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        <title>Engineering News | Opinion</title>
        <description><![CDATA[Regular columnists and guest writers offer their commentary and opinions as well as analysis of current events in the energy, transport and economy sector to name but a few.]]></description>
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            <title>TSO close, but not yet</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/tso-close-but-not-yet-2026-08-14</link>
            <description><![CDATA[There is no question that President Ramaphosa’s endorsement of the Phase I report of the Eskom Restructuring Task Team (ERTT) is a key milestone in the ongoing reform of South Africa’s electricity sector. The report focused on developing a high-level proposal to establish an independent Transmission System Operator (TSO). It was guided by both the amended Electricity Regulation Act, which includes a five-year timeframe from 2025 for the creation of the TSO, and the ERTT’s terms of reference.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ELECTRICITY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title> The price of perception</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/the-price-of-perception-2026-08-14</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Africa’s biggest financial complaint isn’t that it lacks capital, but that it has been paying too much to access it. The continent’s answer is its own credit rating agency, set to open its doors in October, following multiple false starts since mid-2025. Seeking to quell concerns over further slippage, an official of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), which is leading and coordinating the establishment of the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) on behalf of the African Union, told journalists on July 29 that the project had moved “far much [faster] than we expected”.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Zhuwakinyu</author>
            <category>AFRICA BEAT</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Death, taxes, and a third</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/death-taxes-and-a-third-2026-08-14</link>
            <description><![CDATA[If you are on a quest to establish what is certain in life, you might be led to believe American statesman Benjamin Franklin, who, in a letter dated November 13, 1789, stated that “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. Contrary to popular belief, Franklin was never President of the US and neither was his well-known statement original. Christopher Bullock was the originator, having written in his 1716 play, The Cobbler of Preston: “Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but death and taxes.”]]></description>
            <author>Riaan de Lange</author>
            <category>TRADE@WORK </category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>727087</a_id>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Local development of value ﻿adding technology should be given more encouragement</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/local-development-of-value-adding-technology-should-be-given-more-encouragement-2026-08-14</link>
            <description><![CDATA[New South African smelting technology that uses 70% less electricity has reached the commercialisation phase. Domestically advanced ultra-high-dense-media-separation processing is poised to significantly increase the proportion of premium iron-ore produced. A locally developed 2 kW proton exchange membrane electrolyser system has just been commissioned amid strong South African collaboration. These are examples of promising developments that bring with them value-adding potential and local development of this nature should be given more encouragement.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Creamer</author>
            <category>FIRST WORD</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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            <title>Important signals</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/important-signals-2026-08-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Recent interventions by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and the National Treasury have helped shed light on issues that had hitherto been allowed to fester in dark corners. The most high-profile intervention has undoubtedly been the one at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), where recent governance shortcomings, investment failures and unauthorised restructuring were risking the stability of an institution responsible for managing public-sector pension and social funds. It is estimated that the PIC has assets under management of R3.6-trillion, making good governance beyond essential and public scrutiny inevitable.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: PUBLIC FINANCE</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <updated>1785827896</updated>
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        <editor>Terence Creamer</editor>
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            <title>WhatsApp’s invisible ballot box</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/whatsapps-invisible-ballot-box-2026-08-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[In an earlier edition of this column, I described 2026 as Africa’s bumper election year because of the unusually crowded electoral calendar across the continent and singled out Zambia’s August 13 polls as the contest to watch. Whatever the outcome, this election, like the previous one, which propelled Hakainde Hichilema to victory, will be fought not only on the campaign trail but also in countless WhatsApp groups. That should surprise no one. WhatsApp is now a veritable village square, interwoven so seamlessly into everyday life that conversations about politics now unfold alongside birthday wishes, funeral announcements, church notices, football banter and family gossip.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Zhuwakinyu</author>
            <category>AFRICA BEAT</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>726650</a_id>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Baa escape clause</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/baa-escape-clause-2026-08-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Just over a month after South Africa became the eleventh country to notify its intention to initiate a safeguard investigation in 2026, the twenty-first such case, it increased the tally to 22 by notifying the World Trade Organisation (WTO) of the launch of a safeguard investigation on certain cold-rolled products of iron and steel on July 10. The WTO Committee on Safeguards informed its members of the notification by the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) on July 14.]]></description>
            <author>Riaan de Lange</author>
            <category>TRADE@WORK </category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <updated>1785824975</updated>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>New technology must be used to modernise South Africa’s mining business</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/new-technology-must-be-used-to-modernise-south-africas-mining-business-2026-08-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Instead of relying primarily on traditional geological interpretation, South Africa must urgently turn to artificial intelligence (AI) for help, in the same way as has been done so successfully in Zambia. South African mining remains our principal engine of economic growth but that  will only continue to be the case if we reverse the negativities of deepening and increasingly complex orebodies, and the absence of new deposits and new mines.. Zambia’s use of AI has quickly resulted in ground being broken for the building of a $2.3-billion copper mine at Mingomba. Amazingly, AI was successful in analysing vast amounts of geological, geophysical, drilling and historical exploration data and was able to point out high-grade mineralisation with amazing accuracy.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Creamer</author>
