Finance Minister Trevor Manuel convened a meeting on Thursday between the Treasury and Cosatu in an attempt to resolve numerous challenges.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday released a key report on the economic status of South Africa.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Monday took over control of the troubled Land Bank from Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana.
South Africa has a low savings rate by international standards, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel wrote on Monday.
Finance minister Trevor Manuel has issued a stern threat of legal consequences for journalists over his court battle with Terry Crawford-Browne.
Thousands of unionised South African workers downed tools on Wednesday to protest against a sharp jump in food and fuel prices.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday welcomed the announcement of a pay increase for public servants. On Tuesday, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said public-sector workers would receive a wage increase of 10,5% with effect from July 1.
The South African state is imploding. Although there is not a moment to spare, we can still avoid the coming crash if we act quickly enough. But, first, there has to be an official acknowledgement that there is a crisis. Astonishingly, denial of the crisis remains the mainstay of President Thabo Mbeki and his leading officials, writes William M Gumede.
A Cape High Court judge on Monday dismissed an application to force Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to hand over arms-deal documents, activist Terry Crawford-Browne said. He said Judge Daniel Dlodlo ruled in essence ”that I had waited too long in asserting my rights to discovery of the documents”.
POINT: In April 2001, 22 months after Thabo Mbeki became president, the Mail & Guardian ran a full-length front-cover photograph of him alongside the question: ”Is this man fit to rule?” Letters to the paper the following week convey the intensity of the reaction. ”Who are these racists masquerading as newspapermen?”
Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad will not be available to serve in public office after next year’s elections, a media report said on Friday. Pahad is the latest government figure to announce his intentions after Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin went public about his resignation, also planned for after next year’s elections.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has accused Helen Zille, the leader of the Democratic Alliance and mayor of Cape Town, of fanning the flame of xenophobia by saying that attacks on foreigners were in part due to the fact that foreigners were selling the drug tik to South African children.
Movements in the rand currency are more likely to be linked to volatility of the United States dollar than other factors, such as recent attacks on migrant workers, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. ”I think that we’re living through a period now where there is a lot of volatility in exchange rate markets everywhere,” he said.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday defended inflation targeting as an economic management tool and hinted the government was still comfortable with a 3% to 6% percent target range for the main CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) gauge.
Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin would retire after the elections next year, a media report said on Monday. ”The minister would like to confirm that he would not be serving another term. His decision was taken long before the change in African National Congress leadership,” said his spokesperson Vimla Maistry.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel commended the staff of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) for having exceeded the revenue target for the last tax year. He was speaking on Thursday at the launch of Sars’s 2008 filing season. ”When I speak to my international colleagues, they can’t match the figures,” he said.
South Africa’s Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Thursday wage increases had negative implications for price stability, but it was important to ensure that inflation did not erode workers’ salaries. The central bank has cited electricity tariffs and wage settlements among the key issues its monetary policy committee will monitor closely.
Arms-deal activist Terry Crawford-Browne on Thursday denied that he was waging a personal vendetta against Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. Addressing the Cape High Court, where he has applied for a contempt-of-court ruling against the minister and former finance director general Maria Ramos, he said: ”The arms deal is not some Trevor/Terry saga.”
The South African Communist Party, an ally of the African National Congress (ANC), called at a weekend summit for President Thabo Mbeki to be sacked, newspapers said on Saturday, but the ANC said the issue was not even on the agenda. ANC spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso dismissed any suggestion that Mbeki’s political future was being discussed.
South Africa should be prepared to intervene in the foreign exchange market to keep its currency stable and ”competitive”, and should maintain its inflation targets, a group advising the government said. In its report released on Thursday, an international panel — known as the Harvard Group — also suggested a budget surplus of between 1% and 2% to help ease inflation.
Official data tell us that class apartheid, born in April 1994 with features that include durable racism and patriarchy, is now a malevolent juvenile delinquent.As with racial apartheid two decades ago, the chains of class apartheid have growing cracks and, with enough pressure from below, can also be broken.
South Africa would be wise to increase household savings in the current economic climate, helping to ease pressure on financing of the current-account deficit, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Tuesday. Manuel said that the country’s savings rate was not adequate at just under 14% of gross domestic product.
South Africa exceeded its tax-revenue target by more than R800-million in the 2007/08 financial year due to strong economic growth and efficient collections. The Treasury said the South African Revenue Service (Sars) revenue service collected ,807-billion in taxes.
Hikes in the petrol price will impact negatively on motorists’ and commuters’ disposable income, the Automobile Association (AA) of South Africa warned on Monday. ”The impact of the highest fuel prices ever in the history of transport in South Africa will without doubt be felt on the supermarket shelves,” the AA said in a statement.
Remember the days when, as inaugural transport minister, Mac Maharaj insisted that he would continue to drive his beat-up old Jetta? It struck a chord, for it spoke of a government that would live comfortably yet simply. Those days died quickly as the new democrats dusted off old protocol books designed for a venal order.
South Africa is well positioned to weather the current global economic turmoil, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. While a difficult set of challenges lay ahead, he was confident that ”our ship is strong [and] that we will weather the present storms that are raging worldwide”, he told the National Assembly.
The government will not abandon its inflation-targeting policy of between 3% and 6%, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. ”Our adoption of inflation targeting in the late 1990s has enabled our economy to grow and to become more competitive,” he told the National Assembly. ”We cannot, at the first signs of stress, abandon our anchor,” Manuel said.
Jeremy Cronin, the deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, suggested in Parliament on Tuesday that there should be a council of state, which would be a super-Cabinet with a strategic planning mandate. Croning was speaking during debate on the Appropriation Bill.
Eskom has applied for a 53% hike in electricity tariffs, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa announced on Tuesday. It said it had received the application earlier in the day. Eskom is seeking this hike in place of the 14,2% increase it was granted in December last year.
South Africa’s large current-account deficit is a major chink in its armour given a low savings rate and current global financial market turmoil, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday. The country was dependent on foreign capital inflows to fund a rising deficit, he said.
South Africa’s once notorious Robben Island penal colony risks ghost-town status as its last residents trickle off in search of creature comforts on the mainland. The population of penguins, seals and feral cats far outnumbers the 112 human inhabitants of the present day heritage site — mostly former prison warders and their families.
Since September last year, divorcees have been able to receive a portion of their ex-spouse’s pension fund without waiting until retirement. But confusion about the taxation of these funds and whether divorce orders prior to the change in legislation qualify has meant that the payment has often not been made.