Author: Ground Up

Mbombela Attorneys Association chairperson Annelien de Kock says the Master’s Office is in a “crisis” with major backlogs, insufficient resources and staff shortages. Nelspruit law firm Christo Smith Attorneys says beneficiaries wait months or years for estates to be finalised forcing the firm to approach the high court to compel the office to act. Attorneys complain that officials do not respond to emails, telephones are barely answered, mailboxes are often full, officials miss scheduled appointments, and documents are misplaced or misfiled. Lawyers and fiduciary practitioners in Nelspruit say the Mbombela Master’s Office is in a “crisis” and they want the…

Lawyers say delays at the Johannesburg Master’s Office in critical legal processes can have serious consequences, including financial losses for citizens who depend on its services. The office has glitch-prone digital platforms, backlogs and no emergency backup power. A “runner” system has emerged in which clients pay intermediaries for faster service, with one attorney saying, “there is this perception that if you don’t pay the cool drink money, your things are not going to get done”. The Department of Justice however says the Johannesburg office is meeting its key performance targets. The Johannesburg Master’s Office is grappling with backlogs, delays,…

Postbank, once championed as a no-fee banking alternative for social grant recipients, has lost about 75% of its social grant customers in the past five years. After the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) ended its unlawful contract with Cash Paymaster Services for the payment of social grants in 2018, the South African Post Office (SAPO) took over. Postbank, a subsidiary of SAPO, stepped in to administer payments to newly issued SASSA-branded bank cards, which provided social grant beneficiaries with a no-fee alternative to private banks. But a series of events has caused an exodus from Postbank and an increase…

We are bombarded with more information than ever in history. It is becoming extremely hard to separate fact from nonsense. GroundUp has written an 11-part series called The Right to be Informed. Today we publish the last article in our series. We discuss how strongmen rulers in several countries have used misinformation to erode trust in science, violate human rights and damage constitutional democracy. Here are the articles in the series: Why we need a right to be informed (published 19 May) How the world has changed (published 19 May) Platforms versus publishers (published 19 May) What we can achieve with a right to…

People who have lost their jobs or are on maternity leave are struggling to access money owed to them by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) which they were compelled to contribute to while employed. Those claiming UIF have been frustrated by the Department of Employment and Labour’s online registration system through which UIF is claimed. The system often reflects incorrect information or does not allow people to register as claimants. In September last year UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) that a new UIF app allowing people to lodge claims online would reduce the lines at…

By Daniel Steyn Postbank announced this week that from April 2024 social grant beneficiaries will no longer be able to withdraw their social grants at Post Offices or cash paypoints. The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), which contracts Postbank to administer the payment of social grants, told Parliament in February that 142,000 people (about 0.8% of all grant recipients) still make use of cash paypoints and another 123,000 collect their money from Post Office branches. Postbank and SASSA have prioritised the rollout of a national payment system which sees grant money paid directly into recipients’ personal bank accounts or SASSA…

By Liezl Human South Africa will have to up its climate financing to R535-billion to meet the goals set by the government in terms of the 2016 Paris agreement, a new report has found. The report, launched by the Presidential Climate Commission, tracked private and public investments made between 2019 and 2021. It found on average, R131-billion was spent, most of it on clean energy, and most of it financed by debt. The report follows the recent passing by the National Assembly of the Climate Change Bill. South Africa needs to drastically increase its climate financing if it wants to meet its climate…

By Fatima Hassan Critical work done by South African scientists on mRNA vaccines for several diseases is at risk from patent claims from the pharmaceutical giant Moderna. Yet the government could easily protect this and other programmes by speeding up the passage of amendments to patent laws. Every year, industry’s biggest players spend a combined US$4-billion on legal action. Even then, there was an audible gasp from the world’s media when Moderna, which developed a Covid vaccine with the US government, announced it was suing rivals Pfizer and BioNTech for “patent infringement”. All three companies have made a fortune from selling Covid vaccines,…

