A group of Hout Bay fishermen pleaded with residents of the town on Thursday to join them in their challenge to the government to get their fishing rights back.

“If you want to help us, don’t be scared,” said Neil Williams to about 100 protesters who met at the harbour at sunset for a peaceful protest and to explain their issues to a community shocked by the violent clashes with police last week.

“Don’t be afraid Hout Bay people. You must connect.”

Still fresh in the community’s minds was the uprising over a number of issues that had bubbled to the surface – primarily over fishing rights they not only consider as part of their culture and tradition, but as a means of supporting themselves.

Last week, tables were dragged from the popular Mariner’s Wharf restaurant and set alight to form a burning barricade and 14-year-old Ona Dubula was severely injured when struck in the mouth by a rubber bullet as police tried to quell the protest.

Standing on a stage made of old pallets on Thursday afternoon, activist Donovan Van der Heyden explained that not only had they been marginalised by apartheid, but their traditional fishing areas had been demarcated into a Marine protected area, a closed area, and a no-take zone.

Recreational permit

This means that there is nowhere for the local community of Hangberg and nearby Imizamo Yethu to fish legally.

“So what has happened to the poor fisherfolk of Hout Bay is that the department (of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), conservationists, scientists and whoever has that authority, has thrown every possible restriction, limitation, every possible judgment and prejudice at us not to be able to practice our culture and our tradition here at home,” he said.

“If we want to fish, unfortunately, we have to fish illegally because even if you buy yourself a recreational permit, you can still get arrested or fined if you are found fishing around Hout Bay.”

“So how then are we supposed to survive?”

Turned into “poachers” in the eyes of the authorities, many fishermen who chanced it at night in rowing boats at nearby Duikersklip, drowned, further devastating the community.

With a small police contingent parked at a distance, he read a statement of solidarity on behalf of the fishing community of Hout Bay and of Imizamo Yethu.

The fishing community wants unrestricted access to what they consider to be their traditional fishing grounds in Duikersklip and in the marine protected area.

Restricted area

They also want delays with the implementation of the small-scale fishing policy to stop and for the Minister of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Senzeni Zokwana, to commit to a date to meet the community.

On Sunday, Zokwana met at Parliament with a limited delegation.Van der Heyde said the community called for the marine protected area, restricted areas, and no-take zones to be reviewed with the full participation of the community.

And, when the Hout Bay Harbour upgrades start, all of the work must be awarded to local residents. If special skills are needed, outsiders can only be used if training cannot be provided to the local community.

Other activists at the meeting said the community was poor and was tired of working for years as general workers or at fish factories for low pay and having nothing to show for it.

On Friday morning, they intend marching to the fisheries office on Cape Town’s Foreshore to hand over a memorandum containing their demands.

Source: News24

ANALYSISBy Tammy Hodgskiss, University of the Witwatersrand

Digital technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. So it was only a matter of time before the ways people interact with the past and ancient artefacts in museum settings became digital, too.

The problem is that technology can be extremely expensive. Many museums just don’t have the funding to obtain, develop and maintain fancy devices or interactive digital gadgets. Some big European and North American museums, which receive millions of visitors each year, have been able to afford virtual reality (VR) and various other digital technologies. These are an appealing and popular element of the visitor experience.

For example, you can tour the British Museum in London using VR. Visitors to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC can download an app to experience one of the exhibits in VR.

More digital avenues are being added to South Africa’s museums – and now the country has its first full VR exhibit. It will launch at the Origins Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on 25 September and will take visitors on a journey through hundreds of thousands of years of human history, art and innovation. I am a Middle Stone Age archaeologist and ochre specialist, and have been part of the team putting the exhibit together over the past four months.

Along the way, we’ve had to work out how to marry facts, interpretations, stories and technology. This hasn’t always been easy, but there have been a number of lessons along the way: most crucially, about the value of collaborative, interdisciplinary work to bring science to life.

Getting started

Steven Sack, the director of the Origins Centre and Professor Barry Dwolatzky, who runs the university’s Tshimologong Digital Precinct, were the exhibit’s initial champions. The precinct is a technology hub. Dwolatzky was so enthusiastic about the idea of VR at the Origins Centre that he personally donated money towards it. Armed with this and a grant from the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, we got started.

