The International Commodity Summit 2025 (ICS2025) has welcomed the decision by Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis to support the Port of Cape Town’s inclusion in the government’s Request For Information (RFI) process.
The ICS2025 notes that this initiative aimed to gauge private sector interest in partnerships could enhance the efficiency and operations of the port and freight rail lines- which will attract foreign investment and boost the South African economy.
Mayor Hill-Lewis states that the city is relieved to see the Port of Cape Town’s inclusion in the government’s testing of market appetite for private sector involvement.
“The City has been making this case to the national government for some time, and I am grateful to Minister Barbara Creecy for following through on her commitment”.
“This is a positive step towards enabling the level of infrastructure investment and expertise needed to co-run the port successfully”, said Lewis.
The mayor highlighted the port’s current inefficiency, noting that according to the World Bank, it ranks as the least efficient globally, hindering regional economic growth and job creation.
“We need to urgently see private investment and management in the Cape Town port to release this handbrake and speed up job creation in Cape Town,” Lewis said.
The potential benefits of private partnerships at the Port of Cape Town are significant. Research from the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism estimates that such participation could generate an additional R6 billion in exports, create around 20,000 jobs, and yield over R1.6 billion in additional tax revenues within five years.
Mayor Hill-Lewis emphasized the urgency of the process, praising the government’s timeline for moving to the formal procurement phase by August 2025. He also acknowledged the Development Bank of Southern Africa’s role in establishing a coordinating unit to facilitate these partnerships.
Alderman James Vos, the Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, remarked on the need for major infrastructure investments to address operational challenges posed by wind at the port.
“When the port is unable to operate sufficiently, exporters are forced to divert their goods to other ports in Durban, Gqeberha and elsewhere at huge costs,” said Vos.
Vos expressed optimism about the RFI process leading to a full-scale partnership with the private sector, stating, “The private sector has the services and the expertise and have shown they are willing to assist as much as possible. The City stands ready as a partner to expedite any infrastructure investment within our local government purview.”
Vice President of Hibarri, Cherrylee Samson notes that the city’s new acquisition will attract investment and expertise.
“By inviting private sector participation, the RFI signals an opportunity for investors to contribute capital, expertise, and innovative technologies to the port, potentially leading to upgrades and improvements.”
“The RFI could be a key step in revitalizing Cape Town’s struggling container terminal, addressing issues like congestion and capacity constraints”, said Samson.
Samson also states that The RFI also allows for the exploration of private sector participation in renewable energy projects at the port, contributing to sustainability efforts.
Ports are extremely important to the global economy, and it is important to note that 70% of global merchandise trade by value passes through a port.
The Port of Cape Town included into the RFI will without boost the city’s economy, and lay a foundation for global engagement on trade and investment at the ICS2025 in July. For further information on The International Commodity Summit 2025, including registration details, sponsorship opportunities, and the full agenda, please visit https://internationalcommoditysummit.com
What the budget and US climate policy shift mean for SA’s energy sector:
The national budget presented earlier this month highlighted progress and earmarked changes for the evolving energy landscape.
In 2024, South Africa had 300 days without load-shedding. But the fragility of the energy system and shifting global climate priorities stresses the balancing act required to sustain energy security.
The proposed allocations and outcomes outlined in the budget highlight measures aimed at transforming the nation’s energy landscape.
Over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period, the treasury announced it will allocate R219.2??billion toward energy infrastructure investments to expand capacity and enhance stability in the energy sector.
Along with the roll-out of the Electricity Regulation Amendment Act (2024) on 1 January 2025, this will see the introduction of a competitive wholesale energy market to diversify energy supply, enhance efficiency and encourage private sector participation. The initiative is intended to attract investment into renewable energy sources and promote competition to improve energy security.
The government has also announced that the initial planned R70??billion Eskom debt takeover would be replaced with two separate instalments of R40??billion in 2025-26 and R10??billion in 2028-29, resulting in an estimated saving of R20??billion. This decision is largely attributed to the utility’s recent improved performance and financial standing.
This shift encouragingly suggests a policy commitment to phasing out recurring bailout cycles of underperforming state-owned entities and moving toward fiscal prudence and prioritisation of economic stability.
