Author: Ground Up
By James Stent Commuter activist group #UniteBehind has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula to dissolve the board of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), appoint a new board and move passenger rail to the metros and provinces. But recent comments from another minister suggest that the party will resist attempts to shift control of commuter rail. In a 24 January letter of demand addressed to the President and Minister of Transport, #UniteBehind demands that the Minister of Transport dissolve the current PRASA board and appoint a competent new board; PRASA be placed under judicial…
By Raymond Joseph A luxurious mountainside mansion with sweeping views of Simon’s Town and False Bay, owned by a trust controlled by dodgy Pretoria lawyer Lesley Ramulifho, was described as “five-star” when it was put up for auction a few years ago. In rural Rustenburg, in North West, a magnificent boutique hotel on a property owned by a company belonging to former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) board member William Huma, lies in the picturesque foothills of the Kgaswane Nature Reserve Mountains. And in Midrand, Gauteng, a luxury guest house with conference facilities set in a large garden with “a country feel” is owned by…
By Tania Broughton Judith Hawarden received an email from what she thought was Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS) with the details of the account into which she paid the balance of money owed on a property sale. But the email was forged and the money stolen. Hawarden sued ENS for the money. In finding for Hawarden, the Gauteng High Court criticised ENS for relying on email, which is insecure, for invoicing her. The case likely has profound consequences for how companies invoice clients. ENS also had to pay punitive costs for the way it handled the case. One of South Africa’s leading…
By Marecia Damons On Friday, Postbank acknowledged that a glitch had prevented many social grant recipients from accessing their January 2023 payments. Postbank said the issue had been resolved. But GroundUp visited a Cape Town payment branch on Tuesday and found several beneficiaries had still not been paid. This is the second time in about a month that a major “system glitch” at Postbank has left grant beneficiaries with empty pockets. A Cape Town mother spent hours queuing outside the Post Office in Athlone this week, desperate to collect her child’s unpaid social grant. “November was the last time I received…
By Daniel Steyn The President’s Fund was established to pay reparations to victims of human rights abuses under apartheid. Over the past five years, the Fund has received R531-million in investment revenue but only disbursed R97.7-million in reparations. Progress on housing provision, as recommended by the TRC, has been slow. For almost two months, about 150 victims of apartheid have been sleeping outside the Constitutional Court as part of the Khulumani Galela Campaign. They say they qualify for apartheid reparations from the President’s Fund but they have not received them. The President’s Fund, established by the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act…
By Vincent Lali About 80 Shoprite truck drivers protested outside its distribution centre in Brackenfell, Cape Town on Thursday. The workers, affiliated to the Shosholoza Workers Union of South Africa (SHOWUSA), are demanding the company give all drivers a fixed basic salary and transport allowance. Shop steward Siyabulela Njuku told GroundUp that drivers are paid per hour and have to work 195-hours per month to get a basic salary. He said drivers are forced to work overtime to compensate for hours lost while they were on leave or sick. “We want a secured basic income that we must get monthly,” he…
By Liezl Human Commuter activist organisation #UniteBehind says Parliament has ignored its complaints against six MPs, including transport minister Fikile Mbalula, implicated in state capture and corruption at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). The organisation first laid a formal complaint in August 2022 to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests, referring to article 10 of Parliament’s Code of Conduct. This lays out the process of investigating a complaint. #UniteBehind wants the Joint Committee to summon the six MPs to account for their involvement in PRASA’s “slide into almost total ruin”. The organisation wants the committee to take disciplinary action…
By Raymond Joseph GroundUp has learnt that Jodi Scholtz will take over as Commissioner of the National Lotteries Commission early next year. Her current title is chief operating officer of the Department of Trade, Industry and Commerce. She has been lead administrator since February 2020 of the South African Bureau of Standards after it was placed under administration. Chief operating officer Jodi Scholtz of the Department of Trade, Industry and Commerce (DTIC) will take over as Commissioner of the National Lotteries Commission early next year. Her appointment is yet to be officially announced, but GroundUp has confirmed it with three different sources with…
Many residents and fishers of Saldanha Bay voiced their support for the Karpowership deal, saying it will ease the burden of load shedding and create jobs. Karpowership’s first application was refused by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) due to “gaps” in their environmental assessment and lack of proper public participation. Environmental NGO Green Connection, who oppose the deal, complained that Karpowership did not directly reach out to fishers. Karpowership told GroundUp it would supply hundreds of jobs and add 1,220MW of power to the country’s grid. At a public meeting held in Saldanha Bay as part…
By James Stent A PRASA investigation has uncovered a multi-million rand scam involving bogus insurance claims. The scam was uncovered because of the honesty of one of PRASA’s lowest-paid people. Zethembiso Dladla came forward after an additional R67,000 was deposited into her account. The payment was supposedly for an insurance claim in which Dladla was injured while using a train. But as she told PRASA, she hadn’t used the train, wasn’t injured and had never put in a claim. In its most recent annual report, for 2021/2022, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) reported a “flood of fictitious personal…