            <category>FIRST WORD</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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        <updated>1785827834</updated>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Missed opportunity</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/missed-opportunity-2026-07-31</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The uptake of rooftop solar in South Africa has increased dramatically over the past five or so years, spurred initially by the extreme loadshedding from 2021 to 2024. Using satellite and other aerial photographic data, a new report by the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) estimates that about 5.98-billion kWh of electricity was generated from the total installed rooftop capacity of 3 495 MWp over a one-year period.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ROOFTOP SOLAR</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>726240</a_id>
        <updated>1785222361</updated>
        <published>1785448800</published>
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        <editor>Terence Creamer</editor>
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            <title>Wrong bees behind bars</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/wrong-bees-behind-bars-2026-07-31</link>
            <description><![CDATA[When South African law-enforcement agents periodically crack down on illegal mining, television cameras invariably find the same subjects: grimy individuals emerging from mine shafts, blinking into the sunlight after long periods – weeks or even months, according to some reports. They are handcuffed, paraded before the media, and presented as evidence of headway in the State’s war on the scourge. But the poor souls are seldom the true villains; they are the worker bees. The queen bees almost never make the evening news. These are the fellows comfortably perched above ground – the syndicate bosses, financiers, politicians, and middlemen whom we have yet to see appearing in court in orange overalls. Instead, they wear designer suits, arrange logistics, launder proceeds and count profits while the foot soldiers, many of whom are driven to South Africa’s abandoned gold shafts by grinding poverty, risk cave-ins, toxic gases, and bullets from rival groups.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Zhuwakinyu</author>
            <category>AFRICA BEAT</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>726217</a_id>
        <updated>1785221330</updated>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Salt sana – or ‘more salt’ – does not appeal to all</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/salt-sana-or-more-salt-does-not-appeal-to-all-2026-07-31</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Zambia’s Copperbelt is covered with billboards, posters and lamppost flags as President Hakainde Hichilema uses the power of his incumbency to urge voters to apply “more salt”, that is, to make their food tastier by voting him in for a second term. Yet on July 13 – when Hichilema (HH to his supporters) launched his month-long election campaign in earnest – power conspicuously transferred to voters. Pro-Hichilema campaigners and business supporters suddenly became aware that this election – one they thought a certain win – will be a close call.  From the chaotic and divided former ruling populist Patriotic Front (PF) have emerged a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate who are turning the election into a real contest.  Lawyer and former PF Minister Brian Mundubile, newly of the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP), has as running mate the late President Edgar Lungu’s personal lawyer, Makebi Zulu.]]></description>
            <author>Tara O’Connor</author>
            <category>AFRICA IN FOCUS</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>726071</a_id>
        <updated>1785221329</updated>
        <published>1785448800</published>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Compost yourself</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/compost-yourself-2026-07-31</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Inattentional blindness, or change blindness, is considered a psychological glitch that occurs when the brain actively filters out unexpected details to avoid information overload, meaning you can completely miss things you are not directly focusing on. The Strait of Hormuz conflict is arguably a case in point. Or is it rather attributable to a lack of employing another sense – becoming deaf to it?]]></description>
            <author>Riaan de Lange</author>
            <category>TRADE@WORK</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>725940</a_id>
        <updated>1785221328</updated>
        <published>1785448800</published>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Infrastructure to restore economic competitiveness must be put in place much faster</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/infrastructure-to-restore-economic-competitiveness-must-be-put-in-place-much-faster-2026-07-31</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Under-investment in electricity, ports and rail infrastructure has increased the cost of doing business in South Africa and weakened the competitiveness of our economy. Fixed investment has fallen to 15% of GDP from nearly 25% in the early 2000s and is recovering far too gradually. The constraint is not finance but an inadequate project pipeline owing to corruption, poor State capacity and regulations that have granted monopoly power to public entities that lack balance sheets to drive the necessary investment programmes. Operation Vulindlela, now in its second phase, must ensure that the infrastructure needed to restore South Africa's competitiveness is put in place much faster in full collaboration with the private sector.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Creamer</author>
            <category>FIRST WORD</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>725904</a_id>
        <updated>1785222307</updated>
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        <editor>Martin Zhuwakinyu</editor>
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            <title>Distorted lens</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/distorted-lens-2026-07-24</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Transitions are never easy. They are disruptive and are often fiercely resisted. South Africa navigated its own grand political transition in 1994, following a period of intense uncertainty and resistance, which at times turned deadly. Were it not for courageous leaders, ongoing mobilisation in support of change, and the favourable geopolitical tailwinds of the period, the outcome could have been quite different.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ELECTRICITY POLICY</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>725709</a_id>
        <updated>1784619531</updated>
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        <editor>Terence Creamer</editor>
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            <title>When corruption becomes government</title>
            <link>https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/when-corruption-becomes-government-2026-07-24</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Every so often, Africa unveils a corruption scandal so audacious that even the most seasoned investigators momentarily lose the plot: one official pays millions for goods that never existed, another awards contracts to an entity whose offices turn out to be someone’s living room, and, somewhere else, billions disappear through a subsidy meant to help the poor. Imagine inventing a government agency that does not exist, persuading officials to allocate it public money, securing office space for it inside the equivalent of the Union Buildings in South Africa, opening bank accounts in its name and even meeting foreign diplomats under its banner.]]></description>
            <author>Martin Zhuwakinyu</author>
            <category>AFRICA BEAT</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>725631</a_id>
        <updated>1784616421</updated>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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