Meet the SA mechanical engineer who became a full-time violin maker

Somewhere in Linden, Johannesburg, Albertus Bekker is putting the finishing touches to a new violin after almost 150 hours of painstaking work. Bekker is what is known as a luthier – he handcrafts,... 

Biovac boosts vaccine capabilities with new lab, health tech park to open next door

Biopharmaceutical company the Biologicals and Vaccines Institute of Southern Africa (Biovac) has opened a product development laboratory at its Cape Town facility. The company says the new... 

Cape Town moves to beat the heat as it appoints its first Chief Heat Officer

Cape Town has become the first South African city to have a Chief Heat Officer (CHO). Cities such as Los Angeles and Athens already have CHOs. 

Cape Town switches on landfill gas to energy plant

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Urban Waste Management MMC Grant Twigg in November powered up the city’s new gas-to-energy plant at the Coastal Park Landfill. The plant generates enough... 

Construction starts on R2bn mixed-use development in Green Point

Construction work has started on The Granger, a R2-billion mixed-use development adjacent to the DHL Stadium in Green Point, Cape Town. Situated between the city’s central business district (CBD)... 

Smart EV rolls out 50 electric bus chargers at Golden Arrow depot in Cape Town

Smart EV has wrapped up the installation of a high-capacity hub to charge Golden Arrow Bus Services’ (GABS’s) new BYD electric bus fleet at the transport company’s Arrowgate depot. Smart EV is a... 

Hydrogen to keep on growing as it emerges from hype cycle; China rapidly driving down costs

The hydrogen sector may have been in a hype cycle for the last few years, but the fundamentals around the global energy market have not changed – the need for clean and localised energy and a just... 

Auto sector inks three-year wage deal

The Automobile Manufacturers Employers Organisation (Ameo) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) have finally signed a wage agreement, following a protracted process that... 

Cape Town tables business plan to take over PRASA operations

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says Cape Town aims to be the first South African city to take over the management of its passenger rail system. This follows the tabling of a Rail Business Plan,... 

Working group established to put Africa on global superyacht map

Stakeholders in Africa’s superyacht industry have formed the African Superyacht Working Group, with the aim of rolling out an African superyacht growth strategy. A superyacht is a large, luxury... 

WeBuyCars reports 8.4% sales uptick, moves to absorb Chinese influx

WeBuyCars is on track to reach its goal of selling 23 000 vehicles a month in three years’ time, says CEO Faan van der Walt. Detailing the JSE-listed company’s financial results for the year ended... 

Maersk cuts the ribbon on the final cold store in its R1.7-billion investment drive

Logistics giant Maersk has wrapped up a R1.72-billion investment drive in cold-chain infrastructure in South Africa with the opening of the R800-million Maersk Belcon cold store logistics park in... 

Paruk Group signs order for 100 electric  city buses from MAN South Africa

The Paruk Group has ordered 100 fully electric city buses from MAN Truck & Bus South Africa (MAN SA). This is the German mobility group’s largest e-bus order outside Europe to date. 

Solareff sells majority stake in GridCars

Renewable-energy group Solareff has sold its majority shareholding in electric vehicle (EV) charging network operator GridCars. Solareff says this means that the company will also step back from... 

SA’s cheapest electric-car maker to roll out local charging network

Build Your Dreams Auto South Africa (BYD SA) has announced that will install between 200 and 300 public charging stations across the country in 2026, in a move to make electric mobility more... 

New industrial tech, renewables events for SA

Montgomery Group Africa will stage two new exhibitions in South Africa – one in Johannesburg in 2026, and one in Cape Town in 2027. Montgomery Group Africa commercial director Joshua Low says RE+... 

RFI process launched to attract private investment in commuter, long-distance passenger rail

The Department of Transport (DoT) has kickstarted a request-for-information (RFI) process for private companies interested in investing in South Africa’s passenger-rail system. Speaking at a media... 

Toyota SA, Durban auto cluster seek  SMEs for development programme

Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has announced the launch of the 2025 Durban Automotive Cluster (DAC) Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Accelerator. The programme is a public-private partnership... 

Cape Town’s boat-building industry must act to mitigate effects of US tariffs – Vos

The South African boat-building industry must formulate a response to the 30% tariff levied on all boats exported from South Africa to the US as from August onwards, says City of Cape Town Economic... 

Phase 1 of Grindrod’s R200m Cape Town container facility opens

JSE-listed logistics group Grindrod has started operations at Phase 1 of a new United Container Depots (UCD) facility in Salt River, Cape Town. UCD, which is fully owned by Grindrod, also has... 

