- Lulu Xingagwana, South Africa's agriculture and land affairs minister take back a farm

- School milk programme

- Please see attached story

- Please see attached a story

- Please see the SACAU media release

In the dairy sector, milk distribution is hampered by lack of refrigeration. Some preservation techniques used are undesirable, resulting in up to 30% spoilage, the introduction of disease vectors, and a significant decrease in nutritional quality. - In Kenya and Uganda alone, million dollars per day losses are reported, with individual dairy consumption below recommended nutritional daily requirement levels. Heifer International Kenya has come up with the idea of Solar Ice Coolers. This came to them when Carl Erickson the Managing Director of Solar Ice Company visited several sites in Coastal Kenya in 2004. “These sites were basically rural and had no access to electricity sup…

- Bricknell said: “We apologise to our loyal customers for any and all inconveniences experienced."Bricknell referred to an incident in which an engine fell off one of its planes on its departure from Cape Town International Airport in November last year."Subsequent to this, a protracted grounding of our fleet was mandated by the SA Civil Aviation Authority."In the months of December and January, we resumed operations and attained a gradual recovery of the business. However, in the months of March and April we faced a 30 percent increase in fuel costs coupled with a decrease in passenger load factors," Bricknell said."Throughout this period, we continued to wor…

- Chris de Kock, WesBank’s sales and marketing director, said the repossessions of cars had spiked in this period but had flattened since then, and were expected to remain at high levels for another quarter before dropping further.De Kock said his company had seen a flattening in levels of repayment.“This is attributed to consumers with little chance of surviving the economic cycle, having already been washed out of the system. WesBank had more than 1 million customers, during the release of our latest vehicle sales confidence indicator,” he said.This was a good indicator of the level of repossessions it would have in the months ahead he said. De Kock said there was normall…

- Zimbabwe's neighbours block the shipment of Chinese arms to prevent them from being used against Robert Mugabe's opponents. China said Tuesday the weapons might be returned home.Union, church and human rights leaders across southern Africa rallied against allowing the Chinese freighter An Yue Jiang to dock at ports in any of landlocked Zimbabwe's neighbours, and they were bolstered by behind-the-scenes pressure from the United States.Even though after declaring their confidence in the South African President, Thabo Mbeki’s mediation in the Zimbabwean crisis, Mwanawasa urged regional states to bar the An Yue Jiang ship carrying arms to Zimbabwe from entering their waters, saying the s…

- New vehicle sales last year were more than double the sales figure for 1999, the president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA, Johan van Zyl, said that this growth is truly phenomenal by any standard, anywhere in the world.Van Zyl said that the domestic new vehicle market was under pressure, but it was not "all doom and gloom". Booming exports would support vehicle and component manufacturing operations and would assist in reducing the industry deficit, he said. "Industry exports of South African produced motor vehicles are expected to reach a record 300.000 units this year," said Van Zyl.He said the industry exports of SA produced motor vehic…

- Goolam Ballim, the chief economist with Standard Bank said it is genuinely going to be one of the darkest winters for South Africa as most people are going to lose their homes and cars.Ballim said efforts by the Reserve Bank's monetary policy committee to control inflation and curb spending would affect consumers at least until 2009.“The government could ease some of the pressure on consumers by injecting investment into the economy from money allocated in the Budget for capital projects, such as transport and other infrastructure, thus creating jobs,” he said.Last week, Statistics South Africa released data showing that the number of bad debts had risen by 17% in February comp…

- Ephraim Mbele a small-scale dairy farmer in the Harrismith district, Free State says the adoption of policies that addresses the plight of the less privileged farmers is the only way that the government and country could start realising the economic importance of the small scale farming sector. “As long as we are not getting the required financial, technical and material support, the dream of having a progressive and sustainable emerging sector will remain a pipe one,” he says.Mbele says milk is the only farm crop that can give farmers an income throughout the year and the only product which can be processed at the farm and sold as finished products to enhance farmers’ ea…

