I love fashion. It’s not just part of my job as an international model, it’s a way of expressing myself and my cultural heritage. I am inspired and excited by the creativity of designers and the variety of fashion choices we can have available to us. Africa has many talented designers who are being recognized on a global scale. Just recently, African designer Kenneth Ize shared the exciting news that he will be collaborating with the Karl Lagerfeld fashion house to co-create the spring 2021 capsule collection.



Yet, when it comes to sustainability, the fashion industry has a lot of work to do. The fast fashion industry that originated in the West has accelerated fashion’s negative environmental and social impact. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the fashion industry uses more energy than the aviation and shipping industries put together. It also states that the industry produces about 20% of global waste water and 85% of textiles end up in landfills or are incinerated when most of these materials could be re-used. Add to this the fact that fashion is also one of the biggest employers of forced labor, and the picture is pretty grim.



Now transport this to Africa, which is already experiencing the impact of climate change and though many African countries are pioneering the fight against plastic – some have made plastic bags illegal for example – we still have plenty to do to ensure we build sustainable businesses, especially in the fashion industry.



For me, sustainability is ultimately about trying to maintain our human existence and we can’t sit back and leave it to others, and this brings me to Malaika.



Malaika is the grassroots non-profit I founded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Its mission is to empower a community of people through education and health programs. It now comprises a school for over 346 girls and a community center that provides education and sport for development programs to 5,000 youth and adults, and we built and refurbished 20 wells that serve over 30,000 people with clean water. We have built Malaika over the past 13 years with sustainability in mind, and to us, it means using minimal resources and using them well.



Our IT suite, school and community center are powered by solar energy. In 2017, we set up our small farm where we teach organic farming and the food produced supplies the school canteen. We engage the community in a big clean-up of the village each month and our students plant trees and learn about the environment. Education is key to empowering people but it’s also key to changing our environmental impact. We are producing the leaders of tomorrow and we want them to be equipped to make an even bigger positive impact on our global carbon footprint than we have.



What can we do to reduce the effects of climate change? Firstly, I believe we, as consumers, need to hold more businesses to account. I try to do modeling campaigns with brands that are ethical and care about giving back because sustainability, to me, is also about the people who make our clothes. According to CARE International, an organization fighting global poverty, 75% of garment sector workers are women and the Covid-19 pandemic has led to brands cancelling big orders with suppliers leading to many workers losing jobs.



So, what can we as individuals do? We need to change the way we shop and ask more questions about how our favorite brands are producing their clothes. We need to take the time to investigate who is making them, what their working conditions are, and what they get paid. When I buy clothing or accessories, I ensure they are items I love and can see how they will fit in with the other clothes I own. HURR is the world’s leading fashion rental platform and I use it to rent clothes for events so I can wear a one-off piece or luxury brand item without buying it. A website I always check is eco-age.com for the latest news on global supply chains, artisanal brands, community projects and suggestions on which brands to shop. Finally, take a look at the United Nation’s ActNow climate action campaign for practical tips on how you can make a difference.



Start today. It takes time and effort to change our habits but every step we take towards sustainability will help change the world for future generations.



– By Noella Coursaris Musunka; an international model, philanthropist and founder of Malaika, a grassroots non-profit in the DRC.

Neolla at Malaika

Re-Use Clothes, Buy Ethically And Build Sustainability Into  The Fashion Industry

Adjany da Silva Freitas Costa, the youngest minister in the Angolan cabinet, is an intrepid adventurer, biologist and conservationist committed to saving the world’s last wild places.



Adjany da Silva Freitas Costa is not your ordinary minister. At 30 years old, the Luanda local is currently the youngest minister to serve in the Angolan cabinet and an intrepid adventurer with an inspiring hands-on background.



In 2015, Costa was one of the braves who undertook a four-month journey from the highlands of Angola, meandering 2,400km by mokoro (a traditional canoe), camping wild along the Okavango River until they reached the town of Maun in Botswana. The trip illustrated how the Okavango Delta relies on Angolan rains, but also highlighted the costs of Angola’s lengthy war to its landscapes.



In April this year, Costa assumed the government position as Minister of Culture, Tourism and Environment. “It is not exactly unusual for a woman to join the Angolan government,” says Costa, “but it&#8217;s not exactly common either.&#8221; Currently, there are seven women ministers in the Angolan cabinet, creating a gender split of roughly 35% female.



“We bring a lot of benefit for the simple fact that we can bring inclusion to the politics forged in society,” says Costa. “I think that every single one of us brings a different perspective to the whole context of politics. Currently, I am the youngest minister to serve in the Angolan cabinet. It makes me feel like there is hope for youth and hope for the future. I do think we bring an innovative way of thinking and innovative vision into the current system that is very beneficial to change and to the improvement of the system here in Angola.”



The cross-country expedition revealed new species (to date, ongoing field trips have resulted in the discovery of 26 species new to science, more than 75 species potentially new to science, and more than 130 species previously unknown in Angola). It also embedded in Costa a life-long commitment to saving the world’s last wild places. It short, it changed her life.



“It changed the whole perception that I had of everything, personally, professionally, academically,” Costa admits. “The trip helped me see the world and my participation in the world, in a very different way. In a very concrete way and I don&#8217;t think I would be sitting here answering these questions if I hadn&#8217;t participated. I have never, ever in my entire life “envisioned myself as a minister. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever envisioned myself being part of politics, but there is a writer who once said, ‘You don&#8217;t choose politics. Politics chooses you’, and that&#8217;s exactly what happened. I see it as an opportunity to bring change from the outside. I am someone that has always applied the policy that&#8217;s created by decision-makers. I think it&#8217;s an opportunity to bring that applicability into the system and make it much more action-focused – and more than a piece of paper.”



In 2017, Costa was named an emerging explorer at National Geographic, and in 2019, she became the Young Champion of the Earth for Africa in the United Nations Environment Program. Before taking a seat in the government, Costa worked as an ethno-conservationist to pioneer projects that developed working conservation models for communities living alongside crucial wildlife hubs.



“Being a biologist is also a great advantage for this position. I believe that policies should be made to be applied and not archived,” Costa says. Another benefit for her position is that she knows all about being on the ground. “I started my journey in conservation, looking specifically at biodiversity and working directly with the specimens. I started with turtles, and all we did was patrol the beaches and look after the nests – and that was it. There was no engagement. For a long time, I always thought there was a separation between humans and wildlife – and that the separation was needed for us to protect wildlife. Working for the past five years in the East of Angola, I realized that it is the complete opposite. The gap that we&#8217;ve created with nature is what causes us to destroy nature in the first place.”



Costa has a masters degree in Biology and a PhD in International Wildlife Conservation Practices from Oxford University. In the wake of Covid-19, we are just beginning to see the harsh effects of tourism loss to wilderness protection.



<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-683x1024.jpg" alt="" data-id="45550" data-full-url="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=45550" class="wp-image-45550" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-scaled-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-scaled-600x899.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-1366x2048.jpg 1366w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MSF2357-scaled.jpg 1708w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure></li></ul></figure>



“Rural communities are the true protectors of the environment around them,” Costa says. “Ethno-conservation is the art, and it is our privilege of being able to work with communities for the sake of nature. Not just for the conservation of biodiversity, but also the improvement of their own lives.”



