Author: Agency

The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has launched a new province-wide app that allows road users to report poor road conditions and other road maintenance issues that require attention. Launched as part of Smart Mobility Weekends Programme, the PotholeFixGP is an easy-to-use app downloadable from the Google Play Store and will soon be available on Huawei and Apple App stores. Speaking at the launch held in Diepsloot on Saturday, Gauteng MEC for Public Transport and Road Infrastructure, Jacob Mamabolo, said the launch of the app is part of the department’s commitment of leveraging new technologies to assist with monitoring…

Hawks’ National Head, Lieutenant General, Godfrey Lebeya, has expressed disappointment at the alleged involvement of officers from the Directorate in criminal activities. This comes after two officers from the Hawks national headquarters, a Lieutenant Colonel and a Captain working at Supply Chain Management, were on Friday arrested by the the Hawks’ National Priority for Violent Crimes and Tactical Operations Management Section. Hawks spokesperson, Brigadier Thandi Mbambo, in a statement said: “Information about a Lieutenant Colonel who intended to supply SAPS ammunition to a traditional healer was received, which culminated to a sting operation being conducted”. She said the 43-year-old female…

President Cyril Ramaphosa says Black Economic Empowerment remains a pivotal part of government’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan as the country recovers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Next year will mark the 20th year that the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Act was passed. “Our commitment to entrench and deepen economic empowerment is unwavering. That is why Black economic empowerment is an integral part of our economic reconstruction and recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is one of the reassurances I articulated to the Black Business Council earlier this month, where we discussed the state…

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has hinted that the department has decided to overhaul its immigration system and that details of this will soon be announced. Motsoaledi said this when he tabled the department’s Budget Vote priorities during a mini plenary of the National Assembly on Tuesday. “…Another elephant in the room is the problem of immigration. I don’t have to outline what is taking place in our country about this problem. It is a crisis we are all well aware of,” he said. This following a recent rise in tensions between South African citizens and foreign nationals in several communities,…

Revamping government’s internet network, increasing the department’s internet capacity and roping in specialist network engineers from banks are some of the interventions that the Department of Home Affairs is implementing to deal with long queues caused by system downtime. Home Affairs Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, said this when he led the debate on the department’s budget vote on Tuesday. Motsoaledi said while there were various reasons that have led to long, winding queues at Home Affairs offices, “the main one that sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest is the issue of system downtime”. “It is painful and…

Although 15 countries have collectively reported more than 140 monkeypox cases, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has confirmed that there are currently no cases of the virus in South Africa. In a statement on Monday, the NICD reported that on 13 May 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was notified of two laboratory-confirmed cases and one probable case of monkeypox, from the same household, in the United Kingdom. “On 15th May, four additional laboratory-confirmed cases were reported amongst sexual health services attendees presenting with a vesicular rash illness in men practising sex with men. Since then, 15 countries…

Government has welcomed rating agency Standard &Poor’s (S&P) decision to revise South Africa’s credit rating outlook to positive from stable, while affirming the long term foreign and local currency debt ratings at ‘BB-’ and ‘BB’, respectively. According to S&P, recent favourable terms of trade in South Africa have improved the external and fiscal trajectory, while the country’s reasonably large net external asset position, flexible currency and deep domestic capital markets provide strong buffers against shifts in external financing. In addition, the agency expects South Africa to post a current account surplus in 2022 for the third consecutive year, as prices…

The world’s largest airline, Emirates, and South African Tourism have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly promote tourism and boost visitor arrivals and inbound traffic to South Africa from key markets across the airline’s network. The MoU was signed on the side-lines of Arabian Travel Market by Badr Abbas, Emirates’ Senior Vice President Commercial Operations for Africa, and The South Africa Tourism’s Acting CEO, Themba Khumalo. Tourism Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu and Dubai Consul General, David Magabe, were also at the signing. Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer, said the airline, which had more than 25 years invested in…

Eskom Chief Operating Officer, Jan Oberholzer, says Eskom may be forced to increase load shedding from Stage 3 load shedding to Stage 4 if the power utility fails to gather enough generation capacity to feed national peak demand. According to Oberholzer, Eskom suffered at least eight major breakdowns at its power stations – exacerbating strain on the already fragile and constrained power system. Only one of those units has, so far, been returned to service. The expected return of some of those units to service this week may not be enough to suspend load shedding. “If we look at the…

The Higher Education, Science and Innovation Ministry has established entrepreneurship hubs at TVET colleges to support students to move into self-employment after completion of programmes. Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Blade Nzimande, revealed this in Parliament on Thursday while delivering the department’s 2022 Budget Vote. In the current financial year, the Minister said the department projected that the skills levy would increase to R20.6 billion from last year’s R18.9 billion. Nzimande said the department had also taken the decision to prioritise the sector by re-allocating additional funds from the National Skills Fund. “We have begun a process of crafting…