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Photo of the Week

MEGA CONCERNS

By: Terence Creamer 28th February 2014 Workers seen on scaffolding in mid-February at the giant Medupi power station project, which is currently rising out of the Lephalale bushveld, in South Africa’s Limpopo province. The project is scheduled to begin delivering power in the second half of this year. But there are concerns that the... →

FLOOD WARNING

21st February 2014 The images of flooding in the UK have brought home just how vulnerable even the most developed countries are to changes in the weather. Pictured above is a resident of Wraysbury, in southern England, wading through water in Wellington boots as the Thames flooded the village. →

TAPERING CHIEF

14th February 2014 On February 3, Janet Yellen became the first woman chairperson of the US Federal Reserve. Seen here signing an affidavit confirming that she took the oath of office, Yellen's term will last until 2018. Without question, all emerging markets will be watching her actions closely, particularly given... →

YEAR OF THE HORSE

7th February 2014 Fire and wood are the two dominant elements associated with the ‘Year of the Horse’, which Reuters reports has some believers in the Chinese form of geomancy expecting conflicts and disasters related to fire, but also possible gains in stocks linked to wood. Pictured above is a giant lantern... →

FOOD FIGHT

31st January 2014 In mid-January, more than 200 groups, including food companies and organic farmers, called on President Barack Obama to require manufacturers to label food products that contain genetically engineered ingredients. Pictured above is a worker throwing a crate off the back of a truck at an organic... →

BACK TO THE FUTURE

24th January 2014 A mining conveyor machine reflects in a safety mirror at an open-pit lignite mine operated by Vattenfall in Welzow-Sued, Germany. Bloomberg News reports that utilities are expanding open-pit mines that produce lignite, considered the dirtiest type of coal, to feed Europe’s appetite for cheaper... →

GENDER MOTORS

17th January 2014 On January 15, Mary Barra (51) became the first woman CEO of General Motors (GM) and also the first female to lead a global automotive company. She took over from Dan Akerson, who held the position since 2010. Barra joined GM more than three decades ago as a college intern and, prior to her... →

DEVELOPMENT ROAD

13th December 2013 A busy road in Accra, the capital of Ghana, in late November 2013. The Ghana economy, which is attracting high levels of foreign direct investment, is expected to expand by more than 7% in 2013. However, the economy's over dependence on gold, cocoa and oil makes it vulnerable to trade shocks. For... →

LOOKING EAST

6th December 2013 Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche addressing members of the media in Seoul, South Korea last week. The German vehicle manufacturer plans to double sales in South Korea by 2020, and build a new research and development centre in the Asian country. Daimler recently moved to acquire a stake in Beijing... →

RAIL BOSSES

29th November 2013 Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) CEO Siyabonga Gama and China South Rail Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive president Zhou Qinghe exit the cab of the new Class 20E locomotive, which was delivered to South Africa ahead of schedule in mid-November. The locomotive was designed and manufactured in only 13 months... →

TERRIFYING TYPHOON

22nd November 2013 Victims of Typhoon Haiyan pictured here waiting for relief supplies near a tattered Philippine flag in Hernani, Samar. The storm swept through the Asian country’s central regions killing thousands and leaving people to scavenge for food, water and medicine. In the wake of the storm, Naderev Sano,... →

RENEWABLES PROGRESS

15th November 2013 Arguably one of the most successful initiatives undertaken by the South African government since the advent of democracy has been the Renewable Energy independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). While some find the process overly bureaucratic, there is little question that the... →

RAIL REVIVAL

8th November 2013 There is a growing sense of optimism that the long-talked-about modal shift from road to rail is genuinely starting to gain traction. Transnet CEO Brian Molefe reported last month that growth of railed containers and automobiles had far exceeded economic growth in the first half of the group’s... →

GOING FISSION

1st November 2013 Electricite de France (EDF) chairperson Henri Proglio (left) and the CEO of group’s UK unit EDF Energy, Vincent de Rivaz, at a news conference called to announce a deal to construct the first new nuclear power station in the UK in a generation. EDF, together with Areva, of France, China General... →

Topsy Turvy

25th October 2013 This photograph showing an upside-down reflection of the US Capitol building was taken at the height of the political hurly-burley geared towards ending a government shutdown and raising a self-imposed debt ceiling. But it perhaps also acts as a fairly accurate allegory for just how the strange... →

PUBLIC OFFERING

18th October 2013 The Royal Mail, which is nearly 500 years old, began trading on the London Stock Exchange on October 15 following a somewhat controversial privatisation – the UK government’s biggest flotation in two decades. There was significant opposition to the sale of the “cherished national institution” and... →

SHUTDOWN

11th October 2013 As the rest of the world watched in astonishment, the US federal government shut down on October 2 for the first time in more than 17 years after lawmakers there failed to reach agreement on the Budget. An estimated 800 000 nonessential federal employees went on unpaid leave, while museums were... →

DEADLY ATTACK

4th October 2013 A man reads a daily newspaper at the edge of a security perimeter that was put in place near Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre, which was the focus of a four-day siege that began on Saturday, September 22. The al-Shabab organisation claimed responsibility for the Kenyan attack, which left 72... →

MAN OF THE MOMENT

27th September 2013 South African salvage master Nick Sloane, who headed the ‘parbuckling’ operation at the Giglio harbour in mid-September to raise the wreck of the Costa Concordia, emerged from the project as something of a celebrity. Sloane started his career with South African company Safmarine in 1980, but has... →

OLYMPIC CELEBRATIONS

20th September 2013 People celebrating in Japan on September 8 after Tokyo was selected as the host city for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Some analysts believe the victory will boost construction and tourism and give a lift to consumer confidence, playing into Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to revive the... →

