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9 October 2023

Henkel South Africa to Partner with Hudson Rubber to Produce Vehicle Sealing and Acoustic Solutions

Location: MyPR

Henkel South Africa is partnering with Hammanskraal-based Hudson Rubber to locally fabricate Henkel’s vehicle rubber sealing and acoustic solutions for OEM vehicle panel reinforcing, noise reduced and vibration protection. Henkel’s patented technology of 2D and 3D sealing and acoustic solutions along with damping materials for the body shop provides robust noise, vibration, harshness protection – …

9 October 2023

Load Shedding Strategies: Keeping the Lights On

Location: MyPR

In the face of persistent load shedding, individuals and communities around the world are seeking innovative strategies to maintain a consistent power supply. Load shedding, the controlled shutdown of electricity, often due to high demand or infrastructure limitations, can disrupt daily life and have a significant impact on various sectors, including residential, commercial, and industrial. …

9 October 2023

AfricaIgnite Hosts the African Leg of the Start-up World Cup at Africa Tech Festival

Location: News

Wait for it…AfricaIgnite, formerly AHUB, Africa Tech Festival's (https://tmt.knect365.com/Africa-Tech-Festival/) flagship event for the African continent's start-ups and innovators, has been announced as the host for the African leg of the globally prestigious Start-Up World Cup 2023, and 10 African start-ups will have the opportunity to pitch for a spot at the grand finale to be held in San Francisco, USA on 1 December 2023.

USD1 million up for grabs – The AfricaIgnite Start-up Pitch showcase will take place at Africa Tech Festival in November in Cape Town, South Africa. To enter, African early-stage start-ups and scale-ups with seed fundings of up to $15million will need to apply (https://apo-opa.info/3PGV3Lz) by 15 October. The finalists, to be unveiled on 30 October, will then need to make their way to Cape Town and pitch in front of hundreds of investors and tech leaders on 16 November.

The winner of Africa Tech Festival's pitch competition will then be invited to compete in the grand finale of the Startup World Cup, to be held in San Francisco on 1 December, for that impressive 1 million US dollar investment, in front of industry greats such as ABC's Shark Tank Barbara Corcoran, Sundeep Jain, Chief Product Officer at Uber, Daniel Sturman CTO at Roblox and more.

Since launching in 2016, the festival's start-up platform has been committed to supporting the growth of Africa's nascent entrepreneurs and innovators. The interest in the offering has grown significantly to the point where AfricaIgnite has now taken on a life-force of its own.

James Williams, Director, Events | Connecting Africa | Informa Tech: “Africa's bright and forward-thinking minds need a platform to network, get inspired, and co-build a stronger tech start-Up investment ecosystem, which is exactly what AfricaIgnite offers. As Africa Tech Festival, we are excited to be partnering with The Startup World Cup to offer our African colleagues the opportunity they deserve to present their businesses on a global stage. This is a very exciting partnership, and the first, we hope, of many as the continent's innovation sector gathers momentum.”

Investment by the numbers

In 2022, Africa was the only region where start-up investment grew with around USD4.8 billion put into around 1,000 businesses. That said though, this sum still only represents a paltry 1.2% of all start-up funding raised globally. However, this is predicted to change quite rapidly in the years ahead as the continent's entrepreneur, start-up and SMME ecosystem fully embraces the digital revolution and connectivity, whilst Africans create the solutions to many of their own, and the world's challenges.

In the 2021 – 2022 period, 37% of investment was channelled to the FinTech space, but its dominance is now being challenged by innovation and new business ideas that solve Africa's energy and waste difficulties. Other sectors that are attracting interest also include the likes of the telecoms, media and entertainment space, logistics and transport, retail, agriculture, and food, as well as the growing proliferation of deep tech.

“We are very happy to partner up with AfricaTech Festival for the Startup World Cup South Africa Regional and are delighted by the quality and enthusiasm of the start-ups who are competing,” said Anis Uzzaman, Founder and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures, who created the Startup World Cup competition in 2016. “Each year we have been able to reach more entrepreneurs in more cities around the world and, in turn, connect more innovation ecosystems to Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.

“We hope this partnership creates new valuable opportunities for the competing start-ups from Africa.”

In good company

Africa Tech Festival also holds its own when it comes to the investor community, with databases of several thousand investors and venture capitalists predominantly spanning Africa and the United States, as well as a strong community of founders, entrepreneurs, and start-ups.