The next step was to develop VR hardware – headsets loaded in the content we went on to produce. For this, we had to look beyond academia and bring in a team from Alt-Reality, a company in Johannesburg.

My role was to provide guidance on my own areas of expertise, and to act as a link between the Origins Centre and Professor Chris Henshilwood, for whom I work at the university’s Evolutionary Studies Institute. It was one of the institutes that provided a great deal of content for the VR exhibit.

Lara Mallen, a rock art specialist who was the curator at the Origins Centre, was a crucial part of the project: her knowledge of the centre’s displays and her intricate understanding of the rock art was vital in developing the content.

I bugged many of my peers in the Evolutionary Studies Institute, Rock Art Research Institute and School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at Wits University as well as researchers at other institutions for their opinions and images. We also sourced video and digital content from their research that we could include in the VR exhibit. They were all intrigued and excited by the chance to share their work in a totally new, different form.

Then came the balancing act: what would work well in VR, how much content could we have and what was missing. It was a very organic and ever-changing process. We continually revised, cut and added content.

The visitor can chose what they want to see and what they want to learn more about. They can see (and hear) how people made stone tools and ground ochre 100,000 years ago, or they can be transported into a painted rock shelter while also being able to see the individual images right up close.

Telling stories in new ways

As an academic I wanted to make sure that we presented a factual yet exciting summary of the Origin Centre’s content. That wasn’t at all straightforward.

We had to decide what stories we chose to tell, how we wanted to tell them – and whether our interpretations were correct. Bringing the past into a digital space creates so much more overt space for interpretation and different narratives. Traditional museum panels explain what an object is and how old it is. The VR actually shows how it worked and the process archaeologists have used to find that out.

One of the most valuable aspects of this project has been the opportunity to diversify traditional narratives around archaeology. Women and children have been somewhat neglected in archaeological interpretations, especially since in the past most histories were written by (white) men. This has tended to present a simplistic picture of prehistoric societies: men hunting, women gathering.

But there was more to it than that. Stone tools had to be made; poison was collected on use on the tips. Fires needed to be built and ochre ground to create paint for ritual. VR gives more space to explain the answers and explore the nuances of prehistoric societies.

Collaborating with a team of researchers of different ages, backgrounds and genders means a more unbiased picture of the past can be created. The VR content allows anyone to interact with the artefacts – female, male, young and old. They can immerse themselves in it and draw their own conclusions.

The digital experience might also appeal more to younger people and hopefully bring more young visitors into the museum. But it’s accessible, enlightening and informative and older people will enjoy it too.

Collaboration is exciting

As a scientist, I think these kinds of interactive museum displays are vital in aiding deeper understanding and interest in a topic. The same applies to archaeological research.

Being able to manipulate or reconstruct artefacts and use them helps us to understand how and why they were used or created. Being in the team that has conceptualised and created the Origins Centre’s VR content has reminded me that collaborative and interdisciplinary work – even though sometimes tricky to start – can be so fulfilling and revolutionary.

Disclosure statement

Tammy Hodgskiss does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Maputo — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has politely made it clear that there will be no normalization of relations with Mozambique until the information missing from the audit of the security-related companies Ematum (Mozambique Tuna company), Proindicus and MAM (Mozambique Assets Management) is provided.

In 2013-2014, the three companies borrowed over two billion US dollars from the European banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia. The government of the day, headed by President Armando Guebuza, illicitly guaranteed the loans, in violation of both budget law and the Mozambican constitution. These government guaranteed loans added 20 per cent to Mozambique’s foreign debt.

Initially, only the Ematum loan was in the public domain, since it took the form of a European bond issue. The Proindicus and MAM loans were kept secret, and only came to public knowledge in April 2016.

The IMF, accusing the government of misreporting its debt situation, suspended its programme with Mozambique, and other western donors and funding agencies followed suit. All 14 donors who used to provide direct support to the Mozambican state budget suspended their disbursements and have not resumed them.

The IMF made it clear that a basic condition for resuming normal relations with Mozambique was an independent audit of Ematum, Proindicus and MAM. The Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) hired Kroll Associates, reputedly the world’s foremost forensic audit company, to undertake the audit.

