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CAPE TOWN — The government’s decision on whether or not to proceed with the extraction of shale gas in the Karoo through hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) would be credible only if the African National Congress (ANC) derived no indirect benefit from it, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said yesterday.

The DA claimed the ruling party stood to earn a “fortune” from fracking through the donations it received from the Batho Batho Trust, of which it is the sole beneficiary. The linkages between the ANC and Batho Batho meant that the government, as the regulator, could be compromised in performing its tasks as it could be both player and referee.

Batho Batho has a 51% stake in Thebe Investments, Shell SA’s empowerment partner, and thus has an effective 12% stake in Shell SA Refining and 14% in Shell SA Marketing, DA deputy energy spokesman David Ross said yesterday.

“Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe recently indicated that Chancellor House — the ANC’s investment arm — should divest its shares in companies that gain from government tenders. In the same spirit, the Batho Batho Trust should withdraw its investment from Thebe,” Mr Ross said.

He said if SA was to benefit from its gas reserves “in a manner that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable, it is necessary that the overseer does not stand to benefit”. “Only then can South Africans have faith that – if the moratorium is lifted – shale gas will be exploited in a responsible manner,” he added.

But government spokesman Jimmy Manyi described the allegations as “very wishy-washy” and unsubstantiated speculation. The government had nothing to do with Batho Batho’s donations to the ANC, he said, adding: “This is all so far-fetched it is not funny.”

Mr Ross, however, stressed the need for all conflicts of interests to be dispensed with if the risks associated with fracking, such as the contamination of fresh ground water, were to be managed appropriately. Regulatory oversight would be critical.

“The political relationship between Shell and Thebe Investments has already made a mockery of the due diligence process to be followed in ascertaining to whom the Petroleum Agency of SA should grant fracking exploration rights,” Mr Ross claimed.

Batho Batho Trust chairman Kenny Fihla was recently reported in a Sunday newspaper as saying that the trust’s donations to the ANC were in line with its specific transformation agenda. “We make no bones about the fact that we donate to the ANC — precisely because the trust was established by the president of the ANC at the time ( Nelson Mandela),” Mr Fihla said.

ANC politician Chris Nissen — the spokesman for the Karoo Shale Gas Community Forum — has also been active in mobilising support for fracking in the Karoo.

ensorl@bdfm.co.za

SOMETHING deeply irritating happened over the long weekend. As a result, I ended up pondering the nature of Chinese taste. Let me explain. I had decided to visit a couple of friends up in Joburg a nd, because flights over the Easter weekend are more expensive than lunch with David Cameron, I also decided I would drive.

Many people looked at me as though I was mad, but by my reckoning I would do it in 12 hours, largely because I would be alone, which means just one bladder to worry about.

It was going swimmingly. I escaped Cape Town in time to avoid the imminent downpour and got on the road. I stopped at the Worcester One-stop for breakfast and, I thought, given that you never know, I’d take out some cash. So into the Absa ATM went the card, and … nothing. I didn’t even type in my PIN. It just swallowed it.

T his was awkward. I had cash in my wallet and a credit card, but still. The manager of the store helpfully told me that he knew the machine “does that sometimes”. Amazingly, I didn’t kill him.

Anyway, I carried on up the road, to within spitting distance of Laingsburg, where an irresistible attack of the what-ifs assailed me. I capitulated, swore like a sailor, turned round and headed for home.

This meant I drove about 500km for no reason, and the only upside was that I had a good fiddle with all the bits and pieces in the car I was driving, an Audi A6 TDI. And I was driving a de-specced model, which is unusual in this game, because usually — and understandably, I guess — cars handed out for testing purposes to the press are specced to the eyeballs in all the chintz and toys you can imagine.

