Service Issue 82

LEADERSHIP IN GOVERNMENT

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

MAKING SMART DECISIONS CLLR ANDRÉ TRUTER, EXECUTIVE MAYOR, SALDANHA BAY MUNICIPALITY

THE LEARNERSHIP HACK

WATER, WATER NOWHERE

PASA: ON THE UP AND UPSTREAM

SERVE AND DELIVER

News and updates

NATIONAL STATE OF DISASTER

The country is in the grip of a profound energy crisis

EXPLORATIONS FOR SA

PASA regulates oil and gas exploration for SA’s economic wellbeing

MUNICIPALITIES AND THE ENERGY SUPPLY GAP

SA’s energy shortage is having a profound impact on its cities

THE NATIONAL WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

How a country manages its waste is a fundamental indicator of its society

WHEN CRISES COLLIDE

LAUNCHING SALDANHA BAY INTO THE FUTURE

Exciting new smart poles for the Saldanha Bay Municipality

POWER CUTS PLAYING HAVOC WITH WATER

SA’s water networks are severely affected by loadshedding

14

THE STATE OF OUR WATER

Who does what with SA’s water

LEARNERSHIPS: A HACK FOR SA BUSINESS

Economic growth and skills development can be achieved through learnerships

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Needs a new kind of leader

R Resilience in service

Resiliency is the capacity to recover from failures, disasters, crises or fiascos and still have the ability to function effectively. Resilience can also be described as a community’s capacity to deal with an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence and be able to resist it, acclimatise through it and then to recover effectually and to ultimately learn from the disruption.

Covid-19 taught us how to cope in the face of immense adversity, and the new normal brought with it communities, cities and organisations that are building their resilience to cope with an uncertain future. The ability of a service delivery structure, such as government, to react, adjust and fortify in the face of conflict is crucial.

“We cannot undo the mistakes that were made in the past,” President Ramaphosa proclaimed in his 2023 State of the Nation Address. “What we can do is fix the problem today to keep the lights on tomorrow and for generations to come.” The problem today is that we are in the grip of a profound energy crisis, the seeds of which were planted many years ago.

Ramaphosa then announced that government had classified the crisis and its impact as a disaster and declared a National State of Disaster. “It will enable us to accelerate energy projects and limit regulatory requirements,” he said. Read more about the reforms, rollouts and rebates that government has taken to mitigate the disaster on page 8.

South Africa’s energy shortage is having a profound impact on its cities at a time when they urgently need to recover from the Covid-19 crisis. South African municipalities have a constitutional mandate to distribute electricity to citizens (page 17).

Craig Kesson, PwC South Africa, says: “Resolving the energy shortfall requires a collective effort across private and public

sectors, including, and especially, by municipalities who play a key role in the development of sustainable energy strategies. By playing a key role in resolving the energy supply gap, municipalities will be able to contribute to local economic development and job creation.”

Municipalities also bear the biggest responsibility for clean water provision in the country, but do not have the ability to fix the system. Each year, budgets to safeguard water supplies go unspent.

Efforts to fix South Africa’s water system have been hampered by weak local capacity and deep degeneracy (page 14).

After more than a decade of neglect, mismanagement and corruption, the country’s water infrastructure can no longer supply many communities with reliable access to safe drinking water. In the Department of Water and Sanitation’s latest drinking water report, more than 60% of water supply systems did not meet water quality standards (page 18).

And Eskom’s decline is deepening the problem. “In places like Johannesburg, you have the water supplies; however, you are experiencing shortages because of dilapidated infrastructure,” explains water expert Dr Anja du Plessis. “[That] infrastructure is now collapsing under loadshedding.”

The ability of a service delivery structure, such as government, to react, adjust and fortify in the face of conflict is crucial. We need to be resilient, to serve and to fix the problem today to keep the lights on for tomorrow and for generations to come.

Enjoy this issue!

Alexis Knipe Editor

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Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations

Supporting the financial services sector with SD-WAN

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry is increasingly taking a digital approach, moving infrastructure and applications to the cloud and introducing technologies, such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and machine learning. This digitisation has been accelerated by the adoption of hybrid working, while meeting the demand for a better customer experience.

In addition, the BFSI industry continues to be a target for cyber-attackers and is subject to stringent regulatory and compliance requirements. These are over and above the pressure for companies to optimise costs and efficiencies.

“Leveraging Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) can help BFSI organisations overcome these challenges now and into the future. SD-WAN offers the opportunity to manage the network more effectively, support a hybrid working model, enhance cybersecurity and increase agility, to take advantage of digital transformation,” says Kevin Odudoh, executive head of the BFSI sector at Vodacom Business.

BENEFITS OF SD-WAN

A key advantage of SD-WAN is improved network performance. SD-WAN provides greater bandwidth and reduces congestion across multiple connection points on any available underlay connectivity service. The technology uses multiple paths for data traffic, selecting the best route while ensuring reliability in the event of a connection failure. Furthermore, this offers faster and stable application performance, critical in delivering superior customer experience.

SD-WAN also offers flexibility, allowing users to connect to multiple technologies, applications and services, conveniently and remotely. For example, a bank call centre employee can work from home and access the network simply through a supplied SD-WAN router or device that is connected to any internet service, whether that’s fixed or wireless.

“The network is managed centrally, reducing the time and resources necessary to manage the network, update security and enable compliance, which is a benefit

for BFSI organisations that have sites locally and globally, as well as remote employees. This together with SD-WAN’s use of less expensive Internet connections rather than dedicated connections such as MPLS, saves costs in maintaining a wide area network,” adds Odudoh.

In addition, SD-WAN can use Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections to encrypt data traffic, which increases security when transmitting sensitive information such as financial transactions. SD-WAN also combines managed security services, such as firewalls, ensuring a secure infrastructure and highquality performance.

SELECTING THE RIGHT SD-WAN PARTNER

Vodacom Business was the first telecommunications operator in Africa to achieve the prestigious MEF3.0 SD-WAN certification in 2020. This certification enables providers to confirm that their solutions comply with the highest industry standards for performance, assurance and agility.

With the expertise to meet the BFSI sector’s evolving needs, Vodacom Business provides on-demand support throughout the transition to SD-WAN and afterwards. Clients are also able to access Vodacom’s free LTE back-up solution, suitable for sites with less bandwidth, such as outlying branches and ATMs, and benefit from end-to-end security using Secure Access Service Edge.

“Based on our learnings and that of our multi-vendor partners over the past three years, Vodacom Business offers leading SD-WAN technology that is flexible, reliable, cost-effective and secure. In using our own extensive infrastructure, our trusted partner base and our support services, BFSI clients can

feel assured that Vodacom’s SD-WAN enables them to reap the benefits of digitisation in the long run,” concludes Ermano Quartero, executive head of Fixed Line Centre of Excellence at Vodacom Business. S

Ermano Quartero, Executive Head of Fixed Line Centre of Excellence, Vodacom Business.

Kevin Odudoh, Executive Head, BFSI Sector, Vodacom Business.

SERVE AND DELIVER

LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE

National Treasury has released the local government revenue and expenditure report for the second quarter of the 2022/23 financial year. The report is part of the In-year Management, Monitoring and Reporting System for Local Government, which enables provincial and national government to exercise oversight over municipalities and identify possible challenges in implementing municipal budgets.

AGGREGATE TRENDS

Municipalities spent 42.3% (R235.9-billion) of the total adopted expenditure budget of R557.8-billion as of 31 December 2022. In respect of revenue, aggregate billing and other revenue amounted to 48.5% (R270.3-billion) of the total adopted revenue budget. Of the adopted operating expenditure budget amounting to R488.2billion, 44.2% (R215.8 billion) was spent by 31 December 2022.

Municipalities have adopted the budget for salaries and wages expenditure at R146.6-billion (including remuneration of councillors), which is R8.6-billion more than the adopted budget of R138-billion reported in the second quarter of the 2021/22 municipal financial year. This constitutes 30% of their total operational expenditure budget of R488.2-billion. As of 31 December 2022, spending on salaries and wages is 46.2% (R67.8-billion). Capital expenditure for all municipalities amounted to 28.8% (R20.1-billion) of the adopted capital budget of R69.8-billion. Aggregated year-to-date operating expenditure for metros amounts to 46% (R134.3-billion) of their adopted budget expenditure of R292.1billion. The aggregated adopted capital budget for metros in the 2022/23 financial year is R32-billion, of which 26.8% (R8.6-billion) was spent by 31 December 2022.

As of 31 December 2022, aggregated revenue for secondary cities is 44.1% (R35.2-billion) of their total adopted revenue budget of R71.4billion for the 2022/23 financial year. The year-to-date aggregated operating expenditure level of the secondary cities is 42.6% or R30.2billion of the total adopted operating budget of R70.9-billion for the 2022/23 financial year. Capital spending levels for secondary cities reported an average of 29.2% (R2.5-billion) of the adopted capital budget of R8.5-billion.

Aggregate municipal consumer debts amounted to R305.8-billion as of 31 December 2022.

Government debt accounts for 7.5% (R22.9-billion) of the total outstanding debtors. The largest component of this debt relates to households which account for 71.1% (R217.7-billion)

Metropolitan municipalities are owed R154-billion in outstanding debt as of 31 December 2022. The largest contributors were the City of Johannesburg (28.8%), Ekurhuleni (19.9%), eThekwini (14.5%), Tshwane (11.8%) and Nelson Mandela Bay (9.8%).