In late June, the PGR published the executive summary of the Krioll report, which accused the management of Ematum, Proindicus and MAM of failing to cooperate and concealing information. The man who is the chairperson of all three companies, Antonio do Rosario, a senior officer in the State Intelligence and Security Service (SISE) openly boasted of refusing to hand over data, on the grounds of “national security”, and even of expelling the auditors from his office.

At a press briefing in Washington last Thursday, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice confirming that filling in the gaps in the Kroll audit report would be a crucial step towards a new IMF programme for Mozambique.

He said the IMF was “encouraged” by the fact that the audit had taken place “because transparency and good governance are key”. But now the IMF wanted to see the full audit report, and not just the summary, published.

As Rice must know, the full report has been circulating on the Internet for some weeks but, inexplicably, the PGR has not yet published it on its website.

The full report is even more damning than the executive summary about the companies’ refusal to cooperate. The main challenge in completing the audit, Kroll says, “was the lack of information available from the Mozambique companies. Kroll spent a considerable amount of time requesting and liaising with representatives of the Mozambique companies to obtain information and documentation that was, in some case, either ultimately incomplete or not provided at all”.

Kroll said it repeatedly asked Rosario (referred to in the report as “Person A”) for “outstanding information that would provide a better understanding of expenditure: the response was that the requested information was ‘classified’ and not available”.

Kroll also found it could not obtain “reliable accounting records from the Mozambique companies to enable a proper assessment of the financial position of each company. Further, the Mozambique companies were unable to provide complete loan agreements or supply contracts”.

Thus the full report, far from solving the problem of the information gaps, reveals how wide they are.

Rice said “we believe it is key for the authorities to provide the missing information, highlighted in the audit summary and in particular critical information gaps record, regarding the use of loan proceeds. So taking steps to fill the information gaps and to strengthen transparency and ensure accountability will be critical to progressing toward a new program”.

The message is clear: unless the Mozambican authorities provide the missing data, particularly an explanation of what happened to all the two billion dollars, there will be no new IMF programme.

Complicating matters is the allegation that Mozambique purchased military equipment from North Korea, in violation of United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang. This was mentioned in two reports from the panel of experts set up by the UN Security Council to monitor the implementation of sanctions, on 27 February and 5 September.

The February report, which the media somehow missed, mentioned a six million US dollar contract between the North Korean Haegeumgang Trading Corporation and Monte Binga, a company owned by the Mozambican Defence Ministry.

Under this contract, according to the panel, citing as its source an unnamed UN Member State, Haegeumgang was to upgrade and refurbish Soviet era equipment: P-18 early warning radar, AT-3 anti-tank missiles, T-55 tanks, and truck-mounted surface-to-air Pechora missile systems. It was also to supply “man-portable air defence system components and training equipment”, 250 kg “glide induced bombs”, radar systems, communications and electronics detection equipment, and a “chemical warfare monitoring command car” and related equipment. The contract also mentioned rehabilitating a gunpowder processing factory.

The contract, the panel said, was signed in 2013 by Choe Kwang Su, described as the representative of Haegeumgang in Mozambique. He is also third secretary at the North Korean embassy in Pretoria. “In addition to the contract itself”, the report said, “a Member State showed the Panel photographs of the activities, including technicians of the Korean People’s Army standing in front of refurbished tanks”.

The 5 September report said the panel was continuing to investigate the matter, but “Mozambique has yet to provide a substantive reply to the Panel’s enquiries. Haegeumgang has been reported by two Member States as active in Mozambique and the neighbouring United Republic of Tanzania. One Member State specified that Haegeumgang had provided the same surface-to-air missile systems to both Mozambique and Tanzania”.

Monte Binga owns 50 per cent of Proindicus. Inevitably there are suspicions that some of the 622 million dollar loan to Proindicus went to the North Korean contract (however, the amount that Kroll could not account for in its audit is much greater than six million dollars).

The Mozambican government has neither confirmed nor denied that this contract exists. Last week, the government spokesperson, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Ana Comoana, pledged full cooperation with the UN Panel of Experts. The government would provide “due clarification at the opportune moment”.

The panel accused several other southern African countries – Tanzania, Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic – of violating the sanctions against North Korea. Last week, the Namibian Deputy Prime Minister, Netumbo Nandi-Ndatiwah, announced that all contracts between the Namibian government and North Korean companies have been terminated, and invited the UN panel to visit Namibia “so that we can show them we have complied”.

