Latest from Daily Maverick
Daily Maverick
4 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Promoting synergy between business and community: A blueprint for shared progress in South Africa
In a country grappling with complexity, an ever-changing landscape, and socio-economic inequalities, the alignment of business and community interests is not just a catalyst for progress but a shared responsibility. The socio-economic inequalities in South Africa are deeply rooted in our country's history. We continue to battle disparities that ensure unequal access to resources, opportunities, and basic services. These, in turn, have continued to exacerbate social tensions and hinder inclusive growth. Our only solution is meaningful partnerships between communities and businesses, partnerships rooted in addressing equitable development that businesses and communities must face together to build a better tomorrow for all our people. Amidst the challenges of high unemployment and economic inequality, businesses in South Africa have a unique opportunity to make a significant impact. By sourcing locally, investing in job creation and skills development, and offering entrepreneurship support programmes, businesses can be the catalyst for positive change. They have the power to uplift communities in their value chain, stimulate inclusive economic growth, and pave the way for a brighter future for all. For businesses, community engagement ought not to be just a corporate responsibility exercise but a strategic necessity. By actively participating in community development initiatives, businesses can earn their social license to operate and build stronger ties with local stakeholders. This engagement also fuels innovation as businesses gain valuable insights into the needs and aspirations of communities, driving the development of locally relevant products and services. Furthermore, by prioritising local procurement and supply chain integration, businesses can strengthen the domestic economy and create sustainable livelihoods in communities across the country. Effective community-business partnerships are built on principles of collaboration, inclusivity, and shared value creation. By bringing together government agencies, civil society organisations, and community leaders, businesses can leverage collective expertise and resources to address pressing social challenges while driving business growth. From combating poverty and hunger to promoting access to education and healthcare, collaborative problem-solving initiatives hold the key to unlocking transformative change and building resilient communities. In the realm of collaborative partnerships within South Africa's agricultural sector, Moletele Corona Limes shines as a vivid illustration of transformative potential. This initiative, forged from a common challenge and vision, serves as an emblem of progress, inclusion and innovation. With the collective efforts of South African Breweries (SAB), the Moletele Community, and Komati Fruit Group, the project delivered an innovative means of addressing lime shortages all-year round in South Africa. Moletele Corona Limes transcends conventional business paradigms, placing emphasis on economic empowerment, community development, sustainable environmental practices, and consistent growth. Through purposeful collaborations and a steadfast dedication to creating shared value, this initiative has not only uplifted emerging farmers and bolstered economic resilience but has also acted as a stimulant for comprehensive community advancement. By embracing sustainability principles and upholding responsible business practices, Moletele Corona Limes exemplifies how, as businesses, we can be agents of positive change, propelling economic empowerment and community development toward a future marked by inclusivity and prosperity for all. To drive meaningful change and ensure accountability in these partnerships, as businesses, we must, together with our partners, establish clear metrics for measuring impact. By tracking key performance indicators and conducting regular impact assessments, we can demonstrate the tangible benefits of these initiatives and identify areas for improvement. Moreover, transparent reporting and stakeholder engagement processes are critical for fostering mutual trust and strengthening the bonds between businesses and the communities they serve. Our journey of the Moletele Corona Limes is a compelling case study for businesses seeking to forge meaningful connections with local communities. By prioritising purpose-driven partnerships, inclusive economic development, and long-term sustainability, we can hit the triple bottom line. Over the past 130 years, SAB's commitments have extended deeply into the communities it serves. Its legacy is one of consistent investment in uplifting South Africans, unpacking this role reveals a history of long-term community impact and support that continues to shape lives today. As South Africa navigates the complexities of economic recovery and social progress, the imperative for collaboration between business and community has never been greater. By harnessing the power of collective action and embracing shared goals, businesses can play a transformative role in shaping a more inclusive, resilient, and prosperous future for all. Together, we must seize the opportunity to build a brighter tomorrow, where business and community thrive in harmony, united by a common vision of shared prosperity. DM
Daily Maverick
4 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Maverick
As lifelines severed, Mozambique's HIV-positive children face dire consequences of aid cuts (Part 1)
