African leaders plan to safeguard the continent’s ‘green’ minerals:
Africa needs to learn from the past and benefit from its own minerals before they are exported, according to African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) director Marit Kitaw.
Kitaw made the statement at a side event during Africa Climate Week in Kenya.
She and other experts have drafted policies and regulations for the Africa Green Minerals Strategy (AGMS), which was launched last week.
“[US special presidential envoy for climate John] Kerry made comments that America wants 30% of our minerals, and I think it is time for Africa to stand up and take care of itself before it can take care of others. We need to ensure we stabilise our electricity before the West can overtake us using our natural resources,” she said.
During the summit last week, Kerry said the US was looking at Africa’s “green” minerals to help it with its rise to renewable energy.
The International Energy Agency in its latest report found that there is a new scramble for
African minerals. It said China and the US companies have shown interest in the continent for its lithium. Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been earmarked to become processing and manufacturing hubs for batteries used in electric cars.
Kitaw and colleagues called for Africa to be ready and willing to use its mineral and energy resources, its agricultural potential and its natural capital to support the global decarbonisation agenda.
She said that the AGMS plan is designed to foster socio-economic development to tackle the disparities on the continent, despite its abundance of greener mineral resources. “The strategy seeks to reshape mineral value chains by utilising mineral resources for in-continent manufacturing of essential products, moving beyond raw material exports.”
She said Africa needs to put itself first to solve its “energy poverty” before exporting minerals as countries around the world transition from fossil fuels to greener energy.
Kitaw said the AGMS can use these resources to help Africans while keeping sight of the continent’s mining vision and ensure strong protection from climate change and a just energy transition.
The Global Fund for Women’s senior adviser, Ruth Nyumbura, said there were concerns that the interest shown by both China and the US will not translate into more widely shared benefits. She added that the energy transition will mainly boost domestic industry in the US.
Antonio Pedro, the acting executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said Africa needed to know where the minerals are to ensure countries were protected from international explorers who fail to give back to the continent. He added that the AGMS could assist by using geological surveys.
Nyumburu said many US and Chinese companies were already in Africa, “benefiting from the land and minerals meant for Africans.”
“There needs to be policies to prevent what happened in the fossil fuel industry from happening again, unless we will be left with nothing and more poverty,” she said.
Kenya’s President William Ruto also urged African leaders to use its resources to improve their countries.
Mandisa Nyathi is a climate reporting fellow, funded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa.
Meyiwa trial: Judge rejects claim of second statement from police witness:
The judge in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial, Ratha Mokgoatlheng, on Monday dismissed the defence’s claim of the existence of a handwritten statement by state witness Constable Sizwe Zungu.
This was after defence lawyers had challenged the admissibility of a typed statement Zungu made on 31 May. Mokgoatlheng last Friday asked the defence to prepare an argument on the legality and lawfulness of additions to Zungu’s statement.
Zungu took the stand last Thursday.
Footballer Meyiwa was killed in October 2014 at the home of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo in Vosloorus, Gauteng, in what the state says was a botched robbery.
During his argument, defence advocate Charles Mnisi said Zungu had “mentioned unequivocally that there is a statement that he wrote and he initialled it”.
“He says he wrote it, it was commissioned and he initialled every page. That is when I asked that it should be made available,” Mnisi said.
Zungu told the court that he had gone to KwaZulu-Natal this past weekend in search of his notes from which he had prepared his typed statement.
But Mnisi said the defence was not requesting the notes, rather the actual handwritten statement that he had previously alluded to writing, not the typed one.
“We listened to the records and it was confirmed. I am going to ask the court to consider what Zungu said. We are not requesting notes. The witness says he wrote a statement,” Mnisi told the court, adding that he was not accusing the state of unlawfully withholding the original statement.
Defence advocate Zandile Mshololo said her client, accused number five Fisokuhle Ntuli, would be prejudiced by the non-disclosure of this statement.
“That handwritten statement ought to have been accompanied by the original statement to which the witness has referred. We all know the statement should have been attached,” Mshololo said. She insisted that the court listen to the records and said the existence of the typed statement was only disclosed last week.
