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National Treasury has published an updated version of its “Financing a Sustainable Economy” document as part of efforts to encourage more long-term investments in sustainable economic assets, activities and projects. The technical paper was first published in May 2020. In the updated paper published on Friday, Treasury said while financial institutions previously only focused on the return on investment of projects, the focus on sustainable finance encourages them to also be cognisant of how their investment decisions impact the environment. “It is envisaged that this will assist in reducing pressures on the environment, including supporting the transition to a low…

The Department of Health on Friday announced that children aged 12 to 17 years old are next in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from next week. “We are now ready to start vaccinations for this group of young people from the age of 12 to 17 years,” said Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, during a media briefing on the national vaccination rollout programme. He told journalists that this follows a recommendation received from the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on COVID-19 Vaccines this week. “This recommendation was also supported by Health MECs when we met on Tuesday afternoon during our…

South Africa is home to over 10 million adults who are now fully vaccinated as of Monday. This comes after 139 899 either received the one dose of the Johnson & Johnson or two-dose Pfizer vaccine. This means there are now 10 059 118 eligible citizens who are fully jabbed, which translates to 25.28% of the country’s adult population. According to the Department of Health, the country distributed 189 528 new COVID-19 doses in the past 24 hours, pushing the total to 19 242 116. Meanwhile, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases identified in South Africa is 2 912 346…

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country must urgently reduce its carbon and greenhouse gas emissions or risk experiencing negative social and economic consequences. The President was addressing the nation through his weekly newsletter. Carbon and greenhouse gas emissions are a product of the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal, which contribute to global warming and changes in the Earth’s climate patterns (climate change). President Ramaphosa said the impact of climate change is already felt in some South Africans’ quality of life through drought and flooding. “Several communities in Mpumalanga, for example, are affected by high levels of…

South Africans can now download their digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate following the official launch by the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla. Addressing a media briefing on government’s efforts in the fight against COVID-19 and the national vaccination rollout programme on Friday, the Minister said the certificate could be used for travel and tourism, sport and recreation events, music festivals, shops that are providing discounts and prizes for people who are vaccinated. “Our role is to make this tool available to the nation to provide people with the proof of vaccination so they can have access to many the amenities and…

A Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report has identified significant weaknesses in parts of the anti-money laundering, counter financing of terrorism and counter financing of proliferation (AML/CFT/CPF) systems. Released on Thursday, the National Treasury and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC)  said in a joint statement that the Mutual Evaluation Report was an assessment of South Africa’s AML/CFT/CPF systems. They said the mutual evaluation of South Africa was conducted by an assessment team led by the International Monetary Fund and included officials from the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group and the FATF member countries. According to the statement, South…

President Cyril Ramaphosa says one of the key drivers of infrastructure development is green energy, which has the potential not only to drive industrialisation but to establish a whole new industrial reality. The President was delivering the keynote address on the second day of the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa (SIDSSA) hosted by the Presidency on Thursday. President Ramaphosa said the Green Hydrogen Export special economic zone to be developed at Boegoebaai in the Northern Cape, with Sasol as an anchor investor, is a major step towards realising South Africa’s potential to be a global leader in green hydrogen.…

The South African Revenue Services (SARS) has welcomed an eight year sentence handed to a Bloemfontein businessman for fraud. MJ Ntabe of Ntabe Trading & Projects CC was recently found to have used false tax invoices in the calculations of VAT Output and Input tax. The Bloemfontein Regional Court this week sentenced Ntabe to five years direct imprisonment for the crime. The court heard that Ntabe and his company provided the revenue collector auditors with false supporting documents to substantiate the VAT calculations. It said: “SARS Audit raised additional assessments, which resulted in a total prejudice of R1-million to SARS.…

