Author: Agency

Between April and June this year, at least 135 000 earning opportunities were secured by young people through the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative’s (PYEI) National Pathway Management Network. Some 108 061 of these were accessed through the SA Youth platform with 27 088 opportunities scored through the Department of Employment and Labour’s Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) website. This was revealed during a media briefing on Monday to update the nation on the progress made by the PYEI. The PYEI was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during 2020 as an intervention to rising youth unemployment in South Africa. Speaking…

Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has emphasised that the agreements signed in the past week with Chinese state owned entities and the donation by the People’s Republic of China are to address this country’s emergency energy solutions. South Africa concluded a significant amount of agreements with Chinese state owned entities (SOEs) with the signing of two overarching memoranda that were witnessed by President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Xi Jinping. South Africa hosted the 15th BRICS Summit last week and the country also hosted President Xi on his fourth State Visit to South Africa ahead of the…

At least 500 public facilities around the country are set to benefit from a donation from China which will allow them to have uninterrupted alternative power supply and shield them from the effects of load shedding. The donation includes generators, power supply vehicles and off grid PV energy storage supply systems. This was announced by Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, during the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with eight Chinese entities. The signing ceremony was held on the side lines of the BRICS Summit, currently underway in Johannesburg. “Yesterday we exchanged letters in relation…

The anticipation is over and the stage is set. The much vaunted 15th Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) Summit kicks off at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg today. The Summit is held under the theme: “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development, and Inclusive Multilateralism” and is expected to last until Thursday. The Summit brings together Heads of State and Government from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa with at least 30 other Heads and of State and Government from Africa and all across the world expected to attend. President Cyril Ramaphosa set…

BRICS countries have been urged to continue to support and invest in the township economy in an effort to reshape the perception of townships, and foster a brighter and inclusive future for all. The Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), Maropene Ramokgopa, led a first of its kind Township Economy in BRICS Dialogue in Orlando West, Soweto, on Tuesday. Ramokgopa said that BRICS member countries have the capacity to leverage the combined resources, experiences and expertise to support each other in nurturing vibrant township economies. She said joint ventures, investment partnerships, and knowledge-sharing initiatives can bring…

Government is piloting a system in a number of provinces that will enable victims of domestic violence to apply for protection orders online. “The violence perpetrated by men against women and girls is an assault on our common humanity. Women do not feel safe in their homes, on the street, in places of work and study and worship,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday. The President made these remarks during his keynote address at the commemoration of Women’s Day at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. He told South Africans that government has responded to the call for tougher bail conditions for…

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to address extreme wind disruption to operate in the Port of Cape Town (PoCT).  The TNPA and the CSIR-hosted programme, the Alliance for Collaboration on Climate and Earth Systems Science (ACCESS), and the other institutions intend to establish a series of research projects aimed at understanding the impact of extreme wind disruption on operations for the integrated maritime transport logistics chain at the PoCT. In the past few years, according to the joint statement, the PoCT lost an average…

Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says at least half of the actions set out in the Energy Action Plan (EAP) are either completed or on track. He was briefing the media on the progress made on the one year implementation of the Energy Action Plan on Sunday. The EAP was introduced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July last year and thrashes out work that must be done by both Eskom and government to ensure that load shedding is reduced and eventually eradicated and to ensure energy security for the country in the future. “About 56%…

President Cyril Ramaphosa says although load shedding will not be resolved overnight, Eskom and government is making “significant progress” in areas aimed at reducing and eventually removing it altogether. The President was addressing the nation through his weekly newsletter on Monday. “Today, we are releasing a detailed report outlining the work done to improve the performance of Eskom’s power stations, accelerate the building of new generation capacity and drive regulatory reforms to transform the electricity sector. “The winter months will soon be coming to an end. Although load shedding has continued, as was anticipated, we have managed to avert a worst…

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel today launched the Energy One Stop Shop and Energy Resilience Fund. This is part of the Energy Mitigation Strategy through the National Energy Crisis Committee. President Cyril Ramaphosa had tasked Invest South Africa to establish an Energy One Stop Shop to deal with and fast track applications from energy developers. The Energy One Stop Shop is expected to input to the streamlining of regulatory processes required for private investment in electricity generation, facilitate pre-investment screening for all energy projects and thereby fast-track the approval of energy applications. This is to be achieved through…