In Mozambique, the health system is overwhelmingly built on US money. When the Trump administration instantly pulled much of this funding without warning, disease and death spread. Spotlight and GroundUp visited one of the worst-affected regions to describe the human toll. Hospitals run short of life-saving drugs. Doctors and nurses are laid off en masse. Hospital lines get longer and longer. Some patients are given the wrong medication, probably because the data capturers (who manage patient files) have lost their jobs. Community case workers who had been delivering HIV medication to orphaned children stopped coming. Without their antiretrovirals (ARVs), some of these children die. Following Donald Trump's executive order to suspend US global aid funding on 20 January 2025, the health system in parts of Mozambique fell into a state of chaos. US aid agencies had financed much of the country's healthcare workforce, along with the transportation of drugs and diagnostic tests to government hospitals. In some provinces, this money came from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which restored much of its funding shortly after the executive order. But in the central provinces of Sofala and Manica the money came from the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which permanently pulled most of its grants. For a week in June, I travelled to nine rural villages and towns across the two provinces. Interviews with grieving caregivers, health workers and government officials across these settlements all converged on one clear and near-universal conclusion: the funding cuts have led to the deaths of children. One of the clearest reasons is this: after USAid-backed community health workers were dismissed, thousands of HIV-positive children under their care were abandoned. Panic at all levels In 2020, a Sofala-based organisation called ComuSanas received a large USAid grant to employ hundreds of community workers throughout rural parts of the province. 'The project aimed to reduce mortality among children living with HIV,' says Joaquim Issufo, a former community worker with the project. He spoke to me from a street market in the impoverished district of Buzi, where he now runs a stall selling fish. 'We worked with children aged 0 to 17, especially orphans and vulnerable children.' These children live in remote villages, far away from public amenities. Some were found living in homes without any adults. Many others live with an elderly grandparent who can barely afford to feed them. In the midst of poverty and isolation, the case workers, known locally as activists, functioned as a bridge between these children and the country's hospitals. They shuttled diagnostic tests between communities and health facilities. They brought children their medicines and ensured they took the correct doses at the right times. And they accompanied them to health facilities, and helped them weave through bureaucracy. Issufo notes that their role also extended far beyond health: they organised birth certificates, enrolled children in schools and referred them for housing. When drought and famine ripped through villages, they brought food baskets and provided nutritional education. In the villages that I went to, children and their caregivers referred to the activists as 'mother', 'father' or 'sister', and said that they were like family members. But after USAid issued stop-work orders to ComuSanas in January, those 'mothers and fathers' abruptly stopped visiting, and suddenly the region's most desperate children were left to fend for themselves. Issufo says that after this, there was 'panic at all levels, both for us as activists and also for our beneficiaries'. Children admitted to hospital and left for dead About 80km from Issufo's fish stall is the village of Tica, in the Nhamatanda district. Amid homes of mud brick and thatch, a group of former ComuSanas activists sit on logs, buckets and reed mats and explain the consequences of the programme's termination. '[Before the USAid cuts], I was taking care of a boy because [he] lives with an elderly woman, and she had to work,' says Marta Jofulande. 'I had to go to the health facility and give the child his [ARV] medication. I also helped to do things like preparing food. But with this suspension, I couldn't go any more.' Shortly after, Jofulande was told by the child's elderly caregiver that he had fallen ill, and was in critical care at a central hospital. 'I was the one bringing the [ARVs] to him,' says Jofulande. 'As soon as the programme stopped, he no longer took the medication, and that's when he relapsed. He is in a very critical condition and is breathing through a tube.' 'His name is Cleiton,' she adds. 'He's eight years old.' Many other children have already perished. A 20-minute drive from Tica is the settlement of Mutua, in the Dondo district. There, activist Carlota Francisco says: 'During this pause, we had cases [of children] that were really critical that ended up losing their lives.' One of them was a two-year-old girl under her care. 'That child depended on me,' says Francisco, who explains that she would fetch and provide the girl's ARVs. After she stopped, she says the girl's caregivers failed to give her the correct dosages. The two-year-old died shortly thereafter. Stories such as this were repeated in almost every village that we visited. Often, children or their caregivers attempted to get the medication without the activists. But many of the hospitals were in a state of chaos because USAid-funded health workers and data capturers had been laid off. The linkage officers that knew these children and had previously assisted them were gone too. (The procurement of the country's ARVs is financed by The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This money continues to flow, but the distribution of these drugs to hospitals relies on US money.) Endless queues, drug shortages and the loss of patient files meant some didn't get their medication. Rates of ARV treatment fall throughout the province The director of health for the Buzi district, Roque Junior Gemo, explains that a key role of the community workers was to extend health services to remote areas that they had long struggled to reach. 