PRODUCTIVITY & PROTECTION

13th September 2013 National Union of Mineworkers president Senzeni Zokwana has warned that, unless and until the safety and security of workers is decisively addressed, productivity improvements will continue to elude South Africa’s embattled mining industry. “Productivity will not improve if workers go underground... →

IN A HOLE

6th September 2013 Emerging markets are deeply concerned about the potential fallout arising from the US Federal Reserve’s move to begin tapering its quantitative-easing programmes – something that could begin as early as this month. It was one of the major issues raised the recent Jackson Hole economic symposium.... →

TABLET SURGERY

30th August 2013 In one of the first surgeries of its kind, Professor Karl Oldhafer, chief physician of general and visceral surgery at the Asklepios Hospital Hamburg-Barmbek, in Germany, used a tablet computer during liver surgery, which took place on August 15. The tablet computer uses augmented reality, which... →

THINKING AHEAD

23rd August 2013 South African-born and educated inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled his futuristic ‘Hyperloop’ high-speed transport concept last week (see inset picture). He believes the solar-powered solution – comprising air-propelled sealed capsules able to carry 28 passengers at a time at high speed... →

PRICE PICK-ME-UP

16th August 2013 Coffee lovers the world over were deeply concerned in July when the Brazilian government indicted that it might introduce support measures to ease a glut that sent prices to multiyear lows. But in early August, Agriculture Minister Antonio Andrade said the government needed more time to weigh... →

NEW CHIEF

9th August 2013 Technology giant Siemens named Joe Kaeser as its new global CEO last week. Kaeser is the former CFO and has more than three decades of experience at the company. He takes over from Peter Loescher after the German engineering group repeatedly missed profit targets. →

GAS HUNGER

2nd August 2013 National oil company PetroSA is hungry for more gas to feed its 42 000 bl/d gas-to-liquids refinery located near Mossel Bay, in the Western Cape. The facility, developed in the 1980s as a response to tightening sanctions against the then apartheid government, has always been somewhat gas short.... →

MEGA STRUCTURE

26th July 2013 Royal Dutch Shell’s Olympus tension leg platform began its ten-day, 684-km voyage to the Mars B Field in the Gulf of Mexico on July 13. Pictured here setting off from Kiewit Offshore Services in Ingleside, Texas, the platform is being installed atop two of the group’s deep-water discoveries. The... →

TROUBLED TIMES

19th July 2013 Egypt has traditionally been a leading tourist destination. But revenue from tourism, one of the country’s main sources of foreign currency, has fallen sharply as political tensions spilled over into new protests, which precipitated a military takeover, followed by more, and more violent,... →

MORE PEDESTRIAN

12th July 2013 Most economies would love to be growing at levels of between 7% and 8%. But for China that rate is relatively pedestrian, and for countries such as South Africa such levels of growth could have a major impact as commodity demand and prices adjust. But China's President Xi Jinping said last month... →

PAST & FUTURE

5th July 2013 US President Barack Obama at the 'door of no return' during a visit last week to the Maison Des Ecslaves, at Goree Island, in Senegal – the point from where African slaves were shipped west until the middle of the 19th century. However, the President’s three-nation trip to Africa focused... →

TECH PARTNERS?

28th June 2013 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, seeking to boost advertising sales from mobile devices, has reportedly discussed potential partnerships with Samsung Electronics. Pictured above is a man walking past a light wall at the Samsung Electronics d'light store in Seoul, South Korea. →

RIGHTS & ART:

21st June 2013 An inflatable sculpture by British artist Alan Parkinson has been set up on the grounds of the United Nations’ (UN’s) European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The idea behind the 1000 m2 walk-through structure, financed by the UK Mission to the UN, is to challenge diplomats, officials,... →

MAN WITH A PLAN

14th June 2013 Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ‘three-arrow’ economic stimulus plan has captured the world’s attention. Abe is seen here ahead of a speech in Tokyo last week, where he pledged a campaign to loosen rules on businesses to bolster growth. The growth campaign is seen as the third arrow, with the... →

TRADE DOLDRUMS

7th June 2013 The world’s largest container shipping group Maersk warned in May that it expected global seaborne container demand to grow by 2% to 4% in 2013, lower than its earlier forecast of 4% to 5%. It also reduced its 2014 forecast. In response to the weaker-than-expected demand the group has also idled... →

DEVASTATING

31st May 2013 A man stands among the wreckage after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2013. The tornado, with winds of up to 320 km/h devastated the Oklahoma City suburb, ripping up at least two elementary schools and a hospital and leaving a wake of tangled wreckage. →

MUCH TO CONSIDER

24th May 2013 The Competition Tribunal began hearings on last week into the alleged excessive pricing of propylene and polypropylene by Sasol Chemical Industries (SCI) between 2004 and the end of 2007, with Advocate Arnold Subel outlining the commission’s case and Advocate Wim Trengove leading SCI’s defence.... →

MUCH TO CONSIDER

24th May 2013 The Competition Tribunal began hearings on last week into the alleged excessive pricing of propylene and polypropylene by Sasol Chemical Industries (SCI) between 2004 and the end of 2007, with Advocate Arnold Subel outlining the commission’s case and Advocate Wim Trengove leading SCI’s defence.... →

Editorial Insight

Urgent solution needed

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DUSTBIN OF HISTORY

South Africa simply cannot afford a repeat of 2021 this year. Further delays in dealing with the country’s big problems of load-shedding, economic and social crime, vaccine hesitancy and, most worryingly, a growth rate that is too low to make a dent into chronic unemployment will set the scene for the type of deadly instability that gripped the country in July last year. Decisive policymaking and diligent implementation are the only ways to confine 2021 to the dustbin of history.

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