Well, even in poverty-spec the A6 is excellent. The only thing I really missed was the satellite navigation, but even that’s a luxury you can do without. It’s got a good stereo and slots for SD cards, and jacks for USBs and iPhones. The seats recline electrically and there’s dual-zone climate control. Using the car’s computer you can tell it whether you want to waft along in “efficiency” mode, or whether you’re feeling more like you need to be in “comfort”. And obviously you get a zillion airbags and all the safety kit.

As a base level of luxury, it’s really excellent.

And here’s the thing: a ll of this stuff is coming to an ordinary family car near you soon. And for that we can thank the Chinese. Motoring culture in China is very different from ours. Chinese businessmen like to sit in the back, which explains the preponderance of extended-wheelbase models of ordinary cars. BMW have just announced a long-wheelbase 3-Series for the Chinese market — and the Germans do it with most of their sedan models. And when he or she is in the back seat, being driven to work, the Chinese manager likes to have gadgets, which means TV and internet connectivity. So, there’s more and more technology coming to increasingly ordinary cars, and it is migrating to the rear as much as to the front-seat passengers.

This is a good thing, I reckon. Indeed, Chinese taste is one of the greatest drivers of automotive design and technology. Some of this is not good. Consider, for example, those dreadfully chintzy daytime running light LEDs that festoon the front end of Range Rovers these days. Consider the one-click-too-far use of chrome on the front of the new 3-Series.

But in terms of interior toys and connectivity, Chinese taste is driving an automotive arms race. We in SA will benefit from this. In five years’ time the idea that you might be able to buy a new car without a USB port or an iPod jack will be unthinkable.

And at the top end? I think it’s going to blow our minds. I’m talking about augmented reality; super-intelligent, server-based additional infotainment and concierge services, all broadcast virtually onto the windscreen as a kind of windscreen-wide head-up display, and cars in constant communications with “head office” at places such as Munich and Stuttgart. Indeed, Mercedes have just quietly announced that, as their newer cars are in contact with the “cloud”, your Merc’s software can be updated remotely, from Stuttgart, at the press of a button. Motoring is changing dramatically, and dramatically quickly too.

And the Audi A6? Gosh, but it’s a hell of a freeway car, this. You still get that towering torque number — 500Nm — and that makes for simply effortless cruising and epic high-speed overtaking prowess. You also get range of something like 900km and extra-urban consumption of around about 7l /100km. It really is the best of all worlds. Even in frill-free spec like this, there’s cruise control, so in the Karoo, as I discovered, you can set the cruise, stick the car into “efficiency” mode, and relax.

In the pouring rain the Quattro all-wheel drive system makes for assured, safe acceleration. It’s not a dynamic thriller, like its rear-wheel-driven BMW 5-Series competition, but it offers a different kind of comfort. As a long-distance cruiser, the A6 is supremely quiet. Come the corners and you can dial in “Dynamic”, which automatically adjusts the steering weight and feel, and puts the gearbox into a sport mode, ensuring that big V6 turbodiesel is always in the sweet spot for instant responses to throttle inputs. All in, it’s quite fun. But it’s the long haul where the A6 TDI excels. For pointless trips to the Karoo, not much can beat it.

• Parker is deputy editor of Top Gear Magazine SA.

South Africa’s beleaguered ostrich industry can sidestep the crippling export ban on its products — imposed 12 months ago by the European Union (EU) after an outbreak of bird flu — by selling heat-processed meat abroad.

The EU ban excludes meat that has been “precooked” for just three seconds at 70°C.

As a result, Oudtshoorn-based company Klein Karoo International has received an order from Germany for 40 tons of heat-treated ostrich meat, says MD Johan Stumpf.

“We are still in a development phase with the product, but we received an order of 40 tons from a German retailer. Although not large compared with annual production, it is significant in terms of a totally new concept to the market. It will go into the shops in May,” Mr Stumpf said.

“Should this be successful, I do think it could be an alternative for the ostrich industry. ” He said there had also been positive interest from other countries in Europe.