'They are like our tree branches to bring services to the people,' says Gemo. 'Our villages are very remote, and we have a large population that needs information [and] basic services. 'Especially in the HIV area, we have terminal patients who were once followed up by activists. They used to get medications at home. Without that help, their condition worsened, and some died.' This forms part of an issue that extends far beyond the district of Buzi. In the Sofala capital of Beira, I sat down with some of the province's senior health officials. The HIV supervisor for the province, Manuel Seco, provided data on the HIV response in Sofala, before and after the cuts. Between May and December of 2024, the total number of people on ARVs in the province had risen by more than 20,000 people, the data shows. This increase occurred steadily, rising by 500 to 5,000 people each month. But as soon as the cuts were made, this progress was halted and the trend reversed. Since January, the number of people on ARV treatment has been falling by hundreds of people each month. The reason, according to Seco, is that many people who were on ARVs have stopped their treatment, while new ARV initiations have dropped sharply. And the impact extends far beyond just the HIV response. TB left untreated Buried within a compound owned by Tongaat Hulett is a government hospital that services the rural population of Mafambisse, in Dondo district. Joaquim Mupanguiua, who deals with TB at the hospital, says that after the activists were laid off, the hospital saw a steep decline in the number of TB patients coming to the facility. 'Only when they are already very ill do they come to the health unit,' he says. 'But with the activists they would easily go to the communities and find the sick.' The number of patients coming to the hospital is roughly a third of what it once was: 'We used to get around 28 to 30 [TB] patients per month, but now we're down to fewer than 10,' Mupanguiua notes. Because patients come to the hospital when they're already severely ill, there's significantly less that health facilities can do for them. It's thus no surprise that Mupanguiua believes that there has been an uptick in needless TB deaths. Finding other ways Back in the Buzi district office, Gemo says that efforts have been made to assist terminal patients who had previously been supported by activists, but there are so many people in need that they aren't able to help everyone. Activists often said something similar — they continue to visit their beneficiaries when they can, they say, but without ComuSanas sponsoring their transport costs, many struggle to visit children in remote areas. And the loss of their income with the programme means that they now need to spend their days finding other ways to survive — subsistence farming and street markets are the usual routes. But this work rarely offers the kind of regular income that ComuSanas was providing. 'Honestly, buying notebooks, pens and clothes for my children has become very difficult,' says Dondo-based activist Brito Balao. Meanwhile, in Tica, activists asked how they could provide food to their former beneficiaries when they are themselves going hungry. Despite this, the activists still live within the same villages as their beneficiaries. And so unlike those in Washington, they cannot withdraw their support without facing the resentment or desperation of their communities. 'We work with love, and we get really sad not being able to be there for those kids,' says one Mutua-based activist. 'There's even another family that cried today [when they saw me]. 'You've been away for a while,' they said. Gosh, we feel bad.' Among former beneficiaries of the programme the sense of abandonment was palpable, and their anger was often directed at the former activists. This was often compounded by the fact that no one had explained to them why the programme had stopped. In the village of Nharuchonga, Joana explains that in the past her activist, Fatima, would always come and ensure that her daughter took her ARVs. Now that Fatima has stopped coming, her daughter doesn't always take the medication, she says. (Fatima is present during this conversation.) 'We've been abandoned by Fatima,' she states, looking directly away from the former activist. 'Until now we have been too shy to ask why she has abandoned us.' In many other cases, the tone was simply one of sadness. Back in Tica, inside an outdoor kitchen made of corrugated iron sheets, Maria holds her five-year-old granddaughter Teresa. Despite facing hunger at various points over recent years, she cooks sweet potatoes above a small fire, and insists that everyone eats. Both of Teresa's parents died of Aids, says Maria. It has been left to her to raise the child, while trying to grow rice and maize for subsistence — an effort hampered by frequent drought. For a long time Maria has had help with this parental role, she says. Activist Marta Jofulande had been assisting her family and acting like a mother to the child. But since the programme was terminated, they don't see much of Jofulande anymore. Instead, five-year-old Teresa has been forced to deal with the exit of yet another parental figure. DM A note on quotes: Most of our interviews were in Portuguese and were mediated by a local translator. We subsequently transcribed and translated the recordings of these interviews using AI-based software, including Descript and ChatGPT. Where there was a significant mismatch between the interpretations of the translator and the software, we contacted the interviewee or got third parties to help translate the recordings. The cost of travel, accommodation and the journalist's remuneration was shared between GroundUp and Spotlight. Part two will be published next week.
Daily Maverick
6 hours ago
- General
- Daily Maverick
Daily Crossword Quickie – Fri, 20 June
Welcome to Daily Maverick's free mini crossword quickie. Follow the clues and fill in the squares to solve these minis.
