Latest news with #Vermeulen
The Citizen
a day ago
- Business
- The Citizen
Thembisa school gets upgrade in new initiative
Thembisa school gets upgrade in new initiative The Attacq Foundation announced its latest initiative – Building Brilliance Block by Block. It is a classroom renovation campaign that will improve learning conditions for over 400 learners at Phuthumani Primary School in Thembisa. Driven by its core vision of transforming communities through investment in education, training, essential goods and economic development, Attacq does more than fund infrastructure upgrades. It lays the foundation for a more inclusive, educated and empowered SA. ALSO READ: Foundation calls for mental health support in gamblers 'Bright minds deserve bright spaces,' said Danny Vermeulen, the spokesperson for the Attacq Foundation. 'Renovating classrooms creates environments where learners thrive and communities grow. It's more than infrastructure; it's inspiration.' The foundation calls on the private sector and the public to partner in the initiative through structured sponsorship tiers that allow contributors to become active participants in this transformation block by block. 'This campaign aligns with Attacq's strategic pillar of 'thriving communities',' said Vermeulen. 'We're not just donors; we're co-creators of sustainable change. When a school strengthens, the entire community thrives.' In March, the Department of Basic Education told the National Council of Provinces that SA faced a severe infrastructure backlog in public schools, with more than 8 200 schools requiring additional classrooms. ALSO READ: Foundation gives the needy a treat in Kempton Park These deficits pose daily challenges and safety risks to learners, highlighting the urgency of initiatives like Building Brilliance Block by Block. 'This is about more than bricks and mortar; it's about restoring dignity, enabling opportunity and creating environments where children can flourish,' added Vermeulen. 'This is a shared call to reimagine what education looks like when purpose meets partnership. 'We invite businesses with a vision for long-term impact to become building partners and co-creators of change. Your investment isn't just a donation; it's a commitment to shaping the future of education.' Every contribution forms part of a bigger blueprint for change. By supporting this campaign, stakeholders promote academic excellence, community upliftment and social progress. Together, we can strengthen the foundation on which brighter futures are built – raise the standard for what every child deserves – a space to grow, learn and shine. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading! Stay in the know. Download the Caxton Local News Network App Stay in the know. Download the Caxton Local News Network App here
Business Insider
01-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Morgan Stanley Remains a Buy on Diploma (DPLM)
Morgan Stanley analyst Annelies Vermeulen maintained a Buy rating on Diploma (DPLM – Research Report) on May 29 and set a price target of £55.50. Confident Investing Starts Here: According to TipRanks, Vermeulen is a 2-star analyst with an average return of -0.3% and a 45.83% success rate. Vermeulen covers the Industrials sector, focusing on stocks such as Rentokil Initial, Bunzl plc, and Diploma. In addition to Morgan Stanley, Diploma also received a Buy from Berenberg Bank's James Bayliss in a report issued on May 29. However, on May 21, J.P. Morgan maintained a Hold rating on Diploma (LSE: DPLM). The company has a one-year high of p5,025.00 and a one-year low of p3,532.00. Currently, Diploma has an average volume of 349.8K. Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 12 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is positive on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders buying their shares of DPLM in relation to earlier this year.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sale agree deal to sign Exeter forward Vermeulen
Sale Sharks have agreed a two-year deal to sign Exeter Chiefs lock Jacques Vermeulen from next season. Vermeulen, 30, who can also play in the back row, moves to Sale after six years at Sandy Park, making over 100 appearances and winning the Premiership and European Challenge Cup double in 2020. The 6 ft 6, Paarl-born forward began his career with Western Province before joining Durban-based Sharks in 2017. "I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining Sale Sharks," Vermeulen said. "I've heard nothing but great things about the club's structure and incredible fan base, and I can't wait to be a part of it. "I already have some good friends in the squad, which will make the transition even smoother, and I truly believe this team has the talent and ambition to achieve big things. "I'm excited to contribute and give my all for the club, and I can't wait to get started. Sale Sharks are a very physical outfit and that suits my style of play." In November last year, Vermeulen spoke of his frustration at not being able to switch allegiance to England because of a 2015 Junior World Cup appearance for South Africa, despite qualifying through the five-year residency rule. He played seven matches for the Springboks' under-20 side but has never made a senior appearance.