The drastic decline in visitor numbers in the wilds of Kenya, Zimbabwe and across the African continent highlights the importance of such a conservation model more than ever as decades of conservation successes hunker in jeopardy due to tourism collapse.&nbsp;



“Our main target for tourism in Angola is internal tourism. We have 29 million people that don&#8217;t know most of the country,” says Costa. “We have a lot of potential though; whether it&#8217;s landscape, culture, adventure or eco-tourism, it’s possible in Angola. We are very much focused on creating the services and infrastructure for internal tourism before we look outside of our borders.



“In terms of tourism, Angola’s biggest asset is definitely diversity,” Costa enthuses. “Not just naturally and not just culturally. The conditions that you find from one place to the other are so unique that you can go, within Angola, to 10 different places that feel like completely different countries. We literally go from a tropical forest, all the way to a desert in one row. Angola has partnered with different collaborators to assure the protection of these spaces. Whatever happens in Iona National Park is completely different from what happens in the Luengue-Luiana National Park (which feeds the Okavango Basin), and that’s completely different from what happens in the Quiçama National Park.”



She also believes that protecting such wild spaces enables wildlife to flourish.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Nature has this incredible thing that is, to me, one of the most fantastic traits. It is resilient. Even now, with this Covid-19 situation, we have seen how resilient nature is. Wilderness itself can resuscitate, and wilderness can find a future – if we just know how to protect it.”</blockquote>



When asked about inspiration and the future, Costa cites other intrepid conservationists, Jane Goodall and Sylvia Earle as strong influences.



“If I have to send a message to young women around the world, what would it be? Do it. That&#8217;s something that I always say. Do it. Whatever it is that we set our minds to do. We can most definitely, definitely do it. We can achieve impossible things. I&#8217;m a minister today. That says a lot!”



&nbsp;– By Melanie van Zyl

Adjany Costa – Forbes Africa-2

‘With Covid-19, See How Resilient Nature Is’

It was David and Goliath. With sling shot in hand, two tiny human rights groups, Earthlife Africa Johannesburg (ELA) and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI), stood in the way of the Goliath that is the deal to build nuclear that could cost more than a R1 trillion ($73 billion).
It was a court battle that raged for a year and a half. On April 26, the ELA and SAFCEI lawyers stood face-to-face with government counsel in the Western Cape High Court, Cape Town. The ELA and SAFCEI disputed the costly procurement process, saying it was illegal and nontransparent.
On this day, Goliath crumpled and activists danced and sang in victory on the sidewalk outside the court. The celebration was blessed by a downpour in this drought-ridden city.
Judge Lee Bozalek declared the South African government’s nuclear deal to be unlawful and unconstitutional. Most important was the scrapping of secret intergovernmental agreements with Russia, the United States and South Korea, which the activists argued was the right of the public to know.
“Victory for justice and the rule of law and the people of South Africa,” says Makoma Lekalakala, ELA branch coordinator.
Other key decisions made by government were found to be illegal, including its decision to hand over procurement of nuclear to Eskom, South Africa’s state power utility, rather than the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.
“All the information that people have been requiring on affordability etc. must come into the public realm. We need to know exactly what is going on with the deal and it needs to happen in a transparent and open process as the government has repeatedly said it would do, but keep not doing,” says Adrian Pole, lawyer for SAFCEI and ELA.
<div id="attachment_31370" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31370" class="wp-image-31370 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Koeberg_JC-4-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Koeberg_JC-4.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Koeberg_JC-4-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Koeberg_JC-4-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Koeberg_JC-4-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Koeberg Nuclear Power Station</div>
It means back to the drawing board for nuclear energy in South Africa. From now on any nuclear proposals will need to be passed in Parliament and opened up to the public, which could take years.
“It’s been a long hard struggle. We are only two small organizations but this is really a victory for democracy. It means the people of South Africa can now participate in their future. There is no more nuclear deal, there is no more Russian agreement. Parliament has to step up. If the president wants to push any more deals it has to go through Parliament properly and any idea we might go nuclear is off the table,” says Liz McDaid, SAFCEI spokesperson.
McDaid has more reason to celebrate than most. She was there from day one, when the human rights groups announced they would take down the deal in court from a small room in a backstreet office with a handful of journalists in Newtown, Johannesburg.
Another organization standing against the deal is the Organization Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA). Ted Blom, OUTA’s Energy Portfolio Director, believes the expense alone could have crippled the country.
“We are tired of government’s approach that runs roughshod over the need for meaningful public engagement and due process. The pro-nuclear lobbyists and government officials arrogantly ignore their need to be accountable and to provide detailed explanations to the public on why we need new nuclear plants, or what the true costs of these will be,” adds Wayne Duvenage, OUTA Chairperson.
Studies showed the nuclear deal to be unaffordable, despite what government believes, argues David Fig, a Political Economist and Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cape Town. He notes that the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) developed models showing that new nuclear is likely to be much more expensive than coal or renewable energy.
“The price ticket for nuclear – which some estimates put at more than R1 trillion – doesn’t take into account the costs of operation, fuel, insurance, emergency planning or the regulation or decontamination at the end of the life of the reactors,” he writes in The Conversation.
The nuclear deal, overseen by South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, is also muddied by allegations of corruption, according to Fig.
“A more likely reason for Zuma’s zeal is the involvement of the Gupta family with whom he has close ties. The family’s web of interests around the nuclear deal is complex. What is known is that the Gupta family controls South Africa’s only dedicated uranium mine. The family has developed close relationships with key individuals at Eskom,” says Fig.
On the other side of the argument, there is a claim the ruling is an overstatement. Kelvin Kemm, Chairperson of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), called for caution when interpreting it. The nuclear physicist argues that the court ruled on an administrative process, not on the wisdom of nuclear power.
“A false impression has been created that this judgment is anti-nuclear. It is not and comment to that effect is premature and regrettable,” says Kemm.
“One positive aspect of this ruling is that it presents the opportunity for the facts and truth to be fully aired and debated so that rational people can think and decide on realities not hearsay. The anti-nuke lobby has had the platform to themselves, not least because the nuclear industry has been quiet. This will change. Necsa and the nuclear industry intend to step up efforts to put the facts before the court of public opinion and to present a balanced and evidence-based case for nuclear energy as the right energy option for South Africa.”
“The nuclear industry in South Africa operates to the highest global business and ethical standards and applies world best practice to planning and operational procedures. To suggest that those working within it adhere to anything less is at best inaccurate and a great disservice to a highly professional body of experts.”
Government says it will look over the judgment before it decides whether to appeal.
The battle over nuclear is far from over, but the victors are likely to redouble their campaign after they have dried off from their dance in the rain.

