Author: Agency

The National Treasury has proposed that from April 2022, the special COVID-19 social relief grant be extended by another 12 months. In its Budget Review document, the National Treasury said while remaining on course to stabilise debt, government proposes raising spending in the areas of greatest need. “The 2022 Budget provides for a 12‐month extension of the R350 per month special COVID‐19 social relief of distress grant. This will ensure the continuation of public support for poor households as the pandemic recedes,” the National Treasury said. The National Treasury said South Africa’s comprehensive social wage has been significantly augmented in the…

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has announced that general public services will, over the next three years, reprioritise R2.4 billion to modernise information and communication technology, as well as fund the shortfall in the allocation for the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). A portion of the funds, said Treasury, will also facilitate the population census in 2022, and support membership contributions to multilateral development banks. The pronouncements are contained in the 2022 Budget Review accompanying the Budget Speech the Minister delivered in Parliament on Wednesday. In total, the general public services function is allocated R209 billion over the Medium Term Expenditure…

When Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tables his maiden Budget Speech today, all the focus will be on his proposals to bolster the health of the public purse, and what that will mean to the taxpayer’s pocket. This after Godongwana said during the Medium-Term Budget in November that gross tax revenues are expected to exceed the estimates presented at the time of the 2021 Budget by R120.3 billion in 2021/22. What this means is that after forecasting total tax revenues of R1.365 trillion in the 2021 Budget, National Treasury made a significant upward revision to this figure in the MTBPS 2021…

The South African Post Office (SAPO) has announced that approved recipients of the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant can now collect their benefit from Pick n Pay and Boxer stores nationwide from Wednesday, 22 September. However, according to the national postal service, this is only open to grant recipients who have received an SMS from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) confirming their collection payout point as either Pick n Pay or Boxer. “Pick n Pay and Boxer are proud to assist grant beneficiaries access their funds more conveniently and safely, ensuring they receive much-needed relief quicker…

Gauteng Premier David Makhura says the creation of jobs and growing the economy are the top two priorities for the Gauteng Provincial Government. Makhura was delivering the State of the Province Address during a sitting of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature on Monday. The Premier said the economy of the province – much like the rest of the country – is reeling because of the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Makhura said this has spurred the provincial government into action to change the lives of those living in the province. “[We] are boldly shifting our main focus and energies to…

Public Service and Administration Minister, Ayanda Dlodlo, says work is underway to “cautiously withdraw” the National State of Disaster in line with the risk adjusted strategy. Dlodo said this when Ministers in the Governance, State Capacity and Institutional Development (GSCID) cluster briefed the media to outline progress made in areas that the President mentioned in the State of the Nation Address. “Work is afoot to cautiously withdraw the National State of Disaster in line with our risk adjusted strategy. “We cannot let our guard down yet,. We need to improve our vaccination uptake to attain population immunity and continue to…

With government taking bold steps to modernise its systems, the era of long queues that forced motorists to take time off work in order to access traffic services will soon become a thing of the past. This is according to Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula who together with the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) launched an online payment gateway for the renewal of driver and vehicle licences among other services on Thursday in Johannesburg. “These services, we are rolling out today will undoubtedly improve efficiencies and minimise the time the end-user spends in a queue. Motorists will be able to…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed the oversight visit by the World Health Organisation as an opportunity to profile the depth of intellectual and technological capacity on the African continent, and the integrity with which, intellectual property is being leveraged to enable vaccine production on the continent. The President met with World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus,in Cape Town on Friday, to discuss progress in making Africa self-sufficient in the production of COVID-19 vaccines and related treatments. Dr Ghebreyesus and the Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir visited the country on a two-day visit to various vaccine-related sites…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced pipelined projects that will cut across several sectors like energy and social services worth over R100 billion. Delivering the State of the Nation Address at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday evening, the President said the construction for some of the projects will resume this year. “The infrastructure fund is at the centre of this effort with a R100 billion allocation from the fiscus. “The Infrastructure Fund is now working with State entities to prepare pipelined projects with an investment value of approximately R96 billion in student accommodation, student housing, telecommunications, water and sanitation…

Millions of South Africans who benefited from the R350 COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant can breathe a sigh of relief as government has extended it for a further year until March 2023. Delivering his State of the Nation Address on Thursday evening, the President highlighted that since the onset of COVID-19, the Social Relief of Distress Grant has provided support to more than 10 million unemployed people who were most vulnerable to the impact of the pandemic. “Mindful of the proven benefits of the grant, we will extend the R350 SRD Grant for one further year, to the end…

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the eVisa system has been launched in 14 countries, including China, India, Kenya and Nigeria, according to government’s commitment. President Ramaphosa said government is also streamlining and modernising the visa application process to make it easier to travel to South Africa for tourism, business and work. In his State of the Nation Address delivered in Cape Town this evening, President Ramaphosa said the revised Critical Skills List has been published for the first time since 2014, following detailed technical work and extensive consultations with business and labour. “The updated list reflects the skills that are in…

The number of COVID-19 infections has reached a plateau, with the increase in infection rates driven by school-age children, Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, announced on Friday. According to the Minister, the past 14 days have given a “confusing” picture and shown a slow drop in infections. “The picture has been that of a stalemate where there’s no serious decline and yet no worrying rise in infections. Instead of the curve flattening it has taken the shape of a plateau,” he told the media. In the past seven days, Phaahla said the number of infections decreased by 0.3%, with three provinces recording…