By Ella Morrison Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola has approved a rescue plan for the South Africa’s Master’s Office. The dysfunction of the Master’s Office has reached a crisis point according to many in the legal fraternity. GroundUp has previously reported on the chaos at the Master’s Offices across the country.  The Master’s Office is responsible for among other functions the administration of deceased estates, the setting up and liquidating of trusts, and managing the Guardian’s Fund to protect the interests of minors and people deemed legally incapable of administering their affairs. The rescue plan aims to fix backlogs, improve digitisation, increase capacity,…

By Raymond Joseph Pressure is mounting on the police and the Hawks to speed up investigations into grant corruption at the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), and for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to prosecute people implicated in the looting. So far, only one person has been convicted in a case involving Lottery corruption. In 2022 Christopher Tshivule was sentenced to eight years in prison after the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court found he had “hijacked” a non-profit organisation and then used it to defraud the NLC of R1.5-million. In September 2020 a dossier of evidence involving four multimillion rand grants to dodgy non-profits, compiled by independent…

By Ashraf Hendricks Libraries are meant to be safe spaces where people, young and old, come to spend time to relax and learn. It’s where they should be able to read books in peace or access the internet to do personal projects or school assignments. But some Cape Town libraries have become the targets of petty criminals and are often forced to work under the threat of gang violence. One such library is in Hanover Park which has to close intermittently due to violence at the neighbouring taxi terminus. Lucien Ruiters, manager of the Hanover Park Library, says from the library…

A R6.3-million Rolls Royce Phantom and a R1-million property in an office park linked to former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda have been frozen by the Pretoria High Court. Both were bought using Lottery grant money. The car and the property are included in a preservation order granted by the court against several people on 28 September. The court order freezes four properties in Polokwane and Louis Trichardt, Limpopo, and three luxury vehicles, with a combined value of approximately R14-million. The order was granted in terms of the 1998 Prevention of Organised Crime Act, which aims “to combat organised crime,…

By Daniel Steyn Members of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development were told on Wednesday that last week’s “system glitch” which affected thousands of social grant recipients was caused by software Postbank uses to pay grants. This “payment switch” software enables Postbank to connect to the BankservAfrica platform and process transactions through the Integrated Grant Payment System (IGPS). About 35% of grant recipients, a total of 6.3-million people, receive their money through this system, which pays the money into SASSA/Postbank cards. GroundUp has recently been given court documents describing some of Postbank’s troubles with the payment switch software, which date back…

By Tania Broughton A doctor involved in a questionable National Lotteries Commission (NLC) deal has failed in his bid for an interdict to stop the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) from what he claims is “harassment and intimidation”. Dr John Marite, who heads up Right Play Health Services, asked for a final interdict against the SIU, and one against Malwanda Solly Siweya from contacting him other than through his attorney, contacting his family and employees, and attending his private residence. He also sought an order that the SIU not share with anyone else any information about his interactions with it, including Siweya,…

Lawyers from 10 organisations representing victims of road accidents have issued a stinging memorandum on the “crisis” in the Road Accident Fund (RAF). They blame CEO Collins Letsoalo and call for a new board to be appointed. This comes after the deputy minister for transport and the RAF blamed lawyers for the RAF’s many woes, including the backlog in processing claims and long delays in paying out road accident victims. Lawyers from ten organisations have compiled a stinging joint memorandum about what they term a “crisis” at the Road Accident Fund (RAF). The signatories include the Law Society of South…

By Matthew Hirsch Professor Debra Roberts, the Durban-based climate researcher who is running for the position of chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says that you no longer need to beat the climate drum; the impact of climate change is already here. Roberts will become the first woman from Africa to chair the IPCC, if she wins the elections next month in Nairobi. The IPCC is arguably the most important institution in the world tackling climate change. It is a United Nations body and every country on the planet is a member. It produces definitive scientific reports on climate change. …