Koeberg_JC-3

False Dawn For New Nuclear In Africa

IMG_8407

Out Of The Blue: Africa’s Water Warriors

Chris Bishop: You believe that US foreign policy is becoming more isolationist. What does that mean for Africa?
Steve Forbes: In terms of the US turning its back on the world, it’s not good for Africa. Turning outward to the world means more trade, greater sense of security which means more investment. Africa has enormous opportunities, even beyond a commodities boom and a lot of entrepreneurship there. What you need is more and more of an environment, structures where entrepreneurship can build real assets. That’s where things like the World Banks’ survey of doing business is helpful, structural changes that you need to make… people don’t realize that there are hundreds and hundreds of millions of people in Africa – that’s a big place.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4173" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/20150908_204003_EDIT-177x300.jpg" alt="" width="177" height="300" />
Bishop: What about the visit of President Barack Obama to East Africa?
Forbes: He was going to get applause, and he got some, but I don’t think he fully recognizes what you need to do to get an economy growing. And Africa is up for it. Take Kenya, who would have thought that a place like Kenya would be at the forefront of electronic banking, or world banking, but they are.
Bishop: What would be your advice for foreign policy towards Africa?
Forbes: Well, certainly in the north, you’ve got to have more sense of security and the sense that the bad guys are not going to have the sway in places like Nigeria. Then urge people to put in reforms. What you don’t do is let the IMF give the advice, they still give mostly bad advice, economic malpractice.
Bishop: What about the entrepreneurs of Africa?
Forbes: Without entrepreneurs you don’t flourish, you don’t get the breakthroughs and there’s no lack of energy in Africa.
Bishop: If you were the president of a country in Africa, would you say flat tax from tomorrow?
Forbes: Yes I would. I’d ask the IMF what to do and do the opposite. Putting in a flat tax, tying the currency to the euro, which many African countries have already done. So even though the euro is not the best currency, people trust that more than they do a local currency. So you can say, ‘don’t worry about our central bank, we’re with the euro or the dollar’, so we’ll invest with the sense of security that you’re not going to have a hyper-inflation like it hit Zimbabwe. Then you do that and you put in ease of starting a business. Start practicing real property rights, then you’re going to start to see, rapidly, an emergence of a middle class.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4174" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/20150910_165607-169x300.jpg" alt="" width="169" height="300" />
Bishop: And how likely do you think that is, reading the situation from this side?
Forbes: I think that people recognize that foreign aid was a disaster for Africa. That the Africans are quite capable, in an economic environment, of prospering? I think they’ve already demonstrated that.
Bishop: You haven’t missed a column for 43 years. As a fellow journalist I’d like to say that’s quite something. What sort of legacy do you want to leave in the world of business journalism?
Forbes: I think simply carrying out my grandfather’s vision when he said: “The purpose of business is to produce happiness, not pile up money.” So whether it’s books, or anything else, laying out how we can create that environment where entrepreneurs can flourish, because when they flourish we flourish.

FORBES ON AFRICA IN NEW YORK

South Africa’s favorite adventurous son, Mike Horn, regarded by many as the world’s greatest modern day explorer, was seduced by Switzerland while hitchhiking his way to Israel. It was the snow that won him over, before he’d even reached the sand of the Middle Eastern country.
While my first memory of hitchhiking in Switzerland is sharing a flagon of cheap wine at a small table in a very clean youth hostel with a young Tunisian and no dictionary, Horn immediately saw opportunity. Granted, he was considerably older than my then student self, but it speaks to his strategic contemporary self that he identified what he needed.
“It’s a safe and sure country to leave my family when I go out exploring; it has four seasons that allows me to practice all outdoor activities. It has some of the most diversified natural elements; it’s neutral and easy to travel to and from,” says Horn.
Lausanne is the Olympic capital of Switzerland, a treat for any serious sport and outdoors enthusiast. But Horn has a particularly African take on what works for him in this historical and wealthy city.
“What I love the most living in an expensive country is that everything works, it’s clean and everyone is always on time. You pay for what you get.”
Horn is an established brand in the extreme adventure environment. His website details journeys to places like the Arctic Circle, the Amazon River and various Himalayan peaks. All will challenge your body and mind. From the outside, it’s a bit like a 12-year-old’s adventure book.
“To be able to play the lead role in your dream and live it in reality makes me a privileged man. I have never started anything in life thinking I will fail. And that is how little boys dream. As we grow older we lose our dreams, but as I have grown older I kept my dreams young.”
Follow the road of Mike Horn’s history and you will arrive at his career destination, to which he must feel he was born – teaching others how to respect their environment.
Through his four-year conservation-education platform Pangaea, started in 2008, Mike and his team found enthusiastic youngsters, between the ages of 15 and 20, who he then groomed as environmental ambassadors in their respective countries. He did this through expeditions to places most only dream of; Antarctica, New Zealand, Malaysia and India among them.
On the various expeditions, the selected youngsters were given the opportunity to experience, explore and interpret different climates and surfaces.
“We must begin to take real steps towards ensuring that our planet can be respected and appreciated by all future generations…” says Horn.
These words are increasingly relevant, as the promises and targets emerging from endless conferences do more for the conference industry than the health of the planet.
This gives Horn a reason to try educate as many as he can.
His website speaks of over 200,000 miles and multiple circumnavigations being covered in pursuit of Pangaea’s goals, with more voyages in the pipeline. All of which will cost a lot of money. He says he’s in the right place to access these funds, with some of the world’s best-known brands close at hand.
“With Geneva next door, France on the other side of the lake and Italy a short drive away, we have access to the watch industry, banking, nutrition and technology and amazing universities,” he says.
But Horn stresses that such sponsors don’t give their money away easily. Even as a  Laureus World Sports Academy member, he had to do a little convincing.
“I have been very fortunate because when I proposed my projects to my sponsors they liked the idea. Credibility and authenticity is very important. Do not promise what you cannot do!”
And so they rolled in. Mercedes Benz, Panerai, Nespresso, Geberit, Mumm champagne, Scott Sports and Petzl, according to Horn all see value in his experience and knowledge.
“They are definitely your biggest investment.”
The link between the man and his sponsors is more obvious with some than others.
“For a watch company I’m a living test lab. Making timepieces that I use as navigational instruments and that I test for long periods of time in the field at extreme temperatures and altitudes makes it a unique and authentic test lab. Once the watch has survived the expedition, Panerai makes a limited special edition timepiece with my signature. Mercedes Benz use me for internal and external communication.”
Mike says while it’s difficult to measure the return on their respective investments, he has adopted a personal solution to determining the value clients get from his association with them.
“If you always do what you promise to do for them, and are willing to give more than they ask, reinventing yourself with new projects, I think it is worth it for them.”
This Johannesburg-born adventurer’s next expedition is Pole to Pole, another first in the adventure world. Horn will make solo journeys to both the North and South Poles, crossing the Arctic and Antarctica on foot and by skis.
When crossing the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, he will be on board his sailing vessel Pangea.
As with most of his missions, Horn won’t have support; although for much of the time there will be people in the vicinity, as a camera-crew will be shooting for international film producer Goldcrest, which is producing a series on the adventure.
He aims to complete Pole to Pole within a year.
Beyond the physical endurance required for this latest venture – which he is preparing for by cycling, climbing and dragging car tyres around Swiss mountains – it requires significant effort to put these expeditions together.
“There are a lot of sacrifices you have to be prepared to make… sacrifices with family because (I am) often away from home, friends you don’t often see, and very little free time.”
Indeed, Horn suffered a tragedy when his wife, New Zealander Cathy, passed away shortly before we conducted this interview.
“I find myself with a massive gap to fill in my private and business life… Cathy was the rock and pillar of everything I ever achieved”.
Almost as if she had planned it, Cathy prepared their teenage daughters to help with the business while they were studying; a seamless transition doubling up as a comforting distraction for this hard-travelling man.
“They know the brand best,” he says, hardly surprising considering that he took them to the North Pole when they were barely in their teens.
And so the business of Mike Horn continues where it makes sense, in Switzerland. It couldn’t have happened anywhere else.