The Department of Health has confirmed that its currently testing South Africa’s digital COVID-19 vaccine certificate to “troubleshoot” all possible glitches ahead of the official launch. This comes after the South African COVID-19 Vaccine Certificate System portal went live on Tuesday. The system will allow users to create a QR code showing their COVID-19 inoculation status and will be available to adults who are fully vaccinated. However, the department explained that the system is not officially functional in a live environment, which will enable vaccinated individuals to access and download certificates. “We had to build a lot of security into…

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has announced a marginal decrease in the prices of petrol, while the price of diesel is expected to increase. Motorists are expected to pay four cents less per litre for 93 octane petrol, one cent less for 95 octane petrol per litre and at least 22 cents more per litre for both grades of diesel. The wholesale price of illuminating paraffin has increased by 22 cents per litre, while the single maximum retail price (SMNRP) for illuminating paraffin has increased by 43 cents per litre. The maximum retail price for gas has decreased by…

South Africa has now crossed the 18 million mark for administered COVID-19 vaccine doses. This comes after government distributed 184 324 in the past 24 hours. According to the Department of Health, this means the country has now given 18 073 784 vaccines since its rollout programme. Meanwhile, as of Monday, the number of fully vaccinated adults now stands at 9 213 503, of which 129 539 people were jabbed by Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine or the two-dose series made by Pfizer in the last 24 hours. The dashboard also shows that 57.16% of vaccinees are females, while 42.84% are males. Meanwhile, the National…

South Africa is now home to over 8.8 million fully vaccinated adults, as President Cyril Ramaphosa leads the inaugural Vooma Vaccination Weekend to push more people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the Department of Health, the country on Thursday administered 146 190 vaccines, bringing the total doses to 17 505 358. In addition, the latest data shows that 92 320 people were fully vaccinated in the past 24 hours. This means the country now has 8 819 130 adults who have either received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson or the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine since the start of the inoculation programme. In…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the Department of Health will soon roll out the vaccine certificate as proof that residents have been vaccinated against COVID-19. In a televised address to the nation, the President said the digital pass system could be used to show vaccination status to facilitate travel, access to establishments, gatherings and other forms of activity. “Our approach is informed by World Health Organisation guidelines and is in line with international best practice. Streamlining and standardising proof of vaccination will also go a long way towards getting a number of international travel restrictions both from and into…

Gauteng Premier David Makhura says more than a million people in Gauteng have not gone back to receive their second jab of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. He was speaking during a visit to the newly opened pop-up vaccine site at Khutsong in the Merafong municipality in the province’s West Rand on Wednesday. Makhura highlighted that receiving the second jab of the vaccine gives you even more protection from getting severely ill if you contract COVID-19. “We have over a million people who have taken their first dose of Pfizer whose days have come and passed for their second dose and they…

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says the mining industry is playing a critical role in “saving” the economy during the country’s ongoing COVID-19 induced lockdown. Mantashe was speaking during the opening of the two-day Mining Investment Conference held in Limpopo. The Minister said the decision to allow mining to continue during different phases of the COVID-19 induced lockdown is proving to be decisive in the recovery from the devastating impact the virus has had on the economy. “Mining is doing well…and has played a very important role in saving the economy. The commodity prices are expected to do…

South Africa has administered 16 999 722 doses of COVID-19 jabs as of Monday evening, the Department of Health said. The tally includes the two-dose Pfizer vaccine as well as the single shot of the Johnson & Johnson jab. According to the latest data, 159 732 vaccines were distributed in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the number of fully vaccinated adults has now gone up to 8 501 712, while 12 268 451 people had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 shot. In addition, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) logged 578 new COVID-19 infections. The dashboard shows that the majority of…

President Cyril Ramaphosa will later today attend an announcement by Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder of the multinational conglomerate, NantWorks LLC, of an ambitious initiative to build capacity for advanced health care in Africa. The initiative will entail collaboration between NantAfrica, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), the Universities of Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch and KwaZulu-Natal. NantWorks is a multinational, California-based conglomerate that is leading the digital revolution in healthcare, technology and media through the harnessing of science, digital infrastructure, supercomputing and communication. NantWorks…

