Although KwaZulu-Natal is the third-smallest province in South Africa, occupying only 7.7% of South Africa’s land area, it is home to slightly more than 20% of the population and is the second largest provincial economy and of growing strategic and economic importance.

According to Trade and Investment KZN (TIKZN) the province contributes R324bn (at current prices) or 16.2% of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while the Durban metropolitan region alone contributes about 12% of national GDP and the province potentially as much as 18% to 19% of national GDP according to the Durban Investment Promotion Agency (DIPA).

Manufacturing is the largest sector in the provincial economy contributing between 21% and 25% of provincial GDP, followed by the business service industry at around 18%, trade at around 18% and financial services at around 15%.

Russell Curtis acting CEO of DIPA, a municipal-run investment promotion agency, says that manufacturing has been hardest hit by the current global economic recession and that because of the large percentage it plays in KwaZulu-Natal’s economic mix, the province has been disproportionately affected.
 

Since his inclusion in the Forbes World Billionaire List in 2008 as the 503rd richest man in the world, South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe has attracted both admiration and envy.

While branding him as one of the new rich black elite to benefit from Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), critics ignore the fact that he turned from being a successful mining lawyer to a successful mining businessman, winning several business awards before the introduction of BEE. They also ignore an entrepreneurial family background and much hard work, and the fact that Motsepe’s uncle is the leader of a Tswana tribe known as the Motsepe tribe.



Motsepe was born in his mother’s hometown, Soweto, on Jan 28th 1962. He soon moved to rural Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, where the apartheid government had banished his father, Augustine Motsepe. There his father established a successful grocery store and went on to open a beer hall and a restaurant, giving Patrice an early induction into the business and life skills that have seen him achieve many firsts.



South Africa’s future growth is going to be constrained as much by water, as the availability of electricity. Sharon Davis tells us more.

The importance of water for economic growth in South Africa, a largely semi-arid country, was recognised as early as the 1960s when the government started an extensive dam building programme on our major rivers to ensure a regular water supply for both agriculture and industry.

Despite these efforts, and in some cases because of them, scientists and researchers have been warning of a looming water shortage for the past 30 years, and continue to do so.

Increased economic activity, more intensive land-use practices and a growth in population have increased the demand for water while simultaneously degrading the resource; adding to pollutant pressure while removing natural storage and filtration systems like wetlands.

Internationally recognised South African solo adventurer, Riaan Manser, pedalled his way into fame by cycling around the African continent, completing the gruelling 36,500km trip in two years, two months and 15 days in December 2005.

He topped this achievement, which won him the Out There adventurer of the year award in 2006, with another world first last year. In July 2009 he succeeded where others had failed by completing an unsupported 5,000km paddle around Madagascar in a little specialised 5.5-metre kayak.

His journey around the fourth largest island, paddling in an anti-clockwise direction, took eleven months. This feat, as simple as it sounds on paper, puts him amongst the top adventurers of the world.