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IOL News
3 days ago
- Automotive
- IOL News
Precious minerals shipped away: Why SA wants to incentivise local production of EV batteries
Government wants to see EV batteries produced in South Africa. Image: Newspress South Africa is considering expanding its vehicle production incentive programme to encourage the production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries in the country. This would see the ITAC trade commission adding certain locally mined minerals to the list of items that qualify as local content under the Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP), reported. This list could be expanded to include materials such as lithium, copper, graphite, cobalt sulfate, manganese sulfate and other rare earth minerals. South Africa is a significant producer of minerals such as manganese, nickel, cobalt, lithium and platinum. Building batteries in the country would help to maximise the value extracted from these precious minerals. The government is also said to be considering increasing the customs duties on EV batteries, in order to further encourage local production, Xagta added. However, this move could backfire if a manufacturer is interested in producing EVs in South Africa, but does not wish to use locally produced batteries. It could mean losing the entire vehicle production contract rather than just foregoing production of the battery components. The APDP operates through a system of rebates and refunds on specific customs duties, and is aimed at incentivising local production of vehicles. Following the publication of the Electric Vehicle White Paper in late 2023, South Africa has already taken concrete steps to incentivise the local production of electric vehicles. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ From March 2026, car companies will be able to claim a 150% tax deduction on investments related to EV production in South Africa. This includes new production equipment and factory upgrades made with the intention of producing EVs. The new incentive programme will run until March 2036. The South African automotive sector produces over 500,000 vehicles per year. While plug-in hybrid vehicles are produced for export by both BMW and Ford, no fully electric vehicles are currently produced locally. A move to full EV production could be critical to the survival of the local industry, given that the European Union, which is South Africa's main export destination, plans to ban the sale of new internal combustion engined vehicles from 2025. Some manufacturers, such as Volkswagen, are reluctant to invest in the local production of EVs unless there is a significant local demand for such vehicles. Although President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in late 2024 that EV purchase incentives will be introduced, no timelines or details have been released as yet. Currently, EVs attract a higher import duty than internal combustion vehicles, with rates of 25% compared to 18%. IOL
Al Jazeera
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Wave of Kashmir disappearances, mystery deaths spook tribal community
Kulgam, Indian-administered Kashmir — When Showkat Ahmad's body was found, it had sores and a bloodied eye. His hair was falling out, and the skin on the 18-year-old's hands and legs was peeling off, recalled his father, Mohamad Sadiq. That was March 16, three days after Sadiq had learned that his elder son, Riyaz, 25, had also died, a month after the two young men had disappeared. According to the official verdict of law enforcement officials, Showkat and Riyaz drowned in a canal in the Kulgam region of Indian-administered Kashmir, about 10km (6 miles) from their homes. Their postmortem reports point to potential suicide. But Sadiq — and many in the Gujjar tribal community the family belongs to — refuse to believe that narrative. Sadiq conceded that he is not sure who is responsible for the disappearance and death of his sons — whether it was security agencies or an armed group. Yet, whoever it was, Sadiq said he is convinced there was foul play involved. 'This wasn't an accident,' the 72-year-old father screamed, his voice cracking with anguish as he spoke to Al Jazeera outside his home, in an open grazing ground, where his relatives and family members had gathered to offer him support. 'They were tortured and killed.' Even as the government denies those accusations, the disbelief over its narrative captures the deep distrust of law enforcement officials in a region shaken by a spate of recent disappearances — with dead bodies turning up weeks later. Mukhtar Ahmad Awan, a 24-year-old man who also disappeared along with Riyaz and Showkat, has still not been found. That lack of belief in the government is accentuated by Kashmir's history. Since the start of an armed revolt against India in 1989, between 8,000 and 10,000 Kashmiris have disappeared, according to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), a collective of relatives of victims of enforced disappearances in Kashmir. 'My sons were brutally murdered,' Sadiq insisted. In the quiet grazing grounds of Chandarkoot, about 68km (39 miles) from Srinagar, the biggest city in Kashmir, a hilly landscape covered with walnut and willow trees shelters flocks of sheep belonging to the local Gujjar community. On February 13, Riyaz, Showkat and Mukhtar left the nearby village of Qazigund to attend a wedding in the nearby Ashmuji area of Kulgam district. They never reached the venue. Sadiq tried calling his sons on their mobile phones at about 6:10pm, he said. But the phones were switched off. 