Municipalities owed their creditors R86-billion as of 31 December 2022 and provinces with the highest percentage of outstanding municipal creditors in the category greater than 90 days include Northern Cape (90.4%), Mpumalanga (90.2%) and North West (83.7%). The total balance on borrowing for all municipalities equates to R59.1-billion as of 31 December 2022. This includes long-term loans

of R44.3-billion, long-term marketable bonds of R8.4-billion, and other long-term nonmarketable bonds of R5.1-billion. The balance represents other short- and long-term financing instruments.

As of 31 December 2022, the total investments made by municipalities equate to R43.1-billion.

CONDITIONAL GRANTS

The 2022/23 municipal performance for the second quarter publication on conditional grants shows an improvement from the previous quarter, but at a slower rate year-on-year, with a considerable performance increase of 64.9%.

Municipalities spent 31.9% of their total allocation in the second quarter of 2022/23.

As of 31 December 2022, 55.3% (R22.5-billion) of the R40.6-billion allocated to municipalities in direct conditional grants for 2022/23 had been transferred to municipalities.

The metro municipalities have a total allocation of R11.2-billion in direct transfers of which 45.6% (R5.4-billion) was transferred. As at the end of December, 56.1% (R3-billion) of the total R5.4 billion transferred to metropolitan municipalities, had been spent

The second quarter shows a slight improvement over the performance reported during the first quarter of the current financial year, however the improved expenditure is at a declining rate compared to the previous financial year. This is a clear indication that municipalities’ project implementation planning is deficient, and it is one area that needs improvement.

WATER AND ELECTRICITY SECURITY

Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minister for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, presented the Department of Local Government’s budget of R369.9million for 2023/24. Bredell said although the department is one of the smallest in the Western Cape government, it is making a huge impact in how residents of the province experience government service delivery. “Our role as the department is to ensure that municipalities govern well, which in turn means that residents receive the best possible municipal services.”

Bredell said R89-million that was allocated earlier this year as an emergency measure to municipalities to procure backup generators for water systems, had already transferred to municipalities in the Western Cape.

Due to the risks caused by the electricity disaster, the department’s budget has a significant allocation of R57.6-million towards the Western Cape Energy Response strategy. This includes:

• R30-million to pilot renewable energy solutions in municipalities.

• R5-million (R2-million in 2023/24 and R3-million (2024/25) for the provision of specialist service providers to assess the feasibility of potential renewable energy options.

• R5.3-million (R1.7-million in 2023/24, R1.8-million in 2024/26 and R1.8-million in 2025/26) towards the Municipal Electricity Master Planning Programme.

• R17.3 million (R5.8-million for 2023/24, R5.8-million for 2024/25 and R5.8-million for 2025/26) for additional critical skills and capacity to support the energy programme. Bredell said other focus areas for the department include the continued support of the Sustainable Infrastructure Development and Finance Facility programme, which helps local governments to package large infrastructure projects for potential private sector co-funding. The programme receives R6-million in the 2023/24 budget to strengthen its project management capacity.

There is also an amount of R10.3-million allocated in the 2023/24 budget towards the mitigation of disaster risks. As part of the provincial focus on climate change, R25-million is allocated in this financial year to explore innovative responses for waterresilience interventions.

MCHUNU PARTNERS WITH EUROPE

The MoU between South Africa and Finland aims to promote water security and is focused on integrated water resources and river basin management, including the management of groundwater/aquifer and surface water as well as adaptation to, and mitigation of the impacts of climate change in water resources management as well as hydrological extremes, including flood, drought, water quality, waterborne diseases and water-related risk management.

“Integrated Water Resources Management is the dominant paradigm in contemporary water resources management. Finland has implemented such an approach for decades, aiming at win-win partnerships. It has also been the guiding principle in Finnish water legislation. Signing this MoU is a muchneeded boost the sector requires back home,” Minister Mchunu stated. Meanwhile, the MoU with the Netherlands has been renewed for an additional four years and it is aimed at collaborating on inspiring and capacitating young talents in water, climate and sustainability in South Africa and abroad.

COCT ON TACKLING ENERGY CRISIS

At Premier Alan Winde’s fourth Energy Digicon, the executive mayor of Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis outlined how the City of Cape Town (CoCT) is tackling the energy crisis:

Renewable power without battery storage – this would help ensure sufficient power supply.

The CoCT will make public a tender for 500MW of dispatchable power. Small-scale embedded generation – allowing people to be net generators of energy at their homes or businesses. Excess power can be sold back to the municipality; businesses can currently do this, and households will be able to by the end of 2023.

The Power Heroes initiative – where residents are rewarded for reducing their power use.

“The measures the CoCT is implementing are very encouraging. Cape Town’s population is growing at a rapid rate and it is important that the mayor and his team do everything they can to boost power production, protecting households and businesses from severe blackouts.

This includes embracing innovation. I urge all our municipalities to put the needs of our citizens first amid this crisis and to continuously work on their energy plans,” Premier Winde said.

PUBLIC SECTOR ONLINE THREATS

The launch of the Cybercrimes Act is a very telling indicator of the fervour with which global threat actors are eyeing South Africa as a target for online exploitation. The act seeks to expand jurisdiction for law enforcement to regulate cybercrime, allowing government to enter into agreements with foreign states and be better able to detect, prevent and mitigate potential attacks.

Already, major private and public sector institutions are being breached more frequently over time. While a legislative framework is a positive step, ensuring the security of our state resources and vast amounts of data on each citizen requires the appropriate online tools.

The challenge for the State is the limited available high-level cyber security skills as well as the mounting cost of technology, mainly the traditional anti-malware software.

The development of extended detection and response (XDR) platforms has now changed how entities will manage their security, allowing them to better protect their data in a managed centrally system powered by AI, that grows and adapts alongside organisations, in real time. As it collects data from previously separate tools, XDR allows for easier and faster investigation of threats and breaches, as well as advising on the best response based on previous results across a much wider network.

Training staff members can go a long way in securing the environment. This, together with the support of XDR systems that instantly analyse data from across the organisation to predict and prevent emerging threats, identify root causes and respond in real time, is the path of action we need to take in the South African public sector to protect our industries and economy.

By Carlo Bolzonello, Trellix SA country lead

CALL FOR ACCELERATED SERVICE DELIVERY

MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Nono Maloyi has urged municipalities to spend their infrastructure grants allocation to curb poor service delivery which is mainly due to poorly maintained infrastructure.

Malolyi said most of the recent service delivery protests are because of lack of provision of basic services by municipalities and that the grants are meant to eradicate municipal infrastructure backlogs and ensure the provision of basic services. He said while municipalities are failing to pay Eskom and water utilities, they are also owed large amounts of money by some departments. He added that the department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Provincial Treasury will work on a strategy to assist municipalities to recoup monies owed to them by other departments.

“Municipalities must consider investing in pre-paid meters where possible. Consumers will have no option but to pay for what they use. In that way, municipalities will be able to generate revenue and meet their financial obligations.”

MPUMALANGA’S FOCUS AREAS

In February 2023, the Premier of Mpumalanga Province Refilwe MtsweniTsipane delivered the Mpumalanga State of the Province Address (SOPA) and reflected on the six focus areas for the province:

1. Job creation and youth empowerment initiatives

2. Infrastructure development

3. Local government support and advancement of service delivery measures

4. Improvement of health and educational facilities

5. Strengthening of accountable state

6. Just transition

Among these focus areas, the premier spoke about the basic service delivery and local government challenges faced by municipalities within the province. “Refuse removal remains a challenge for most of our municipalities,” said the premier, while also providing a solution that will assist in addressing this challenge – the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) framework has been revised to allow municipalities to procure solid waste removal trucks through the MIG allocation to improve access to refuse removal.

Some of the achievements within the sphere of local government that were highlighted by the premier include:

• Progress made in addressing water challenges in Thembisile Hani and Dr JS Moroka Local Municipalities through the Loskop Dam water project.

• Communities around Lothair, Chrissiesmeer, Warbuton and Balfour will get consistent and reliable bulk water supply through the regional bulk water infrastructure project in Gert Sibande District.

• A Provincial Water Master Plan has been developed and will be adopted as a blueprint to guide water infrastructure development in the province. This will assist many of the bulk water infrastructure challenges that are experienced by municipalities.

• The Department of Water and Sanitation has commenced with the feasibility and environmental impact assessment studies for the Mountain View Regional Dam, which will augment water supply within the Ehlanzeni District. This project is estimated to be completed by 2027/28.

• The Public Private Growth Initiative (PPGI) operational framework has been approved, to respond to the challenge of unfunded catalytic projects and programmes in the District Development Model (DDM) One Plans. Ehlanzeni District will be piloted, with the programme also being rolled out to Nkangala and Gert Sibande Districts to assist with mobilising investors/partners on unfunded programmes. The premier indicated that all these programmes will be implemented through the District Development Model (DDM) approach.

As part of her concluding remarks, Premier Mtsweni-Tsipane said, “As a province we are now standing at a crossroad, where we can either find pathways to inclusive growth and shared prosperity, where no-one is left behind or as a nation we collectively descend further into the abyss of extreme poverty, unparalleled inequality and social instability.”

