Social security grants should fall under the provinces, argues Amanda Fitschen The state of provincial government finances has received a lot of attention, especially in the past week as provinces tabled their individual budgets. While the latest published provincial revenue and expenditure figures indicate that matters are certainly better than they were a year ago, […]
Ren Otto Fraud is rife in the short-term insurance market in South Africa. Millions of rands are being paid out to unscrupulous fraudsters. As a result, honest people’s insurance premiums are disproportionately high. The wrong people are suffering. The situation worsens: many consumers argue that it is simply not worth the trouble, so they go […]
Chiara Carter Tensions within the New National Party in its Western Cape stronghold reached the status of open warfare this week with the MEC for Agriculture and Property Management, Lampie Fick, at odds with the NNP chair of the province’s finance committee, Jeanne-Pierre Gerber, over the sale of state land. Fick, a senior politician close […]
THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) warned voters on Tuesday that this weekend’s registration drive would be their last chance to get their names on the voters’ roll for the upcoming general election. “All eligible voters who do not register on March 5, 6 and 7 will effectively disenfranchise themselves,” the IEC said in a statement […]
THE Mpumalanga taxi industry is negotiating for an equity share in the R2-billion Witbank-to-Maputo N4 toll road. The toll road concessionaire, Trans Africa Concessions (Trac), confirmed on Tuesday that a large but as yet unnamed provincial taxi group is interested in acquiring shares in the company. Trac chief executive, Trevor Jackson, said that negotiations started […]
THE Safety and Security Minster Sydney Mufamadi released government plans on Thursday to curtail the widely abused lending of firearms by changing gun-lending laws in terms of the Arms and Ammunition Act. The Act allows people over 16 to borrow guns with a letter of permission from the owner. The amendments will stipulate that borrowing […]
THE Skills Development Levy Bill — which proposes a compulsory levy on employers to fund programmes to boost workers’ skills — was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. Introduction of the levy will be staggered, with employers paying 0,5% of their monthly payrolls to the fund from April 1, 2000. By April 2001 this will kick […]
AN EASTERN Cape woman said to be 114 years old died after she was raped by 29-year-old man, police said Wednesday. Dina Boesaka was raped her in her home in Kwanonzamo township near Humansdorp by a man apparently known to her. She died later in hospital. “Family members say Mrs. Boesaka was 114 years old […]
SELBY MAKGOTHO, Pietersburg | Wednesday 9.30pm. THE culture of fear shrouding Aids and HIV sufferers needs to be broken for South Africa to be effective in its fight against the pandemic, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki warned at the launch of a national Aids train in the Northern Province on Thursday. Pointing out that HIV-positive people […]
THE Mozambican government has launched an emergency appeal for $12,4-million to assist victims of flooding and to repair damage to the country’s infrastructure by this year’s heavy rains. The appeal covers flooded areas in Inhambane in the south and in the central provinces of Sofala, Tete and Zambezia. In the usually semi-arid Inhambane province a […]