African National Congress MP Ismail Vadi, who was elected unopposed as chairperson of the ad hoc committee on the public protector on Wednesday afternoon, said he undertakes to conduct his responsibility with humility and in a manner that will ”bring dignity” to Parliament.
South African Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota said any blurring of functions between the state arms procurement agency, Armscor, and the state arms manufacturing entity, Denel, must come to an end. He noted that he has already held preliminary discussions with the minister of public enterprises in this regard.
South Africa’s Department of Transport told MPs on Tuesday that more than 500 000 traffic accidents occur annually on the country’s roads and of these 80% are a result of driver-related offences. Furthermore, the state loses about R750-million a year in uncollected fines as only 28% of issued fines are collected.
The success of the Democratic Alliance and its emergence as South Africa’s second-largest party is partly attributable to the fact that the New National Party, the architect party of apartheid, has embraced the liberation of all South Africans, said President Thabo Mbeki on Friday.
Both the ruling African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance have named their members who will serve on an ad hoc committee to consider the public protector’s probe into a complaint against the national director of public prosecutions.
The South African government’s view on the resolution of the problems of Iraq were similar to those when it came to Zimbabwe, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma explained on Friday. Dlamini-Zuma indicated that South Africa had its own views on the situation in Zimbabwe, but she was not certain whether these were shared by others in the sub-region.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) customs division has raked in R200-million in extra revenue from the oil industry in the past financial year, MPs were told on Wednesday. There has been limited auditing of the oil industry’s accounts but this has now changed considerably.
One of the major issues holding up the announcement of South Africa’s much-delayed taxi recapitalisation programme is an assessment of the costs of the subsidy scheme, which applies to the purchase of the envisaged new 18- and 35-seater taxis. The government has for five years been struggling to implement the programme.
South Africa’s public protector has rapped the National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka over the knuckles for announcing last year that Deputy President Jacob Zuma would not be charged. Ngcuka had issued a press statement on August 23 last year which said that there was ”a prima facie case of corruption” against Zuma but that he would not be prosecuted.
New Minister of Education Naledi Pandor has acknowledged that it going to take a little longer than the end of the financial year to ensure that there is no longer a school pupil learning under a tree. She was referring to President Thabo Mbeki’s promise that the problem will be eradicated by the end of the financial year.