‘I’ve Never Started Anything Thinking I Will Fail

There is a Swahili saying that goes; ‘a good day is known in the morning’. Is 2015 a good year for the Kenyan investment environment? All indications suggest it is.
The World Bank has reviewed its prediction about Kenya, predicting GDP growth at 6%. While I am happy that the New York-based economists think so highly of the country, I highly doubt if this will be the case.
The World Bank has missed its growth predictions for Kenya for three consecutive years, being forced to adjust mid-year from 2012. Beyond that, the country’s economy is still not out of the woods and growth will remain slow.
For this year, I would trust their adjusted statement given in June 2014, stating that the economy would grow at around 4.7% both in 2014 and 2015. I would place the figure at between 4.9% and 5.2%, two to four percentage points above Mckinsey’s growth figures for Africa.
To make accurate predictions, you need to look at the past.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) performed averagely in 2014. The NSE 20 Share Index delivered price gains of 4.9% compared to 19.2% the previous year. On the flipside, the NSE All Share Index (NSEASI) delivered a price gain value of 19.9% compared to 44.1% in the previous year.
It’s worth noting that the NSEASI is driven by speculative trading on the smaller counters, mostly in the agricultural sector. The large caps in the NSE 20 are mostly attractive to large investors who prefer long term to short term benefits, hence minimal price gains.
While the price gains were average, most of the companies registered the anticipated major profits. Safaricom reported a net profit of $256 million, a 31% increase, while Equity Bank reported a profit of $211 million for the year ended December 31, 2013. Better news arrived when the bank announced its third quarter results in October to stand at 124 million, a 26% rise from the previous year.
It was not all rosy though. Kenya Airways reported a loss of $87.9 million, which coincided with the rising insecurity in the country, the Ebola pandemic in West Africa and poor tourism numbers driven by travel advisories in the west. The other companies that reported losses were Mumias Sugar, suffering the after effects of dishonest management, and Transcentury which posted a half year loss of $17.8 million.
The country’s economy grew 2.7% in the first quarter, 5.8% in the second and 5.5% in the third. While better performance is expected for the fourth, I believe Kenya’s growth figure for 2014 is still within the region of 4.7%.
With this information, one can authoritatively talk of a better performance in 2015.
I expect continued activity from the traditional movers like Safaricom, Equity Bank, KCB, EABL and Kenol Kobil. I also expect Mumias Sugar to make a comeback after shedding off 33% last year. There will also be significant activity from the growth counters; Centum Investment, Britam, and Car and General.
In essence, the sectors to watch will be agriculture, insurance, banking and oil which will benefit from the lower crude prices. We may even see a breach of the 6,000 mark for the NSE 20 Share Index, with the risks being poor implementation of the capital gains tax and insecurity.
The decision by the ICC to drop charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta is good news for the country, but terror attacks are derailing progress in Kenya, having eroded the robust tourist industry last year. While there is confidence in the government efforts to curtail the attacks, the risk still lingers in 2015 and might affect business significantly.
I expect government economists to take a conservative approach in setting both the fiscal and monetary policy. The Vision 2030 flagship projects will offer liquidity to the economy and spur growth, thus there will be no need to induce additional government spending in the next budget. In addition, the spending will send interest rates downward and the Monetary Policy Committee is likely to lower the Central Bank Rate when the economy has responded positively to the aggressive fiscal spending.
With this in mind, I can say it’s a good year to invest.