South Africa on Tuesday crossed the eight million mark for adults who are fully vaccinated. According to the Department of Health, the country administered 178 685 COVID-19 jabs in the past 24 hours, of which 100 853 people were fully jabbed. This brings the total number of administered doses to 16 358 076, while those who have received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson or the second shot of the Pfizer vaccine stands at 8 108 520. The latest data shows that there are now 11 848 356 citizens who have been vaccinated out of the 39 798 201 individuals that government is targeting before the end of December. Meanwhile, the…

The Justice and Constitutional Development Department has clarified a media report that hackers demanded a R33 million ransom, following a ransomware attack on the department’s Information Technology systems, earlier this month. According to the report, hackers allegedly encrypted all information on the department’s electronic system, including backups and demanded the ransom be paid – an allegation the department strongly denied. “The [department] would like to place it on the record that it has not received any ransom demand following the ransomware attack as suggested by an article…published on 20 September 2021. The article to this effect is completely untrue,” the department…

South Africa has surpassed the 16 million mark for total administered COVID-19 doses since the start of the country’s vaccination rollout programme. This comes after 154 199 jabs were distributed in the last 24 hours. According to the Department of Health, there are now 7 997 795 citizens who have been fully vaccinated, of which 76 736 people either received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the second shot of the Pfizer jab on Monday. The dashboard also shows that there are now 11 711 920 individuals who have been vaccinated, translating to 29.43% of the country’s adult population. Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable…

The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit has arrested a 36-year-old suspect in Gauteng following the August 2020 data breach at Experian. In a statement, the Hawks on Wednesday said Experian entered into a contract with the suspect, who purported to be a certain Tebogo Mogashoa, a director of Talis Holdings. “The agreement gave the person access to the personal information of millions of people, held by the Credit Bureau.  The suspect then proceeded to download approximately 23 million personal data records and 727 000 business records. “The suspect then attempted to sell these records at about R4.2 million,” said…

Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, has told the National Council of Provinces that current scientific reports suggest that vaccination still offers protection against the new COVID-19 variant C.1.2 identified in South Africa. The variant – which has been detected in all provinces in low frequency – is reported to be more transmissible, resistant to neutralisation and causes more disease severity. The Minister was speaking during the National Council of Province’s Ministerial Briefing Session on the Vaccination Programme. “The NICD [National Institute for Communicable Diseases] and the professors from KRISP [KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform] were reporting… to the National…

The government is making every effort to reach population immunity and is investigating immunising children with the remaining vaccine stock once most adults are covered. “Just in the same way as when we were convinced that we have enough capacity and stock to cover the above 35. Therefore, when that stage arrives, we will definitely look at science and our capacity. Then, at that stage, we should be able to move towards the lower ages below 18, as some of the vaccines have already been approved for those who are under 18,” said Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla on Tuesday.…

The South African Post Office (SAPO) has warned beneficiaries of the R350 Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant not to pay for a spot in the queue. The Post Office said it has become aware of instances where self-appointed “queue marshals” ask customers who visit their branches a fee for a place in the front of the queue. “No SAPO employee or other individuals have the right to ask beneficiaries to pay any fee to be serviced or to receive preferential treatment by jumping the queue. Such practices are illegal. “Customers are advised not to pay the fee…

Recently published research has revealed that the new COVID-19 variant C.1.2 has been identified in South Africa. According to the researchers, there are concerns that this SARS-CoV-2 variant of interest (VOI) has been associated with increased transmissibility, neutralisation resistance, and disease severity. “Here we report the identification of a potential variant of interest assigned to the Pango Lineage C.1.2,” the preprint analysis published last week read. The Pango, which stands for Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Linages, refers to the software tool for sequence assignment used by researchers to track the transmission and spread of COVID-19. “This lineage was…