PBMR to be lifted from care and maintenance by Q1 2026

The process to lift South Africa’s dormant pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) project from care and maintenance is at an advanced stage, Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. The... 

Growthpoint invests in Cape Winelands airport project

The Cape Winelands Airport project has secured an investment, development and managing partner in the form of Growthpoint Properties, which has made an initial undisclosed investment in the... 

Cape Town mulls rolling out congestion charging, high-occupancy vehicle lanes

The City of Cape Town (CoCT) is mulling a number of measures to ease growing traffic congestion, including the introduction of high-occupancy lanes and congestion charging. This means that, in... 

SPS launches buyout model for existing solar and battery systems

Sustainable Power Solutions (SPS) has introduced a buyout model that can convert existing solar and battery systems into immediate capital for South African businesses. SPS is a pan-African funder,... 

EV lease company Everlectric expands to the Western Cape

Electric vehicle (EV) full maintenance lease business Everlectric has opened shop in Cape Town. Businesses can lease commercial EVs from the company, which will also provide the charging... 

Extrupet, partners open food-grade PET plastic recycling plant in Cape Town

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Dr Dion George has cut the ribbon on Extrupet’s new food-grade polyethylene terephthalate – PET – plastic recycling plant in Cape Town. The facility... 

Stellantis launches electric brand in SA

Stellantis South Africa (SA) will start to roll out Chinese electric vehicle (EV) brand Leapmotor at select local dealerships from this month onwards. Leapmotor was founded by entrepreneur and tech... 

VW’s Kariega plant produces vehicle number 3 000 000

Volkswagen Group Africa (VWGA) has celebrated assembling its three-millionth vehicle – a grey Polo Vivo – at its Kariega plant. Production at the Eastern Cape facility started in 1948. 

September new-vehicle sales at ten-year high, exports up 32.9%

New-vehicle sales last month reached their highest level since September 2015, says naamsa | The Automotive Business Council. Sales were up 24.3%, to 54 700 units, compared with September last year. 

Cape Town’s Potsdam wastewater plant upgrade reaches 60% completion mark

Construction of the Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW) in Cape Town, currently one of the Western Cape’s largest infrastructure projects at a cost of R5.2-billion, has reached 60%... 

First solar wheeling project under Namibia’s MSB programme comes on stream

Sustainable Power Solutions (SPS), in partnership with B2Gold Namibia, the Oelofse family and Fortitude, has commissioned Namibia’s first solar wheeling project under State-owned utility NamPower’s... 

Funky Ouma, Ina Paarman travel to India in new made-in-the-Western-Cape retail deal

India’s largest retailer, Reliance Retail, has added a number of ‘Made in the Cape’ products to its shelves. Wesgro says it is the first time South African goods have been placed in select Reliance... 

New household survey shows Capetonians travel largely by car

Cape Town’s new Household Survey shows that private vehicles remain the dominant form of transport in the city, with 48% of households making use of this mode, followed by minibus taxi at 29.8%,... 

Trade with US critical for Western Cape, says Winde after trip

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has returned from a visit to the US, where he held talks with government and private sector stakeholders in Washington DC, Atlanta and New York City. The US has been... 

SPS, B2Gold launch first solar wheeling project under Namibia’s MSB programme

Sustainable Power Solutions (SPS), in partnership with B2Gold Namibia, the Oelofse family and Fortitude, have commissioned Namibia’s first solar wheeling project under NamPower’s Modified Single... 

Funky Ouma, Ina Paarman travel to India in new made-in-the-Western-Cape retail deal

India’s largest retailer, Reliance Retail, has added a number of Made in the Cape products to its shelves. Wesgro says it is the first time South African goods have been placed in select Reliance... 

Naacam CEO on key priorities for preserving ‘critical source of industrial capacity’

The global automotive market is facing a shift as profound as the day the first mass-produced vehicle drove off the assembly line. From horse-and-carriage versus car, the conflict has now, more... 

DHL, Unilever and Volvo in pilot study to test superlink electric truck

DHL Supply Chain has launched an electric vehicle (EV) pilot project in collaboration with Unilever and Volvo Trucks South Africa. The initiative involves deploying a fully electric Volvo FMX 6 x 4... 

Automotive component, fuel, retail sectors sign three-year wage deal

The component manufacturing, fuel and automotive retail sectors have signed a three-year wage agreement. Wage talks within the Motor Industry Bargaining Council (MIBCO) started on April 10 and... 

Lightstone expects 7.7% bump in new-vehicle sales, says 89% of buyers opting for 6-year-plus financing

Research house Lightstone says it anticipates a new-vehicle sales market for 2025 of around 555 500 units – up 7.7% on last year – of which 524 000 units will be passenger and light commercial...