Expect Better Things

Kuantan, Malaysia, seems a long way from the translucent dusk and rich red earth of peaceful Malawi. Standing in the heart of an ancient swamp the daylight is fading to an impenetrable gloom. Seeping through my toes in the dusk is brackish black peat water.
If it wasn’t for the stifling humidity and the call of a fish eagle over the pristine distant forest I could be in a stinking bog in the Scottish Hebrides. To the north of the ‘Black Jewel’ forests of southern Malaysia, where I stand, the brilliant LED lights of a remote state of the art refinery glow through the Asian night.
Over its metal ramparts, migrant Malaysian workers scurry over scaffolding like ants. They are part of a race that is seeing the world’s biggest mining and technology companies scour the ends of the earth to break China’s stranglehold on rare earths – a band of obscure but increasingly strategic metals integral to our technological world.
Today, this dank and rather obscure corner of Malaysia represents the new frontier for refining rare earths – a group of 17 largely similar metallic-chemical elements used in products from smartphones and televisions to hybrid-car batteries. This plant has been built to refine ore from the Mount Weld mine deep in the Australian desert, 2,500 miles away.
Inside these humble rocks from the outback are rare-earth minerals, crucial ingredients for smartphones, as well as wind turbines, hybrid cars, and night-vision goggles. Minerals such as neodymium are used in magnets that make phone and laptop speakers vibrate to create sound. Or europium, a phosphor that creates the bright red on an iPhone screen. Let’s not forget cerium which makes our perfect metal smartphones shiny and new as they move along the assembly line.
The Malaysian refinery’s backers, Lynas, believe they will eventually be able to meet nearly a third of the world’s demand for rare earth materials here. Most crucially, Kuantan’s refinery is the first rare earth ore processing plant to be built outside China in nearly three decades.
It’s arrival, and the decision by China to scrap its quota system restricting exports of rare earth minerals after losing a World Trade Organization case, could also signal Africa’s entry into the burgeoning market. Lynas believe they are backing a clear winner as the global demand for technology reaches new heights. Yet it is a venture not without risk. Historically, rare earths have proven tricky to process.
As Malaysia learned the hard way a few decades ago, refining rare earth ore usually leaves thousands of tons of low-level radioactive waste behind. As a consequence the west has largely left the dirty work to Chinese refineries. The world’s reluctance to process rare earths has meant that China now mines and refines at least 90% of the global supply – allowing Beijing a virtual monopoly that has handed them a global trade weapon in an increasingly high-tech world.
Last September, China imposed a two-month embargo on rare earth shipments to Japan during a territorial dispute, and for a short time even blocked some shipments to the United States and Europe. It’s an environmental and economic backstory that does much to explain Lynas’ $230-million investment into the world’s most advanced rare earth refinery but one that also concerns environmentalists.
Critics of the Lynas plant claim it will generate 28,000 tons of solid waste containing radioactive by-products annually. The most controversial element in the waste cocktail, claim Greenpeace and local campaigners, is thorium, a mildly radioactive element that is toxic in large doses and easily spread through wind and water. Exposure to thorium is tied to increased risk of cancer. Although the sprawling plant is located on the Gebeng industrial estate, about 30,000 people live within a two-kilometer radius and 700,000 reside within 25 kilometers of the refinery.
Lynas claim that the final waste material will have levels of radioactivity low enough to allow it to be transported overseas. A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also assessed the Kuantan plant and judged it to meet all safety standards.
Here, along the Andaman coast, the debate ploughs on. In many ways it feels like I have been here before. In 2006, I, like many other correspondents, obsessed over coltan, traveling across Goma and Kivu as rebel groups stationed throughout the eastern Democratic Republic Congo waged war on both one another and the government over that most pliable of soft metals – coltan – placing bonded slaves and kidnapped children into the supply chains of major electronic firms who sought it.
Coltan’s value, like rare earths, was, at the time, hard to understand. Short for columbite-tantalite, it is an ore that takes on heat-resistant properties when it gets refined. It’s also capable of holding a high electrical charge for a long time. Both characteristics make it an ideal component in circuitry design, particularly in smartphones and other electronic devices, which constantly need to improve battery life.
For NGO’s coltan was the poster boy of the so-called 3TGs: tantalum (coltan), tin, tungsten and gold, all used extensively in the electronics industry. To many within the electronics industry, coltan and other conflict minerals is an old narrative. But the truth is Africa’s entanglement with potentially damaging technology minerals might actually just be beginning.
Our obsession with technology means our need for rare earths can only grow exponentially. Today, geologists also believe Africa has more than half the world’s deposits of carbonatites, the type of rock formation seen as the prime hunting ground for rare earths.
Another advantage Africa, in particular South Africa, offers is vast amounts of monazite sands left over from other mining operations from which rare earths can be extracted. The Great Western Minerals Group’s Steenkampskraal project in South Africa, for example, has some of the highest concentrations of certain types of rare earths of any mine outside of China.
Perhaps surprisingly, given its relative low-profile in the mining sector, the most promising site on the continent is the Kangankunde Hill region of Malawi. According to the US Geological Survey and Lynas, who have interests in the southern African nation, the potential is significant.
According to Will Dawes, Chief Executive Officer of Canadian company Mkango Resources, Malawi could become Africa’s largest rare earth producer.
“Malawi ticks the boxes in terms of resource potential, a stable political environment, infrastructure and government support,” he says.
Dawes believes there are at least five potential major rare earth mines in Malawi, of which Mkango’s Songwe Hill project is the most advanced. It is undeniably a factor that could transform one of Africa’s most historically weak economies but also bring considerable environmental concerns.
As with processing rare earths, extracting individual elements from the host mineral’s chemistry is a complex and energy-intensive process, involving strong acids and other hazardous chemicals. Radioactive materials such as uranium and thorium are often found alongside rare earth elements, and these can end up in the ‘tailings’ – a toxic stew of waste products from the refinement process.
Rare earths must be separated and purified using hydro-metallurgical techniques and acid baths. As a consequence, the foul waters contain radioactive elements which, if ingested, cause cancers of the pancreas and lungs and leukemia. But, with Malawi’s mining promise comes a lead lining to their economic cloud at least.
As a consequence of rare earths’ troubled history, major corporations like Siemens, Samsung and Toyota are already designing new products that use fewer rare earths or substitute materials.
It is also predicted that recycle rates of rare earths from existing products, very low because of the expense and complexity involved, may also increase in future. Honda, for example, has already begun extracting more than 80% of its rare earth materials from nickel-metal hydride batteries.
Julian Kirby, lead campaigner for Friends of the Earth’s Make It Better initiative, which aims to make companies come clean about their supply chains, is adamant that “environmental costs must be factored into the prices of rare earths”, creating an incentive to recycle existing materials. Kirby also believes there should be a change in reporting by major firms to ensure it includes non-financial information. Only then, he claims, will electronics manufacturers take greater responsibility.
In Malaysia, rare earth refining on their doorstep has split public opinion.
To date, more than 1.2 million people signed a petition calling for Lynas to close its plant and thousands have taken to the streets to express their opposition to the rare earth refinery operating the country. The presence of the facility has sparked one of the biggest environmental movements in Malaysian history. According to one local campaigner in Kuantan, China’s loss of its rare earth monopoly will also prove a loss for the rest of the world, including Africa, as the floodgates open on a toxic trade.

Rare Pollution  And Profit

Pulling together the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) many threads is extraordinarily difficult. Each UNEP thread connects to others, they intersect; touching one affects all.
If looking after the environment is your mandate, what can possibly be off limits?
In Nairobi, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner tried in June to stitch the threads together to form a cohesive whole.
Bursting with justifiable pride, he opened the first UNEA, the A for Assembly, and also an ‘A’ for his tenacity and energy in getting 1,200 very important people to go to Nairobi to move environmental matters up the global agenda ladder.
For Steiner, it’s a no-brainer.
“Everything is connected.”
Whether it is deforestation, illegal trade in reptiles, microplastics in the ocean, developing green energy alternatives, climate change, food waste, sustainable palm oil, rhino and elephant poaching, environment and the rule of law or global investment strategies, all is connected.
“We may have been at the periphery of the global agenda in 1970 when UNEP started. We are no longer there, we are at the center.”
He’s right, of course. Getting governments, business, investors and vested interests to see this is a different matter. So this is the task he has set his staff.
What constitutes success for this first assembly?
Softly-spoken, a dual citizen of Brazil and Germany, Steiner smiles at the question, then answers softly but directly.
“The minute your child is born you claim success. A newborn does not start running like Usain Bolt.”
“So, success? First, did people come? Are we seeing other sectors involved? Has UNEA attracted a bigger constituency? Can we conduct our business?”
UNEP’s business is predicting or pinpointing disasters then doing something to prevent them. Climate change, deforestation, illegal wildlife trade and the oceans’ decline are among the issues on its radar.
The assembly child born in Nairobi is quite an achievement: 1,200 people, from around 150 of the potential 190 countries, and about 100 ministers.
Getting this bunch together in a country many see as a security risk shows how the United Nations (UN) and the world sees the environment moving center stage socially, economically, politically.
The UN does not easily give permission for an assembly outside of the General Assembly. Even if you do have one, nobody might arrive. But they arrived in droves, from Prince Albert of Monaco to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
This first meeting had more goals than all those scored in Brazil. Setting goals, and targets towards goals, is UNEP’s speciality.
When it comes to money, numbers bandied about in Nairobi were eye watering: sums saved, used, needed, pledged, spent.
Green bonds have attracted billions; the cost of illegal wildlife crime is estimated at $213 billion a year; even a tiny program like reducing short-lived climate pollutants has $50 million in its trust fund.
These numbers are chicken feed for Steiner.
“How will 10 billion people live together on the planet? Entire economies are rethinking how they provide power, food, transport. The world wants an authoritative body on environment.”
“We are rediscovering nature, not as a romantic thing, but as a harsh reality. Seven million people die every year from pollution. Why?”
He says the public knows more, expects more and demands more. A trillion dollars a year is needed to finance a green economy, Nick Robins, director of UNEP’s Inquiry into Design of a Sustainable Financial System, says.
“The global stock of assets is $225 trillion, so the money is there. The rules of the game are just not driving it towards a green economy, although returns are huge,” he says with a shrug.
There is an irrefutable logic to everything proposed at the assembly, yet often a concomitant lack of implementation.
Like climate change. We all know it is coming, why is so little done? Another shrug. Vested interests, greed and global corruption.
Yet there are literally countless success stories told in Nairobi, from saving the ozone layer to stopping lead in petrol and sulfur in diesel.
The assembly has meetings aplenty. High-level meetings, country specific, illegal fishing group, green economy specialists, wood scientists, donors, funders, oceans, climate, water, the energy group. Whew! Each has a report, a book, a foundation, and everyone is desperate for publicity.
UNEP strives for a minimum standard of living, it not being just a dollar thing. It is sanitation, education, clean air, food, security, transport and insurance.
UNEP also seeks out the bad guys and tries to discipline them. Overfishing, pollution, illegal charcoal, logging and poaching.
Governments are convinced by UNEP to stop subsidies to fish faster, or subsidies to burn coal for energy. Enemies are legion and include plastic in the ocean, carbon in the air and loggers on the ground.
Despite the environment’s dark outlook, optimists people the assembly. Reports fall on journalist’s desks like confetti. Saving the forests, towards a green economy, stopping pollution, reversing coral reef decline. Much is being done.
Take oceans. The report shows drivers of decline – rising demand, technological advances, fish stocks plummeting, habitat loss, weak governance, climate change – but matches them with eight drivers of recovery: development goals for oceans; governance; stopping overfishing; closing seas, ports and markets; keeping plastics away; establishing oil and gas standards, a global oceans board, creating regeneration zones.
Was this first assembly successful? People came. It made news. Other sectors were sucked in. Yep, pretty successful for a first try.