SALGA, as an association that represents the interests of municipalities, was also part of the SOPA and continues to appreciate the good working relations that the organisation has with the provincial government as well as the Mpumalanga Legislature. In 2014, SALGA and the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which aimed to strengthen relations and formalise a working partnership. The MoU is currently being reviewed so that the current needs of the local government sphere can incorporated and included.

National State of Disaster

Government’s most immediate priority is to restore energy security. The country is in the grip of a profound energy crisis, the seeds of which were planted many years ago.

I

In July 2022, President Ramaphosa announced a clear action plan to address the energy crisis. This was to address the electricity shortfall of 4 000 to 6 000 megawatts (MW). The plan outlined five key interventions to:

• Fix Eskom’s coal-fired power stations and improve the availability of existing supply.

• Enable and accelerate private investment in generation capacity.

• Accelerate procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage.

• Unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar.

• Fundamentally transform the electricity sector to achieve longterm energy security.

Experts agree that this plan is the most realistic route to end loadshedding. Since then, government has made important progress in implementing the plan.

ESKOM’S PERFORMANCE

Government has taken steps to improve the performance of Eskom’s existing power stations so that the coal-fired power stations that provide 80% of electricity produce the amount of electricity for which they were designed. Under its new board, Eskom is deploying people and resources to improve the reliability of the six power stations that have contributed the most to loadshedding.

Eskom is urgently fast-tracking construction of a temporary solution to bring back three units at Kusile Power Station following the collapse of a chimney stack last year, while simultaneously repairing the permanent structure.

Government is rebuilding the skills that have been lost and have already recruited skilled personnel at senior levels to be deployed at underperforming power stations. The Engineering Council of South Africa has offered to give as much assistance as required by deploying engineers to work with the management teams at power stations.

National Treasury is finalising a solution to Eskom’s R400-billion debt burden in a manner that is equitable and fair to all stakeholders, which will enable the utility to make necessary investments in maintenance and transmission. Government will support Eskom to secure additional funding to purchase diesel for the rest of the financial year. This should reduce the severity of loadshedding as Eskom will be able to use its diesel-run plants when the system is under strain.

Eskom has launched a programme to buy excess power from private generators and has already secured 300MW from neighbouring countries.

CORRUPTION AND THEFT

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has established a dedicated team with senior leadership to deal with the pervasive corruption and theft at several power stations that has contributed to the poor performance of these stations. Intelligence-driven operations at Eskom-related sites have so far resulted in 43 arrests.

RESTRUCTURING ESKOM

As part of the broader reform process, the restructuring of Eskom that government previously announced is proceeding and the National Transmission Company will soon be operational with an independent board.

“We cannot undo the mistakes that were made in the past, the capacity that was not built, the damage that was done to our power plants due to a lack of maintenance, or the effects of state capture on our institutions. What we can do is fix the problem today to keep the lights on tomorrow and for generations to come.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa, State of the Nation Address (SoNA), 9 February 2023, Cape Town City Hall.

“We have deep skills and expertise right here in South Africa –we just need to use them.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa, SoNA, 9 February 2023.

Later this year, government will table the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill to transform the energy sector and establish a competitive electricity market.

SOLAR POWER

As indicated in July last year, and with a view to addressing the loadshedding crisis, government is going to proceed with the rollout of rooftop solar panels. In his Budget Speech [upcoming at time of press], the Minister of Finance will outline how households will be assisted and how businesses will be able to benefit from a tax incentive.

National Treasury is working on adjustments to the Bounce-back Loan Scheme to help small businesses invest in solar equipment, and to allow banks and development finance institutions to borrow directly from the scheme to facilitate the leasing of solar panels to their customers.

NEW ELECTRICITY CAPACITY

One of the potent reforms government has embarked upon is to allow private developers to generate electricity. There are now more than 100 projects, which are expected to provide over 9 000MW of new capacity over time.

A few companies that have participated in the renewable energy programme will soon enter construction and deliver a total of

“In

2 800MW of new capacity. Eskom will procure emergency power that can be deployed within six months to close the immediate gap. Government is investing in new transmission lines and substations, especially in areas such as the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape. All these measures will result in a massive increase in power to the grid over the next 12 to 18 months, and beyond.

This power will be in line with the diverse mix of energy sources, including the current coal-fired power stations, solar, wind, gas, nuclear, hydro and battery storage. To fully implement this plan, government needs strong central coordination and decisive action.

NATIONAL STATE OF DISASTER

The National Disaster Management Centre has consequently classified the energy crisis and its impact as a disaster. Government is, therefore, declaring a National State of Disaster to respond to the electricity crisis and its effects. The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has gazetted the declaration of the State of Disaster, which began with immediate effect.

The State of Disaster will enable government to provide practical measures that it needs to take to support businesses in the food production, storage and retail supply chain, including for the roll-out of generators, solar panels and uninterrupted power supply. Where technically possible, it will enable government to exempt critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water treatment plants from loadshedding. It will also help government to accelerate energy projects and limit regulatory requirements while maintaining rigorous environmental protections, procurement principles and technical standards. The Auditor-General will be brought in to ensure continuous monitoring of expenditure, to guard against any abuses of the funds needed to attend to this disaster.

a time of crisis, we need a single point of command and a single line of march. Just as we address the cause of the crisis, we also need to address its impact. The crisis has progressively evolved to affect every part of the society. We must act to lessen the impact of the crisis on farmers, on small businesses, on our water infrastructure and our transport network.” President Cyril Ramaphosa, SoNA, 9 February 2023.

One of the potent reforms government has embarked upon is to allow private developers to generate electricity.

“The process of restructuring government will give us an opportunity to determine the positioning of various areas of responsibilities and how best the various ministries and departments can best serve our national objectives. We are focusing our attention on the energy crisis right now and will address the restructuring of government in due course.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa, SoNA, 9 February 2023.

MINISTER OF ELECTRICITY IN THE PRESIDENCY

This is necessary because an effective response to this crisis involves several different departments and entities that require coordination from the centre of government. Government will be including other social partners in an effective structure like the one it set up to drive the vaccine rollout. Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures.

The energy crisis is an existential threat to the economy and social fabric. Government must spare no effort, and it must allow no delay, in implementing these measures. As it takes these actions to resolve the energy crisis, government is mindful of the risks that climate change poses to society.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Extreme weather events in the form of drought, floods and wildfires increasingly pose a risk to the health, wellbeing and safety of people. Government will continue its just transition to a low-carbon economy at a pace the country can afford and in a manner that ensures energy security. Government will undertake the just transition in a way that opens the possibility of new investments, new industrialisation

and that, above all, creates new jobs. The Presidential Climate Commission is guiding much of this work, and, in doing so, building a new model for inclusive and collective decision-making, incorporating the individuals, workers and communities that are most affected in the transition.

JUST ENERGY TRANSITION INVESTMENT PLAN

Through the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP), R1.5-trillion will be invested in the economy over the next five years in new frontiers such as renewable energy, green hydrogen and electric vehicles. Several projects are already underway, including the development of a new facility by Sasol at Boegoebaai in the Northern Cape, the Prieska Power Reserve in the Free State, and the Hydrogen Valley initiative in Limpopo, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

The Northern Cape has already attracted well over R100-billion in investments in renewable energy projects. These and other massive investments in renewable energy will create jobs and stimulate local economies not only in the Northern Cape, but also in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Mpumalanga, turning even the most arid desert into a giant energy source. Above all, the just transition will prioritise workers and communities in vulnerable industries to ensure that no one is left behind. S

Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures.

Fibre is about more than just connecting to the Internet, says Zoom Fibre’s managing director Mohamed Asmal, in reference to the exciting new smart poles that have been installed in various sites in the Saldanha Bay Municipality.

“Fibre is about unleashing the power of a digital future and we are doing this right now in the Saldanha Bay Municipality, and we will take these learnings and apply them to other regions where Zoom Fibre has coverage,” says Asmal.

Zoom Fibre, which as part of the Baobab Project alongside its partners, the Saldanha Bay Municipality and Amoeba TSC, took on the task of managing the infrastructure –namely the fibre network – that would power the country’s first truly smart city. Zoom Fibre, whose Western Cape staff contingent is based in Vredenburg, is well-known to residents in the region having laid fibre in towns across the region.

“I want you to imagine this,” says Asmal. “Imagine smart poles that run off their own renewable energy with a brain so powerful that they can adjust their brightness if there is no-one in the streets, they can proactively reduce crime and reactively lead to the capture and arrest of criminals, manage traffic volumes, provide WiFi hotspots and so much more. That is the immense power of fibre and that is why we wake up every morning at Zoom Fibre: to bring the power of fibre to the people and to drive real digital inclusion and transformation, and so as we work through this proof of concept with the first batch of towers, over time and as it becomes feasible, we will increase the scope and functionality of the smart towers and eventually unleash the full power of fibre.”

Asmal says that while the current phase in Saldanha Bay Municipality (SBM) is a pilot, or a proof of concept, the idea is to roll out the smart poles across the entire municipality and eventually in other regions of the country. “We foresee smart poles wherever Zoom Fibre has a fibre network that can enable them,” he says.

Beyond working towards the ability to recognise faces and people without capturing personal information, and therefore link suspects to a crime, the smart

poles – such as the ones in the SBM region – would eventually have the functionality to be able to be proactive, such as raise alerts if suspicious people were seen gathering in the vicinity of a business or school, for example, and deploy security and alert the police.