Klein Karoo International bought the processing equipment from the Klein Karoo Cuisine company in Johannesburg after the ban on ostrich exports to the EU was imposed in April last year when the H5N2 bird flu virus was first detected on farms in the Klein Karoo Valley. The firm now produces heat-processed ostrich steaks, goulash and strips.

Although farmers do not get as high a price for heat-processed meat as for raw ostrich meat, the processed product guarantees an all-year export market, unaffected by the avian flu ban.

GARDEN ROUTE MEDIA

KKNK: All the world is a clown

09 Apr 2012

‘We are all clowns, Mister Julius Malema included,’ said Reuel Bosch (42), acclaimed airbrush artist from Jeffreys Bay, over the contentious painting he created at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK). Bosch said he created the art in the open air over three days to see people’s reactions as the painting developed. And he won’t sell the painting to just anyone. ‘The buyer will have to sign a contract to assure me the painting will not be used to damage the subject’. Bosch is planning to portray more well-known people as clowns, but will not divulge who is next on his list.

Articles

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  Is fracking good for SA growth? (With Video)
  

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  Shale gas presents economic opportunities (With Video)
  

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  Fracking can be worth billions
  

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  Geologist urges testing for SA fracking
  

The Batho Batho Trust has a 51% stake in Thebe Investments, the local empowerment partner of Shell SA. Thebe is well placed to benefit from an industry that could be worth an estimated $200-billion (R1.6-trillion) should Shell succeed in a bid to tap the reservoir of natural gas beneath the Karoo.

Shell is one of several companies that have applied to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (Pasa) for exploration rights in the Karoo.

The company confirmed its partnership with Thebe, but said it was too early to say exactly how its business would be structured should production go ahead.

Batho Batho Trust chairman Kenny Fihla this week confirmed the trust’s 51% stake in Thebe Investments but said it was in no way involved in day-to-day business matters. He said the trust’s donations to the ANC were in line with its specific transformation agenda. “We make no bones about the fact that we donate to the ANC – precisely because the trust was established by the president of the ANC at the time [Mandela]”, said Fihla.

Batho Batho trustees include KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Sibongiseni Mkhize, who did not respond to queries.

The prospect of the ANC benefiting from shale gas exploitation prompted outrage from anti-fracking organisation Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG).TKAG used the courts to force government to reveal the composition of its fracking task team, which is due to report back to Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu later this month. The task team must decide whether to recommend for or against fracking in SA.

Commenting on Shell’s indirect link to the Batho Batho Trust, TKAG spokesman Jonathan Deal said: “TKAG have, since the advent of the shale gas mining debate in early 2011, chosen to support and defend our government against frequent allegations that Shell has undue influence within the ANC, and that influence will be [or has been applied] by Shell in that company’s application to mine shale gas in SA. Now that the extent of the ANC interest via Batho Batho Trust and Thebe Investments has been confirmed, we are naturally concerned that Shell is trading on this influence.

“In hindsight, the refusal of Minister Shabangu to furnish information until being compelled by a court order is now making sense. It would have been prudent of Shell and the government to volunteer this information at the outset of the shale gas mining applications in SA, rather than waiting for the media to expose and highlight this.”

TKAG is campaigning against the use of fracking, which it claims poses a threat to the environment, particularly scarce water resources.

Concern has also been raised about the involvement of ANC politician Chris Nissen in drumming up support for fracking in the Karoo. Nissen emerged as the spokesman for the Karoo Shale Gas Community Forum, which last year held discussions with Pasa. Nissen did not respond to queries.

Thebe Investments spokesman Saleem Symallin said while it is true that Thebe Investment Corporation has a 25% stake in Shell SA Refining and a 28% in Shell SA Marketing, “Thebe’s investment is only in the downstream distribution arm of Shell SA and not in the upstream exploration businesses”.

Confirming the shareholding, Shell spokesman Elton Fortuin said the company was years away from making a decision on whether to apply for a production licence. “This would depend on exploration efforts proving that the shale contains commercially producible gas volumes.”