Billions To Save Millions

Europe and America have surely made inroads when it comes to environment-friendly electric vehicles (EV), manufacturing and finding enough customers for them, but Africa is still lagging behind in this respect.
Electric cars, which help curb greenhouse gas emissions, have been introduced in Africa, but car manufacturers admit they are yet to see a major shift from petrol- and diesel-driven cars to green cars. Clynton Yon, Product Manager of car major Toyota in South Africa, says it’s simply due to a lack of interest from the market.
“Hybrid technology is not cheap but in Europe and the US, the financial rebates buyers receive from the government [on initial purchase and also when it comes to taxes for insurance and emissions, for example congestion tax] make it a far more viable proposition. There also appears to be reluctance on the part of South Africans to adopt a greener lifestyle if it’s going to involve a higher initial financial outlay,” says Yon.
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Electric cars are still fairly expensive, and with reference to local sales, admittedly, hybrids have not achieved the kind of retail numbers they have elsewhere. The most obvious reason for this is the financial rebates offered by first-world countries are not available in South Africa, according to Yon.
“That said, Toyota has made a concerted effort to make hybrid variants more accessible. The Yaris HSD for example is the most affordable hybrid on the market,” says Yon. The Yaris HSD costs R230,000 ($21,700).
Electric engines give electric cars instant torque, creating strong and smooth acceleration. These cars first appeared in the 1880s, and were popular in the 19th and 20th centuries, until advances in combustion technology and production of cheaper petrol vehicles led to a decline in the use of electric cars.
Since 2008, a renaissance in electric vehicle manufacturing has occurred due to advances in battery and power management technology, concerns about increasing oil prices and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
If as a continent, Africa were to catch up with markets such as Europe, a lot needs to be done to educate the consumer about the effects of global warming.
About 144,000 units of another green car entrant, the Nissan LEAF, have been sold around the world, a large percentage of those sales owing to Europe since its launch in December 2010. At the moment, the LEAF commands 33% of the EV passenger car market in Europe, it sold more than 5,600 more units in 2013 versus 2012, cementing its position as a best-selling 100% electric vehicle.
The success of the Nissan LEAF in Europe has been especially propelled by strong sales in Norway where it became the best-selling car at the end of January with 650 units.
Since its launch in South Africa in November last year, the LEAF has taken off well, according to Dudu Mwelase, General Manager of Corporate Communications at Nissan South Africa. About 20 Nissan LEAF cars were sold in the first three months, but Nissan expects to sell a 100 in the first year.
Mwelase says her company’s aim is to bring about as much EV ownership as possible.
“As mobility in Africa starts to increase, there will obviously be a move to introduce environmentally-friendly vehicles. We do not foresee a mass Nissan LEAF introduction on the continent at this stage.”
Customers see electric cars as an appendage of the ongoing endorsement of all things green. For example, Heleen Ball, one of South Africa’s first LEAF customers, says that even though she was not supportive of the idea when her husband first suggested it, the car now works very well with their green lifestyle. She uses the car two or three times a week.
Plans to bring the BMW electric models to South Africa are also in full swing. The first model, the BMW i3 is earmarked for March 2015. The i3 could have been here earlier but because demand was exceeding expectations in a number of key European markets, South Africa has had to wait.
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“To ensure an acceptable waiting period for all customers who have ordered the i3, we have decided to delay market launch in South Africa and a number of countries where the i3 is not yet on sale,” says Edward Makwana, Automotive Communications Manager of BMW, South Africa.
At this stage, these cars will only be available in South Africa.
“We currently have around 11,000 pre-orders worldwide and more than 100,000 test drive requests. Customer-demand and interest in test drives exceed current production capacity. Dealers worldwide report they could sell more BMW i3s if they had them. We are also seeing a growing interest from local customers,” says Makwana. It’s clearly a green signal for electric cars.