Aside from the exciting early-stage start-up Pitch Showcase, AfricaIgnite in 2023 is looking to up the ante with a curation of content that is exciting, informative, and definitely going to take participants places. The AfricaIgnite space located in the AfricaTech Hall will be a centre of activity with an offering of excellent networking and matchmaking between founders and investors, a start-up marketplace and demo area (no pitching required), along with a host of dedicated workshops and masterclasses presented by top professionals.

Delegates, start-ups, and those considering taking a leap of faith into the new world of business, can explore content that covers useful topics such as what to expect from year one as a founder – what to do, get good at and what to ignore; the power of collaboration in building a global company; perfecting the next “X”-tech for future generations; founding, funding and running your start-up in economically challenging times; concept to company – demystifying the entrepreneurial process plus a raft of funding talks and presentations, as well as the all-important insight into exit planning 101!

Never has the time been more right to head to Cape Town 13 – 16 November to be part of the action at Africa Tech Festival, the world's largest and most influential Africa-focused technology, telecoms, and media gathering. In 2023, expect big things to happen in this space.

For more information, please see website here: Africa Tech Festival 2023 - The Home of AfricaCom & AfricaTech (https://apo-opa.info/3myppVu)

To apply for the pitch competition, please click here: Africa Tech Festival 2023 – pitch competition (https://apo-opa.info/3PGV3Lz)

View all ticket options for Africa Tech Festival, including start-up passes, here (https://apo-opa.info/3Q04o2r)

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Tech Festival.

For media enquiries, interviews and/or images please contact:
Kaz Henderson
kaz@networxpr.co.za or call on +27 (0) 82 339 1199.

(Please note that all requests are adjudicated and there may be some delay before you hear back from us).

Social Media Handles:
Facebook: https://apo-opa.info/3LIdCxG
Twitter: https://apo-opa.info/3EZ7RYB
LinkedIn: https://apo-opa.info/3EcywR6

About Startup World Cup:
Startup World Cup is a global conference and competition with the goal of bridging start-up ecosystems worldwide. The competition gives start-up companies from all over the world a chance to win a US $1,000,000 prize in the form of an investment. This year, there will be 50+ regional events across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, leading up to the Grand Finale in San Francisco in September. Startup World Cup is organized by Pegasus Tech Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based global venture capital firm.

About Africa Tech Festival 2023:
Africa Tech Festival, including anchor events AfricaCom, AfricaTech and AfricaIgnite is part of the Informa Tech Connecting Africa event series. A vibrant celebration of Africa's diverse community of tech champions, Africa Tech Festival is the largest tech and digital connectivity conference and exhibition in Africa, attracting hundreds of exhibitors, more than 400 speakers and more than 12000 delegates.

Key themes for 2023 continue to explore the creation and sustainability of a connected Africa and the impact this can have for the people of the continent but also the commercial prospects for local and global businesses and governments. Topics will include Telcos of Tomorrow, Connecting the Next Billion, Digital Infrastructure Investment, Sustainability & Climate Resilience, ICT Policy and Regulation, Fintech & MFS, Broadcast Media & Entertainment, Pioneer Tech, the Future of Work and Talent and Skills Development. Africa Tech Festival also incorporates and the Africa Tech Festival Awards, an exclusive ceremony celebrating Africa's tech pioneers and held at the luxury 5-star The Bay Hotel, as well as the LeadersIn Africa Summit, an exclusive, VIP-only feature offering high-level presentations and roundtable discussions to Africa's tech elite.

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8 October 2023

President Ramaphosa to receive Census 2022 results

Location: News

President Ramaphosa to receive Census 2022 results

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to receive South Africa's Census 2022 national results from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

The Statistician-General, Risenga Maluleke, will officially hand over the report to the President and announce the results of the population and housing count to the country at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday

Census 2022, according to the Presidency, was the fourth population and housing count in post-apartheid South Africa, with the first conducted in 1996, with subsequent censuses being conducted in 2001 and 2011.

The population and housing census was conducted in February 2022 and will provide comprehensive data on population size, demographic trends, and other service delivery-related information.

Stats SA will be following the trend adopted by many countries and data will be released in phases.

For phase one, the Census 2022 launch will only cover reports and indicators at the national, provincial, district and local municipality levels.

“Census data is an important data source used for planning and evidence-based decision making by government and various sectors of society.

“The census population count provides data on the demographic, economic and social makeup of the country. Furthermore, findings from censuses are key in tracking service delivery programmes over time," said the Presidency. – SAnews.gov.za

Location: News

Minister Zulu receives review report on child support grant

The Child Poverty and the Child Support Grant (CSG) Review Report not only serves as a barometer, but it is an invitation to found, strengthen and activate multilateral partnerships that will undo child poverty in all communities.

This is according to Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, who received the review report on Friday in Johannesburg, Gauteng.

