What is really in the economic partnership agreements for the Southern African region? A perspective from Botswana’s beef export markets

The signing of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) nations dominated the multilateral trade agenda in late 2007 and early 2008. While the Caribbean nations signed the full EPAs, some of the African countries only singed interim agreements with the EU and a number of West African countries chose not to sign any EPA. Using the case of Botswana’s export markets, especially in agriculture, it is argued that the interim Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA, which was signed by Botswana and her neighbours, with the exception of South Africa, may have been economically sensible in protecting Botswana’s rural poor, at least in the short run. By tracing trade flows from the border to specifically poor sectors of the country, the importance of the beef exports sector to the poor and rural communities was found. The potential effects on the most significant exports of tariff bands associated with preferential agreements with the EU were found to be most beneficial in comparison to the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) and the South Africa-EU Trade Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) tariff bands. But it is also argued that the EPA will most likely have far reaching long run costs on regional economic development and institutional integration, within the SADC and Southern African Customs Union (SACU).Botswana, economic partnership agreements, European Union, exports, beef,

A Game Theoretic Framework for Cooperative Benefits in South Africa’s Land Redistribution Process: A Case of Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal Sugarcane Farmland Transfers

A good indicator of successful farm redistribution cases has to be the continuation of viable productivity rates in their post transfer periods. Continued productivity benefits all the stakeholders that are involved in the process. Unfortunately negative productivity levels have been reported in numerous South African land redistribution transfers in recent years. A game theoretic perspective is adopted to argue that cooperation among key stakeholders, which could be enforced through long term contracts between a land buyer, sellers and new owners, would lead to higher productivity levels and other benefits. Additional benefits would, for example, include market related prices paid by a buyer. Sugarcane farm transfer cases from two municipality districts in KwaZulu Natal province are used to show that the productivity rates in post transfer periods of cooperative land sales were more than 10% higher than the rates observed before such transfers. At the opposite end of the scale, the productivity rates in noncooperative land sales dropped by 16% after land takeovers. Furthermore, the prices paid for farms that became less productive after transfers were higher by more than 40% compared to those paid for productive farms. The cases illustrate the values of cooperative strategies in economic transactions.Sugarcane, farms, redistribution, productivity, cooperation, games, Land Economics/Use, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Extracting gravity wave parameters during the September 2002 Southern Hemisphere major sudden stratospheric warming using a SANAE imaging riometer

Using absorption data measured by imaging riometer for ionospheric studies (IRIS) located at the South Africa National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE), Antarctica (72° S, 3° W), we extracted the parameters of gravity waves (GW) of periods between 40 and 50 min during late winter/spring of the year 2002, a period of the unprecedented major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) in the Southern Hemisphere middle atmosphere. During this period, an unprecedented substantial increase of temperature by about 25–30 K throughout the stratosphere was observed. During the period of the occurrence of the major stratospheric warming, there was a reduction of both the GW horizontal phase speeds and the horizontal wavelengths at 90 km. The GW phase speeds and horizontal wavelengths were observed to reach minimum values of about 7 m s⁻¹ and 19 km, respectively, while during the quiet period the average value of the phase speed and horizontal wavelength was approximately 23 m s⁻¹ and 62 km, respectively. The observed event is discussed in terms of momentum flux and also a potential interaction of gravity waves, planetary waves and mean circulation

Institutions and economic research: a case of location externalities on agricultural resource allocation in the Kat River basin, South Africa

The Physical Externality Model is used to illustrate the potential limitations of blindly adopting formal models for economic investigation and explanation in varied geographical contexts. As argued by institutional economists for the last hundred years the practice limits the value and relevance of most general economic inquiry. This model postulates that the geographical location of farmers along a given watercourse, in which water is diverted individually, leads to structural inefficiencies that negatively affect the whole farming community. These effects are felt more severely at downstream sites and lead to a status quo where upstream farmers possess relative economic and political advantages over their counterparts elsewhere. In the study of the Kat River basin these predictions appear to be true only in as far as they relate to legal and political allocations and use of water resources. In terms of lawful uses of land resources aimed at expanding citrus production, the model’s predictions are not met. The status quo is however fully explained by the implications of having adopted formal water scheduling rights by upstream farmers as well as other geographical factors. Hence, the case for investigating the effects of important institutions within general economic research is strengthened.institutions, water allocation, physical externality, Kat River Valley,

Identifying the Possibilities of Integrating Speed Train and the Bus Rapid Transit System through Mobile Payment and Information Dissemination

South Africa’s public transport has been formalised in the past years in order to provide a good flow for travelling. However, commuters struggle with taking formal public transport on the anticipated stations and reaching the desired destination. One of the challenges identified is the lack of integration between the different modes of formal public transport in the Gauteng province, South Africa. Previous studies conducted has shown that there is spatial connection between these systems. Though, this study explores beyond physical integration but electronic integration. This work therefore investigates the possibilities of how mobile information distribution and payment systems can integrate the Speed train and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems in Gauteng to create a convenient public transport system for commuters. Accordingly, introducing integrated mobile payment system and integrated mobile information distribution for BRT system and the Speed train. A qualitative research study design was used to enable gathering, analysing and data presentation. Explorative, comparative and content analysis were used to collect information. Preliminary results indicate that the formal public transport systems (High speed train and BRT systems) are not integrated, the use of mobile payment systems are not developed, mobile information distribution are only used by the speed train and the integration of formal public transport services through mobile technology are yet to be established. The paper concludes by acknowledging the significance of integrated public transport systems and identifying possibilities of these systems working together promoting viable transportation network. The study recommends the use of integrated mobile technology for public transport as it is safe, fast, reliable, and convenient for both commuters and authorities

