Author: Agency

South Africa has now passed the 21 million mark for total COVID-19 jabs administered since the start of the country’s vaccination rollout programme. This comes after 205 253 doses were distributed in the past 24 hours, pushing the total to 21 011 187 doses administered to 14 568 927 people. The Department of Health’s data show that the Western Cape is leading the race so far, with 45.38% of its adults having received at least one dose of the jab, followed by 42.60% in Free State, 42.16% in Limpopo and 41.88% in the Eastern Cape. In addition, the latest statistics indicate…

Eight foreign nationals, aged between 33 and 52, were on Tuesday morning arrested for their links to an alleged R100 million internet scam during a large-scale operation in Cape Town. The group was arrested in a joint operation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United State Secret Service (USSS) Investigations, Interpol and with assistance from the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit. Also assisting in the operation was Crime Intelligence (CI), K9, National Intervention unit, Special Task Force (STF), Tactical Operations Management Section (TOMS), Criminal Record Centre and Cape Town Metro police. The suspects are alleged to have…

Since the beginning of lockdown last year, the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has disbursed R63 billion, bringing relief to about 5.4 million workers across the country. It has been 17 months since the COVID-19 Temporary Employer / Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) was introduced to save jobs and ease the financial burden on businesses, and most importantly, their vulnerable workers who lost income during the lockdown. In a statement on Thursday, the Employment and Labour Department said the money paid out is the largest sum that has been paid by government to help workers, businesses and the economy mitigate the impact of the lockdowns. “Considering…

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.…