These efforts toward economic stability could also be strengthened by prosecuting those implicated in the Zondo commission’s state capture report, thereby enhancing Eskom’s credibility, improving South Africa’s chance of removal from the Financial Action Task Force grey list and boosting its investment climate, signalling a broader commitment to economic reform.
For several consecutive years, load-shedding, as a result of Eskom’s underperforming power stations, has been a significant barrier to economic development and has impeded economic growth. Without power, economies simply cannot grow. More pointedly, reliable power is essential for economic growth in key sectors such as manufacturing, where growth is vital for absorbing labour and addressing high unemployment levels.
In 2024, the country experienced some reprieve as the state-owned power utility stabilised its operations and available capacity gradually improved. This has partly been the result of an increase in renewable generation capacity and slight decrease in coal generation that has since temporarily stabilised the country’s volatile energy landscape. But concerns still persist because supply constraints remain, with aged stations such as Medupi and Kusile unlikely to achieve full operational capacity because of structural flaws.
In 2024, renewable energy rose to close to 13% of total electricity generation. Alongside this, coal production dipped to about 81%, marking a shift in the energy landscape. But system volatility remains and sporadic episodes of load-shedding continue to disrupt daily economic life.
Although the recent 10-month, load-shedding free period indicates marginal progress, its recurrence underscores the broader problems faced in achieving energy security as the country shifts to more reliable and sustainable energy sources.
Another issue is to expedite the reconfiguration of the national transmission grid to accommodate more renewable energy, and complementary wind and solar need to enter the grid to reduce the volatility typically associated with renewables.
Overall, the 2025 budgets’ proposed measures regarding support for continued renewable energy production present a mixed bag of opportunities and problems. The government’s commitments to the Renewable Energy Independent Procurement Producer Programme are expected to reach R277.9??billion by the end of this month as part of investments into renewable energy, and efforts to reduce barriers to investment.
But this also comes as temporary renewable energy incentives for businesses fell away on 28??February 2025 and are unlikely to be extended, raising concerns about sustained investment enthusiasm.
Additionally, while the 2024 SA Renewable Energy Grid survey identified some 133GW of potential wind, solar and battery capacity, grid availability and structural limitations impede progress toward using this potential capacity. This 133GW is nearly three times more than the country’s current installed capacity.
In short, while the 2025 budget highlights progress and political will, there is a long way to go before renewables achieve their potential.
Also briefly mentioned were concerns about rising geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty tied to South Africa’s international climate agreements. In particular, the US’ withdrawal from the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with the UK, France, Germany and the EU forged at the COP26 Climate Summit in 2021 is concerning.
Coinciding with its departure from the Paris Agreement under its new administration policy shift away from climate-related commitments, the US’s withdrawal has resulted in a loss of more than $ 1??billion pledged funding for the Just Energy Transition, primarily affecting potential private sector investment. This has reduced international pledges to about $ 12.8??billion of the roughly $ 82??billion (or R1.5??trillion) required to actualise its climate commitments and meet its nationally determined contributions.
Despite this withdrawal in funding, expert consensus suggests SA’s decarbonisation agenda remains intact and achievable. With the remaining JETP countries such as the EU increasing pledges with a €4.7??billion Global Gateway Investment Package aimed at supporting clean energy projects, this seems plausible.
But US’s withdrawal does expose vulnerabilities in SA’s international financing agreements. The unpredictability of global climate finance and commitments in the current geopolitical moment underscores the need for resilient, self-sustaining approaches to its energy transition.
South Africa needs to strengthen its domestic policy framework to ensure alignment across government and private sector initiatives aimed at a sustainable energy transition.
Furthermore, promoting funding initiatives, encouraging public-private sector collaboration and fostering partnerships to secure a robust and resilient financing policy can support the just energy transition.
Notable improvements in energy supply stability and continued investment in diversifying its energy mix indicate improvement. But the ongoing fragility of the energy systems, poor system capacity and infrastructure, and shifting geopolitical priorities create an unpredictable pathway to achieving sustainable energy.
Ultimately, progress will depend on strategic decisions that prioritise economic sustainability by balancing the country’s immediate energy needs with its long-term sustainability goals.
Mischka Moosa is a data journalist at Good Governance Africa.
Where have your children gone, South Africa?:
David Waterboer, 14, was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, black-and-red trousers and navy blue shoes when he left his home to attend an athletics event in Concordia in Northern Cape on 7 February. He has disappeared without a trace and his family is frantic with worry.