By Sofia Christensen

Protesters gathered in several West African capitals Saturday to demand their countries abandon the CFA franc in favor of a common African currency. Passions over the issue have been reignited since Senegal arrested and expelled an activist for burning a CFA bill at a rally last month.

The PanAfrican Emergencies group called for the protest. Senegal recently expelled the movement’s founder, French-Beninese activist Kemi Seba, after he burned a 5,000 CFA note during a rally in Dakar in August.

France created the CFA in the 1940s for its African colonies. The CFA is pegged to the euro and guaranteed by national currency reserves deposited with the French treasury. Senegal is one of 14 countries in West and Central Africa’s two monetary unions still using the CFA.

At Dakar’s bustling Marche Tilene, many traders are interested in the debate, though the arguments remain more emotional than economic.

“It is not an African currency, so we consider it a Nazi currency imposed by our colonizer,” said trader Adama Badiane.

Shop owner Mariama Seydi also favors a new currency.

“I would like Senegal to have its own currency,” she said. “In the same way as we used to talk about the French franc, I would like us to say the Senegalese franc.”

Moudou Gaye, the head of Marche Tilene, agrees.

“We are Africans. We need to get organized and mobilized for a single currency,” Gaye said.

Advocates of the CFA say it has prevented inflation and instability. They point to the experiences of neighbors like Guinea and Nigeria as cautionary tales of going it alone. But critics argue the currency is too strong and stifles economic growth. Regional trade has expanded outside the eurozone to partners like China and the United States.

“When you have a currency fixed to a strong currency like the euro, it is easy to import. But when you want to export, your products cannot compete with other foreign countries,” said Ndongo Samab Sylla, an economist at Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Countries using the CFA are free to abandon it, but none of the 14 governments has announced any such intention. And for onlookers at this latest anti-CFA protest, this may be for the best.

“I do not blame them. Everyone has their way of thinking. But we will go nowhere if Senegal creates its own currency and leaves the CFA,” said Ahmadou Bamba Badiane, while watching the protest.

For now, the debate continues. But in the past year, the presidents of Senegal and Ivory Coast have publicly reaffirmed their support for the CFA, making it unlikely it will disappear any time soon.

By Alvine Kapitako

Windhoek — The Namibian Commercial Catering, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (NACCAFWU) together with Shoprite Checkers workers have mounted a national campaign that urges consumers to boycott shopping at any Shoprite or Checkers store in the country.

“The campaign is meant to encourage the public to sympathise with employees of Shoprite Group of Companies primarily because they are lowly paid,” NACCAFWU’s deputy secretary general, Joseph //Garoeb, told New Era yesterday.

“They (employees) can’t even afford to buy food from their retailers,” said //Garoeb.

He said the union would apply “whatever is in our means” to put pressure on the company to pay better wages to its employees as well as to drop the charges against employees who participated in an illegal strike in 2015.

Shoprite employees went on illegal strikes in 2014 and 2015 demanding better wages.

//Garoeb said 80 percent of employees at the company are “permanent part-time” while only 20 percent are permanent. Permanent part-time employees do not have job security and are paid N$240 per week for their labour. “This means they get N$960 if they save that money till the end of the month,” he explained.

According to //Garoeb, some employees only take home N$1,200 in salary and the company was recently reprimanded by the ministry of labour for not adhering to the country’s labour laws.

He said the company has at least 80 stores across the country, including Hungry Lion, U-Save, Checkers and House & Home. Yet, employees of this group are among the most poorly paid people in the retail sector.

“These people are paid nothing,” added //Garoeb.

In addition, they do not have any benefits such as housing or transport.

He said that the term permanent part-time does not exist in the labour law of Namibia and that “working for Shoprite means you are only working for taxi fare”.

The campaign started on Friday with a demonstration at Shoprite Katutura and would continue to other stores of the company.

“Consumer boycott is a new concept in Namibia but we had some people who sympathized with us by signing petitions and some now do not buy at Shoprite while others do not understand the concept.”

New Era called the Shoprite head office before going to print and was told that a certain Mr Pienaar would return the call, but he did not. This is despite several calls to the office.

Sixty eight passengers aboard a damaged Robben Island ferry have all been safely evacuated from the sinking vessel, authorities said on Friday afternoon.

