are personal tragedies for bereaved families and friends, but they are also a national disgrace.
"The number of accidents in our mines is still far too high. Between 1997 and 2007, the South African mining industry had an appalling average of 244 work-related deaths per year reported."
He said safety was not prioritised and mining houses should do more to end the many fatalities.
The general secretary said Cosatu supported Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana's call for all health and safety laws to be rigidly enforced to protect workers from occupational hazards.
"Daily we risk our lives to dig the coal, gold and platinum out of the earth, but never see any of the fabulous profits that our employers make," Vavi said, which is why the union federation supported the call for nationalising the mines .
"We want an efficient industry that continues to create wealth for the nation but uses the profits to pay workers a living wage, pays taxes to improve the lives of the workers and the poor, in conditions that are safe, healthy and environmentally friendly."
- SAPA
"Urgent action is needed to put an end to this carnage," Vavi told a memorial service for nine mineworkers who died on Monday at Impala Platinum's Rustenburg mine.
The company directors must be held "personally accountable" for the deaths, he said, adding that should an investigation find negligence or incompetence the directors should be prosecuted and punished if found guilty.
"Such fatalities are personal tragedies for bereaved families and friends, but they are also a national disgrace.
"The number of accidents in our mines is still far too high. Between 1997 and 2007, the South African mining industry had an appalling average of 244 work-related deaths per year reported."
He said safety was not prioritised and mining houses should do more to end the many fatalities.
The general secretary said Cosatu supported Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana's call for all health and safety laws to be rigidly enforced to protect workers from occupational hazards.
"Daily we risk our lives to dig the coal, gold and platinum out of the earth, but never see any of the fabulous profits that our employers make," Vavi said, which is why the union federation supported the call for nationalising the mines .
"We want an efficient industry that continues to create wealth for the nation but uses the profits to pay workers a living wage, pays taxes to improve the lives of the workers and the poor, in conditions that are safe, healthy and environmentally friendly."
- SAPA
DR-CONGO: Firms Fuelling ;Conflict Minerals; Violence, Report Says
By Marina Litvinsky
WASHINGTON, Jul 21 (IPS) - Several international companies are named as helping to prolong the more than 12-year conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a new report by the British-based group Global Witness, released Tuesday.
Titled "Faced with a gun, what can you do?", it details how many mining areas in eastern DRC are controlled by rebels and the national army, who violently exploit civilians to retain access to valuable minerals. It names international companies which buy from suppliers who trade in minerals from the warring parties.
European and Asian companies, including Bangkok-based THAISARCO, Britain-based Afrimex, and Belgium-based Trademet, have been buying minerals from the DRC that are funding armed groups and fuelling conflict, said Global Witness.
Informed by on-the-ground investigations and interviews in North and South Kivu, the report reveals that despite being on opposing sides, the national Congolese army, the Forces Arm?es de la R?publique D?mocratique du Congo (FARDC) and rebel groups, in particular the Forces Democratique de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), regularly cooperate with each other, carving up territory and occasionally sharing the spoils of illegal mining.
The FDLR use roads controlled by the FARDC, and vice versa, without difficulty. Minerals produced by the FDLR are sent out through local airports controlled by the FARDC in South Kivu.
"(The FARDC and the FDLR) don't attack each other. Where both are present, they share the spoils and both extort from the population," a human rights activist told Global Witness last year.
The unregulated nature of the mining sector in eastern DRC, combined with the breakdown of law and order and the devastation caused by the war, has meant that these groups have had unrestricted access to these minerals and have been able to establish lucrative trading networks.
"(The report) shows the extent to which the Congolese government is incapable not only of controlling the mineral-rich areas, but also of controlling its own army that is profiting from the mineral trade at expense of the state," David Sullivan, a research associate at the Enough Project, told IPS.
Paul Williams, associate professor of internaional affairs at George Washington University, agreed. "The FARDC is so poor that it cannot work as an effective military instrument," he told IPS. "Elites general condone the exploitation of the mine workers as long as they see some kickback along the route (from mines to Europe)."
Sullivan added that mine inspectors often cannot do their job because they have not been paid their salaries, or "do not have the resources to travel to mines". Once they do arrive, they are prevented from inspecting the mines with threats of violence.
"The Congolese government needs more assistance in order to be able to oversee the trade, but it is not the only actor," said Sullivan, adding that companies that continue to profit from the trade must be held accountable.
"As long as we don't change the way we go about purchasing these things economic incentives will override" the need for greater transparency, he added.
The profits armed groups make from their illegal control of the mines allow them to survive, as they pay for arms. To sustain this control, the main warring parties have carried out horrific human rights abuses, including widespread killings of unarmed civilians, rape, torture and looting, recruitment of child soldiers to fight in their ranks, and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, the report said.
"All the warring parties in the DRC are systematically using forced labour and violent extortion in mining areas," said Patrick Alley, director of Global Witness. "Despite recent political and military developments, including the apparent rapprochement between the DRC and Rwanda, violence against unarmed civilians is continuing and countless lives are lost each day."
Years of unrest have plagued the DRC. Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled across the border into the DRC, as the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front conquered the country. The conflict has resulted in an estimated 5.4 million deaths over the past decade.
