Author: Agency

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…