'We desperately searched for them near the function venue, in Kulgam, and all the places we could think of,' he said. At 7pm, the family alerted the police. When the youths still had not returned by the next morning, they filed a complaint about them being missing with the police. For a month, police, the army and local rescue teams searched for them, but could not find anyone. Then, on March 13, Sadiq's phone rang. The searchers had found Riyaz's body in a canal. Three days later, Showkat's body also turned up in the same canal. Forensic expert Azia Manzoor Bhat, who examined Riyaz's body at District Hospital Kulgam during the postmortem, told reporters that the body was in an 'advanced stage of putrefaction'. His examination, Bhat said, suggested that Riyaz died of drowning and gave no indication of homicide — instead indicating possible death by suicide. Showkat too died of drowning, according to authorities. But protests have broken out over the deaths, which have ballooned into a political controversy. Sadiq and his family protested on the national highway that connects Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, to Jammu, the winter capital, demanding an inquiry. A video purportedly showing a police officer kicking a female protester on the national highway went viral. Meanwhile, in Jammu district, approximately 198km (123 miles) away from the site of the protest, police arrested student leaders from the Kashmiri Gujjar community as they protested against the Kulgam deaths. The police have announced an internal investigation into the accusations of an officer kicking a protester. In the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, leaders from the governing National Conference and opposition parties, including the Congress, Peoples Democratic Party and People's Conference, demanded action against the police personnel involved in the kicking incident. There has been no official statement from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on the kicking incident, nor on the disappearances and deaths. To Sadiq and others demanding an investigation, the deaths of Riyaz and Showkat, and Mukhtar's disappearance, follow an increasingly worrying pattern. In Kathua district, neighbouring Kulgam, two young men, Yogesh Singh, aged 32, and Darshan Singh, 40, and 15-year-old Varun Singh went missing on March 5 while returning from a wedding. Their bodies were recovered from a canal three days later. Days later, two other teenagers — Mohammad Din and Rehman Ali — went missing in Kathua. They are yet to be found almost a month later. They are Muslim, the three men who disappeared before them were Hindu — all bound by tragedy. But fear of the government and security forces runs particularly deep in the Gujjar community, following a series of killings and unnatural deaths in recent years. The community, along with an ethnic subgroup known as the Bakarwals, constitutes about 8 percent of the population of Jammu and Kashmir, according to India's last census in 2011, though some community representatives argue that their numbers are underrepresented because of their nomadic lifestyle. In 2020, an Indian army officer allegedly abducted and killed three young Gujjar men in Rajouri district. The police filed a chargesheet against the officer, accusing him of abducting and killing the three labourers in a staged encounter. A court martial held the officer guilty and recommended life imprisonment. But in November 2023, an Armed Forces Tribunal suspended the sentence and granted bail to the officer, while the case continues to be heard. Three years later, in December 2023, following an attack by armed fighters on army vehicles in Poonch district's Topa Pir village, security forces detained many locals for interrogation. Subsequent videos surfaced showing officers beating civilians and applying chilli powder to their wounds. Three Gujjar men — Mohammad Showkat (22), Safeer Hussain (45), and Shabir Ahmad (32) — died in custody, with their bodies displaying signs of severe torture. Then, starting in December 2024, 17 people from the community died under mysterious circumstances in a little over a month. The victims, including 13 minors, exhibited symptoms such as fever, vomiting, and abdominal pain before their deaths. Investigations ruled out viral or bacterial infections, with preliminary findings suggesting neurotoxins as the likely cause. Despite extensive testing, the exact toxin and its source remain unidentified, leaving the community in fear and seeking answers. In February 2025, a 25-year-old Gujjar man, Makhan Din, recorded a video explaining why he was about to kill himself — detailing alleged torture at the hands of security forces. Din, who died by suicide, was questioned over suspicious Pakistani contacts — and was not tortured — the police claimed. That is not a story many Kashmiri Gujjars believe. 'Our people disappear, and we are told to stay quiet,' said Abid Awan, an 18-year-old neighbour of Sadiq in Kulgam. 'We live in fear, knowing that our voices are ignored, and our suffering is dismissed. It feels like we don't exist to those in power.' Chandi Awan's frail hands trembled as the 80-year-old father of Mukhtar, the missing 24-year-old in Kulgam, clutched his walking stick. 'Mukhtar was the light of my eyes. Without him, my world has fallen into darkness,' Awan said, surrounded by grieving relatives, as he sat outside his house, approximately 12km (7.5 miles) from Sadiq's home. 'The pain is unbearable – it feels as though I am waiting for death.' Mohammad Jeelani Awan, Mukhtar's brother, said the government's explanation for the deaths of Showkat and Riyaz does not make sense. 'Their belongings, including cards, mobile phones, and cash, were dry. How is this possible?' he said. Every night, as he tries to sleep, all he sees is his brother's face, he said. 'The smile that once lit up our home, the dreams he had. It's hard to believe he's gone, taken from us in such an unforgiving way. I can't help but feel I failed him, that I couldn't protect him,' said Jeelani, letting out a scream. 'I wish there was a way to turn back time, to give him the life he deserved.' The families say they will continue to seek justice. 'We will not let this go, and demand a fair and independent probe,' said 65-year-old Ghulam Nabi, uncle of Showkat and Riyaz. Meanwhile, Riyaz's wife, Najma Begum, sat quietly in a corner of her one-storey house, her face pale, eyes swollen from the tears. In one hand she clutched a handkerchief, and in the other a photograph of her husband. Silent sobs shook her body as she stared at the photograph, then hugged her eight-year-old daughter. 'All we want is justice, nothing more, nothing less. If the law truly exists, we will get justice,' she cried. 'They have killed him. They have killed my Riyaz.'