F Smart poles launch Saldanha Bay Municipality into the digital future

“The Internet of Things and smart cities, in general, are changing the face of our world, and the analytical ability of these smart poles, which is enabled by our fibre, means SBM is leading the pack in South Africa,” he says.

An issue that anyone in the Saldanha Bay Municipality will be aware of, is how cellphone coverage takes a dip and sometimes disappears during loadshedding in the region. These smart towers could well form bases for Long Term Evolution (LTE) providers to deliver connectivity to their customers without the fear of power cuts as the poles themselves would be powered by solar panels and bi-directional turbines. This could radically change the experience for thousands of residents.

Similarly, citizens who use Zoom Fibre through any ISP will eventually be able to

log onto their own Internet package when they move from tower to tower, a bit like taking their home fibre package with them when they go out and about. Asmal says that even those without Internet packages would eventually be able to access WiFi, the details of which will be ironed out shortly. He adds that Zoom Fibre would be conducting feasibility studies around deploying the same LTE and WiFi functionality in other regions in due course.

The launch of the smart poles in SBM follows the launch of a mobile app produced by Baobab Project partner Amoeba TSC and made available to municipal rates customers towards the end of last year. “We are committed to this region and will continue pioneering the power of fibre and working with our partners to turn SBM into a smart city connected to the world,” says Asmal. “Similarly, as we take the lessons learnt from SBM and its journey to becoming a true smart city, we will eventually deploy more value-added services in other regions serviced by Zoom Fibre.” S

Encouraging and regulating exploration and production for the economic growth of South Africa

South Africa is now one of eight countries that produces helium, 16 years after Petroleum Agency South Africa granted exploration rights. If anyone should doubt the significance to the national economy or the importance to the nation as a whole of the distribution of licences in the oil and gas sector, they should pause for a moment and consider the trajectory of a project currently underway in the northern part of the Free State province.

The triangle made up of the towns of Virginia, Welkom and Theunissen used to be rich in gold mines, but for many years yields declined and the area’s economy struggled with job losses rising steadily. A fortuitous discovery of some methane gas on a farm in Virginia in 1998 led to the creation of a company and to some entrepreneurs requesting licences to explore.

Which is where Petroleum Agency South Africa comes in. PASA is responsible for evaluating, promoting and regulating oil and gas exploration and production activities in South Africa and archives all relevant geotechnical data. The Agency acts as an advisor to the government and carries out special projects at the request of the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Currently, natural gas supplies just 3% of South Africa’s primary energy. A significant challenge facing the development of a

became Tetra4, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Renergen. In 2012 a full onshore petroleum production right was awarded and a full Environmental Impact Assessment was completed in 2017.

As custodian, Petroleum Agency SA ensures that companies applying for gas rights are vetted to make sure they are financially qualified and technically capable, as well having a good environmental track record. Oil and gas exploration requires enormous capital outlay and can represent a risk to workers, communities and the environment. Applicants are therefore required to prove their capabilities and safety record and must carry insurance for environmental rehabilitation.

The Tetra4 Virginia Gas Project is the only holder of an onshore petroleum production licence issued by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy through PASA.

In the years since the first rights were issued, the project leaders have rolled out various aspects of the project, particularly related to contracts with manufacturers and transport companies for the use of liquified natural gas (LNG). But helium production was also on line.

In October 2022, the commercial operation of the LNG plant came on stream and in January 2023, helium started being produced.

have suggested that the resource is even more plentiful than first thought.

Helium is used in rocket launches and microchips and about 85 tons of it are used every day.

The potential economic spinoffs for South Africa – and the effect that the availability of LNG could have on making the country’s transport industry less reliant on dirty fuels – will be enormous.

And PASA has played a vital role in bringing this all about, by issuing licences in a responsible manner.

TRANSITIONING TO GAS

The transition to cleaner fuels and renewables is inevitable if the world is to reduce the negative impact of climate change. South Africa is a signatory to the Paris Agreement and has committed to a “Peak-Plateau-Decline” carbon emission trajectory. The government’s policy is to diversify the country’s energy mix which is currently coal-dominated to a lower-carbon future by introducing proportionately higher renewable-energy resources such as wind and solar into the energy mix as well as gas-to-power. Gas burns with less than half the CO2 emissions from coal and additionally has no SOx emissions.

major gas market is the dominance of coal. Opportunities for gas lie in the realisation of South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) and the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

In 2007, exploration rights to the Virginia area were granted to a company which later

To put this into perspective, with the January announcement South Africa became one of only eight countries in the world to become a helium producer. There are now just 16 places on the planet where this valuable resource is produced.

Renergen states that the economic (NPV) valuation for proved and probable reserves as of 2019 was R8.9-billion. Subsequent tests

Gas is therefore a suitable transition fuel towards a lower-carbon economy for South Africa especially since gas-topower technologies are flexible and would therefore complement the intermittent renewable energy being added to the national grid.

South Africa’s energy mix is changing to include more gas through importing liquefied natural gas (LNG), using shale gas if reserves prove commercial and developing

South Africa is one of only eight countries in the world to become a helium producer.

infrastructure for the import of LNG. Petroleum Agency SA plays an important role in developing South Africa’s gas market by attracting qualified and competent companies to explore for gas. Another major focus is increasing the inclusion of historically disadvantaged South Africanowned entities in the upstream industry.

The International Energy Association (IEA) has published a report, Africa Energy Outlook 2022, which tackles the supposed conflict between Africa’s developmental needs and the urgent imperative to move away from fossil fuels.

Both can be achieved, according to the report. A key factor in allowing Africa to continue to industrialise will be an uptick in the discovery and use of gas. If all the gas so far discovered in and off Africa was used, the continent’s share of global emissions would rise by 0.5% to 3.5%.

Petroleum Agency South Africa has welcomed the report. PASA has consistently argued that South Africa’s road to net zero emissions will be via gas.

As PASA CEO, Dr Phindile Masangane, noted in the context of major discoveries of oil condensate off the southern coast, “Gas is an obvious bridge to a lower-carbon future in South Africa.” S

VALUE STATEMENT

Petroleum Agency SA aspires to be a world–class organisation, committed to:

• Professional excellence

• Integrity

• Direct, open, consultative communication

• Transparency

• Respect

• Teamwork

• Active regard for our natural environment

• Corporate social responsibility in an empowering, vibrant workplace where diversity is valued.

The Virginia Gas Project started producing helium in January 2023, a significant milestone for South Africa, which becomes the world’s eighth helium producer. Renergen is operating with licences from Petroleum Agency South Africa.

Credit: Renergen

New uses for natural gas. As the holder of the only onshore petroleum production licence issued by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy through PASA, Renergen, through its subsidiary Tetra4, is producing natural gas and helium from its Virginia Gas Project near Welkom in the Free State.

Credit: Renergen

Power cuts in South Africa are playing havoc with the country’s water system

South Africans lost a record 205 days of electricity in 2022 due to constant breakdowns at the coal-fired power plants run by Eskom, the state-owned electricity utility. The plants are old and have not been sufficiently maintained.

By Anja du Plessis*

The country’s energy crisis has been escalating since April 2008, when scheduled power cuts were first implemented. One of the biggest casualties of more than a decade of severe power outages has been the country’s water processing and distribution networks. The most recent, and escalated, blackouts have led to water utilities in parts of the country issuing warnings about damage to water supply infrastructure and operations.

The negative effects on water supply are far-reaching. Energy and water are intertwined. The water reticulation system – the transport of water from source, the treatment of water and sewage and the distribution and delivery of water to consumers – all require electricity.

A number of cities, including Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay, as well as smaller towns, have had drastic water cuts.

These experiences – as well as the growing frequency of sewage spills – have given South Africans a glimpse of what the future might hold if the energy crisis isn’t properly addressed. Water shortages and prolonged cuts in supply are likely to become increasingly common.

HOW IT WORKS

A typical piped water supply system consists of the following:

Water reticulation system.

Water processing and distribution networks require electricity to pump water, for example, to water towers and reservoirs and then to consumers. Prolonged power cuts halt this process if no suitable back-up pumps are in place. The same applies to water treatment plants. Prolonged power outages can cause sewage spills if no working back-up pumps are in place.

The power cuts have:

• Further damaged already dilapidated and aged water infrastructure. The City of Cape Town is a case in point. The city’s systems are in danger of collapsing unless new investments are made to avoid or limit further damage.

• Slowed or cut-off water distribution and delivery as the water reticulation system requires energy (for example working pumps). Without a continued required level of pressure in a pumpingbased transmission and distribution system, water cannot be distributed and delivered to the consumer. In Johannesburg, reservoirs have been unable to recover during severe power cuts.

Some have reached critically low levels, leading to intermittent water supply, low water pressure and in some instances prolonged water outages.

• Affected reticulation infrastructure. This is because sewage pump stations have broken due to old age and non-maintenance causing sewage spills. Multiple beaches have been closed in Cape Town and eThekwini municipalities due to unacceptable E. coli levels, attributed to pumps either not working or breaking, leading to sewage spills.

The problems triggered by the power cuts have been made worse by the fact that the country’s water infrastructure has been deteriorating for decades. Water losses have been increasing because of decaying infrastructure such as old pipes which haven’t been replaced.

The country also suffers from unsustainable water demands –there isn’t enough water available to meet increasing water demands from various sectors and consumers. Continued water pollution also

decreases the amount of water that’s fit for use or consumption, contributing to water stress.

