South Africans are showing a preference for traditional hybrid vehicles over fully electric or plug-in hybrids. More than 6,000 traditional hybrid vehicles, which combine a internal combustion engine with a battery that charges while driving, were sold in 2023. This is 10 times the number sold in 2021.

Fully electric and plug-in hybrids remain less popular, with only 1,147 sold in same period. This is up from 384 in 2021.

According to AutoTraderSA, the most popular hybrid cars available in South Africa are the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid, the Suzuki Grand Vitara Hybrid, and the Honda Fit HEV.

The local market is far from developed by global standards. Fewer than 1% of vehicle sales in South Africa in 2023 were fully electric or plug-in hybrids (excluding traditional hybrids), while the global average was 18%.

South Africa’s banks have been closing ATMs as customers increasingly move their businesses online. Capitec, however, is bucking the trend and has installed more than 3,000 teller machines in the past four years, bringing its total to just over 8,000 ATMs, the highest of all the banks.

Nedbank has also increased the number of its ATMs, but only by 19. All the other ‘Big 4’ South African banks have been closing terminals.

In 2019, Absa had the most ATMs, with almost 9,900, 89% of which were in South Africa. It has since closed almost 3,500 ATMs and the bank says it plans to continue to reduce its physical footprint as customers become ‘more digitally active’.

Standard Bank has reduced its number of ATMs by almost 3,000 in the past four years and has removed the fee it charged customers for using ATMs owned by other banks.

Diamond mining production in South Africa has hit a 10-year low. The country was producing an average of 8.5-million carats a year, but by 2023 this had dropped to 6.1-million carats.

The reason for this is that De Beers’ Venetia diamond mine reached the end of its open-pit operations in December 2022. The mine, which is near Musina in Limpopo, accounted for 40% of South Africa’s diamond production, according to the Minerals Council.

De Beers is developing an underground mine at Venetia to extend its operational life until the 2040s. The company expects to extract 88-million carats from this new phase.

South Africa remains among the top 10 diamond-producing countries, contributing 5% of the world’s diamonds.

The world can’t get enough avocados, and South African farmers are capitalising on the soaring demand for this popular superfruit.

Exports have increased by 63% over the past decade, according to the SA Avocado Growers’ Association. About 74,4000 tonnes of avocados were exported last year, just 9,500 shy of 2018’s record. ITC figures show the value of exports has more than tripled since 2012, reaching R1.63-billion in 2021.

South Africa is one of the top 10 exporters of the fruit globally and the second-biggest in Africa, after Kenya. Africa produces about 12% of the world’s avocados.

While Europe is a major importer of SA avocados, other markets are opening up. In the past 10 months, agreements have been put in place with India, China and Japan. Official shipments were expected to start mid-year.

With just 83 days of loadshedding in South Africa so far this year, 2024 is on track to be one of the best years for reduced power cuts. Fuelling the optimism is the announcement last week that Kusile’s unit 5 was now in operation, adding 800MW to the grid.