“The Review Report is a challenge to all of us to inspire hope, thereby ensuring a brighter future for all children. To reinforce the CSG’s continued relevance, the department is currently working on a policy through which we will be integrating the receipt of children's grants with government’s other basic services in the very near future.

“This policy will ensure that these beneficiaries, namely children, will benefit from receiving the diverse bouquet of government’s interventions that will necessarily improve their human development and dignity,” Zulu said.

In 2021, the Department of Social Development commissioned the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town to conduct a comprehensive review of child poverty and the value of the Child Support Grant (CSG).

In its effort to ensure that the right to access social assistance is afforded to all those who are unable to take care of themselves, the South African government has, through the Department of Social Development, rolled out a massive social assistance programme, the most notable being the CSG.

The South African Social Assistance programme stands as a globally recognised model, acknowledged for its strategic role as the nation's primary poverty alleviation initiative.

The CSG has been especially successful at reaching large numbers of poor children with relative ease, earning recognition for its pro-poor targeting among existing social grants.

To date, the 13 million children are CSG recipients to the value of R510 a month per child. In the previous financial year (2022/23), the Department of Social Development, through its entity, SASSA, allocated a budget of R77 billion for the payment of this grant.

The CSG remains one of the country’s successful poverty alleviation programmes, which plays a significant role in positive school outcomes, and research has shown that it has ensured that eligible children receiving the CSG remain in school.

While it is acknowledged that the CSG has had a significant impact in alleviating poverty, it is provided at a value too small to protect the poorest children from hunger, malnutrition, and stunting, the review noted.

In an effort to augment the current social assistance programme such that it can address the existing gaps, the Department of Social Development said it has, in the past two decades, engaged in policy reforms in the form of scaling up social assistance to cover all the vulnerable groups.

The review assessed the state of child poverty in the country, the impact of the CSG on child poverty, as well as the value of the CSG in the context of child poverty and the cost of raising a child.

The findings of the review are already indicating that poverty rates are higher for women than for men, and higher for children than adults, making it imperative therefore, going forward, to analyse child poverty rates separately, as the extent of child poverty is otherwise obscured by the overall national poverty rates.

The review also found that child poverty in South Africa remains racially and geographically distorted, wherein African children and those living in rural areas in the former homelands, are most likely to be poor.

Child food poverty was also reduced by 20 percentage points from 55% to 33% between 2003 and 2013, as the CSG coverage expanded rapidly with the age threshold being extended from 7 to 18 years.

Several studies demonstrate that the CSG has contributed to improved outcomes for child wellbeing. Furthermore between 2013 and 2019, child poverty rates remained stable and the percentage of children below the upper bound poverty line started to show improvement in 2017.

The review also records that the introduction of the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress, the caregiver allowance and top-ups to the permanent grants helped to offset increases in child poverty for a few months in 2020. It has been found that these temporary measures to boost grant income “saved” an estimated 1.2 million children from food poverty for a few months.

The review also notes that child poverty and hunger rates increased after the caregiver allowance and top-ups ended in October 2020.

It further reveals that in 2021, child poverty had risen significantly, with 37% of children (over 7 million) living in food poverty and 62% below the upper bound poverty line.

It has also been found that delays in birth registration and CSG applications during lockdown resulted in the number of babies receiving the CSG falling by about 100 000 in 2021 with no recovery to 2019 levels by March 2022.

As a result of many years of annual CSG increases below food inflation, the purchasing power of the CSG has been eroded and it no longer covers the cost of food and clothing for a child as originally intended.

The review further highlights that should the status quo continue, the gap between the value of the CSG and the food poverty line will widen further every year, with the rate and number of children living in food poverty continuing to rise.

The study, inter alia, recommends that the food poverty line - at R663/child/month - should be regarded as the absolute minimum, while the upper bound poverty line - at R1 417/child/month - should not be seen as generous. – SAnews.gov.za

DikelediM
Fri, 10/06/2023 - 13:47

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6 October 2023

President Ramaphosa launches Border Management Authority

Location: News

President Ramaphosa launches Border Management Authority

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the newly launched Border Management Authority (BMA) will provide a sustainable solution to the structural challenges of border security, control and coordination.

The President emphasised that a more secure border is important for curbing illegal migration, human smuggling and trafficking, and that the BMA will help in combating cross-border crime.

President Ramaphosa was delivering remarks at the launch of the Border Management Authority (BMA) at Musina Show Grounds in Limpopo on Thursday.

He said that this will be a new model of integration of functions, roles and responsibilities in the broader law enforcement environment.