In addition, allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds have also plagued the sector.

SOME SOLUTIONS

Water utilities have recognised the increase in water disruptions and outages. Consumers have been urged to:

• Use less water during prolonged outages to decrease the risk of limiting water supply. Decreasing water consumption assists municipalities in dealing with operational challenges such as water towers and reservoirs reaching critically low levels.

• Ensure they have water to last through the power outage (four hours or more).

Other steps have been taken too:

• Water restrictions have been imposed to decrease consumption, for example in the City of Johannesburg.

• The City of Johannesburg is establishing contracts to lease mobile generators, specifically for prolonged power outages.

• The National Energy Crisis Committee, a body run out of the president’s office, has proposed various measures such as importing energy from neighbouring countries, buying excess energy from private producers and developing emergency legislation to speed up approval and development of power plants.

The country needs a clear way forward to address both the energy and water crises. These will not be solved overnight. They will require political will as well as making use of the knowledge and skills of experienced individuals within the various sectors to collectively develop a realistic and clear plan. It will require specific timelines and deliverables to address both crises: energy and water.

* Anja du Plessis is an associate professor and research specialist in water resource management at the University of South Africa.

Minister launches largest reservoir in the country

In February 2023, the Department of Water and Sanitation Minister, Senzo Mchunu, officially launched the country’s largest 201-million-litres reservoir in Benoni. The Vlakfontein Reservoir is set to provide additional water storage and supply in areas east of Tshwane and the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. The construction of the reservoir is the brainchild of the Department’s entity, Rand Water, as part of measures put into place by the utility’s strategies of refurbishing and augmenting water infrastructure.

Speaking during the launch, Minister Mchunu dispelled public notions that the water sector is headed towards total collapse. “I accept that the country is facing challenges of power supply and I do understand the impact of this on water supply. But I do think that it is misleading to say that the water sector is heading towards that direction and is in shambles. That is incorrect,” he said.

Minister Mchunu alluded to the extensive work which is being carried out by Rand Water in Gauteng and other parts of the country, which includes the implementation of the Infrastructure Development Planning which entails planning for the refurbishment and augmentation of infrastructure, and the implementation thereof.

“The augmentation I am referring to includes expansion of potable production capacity at the river stations, as well as infrastructure that radiates away from river stations, that is pipework, pumps, reservoirs or associated automation and electrical infrastructure. When pipelines, pump stations and additional potable capacity at river stations are upgraded, outright additional capacity can be delivered to customers,” said Minister Mchunu.

The Vlakfontein Reservoir was planned for and built by Rand Water as part of its augmentation strategy to maintain strategic storage capacity equivalent to 24-hour water demand, especially amid the current power supply challenges as experienced across the country.

The reservoir will accommodate water demands supply in areas situated in the east of Tshwane and Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality up to year 2035 and this is based on compounded growth rate of 2% for the areas. Construction of the reservoir began in May 2020 and is nearing completion with a set timeframe being April 2023

The country needs a clear way forward to address both the energy and water crises.

South African municipalities can play a key role in resolving the energy supply gap

South Africa’s energy shortage is having a profound impact on its cities. Economic growth and jobs continue to be affected at a time when cities urgently need to recover from the Covid-19 crisis to retain their competitiveness and attractiveness.

C

Craig Kesson, PwC South Africa advisory partner and cities leader, says: “Resolving the energy shortfall requires a collective effort across private and public sectors, including, and especially, by municipalities who play a key role in the development of sustainable energy strategies. By playing a key role in resolving the energy supply gap, municipalities will be able to contribute to local economic development and job creation.”

In its newly released report, “The cities’ role in managing the energy supply challenges”, PwC outlines what can be done in the municipal sphere to help fix the country’s energy shortage and discusses how these solutions can have potential revenue benefits for municipalities.

A VICIOUS CYCLE

South African municipalities have a constitutional mandate to distribute electricity to citizens. They predominantly purchase power directly from state-owned energy utility Eskom, and distribute and sell power to consumers or reimburse Eskom for direct distribution to them. The on-sell of electricity is a key source of revenue for municipalities and has accounted for almost 30% of municipal revenues in recent years. Without this revenue stream, which often leaves municipalities with surplus funds, many are not able to crosssubsidise other debt and expenditure items.

Nasreen Mosam, PwC South Africa international development partner, says: “This culminates in a cycle where the rising cost of electricity leads to rising prices for consumers. This in turn results in more people being unable to pay service charges. This further increases costs and reduces revenue for municipalities, increasing the negative impact on municipal finances. This means that providing key services such as public security, housing and maintaining public spaces is also affected.”

WHAT CITIES CAN DO

Despite the country’s current power challenges, municipalities can help resolve the energy supply gap. “Cities’ energy strategies will play a key role in achieving sustainability and energy stability in the long run,” Kesson says. “The ideal scenario would be for municipalities to purchase electricity from different suppliers in a competitive market at competitive prices, which will allow for resale at a surplus and transmission at lower cost to consumers. Efforts are underway to achieve this through the unbundling of Eskom and opening up of the energy market to competition from the private sector,” he says.

In the report, PwC outlines seven immediate measures to help bridge the energy supply gap and end loadshedding in the short run. These solutions include municipalities:

• Enabling wheeling of energy generation (both the infrastructure and the policy framework to deliver energy from generator to end-user through existing distribution or transmission).

• Supporting the installation of microgrids and small-scale embedded generation.

• Supporting the purchase of power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

• Prioritising spending on repairs and maintenance of infrastructure, as well as protecting it.

Mosam says municipal efforts to close the energy supply gap and bring down energy prices can also set the course for sustainable municipal revenue sources to finance spending.

Kesson says: “Ideally, we would see the private sector generate renewable energy and distribute it more cost-effectively to consumers through municipalities. Municipalities would have longterm contracts with private IPPs to purchase renewable electricity at guaranteed prices that are lower in a competitive market, and municipalities would win because they would obtain revenue for their role in distribution.

“Consumers would win because electricity prices would likely come down in a competitive system. The lower cost of electricity and higher certainty of supply would contribute to a virtuous cycle of economic growth, rising property values, more customers paying accounts, more employment and greater socioeconomic development outcomes.”

He says municipalities need to act now to mitigate supply gaps in the short run by putting in place the necessary policy frameworks, mobilising resources that will enable wheeling as well as re-entering small and medium scale generation into the municipal grid. Crucially, municipalities will also need to establish a long-term strategy regarding their own role in electricity provision going forward. This will include modelling the optimal mix of different energy sources needed to enhance supply and meet demand, as well as attracting and retaining strong, capable teams to accommodate the new skill sets required to operate in this market.

This way, municipalities will be able to retain their role in energy generation and to be part of a sustainable energy solution that works for producers and consumers. S

When crises collide: water is SA’s next “perfect storm”

South Africa is, by some accounts, already “out” of water. In an already water-scarce country, demand outstrips supply, while water treatment plants falter and the country’s climate continues to warm at unprecedented – and deadly – rates. A perfect storm, experts warn, is coming.

During the first decade of South Africa’s democracy, 13.4-million people gained access to basic water services. But a tap in a home or in the yard is no guarantee that clean water regularly flows through it. In some North West and Limpopo communities, dry pipes briefly spurt to life at 3am. Residents who do not set an alarm to collect water, go without.

In the Free State, a good storm can send desperate families scrambling to put out buckets to catch the rain. Children will even scoop up pooling water with their hands to add to the haul.

Meanwhile, the water tankers brought in by the government to fill gaps in service delivery in the province have become big business, the Mail & Guardian reported in 2022.

South Africa’s demand for water now outstrips its supply. Water, of course, can be reused – but the country’s water infrastructure can no longer supply many communities with reliable access to safe drinking water.

Wastewater treatment plants, meanwhile, dump raw sewage into waterways, probably fuelling upticks in disease.

And Eskom’s decline is deepening the problem.

“After all considerations, it was discovered that we had allocated about 98% of all the water available in the country. Effectively we became water-deficient in 2002,” explains Turton. He warns that South Africa is transitioning to a fundamentally waterconstrained economy. Meanwhile, sewage management systems are collapsing and the country threatens to outstrip its capacity to process safe drinking water.

Turton concludes: “The South African water sector is entering the early phase of a ‘perfect storm’ driven by the convergence of significant drivers over which no [one] individual has any control.”

SA USES MORE WATER THAN IT HAS

Experts have spent more than a decade measuring the water South Africa has and comparing it to what it needs to fill the nation’s kettles, water its crops and mine its riches.

By 2002, what South Africa used in water was already outstripping what it had, says Dr Anthony Turton, professor at the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of the Free State. In 2003, scientists believed South Africa possessed 53-billion cubic metres of water. Today, Turton says better modeling and declining rainfall have placed that figure at about 49-billion cubic metres.

But when it comes to water, it is not just about how much you have — it’s about how good it is. And what South Africa has, it is not very good at safeguarding. In the Department of Water and Sanitation’s latest drinking water report, more than 60% of water supply systems did not meet water quality standards.

Meanwhile, 40% or more of water in Johannesburg and eThekwini is lost to leaks and theft before it ever reaches consumers.

