Cape Town — Water Crisis to Outpace Energy Crisis, Infrastructure Group Warns
According to American multinational infrastructure consulting firm AECOM, a looming water crisis in South Africa will eclipse the nation’s current struggle for a stable supply of electricity, Business Tech reports. Darrin Green, Africa MD at globally trusted infrastructure firm AECOM, said: The energy crisis is confronting us first, or maybe it is the most obvious, but for me, the current water shortage in Gauteng is absolutely a worse crisis. While the fundamental issues are the same, it is going to be a much more difficult situation for people to live with on a day-to-day basis”. Green added that as climate change becomes increasingly important, South Africa has failed to make the topic more noteworthy and thereby changing its current reactive stance to one that is more proactive. Clients are not perceiving this as a priority. It must start with an overall understanding of sustainability and its key drivers. The South African market has not reached a sufficient level of maturity in this regard,” Green said. An additional example was made of integrated hydrological models of South Africa’s coastlines not being updated or maintained.
Civil Servants Return to Work After Nationwide Stay-Away
Civil servants have returned to work after a national wage strike organised by the Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA), Eyewitness News reports. The PSA has maintained its call for a 10% wage hike in the face of a unilateral 3% increase instituted by the government. Workers have called on the government to honour he 2018 wage agreement following its failure to provide increases in the final year of the bargain. President of the PSA Lufuno Mulaudzi said: “Government failure to implement decent salary increases for public service is a result of years of fraud and corruption.” Unions have given government a seven-day ultimatum to respond to their demands and threatened to stage a national shutdown if negotiations are not re-opened.
R10 Billion French, German Loans Aim to Lessen South Africa’s Reliance on Coal
France and Germany have signed loan agreements totaling R10 billion to expedite South Africa’s Just Energy Transition, Business Tech writes. The loans, made available by he French and German public development banks, Agence Française de Développement and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, are directed squarely at the National Treasury which said on the matter: The loans are highly concessional as their terms are substantially more generous than what the government of South Africa would be able to raise in capital market.” The Treasury added that this is a critical stage in attracting investment to the nation as it forms part of the the Just Energy Transition. South Africa requires more support for its just energy transition given the large scale of the required transition in the context of the current socio-economic challenges and will therefore continue discussions with various multilateral lenders to pursue this objective,” said Treasury.