This link between armed groups and the illicit mineral trade was also documented by a United Nations panel of experts in December 2008.
The "conflict minerals" at the centre of the violence include cassiterite, coltan and wolframite, which are moved from the DRC, usually through Rwanda or Burundi, to East Asia where they are processed into valuable metals, like tin and tungsten, needed for electronics products.
One of the companies featured in the report is THAISARCO, the world's fifth-largest tin-producing company, owned by British metals giant, Amalgamated Metal Corporation (AMC). THAISARCO's main supplier, Congo-based Panju, sells cassiterite and coltan from mines controlled by the FDLR.
Another company is the British-based Afrimex, already found by the British government in 2008 to be in breach of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises for buying from suppliers who made payments to a rebel group. The British government has yet to take any concrete action on this information.
Global Witness wrote to 200 companies and found that most had no controls in place to stop conflict minerals entering their supply chain.
AMC denied any wrongdoing, saying that it operated under U.N. guidelines.
"Both AMC and Thaisarco have always sought to comply with the requirements and recommendations of the U.N. in respect of minerals originating in the DRC," the company said in a statement. "In accordance with this, Thaisarco purchases DRC minerals subject to a recently enhanced, formal and detailed due diligence programme which ultimately is aimed at providing transparency throughout the supply chain."
In a letter to Global Witness in January, F. Muylaert of the Belgian company Trademet said, "Your hypothesis according to which we should verify the exact origin of every kilo of exported material is inappropriate in the current context in Congo."
The report points out that comptoirs - trading houses based in Goma and Bukavu - which buy, sell and export minerals produced by or benefiting the warring parties are officially licensed and registred with the Congolese government. Foreign companies use the "legal" status of their suppliers as justification for continuing to trade with them, without verifying the exact origin of the minerals or the identity of intermediaries.
"It is not good enough for companies to say they buy only from licensed exporters, when they know full well that their middlemen buy from armed groups," argued Alley
The report said that foreign governments, including Britain and Belgium, are undermining their own development assistance and diplomatic efforts to end the 12-year conflict by failing to crack down on companies based within their borders.
Global Witness contends that the governments of Rwanda and Burundi have failed to acknowledge that these minerals are fueling conflict and have not held to account companies in their country which engage in this trade.
"The failure of governments to hold companies to account, of Burundi and Rwanda to restrict the trade across their borders, and of donors and diplomats to address explicitly the role of the mineral trade, have all contributed to the continuation of a conflict that has killed millions and displaced many more," said Alley.
WASHINGTON, Jul 21 (IPS) - Several international companies are named as helping to prolong the more than 12-year conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a new report by the British-based group Global Witness, released Tuesday.
Titled "Faced with a gun, what can you do?", it details how many mining areas in eastern DRC are controlled by rebels and the national army, who violently exploit civilians to retain access to valuable minerals. It names international companies which buy from suppliers who trade in minerals from the warring parties.
European and Asian companies, including Bangkok-based THAISARCO, Britain-based Afrimex, and Belgium-based Trademet, have been buying minerals from the DRC that are funding armed groups and fuelling conflict, said Global Witness.
Informed by on-the-ground investigations and interviews in North and South Kivu, the report reveals that despite being on opposing sides, the national Congolese army, the Forces Arm?es de la R?publique D?mocratique du Congo (FARDC) and rebel groups, in particular the Forces Democratique de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), regularly cooperate with each other, carving up territory and occasionally sharing the spoils of illegal mining.
The FDLR use roads controlled by the FARDC, and vice versa, without difficulty. Minerals produced by the FDLR are sent out through local airports controlled by the FARDC in South Kivu.
"(The FARDC and the FDLR) don't attack each other. Where both are present, they share the spoils and both extort from the population," a human rights activist told Global Witness last year.
The unregulated nature of the mining sector in eastern DRC, combined with the breakdown of law and order and the devastation caused by the war, has meant that these groups have had unrestricted access to these minerals and have been able to establish lucrative trading networks.
"(The report) shows the extent to which the Congolese government is incapable not only of controlling the mineral-rich areas, but also of controlling its own army that is profiting from the mineral trade at expense of the state," David Sullivan, a research associate at the Enough Project, told IPS.
Paul Williams, associate professor of internaional affairs at George Washington University, agreed. "The FARDC is so poor that it cannot work as an effective military instrument," he told IPS. "Elites general condone the exploitation of the mine workers as long as they see some kickback along the route (from mines to Europe)."
Sullivan added that mine inspectors often cannot do their job because they have not been paid their salaries, or "do not have the resources to travel to mines". Once they do arrive, they are prevented from inspecting the mines with threats of violence.
"The Congolese government needs more assistance in order to be able to oversee the trade, but it is not the only actor," said Sullivan, adding that companies that continue to profit from the trade must be held accountable.
"As long as we don't change the way we go about purchasing these things economic incentives will override" the need for greater transparency, he added.
The profits armed groups make from their illegal control of the mines allow them to survive, as they pay for arms. To sustain this control, the main warring parties have carried out horrific human rights abuses, including widespread killings of unarmed civilians, rape, torture and looting, recruitment of child soldiers to fight in their ranks, and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, the report said.