“South Africa is a water-scarce country, so we’re obviously affected by the semi-arid to arid climate,” explains Dr Anja du Plessis, a University of South Africa water expert. “But what we’re seeing now is what’s called ‘economic water scarcity’. In places like Johannesburg, you have the water supplies; however, you are experiencing shortages because of dilapidated infrastructure.” She continues: “[That] infrastructure is now collapsing under loadshedding.”

Similarly, the most recent audits of wastewater treatment plants found that 100 were so poorly run that they posed a serious risk to public health and the environment.

For instance, the South African Human Rights Commission found that broken Gauteng wastewater treatment plants have dumped so much raw sewage into the Vaal River that the waterway is now polluted beyond any acceptable measure. The Commission noted that raw sewage from these same plants had also found its way into nearby schools and homes.

Our health turns on the health of rivers like the Vaal or the Orange, Turton says.

Unpurified river water in many parts of South Africa is used to water crops.

“We used to dilute our pollution into the watercourses,” he says. “But we have so overloaded the rivers with five-billion litres of sewage daily that we have lost our dilution capacity.”

He continues: “Today, the average citizen drinks water from the tap that has been processed from a sewage-contaminated river through technology that is broken and unable to safely process sewage to drinking quality standards. This affects everyone.”

Unpurified river water in many parts of South Africa is used to water crops. A 2021 study funded by the Water Research Council found high levels of bacteria transmitted in the waste of animals and humans on surveyed fresh vegetables in Cape Town and Tshwane. The findings held true whether vegetables were purchased in supermarkets or from hawkers.

PIPES FOR JOBS

Efforts to fix South Africa’s water system have been hampered by weak local capacity and deep corruption. Municipalities, which Du Plessis says bear the biggest responsibility for clean water provision in the country, do not have the ability to fix the system. Each year, budgets to safeguard water supplies go unspent.

“The inability to spend results in the misfortune of the current ageing infrastructure,” writes Department of Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu in the department’s latest annual report. “Where some of the infrastructure may not be old, the dismal and inadequate maintenance, particularly of municipal infrastructure, remains an Achilles heel.”

When municipalities can spend money to maintain or expand infrastructure, the department notes, projects can be waylaid by protests by local business forums and communities demanding jobs before projects can be completed.

The department has pointed out that there are maintenance backlogs of more than R35.5-billion.

WATER IN A HOTTER WORLD

The average annual temperature in South Africa has increased by at least one degree celsius during the last 50 years, almost twice the global average, according to a 2021 study published in the journal  Environmental Research. Temperatures in the country are projected to continue to rise at a greater rate than the global average. A child born in the next 20 years could grow old in a country that is up to six degrees hotter than average temperatures nearly a century before, the study warns. And heat can be deadly.

The South African Medical Research Council’s Dr Caradee Wright says the recent deaths of farmworkers in the Northern Cape should be a warning. Emerging research also suggests that hotter temperatures may be linked with some types of birth defects, particularly holes in foetuses’ hearts. And as more homes go without steady access to water, the public health threats only grow, Wright warns.

“When you don’t have continuous water supply, you store water,” she says, “and when you store water, you immediately start to run into trouble.” In many homes, families store water in open-air containers, often dipping in the same shared cup to collect water. With each cupful, new germs are introduced into bins that are rarely cleaned.

In an environment like this, diarrhoeal disease – which can be deadly in small children, the elderly and people with weaker immune systems – can spread like wildfire. And the country’s health system – like its water infrastructure – may not be prepared to cope with new waves of disease that accompany a hotter, more water-scarce world.

“Our healthcare systems and other structures that we have in place are not fully functioning for the majority of the country,” she says. “We’re starting from a bad baseline, and I can’t see how we’re going to cope.”  S

Experts estimate that 40% or more of water in Johannesburg and eThekwini is lost to leaks and theft before it ever reaches consumers.

The state of our water and sanitation

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s mandate as set out in the National Water Act (1998) and the Water Services Act (1997) is to ensure that the country’s water resources are managed, developed and conserved by supporting the delivery of effective water supply and sanitation.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) maintains the delivery of safe water and the effective management of wastewater by enforcing regulatory measures. To this end, the Blue Drop, Green Drop and No Drop standards are in place to improve asset management practices in municipalities. Over the medium-term period, DWS will support 32 district municipalities with developing reliability plans and will monitor the compliance of all water services authorities with regulatory standards.

NATIONAL WATER AND SANITATION MASTERPLAN

DWS is leading the initiative to develop a masterplan that is intended to guide the water sector with the delivery of water and sanitation services to 2030 and beyond. The core purpose of the plan is to provide and implement a comprehensive schedule of actions, as well as to facilitate integrated investment planning for effective services delivery. The masterplan allocates responsibilities to the various tiers of government, private sector and other stakeholders.

NATIONAL WATER RESOURCES INFRASTRUCTURE AGENCY

The agency leverages large-scale investments in national water resource infrastructure for sufficient bulk water supply. Augmentation interventions prevent bulk water shortages that exacerbate municipal water and sanitation service delivery.

DRINKING WATER

According to Stats SA, in 2021 the highest number of households provincially with tap water off- or onsite were found in Western Cape (99.4%), Gauteng (98.4%) and Free State (93.6%). Limpopo (69.4%) and Eastern Cape (71.0%) had the lowest ranks. An

estimated 45.2% of households had access to piped water in 2021. A further 29.4% accessed water onsite, while 12.2% relied on communal taps, 1.9% on neighbours’ taps and 2.7% of households fetched water from natural sources.

A total of 98.6% of households in metros had access to tap water, mostly in Cape Town (99.5%), Nelson Mandela Bay (99.2%) and Johannesburg (99.1%). Mangaung (92%) and eThekwini (97.7%) recorded the lowest numbers.

Groundwater is the main source of water in the Karoo, Northern, Eastern and Western Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.

LESOTHO HIGHLANDS WATER PROJECT

After being delayed for several years, fullscale construction works for the R36-billion Lesotho Highlands Phase Two project will commence in 2023. Funded by the TransCaledon Tunnel Authority, the project has been implemented jointly by the Lesotho and South African governments, through the Lesotho Highlands Water Commission and Development Authority. The Lesotho project is critical for the security of water supply to Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, North West and the Northern Cape and is due to start delivering water to Gauteng in 2027.

PROVINCIAL PROJECTS

DWS has developments at various stages in South Africa:

Eastern Cape. The Mzimvubu Water Project provides water to 750 000 people at a cost of R25-billion.

Free State. A R10-billion project to build a major pipeline from Xhariep Dam to augment water supply in Mangaung is in its feasibility stage. Project completion is due in 2028. DWS has implemented a R1.7-billion project to upgrade wastewater

and water treatment works as well as water distribution networks in Maluti-A-Phofung for completion in 2025.

KwaZulu-Natal. The raising of the Hazelmere Dam wall to preserve long-term water supply to eThekwini was expected to be finished in 2022 (at a cost of R800million). The construction of the uMkhomazi Water Project, aimed at delivering long-term additional water to eThekwini at a cost of R23-billion, is due to start in 2025 and completed by 2028.

Limpopo. In 2022, DWS officially launched the R24-billion Olifants River Water Resources Development Project, implemented by the transformed Lebalelo Water Users Association as a public-private collaboration with mining companies (each fund 50% of the project). Water delivery to communities and mines will be fast-tracked and ready by 2028.

Mpumalanga. The R1.2-billion Thembisile-Loskop Bulk Water Supply project will address water supply challenges in the Thembisile Hani Local Municipality and will be implemented over a three-year period from 2022.

Northern Cape. The first phase of the Vaal Gamagara Water Supply Scheme, critical for mining and potable water supply, cost R1.4billion. Phase 2 was expected to start in 2022 at an estimated R10-billion.

North West. In 2022, DWS commissioned the Moretele South Pipeline (60km) to be operated and maintained by Magalies Water and will benefit the Moretele Local Municipality.

Western Cape. To increase water security on the West Coast area of Cederberg, DWS started elevating the Clanwilliam Dam wall at a cost of R3.2-billion. Construction is due to be completed in 2026. The department is executing the R21-million Brandvlei Dam project, which involves the

construction of a feeder canal that will provide an additional 33Mℓ of water for storage in the dam.

ENTITIES

Consolidated water boards. Water boards were established in terms of the Water Services Act to provide bulk potable and wastewater to their respective water service institutions. The boards support municipalities by providing, managing and operating regional bulk water services infrastructure. They vary in activity, customer mix, revenue base and capacity. Some boards provide retail services on behalf of municipalities.

Rand Water. Established in terms of the Water Services Act, Rand Water is mandated to provide quality bulk potable water within its area of supply. Its distribution network includes 3 056km of large-diameter pipelines feeding 58 strategically located service reservoirs, with customers including metropolitan and local municipalities as well as mines and industries in Gauteng, supplying on average 3.7-million litres of water daily.

Umgeni Water. Established in terms of the Water Services Act to supply water to approximately six-million consumers mostly in the rural areas of KwaZuluNatal and eThekwini.

Magalies Water. Provides quality bulk water and secondary services directly to municipalities, mines and other industries. Raw water is drawn from rivers which flow into dams owned by DWS. Magalies Water buys the water from the four water-treatment plants and provides municipalities, which draw the water through the reservoir and sells it to consumers.

Bloem Water. Established in 1991 to operate the Caledon/Bloemfontein Government Water Scheme and to supply water to the municipal areas of Bloemfontein, Bainsvlei, Bloemspruit, Botshabelo and Dewetsdorp.