The National
13-02-2025
- Business
- The National
Shipping operators return to Red Sea after Houthi ceasefire but risks remain
Some shipping operators are opting to transit the Red Sea as attacks by Yemen's Houthi militant group have ceased following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last month. However, they remain cautious, viewing the situation as a 'fragile ceasefire', according to industry sources. Last month, Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement after more than a year of conflict. Following the deal, the Houthis announced that they would halt attacks on most vessels in the Red Sea but said they would continue attacking ships owned by Israeli companies or those flying the Israeli flag. 'We're not seeing the damage or the targeting of the vessels in the same way that we were prior to Christmas,' said Rohan Davies, managing director of marine and energy at Markel, an insurer. 'We can see that in the current environment, risk has reduced for us, so the insurance pricing is starting to drop. On the other hand, this reduced risk also means that some ship owners are now happier to transit the Red Sea than before,' Mr Davies told The National. The Houthis conducted more than 100 ship attacks since November 2023 in the maritime route, which is responsible for about 12 per cent of global trade and 20 per cent of global container shipping. Many shipping companies, including cruise operators and energy companies, rerouted their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to avoid the risk of missiles attacks in the Red Sea, resulting in longer travel times and higher costs. The situation is now 'relatively calmer', thanks in part to increased efforts by several nations to secure the Red Sea region, both militarily and through political engagement, Reggy Vermeulen, chief executive of Oman's Duqm Port, told The National. 'We have now come to a certain bit of predictability in the shipping between the east and the west.' For companies still using the Cape route, the extra time is now a known factor. As a result, the situation is 'nearly back to normal,' Mr Vermeulen said, adding that industry stakeholders were closely following the ceasefire process. The Duqm port on the southeastern coast of Oman has inland access to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, while also being strategically positioned to serve the entire Indian Ocean. The port is a crucial part of Oman's goal of becoming a major exporter of green hydrogen and related products like ammonia. There are no green hydrogen exports from Duqm as most projects are still in the development phase. However, the port has experienced growth in general trade volume over the past year and expects this trend to continue, especially if major projects – such as a $3 billion green steel plant by Oman-based Jindal Shadeed Group – become operational, Mr Vermeulen said. 'Last year, we saw an increase in volume at the port of Duqm, and we are confident that this growth will continue, especially if some of the big projects we are working on materialise. [If that] happens, we will see a massive increase,' he added. The port operator is 'bullish' on green hydrogen – seen as key to decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors – and has dedicated a significant part of its liquids terminals for carbon-free exports, Mr Vermeulen said. Typically, changing shipping routes is a complex process due to the long transit times and the potential for disruption, a senior official from Oman's Asyad Group said. 'In this sector, flows usually do not return very quickly. That's simply because shipping networks can take two or three weeks to travel from point A to point B, and then suddenly changing them would have consequences,' Juma Al Maskari, head of logistics at Asyad, told The National. 'This [can cause] issues like port congestion, among others. In general, in shipping, when trade routes change, they do so gradually,' he added. While some ship owners are cautiously resuming Red Sea transits, encouraged by recent successful passages, others remain hesitant. Large fleets with profitable alternative routes around the Cape of Good Hope are sticking with them, citing continued uncertainty. 'What the analysts are telling us is that this is a very fragile ceasefire. At the moment, it's holding, and I think the fact that we've got through a couple of weeks of it is exceptional, but I still think that fragility is there,' Mr Davies said. 'A lot of vessel owners see that fragility as well,' he added. Some of the bigger operators are eager to return to the Red Sea route to save fuel and increase cargo volume due to faster turnarounds. However, they need guaranteed safety and stability before risking their expensive ships and cargo, Mr Davies said. The ceasefire plan unfolds in three 42-day phases. The initial phase, currently under way, involves the release of Israeli hostages – women, children, elderly individuals and those who are wounded – in exchange for a significant number of Palestinian prisoners. However, the ceasefire's long-term viability has come under question. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened renewed fighting if hostages were not released soon, while Hamas, citing alleged Israeli breaches of the agreement, delayed hostage releases but remained open to them if mediators pressured Israel to comply. Meanwhile, the Houthis are likely using the relative pause in military operations during the initial phase of the Gaza truce to recoup combat effectiveness in the areas of Yemen that they control, particularly along the Red Sea coast, S&P Global Market Intelligence said in a report last week.
