Author: Agency
The servicing of government’s rising debt is “crowding out” social spending in the country, says Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. The Minister on Wednesday delivered the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament, where he explained the challenge posed to spending on social services. “It is important… to point out that our debt levels and rising debt service costs are not problems in and of themselves. “Our challenge is that rising debt service costs are crowding out important social spending, and our economy has not grown fast enough to support increasing expenditure or our current debt levels. Therefore, this policy statement…
SA’s revenue collection is expected to fall by some R56 billion below the 2023 Budget predictions, according to the National Treasury Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS). The MTBPS notes that slowing commodity exports, slower growth, downward revisions of the tax base growth, slowing corporate tax collections and lower net VAT collections have all impacted tax revenue. The 2023 Budget had projected collections would reach some R1.78 trillion but that has now been revised down to R1.73 trillion. “In recent years, revenue collection has benefited from a pattern of high prices for South Africa’s commodity exports. In the current year,…
SA Government is working hard to address deficiencies in the fight against organised crime and illegal financial flows that led to greylisting, says Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana. “Since February, when South Africa was grey listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a large number of government departments and agencies – including the police and the Hawks, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Special Investigating Unit (SIU), State Security Agency (SSA), the Reserve Bank, Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and South African Revenue Service (SARS) – have been working hard to address these deficiencies,” the Minister said. Delivering the Medium Term…
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) has warned the public against sharing a message that is circulating and promising free data. “The department would like to warn members of the public to desist from participating in sharing the false information and cautions against opening such links as they are fake and harmful,” the DCDT said on Monday. The department said government is striving to ensure that it brings about digital equilibrium by ensuring that it embarks on various activities aimed at connecting the unconnected and leveraging opportunities for everyone to participate in the digital economy. “DCDT has been…
SA Government has established a partnership with business to work together in four critical areas, including energy, logistics, crime and corruption, and employment to give impetus to efforts currently being undertaken. President Cyril Ramaphosa said this while delivering an address to the nation updating on the Economic Recovery progress on Monday. “We continue to collaborate with organised labour and civil society to ensure a whole-of-society approach to addressing the most important challenges our country faces. All of this gives us hope that we are turning the tide on the many challenges that we face,” the President said. This month marks…
Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) will need in excess of R50 billion investment in the next five years to improve capacity and the freight rail performance. In recent years, Transnet has experienced challenges characterised by the condition of the network, security issues, including cable theft and infrastructure vandalism, as well as the unavailability and reliability of the locomotives. Addressing a webinar on the state of freight and rail in South Africa, TFR Acting General Manager: Rail Network and Projects, Bessie Mabunda, said the entity requires a combination of funding to deal with the network backlog and to continually maintain the network…
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has officially launched a commercialisation enterprise to accelerate the pace and increase the scale of the commercialisation of its technologies and intellectual property (IP). CSIR-C3, pronounced as CSIR C-Cubed, will drive all aspects of technology commercialisation and provide adequate financial resources along the technology de-risking process through to commercialisation. According to the research organisation, the standalone enterprise will hold all CSIR IP and act as an incubator for start-up enterprises underpinned by strong technical and non-financial support. It will enable the commercialisation of CSIR IP through the development of a network of…
Government is expected to officially relaunch South African Airways (SAA) in Cape Town on Thursday. The event – which will mark two years since SAA returned to the skies – will also be used to announce the restart of the state-owned airliner’s direct flights to São Paulo, Brazil. Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said the relaunch was a milestone for the airliner which had run into turbulence after it was grounded for 16 months and underwent business rescue and averted liquidation. “The upcoming event marks a very significant step in the resurgence of South African Airways. We look forward to…
South Africa is beginning to turn the corner in resolving the energy crisis. This according to Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who was briefing the media on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan in Pretoria on Monday. Improved performance of Eskom’s generating fleet meant the suspension of load shedding over the past weekend and much lower stages of the planned power outages during the week. “We have turned the corner, although we are not out of the woods yet. We are beginning to show sustained improved performance over an extended period of time and this…
South Africa Cabinet announced on Thursday that it has given the Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Strategy (GHCS) the green light for implementation. The move, according to the Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, will ensure South Africa becomes a major producer and exporter of green hydrogen. “Government has identified possible funding for green hydrogen projects and the draft Green Paper received extensive feedback from stakeholders,” she said on Thursday. The Minister was briefing the media on the outcomes of Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting. Ntshavheni explained that the GHCS gives effect to the Hydrogen South Africa Strategy that was approved by Cabinet in 2007…