Fihla said Batho Batho insists that all trust beneficiaries commit themselves to using funds for transformation purposes.

“The overriding principle is that the trust will support the transformation of South African society and therefore we look at organisations, causes or projects that are aligned to that overall objective,” Fihla said.

This week thousands of people poured into the ostrich-farming district to celebrate the annual Klein Karoo National Arts Festival.

But local dominees have launched a vitriolic attack on Oudtshoorn municipal employee Rodney Gelant, 36, who in the midst of the festival has unveiled plans to host a “Pink Ostrich Parade” in December.

Gelant wants to kick-start an annual gay bash similar to the Pink Loerie Festival in Knysna. He has submitted funding proposals to the municipality and other potential sponsors.

Pastor Kobus van Zyl of the Apostolic Faith Mission Klein Karoo Congregation is not amused. He penned a letter to the local newspaper, Die Hoorn, blasting the proposition and describing homosexuality as “a horror” condemned by the Bible. Four local church leaders co-signed the letter.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Gelant said: “Actually, I was expecting that letter. But it was still a bit of a shock. See, I’m also a Christian and I go to church. I’m conferring with someone on how I shall respond to these dominees.”

KKNK festival fans cheered on Wednesday evening as eight Miss Gay contestants slipped into stilettos, swimwear and glittering gowns at a club in central Oudtshoorn. Gelant organised the event, one of a few planned to pick finalists for his festival’s main beauty pageant in December.

“It was fabulous! I’ve really had so much interest from gay people in the small towns of the Karoo,” he said.

He was raised by a single mother and matriculated at the Calitzdorp High School. He coordinates NGO funding at the Oudtshoorn sub-district’s department of health.

He said: “My job has inspired me to do more for my community. And, being a gay person, I’ve realised that I haven’t done enough to fight the stigma. I want to empower young gays and lesbians, I want to build them up.”

In his letter, Van Zyl said: “We as a church condemn a parade or festival that celebrates homosexuality in public … We ask that the hosting of a gay festival in Oudtshoorn be reconsidered and strongly opposed.”

Van Zyl told the Sunday Times: “We don’t want to debate the matter. We just feel that it is fair that we, as churches, also get the chance to air our views.”

KKNK spokesman Brenden Ruiter distanced himself from the furore.

“It is coincidental that Rodney’s event takes place at the same time as the festival,” he said.

Overpaid public servants, along with overstaffing and dubious financial decisions, has left several Western Cape municipalities drowning in debt.

And Local Government MEC Anton Bredell has criticised at least two municipalities which had approached the national government for a portion of the equitable share funding – intended to be used for poverty alleviation – to address the cashflow shortage to pay staff salaries.

Although it was not illegal, he stressed that it was “highly immoral” to use these funds for anything but poverty relief.

The equitable share funding is an unconditional grant given to municipalities by the government, and both Beaufort West and Kannaland municipalities have already asked for their share.

In addition, Bredell has warned that along with the Beaufort West and Central Karoo District municipalities being plagued by financial woes, at least three DA municipalities – Overberg, Eden and Bitou – are also headed for trouble.

Touching briefly on the subject during his Local Government budget speech last week, Bredell said: “Managers who are unable to do the work, and who will not stand in the way of illegal decisions, are appointed… The time has come to stop the blatant contempt of the law by some councils.”

Bredell told Weekend Argus that while not all the municipal coffers had been hard hit, Beaufort West had had to pay staff late last month due to cashflow problems.

It is the district municipalities that are worst affected.

“Some of these municipalities came to me to say they do not have money. They know they are heading for financial trouble and they asked for help. That’s doing things the responsible way,” he said.

In the case of Beaufort West, the municipality failed to pay staff salaries at the end of last month. They

finally secured the funding by approaching the national government to get access to their equitable-share funding.

Earlier, Bredell criticised the Beaufort West municipality for, without his approval, as is required by law, instituting a five percent salary increase for councillors.