Amahle Thabethe was eight years old when she went missing while playing with her friends outside her home in Tsakane, Gauteng, in 2019.
The little girl, who was allegedly lured away by an unknown man, has never been found.
Her mother Nokulunga Nkosi wears a T-shirt with Amahle’s face on it every day in the hope that someone will recognise her daughter, who she believes is still alive.
Veronique Adams’ minder allegedly kidnapped her in 1989 when she was just 11 months old, leaving her five-year-old sister Melissa to comfort her identical twin Veronisha.
Thirty-five years later, she is still missing.
But Veronisha and her mother Junice, like Amahle and David’s families, have not given up hope of finding her one day. The family has widely published photos of Veronique, alongside adult ones of Veronisha, hoping that someone, somewhere will recognise her and they will be reunited.
“As a family we believe that she’s still alive out there somewhere,” Veronisha told the Mail & Guardian this week, of her twin.
“And also because of the fact that doctors normally say that twins have a special bond and we can feel each other.
“So, from that perspective, sometimes I get a feeling that you can’t explain. A feeling of longing for someone or something that you can’t really explain.
“Based on that, I just feel that there’s not really an option of giving up on finding her. She must be out there somewhere … someone must know something about her.”
Traditional news sites and social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok are awash with stories about missing children reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS) — such as the cases of David, Amahle and Veronique.
According to the SAPS Missing Persons Bureau data, an average of 1?697 children have been reported missing every year over a 10-year period, equating to about one report every five hours.
Scores of support groups have been created for the families of the thousands of missing children who still hope against hope for the day the phone might ring with good news.
However, criminology experts say, in many instances, relatives themselves are involved in the sale of children to traffickers, or other forms of exploitation, a tragedy compounded due to the widespread job losses caused by the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Prosecutors are making a similar argument in the case of missing Saldanha Bay girl Joslin Smith, whose mother Kelly Smith has been on trial with two men on charges of kidnapping and human trafficking in relation to the six-year-old’s disappearance in February last year.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s written response to questions posed in parliament on 21 February indicated that 188 children went missing in South Africa between 1 October and 31 December last year. Of these, 102 had been found, while 86 were still missing.
Topping the list of provinces where the most children were reported missing were the Western Cape with 56, followed by the Free State with 42, Gauteng (38), KwaZulu-Natal (19), North West (15), Mpumalanga (9), Eastern Cape and Limpopo (2).
The provinces with the highest number of children still missing without a trace were Gauteng (32), the Western Cape (16), KwaZulu-Natal (14), North West (12) and Eastern Cape (7).
The actual number of missing children is believed to be far higher than those reported to the police, said Bianca van Aswegen, a criminologist and national coordinator at Missing Children South Africa.
This is because, in many cases, relatives or people known to them are involved in the disappearance and therefore they do not report it.
“Statistics really only give a general indication of the problem. There are many cases that go unreported — people living in rural areas, people that have a lack of trust with our police system.
“And then we’ve also got the cases of human trafficking where children are being sold off by their own families, without being reported,” Van Aswegen said.
“We have seen … cases where family members or family friends are involved with actually selling off their own children — or exploiting them themselves. For instance, we see children standing on street corners begging.
“Those children still have homes but they are being exploited by their own families, standing on street corners begging for money to bring an extra income into the household.
“We’ve also seen families using girls for sexual exploitation.”
Communities need to get more proactive in reporting missing children, Van Aswegen said.
“You see a woman that’s pregnant and say 11 months later, ‘There’s no baby. What happened to the child?’
“Or there’s a family that had three children and, a month later, there’s only one left. What happened to the other two children?
“But people aren’t looking for these signs. They’re not reporting.”
The Covid-19 lockdowns led to a rise in the human trafficking and exploitation of children due to job losses, poverty and unwanted pregnancies linked to the pandemic.
“Lockdown escalated everything because human trafficking is a low-risk, high-reward crime.
“If the demand is there, it will never stop. It’s all money driven,” Van Aswegen said.
“Firstly, it’s the most vulnerable in society, the majority of the time, that’s taken.
“It’s low risk with no one reporting those people as missing, especially when families sell their own children. It’s an absolute low risk, but it’s a high-reward crime, because there’s a lot of money involved.”