A Special Tribunal order compelling two Free State departments to invoke the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) in order to recoup financial losses, suffered from officials implicated in the awarding of unlawful PPE contracts, is a deterrent for would-be errant public servants. This is according to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). The order invalidated personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement contracts of at least 36 companies contracted to the Free State Health and Treasury departments. In her judgement, Judge Lebogang Modiba explicitly ordered the accounting officers of the two departments to “invoke section 38(1)(h) of the PFMA against the implicated…officials to…

The South African Post Office (Sapo) has launched an online service for the renewal of motor vehicle licences from any mobile electronic device. In a statement on Monday, Sapo said the full renewal process, including payment, will be done online, leaving only the last step of accessing the licence disc. The licence disc can be delivered to the customer at an affordable delivery fee or it can be collected from a post office counter. “Payment is done safely and securely through Masterpass, which the user can download from the Google Play Store for Android devices and the Apple App Store…

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that digital learning is required now, not in the future, says Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. Delivering closing remarks at the end of the three-day Basic Education Sector Lekgotla held at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Motshekga said there is a need to provide all learners with the necessary assistive devices, increased human resources and ICTs for learning, teaching, and school management. “Commission three on ICT, Digitisation, e-Education Management, Distance Learning, and Online Schools has developed a SMART Action Plan, which I fully support. As a department, we must spare neither courage nor expense in leading…

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to join Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder of the multinational conglomerate NantWorks, LLC, in launching the NantSA vaccine manufacturing campus in Brackenfell, Cape Town, on Wednesday. The President and Dr Soon-Shiong will also launch the Coalition to Accelerate Africa’s Access to Advanced Healthcare (The AAAH Coalition). This launch comes after an announcement made by Dr Soon-Shiong in September last year of an ambitious initiative to build capacity for advanced health care in Africa. NantSA, a division of NantWorks, and The AAAH Coalition aim to accelerate domestic production of pharmaceuticals, biologics and vaccines that will reach patients…

In a first for the African continent, South Africa is expected to launch three maritime-focussed nanosatellites into orbit on Thursday afternoon. The three nanosatellites – the first to be entirely developed on the African continent – will be launched from Cape Canaveral in the United States at about 5.25pm. The three satellites form part of the Department of Science and Innovation’s (DSI) Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat) constellation. When complete, the constellation will comprise of nine satellites which, according to the department, will “detect, identify and monitor vessels in near real-time in support of South African maritime domain awareness”. Minister…

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says it has created a task force which is dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of matters arising from the State Capture Commission and the subsequent release of part one of its report. The first part of the State Capture Commission’s report dealt extensively with alleged corruption, maladministration, fraud and money laundering at, amongst others, the South African Airways and its subsidiaries, State power utility Eskom and the South African Revenue Service (SARS). In a joint statement released with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) – known as the Hawks – the NPA said…

South Africa has recorded at least 2 409 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24-hour reporting period, with 77 more deaths recorded as a result of complications caused by the virus. This is according to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD). This brings the total number of COVID-19 cases to 3 528 463, with a total of 92 530 deaths reported thus far. Hospitalisations more than doubled to 177 new admissions from about 80 over the previous reporting period. In a statement, the institute reported that the positivity rate of new cases over the past 24-hour reporting period dropped by at least…

The Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, has noted the new court application by Telkom to set aside the Invitation to Apply (ITA) for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) spectrum issued by ICASA. On 10 December last year, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) issued the final ITA for the International Mobile Telecommunications spectrum. In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies said that this development happens without affording Minister Ntshavheni an opportunity to resolve whatever concerns Telkom may have with the current ITA. “The Minister reiterates that the conclusion of a process to…

President Cyril Ramaphosa will formally receive the first part of the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State. A statement on the Special Cabinet Meeting that took place on Thursday said the hand-over of the first part of the Commission Report will take place on Tuesday, 4 January 2022. “The Commission Chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, will hand over the first part of the report at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. This follows the ruling of the Gauteng High Court on 28 December…

A special Cabinet meeting has approved several changes to the Adjusted Alert Level 1 COVID-19 regulations. This follows meetings of the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) and the President’s Coordinating Council (PCC), which received updates on the management of the current fourth wave of COVID-19 in South Africa, which is mainly driven by the Omicron variant. In a statement on Thursday, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said all indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level. “The information gathered through the system used by the Department of Health has reported…

Eskom has connected Unit 4 of Kusile Power Station project to the national grid. The unit was connected to the grid for the first time on 23 December. “This synchronisation milestone means four generating units of the power station are now connected to the grid, and will contribute an additional 800MW to the country’s power system once the unit is fully optimised, following a series of tests and other commissioning activities,” said the power utility on Thursday. Situated near eMalahleni in Mpumalanga, Kusile is South Africa’s largest construction project and will be the world’s fourth largest coal plant. The unit…

South Africa conducted 50 377 COVID-19 tests on Sunday, with 15 465 new cases detected. According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the majority of new cases in the past 24 hours were from KwaZulu-Natal (4 135), followed by Gauteng (3 582), Western Cape (2 849), Eastern Cape (1 303) and Free State (1 104), while the rest of the provinces recorded less than a thousand new infections. The latest figures represent a positivity rate of 30.7%, pushing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 308 074. In addition, a further three people succumbed to complications related…

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has urged people to take the COVID-19 jab in their numbers during the festive season after announcing that vaccination sites will remain open over the holiday period. “We also call upon South Africans to celebrate this festive season with a lot of caution, especially with regard to alcohol consumption,” Phaahla said on Friday. “Our health facilities are already under a lot of pressure with the COVID-19 as we indicated a 70% rise in admissions and we’re least ready to handle large numbers of casualties, from motor vehicle accidents and also interpersonal violence.” He told the…