Eco-warriors  On The Road

When most of us think about rubbish, we imagine dirt and all kinds of nasty diseases. But for South African businesswoman Lilly-Girl
Dukada-Hentcho, waste is a treasure.
She has been in the waste management business in the country for nearly three years, and is now looking at expanding not only across South Africa, but also elsewhere on the continent.
“The environment is my passion and waste is gold. Success is not only about money; it’s also about changing the mindset of people about waste and recycling,” she explains.
Dukada-Hentcho is part of a group of women entrepreneurs who are stepping up to the plate in the waste management sector. It is an industry that is growing rapidly in South Africa and other parts of the world, as people become more enlightened about conserving the environment , and consumerism continues to spread.
“As we know, the whole world is encouraging Africa to take a big step in saving the environment. The old waste collection mandates have changed now from just collecting waste and dumping.”
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Dukada-Hentcho, along with her husband, Philippe, formed DNH Recycling and Waste Management Services in Midrand in Gauteng three years ago. The company focuses on separating waste at source.
Although she had had some experience in running a waste management company in the United Kingdom, when she started her venture  in South Africa, Dukada-Hentcho says the sector was virtually a no-woman’s land.
To add to her woes, recycling did not happen on a large scale in the country, with many considering it a trendy suburbia practice.
“It was like entering the lion’s den. We had to offer free pilot [projects] for them to see what they were buying,” she says.
But since then, the picture has changed. Dukada-Hentcho credits her strong belief system and willingness to take risks for the success of her company, which also does waste analysis for clients, including Famous Brands, at
38 sites.
In its first year, DNH brought in $100,000. The following year that had increased to more than $240,000. This year, she plans to double her revenue again. The company is looking at ventures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria, and is also in meetings with the University of Johannesburg with a view to collaborating on a waste energy project.
Dukada-Hentcho is just one example of a number of South Africans cottoning on to the fact that waste has value.
In May, Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic hub, held its first waste management summit, and Mayor Parks Tau challenged delegates to view rubbish in a different light. On average, South Africans each produce about one kilogram of waste a day, and if Johannesburg does not start diverting waste on a much bigger scale, none of the current landfill space will be around in 10 years’ time.
According to a baseline study conducted by the government, the country generated 108 million tons of waste in 2011. Ninety-eight million was disposed of in landfills, and only 10% was recycled through various forms, such as separation at source, composting and buy-back centres.
The latest statistics, from 2009, estimate South Africa’s waste sector to be worth $1 billion. Government, which has earmarked the green economy – waste in particular – as a priority area to build the economy, believes the sector can grow from its current 0.56% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), to 1-2% of GDP. In Europe, the eco-industry is showing growth rates of 7-8% per annum.
The concept of a green economy is emerging much faster in South Africa compared to the rest of the continent. In fact, it is one of the most important elements in the country’s new growth plan; the creation of a lower-carbon economy is being punted as a major source of jobs.
South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation, a development finance institution, has earmarked $2.5 billion over five years to 2015/16 for the development of green industries. In partnership with German development bank, KfW, the IDC has also allocated $50 million to a Green Energy Efficiency Fund. It is aimed at stimulating investments by local entrepreneurs. One of the projects already in progress generates biogas from abattoir waste. Funding options for waste management and recycling technologies are also being developed.
“Innovation is considered crucial in growing and sustaining the waste industry. We need new and better ways of doing things,” Henry Roman, from the national Science and Technology Department, told delegates at the waste summit.
Traditionally the sector, which the United Nations Environment Program values at $437 billion a year worldwide, has been epitomized by a large participation of women at the bottom end. There are about 15 million waste pickers in developing countries and they largely consist of women and children.
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However, in South Africa, the face of the sector is changing, and women are increasingly becoming key players. They include the president of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa, Suzan Oelofse; the CEO of PET Plastic Recycling Company (Petco), Cheri Scholtz; the operations director of the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa, Ursula Henneberry; and EnviroServ group property and marketing director Delia Lavarinhas.
Oelofse says researchers in the waste sector at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and at universities are mostly women.
“Women care more. We realize more what the impact is of bad management, and also we care more about the aesthetics of waste,” she explains.
At household level, Oelofse believes there will be an increased focus on recycling and waste separation across the country as South Africans become more aware about preserving the environment.  Also, she says there are a number of growth areas in the waste management sector that women can tap into.
These include extracting usable resour-ces from industrial waste, separating waste at source and waste-to-energy projects, such as developing landfill sites for the harvesting of methane gas as an alternative energy source.
There are also opportunities for women in the post-consumer recycling of water and soft drinks bottles that contain polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
Under Scholtz’s stewardship, PET recycling has almost doubled in tonnage over four years. Close to $19.3 million was paid for sorted, baled bottles delivered to recyclers, and approximately $42 million was injected into the local economy through the sale of recycled PET for downstream products.
“There is still much work to do to capture the remaining percentage of bottles that were not collected, and with the post-consumer PET recycling targets set to rise to 58% in 2017, with a growing market size, increasing the volume of bottles collected for recycling is thought to be the best method of achieving this,” explains Scholtz.
“There is a need for more visible, accessible infrastructure in the form of drop-off facilities, buy-back centres and materials-recovery facilities. This is enabled by increased investment in the recycling sector, making it a bankable sector.”
Also, Scholtz says there is a need for constant innovation in the field of design, to ensure that the bottles produced are actually recyclable, and that labeling is improved so that consumers are encouraged to recycle them and they do not end up in landfills.
Another growing area of opportunity is South Africa’s development of a sustainable tires recycling industry. According to the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa, a waste management fee on new tires is expected to generate around $70 million per year. Eighty percent of it will be ploughed directly into developing the industry.
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While the outlook for the sector is bullish, women still face an uphill battle if they want to make their mark.
Aliena Ratenazi, an entrepreneur who has been researching the waste management industry for four years, and who is getting into the business herself, says that women are often the worker bees who compete at the lower-level structures.
“The barrier of entry in the waste sector comes with a heavy price tag for women… Today, a lot of women contribute to the household and need to make their businesses a success, which within this sector is not an easy task,” says Ratenazi.
“South Africa as a country is not giving the support in the field of educating, funding and training women to enter the waste sector, as we have no role models in this sector&#8230; [It] can be a huge green industry that can focus on major transformation with the optimization of women in waste, where the benefits are considerable and tangible. [This], in turn, would mean huge growth for South Africa, as there is an abundance of waste available in our landfills,” she says.
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As South Africa shifts focus to industrializing the country in a sustainable way, the managing of waste will become more of a priority. The time is ripe for women to investigate the different technologies out there, which will have a seismic impact on how the industry operates, and ultimately, how much money can be made

