News

Communications and Digital Technologies Acting Minister, Enoch Godongwana, has welcomed a high court decision to place the South African Post Office (SAPO) under supervision and in business rescue.

The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa, in its ruling on Monday, said the business rescue proceedings are to commence with immediate effect.

Godongwana further noted the appointment of Anooshkumar Rooplal and Juanito Martin Damons as joint interim business rescue practitioners in respect of the business rescue proceedings subject to approval by the Registrar of Financial Services and ratification by the majority of SAPO’s creditors.

According to the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies, the decision of the court in support of the application brought by Minister Mondli Gungubele confirms that indeed SAPO is a strategic government asset that provides vital services throughout the country. This is especially in remote areas where SAPO is often the main link between residents and the outside world.

It added that it further uses its countrywide footprint to render such services as the distribution of social grants at its branches, distribution of medication to those in need and various national and international postal services etc.    

The decision will give SAPO the much needed time and space to restructure its affairs under supervision and implement the turnaround plan to fundamentally change its business model into a solvent and viable business with broad revenue streams that leads on modern services.

“The challenge is on SAPO, the department and all stakeholders to live up to the commitments made in the application,” said the acting Minister Godongwana. – SAnews.gov.za

 

The South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Eastern Cape, along with other stakeholders, has held a summit to look at ways to bolster rural safety.

The two-day summit, held in Mthatha last week, concentrated on efforts to eradicate stock theft, while at the same time, ensuring the safety of rural communities.

Several stakeholders converged at the Walter Sisulu University (Zamukulungisa Campus) in Mthatha to reflect on the challenges that are encountered by different sectors within the rural communities. During deliberations, a task team was set up to concentrate solely on rural safety.

"We managed to identify issues that our rural communities are facing, and now what we need is to implement workable solutions on the ground level in order to protect rural and farming communities," said a member of the Rural Safety Priority Task Force from the Office of the Minister of Police, Petrus Sitho.

In her keynote address at the summit, Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nomthetheleli Mene, said the work of the police must be strengthened by community partnerships.

“The SAPS as an organisation cannot go it alone. If we want to achieve the salient objectives of the National Rural Safety Strategy and other relevant legal frameworks, we need to stop working in silos. All we need is a multi-agency collaboration to gain strength that will enable us to defeat our common enemy," she said.

Following the recent spike in farm attacks, Agri SA and the police joined forces to crack down on crime. They announced an enhanced implementation of the National Rural Safety Strategy to not only protect farmers and workers, but also curb stock theft.

In a joint statement, Agri SA and the police expressed their commitment to work together, and to mobilise other agricultural unions and other role players in ensuring an enhanced implementation to co-create a crime-free farming environment. – SAnews.gov.za

 

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport and the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) have introduced a contractor to resume the repairs of the M4 Tongaat River bridge in Ballito, which was damaged during the April 2022 floods.

The closure of the bridge impacted negatively on communities and businesses in Zimbali, Ballito, Salt Rock, Shaka’s Head and other locations within the KwaDukuza Local Municipality.

It also affected residences and businesses along the M4 in Westbrook and Tongaat, as they had to take longer routes.

KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Sipho Hlomuka said the bridge was the main remaining strategic route, with access cut completely.

The M4 Tongaat River Bridge also provides an alternative route to the N2.

“Repairing the bridge will be part of the first phase and will ensure that motorists are able to travel safely. The design for a safer long-term structure will also commence concurrently,” Hlomuka said.

In other projects, including the N2, other sections of the M4 and the R102, Hlomuka said mobility has been restored and there are active sites where work is underway.

Meanwhile, the department said the N3 Toll Route at Van Reenen's Pass has been reopened to traffic after six trucks were torched by a group of gunmen at the weekend.  – SAnews.gov.za

 

eThekwini Municipality has encouraged prepaid electricity customers to get their key change token before the November 2024 deadline.

This follows the updating of prepaid electricity meters, which forms part of the city’s process to roll over its prepaid electricity token system to the new STS 6 format.

STS is the new prepaid electricity token system. The Token Identifier (TID) rollover project kicked off on 1 July 2023.

The municipality said the new key change tokens will ensure that customers who use prepaid electricity will still be able to purchase tokens after the 24 November 2024 deadline when the current format will no longer be useable.

To make this process easier, the city said customers can get the key change token from all third-party vending systems and residents don’t only have to get their key change token from Sizakala Centres. 

The tokens can be obtained when buying electricity from banking apps, supermarkets, and any other electricity prepaid vending systems.

The municipality said since July, customers from areas including Westville, Chiltern Hills, Cowies Hill, Atholl Heights, Dawncrest, Dawncliffe, Beverly Hills, Claire Estate, Palmiet, Rouken Glen, Grayleigh, Erin-Go-Bragth, Westville South, Westville North, and Reservoir Hills have already started receiving key change tokens. 

“Customers from these areas are receiving two sets of key change tokens when purchasing their prepaid electricity. The third token is for recharging electricity. The two sets of tokens need to be entered into the meter before entering a token for recharging electricity.

“From 1 August 2023, all customers in eThekwini will begin to receive key change tokens when purchasing prepaid electricity and customers are urged to ensure that they enter those key change tokens first before entering a token to recharge or load electricity. Failure to do so will result in customers being unable to purchase prepaid electricity,” the municipality explained.

The city has also advised customers to ensure that they redeem all the tokens they have bought previously, before entering the key change token, as “they will not be able to use any previous token once they have loaded the key change token”. – SAnews.gov.za

 

Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, will this week host the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) Education Senior Officials Meeting and the 10th Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Education in Mpumalanga.