Amatola Water. Established in 1998 to provide bulk- and basic water services to the Eastern Cape.

Mhlathuze Water. Supplied by three dominant water sources in the uMkhanyakude, King Cetshwayo and Zululand district municipalities and has plans for expansion.

Lepelle Northern Water. Water’s mandate is to provide bulk water to water services authorities within Limpopo, serving over three-million people and major industrial users. Lepelle partners with DWS in implementing conservation, demand management and groundwater exploration to augment surface water.

distributes water to the surrounding and rural areas of Cape Agulhas, Theewaterskloof and Swellendam. It has three water-treatment schemes with 22 reservoirs that are strategically located across the Overberg region. The organisation distributes approximately four-million cubic metres of water per year in the region with a pipeline network estimated at 1 450km.

OTHER ENTITIES

• The Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency, established in terms of the National Water Act, plays an important role in protecting, using, developing, conserving, managing and controlling water resources in a cooperative manner within its catchment area.

• The Inkomati-Usuthu Catchment Management Agency (established in 2004 in terms of the National Water Act) plays a key role in the use, protection and development of water resources in the Inkomati-Usuthu area.

• The Water Research Commission, established in terms of the Water Research Act, is mandated to conduct research, enhance knowledge, build capacity; and promote the effective transfer of information and technology in the water sector.

• The Water Trading Entity converted into a trading entity in terms of the Public Finance Management Act in 2008. Its primary role is to manage water infrastructure and resources.

• The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, established in 1986 as a specialised liability management entity, derives its mandate from the National Water Act. It is responsible for the development of bulk raw water infrastructure and providing treasury management services to DWS and water boards. S

SONA 2023: WATER

The reliable supply of water is essential for the wellbeing of people and the growth of the economy. To ensure water security now and into the future, DWS is leading the process of investing in major infrastructure projects across the country.

CONSTRUCTION OF DAMS

Several decades after it was proposed, the first phase of the Umzimvubu Water Project will start in the next financial year. This phase, which involves construction of the Ntabelanga Dam, as well as irrigation infrastructure and the distribution of water to communities will be financed by government. The next phase will be construction of the Lilane Dam, which will include a hydropower station. Major projects to increase the capacity of the Clanwilliam, Hazelmere and Tzaneen dams will improve the supply of water to the West Coast, eThekwini and eastern part of Limpopo.

WATER-USE LICENCES

In 2022, goverment announced a comprehensive turnaround plan to streamline the process for water-use licence applications to facilitate greater investment. Since then, government has cleared the backlog of water-use licences and reduced the turnaround time for applications to 90 days.

The national waste management strategy

How a country manages its waste is a fundamental indicator of the extent to which that society is functional and being managed in a sustainable manner.

The implementation of the National Waste Management Strategy must have a positive impact on the lives of all South Africans through shared socio-economic growth and development, says Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

The 2020 strategy is an update of the 2011 strategy and builds on the successes and lessons from the implementation of that strategy. The National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) provides government policy and strategic interventions for the waste sector and is aligned and responsive to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030 adopted by all United Nations member states. It is also responsive to South Africa’s National Development Plan: Vision 2030, which is our country’s specific response to and integration of the SDGs into our overall socio-economic development plans.

The NWMS 2020 addresses the challenges and gaps identified in the 2011 strategy. Given that this strategy was developed at the onset of the sixth term of democratic administration in the country, its revision has also taken into account the national and Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) priorities outlined for the five years comprising the term of administration.

Most importantly, the 2020 strategy has the concept of a “circular economy” at its centre. The circular economy is an approach to minimising the environmental impact of economic activity by reusing and recycling processed materials to minimise (a) the need to extract raw materials from the environment and (b) the need to dispose of waste.

The circular economy is built on innovation and the adoption of new approaches and techniques in product design, production, packaging and use –industrial symbiosis, for instance, is a way of preventing waste in industrial production by redirecting waste from one production

process to serve as raw materials for another production process.

In line with the outcome-based planning approach of government, the strategy is premised on three pillars which will see a future South Africa with zero waste in landfills, cleaner communities, well-managed and financially stable waste services as well as a culture of zero tolerance of pollution, litter and illegal dumping.

The government priorities will be achieved through waste minimisation; effective and sustainable waste services as well as compliance, enforcement and awareness. Collectively, the outcomes, strategic pillars, interventions and actions consolidate and build on the eight overarching goals of the 2011 strategy.

SIGNIFICANT SHIFTS

1. Addressing the role of vulnerable groups, waste pickers and the informal sector and supporting women, youth and people living with disabilities in the circular economy.

2. Promoting approaches to the design of products and packaging that reduce waste or encourage reuse, repair and preparation for recycling as well as support markets for source-separated recyclables.

3. Investigating potential regulatory or economic interventions to increase participation rates in residential separation at source programmes.

4. Investing in the economies associated with transporting recyclables to waste processing facilities.

5. Addressing the skills gap within the sector with a special focus on women, youth and people living with disabilities.

6. Engagement with the National Treasury regarding the operational expenditures for municipalities associated with implementing the NWMS and the Waste Act.

Additionally, the NWMS 2020 provides an enabling environment for the projects identified in the 2017 Operation Phakisa Chemicals and Waste Economy (CWE). The CWE, as part of a cross-sector national planning process, intended to identify and support the implementation of projects in each sector of the economy that will contribute to national goals for sustainable economic growth, job creation and social transformation.

The strategy comes at a time when there is growing knowledge and awareness of the environmental consequences of human activity in relation to climate and environmental pollution. The widespread impact of plastic packaging on our coasts, rivers and wetlands is a cause for great concern. The NWMS 2020 outlines a strategic approach to reduce littering and illegal dumping, and to reduce the production of single-use plastics such as food wrappers, disposable cups and straws that are currently destroying our marine habitats.

Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy.

The success of the NWMS 2020 depends on the extent to which it finds a foothold in local and provincial government and the private sector. But the government and business can’t solve the problems with waste on their own. Increasing recycling rates to promote the circular economy depends on consumer behaviour change, such as separating waste at source – something which all South Africans should be practising.

The revised NWMS seeks to build on existing initiatives in schools and draw on community-based organisations and NGOs to help in cleaning up our communities and reducing the carbon footprint of our economy by correct disposal and recycling of waste.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, (DFFE) looks forward to working with you in taking forward the goals of this important national strategy for waste management which is promoting the waste hierarchy and the circular economy principles. S

THE SMART TOWNSHIP CHALLENGE 2023

The Stellenbosch Network Smart Township #Ideasforchange challenge is an ideation competition on the hunt for new solutions to help transform Kayamandi into South Africa’s first smart township.

By Cebelihle Mthethwa

The challenge was born from the partnership with various stakeholders, including Lunttu, which is an initiative by Wesley Diphoko, who grew up in Kayamandi and sees technology and digital skills as a catalyst to transform the township into an inclusive micro-economy just like the newest winners of the challenge.

Chuma Lalendle and Sbahle Mgijima walked away with the R20 000 cash prize following the introduction of their Smart Trolley Recycling solution to minimise the overflow of landfills and encourage a recycling culture in Kayamandi. With such immense volumes of waste arising, with landfills being the most popular end-resort, the need for authorities to provide adequate waste treatment and disposal services has become ever more important.

“Being born and raised in Kayamandi at some point, we, as the youth – the future leaders – need to take the initiative. If there is an opportunity for us to step up and make the change that we want to see, then we should grab it and run with it,” says Mgijima.

According to Lalendle, the two met at a Smart Kayamandi workshop, hosted by Stellenbosch Network and Lunttu, and with their passion for sustainable community projects, the two came up with Smart Trolley Recycling.

Lalendle notes: “Through a needs-assessment and observation, we have discovered that the system of waste pickers is rather informal, and the physical labour is strenuous and tedious. The aim is to formalise it by creating a product whereby the Smart Trolley functions independently, making the whole process a much more pleasant experience for waste pickers. The idea is to improve the collection process of waste pickers in Kayamandi and get the community involved in recycling to foster a responsible green community.”

The project has three beneficiaries: the waste collectors that go into household bins before the municipal waste removal arrives, the households within Kayamandi and the Stellenbosch Municipality.

Although the bright-eyed entrepreneurs have a promising vision for Kayamandi, they are also wary of the milestones they must reach regarding getting the municipality’s buy-in, as the project aims to incentivise households that adhere to the culture of recycling. These envisioned incentives will compromise of electricity units, data, coffee vouchers etc.

Lalendle and Mgijima add that technology will play a pivotal role in the inception of their project, as the Smart Trolley is created based on technology, using tech advances to create an efficient trolley. The trolley will include a power assist function, to enable efficiency when the primary stakeholders (waste collectors) push the waste, and it will have compartments, to sort the different types of waste. The team wanted to better enable people already in the waste collection system through innovation and technology.

“The Stellenbosch Network has done exceptional work in spreading the word about our innovative idea to the rest of Stellenbosch. Our next step is to focus on getting funding to further our dream of making Kayamandi a Smart Township,” Lalendle and Mgijima conclude.

It’s difficult to be ignorant in seeing the backward system that we grow up in.

Learnerships: a business hack for SA companies

Economic growth in South Africa is desperately needed, but this requires job creation and skills development to meet our current and future needs. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through learnerships.

