DAILY RENDEZVOUS

Daily Rendezvous  Enforcement agencies need to look into this and find a way to courteously deal with driver behaviour The Acting Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Transport, Mr Lisa Mangcu, has noted with concern the many road fatalities that have occurred during the festive season. It is of great concern to the committee that road fatalities involving trucks are on the increase and have become so common that they arouse no outcry. These fatalities seem to be occurring locally and the indication is that recklessness and driver behaviour are attributable. Enforcement agencies need to look into this and find a way to courteously deal with driver behaviour, said Mr Mangcu. The situation calls for law enforcement to be stringent, with stiff penalties imposed. It is just not right that South Africans continue to perish and are harmed on the roads during holidays, he added. Mr Mangcu believes that the situation will only improve once all drivers accept that road safe...

Daily Rendezvous  U.S.-based Symbion Power has been awarded the Makelele biogas block on Lake Kivu in the DRC, a move recognized as a step in the right direction for the country’s power sector   The Ministry of Hydrocarbons of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), under the leadership of H.E. Didier Budimbu Ntubuanga, has selected U.S. power engineering and construction firm, Symbion Power, as the winner of a tender for the development of the Makelele biogas project in Lake Kivu in the eastern part of the country. The project will include over $300 million in investment for the development of a 60MW gas-to-electricity system to connect consumers in Goma and the North and South of Kivu provinces via existing trading hubs. The African Energy Chamber (AEC), as the voice of the African energy sector, congratulates and strongly supports the DRC and H.E Didier Budimbu Ntubuanga for the milestone achieved, recognizing this development as a critical step to unlocking...

Daily Rendezvous WHO designated the variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE).  This decision was based on the evidence presented to the TAG-VE that Omicron has several mutations that may have an impact on how it behaves, for example, on how easily it spreads or the severity of illness it causes. Here is a summary of what is currently known.   Current knowledge about Omicron   Researchers in South Africa and around the world are conducting studies to better understand many aspects of Omicron and will continue to share the findings of these studies as they become available.   Transmissibility: It is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible (e.g., more easily spread from person to person) compared to other variants, including Delta. The number of people testing positive has risen in areas of South Africa affected by this variant, but epidemiologic s...