Water pollution in Mpumalanga mines may cause food crisis

According to Business Report, Mpumalanga farmers say the country faces a national food crisis if water pollution from mining in the province is not brought under control. Louw Steytler, new chairman of Grain SA, told Beeld newspaper that the organisation was deeply concerned, as Mpumalanga was responsible for a large part of South Africa's food supply. 23 Mar 2012 13:11

Africa must reduce infrastructure delays

[Linda Ensor] The classic public-private partnerships both in SA and Africa are plagued by delays‚ with the projects sometimes taking seven years to get going‚ Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on last week at a media conference on accelerating infrastructure investment in Africa‚ at the World Economic Forum on Africa. 13 May 2013 13:40

Fawu threatens new Western Cape strike

[Paul Vecchiatto] The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) has threatened to resume agricultural strikes in the Western Cape and accuses farmers of using labour brokers to find temporary workers to replace its permanently employed members. 8 May 2013 10:54

Motlanthe calls for calm from farm workers

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has called for co-operation between farmers and farm workers, the SABC news reported on Saturday (11 May). 13 May 2013 12:35

Jobs lost, jobs found - what's true?

[Paul Vecchiatto] Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel says it is government's economic policy to create jobs and that the country has experienced a net gain of 199‚000 jobs over the past year. This follows Statistics SA's announcement that 100,000 more people where unemployed in the first quarter of this year. 8 May 2013 09:58

Quick fix? Not for Astrapak

Astrapak optimists are betting heavily on the new chief executive Robin Moore's ability to restore the troubled packaging firm to health. Reflecting this confidence, Astrapak is trading on a 75,5 price:earnings ratio despite a 61% fall in headline earnings per share for the year to February and a 90% fall in earnings over the past three years. 17 May 2013 11:16

100,000 people lost their jobs this year

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released by Statistics SA (Stats SA) on Monday (6 May) showed that 100,000 people lost their jobs in the first quarter of this year. The number of unemployed people now stands at 4.6m, equivalent to 25.2% of the working population. 7 May 2013 10:13

Growing awareness of SA's water scarcity

[Sue Blaine] Slightly more than 70% of JSE-listed companies that responded to a survey on SA's water supplies had already experienced financial losses because of water issues‚ according to a London-based research company that‚ with the National Business Initiative (NBI)‚ looks at water use in South African companies. 2 May 2013 09:44

R9bn jobs fund will 'buy' 150,000 jobs

[Linda Ensor] Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan expressed confidence on Thursday (2 May) that the R9bn jobs fund would achieve its target of creating 150‚000 jobs by 2015. 3 May 2013 09:27

New training academy for KZN small-scale pig farmers

The PigSite News Desk reports that small-scale pig farmers in KwaZulu-Natal will soon have access to a new training academy established and mentored by the South African Pork Producers' Organisation (Sappo.) 19 Jun 2012 12:18

Broiler producers roasted by low margins

[Edward West] Sovereign Food Investments‚ which has operations in the struggling broiler industry‚ lifted headline earnings 10% to 74.5c per share for the year to February due to a more profitable product mix‚ good agricultural and production numbers and a focus on cost controls. 17 May 2013 08:58

Agriculture offers real growth potential

[Helmo Preuss] Although structural impediments such as poor logistics render the search for new avenues of deeper intra-African trade challenging‚ there is an immediate and compelling growth potential in the trade of agricultural products‚ Standard Bank research analyst Simon Freemantle said last week. 22 Apr 2013 13:24

IMF forecasts "solid growth" for Africa

Economies in sub-Saharan Africa will ride out the bumpy global recovery in the next few years to post growth rates not seen outside Asia, the IMF said in its latest economic forecasts Tuesday (16 April). 17 Apr 2013 09:47