- Speaking during the meeting South Africa Agriculture and Land Affairs minister, Lulu Xingwana (photo) said SADC needs to urgently tackle land issues to foster regional stability and promote sustainable economic growth.Xingwana said the the member countries to achieve the goal of land reform, they will require a major new effort to build capacity, both at national and regional levels. "In the SADC region, land is a key production resource for 70% of the rural-based population who depend on agriculture and utilise natural resources for income and livelihood," said Xingwana. "Therefore access to land becomes very crucial for the rural poor to enable them to participate in econo…

- Speaking during the third annual biofuels conference Makenete said the biofuels debate had been too narrow, and that the solutions had focused mainly on the role of farmers, without taking into account all the potential producers. He said he believed that this mindset and framework needed to be challenged. “There had not been a proper biofuels framework in Africa. Africa, unlike the rest of the world, wanted to “bite big problems with big solutions”, rather than tackling the biofuels issues incrementally. While the level of awareness of biofuels in Africa had generally improved, the bio fuels lobby had not been as successful as was hoped in promoting biofuels growth in Af…

- Addressing Parliament’s correctional services committee, Gideon said in 1997 6674 prisoners were involved in agriculture but last year there were only 2210.The MPs on the committee stressed that the slowdown in activity on the farms and in the workshops meant that vital mechanisms for training prisoners for the day of their release were not working well. The loss of revenue from the sale of produce affects correctional services because it has to pay for food that it used to produce for itself.“Fruit production has dropped from 611000kg to 558000kg, and eggs from 1,1-million dozen to 1,08-million dozen , while red meat and vegetable production had increased marginally . "Ac…

- The embassy’s media liaison officer for the embassy, Sharon Hudson-Dean, said that gangs of robbers targeted people arriving at airport and robbed them either at their destinations or on the way to their destinations.The embassy's website also warned that organised criminal gangs were targeting visitors and residents at shopping malls and at the OR Tambo airport."When a victim is identified he or she is followed to his or her destination and robbed, usually at gunpoint, though the use of violence is generally limited to those who offer resistance. "It seems that certain employees at the airport are involved in crime and it is believed that these employees inform criminals w…

- In a statement, Cosatu said this is unacceptable and is going to have a negative impact on the workers.Solidarity said South Africans could not afford the increase It urged Nersa to reject the requestThis call comes after the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announced on Tuesday that Eskom had applied for a tariff increment.If granted, the increase will replace the 14,2% rise Eskom was allowed by Nersa in December 2007.That increase is scheduled to come into effect from April 1. Business Unity South Africa's Jerry Vilakazi has questioned how Eskom can ask for huge increases when it is failing to meet demand. Nersa says Eskom wants the revision because of higher energy…

- Bloem said this when he was briefing his committee. He said these criminals are watching TV the whole day, Muvhango, 7de Laan (locally produced soaps). "At some of the prisons, the communities are saying that they are like hotels. I don't want to go as far as saying that, but it is luxurious." According to Bloem those TVs must be taken and put in state hospitals so that the people there can forget about their sickness. Telephones were allowing inmates with connections to organised crime syndicates to communicate with them, creating a security risk for the country, he said. "We are concerned about the privileges that these murderers are enjoying." Bloem appealed to the P…

- Responding to a parliamentary question posed by Democratic Alliance spokesperson, Manie van Dyk, Erwin said the issue of skills shortages has been identified as a key challenge that is faced by Eskom making it a grey area at the company’s board meetings.“At present 848 positions has been advertised.  And it was the policy of Eskom ensured that separation packages given in the past were not extended to scarce or critical skills categories like engineers, technicians and artisans,” the minister said.But he assured van Dyk that the skills shortage was in no way the cause of the present crisis in electricity supply. "The electricity shortage is as result of coal qua…

- A black South African journalist, and columnist Jon Qwelane has refused to apologise after he called his former colleague at 702 Talk Radio a ‘coconut’ who had objected to an off-the-record briefing organised by the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ).with ANC president Jacob Zuma. Qwelane during a public forum organised by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said he made it clear that he would not apologise for using the word coconut. The heated and highly charged SAHRC forum focused on exclusive organisations. The commission hosted the forum after receiving a complaint from 702 Talk Radio and 94.7 Highveld Stereo. This came after its white political reporter Stephen…