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
694 flushes per minute end up at Mitchell's new $15.3M north wastewater facility
Feb. 7—MITCHELL — Safety, technology and cleanliness are staples of Mitchell's new $15.3 million north wastewater treatment plant. The wastewater treatment plant opened in March 2024, and provides safe disposal of Mitchell's flushed items. The plant's automated software enables city workers to remotely monitor systems and the new screening hardware replaces the need for workers to manually remove human waste products. "When you flush, it all comes here," said Jon Vermeulen, Mitchell's utility superintendent for water, sewer and stormwater. The wastewater plant has a design peak of 5.8 million gallons. The average flow is 1.6 million per day, which is 66,666 gallons per hour or 1,111 gallons per minute. The average shower in America is 8 minutes and uses 16 gallons of water. The average toilet flush uses 1.6 gallons. In other words, in one minute in Mitchell, there's 694 toilet flushes, or for every eight-minute block of time, there's 555 showers. Previously, the solid waste removal process would allow sediment and small pieces of waste to leave the facility and travel along with the wastewater to a holding basin, where the sediment would gather. "The new system is 40% more efficient," said Terry Johnson, Mitchell's engineering project supervisor. The old way of cleaning required workers to wear masks with oxygen tanks and wade into a large holding basin to clear out the solids with a high-powered vacuum. The new system eliminates this duty. "They're standing in a couple of feet of sewage. Most people would not do that," Vermeulen said. The city funded the project with a $15.3 million loan from the South Dakota Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) program. "We ended up saving about $700,000 on this project," said Vermeulen, who has been with the utilities department for 31 years. The city's utilities department is an enterprise fund, which means it acts as a business and collects revenue. Collections and loans are used to pay for pipes and upgrades to facilities. Each resident's water bill has a sewer charge, which is a base fee of $30.66 per 750 gallons used and $4.22 per volume as of Oct. 1, 2024. The City Council recently voted to increase the rates for water and sewer services. The sewer charge has $26.22 built into it to cover various capital improvement projects, such as the waste water treatment plant, the Dailey Drive lift station in 2022, and the Sanborn Boulevard project in 2020, which all required SRF loans to complete. "Our base fee is how we pay for our projects. The more SRF projects you have, the higher the base fee. So that kind of tells you what you're spending money on for sewer," Vermeulen said. The city has two wastewater facility locations. The north wastewater plant off East Havens Avenue, which originally had a November 2023 completion date, separates solid organic waste from wastewater. The $32 million south wastewater treatment plant , which is by Mitchell's Regional Landfill and was also funded through an SRF loan, has a fall 2026 completion date. The new facility will dehydrate any leftover sludge and send it to the landfill, which will finish the process of making the organic material in the wastewater safe for release. The team of 12 utility department workers who keep all of Mitchell's various lift stations, sewer lines, and storm drains flowing will have an easier time maintaining the new wastewater plant than the previous one. Automated technology and safety alerts play a big part in daily operations. The utility department uses Mitchell-based Dakota Pump's software platform that controls the hardware of the valves, monitors water flow, and alerts workers when a system is down or needs maintenance. From a dashboard, a digital display of each lift pump station and how much water is flowing can be seen, as well as how much water is flowing through the facility at any given time. The plant sees high consumption times, with mid-day as the slowest for city-wide water usage. Morning has a peak and then slows by 11 a.m., and then picks up again between 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Peak times see a 30% increase in usage, according to Vermeulen. Green or red lights outside of doorways indicate the safety of the air inside the building. A green light means the air is safe, a red light means that personnel should not enter. Additionally, alarms sound inside the building if the air quality becomes life-threatening. This usually occurs when a hauled waste contractor empties a septic tank on site, which releases toxic air. "You get out of the building, and usually within 5 to 10 minutes, the air has turned itself over and it's safe to enter," Vermeulen said. Cranes and hatchways in floors allow for heavy pumps, pipes and the like to be maintained and replaced. There is a redundancy of lift pumps, generators, and waste disposal systems so that one machine can be under maintenance while the other is able to keep the city running. Fourteen lift stations pump sanitation waste through the city until it arrives at the lowest point in Mitchell, the new wastewater treatment plant. Here, it goes through an enormous roto-screener to remove anything larger than an eighth of an inch. The city discourages the flushing of toys, feminine care products and adult wipes, even ones labeled flushable, because they do not break down in the same way as organic items. Solids are dumped onto a conveyor belt headed to an open-top trailer. Smaller items, such as human waste and toilet paper, are gravity fed to channels underneath the plant that lead to a cone, which slowly separates the water out until only a grit remains and can then be sent back up to above ground level. The grit classifier, which is fed by conveyor belt, sifts silt, small particles and undigested corn and then deposits into the same trailer. Every Monday morning, the trailer is emptied of about 1 to 2.5 tons of solid waste at the Mitchell regional landfill. During the summer, when tourists visit the Corn Palace or stay in hotels, there is an increase in the amount of solid waste that is deposited at the landfill, according to Vermeulen. Wastewater, with some sediment, then travels to an aeration basin to remove ammonia. Afterward, it is pumped 2 miles to the south wastewater treatment facility, currently under construction, to undergo additional mixing and breakdown before being emptied into the city lagoons. The aeration process allows for greater oxygen coverage so that microbes, which require oxygen to live, can eat the organic waste. There are five city lagoons, at various depths, covering a 240-acre area holding about 700 million gallons of water. Three farmers have long-term contracts with the city of Mitchell to channel nutrient-rich lagoon water through nine pivots to irrigate their farms. Lagoon water is transferred from one lagoon to the next, with a focus on moving top water with the least amount of sediment. In the spring and the fall, the lagoons are emptied into the James River by permit from the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. "The guys out there are working hard. They don't complain about it being cold. I feel really blessed to work with them and I'm glad I'm given the opportunity," Vermeulen said.
