Welcome to Engineering News. In this podcast, read by Neal Goldwyer of Creamer Media’s Engineering News, we bring you the past week’s top news stories from industry in South Africa and the rest of the world.

In this week’s bulletin:
- Acsa spends some serious money upgrading South Africa’s airports,
- The Eastern Cape leads the pack in taxi recapitalisation payouts , and
- TCTA plans to decide next year on further Lesotho highlands water expansion.

FLYING HIGH

The State-owned airport operator Airports Company South Africa will spend some nineteen point three billion rand over the next five years on upgrading the country’s airports to meet the growing demand.

MD Monhla Hlahla says that Acsa, which owns ten airports in South Africa and handles about ninety eight percent of the country’s air traffic, will invest about four billion rand a year on expanding capacity.

This is more than the company spent in the last three years combined.

The capex will be used to expand capacity at OR Tambo International Airport, Cape Town International Airport, Durban International Airport and other smaller domestic airports.

Acsa is also building South Africa's first new greenfields' airport in more than a decade, in Durban.

TAXI RECAPITALISATION

The Eastern Cape province is leading in the process of scrapping old taxis, having paid out eighty six point six million rand to recapitalise the province's ageing taxi fleet, followed by Limpopo, North West, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Northern Cape and the Western Cape.

A total of three hundred and eighty three point five million has been paid out across all nine provinces to replace the country’s old 16-seater taxis with new minibus taxis.

Government’s seven point seven billion rand taxi-recapitalisation programme allows for an once-off allowance of fifty thousand rand a scrapped vehicle to legal operators.

The scrapping allowance is being rolled out over a period of five years, and is applied regardless of the age, or condition of the vehicle.

LESOTHO HIGHLANDS WATER PROJECT

The State-owned Trans-Caledon Water Authority (TCTA) is currently in negotiations with stakeholders involved in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), and will decide by the end of next year whether to proceed with further phases, according to CEO Martie Janse van Rensburg.

The feasibility study is under way and its outcomes will inform the decision relating to further project developments.

However, Janse van Rensburg points out that potential additional phases for the LHWP are a still a long way away, as it is expected that supply from the Vaal river system would be sufficient until about 2024.

Also, in this week’s Engineering News magazine, published on Friday, read our cover story, which focuses on moves to increase afforestation in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, as well as associated industrial activity, such as pulp and paper and furniture production..

We also report on plans for a R1,9-billion rapid bus transport system in Pretoria.

Finally, don’t miss our features on waste-management and recycling, truck trailer bus and bakkie and black economic empowerment in industry.

That’s a round up of this week’s stories on Creamer Media’s Engineering News. For more on these and other stories, visit engineeringnews.co.za

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