"All the warring parties in the DRC are systematically using forced labour and violent extortion in mining areas," said Patrick Alley, director of Global Witness. "Despite recent political and military developments, including the apparent rapprochement between the DRC and Rwanda, violence against unarmed civilians is continuing and countless lives are lost each day."
Years of unrest have plagued the DRC. Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled across the border into the DRC, as the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front conquered the country. The conflict has resulted in an estimated 5.4 million deaths over the past decade.
This link between armed groups and the illicit mineral trade was also documented by a United Nations panel of experts in December 2008.
The "conflict minerals" at the centre of the violence include cassiterite, coltan and wolframite, which are moved from the DRC, usually through Rwanda or Burundi, to East Asia where they are processed into valuable metals, like tin and tungsten, needed for electronics products.
One of the companies featured in the report is THAISARCO, the world's fifth-largest tin-producing company, owned by British metals giant, Amalgamated Metal Corporation (AMC). THAISARCO's main supplier, Congo-based Panju, sells cassiterite and coltan from mines controlled by the FDLR.
Another company is the British-based Afrimex, already found by the British government in 2008 to be in breach of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises for buying from suppliers who made payments to a rebel group. The British government has yet to take any concrete action on this information.
Global Witness wrote to 200 companies and found that most had no controls in place to stop conflict minerals entering their supply chain.
AMC denied any wrongdoing, saying that it operated under U.N. guidelines.
"Both AMC and Thaisarco have always sought to comply with the requirements and recommendations of the U.N. in respect of minerals originating in the DRC," the company said in a statement. "In accordance with this, Thaisarco purchases DRC minerals subject to a recently enhanced, formal and detailed due diligence programme which ultimately is aimed at providing transparency throughout the supply chain."
In a letter to Global Witness in January, F. Muylaert of the Belgian company Trademet said, "Your hypothesis according to which we should verify the exact origin of every kilo of exported material is inappropriate in the current context in Congo."
The report points out that comptoirs - trading houses based in Goma and Bukavu - which buy, sell and export minerals produced by or benefiting the warring parties are officially licensed and registred with the Congolese government. Foreign companies use the "legal" status of their suppliers as justification for continuing to trade with them, without verifying the exact origin of the minerals or the identity of intermediaries.
"It is not good enough for companies to say they buy only from licensed exporters, when they know full well that their middlemen buy from armed groups," argued Alley
The report said that foreign governments, including Britain and Belgium, are undermining their own development assistance and diplomatic efforts to end the 12-year conflict by failing to crack down on companies based within their borders.
Global Witness contends that the governments of Rwanda and Burundi have failed to acknowledge that these minerals are fueling conflict and have not held to account companies in their country which engage in this trade.
"The failure of governments to hold companies to account, of Burundi and Rwanda to restrict the trade across their borders, and of donors and diplomats to address explicitly the role of the mineral trade, have all contributed to the continuation of a conflict that has killed millions and displaced many more," said Alley.
Thursday, 23 July 2009
SA improves border controls for World Cup
Written by defenceWeb Wednesday, 22 July 2009
South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is implementing what is being promoted as the most advanced border management solution available today, the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) system, in partnership with aviation IT specialist, SITA, as part of a final preparation for next year’s FIFA Soccer World Cup.
South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is implementing what is being promoted as the most advanced border management solution available today, the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) system, in partnership with aviation IT specialist, SITA, as part of a final preparation for next year’s FIFA Soccer World Cup.
The APP system will integrate into the DHA’s R4 billion “Who am I” identity management project currently underway under the leadership of Gijima AST and will facilitate the arrival and departure of up to 500 000 football fans next year while enhancing security and reducing both administration and turnaround costs for airlines.
SITA Middle East and Africa Vice President Khodr Akil says the APP border management solution has been tried and tested in other parts of the world as well as during major global events, notably the 2000 Olympic Games.
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
South Africa Economy to Shrink 1.5%, World Bank Says
By Nasreen Seria
June 22 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s economy will probably contract 1.5 percent this year, the first drop in output in 17 years, as commodity prices plunge and exports decline, the World Bank said.
Economic growth will probably rebound to 2.6 percent in 2010, the Washington-based World Bank said in its Global Development Finance report. In March, the lender forecast 1 percent growth this year and 3.1 percent in 2010.
Recessions in the U.S., Europe and Japan have slashed demand for commodities, undermining growth in countries such as South Africa, the world’s largest producer of platinum, and Zambia, the continent’s biggest copper producer. The World Bank also cut its 2009 growth forecast for sub-Saharan Africa to 1 percent from a previous estimate of 2.4 percent.
“Output and incomes in the region have been negatively affected by falling commodity prices, falling volume demand for metal and mineral exports, and declining remittances and tourism,” the World Bank said. “The risks for the sub-Saharan Africa region are heavily tilted to the downside.”
The World Bank’s forecasts are lower than those of the International Monetary Fund, which said on April 22 that South Africa’s economy will probably contract 0.3 percent this year, while economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa will slow to 1.7 percent.
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