In the case of Joslin, Van Aswegen said she could not understand why people who had allegedly heard Kelly Smith stating that she planned to sell her children did not immediately report her to the police.
It did not make sense, she added, that a sangoma, as alleged recently during Smith’s trial, would want just her eyes and skin for “muti” — as this was also not ordinarily a cultural practice in the Western Cape.
“It doesn’t sit right with me. I’m trying to wrap my head around this whole thing because, specifically, when it comes to muti murders, they will not just take or buy a child for their eyes and skin.
“That sounds more like organ trafficking, human trafficking, but sangomas aren’t involved with organ trafficking which would be, for example, for a person who needs a kidney,” Van Aswegen said.
“It’s the richest of the richest people who are willing to pay to save a loved one’s life by buying a kidney and the victims are the poorest of the poor, desperate to sell off a kidney to just get money.”
She added that Missing Children SA did not get reports about child trafficking specifically for body parts.
Another sad reality is that families often become the target of extortionists claiming to have information about a missing child’s whereabouts.
“Even with the Joslin case, right in the beginning, we had so many people calling. If it’s not a psychic, it’s a person saying they want money, they know where Joslin is.
“For three weeks straight, my phone rang non-stop through the night,” Van Aswegen said.
The question arises — are South Africa’s laws adequate, and the police sufficiently equipped, to fight the scourge and to find the children?
“They are trying their best but they’re over-mandated. The Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit handles all the children’s cases, whether it’s missing children or sexual abuse related, but they really are over-mandated with all the cases that land on their table,” Van Aswegen said, adding that the organised crime units that focus on human trafficking are also understaffed and overburdened.
“We need to expand those units. We need to also give our SAPS regular training on human trafficking, on children going missing, so they can keep up with the trends and the modus operandi of these syndicates,” she said.
University of Cape Town Centre of Criminology senior research associate Simon Hopewell said that, on paper, the country’s laws were “fairly well developed from an administrative perspective”.
However, what remains an issue is the procedural enactment and safeguarding of the legal framework in the daily lives of people, he added.
“This is a far wider issue, however, and has been widely documented in various places — South Africa has great laws but it remains a challenge to ensure they are felt and enacted.”
Many missing children and trafficking cases require advanced intelligence networks and active, rather than reactive, policing measures.
“Intelligence has the ability to do this but remains hamstrung by the ongoing internal divisions, and leadership battles within the division, that have plagued it for the last few years,” Hopewell said.
“SAPS needs to deal with these internal issues — and, to its credit, has finally begun to do so — so its capabilities can be focused outwards towards pre-emptively engaging with identified threats to prevent these types of cases occurring.”
He reiterated that the SAPS Missing Persons Bureau data only covers cases that are reported to the police and that the actual number of children missing and/or abducted was unknown and probably significantly larger.
“Broader issues around trust of the police and fear of repercussions undermine reporting generally,” Hopewell said.
“The data is not particularly granular, but over an 18-year span, approximately 16?000 children have been reported missing, of which around 25% have never been found or recovered — thus around 75% of children are ultimately found or recovered although the data does not indicate whether they are alive or not at the time of rescue.”
He added it was difficult to obtain case-specific data and conviction rates due to the nature of the crime.
“Abductions are typically divided into “familial” and “stranger” types, with a significant proportion the result of the former.
“Stranger abductions are further divided into those resulting from sexual exploitation, ransom/extortion and human trafficking.
“Familial cases are certainly not uncommon though, and occur all too frequently in the country,” Hopewell said.
Childline South Africa, a non-governmental organisation that runs a helpline offering counselling services to children, has handled very few cases regarding those that are missing, according to its chief executive Dumisile Cele.
However, in many cases that the organisation was aware of, people known to the child participated in their trafficking.
“This in the main seems to be for monetary reasons or addressing issues of poverty within the household,” Cele said.
“Sometimes parents or caregivers are not aware that their behaviour amounts to child trafficking, and others are duped into believing their children are taken to get better education opportunities, whereas those involved intend to sell the children or expose them to child labour and other forms of exploitation.”
Substance abuse was another factor that led to the exploitation of children, Cele said.
“But issues of poverty also play a big role as parents may participate in the trafficking of their children for financial gain or believing their children are being moved to another area to gain a better life,” she added.
The SAPS had not responded to questions from the M&G by the time of publication.
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