By Tania Broughton A Johannesburg advocate, who defrauded the State Attorney out of more than R34-million – effectively earning almost R67,000 a day for 511 calendar days – has been disbarred. In a ruling handed down this week, Johannesburg High Court judges Motsomai Makume and Willem Wepener said Hassan Ebrahim Kajee’s conduct “exhibited serious flaws”, he had shown no remorse, and worse, he was still insisting that the Johannesburg Bar Council had no jurisdiction over him because he had resigned. He had also disobeyed a court order that he submit billing information to the council’s professional ethics committee. The Johannesburg Society…

By Paul Wani Lado The Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill currently being considered by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Mineral Resources and Energy is fatally flawed and should be rejected by South Africans. The bill will create a separation of the regulation of the upstream petroleum industry from the regulation of the mining industry, with the former regulated by the bill and the latter continuing to be regulated by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. This split is significant as it means a new regime for the regulation of South Africa’s nascent gas industry would come into effect. However, the…

By Steve Kretzmann The Post Office has been deducting pension fund contributions from workers’ salaries, but the last time any money was paid over to the retirement fund was in April 2020. Authorities will not say how much is owed to the retirement fund, but it may be R1-billion. If the Post Office is liquidated, outstanding workers’ pension payments are low down on the list of creditors to pay, according to the retirement fund rules. Each month, 7.5% of workers’ salaries are deducted by the Post Office as a contribution to the Post Office Retirement Fund. The employer’s contribution is supposed…

By Raymond Joseph The Cabinet has approved the appointment of a new board for the National Lotteries Commission, after the term of the interim board that was appointed for a year in 2022 ended. The new board replaces the four-member board appointed by Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel in March last year for a one-year term which ended on 31 March. The new board will serve a five-year term. Patel has retained three members of the previous interim board. They are Beryl Ferguson, who is a businesswoman as well as the deputy chair of the South African National…

By James Stent More than 1 million people have directly benefitted from the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) programme launched by Cyril Ramaphosa in 2020. About 800,000 short-term jobs, mostly for young people, have been created so far. Most of the jobs are in education and in social programmes such as early childhood development and community safety. Programme lead Kate Philip says the PES could be expanded almost immediately. The Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES), launched by Cyril Ramaphosa in response to the Covid pandemic, has pulled more than 1 million people into jobs or supported their livelihoods since it was launched. Since…

By Raymond Joseph The Special Investigating Unit, which has been investigating corruption involving Lottery grants since 2020, is applying for its mandate to be extended to allow it to probe procurement by the National Lotteries Commission. The SIU has come across several instances of potential fraud and corruption involving NLC procurement. The Auditor-General (AG) also highlighted problems with procurement, and the NLC itself has received several tip-offs about questionable procurement, which are being investigated internally and by three audit firms. But until its mandate is extended, the SIU’s hands are tied, as the 2020 proclamation signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa only…

By Tania Broughton The High Court in Johannesburg has ordered a financial services company to pay a client more than R800,000 stolen by fraudsters through email cybercrime. Judge Denise Fisher ruled in favour of Jan Jacobus Gerber who sued a PSG Wealth Financial Planning for the loss he sustained due to the unlawful electronic transfer of money intended for his retirement that he had invested with the company. Judge Fisher said it had become routine for business to be conducted via email and it had now become common for these emails to be accessed remotely by fraudsters. She said business email compromise (BEC)…

By Daniel Steyn, James Stent and Marecia Damons A temporary manager has been appointed to take over control of the Mangaung Correctional Centre operated by multinational security company G4S. An investigation by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) found that G4S’s director has lost control of the facility. DCS says that Thabo Bester was assisted to escape from the prison in May 2022, but G4S maintains that Bester died in his cell. Also in this article: Who owns G4S and what do they have to say? (Not much) What happens when a vehicle enters the prison? How many recent escapes have there been in…

By Liezl Human The R350 Covid grant should be increased to R413 in line with inflation, say the Institute for Economic Justice and the the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa. The organisations noted with concern that the only aspect under review for amendment was the “expiry date” of the grant. They also took issue with the qualifying means test and bank verification process which has seen millions of people excluded. The R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant should be increased to a minimum of R413, in line with inflation, according to the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and…