“The Border Management Authority is expected to tackle the challenges of congestion, procedural delays, long transit times, lack of predictability and high logistics costs. I commend the Border Management Authority for the speed with which it has already commenced its work.

“When our country’s ports of entry and borders are well-protected and well-managed, we are able to prevent the illegal importation and exit of goods. We see the Border Management Authority as a vital link in our efforts to harness the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area,” he said.

The President said the Border Management Authority was established in response to a number of serious challenges. One of these challenges is the increase in the number of undocumented foreign nationals entering the country, which has exacerbated many of the country’s social and economic problems.

“The movement of persons and goods at ports of entry has often not been as efficient as it should be, resulting in unnecessary delays and increased costs for individuals and companies. This in turn is harming our economy.

"Deficiencies in border management have also enabled corruption and organised and cross-border crime to thrive. We have faced a problem of fragmentation of powers, responsibility and accountability,” the President said.

The Border Management Authority is now the third armed service in South Africa after the South African National Defence Force and the South African Police Service.

It is mandated to perform border management functions within ports of entry as well as the law enforcement area. The Border Management Authority is being established through an incremental approach.

Steps have already been taken to integrate under the Border Management Authority various relevant functions of the departments of Home Affairs, Agriculture, Health, and Fisheries, Forestry and the Environment.

To enable its work, the President said the Border Management Authority has signed implementation protocols with the South African Revenue Service, Police Service and Defence Force.

“While the border guard will be conducting border law enforcement functions, including access control, the South African National Defence Force remains responsible for border protection and safeguarding.

“The border guard will interface with the nearest police station with regards to the occurrence of a crime at a port of entry,” the President said.

BMA important tool to develop the region

The President took a tour to the Beit Bridge Border Post with his counterpart from Zimbabwe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and they agreed that the establishment of the Border Management Authority will be an important tool for the development of the region.

“It will form part of integrating border management activities in the SADC region as we implement the African Continental Free Trade Area. We will be able to work towards eradicating various forms of red tape that are hindering trade, investment and the movement of persons,” he said.

The President said that Border Management Authority will be redeveloping six ports of entries as one-stop-border-posts.

This approach will improve efficiency at land border crossings by combining the stops required for processing exit and entry formalities.

In July, the country saw the deployment of the first officers of the border guard of the Border Management Authority at vulnerable segments of the border line, including the informal community crossing points. – SAnews.gov.za

DikelediM
Fri, 10/06/2023 - 10:20

535 views

6 October 2023

Establishing Sustainable Raw Material Value Chains

Location: News

A high-level presentation on the European Union's (EU) AfricaMaVal initiative and related efforts to establish sustainable critical raw material value chains in Africa will be delivered at the upcoming Critical Minerals Africa (CMA) 2023 summit (https://CriticalMineralsAfrica.com).

Led by Roberto Cecutti, Head of Trade and Economics, EU Delegation to South Africa and Sodhie Naicker, Managing Director of DMT and Kai Batla and Consortium Partner in AfricaMaVal, the presentation is one of several organized for the first day of the conference, serving to promote sustainable partnerships, policies and projects in raw materials and strengthen global critical mineral supply chains.

The AfricaMaVal project – “Building EU-Africa Partnerships on the Sustainable Raw Materials Value Chain” – aims to ensure responsible mineral sourcing by European countries, while fostering sustainable development and ESG practices across the African continent. The project targets 10 case studies in Morocco, Senegal, Gabon, the DRC, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and Madagascar, with a view to evaluating their respective mining and refining potential and strengthening their existing links to European partners.

Launched in June 2022 and set to run through November 2025, the AfricaMaVal initiative comes as Europe takes a mounting interest in Africa's critical minerals as an alternative supply to China and Russia. The EU has classified rare earth minerals as critical to delivering its flagship Green Deal and digital transition, which targets carbon neutrality by 2050.

The presentation aligns closely with the broader theme of CMA 2023 – Establishing the Critical Minerals Value Chain of the Future in Africa – which aims to position the continent as a global hub for sustainable mineral exploration, processing, technologies and trade.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.

Critical Minerals Africa 2023 summit:
Organized by Energy Capital & Power, the Critical Minerals Africa 2023 summit, scheduled for October 17-19, serves to position Africa as the primary investment destination for critical minerals. The event is held alongside the African Energy Week 2023 conference (https://AECWeek.com) on October 16-20, offering delegates access to the full scope of energy, mining and finance leaders in Cape Town. Sponsors, exhibitors and delegates can learn more by contacting sales@energycapitalpow er.com

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Energy Capital & Power

Location: News

It’s hard to blame global warming for a single weather event, but storms like last week’s are becoming more likely

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