The increase was in line with Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Richard Baloyi’s announcement in December that all councillors were eligible for this increase, backdated to July, 2011.

Bredell has now warned that several municipalities will have to start cutting their operating budgets and may have to look at cutting staff.

While Bredell praised the Bitou, Overberg District and Eden District municipalities for deciding to forfeit their five percent salary increase for councillors, opting to rather pump the funds into service delivery and special projects, he warned that even that might not be enough.

Last year the embattled Overberg District municipality was forced to use an overdraft to pay staff.

The municipality’s salary bill is an average R4.7 million a month.

Of the 10 municipalities he checked recently, Bredell revealed that they were all spending between 70 percent and 90 percent of funding on the operating budget, leaving almost no capital for projects.

“The budget for municipalities is split into an operating budget and a capital budget, and we cannot have a situation were operating budget far outweighs the capital budget.”

Asked to comment, Bitou municipal manager Memory Booysen said that the municipality had inherited a projected cash deficit of R30m.

Booysen said that in past budgets expenditure was sanctioned by the council without enough money to finance the cost. He blamed previous officials for providing misleading figures. They were also grappling with fuel and electricity price hikes.

Overberg District Municipality mayor Lincoln de Bruyn said he could not comment without having the necessary facts and figures at hand.

But on the municipality’s website, De Bruyn’s adjustment budget in his mayor’s report said the municipality was in “a dire financial position”, and that unless “drastic measures” were taken, the “municipality’s sustainability is in serious doubt”.

They were budgeting for a deficit of about R7.5m.

Kannaland municipal manager Morne Hoogbaard conceded that they too were facing financial problems. But management was implementing a turnaround strategy that would focus specially on credit controls and debt recovery.

He said that Kannaland was fortunate to not have an overdraft facility, and that they were working to ensure “we do not go into the red”.

T

he Beaufort West, Central Karoo District and Eden District municipalities did not respond to media inquiries.

warda.meyer@inl.co.za

Weekend Argus

Cape Town Tourism on Wednesday said the upcoming long weekends were good for business.

The body said the Easter Weekend would be busy, with events like the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK) and the Two Oceans Marathon.

It said with recent petrol price hikes, it will cost more to travel around the province.

Officials said they were working on more attractive and affordable packages.

Cape Town Tourism’s Mariette du Toit-Helmbold said, “We still expect a lot of people to come to Cape Town over the Easter Weekend because of the Two Oceans Marathon and other events in the city.

“We also expect a lot of people to travel out of Cape Town into the Western Cape regions.”

Meanwhile, traffic officials have warned motorists that they will be out in full force to ensure that the province meets its target of no road fatalities over the weekend.

In 2011, seven people were killed on the province’s road during the Easter weekend.

Bloomberg

An employee holds a handful of wheat grain at the Kaap Agri grain silo in Malmesbury, near Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday, Feb. 11, 2011. Corn advanced in South Africa, the continent?s largest producer of the grain, as prices rose in the U.S., which competes for African export markets. Photographer: NadineHutton/Bloomberg

Ayanda Mdluli

Greater yields will be the key as farmers, both commercial and smallholders, struggle to keep up with global consumption of crucial agricultural commodities such as maize, wheat and soya beans.

These products serve as staple foods in many countries around the world and various reports, corroborated by experts in the sector, agree that yield growth is under serious threat as the global population continues to grow under a pressurised agricultural sector.

Other threats to global food security are issues such as wasteful water use, inadequate infrastructure and climate change. Also, expanding markets and a rise in middle classes around the world and yield shortfalls have contributed to the high food prices, which have dominated agricultural discourse since last year.

At a Seed Information Day at Klein Karoo’s experimental farm at Bapsfontein on the East Rand, Lomo van Rensburg, the general manager of Klein Karoo, said food prices would continue to dominate agriculture and consumer forums for the next seven years.