City of Cape Town spokesperson Theo Layne said the passengers were removed from the vessel and ferried to the ferry jetty. The vessel was still out at sea.

It was earlier reported that 69 passengers were aboard the vessel, but Layne said it was now believed that 68 passengers were on board.

He said no one was believed to be missing, but rescue divers were at the scene to check if any one had been left behind. “We are doing a headcount as we speak,” he said.Layne was unable to say how badly the ferry had been damaged or how far out it was from shore.

He said rescue operations were being complicated by extremely high seas and strong winds. Cape Town Harbour spokesperson Coen Birkenstock said port control was informed of the incident at 14:20.

Two NSRI teams and a port pilot Boat Patrol were deployed to the scene, Birkenstock said.

Source: News24

By Irene Mwendwa

Trade has been good for Timiro Hussein in Moyale Town after law and order returned a few years ago.

Ms Hussein recalls the 2013 clashes and the ethnic fights before devolution that never let any business thrive in the region.

Speaking to Nation, Ms Hussein says that at the moment she has no fear at all while operating her business along the Moyale border.

“Peace has given us a new opportunity because we operate without fear since different communities now understand each other under cultural laws,” said Ms Hussein.

The mother of one operates a wholesale and retail shop in Moyale Town. She imports maize and wheat flour, rice, sugar and cooking oil while all soft drinks and milk she sells are manufactured in Kenya.

CROSS-BORDER TRADE

She says now Kenyans can trade across the border and Ethiopians can sell and buy across the border.

Ms Hussein adds that once one complies with custom regulations at the border, there is no fear since people from both countries and those within Kenya have an understanding of peaceful co-existence.

“Now our children can even share schools with our neighbours’ children and we also share medical facilities along the border without any problem,” said Ms Hussein.

Meres Abe and James Mahmed are Ethiopians yet they sell potatoes and onions in Moyale Town.

NO RESTRICTIONS

Ms Abe told Nation that there are no restrictions since Kenyans also trade across the border.

She does remember the actual number of years she has traded in Kenya but according to her, business in Kenya gives her much profit.

“We sell the entire day in the open market but we go back to our country every evening because we are not legally Kenyans,” said Ms Abe.

According to Mr Mahmed, the understanding between the warring communities along the border has given them an easy time to conduct their businesses every other day.

Mr Mahmed said that unlike a few years ago when restrictions were the order of the day because of tribal clashes, today nobody is afraid of the other because of a peace accord that was made in 2014 and amended last week.

“Our people listen to our elders more than they value the national law. Hence, a law that is implemented by the elders before the culprits are handed over to the police is followed easily,” said Mr Mahmed.

The north has been known for tribal wars that have marred normal business in various parts of the pastoral lands.

PEACE ACCORD

However, communities in Marsabit County especially along the Moyale-Ethiopia border have been enjoying the peace since 2013 after they signed a peace declaration between them.

The two major communities, the Boran and Gabbra, who have long been fighting not only for resources but leadership positions, have now set aside their local differences.

For instance in the past, herders would not share a common grazing field even if there were enough resources.

However, today, through the aid of various stakeholders, they are able to even communicate on the patterns of grazing in order to share the little available resources peacefully.

Recently, the two communities amended the declaration accommodating more regulations and also the necessity to spread the peace to other communities.

PEACE III

Speaking during the amendment of the peace accord at Koket Hotel in Ethiopia last Wednesday, the chief of party for PEACE III Sarah Gibbons said that peace, business and development work together.

Ms Gibbons commended locals for agreeing on their own set of laws and keeping them faithfully.

“The PEACE III programme began back in 2014 when elders from both sides signed the agreement and they upheld it up to date when we came to make little changes as per their wish,” said Ms Gibbons.

Majority of the participants thanked USAID and Strategies for Northern Development (SND) and other stakeholders that came up with the idea and said that other tribes should be included in the declaration in bid to completely stop conflicts along the border and across the county.

DECLARATION

The Dukana-Dillo-Maikona peace declaration was first supported by the Kenya National Steering Committee in 2009 before USAID came up with PEACE III.

The declaration states that, for instance, a person found guilty of intended murder will pay a fine of 50 cows, each at least three years of age, before he is handed to the courts and prosecuted for murder.

The same way, there are fines for unintentional murder, rape cases, assault as well as spreading propaganda and hate speech.