By Daniel Orelowitz, managing director at Training Force

An integrated skills development intervention, learnerships are aimed at promoting growth in employment and facilitating capacity building across sectors to address scarce and critical skills shortages. Learnerships are attractive for businesses since a Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) score and tax benefits are available; however, managing these programmes can be a massive undertaking. Here, it is advisable for companies to partner with an accredited training provider to sidestep the system while gaining all the B-BBEE and tax benefits with none of the associated administrative and compliance burdens.

In short, outsourcing their learnership programmes is the business hack every company needs to embrace in 2023.

WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL ABOUT LEARNERSHIPS?

Currently managed by the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), learnerships are directly related to occupations and roles. They provide a pathway that leads individuals through to accredited National Qualifications Framework (NQF) qualifications. Learnerships ensure that more people are trained for a specific working environment and businesses benefit from having a more skilled and experienced workforce.

Through such skills development programmes, learners are now able to further their education while employers contribute to the establishment of a pool of skilled labour that can either be absorbed permanently into their organisations or redirected to be of benefit elsewhere in the industry.

In a format that combines structured learning with hands-on work experience, learnerships are key to ensuring that individuals are equipped with the theoretical knowledge necessary to work in their field and the practical know-how necessary to secure a job in that field. As attractive as the business benefits of learnerships may be, companies generally must source eligible candidates and have them vetted and onboarded, all of which direct time and resources from other core functions of the organisation.

DEVELOPING ESSENTIAL SKILLS

An experienced training provider can step in here and take on the recruitment, enrolment and management of the right candidates for the company’s learnerships. As training and employee development specialists, it is their core business to help their clients align with the requirements of learnership programmes, such as the Youth Employment Service (YES) programme.

This learnership programme provides the company with exceptional B-BBEE benefits, while greatly assisting to close the skills gap in the

HIGHER EDUCATION LAUNCHES BLENDED LEARNING

CHIETA, the chemical industry’s education and training authority, embarked on the implementation of a pilot project: blended learning approach through a coded welding skills programme that explored face-to-face, online, welding simulation and practical learning in line with technology’s trajectory worldwide.

The pilot project accommodated 115 students at six TVET colleges in four provinces and is part of CHIETA’s ongoing drive to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Yershen Pillay, CHIETA’s CEO, says the blended learning approach is also an indirect response to an instruction from the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation for SETAs to revise their skills development initiatives.

Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation

Buti Manamela states that the challenges presented by the pandemic created opportunities for training service providers to accelerate digital-based skills development strategies. These strategies were envisioned to re-skill, trans-skill and up-skill large numbers of workers to take up opportunities within existing enterprises or start new businesses and co-operatives. Manamela explains that the project provides the TVET colleges with the opportunity to improve the quality of their training, while also ensuring that recommendations on the implementation of a blended learning approach can be developed within the sector going forward.

“From the lessons learnt by the TVET colleges through the blended learning approach, we will be in a stronger position to establish best practices that advance job creation and boost the country’s economic prospects,” adds Manamela. CHIETA has explored wide-ranging new approaches in the digitisation of skills development, which included in-depth research into the status of e-learning and e-assessments.

Pillay says, “The implementation of this pilot project is one of the recommendations of this research. Our programme’s comprehensive curriculum was developed with participation by several stakeholders and is registered with the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and supported by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET),” Pillay adds. “This pilot project holds benefits for the participating TVET colleges, as well as for the wider skills development sector within our SETA’s sphere of operation,” he says.

From B-BBEE scores to tax

youth market. An enterprise can participate in facilitating 12-month work experience programmes for unemployed youth by:

1. Sponsoring and hosting youth within their business.

2. Sponsoring placements elsewhere within an existing SME/ supply chain.

3. Providing hosting to the benefit of a new SME.

HOW DO LEARNERSHIPS BENEFIT EMPLOYERS?

From B-BBEE scores to tax incentives, there are several noticeable benefits when implementing learnerships in a business:

• Contributing to skills development, job creation and economic growth, while boosting the company’s productivity and adding to its value through the employment of skilled, knowledgeable, competent employees.

• Establishing a pool of properly-trained, experienced employees with critical skills to draw from gives the business a clear competitive edge in the industry.

• Being committed to skills development positively impacts the company’s B-BBEE status, improving employment equity targets by enabling previously disadvantaged employees or unemployed individuals to upskill themselves and earn qualifications.

• There are learnership tax incentives that allow employers to claim up to R120 000 per individual that completes their qualification, along with monthly employment tax incentives (ETI) for every employee hired between the ages of 18 and 29.

AN ALL-ROUND WIN-WIN

Partnering with a training provider that specialises in youth development is the smartest business hack that ensures everyone benefits – the company gains the full tax and employment equity advantages of learnerships, while candidates achieve their full potential through the successful completion of such programmes. S

DRIVING EMPLOYABILITY AMONG SA’S YOUTH

GIBB, one of South Africa’s leading multi-disciplinary engineering consulting companies, has partnered with the government’s Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative to drive future employability among South Africa’s youth.

Introduced in 2018, the YES initiative is a government and business-driven initiative that seeks to tackle South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis.“Many of the learners who are part of the initiative at GIBB don’t have prior work experience,” says Siphamandla Mahlaba, senior learning and development consultant at GIBB. “The programme will provide the students with an opportunity to gain valuable work experience that will make them more employable in the future, be it within GIBB if an opportunity arises or at future employers once their 12-month period with GIBB ends.”

As it is the first year in which the company has participated in the initiative, GIBB advertised posts externally and in line with the criteria set by government and the needs within the business. With over 1 800 applications, selecting the right candidates for the programme was essential. While GIBB has a structured programme that the students follow during their tenure with the company, the YES initiative too has a detailed programme in place.

The initiative provides students with tablets that are preloaded with a variety of online training tools to assist them in upskilling themselves and garnering soft skills such as emotional intelligence, communication and negotiation, among others. “From a GIBB perspective, our role focuses largely on how we can provide students with the necessary experience to make them as employable as possible after their time with the company,” says Mahlaba.

The company treats the students as employees instead of merely as students, providing them with the same induction processes as they would any other employee and the necessary working tools such as a laptop and workstation. Apart from the valuable work experience gained in their respective business units and niches over their 12-month internship with GIBB, students will also walk away with insights on how to look for job opportunities, create a CV and how to conduct themselves in a business environment.

YES student Sinqobile Chili is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. “Although I have only been with the company for a few weeks, the experience I have gained at GIBB so far has already proven invaluable,” says Chili. “From creating relationships among my peers to understanding the inner workings of the company and how the various roles lead to its success, I am excited for what lies ahead during my time with GIBB and how the teachings will allow me to thrive in the future.”

incentives, there are several noticeable benefits when implementing learnerships in a business.

Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Buti Manamela.

transformation

There’s a temptation to consider digital transformation in terms of the technology that might need to be employed, but as with anything else, successful digital transformation is driven by the people in your organisation – the very people who will either adopt or resist the technology.

And that means that digital transformation (DX) will require a particular kind of leadership. Human beings, by their very nature, are resistant to change. None of us likes being taken out of our comfort zone and put in a position where the way we’ve done something for decades is thrown into question.

This means helping employees to imagine the future and accept that it’s possible, as well as managing their expectations along the way.

For leaders, this will mean making difficult decisions and having the dreaded “courageous conversations” with employees who are trying to block change. It will mean identifying internal champions of the changes and empowering them to drive it forward. It may require bringing in external talent to boost the knowledge and skills internally. It will certainly require superb communication skills to ensure that change messaging reaches all the corners of the organisation and that employees are never left wondering what the next step is or how their lives will be affected. Most of all, however, it requires that the entire top structure is unified in owning the DX and models courage, enthusiasm and participation in the process, as well as a willingness to support those who require some additional bolstering. Leaders must understand that DX isn’t a once-off exercise or something that happens separately in its own silo. Rather, it is an integral part of your operations – every day and continuously. It must evolve with your enterprise and become part of the company’s current and future culture. To build this culture, leaders will have to do the following:

Embrace curiosity. Instead of being afraid of novelty, learn to be curious about new things and investigate how you can create value for the organisation.

Don’t confuse innovation with reinventing the wheel. Not everything requires that companies innovate from scratch. Instead, look at how

you can use existing tech where possible or copy it and only innovate for your organisation’s unique challenges.

Be a pioneer. Look beyond your own industry for opportunities to create something new that can add extra value or even become a product or industry on its own.

Remember that digital is not the outcome. It is a means to an end. See technology as an enabler of your core business processes and operations rather than being an end goal.

Reinvent your approach to leadership. This journey is about a whole new way of being a leader and bringing your employees along with you. It is about so much more than just finding solutions to business requirements.

Stay adaptable. This will require both flexibility and agility, because DX is a journey and things change fast.

Understand every part of your company. This will help to ensure you select the right digital tools for your business.

Remember that transformation is not easy. It requires serious effort. It means overcoming fears, shedding the past and pushing yourself and your employees towards something more. It may require that you all dig deep to make the changes you want. The changes will be spread across people, processes and technology, so be prepared for challenges like employee resistance, financial constraints and a lack of expertise in a variety of areas. However, the role of a leader is to lead by example, so leaders should ensure they learn about the new digital tools available, become au fait with them and encourage their employees to follow suit. With the right example, attitude, training and support, employees will be able to handle the transition and navigate both the change and the company into a bright new future. S

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