South Africa’s Economic Growth Affected By Mismatch Of Electricity Supply and Demand
South Africa’s electricity sector has faced a series of challenges over the last two decades. It started with inadequate grid infrastructure to provide electricity to the majority of the South African population in the 1990s. In 1994, only 36% of total households were electrified; 50% of the urban population and 12% of the rural population.
Particularly in the middle of the 2000s, the national utility, Eskom, ran into liquidity and profitability problems. It received frequent government bailouts. The 2022 national budget allocated R21.9 billion (about US$1.5 billion) to Eskom.
Removing Alien Plants Can Save Water: We Measured How Much
One of the things that contributes to ecosystem degradation in South Africa is invasion by alien plants. This is estimated to cost the nation R6.5 billion annually in damages and the government spends over R400 million annually clearing alien trees. Despite this investment, alien tree invasions continue to increase across the country.
Alien trees threaten biodiversity, increase the risk of more intense and frequent wildfires and also guzzle water. This is an important factor in water scarce regions, like South Africa, that experience droughts.
What’s Driving Hunger In Gauteng, South Africa’s Economic Power House
Food insecurity and hunger continue to be a challenge in South Africa. Food insecure households do not have enough money to buy food and cannot make their own. In addition, the households are either unemployed, receive low income, or have high population sizes. These factors make them particularly vulnerable to economic shocks.
In the Gauteng province, the richest of South Africa’s nine provinces on economic performance, about 35% of the population is meagre food insecure. They have (at the very least) skipped a meal because there was insufficient money for food.
Russia-Ukraine Crisis Highlights Africa’s Need To Diversify Its Wheat Sources
The war between Russia and Ukraine has highlighted how much of the world’s wheat supply relies on these two countries. For instance, a recently released UN report shows a sample of 25 African countries that rely on wheat imports from Russia or Ukraine. Of this group, 21 import most of their wheat from Russia.
Between 2018 and 2020, Africa imported US$3.7 billion in wheat (32% of the continent’s total wheat imports) from Russia and another US$1.4 billion from Ukraine (12% of the continent’s wheat imports).