Zawya
28-02-2025
- Automotive
- Zawya
South Africa's electric dream from loadshedding to leading the EV revolution
Just a year ago, South Africa was battling persistent loadshedding. The idea of electric vehicles (EVs) seemed a distant dream, a luxury for a country struggling to keep the lights on. But today, the narrative has dramatically shifted. Stabilised power supply and bold government initiatives have positioned South Africa to, as is increasingly being said in key policy and business circles, "be a primary player in the EV manufacturing space." This isn't just about cars; it's about seizing a transformative industrialization opportunity, boosting exports, and driving economic growth. South Africa's automotive sector is a cornerstone of its industrial landscape. It's mature, especially compared to other African nations, and boasts a strong presence of global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like BMW, Toyota, and Nissan. The Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP), with its focus on "boosting production levels and job opportunities in the automotive sectors" (APDP 1) and aiming "to build a globally competitive automotive industry that drives South Africa's economic growth" (APDP 2), has fostered a robust ecosystem. Chinese manufacturers are also eyeing South Africa as a gateway to the African market, further enhancing the country's potential. A roadmap to an electric future The Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition's (DTIC) November 2023 Electric Vehicles White Paper recognised that the global automotive industry is 'undergoing one of the most seismic shifts in its nearly 150-year history' and provides South Africa with a 'major industrialisation opportunity'. It laid out a vision for South Africa to capitalise on this opportunity, leveraging its existing manufacturing prowess, logistical infrastructure, and strategic trade agreements. South Africa benefits from a complex web of trade agreements, opening doors to key markets: - Southern African Development Community (SADC) - SADC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement - African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) with the United States - African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Automotive is a priority sector for AfCFTA, fueling efforts to map value chains across the continent and create opportunities for collaboration. Incentivising the EV shift The paper outlined 10 crucial actions to boost EV production, and the government is making good on its promises. Specifically, there are efforts in: - Increasing investment and funding levels, including developing cost-effective incentive support, with higher levels of investment funding 'intended to catalyse EV investment in assembly and component manufacturing'. - Facilitating and developing an electric battery regional value chain - Introducing a temporary reduction of import duties for batteries in vehicles produced and sold in the domestic market. - Securing or maintaining duty-free export market access for vehicles and components produced in South Africa. The recent Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, signed into law in December 2024, is a game-changer. Section 12V offers a 150% tax deduction for qualifying assets used in EV production, effective from March 2026 to March 2036. This powerful incentive is designed to attract significant investment. Further proposed amendments to the APDP 2 Regulations, published in June 2024, aim to support the transition from internal combustion engines to EVs. The introduction of the Production Rebate Certificate (PRC) offers a duty credit certificate, incentivising local manufacturers and reducing customs duties based on local value added. Hub-and-spoke collaboration The concept of "rules of origin" is critical within trade agreements like AfCFTA. These rules determine whether a product qualifies for duty-free trade based on its manufacturing location. While the AfCFTA rules for automotive are still being finalised (expected by October 2025), a 40% threshold is common in other regions. South Africa's existing Special Economic Zones (SEZs), like Coega and Tshwane Automotive SEZ, are already well-positioned to attract investment. However, competition is heating up across the continent, with organizations like ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP), that: A continent-wide vision AfCFTA and the African Automotive Manufacturers Association advocate for a "hub-and-spoke" model. This approach recognises that no single African country can do it all. Instead, regional hubs (like South Africa) will assemble vehicles, sourcing components from various "spoke" countries across the continent. Other African nations are already making strides in e-mobility. Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, and Ivory Coast are incentivising EV development, with a focus on electric buses, two- and three-wheelers, and public transport. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP): This specialisation creates complementary roles within a broader African EV value chain. Challenges and opportunities For this vision to succeed, seamless infrastructure, efficient logistics, and a reduction in non-tariff barriers are essential. If goods can't move efficiently, the industry will stall. If South Africa, in collaboration with other African nations, navigates these challenges successfully, its EV manufacturers will not only export to traditional markets like the US and Europe but also tap into the burgeoning demand within Africa. This will unlock the immense potential of new industries and drive economic growth across the continent. South Africa's journey from loadshedding to EV leadership is a testament to its resilience and a beacon of hope for a sustainable, industrialised African future. All rights reserved. © 2022. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