World commodity prices are expected to remain high until 2020, while 52 percent of the population is expected to be part of the global middle class by 2030. In addition, the global population is expected to exceed the 9 billion mark by 2050.

Also, demands for nutritious plants for human consumption in developing countries will double in the year 2050. In order to meet demand, countries in sub-Saharan Africa will have to increase the production of crops by 300 percent.

In countries such as the US, various shifts in maize production have decelerated yield growth, according to a report released by international agricultural financier Rabobank’s food agribusiness research and advisory department.

The report found that maize yields were likely to grow at a significantly slower rate than historical and trend line analysis would suggest.

These global issues will need to be addressed in order to keep the powder keg from blowing. However, the good news for local and international farmers in these scenarios is that the main driver in agriculture in the future will be the growth of the middle class.

Various tools and innovations can be used to take advantage of these situations, and can benefit both the smallholder and commercial farmer.

According to Van Rensburg, the most efficient way to utilise this growth is through increased yields and investment in technology, since agriculture is a technology-driven sector that is constantly changing.

Last year, 33 million hectares of biotech products were planted around the world.

In South Africa, biotech crops increased by 100 000ha during the same period. At a biotech press conference in Pretoria last week, Klaus Ammann, a biotech scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Bern in Switzerland, said hectares had continued to increase for the 14th consecutive season to a record high of 2.3 million hectares compared with 2.2 million in 2010.

“Biotech maize had occupied 1.873 million hectares or 72 percent of an estimated total of 2.6 million hectares of maize commercially planted in South Africa,” he said.

Also, higher demand saw soya bean plantings increase by 20 percent from 390 000ha in 2010 to an estimated 450 000ha, added Amman. “In one way or another, this grain has been consumed annually by 40 million South Africans, 800 million broilers, 1.4 million feedlot cattle and 3 million pigs slaughtered at formal abattoirs.”

Hunger alleviation efforts in rural Africa were often hampered by poor information, lack of guidance services, as well as a lack of affordable advice to small commercial farmers.

According to Van Rensburg, this prevented them from producing more food and hindered the use of more technologically advanced seed lines with which they could reap more benefits from their farming businesses.

“Counsellors and farming advisers are very important role players in the production cycle. They are the people who advise farmers on the appropriate and best tried and tested farming practices. This includes… essential knowledge such as when to plant what and how to implement newly researched techniques for the management of the seed and the soil,” he said.

Van Rensburg believes that the latest technology and access to good seed and other inputs, would remedy the situation, coupled with best management practices for both large and small commercial farmers.

Klein Karoo’s mentoring programme teaches small commercial farmers to cultivate plants in greenhouses (under shadow nets) by using the best available genetic plants for markets that are subject to stressful conditions.

The programme includes initial training and scheduled visits by specialists to supply the farmers with information. This can serve as a key to unlock the potential of smaller commercial farmers to fight hunger and to address the uncertainty of food production.

THE Sperrgebiet National Park in the Karas Region will soon be renamed. The Sperrgebiet, which covers 26 000 square kilometres, is the most biodiverse region in Namibia and the Succulent Karoo plant kingdom, of which it is part, supports more species of succulent plants than any other place on earth.

Before the park was proclaimed a national park in December 2008, its scenery had been out of bounds to visitors to protect the diamond industry, as is reflected in the German name Sperrgebiet, which means ‘forbidden area’.

Traditional leaders in the Karas Region have proposed that the park be renamed the Tsâu //Khaeb National Park.

The name was suggested by the !Aman people who live in the area.

“We do not reject the renaming of the park, but preference should be given to the name that was suggested by the !Aman people,” said !Aman chief Dawid Frederick.

Claiming that only “white people” had benefited from the park so far, Frederick said it was high time that those living in the area reap the eco-tourism benefits.

The /Hai-/Khaua chief, Kap-tein Johannes Isaak, supported the proposed name, saying it had historical value.