After the 2013 General Elections, Moyale experienced chaos that left hundreds homeless and many others lost their lives in the process.

Marsabit County was among those that were marked as hot spots before the 2017 General Elections.

Nevertheless, to the surprise of many people, locals were able to maintain peace before and after the elections.

By Rose Athumani

The Association of Tanzania Oil and Gas Service Providers (ATOGS) and their Ugandan counterparts Association of Uganda Oil and Gas Service Providers (AUGOS) have signed an agreement that will see the two working together in the Hoima-Tanga pipeline project.

Speaking at the signing ceremony yesterday, ATOGS cofounder and Vice- Chairman Mr Abdulsamad Abdulrahim said the signing ceremony marks the be ginning of collaboration between the two in a journey to grow the economies of Tanzania and Uganda.

The agreement will see Tanzanian and Ugandan service providers in the oil and gas industry do joint biddings for tenders in different areas of the pipeline project, including transportation of materials.

Uganda’s AUGOS Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Emmanuel Mugarura encouraged Tanzania service providers in the industry to be strong, work together and uphold standards that are required in the industry.

Mr Mugarura said it is only through hard work that the service providers from Tanzania and Uganda can achieve the required standards in the industry.

“It’s through standards that you can stand up and talk…stand up and compete, join tenders and stand up against Chinese, Europeans and Americans who have been in the game longer and they have money. The advantage we have is that we are East African,” Mr Mugarura explained.

ATOGS was formed as a result of AUGOS, after service providers visited Uganda and saw the need to establish an association that brings together local business service providers. One of ATOGS objectives is promoting local content in the oil and gas industry through supporting job and business opportunities for nationals and local businesses in the country.

Earlier, while speaking with ATOGS members, Senior VicePresident (Business Development) of Prezioso Linjebygg Company, Jean -Louis Chassagne said the company has vast experience in executing such major oil and gas projects.

Prezioso Linjebygg is among seven companies bidding for tenders in the execution of Hoima -Tanga Oil Pipeline project. Mr Chassagne said the company works across the continent in countries including Angola, Congo, South Africa, Gabon, Ghana, Algeria and Equatorial Guinea.

He said that through the Hoima-Tanga Oil Pipeline project, the company seeks to establish an installation system in the country, complete with workshops where local Tanzanians will work after going through training.

The French-based company, which was established in 1957 with presence in 14 countries, has vast experience of local content from working in the continent, is looking to create about 3,000 jobs for Tanzanians and is currently canvassing the best place to establish a training center.

Mr Chassagne said the company is familiar with developing large local content manpower, hiring and training and they are seeking to do the same in Tanzania and Uganda when they win the tender.

Speaking to the ‘Daily News,’ Transport Operations Officer, Mr Harshil Davda of Simba Logistics one of the service providers said they are well prepared to provide transport services and are already procuring more fleet of trucks to cater for the envisaged need.

“This means we will also create employment as we increase our fleet of trucks. From the project, there will be need of between 1,000 to 1,500 trucks,” he explained.

Currently Simba logistics has about 300 trucks operating within East Africa and outside. Head of Corporate Affairs, WiA group, Mr Abraham Mwapongo said the information and technology company is positioned to provide internet and other ICT services that would be needed.

Mr Mwapongo revealed that the ICT company is already providing services to major companies including Total, NMB Bank and Tanapa.

Dangote Cement has approached South African cement producer, (PPC), for takeover bid, but talks are at preliminary stages, Media reported on Thursday.

PPC is already considering a bid by local rival, AfriSam, which launched a new all-share bid that values PPC at about 9.2 billion rand

Dangote Cement bid for PPC is a way to increase its visibility in the South Africa and surrounding SADC market.

PPC offers the prospect of a much larger business than DangCems current operation in South Africa through Sephaku Cement.

Annual Financial Statement for the full Year ended March 31, 2017 shows that Sephaku Cement had revenues of R2.28 billion (178 million dollars) in 2016 (see Fig 1).

This compares to PPC which had revenues of R9.6 billion ($748 million) in 2016, about four times that of Sephaku.

Obviously DangCem would love to own the bigger company and has signalled it would be open to a sale of all or part of its cement operations in Sephaku Cement to win regulatory approval for a takeover.

NAN