A suspicious bakkie transporting vegetables was spotted by KwaZulu-Natal police officers, who stopped and searched the vehicle to uncover half a million rand’s worth of dagga hidden beneath the farm-fresh produce.
The discovery was made next to Vryheid Junction, and the bags of marijuana, hidden underneath cabbages, were seized during an operation on 6 November 2021.
“The vehicle was reportedly instructed to pull over and a search was conducted. Eagle-eyed police officers in Vryheid confiscated marijuana worth half a million rand,” East Coast Radio reported.
Two suspects – in their thirties – were arrested for dealing in dagga, said police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala.
Creecy launches hydrogen strategy
It’s all systems go for the Northern Cape’s green hydrogen strategy.
South Africa’s minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment (DFFE), Barbara Creecy, alongside Northern Cape MEC Mase Manopole and Sasol president and CEO Fleetwood Grobler, unveiled the strategy at the COP26 global summit in Glasgow, Scotland, with Sasol as anchor investor.
At the launch, Creecy indicated that a new roadmap for implementation of the strategy was built on what has been achieved in the past 10 years, “and moves us from research and development to manufacturing and commercialisation”.
Creecy said the local manufacturing of hydrogen products and components will contribute towards job creation and skills development in the Northern Cape, “and this will enhance economic transformation that will benefit the previously marginalised sectors of society, particularly women and youth, especially in a province like the Northern Cape, which is one of the poorest in terms of demographics in South Africa.”
A green hydrogen facility will be constructed in the Rehearsed area.
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Northern Cape to become a global leader
MEC Mase Manopole said the facility is permitted and protected by the constitution of South Africa, which ensures a safe and healthy environment for all.
Manopole pointed out that the environment’s sustainability in the 21st century looks to capacitate the earth’s biosphere and human civilization to co-exist.
“Hence many scholars would refer to sustainability as the ability ‘to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs’,“ she said.
“It is therefore quite clear that sustainable development is an organising principle for meeting human development goals while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend.”
Manopole added that Sol Plaatje University will play an important role in becoming a global research institution for all renewable energy sources.
“This will give our country mileage in converting local energy systems to be able to use green hydrogen as an energy source. We are also in a process of creating a green economy and green hydrogen as the stimuli, for example, industries constructing renewable components by utilizing renewable energy resources.”
Manopole said the Northern Cape was going to use the opportunity to establish the green hydrogen facility to strategically place the province as a global player.
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