Daily Maverick
6 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Fighting back — cellphone providers and business collaborate to combat EC hijacking hotspots
Following several meetings to discuss rampant truck hijackings in the metro and surrounding areas, the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber and South Africa's (SA's) two major cellphone network providers have joined forces to make the Addo Road — an Eastern Cape crime hotspot — safer. After a spike in truck hijackings on the Addo Road in Motherwell, businesses began looking for solutions. A common factor reported by truck drivers hijacked was the lack of cellphone signal, which prevented them from calling for help. While tracking systems work in the absence of cellphone networks, data is not always sent out timeously in low-network areas. Recently, construction manager Victor Ngcobo was kidnapped on the R335 near Monument Crossing — an area identified as having a particularly poor signal. He was later found unharmed. Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen said discussions around the hijackings also revealed that poor cellphone reception was contributing to the area's status as a crime hotspot. 'We asked two cellular network provider companies to do an assessment of the cellphone coverage in the area. One of the two reverted back with a report which indicated that there was a lack of coverage in the area, and that infrastructure upgrades would be required to address this situation,' she said. Van Huyssteen said the chamber had also approached Google Maps as the Maps App indicated that the R335 was the 'shortest route' to take visitors and tourists to Addo Elephant National Park. 'It automatically takes users on the shortest route to Addo, which means that incoming visitors to the metro travel there along the R335. We rallied our members to go onto Google Maps and log the road as a high-risk road. This resulted in the route being blocked and travellers being re-routed along other more safer routes,' she added. Zakhele Jiyane, Managing Executive for Vodacom Eastern Cape region, confirmed that the organisation was approached by the business chamber to see if there was something Vodacom could do to fix the cellphone network in the area. 'Vodacom has successfully completed upgrades on 11 base station sites in Addo in Sarah Baartman District Municipality and along R335, connecting Addo to Motherwell. Among these upgrades, four sites have improved cellphone coverage specifically for the Addo CBD, local police station, farming community, and the new Addo Spar center. The remaining six sites extend coverage along R335 road. Coverage '10% improved' 'Following our upgrades, coverage has improved by an impressive 10%, particularly on the R335 road. Furthermore, the upgrades have significantly reduced areas without service, and the network capacity has increased by 15%. This means more users can stay connected for longer periods on the network. 'Critically, as part of our commitment to support both the Addo community and local businesses, we have plans to improve connectivity in the area in this financial year. 'For example, we are planning to deploy high-power signal boosters to cover the remaining section without service on R335, and we will do this within six months. Secondly, we are planning to deploy additional base stations to help achieve full coverage for the Addo CBD, police station and community during the 2025/2026 financial year,' Jiyane said. He said the Vodacom Eastern Cape region had invested more than R500-million over the last financial year on modernising the network, energy projects and accelerating broadband coverage across the province, particularly in townships and deep rural areas of the province. R1bn long-term investment This is an investment totalling over R1-billion over two years and forms part of Vodacom's long-term vision, to have the widest and most reliable network accessible to all South Africans, he said. MTN SA, in written responses, confirmed that they would conduct a drive test to verify signal strength and identify gaps. 'Currently, MTN has 4G deployment at this specific location. MTN did experience operational issues at this location at the end of March and the start of April 2025, however the issue has been resolved. While MTN confirms coverage at this location, a further drive test will be done to test the service performance in the area. This test will be concluded within the next few days,' the statement continued. DM
Daily Maverick
6 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Stocks struggle, oil up for 3rd week as Trump weighs US action on Iran
SYDNEY, June 20 (Reuters) – Share markets in Asia struggled for direction on Friday as fears of a potential US attack on Iran hung over markets, while oil prices were poised to rise for a third straight week on the escalating Israel-Iran conflict. Overnight, Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran, and Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel as a week-old air war intensified with no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side. The White House said President Donald Trump will decide in the next two weeks whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran war. The US President is facing uproar from some of his MAGA base over a possible strike on Iran. Brent fell 2% on Friday to $77.22 per barrel, but is still headed for a strong weekly gain of 4%, following a 12% surge the previous week. 'The 'two-week deadline' is a tactic Trump has used in other key decisions, including those involving Russia and Ukraine, and tariffs,' said Tony Sycamore, analyst at IG. 'Often, these deadlines expire without concrete action, (similar to TACO), and there is certainly a risk of this happening again, given the complexities of the situation.' Still, a cautious mood prevailed in markets with Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures both 0.3% lower in Asia. US markets were closed for the Juneteenth holiday, offering little direction for Asia. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1% but was set for a weekly drop of 1%. Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.2%. China's blue chips rose 0.3%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.5%, after the central bank held the benchmark lending rates steady as widely expected. In the currency markets, the dollar was on the back foot again, slipping 0.2% to 145.17 yen after data showed Japan's core inflation hit a two-year high in May, which kept pressure on the Bank of Japan to resume interest rate hikes. Investors, however, see little prospects of a rate hike from the BOJ until December this year, which is a little over 50% priced in. The US bond market, which was also closed on Thursday, started trading in Asian hours on a subdued note. Ten-year Treasury bond yield was flat at 4.389%, while two-year yields slipped 2 basis points to 3.925%. Overnight, the Swiss National Bank cut rates to zero and did not rule out going negative, while the Bank of England held policy steady but saw the need for further easing and Norway's central bank surprised everyone and cut rates for the first time since 2020. Gold prices eased 0.2% to $3,363 an ounce, but were set for a weekly loss of 2%.
