MechChem Africa May-June 2023

⎪ Products and industry news ⎪

Zest WEG’s expanded Middelburg branch With its continual growth in sales over recent years, Zest WEG has ex panded the capacity of its Middelburg branch in Mpumalanga province with extended facilities and an increased staff complement.

business growth has been sustained despite the poor performance of the economy, he points out, showing that the company is making a real differ ence to customers. “An important aspect of our work has been to highlight the importance of energy efficiency in the context of ris ing energy costs,” he explains. “This is becoming as relevant to agriculture as it has always been to energy-intensive industries like mining. The branch has the largest stock of IE3 and IE4 WEG Super Premium Efficiency motors to service the Mpumalanga and Limpopo regions.” While in certain industries it is still common to base purchasing decisions mainly on upfront capital costs, he says that customers are becoming more aware of their total cost of ownership of electrical equipment. He points out that an electric motor, for instance, can consume the value of its purchase price in electricity in just five weeks – when running 24/7. “There is growing recognition of the potential savings possible from buying the best, most efficient motor – and paying less for electricity for the lifetime of that motor,” he says. With most agricultural enterprises paying ever-increasing Eskom rates for their electricity, there is now more interest than ever before in cutting energy costs. “As a sales branch, it is our purpose tions to the internet, and reliably offer essential services. Water scarcity impacts one out of three Africans. Many Africans are unemployed, less than half of the people in sub-Saharan Africa have access to modern healthcare and only 22% of primary schools have access to electricity. STEM is how we can close that gap. Countries such as South Africa boast slightly above-average STEM rates. In the first decade of this century, sub-Saharan regions doubled the amount of research they produce. But these figures come from a low base: the region still produces less than 1% of global research. The World Economic Forum is con cerned about Africa's low number of en gineers and scientists, and the New York Academy of Sciences has estimated that sub-Saharan Africa requires 2.5-million more engineers to address its funda

“This expansion allows us to keep up with market growth and ensure on-time delivery to our growing cus tomer base,” says branch manager Fritz Hoogenboezem. “An exciting addition for customers will be our fit-for purpose training centre, where we can conduct accredited training on various lines of our equipment.” The branch serves a large geo graphical area, from Ogies in the south to Musina in the north, and from Emalahleni in the west to Komatiepoort in the east. The expansion has seen the building of a new block with more space for product inventory, administration and technical support. A dedicated work area was upgraded for testing and repairing variable speed drives, soft starters, and controls. Hoogenboezem notes that the branch is servicing a range of sectors that continues to widen. Its mining industry customers include mines in the platinum group metals, chrome, coal, gold, magnetite, phosphate and copper segments. “We are also kept busy in the pa per industry and sugar milling, while steadily doing more work in agriculture and with timber mills,” he says. This Chances are you've heard of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot taking the world by storm. It's an impressive show case of what we can achieve with today's technology, and also a warning that major changes are coming to our world. Africa needs to be prepared, not just for digital technology, but for all the pieces that create a 21 st -century society. This is why we need more women in the STEM fields. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics, collectively called STEM, are the foundation of modern society. On the leading side are breakthroughs such as ChatGPT that define the next century. On the other side is infrastructure, the physi cal foundations that empower progress and innovation. In sub-Saharan Africa we still struggle to deliver electricity, connect our popula

The training centre at the expanded Zest WEG Middelburg Branch with new training equipment.

to bring state-of-the-art resources to the doorstep of customers including end-users, consultants and original equipment manufacturers,” he says. “The improvements and expansion of our Middelburg facilities are a major step forward in ensuring we achieve this goal,” Hoogenboezem concludes. www.zestweg.com mental challenges. The world is moving ahead. So, how do we catch up? How do we supercharge STEM? Women are the answer. They are a massive untapped opportunity. Even though they represent half the population, women are still a rarity in STEM careers. Only seven percent of women students enrol in engineering and construction courses compared with 22 percent of male students. We need to encourage and support more women to pursue these careers. At Xylem Africa, we fund the tertiary education of aspirant STEM professionals, primarily women. And we represent a very engineer focused industry. When you talk to these future engineers, they all say the same thing: they want to solve problems for their communities and see a STEM career as the best way to do that. www.xylem.com/en-za

Why Women in STEM matters for Africa

May-June 2023 • MechChem Africa ¦ 45