TURNING RUBBISH INTO GOLD

It’s no secret that South Africa, the biggest and most power-rich country in Africa, faces an energy crisis. It has left the country’s growing industry and mining sector lagging. Government says the 485 tcf (trillion cubic feet) shale gas reserve, could be an answer.
Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, involves horizontal drilling to create fissures. The insertion of pressurized water, sand and fracking fluids release the gas. The tight-rock shale gas reserve is compared to extracting small pockets of gas from cement. Conventional fracking requires a high volume of water, up to 20 million liters per well. The process is heavily criticized for its potential environmental damage such as water usage and contamination; the pollution resulting from the production process and spoiling the biodiversity and aesthetics of the Karoo—a vast, largely untouched, landscape just to the north of Cape Town.
“The focus has been on the bad things, but there are many good things,” says Rob Jeffrey, managing director of Econometrix, who presented their economic predications for fracking at the Fossil Fuel Foundation conference on May 29, in Johannesburg. Organizers were disappointed that no government officials or policy-makers attended.
“South Africa is an energy-intensive country… If we want high growth, we need more energy. Fracking will encourage local industry development and create many jobs because the gas industry will be built from the bottom up, unlike in the States. It will result in poverty alleviation, by building downstream and upstream industries,” says Jeffrey.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) is in charge of licensing; Petroleum Agency South Africa (PASA) is in charge of gas production and the government would be in charge of distribution. The time is now, says Ethel Teljeur of NERSA.
“South Africa [might] miss the window of low gas prices if it doesn’t invest in gas infrastructure,” she says.
Teljeur gave the example of missed opportunity in South Africa when home-grown energy company, Sasol, bought shale gas interests in Canada (Talisman) worth over $2 billion and would invest R10 billion ($1.17 billion) over the next five years; money that could have been invested at home.
An argument for fracking could find favor with the government. Dipuo Peters, South Africa’s Energy Minister, was one of the cabinet members who placed a moratorium on fracking. She says fracking should go ahead, if it can be done in a safe and responsible manner.
“The government is cognizant of the controversies associated with shale-gas extraction processes such as ground water and soil contamination, however with on-going developments I am confident that these challenges will in the not-so-far future come to pass,” she said in late March.
In her budget vote speech at the end of May, Susan Shabangu, Minister of Mineral Resources, said the investigation into the feasibility of shale gas in the Karoo will be presented to Cabinet in July.
“We should not have to sue the minister [Shabangu] to get the information which each citizen is entitled to know,” says Jonathan Deal—chairman of the Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG). He took legal action, when in spite of letters and applications, little information was forthcoming. The TKAG won the case.
“When it was being established we needed to know who was on the task team; what they were investigating; who they were consulting; what reports they were considering; whether they had visited America or not or anywhere where fracking was happening. And essentially, what their activities were. We were concerned that it was being manipulated, or orchestrated. We wanted transparency, in revealing the information,” he says over a telephone interview from his Karoo farm.
Deal is an entrepreneur who is not opposed to economic development, as he has often been accused; on the contrary, he supports it, if it is done in a sustainable and responsible manner. He notes that there are more than 140 places worldwide, where fracking is under a moratorium, restriction or a ban.
Deal claims he has attended more public participation meetings than any other South African. He has sat with lobbying gas companies and their consultants.
“They are misleading and side-step the real issues. They have obfuscated and clothed it [public participation meetings] in technical details. And then they are allowed to tick a box to say they have visited wherever and consulted with the local community,” he says.
“One of the fatal flaws gas companies face is the millions of people in this country who will be directly affected by fracking but know nothing about it. They are the rural people that work on the farms, who do not have email, cellphones, telephones or a car to the nearest library to digest Shell’s technical English EMP [Environmental Management Plan].”
The energy industry is trying to get around these fears, with new technology. Andrew Kinghorn, of Shava Mining Enterprise, spoke about GasFrac’s Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) gel. The American-based company has eliminated conventional fracking fluids and the use of water for fracking. They pride themselves in being friendlier to the environment.
The waterless LPG gel remains liquid throughout the stimulation process. After the frac closes the gel returns to a low viscosity and supports sand in the fractures. When using water, around 20% to 50% of the fracture never contributes to gas production because it is in contact with water.
“Nearly 100% of the LPG gel is returned with the flowback in a much shorter time, 10 to 15 days, than conventional fracking methods,” says Kinghorn.
The gel’s properties include low surface tension; low viscosity and low density. It is soluble in hydrocarbons, which enables 3 to 5 times longer fracs; higher long-term production and quicker time to the market.
“It results in the elimination of water, water wells, ponds, handling facilities, frac tanks, additional cartage, disposal costs and the reduced flowback cost due to quick clean up. By using LPG, we are able to realize a higher yield of oil or gas and we don’t take water away from other uses or have the demanding logistics of transporting millions of gallons of water to a well,” he says.
Another positive advancement in the industry, as pointed out by Doug Bentley, of Schlumberger, is that all hydraulic fracturing chemicals are biodegradable. The only question which remains is, are gas companies willing to pay for the more expensive, environmentally friendly fracking fluids? Bentley emphasizes that: “Well placement is the number one issue for improved production. Drilling needs to be planned in 3D as soon as possible.”
There are numerous factors to be considered: the social, economic and ecological. Philip Lloyd, research professor at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology refers to gas as the “beautiful fuel” which provides an opportunity to develop our power system in a clean, relatively low-carbon way.
The reserve might be overestimated, due to the disappearing of gas through volcano-like cone escape structures over billions of years, according to Professor Maarten de Wit from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Scientists are unsure of the amount of escaped gas and how much remains.
“The South African landscape differs vastly from that of the United States because of the dolerite outcrop and needs to be assessed in a different way,” he says.
For now, gas companies and South Africans, alike, are holding their breath ahead of the outcome of the task team’s findings later this month.

Fracking At Face Value

<h3>Wangari Maathai</h3>
<div id="attachment_231" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-231" class="wp-image-231 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Wanjira-011-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Wangari Maathai in Karura Forest which her mother helped save from bulldozer</div>
<h3>Kenyan Environmental and  Political Activist</h3>
It was Professor Wangari Maathai’s personality, anyway, to linger on the dark side, checking under every rock, determined to know the worst that may happen, so as not to be taken by surprise. This was largely instinctual, developed from years of battling the powerful and the mighty who dared disrespect the environment.
About a year before Wangari Maathai’s death in September 25, 2011 she was diagnosed with an aggressive strain of ovarian cancer, immediately put on medication and chemotherapy with the hope this combination could at least prolong her life. Her daughter, Wanjira Mathai, remembers the professor as a strong woman; a selfless person who was incapable of abandoning her passion, even as the energies of the day were abandoning her.
Speaking to Mathai, it turns out that the woman who convinced thousands to plant trees; blocked forest destruction and inspired millions of African girls to think big, worked during her cancer-ravaged final year as if it were another day at the office.
Chemotherapy would knock Maathai into misery, slow her down, but not deter her. The ecological warrior had a grand dream for the Green Belt Movement (GBM), a body she formed three decades ago to plant trees and help village women make a somewhat decent living.
“She slowed down deliberately because she had to take care of herself. There was an element of taking things a lot easier; resting a lot more and that was important,” says Mathai of her mother, her boss and her colleague at the GBM, where she is the head of international affairs.
Mathai, a holder of two masters degrees in public health and business administration from Emory University, and a close confidant of her mother, knows why she looked fit. Except for doctors, family and a few close friends, few knew she had cancer. Many where suprised when her death was announced on a chilly Monday morning.
“She was gifted,” says Mathai, explaining why her mother looked younger than a 71-year-old. “She had good genes. She was very active—a lot of people may not know that she exercised a lot; she walked a lot and she was very healthy—six in the morning, she was in a gymnasium almost every day.”
As early as April, Wangari Maathai approved a five-year-action-plan for GBM. Despite the cancer, she was very active in its initial implementation, according to GBM employees, who have now vowed to elevate GBM to new heights.
“Our singular plan is to implement that plan. That is what she endorsed; that is what she wanted us to do; and it is really clear it is very strong and basically it can be done by those of us who are there,” says Mathai, the second of the Wangari’s three children.
Since her death, she says: “There is a sense of loss and there also is a sense of resolve. People feel like we have to make her proud. And that we must.”
President Mwai Kibaki announced the plans to launch the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi in 2010.
Since the approval of the action plan, several co-workers said Maathai spent much time organizing meetings with various donor groups—her last international travel, Mathai says, was a trip they made to the French Development Agency conference in Paris.
“She was sick, but still she was fit enough to attend the conference,” Mathai explains in Karura Forest, a 1,400 hectare forest that her mother fought to protect from developers, who, with the government’s blessing, were about to take it.
“Her focus and her passion was the Green Belt Movement and the Wangari Maathai Institute. She spent a lot of time making sure that we had a complete strategic plan; we had a clear direction for the development of the institute. And as you know, in her wishes, she said she wanted the Wangari Maathai Institute to be her final resting place, so her ashes will be interred there when the institute is finished,” says the 40-year-old Mathai.
Millions across the world have come to respect Wangari Maathai and her boundless courage; through her daughter, I discovered a well of kindness and compassion; both for the environment and all those who inhabit it.
“Selflessness is such a rare thing. In leadership you need that; if you are going to make change you have to be selfless; it’s not about you,” ends Mathai.

Tag: Environment

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