From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report. South Africa is progressing with the treatment of acid mine drainage in the Witwatersrand, with short-term solutions for the Western and Central basins in place. Leandi Kolver tells us more.

Leandi Kolver:
The Department of Water Affairs recently installed pumps to treat AMD in the Central basin, with the Germiston-based facility expected to be fully operational by end-April. The Western basin solution is already in place, and planning for the Eastern basin solution is well advanced.

Minister of Water Affairs Edna Molewa elaborates.

Minister of Water Affairs Edna Molewa:
We have come a long way with this project. You will recall that in September 2010, we were convened as the Cabinet inter-Ministerial Committee on AMD. And we were asked to co-chair with Minister Shabangu a team of Ministers across various departments.

Under the guidance of this inter-Ministerial Committee rapid investigations were conducted which articulated the AMD situation in the Witwatersrand and corresponding remedial interventions that were required.  Cabinet then endorsed the implementation of the remedial interventions that were proposed by the panel of experts which have culminated in what we are unveiling here today.

May I repeat it is a short-term measure.

Leandi Kolver:
The proposals by the inter-Ministerial Committee included short-term measures as well as longer-term solutions. Department of Water Affairs deputy director-general Trevor Balzer and Minister Molewa explain.

Department of Water Affairs deputy director-general Trevor Balzer:
Those proposals include the work that we are doing as the short-term and immediate solutions to actually protect the environmentally critical level in those three basins, and then also to look at the long term solutions for dealing with AMD, and that is part of a long-term study, of which the feasibility study has just been brought to a conclusion.

And we are briefing the Ministers on it at the moment.

We are looking at 2015/16, from that period we are confident that we shall have begun implementing our long-term strategy, that will entail, among others ensuring that there is desalination of this water that is semi-treated, and that is flowing into the rivers.

So by that time we believe that we will have started with implementation of long term solutions.

Leandi Kolver:
However, the challenge of AMD was not unique to the Witwatersrand, and therefore, interventions would also be needed in other provinces. Molewa explains.

Edna Molewa:
The extent of AMD in our country, I did allude earlier to the AMD problem that we are experiencing in other provinces as well. Mpumalanga being one of those, KZN as well, and we haven’t sat back.

We are working around the clock to ensure that even in those provinces we proactively act, because where we are acting now is mainly disused mines. But in these provinces that I mentioned the mines are fortunately still operational.

Working with those mining houses our objective and our aim is to ensure that we in a proactive manner work towards cleaning the water in those areas so that there is no AMD, and therefore, there is no decanting going into the future.

Shannon de Ryhove:
The official opening of the Tshwane East Manufacturing Incubation Centre, at which South African antenna manufacturer Poynting launched its DigiAnt TV antenna, took place in Eersterust, Pretoria, last month. Anine Vermeulen has the story.

Anine Vermeulen:  
This is the first time that this type of antenna has not only been used for television but will also be mass-produced.

Poynting’s Digital Television business unit manager Eduard Walker

Anine Vermeulen:
Walker explained that Poynting had recently undertaken a joint venture with engineering company Lawrence Global Manufacturing, which specialises in the prototyping and mass production of sheet metal fabrication and machining components and will assist with the production of the DigiAnt.

Eduard Walker

Anine Vermeulen:
The incubation centre will encourage the development of small businesses involved in the production of high-pressure aluminium die casting and the steel fabrication product value chain.

Poynting adds its own capital to the venture and contributes to DigiAnt’s intellectual property, which includes the antenna’s design and technology.

He noted that the TV antenna looked completely different from any other TV antenna on the global market, commenting that Its key advantage lies in its size – when packaged, the DigiAnt is eight times smaller than other antennas; therefore, eight containers of standard-sized antennas would equal just one DigiAnt container.

Shannon de Ryhove:
Other news making headlines this week: Transnet splits its R50-billion locomotives contract between four global rail groups; and an intensive protection zone is to be created in the Kruger Park to protect rhinos.

Freight logistics group Transnet has awarded the much anticipated contracts for the procurement of 1 064 locomotives, collectively valued at R50-billion, to four separate companies, including two from China.

Transnet CEO Brian Molefe

An 'intensive protection zone' using sophisticated detection and tracking equipment and infrastructure on the ground, as well as in the air, will be established to combat rhino poaching in South Africa’s flagship Kruger National Park and assess antipoaching tactics that can be applied in other regions of Africa.

Howard G. Buffet Foundation CEO Howard Buffet

That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy.