The farmers' union gave President Cyril Ramaphosa two out of 10 for keeping promises made in the 2019 state-of-the-nation address (SONA). The TLU SA had predicted that little would come of the promises made by Ramaphosa during last year’s SONA, the union said in a statement. South Africa needed economic growth to create the much-needed capacity to solve the country’s enormous socio-economic problems. The government should go back to the drawing board and learn what was necessary to grow the economy of a nation. The union went on to say the ruling party should start by repairing investors' trust. After that, they could work on a range of issues not even visible to them at present.

Master distiller, Andy Watts of Stellenbosch, has walked away with the coveted World Whisky Brand Ambassador of the Year award at the Icons of Whisky Awards in London in the United Kingdom. Watts is head of whisky intrinsic excellence at Distell in Stellenbosch, and in a further coup for the company, its James Sedgwick Distillery (JSD) received the Sustainable Distillery of the Year award at this week's awards event, Distell said in a statement. The awards were for the Rest of the World division – excluding Scotland, Ireland, and the United States - and featured entries from strong whisky-producing countries such as Japan, Australia,  and Taiwan. The overall global awards and grand dinner takes place in London on March 26, where Watts and Distell will go head-to-head with the winners from the three traditional powerhouses of the whisky world. Distell said the latest award was “testimony to Andy’s passion, deep knowledge, and dogged perseverance, and it is this attitude which has helped define his success”.

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