- Cosatu said the rescue mission post Polokwane is now on. Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu secretary general and a Zuma foot soldier said the first two months after the ANC ‘watershed’ elections in Polokwane, his organisation and the South African Communist Party (SACP) committed a mistake of celebrating and admiring the sterling work of the new ruling party’s leadership. “This was a mistake,” Vavi told a media briefing. "When that leadership makes mistakes and make statements that have a potential of reversing the gains of Polokwane, Cosatu must speak out! We must not drop our guard," Vavi said. He said  the campaign to save the ANC from the clutches…

- Auditing company Ernst & Young threatened to withdrew its service for the bank if Lulu Xingwana does not appoint the said officers soon.Ernst & Young in a letter to Xingwana and auditor general Terence Nombembe, said that it has been involved in "close monitoring" of the state-owned bank, which is designated as a high audit risk. In her response to the letter the minister said selections for a new chief executive and the new board to replace the board that resigned last year would be put to the cabinet next week adding that she believes these candidates have the appropriate skills.Ernst & Young said its policy was that unless the Land Bank produced a highly convi…

- Seshoka said his union is at present against the retrenchment of workers due to the power crisis adding that workers cannot be held responsible and suffer due to electricity problems.His warning comes after the country’s second largest gold producer Gold Fields announced that they could be forced to cut production and retrench about 7 000 of its 53 000 strong work force.Gold Fields is also the world’s fourth largest gold miner. Goldfields CEO Ian Cockerill announced yesterday that a 10% reduction in power will lower its production by between 15 and 20% from June this year onwards. Cockerill said this will mean that they have to close down three shafts at Driefontein and two sha…

- Van Schalkwyk said his ministry is to publish a set of final norms and standards for elephant management in the Government Gazette this Friday which will see the import and export of captive elephants being prohibited and intensive breeding of elephants in captivity other than by natural birth, will be prevented.Van Schalkwyk said the government reorganises the need to maintain culling as a management option, but is taking steps to ensure that this will only be the option of last resort.The process will start on May 1 when parks authorities can start submitting their elephant management plans, including the option of culling, to the respective MECs in the case of provincial reserves and, i…

- A farmer in South Africa’s Limpopo province has been arrested on allegations of assaulting two of his employees whom he had chained to a storeroom roof after accusing them of stealing liquor. The 36 year old farmer from Thabazimbi is said to have tied the workers a man and a woman to the roof of his Sweethome Lodge. The farmer who cannot be named as he is still to appear in court had initially accused the two workers of stealing but did not specify what items had been stolen. The victims were identified as Lucky Mafoka, 31, and Morongwa Joyce Sekoba, 34. Senior Superintendent Motlafela Mojapelo said that preliminary investigations had revealed that the victims’ …

- The trade in agricultural raw materials is more intense now than it has ever been resulting in energy and foodstuffs becoming items of strategic importance, Horst Seehofer, the Germany Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the Federal Republic said. Speaking during the official opening of the first International Conference of Ministers of Agriculture which was attended by 1 500 agricultural experts that included 32 ministers and undersecretaries from 36 countries, Seehofer said the demand for bio-energy in Europe should not lead to the felling of forests in developing countries and land devoted to food production being taken out of use. “Environmental…

- Dairy farmers today have to keep on evaluating new techniques, if they want to optimise their operations to remain profitable, cut costs as well as increase their per herd productivity, Jochen Dohring, Lely Group spokesperson said. In an interview with The Dairy Mail in Berlin during the International Green Week recently, Dohring said in an effort to make sure that dairy farmers produce good quality products, on reduced costs and management, his company launched the Astronaut 3 robotic milking system in November 2005, which is meant to enhance productivity, reduce the overall operating costs and at the same time giving the modern day dairy farmer the necessary management tools to increa…