RACA Journal : ISSN 1812-772X
Hot and chilled
2021 COMES WITH BIG PROMISES
On the back of the announcement by finance minister Tito Mboweni on the South African economy ’ s recovery plans at the end of 2020 , are big investments for infrastructure development and boosts for local manufacturing – both of which are good news for the HVACR sector .
As we have seen from global trends , development in infrastructure and local manufacturing in any country means growth and job creation , and these are the biggest challenges the South African economy would face in the short- to medium-term .
The recently concluded US election , where Joe Biden took the presidency away from Donald Trump – and created two historical events : one being that he would be the oldest person stepping into the role ; and two , that it was only the tenth time in America ’ s history where the current president didn ’ t make at least two terms , the win in my opinion , comes down to the citizens actually just wanting something different .
The changing American presidency though has given emerging markets , specifically South Africa , a head start on the year with the rand / dollar exchange rate seeing its most positive levels since March 2020 , and in hopes of the immediate end to the US / China trade war that was initiated in 2018 . But as you would see from economists around the world there is such uncertaintly to business because people around the world , and including South Africans – want change , and for this , planning for the unknown is difficult – you have to just apply your best gut feelings .
The positive exchange rate is obviously good for companies who rely on importing , however with the country ’ s leaders alluding to greater support of local manufacturing , at the time of publishing , nothing had been set in stone , but one would wonder if there would be any plans in the pipeline to empower the local economy by something like our own import tariffs , or such tariffs for imported goods to sectors supplying raw materials for manufacturing ?
Nonetheless , there are many positive elements that are already boosting business outlook as most companies push forward , and although the country ’ s growth rate is expected to remain muted for the short term , some small changes can make a big difference as the desperate changes everyone has had to make to overcome the global pandemic has proven . As I have mentioned before , South Africans are said to be some of the best problems solvers in the world , and we can add continual resilience and persistence to make things work to that list , even given certain dire circumstances .
In this issue , we cover our regular contributors , some news and exciting developments on the international scale . Our cover project is the total revamp at 10 St Andrews in Parktown , Johannesburg , and our feature looks at data centres and data centre cooling needs . Interesting to note is that South Africa services the entire southern African region ’ s data centre needs – this just goes to show that although we have our challenges , we have the structures to make this happen .
Our personality profile is a very well-qualified , but more importantly , passionate individual who is also the current ASHRAE-SA president – Olu Soluade . For our technical we take a closer look at another question that continues to come up in many conversations – the difference between TXV / EEV and PWM valves that is explained by Carel Controls CST and IoT manager , Ben Sieweke .
My quote for this month to start off the new year with further positive inspiration , and to take a step back when things may get tense : “ Those who will win are those who know when to fight and when not to fight .” – Sun Tzu I trust you enjoy this issue and should you have any comments , complaints or compliments , I would love to hear from you . This is your magazine and I would like to ensure that you are reading information you find valuable . I look forward to engaging with you , and please follow and like our social media channels too ! Have a great start to 2021 ! RACA
Ambient greetings , Ben
www . hvacronline . co . za www . hvacronline . co . za RACA Journal I January 2021
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