The judge responded: “I hear you.”
Mokgoatlheng pointed out to Zungu what the defence was arguing. In response, Zungu said the notes he made may have been on a newspaper or a till slip. He added that apart from the typed statement he had given on 31 May this year, he had made no other one.
State prosecutor George Baloyi argued that the notes by Zungu should not be subjected to disclosure and that Zungu be cross-examined based on his typed statement.
Mokgoatlheng ruled on the defence’s contention that there was a handwritten statement by Zungu, saying: “The defence cannot prove the existence of this statement. This court finds that no such written statement exists.”
“Mr Baloyi is accused of harbouring a statement which he has not disclosed, which is a serious offence and he could be struck off the roll. Every prosecutor knows he has to disclose any information pertaining to the case and I do not think that Mr Baloyi would risk his entire career. I do not know what he would gain,” he added.
The judge said it was not Baloyi’s duty to defend anyone, but rather to bring the case before the court to adjudicate.
“It is a truism and trite in the law that a prosecutor’s duty is to seek conviction at all costs,” he said.
This is why South Africa’s agricultural sector has rebounded:
In these days of constant negative news about the South African economy, one has to shine a spotlight on any positive information. This week, the agricultural sector offered such optimism.
After a sharp contraction of -11,9% quarter-on-quarter (seasonally adjusted) in the first quarter of 2023, the country’s agricultural gross value added grew by 4,2% in the second quarter.
This improvement was based on the robust production conditions for various field crops and horticulture, which weren’t reflected in the first quarter data because of a delayed start to the 2022/23 production season and the base effects.
Also worth noting is that persistent load-shedding threatened agricultural production at the start of the season.
Still, various interventions to ease the load-shedding burden on farmers, such as load-curtailment, expansion of the diesel rebate to the food value chain and private sector investment in alternative energy sources, supported production conditions.
Notably, the rainy summer season cushioned field crops and horticulture from the adverse effects of load-shedding.
Although small, the recently launched Agro-Energy Fund will be valuable in assisting the sector to install alternative energy sources.
The 2022/23 maize harvest is estimated at 16,4 million, 6% higher than the 2021/22 season’s harvest and the second-largest harvest on record.
The soybean harvest could reach a record 2,8 million tonnes. South Africa’s sugar cane crop will probably increase by 3% to 18,5 million tonnes in 2023/24. Other field crops and fruit also show prospects for a decent harvest this season.
Also salient is that South Africa’s agricultural quarterly gross value-added figures tend to be volatile, hence, our communication always focuses on the annual performance.
Importantly, we expect the coming quarters in the sector to show a robust performance and boost the annual growth figure to around 3% (from a revised 0,9% in 2022).
There will probably be a solid rebound in the year’s third quarter. The delayed harvest will conceivably be reflected in the data for that quarter.
Aside from the quarterly growth figures, the sector’s key challenges are rising geopolitical tension; deteriorating infrastructure; inefficient ports and rail networks; weakening municipalities; crime and energy supply.
The government, together with the private sector, should address these issues to support investment and long-term growth in the industry.
Also crucial for the outlook of the agricultural sector is that El Niño is forecast in the 2023/24 summer season, although we remain optimistic that it will have a mild impact on the sector and thus keep production at decent levels and, by extension, sustain growth.
The early start of the 2023/24 production season could be reasonably optimistic.
On 28 August 2023, the South African Weather Service stated that “the multi-model rainfall forecast indicates above-normal rainfall for most of the country during mid-spring (Sep-Oct-Nov) and late-spring (Oct-Nov-Dec). The early summer (Nov-Dec-Jan), however, indicates below-normal rainfall over the central parts of the country and above-normal rainfall for the north-east.”
This optimistic statement further underscores our view that the El Niño will not be as harsh as what we witnessed in the 2015/16 season and that agriculture could maintain reasonable growth over the medium term.
Wandile Sihlobo is an agricultural economist and the author of A Country of Two Agriculture: The Disparities, The Challenges, The Solutions (Tracey McDonald Publishers, 2023) and Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture (Pan Macmillan South Africa, 2020).
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