Pretoria - A landmark project that converts gas from household waste into electricity has been officially launched in Durban.

A first for Africa, the project will produce enough electricity for thousands of medium-income homes.

It will also inject tens of millions of Rands into the city coffers through the sale of electricity and certified emission reduction credits, also known as carbon credits.

But the real winner will be the environment. Millions of cubic metres of greenhouse gases that would otherwise have escaped into the atmosphere each year, contributing to global warming, will now be converted into clean electricity.

Pretoria - South Africa and the Governments of Germany and Southern Sudan have entered into a tri-lateral partnership to train correctional services officers, judges and legal affairs personnel in Southern Sudan.

The South African Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA) is also in the process of assisting Sudan to establish a Management Development Institute for the training of its civil servants.

Higher education students from Southern Sudan are also to receive assistance from the Department of Higher Education in enrolling in South African higher education institutions.

Press Release

National Empowerment Fund announces progress on feasibility studies to commercialise the R40m Nkomazi Chemicals Technology

Leading empowerment agency, the National Empowerment Fund (NEF), has announced positive progress on the feasibility studies aimed at commercialising a locally-developed plastics chemical additive that will make rigid plastics less environmentally invasive. The NEF together with the Innovation Fund has already financed a two-phased study into the feasibility of scaling up an existing lab-scale plant at Nkomazi Chemicals in Midrand to a commercial scale plant to be built in Malelane, in the Mpumalanga Province. The plant will have an annual capacity to produce 400 tons of this new chemical additive, a heat stabiliser called hydrotalcite.

I know lots of people battle to spot them, but how many of you can say you have loads in your garden? I was one of those who could say that, but since these constant high winds – not anymore.  I blame it on the wind and not on the fact that I talked to them - of course.

When we moved into our house in Bothasig 10 years ago there was no garden. Well, there was one moth eaten guava tree whose sole aim seemed to be to drop tiny bullet hard fruit that played havoc with the lawn mower; dirty sand with patches of moth eaten grass, a succulent plant entwined with a basketball hoop and more cigarette ends than I have ever seen in my life - and I have worked in pubs and bars!

Press Release

Nedbank announced today that its partnership with Wildlife Works Inc. to make available to the international market African carbon credits has proved extremely successful.    The demand for carbon credits from the international business community is extremely strong.

In November 2009, Wildlife Works Inc. and Nedbank entered into a business arrangement whereby Nedbank acquired carbon credits from Wildlife Works Inc. for on-sale to the international and South African business community.  More than 2,5 million tonnes of carbon was made available through the avoided deforestation of the Kasigau Corridor guaranteed until 2026.   

The City of Cape Town is defending the fact that two of its beaches have had their Blue Flag status withdrawn in the same month for the first time since becoming a member of the programme on 2001. They have stated that its "not a negative reflection or penalisation" of the areas.

Gerhard Rass, the Mayoral committee member for community services said Blue Flag status was not a prerequisite for a good beach.

"It is a maintenance measure of a particular set of requirements. If a beach does not meet these requirements, it does not mean it is not adequate."

The Hansa Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon is set to take place at 6pm on Tuesday and the canoeists have been told they have little to fear from the two crocodiles that have been spotted recently in the area.

Steps have been taken to ensure the 1700 canoeists that will be paddling from Camp's Drift, Pietermaritzburg, to Blue Lagoon in Durban over the next three days won’t have a crocodile in their path.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesperson Jeff Gaisford said on Wednesday there was no sign of the crocodiles, which had been spotted at points along the lower reaches of the race path.

My first blog for the Simply Green website, so excuse me if I have a little stage fright and stumble over my lines a bit! I hope that some readers will find my blogs enjoyable or interesting - maybe even both. This first one might be a bit ‘stiff’ but I have several other blogs in mind!

I belong to a couple of 'Friends of', one of which is Friends of the BCA, BCA standing for Blaauwberg Conservation Area. We generally hold our meetings and talks at the Log Cabin at Eerste Steen picnic grounds next to the beach, just off Otto du Plessis Drive, near Melkbosstrand. For those of you elsewhere in the country you can visit us at http://www.bca.org.za/friends.html/.

Pretoria - Poor infrastructure and lack of funding have been blamed for the water shortages in parts of the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.

Both areas have been hit by severe droughts in recent months as dams dried up.

However, during her visit to both provinces this week, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said a number of issues were raised including dilapidated infrastructure and under-funding as a cause for the water shortages.

The global sustainability and environmental management consultancy WSP Environment & Energy launched a personal carbon trading scheme in the UK two years ago, this scheme is going to be launched locally and internationally this year.

"In South Africa, we have had such a positive response to the launch of the scheme, that not only will the environment and energy division of WSP Group be participating in the scheme, but the scheme will also be made available to the consulting engineering side of the WSP operations," says WSP technical director Sean Doel    .

WSP’s personal carbon trading scheme, also known as Personal Action Carbon Trading (Pact), is the first scheme of its type in the world run for its staff. Mr Doel explained that WSP developed the scheme to make staff aware of their carbon footprint and to encourage them to take steps in their lives to reduce it.

Three stories in the press over the last few weeks, have given South African’s unusual concerns about swimming off Cape Town’s beaches, surfing around the estuaries of Eastern Cape Rivers and canoeing in the Umgeni River.
Sharks Around Cape Town Beaches

A Zimbabwean man holidaying in Cape Town was killed, when he was attacked by what is believed to be a great white shark at Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town.

The Masvingo regional court has sentenced a member of the Mazhongwe rhino poaching gang to 17 years in prison for killing an endangered rhino.
Justice - at last: Zimbabwe rhino poacher Tichaona Mutyairi has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for killing a rhino and firing on police in October 2009.

After years of letting the killers walk free, could this case finally be the turning point in the war against rhino poaching in Zimbabwe?