For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Madiba.

Making headlines: Social Employment Fund to create 50 000 jobs in phase 1; Nelson Mandela Bay hits Day Zero as dam levels drop too low for water extraction; And, new report outlines strategy for ending load-shedding by early 2024

 

Social Employment Fund to create 50 000 jobs in phase 1

President Cyril Ramaphosa said that government will continue to champion programmes and initiatives that limit the impact of unemployment on young people until the private sector starts creating more jobs at scale. 

One of these initiatives is the Social Employment Fund, launched through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, which will create 50 000 new work opportunities in its first phase.

Ramaphosa said 84% of participants in the programmes are youth and 62% are women.

Youth unemployment in South Africa is currently at 66.5%.

The National Youth Service programme will create another 50 000 jobs for unemployed youth.

 

Nelson Mandela Bay hits Day Zero as dam levels drop too low for water extraction

Day Zero has arrived in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality after levels in the Impofu Dam, near Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape, dropped too low to allow for water extraction.

The municipality shared a document that indicated that the dam had hit Day Zero and would no longer be able to supply residents with water.

The Churchill Dam was currently at just over 9%, with an estimated 11 days of water, while the Loerie dam was at 44% capacity, with 37 days of water supply left.

The Groendal dam had enough water to last an estimated 168 days.

On Friday, the municipality estimated that the dam could supply water for another six days.

On Sunday, the municipality warned of water cuts in several suburbs. However, it said that the reservoir system remained stable for now.

 

And, new report outlines strategy for ending load-shedding by early 2024

A comprehensive strategy for drastically reducing, or even eliminating, rotational power cuts in South Africa by early 2024 has been outlined in a new public-interest report published by Meridian Economics.

The report warns, however, that load-shedding is poised to rise to extreme levels unless unprecedented interventions, underpinned by “substantial political will”, are taken urgently to introduce about 10 GW (gigawatt) of mostly wind and solar generators into the energy-starved system by that date.

The detailed two-part report includes a model showing that 96.5% of the load-shedding implemented by Eskom in 2021 could have been averted had there been 5 GW more variable renewable-energy generation available a scenario that could well have prevailed had it not been for the seven-year disruption to the country’s renewables procurement programme.

Besides reducing the economic impact of load-shedding on the economy as a whole, the additional 5 GW of wind and solar would have also created a net annual saving of R2.5-billion for Eskom, as a result of lower diesel and coal consumption.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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