South Africa’s largest union on strike
On Tuesday, South Africa’s largest metalworkers union called an industry-wide strike after arbitration with industry employers failed to reach an agreement on higher wages. The National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA), which represents 155,000 South Africans, had sought an immediate 8 percent wage increase for all jobs, an increase in inflation plus 2 percentage points. The Steel and Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA), which represents employers, countered a rise in inflation of plus 1 percent with a successive two-year build-up. NUMSA turned down the offer and organized protests across the country on Tuesday, involving thousands of union members and others in a protest in Johannesburg.
A poll conducted by SEIFSA on Tuesday found an absence rate of around 26 percent for union members. “I fear that this number will increase over the course of the week,” said Lucio Trentini, CEO of SEIFSA. Trentini also raised concerns that history could repeat a four-week NUMSA strike in 2014 that would set the economy back by nearly $ 400 million. According to Mark Roberts, the Lead Convener of the Retail Motor Industry Association, a strike lasting longer than a week could affect deliveries in a South African auto industry already weakened by COVID-19, where domestic and international sales were already down last year 30 percent decreased.
No agreement had been reached between the two negotiating bodies by Friday.
Moderna announces plan to build an mRNA vaccine factory in Africa, and WHO recommends African children get the world’s first malaria vaccine
On Wednesday, October 6, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it is recommending that the world’s first malaria vaccine be given on a large scale to African children who are particularly susceptible to the mosquito-bite-borne parasitic disease. Malaria is endemic to Africa, which accounts for 94 percent of malaria cases and deaths worldwide each year, killing 386,000 Africans in 2019.
The Mosquirix vaccine was first approved by the European Union in 2015. In 2019, WHO coordinated a large-scale pilot program to deliver 2.3 million doses of the vaccine to infants in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana. Although this malaria vaccine is only 30 percent effective in preventing serious illnesses, the WHO confirmed that giving the vaccine in conjunction with other preventive measures such as bed nets could save the lives of thousands of children. An alternative malaria vaccine made by Oxford University has reported up to 77 percent effectiveness, but the vaccine is still in the testing phase. GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharmaceutical company that developed Mosquirix, is committed to producing 15 million doses of the vaccine per year by 2028 at a cost of production of no more than 5 percent. The WHO predicts that global demand for malaria vaccines could reach 50 to 110 million doses annually by 2030.
In other vaccine news, Moderna, one of the two drug companies that make mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, announced plans on Thursday to invest up to $ 500 million to build a factory that produces 500 million doses of mRNA vaccine per year Africa can manufacture. In contrast to Pfizer and BioNTech’s partnership with the South African BioVac Institute to package and finalize COVID-19 vaccines, the Moderna facility will produce mRNA drugs and may have vial filling capabilities that will produce vaccines for COVID-19 become and other diseases. It will also employ mainly local workers. Moderna shortlisted five unnamed African countries and outlined its location selection criteria: “political stability, infrastructure and trained workforce suitable for a high-tech messenger RNA factory”.
Africa Secures Funding For E-Commerce As Kenya, Nigeria, And Morocco Become Leaders In Cryptocurrency
On October 6th, Google announced the creation of the Africa Investment Fund, which aims to invest $ 1 billion in Africa over the next five years. The fund will invest $ 50 million in startups and give them access to its people, technology and networks. Nitin Gajria, Managing Director of Google Africa, explained the announcement, stating that Google will target fintech startups, e-commerce and local language content with the fund.
In other tech news this week, The Africa Report reported that sub-Saharan Africa now has more cryptocurrencies by volume than any other region, including North America. Kenya, Nigeria and Morocco in particular are world leaders in cryptocurrencies. In fact, 8.5 percent of the Kenyan population have a cryptocurrency account and 6.3 percent of Nigerians (for comparison: 14 percent of Americans own a cryptocurrency). Similarly, the cryptocurrency adoption rate in Kenya is higher than the rates in the United States and China.
While cryptocurrencies have not experienced similar acceptance in other parts of the continent, this trend is also changing: In May 2018, for example, Zimbabwe banned local banks from trading or processing payments in connection with cryptocurrencies; However, during a recent visit to the DMCC Crypto Center in Dubai, Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube tweeted that he had “found solutions with cryptocurrencies that could lower diaspora remittance fees.” In fact, Clive Mphambela, Treasury Department’s chief director of communication, stated that “disruptive blockchain technology can significantly reduce the cost of commission fees to facilitate money transfer.” Despite these statements, however, Zimbabwe’s leading cryptocurrency traders and enthusiasts doubt that the blockchain craze would change the government’s stance on its crypto ban.
The Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize Committee announced that it would award the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature to the Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah. In the announcement, the committee praised Gurnah for “his uncompromising and compassionate approach to the effects of colonialism and the fate of refugees in the gulf between cultures and continents”.
Born in Zanzibar in 1948, Gurnah immigrated to England as a refugee in the 1960s. He has written numerous essays and short stories as well as 10 novels, several of which competed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. His best-known novels include “Paradise” (1994), “By the Sea” (2001) and “Desertion” (2005). The author is a refugee himself and is known for tackling complex, nuanced issues relating to migration, displacement and refugees. … His novels shy away from stereotypical descriptions and open our view of a culturally diverse East Africa that is unknown to many in other parts of the world. “
In response to the announcement, Gurnah told the Associated Press, “You think this can’t be true. It literally took my breath away. “
Gurnah joins the black African author Wole Soyinkain (1986), who wins this literary award.