Establishing the State of Spatial Integratedness of Innovative Public Transport Systems in Gauteng, South Africa

Travelling requires transportation. Globally, movement of people from one location to the next is done by public transport systems. Developed countries around the world use innovative public transport systems for convenience, reliability and efficiency. Mostly, these systems are integrated in order to make ridership to be desirable and effective. In Africa, public transport is highly used and mostly the public transport systems are not integrated, making travelling by public transport undesired. South African public transport systems are challenged with connectedness. Government at all spheres in the past decade has been trying to developsystems that can work together in order commuters can travel easy around the province. Gautrain and Gaubus has been developed which moves through the three Metropolitan municipalities (the City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane and Ekurhuleni) in Gauteng province. In the City of Johannesburg (COJ) and the City of Tshwane (COT) a development of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system has been established. Commuters are challenged with switching from one mode of public transport to the next. The systems were introduced to provide effective public transport services. The state and level of integration of the province’s innovative speed train system and the BRT systems has not been sufficiently studied and documented. The systems were introduced to provide a reliable and efficient formal urban public transport services. This paper therefore investigates the state of spatial connectedness of the innovative urban public transport (train and bus systems) and aim to find possibilities to integrate the two systems. The study adopted qualitativeresearch design that facilitated the gathering and analysis of spatial and qualitative data from the urban public transport (Gautrain/Gaubus, A re Yeng (BRT) and Rea Vaya (BRT)) officials/authorities and commuters (Gautrain/Gaubus, A re Yeng (BRT) and Rea Vaya (BRT)) in Gauteng. The study discovered that spatially, there are physical connections between the Rea Vaya, the Gautrain/Gaubus in the COJ and A re Yeng, Gautrain/Gaubus in the COT. However, there are no signals indicating these systems to be connected to each other leading to difficulties for commuters to switch in between the three modes. The work concludes that each mode travel to different routes and places, hence synchronising the system would benefit commuters at large and be able to travel smoothly in the province

Comparison of total column ozone obtained by the IASI-MetOp satellite with ground-based and OMI satellite observations in the southern tropics and subtropics

International audienceThis paper presents comparison results of the total column ozone (TCO) data product over 13 southern tropical and subtropical sites recorded from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounder Interferometer (IASI) onboard the EU-METSAT (European organization for the exploitation of METeorological SATellite) MetOp (Meteorological Operational satellite program) satellite. TCO monthly averages obtained from IASI between June 2008 and December 2012 are compared with collocated TCO measurements from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the OMI/Aura satellite and the Dobson and SAOZ (Système d'Analyse par Observation Zénithale) ground-based instruments. The results show that IASI displays a positive bias with an average less than 2 % with respect to OMI and Dobson observations, but exhibits a negative bias compared to SAOZ over Bauru with a bias around 2.63 %. There is a good agreement between IASI and the other instruments, especially from 15 • S southward where a correlation coefficient higher than 0.87 is found. IASI exhibits a seasonal dependence, with an upward trend in autumn and a downward trend during spring, especially before September 2010. After September 2010, the autumn seasonal bias is considerably reduced due to changes made to the retrieval algorithm of the IASI level 2 (L2) product. The L2 product released after August (L2 O 3 version 5 (v5)) matches TCO from the other instruments better compared to version 4 (v4), which was released between June 2008 and August 2010. IASI bias error recorded from September 2010 is estimated to be at 1.5 % with respect to OMI and less than ±1 % with respect to the other ground-based instruments. Thus, the improvement made by O 3 L2 version 5 (v5) product compared with version 4 (v4), allows IASI TCO products to be used with confidence to study the distribution and interannual variability of total ozone in the southern tropics and subtropics. Keywords. Atmospheric composition and structure (middle atmosphere – composition and chemistry

Dreaming in Colour.

No Abstract

Understanding skin colour: Exploring colourism and its articulation among black and coloured students

While international scholars have increasingly drawn attention to colourism as a social phenomenon, South Africa has yet to understand its various expressions in the wake of a history of apartheid. Colourism can be described as "prejudicial treatment of individuals based on varying degrees of skin colour." This has significant implications for people of colour, who are often targets of racism, but also perpetrators of skin tone discrimination among their own racial group. The main objective of this study was twofold: to enquire about the existence of colourism, and to determine how it may possibly articulate itself as an everyday phenomenon among students. A sample of black and coloured students were drawn from the University of Cape Town student population. Qualitative focus group interviews were conducted to collect all necessary data. The results indicated the existence of colourism in the lives of students including their relationships with family members, friends, potential intimate partners, and in their wider societal context. A thematic analysis revealed four main themes: a) Racial identity formation; b) Skin tone valuations and their influence in the colourism hierarchy; c) Gendered articulations of colourism; and d) Trauma and its effect on the expression of colourism. Racial identity formed an important part of how students situated themselves positively or negatively in the historical and present day context of South Africa. Skin tone valuations meant that greater value was often placed on light skin as an attribute of beauty, wealth and intelligence. However, this was mediated by gender such that the value placed on light and dark skin was often determined by gender. One crucial observation was the pervasive nature of cultural trauma in and through experiences of colourism. Through a process of symbolic violence, colourism was understood as internalised racism which becomes a weapon wielded by black and coloured individuals against themselves. As such, inherited racist beliefs about the inferiority of darker skin, and superiority of lighter skin have been internalised, even among a post-apartheid generation of youth