The BRICS education engagements, taking place from 12 - 13 July 2023, are hosted as part of the build-up to the 15th BRICS Summit to be chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa in August 2023.

The official meeting will be held under the theme, ‘Responsive and Relevant Education and Training in the Current Global Context’.

The department said at the conclusion of the meeting of BRICS Ministers of Education, the Ministers will adopt a declaration, which makes firm commitments on eight thematic areas that have been identified. 

These areas include climate change, entrepreneurship development, skills, mutual recognition of qualifications, out-of-school youth, labour market intelligence, university global ranking and early childhood development.

The two engagements will be preceded by the BRICS TVET [technical vocational education and training] Institution President Seminar, taking place at Ekurhuleni West TVET College from 11 - 13 July 2023.

“In recognition of this year’s focus on BRICS and Africa, South Africa has invited the Ministers of Education from Mozambique and Namibia as guests of our BRICS education meetings.

“BRICS Ministers of Education will also consider and reflect on the outcomes of the BRICS TVET Cooperation Alliance and BRICS Network University Seminars,” the department said in a statement.

During the 9th Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Education, held in May last year, Nzimande reaffirmed the BRICS countries’ commitment to implementing the UN Education 2030 Agenda, promoting education accessibility and equity, and accelerating the development of quality education and training.

They also committed to encourage exchanges among youth from the bloc, strengthening the cultivation of knowledge on sustainable development and providing BRICS contributions for global governance. – SAnews.gov.za

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has reported that five trucks were torched on the N4 highway near Machardodorp in Mpumalanga last night.

The incident took place just before midnight yesterday. Of the five trucks, four were going uphill from Mbombela towards Machardodorp, while the fifth was travelling in the opposite direction, towards Mbombela.

This incident came on the heels of another where six trucks were torched on the Van Reenen's Pass in KwaZulu-Natal, also during the weekend, by a gang of armed men who forced the truck drivers to stop their trucks.

The gang set all six trucks alight causing the road to be closed to traffic. No injuries were reported. Motorists were urged to delay their trips if possible.

Northbound traffic, heading to Johannesburg, was stopped at Tugela Plaza, while southbound traffic, heading to Durban, was stacked at the top of Van Reenen's Pass.

With the Mpumalanga incident, the trucks were burnt and that caused massive destruction and loss for different trucking companies.

According to information received, it is alleged that two vehicles, a light delivery vehicle and a sedan with five occupants stopped the trucks, instructed the drivers to take their personal belongings before setting the trucks on fire.

The exact loss suffered is yet to be determined. The motive behind the mayhem is also unclear at this stage.

Police have since launched an investigation into this incident of malicious damage to properties.

Police call on anyone with information regarding the perpetrators to call the Crime Stop number at 08600 10111 or send information via MYSAPSAPP.

All received information will be treated as confidential and callers may opt to remain anonymous.

The Provincial Commissioner of SAPS in Mpumalanga Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela, has strongly condemned the outrageous behaviour of lawlessness displayed in this incident.

"We are a country with laws and we cannot allow our country to be subjected to this kind of criminal behaviour. An example should be made out of the people behind this act,” said Lieutenant General Manamela.

“Besides the great financial loss caused in terms of the damages, other road users were inconvenienced as the road was closed down for hours as police and other role players were busy with investigation and assessment. The perpetrators thereof should be hunted down and be brought to book," Lieutenant General Manamela said. - SAnews.gov.za

 

Eskom has implemented Stage 4 load shedding immediately following increased demand and lowered generation capacity.

The higher stage will be implemented until 5am on Tuesday morning.

This will be followed by Stage 2 until 2pm with Stage 4 implemented thereafter.

The pattern will then continue until further notice.

“Over the past 24 hours a generating unit each at Duvha, Hendrina, Kendal, Kriel, Matimba and Medupi power stations were all returned to service.

“In the same period, a generating unit each at Arnot and Tutuka power stations were taken out of service due to breakdowns. The delay in returning to service two generating units at Tutuka Power Station is contributing to current capacity constraints. Eskom teams are working around the clock to return the generating units to service,” Eskom said in a statement.

Breakdowns have contributed to at least 14 252MW being offline with a further 4118MW out due to planned maintenance.

Eskom called on South Africans to use electricity sparingly particularly during peak hours.

“We appeal to members of the public to reduce demand and we would like to thank those South Africans who do heed the call to use electricity sparingly and efficiently, including switching off geysers and pool pumps from 5pm to 9pm, as this lowers demand and helps in alleviating the pressure on the power system and contributes to lower stages of load shedding,” Eskom said. – SAnews.gov.za

Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga has called for incentives to reward those that use cleaner fuels as a measure to reduce air pollution, which affects human health and the environment.  

“Vehicle subsidies may be offered for example towards buyers of compressed natural gas (CNG) buses, electric and hydrogen run vehicles. While fare subsidies are known to attract more numbers of commuters from use of private cars,” Chikunga said on Monday in Pretoria.

Addressing the 41st annual Southern African Transport Conference (SATC 2023), she said the contribution of road transport to the Republic of South Africa’s (RSA’s) Greenhouse emissions (GHG) has increased to 95.7% in 2023.

“The road transport is said to be the highest polluter due to its overwhelming impacts. There are almost 13 million vehicle population (12 969 430) on South African roads, 32% (4 158 818) of which are goods vehicle.

“In environmental terms, it is documented that in 2018, the road transport alone was responsible for 91.2% of South Africa’s Green House Gas emissions. Other modes such as aviation, maritime and rail accounted for 5%, 2.2% and 1.6%, respectively,” the Minister said.

The National Department of Transport’s (DoT) is tasked with drafting policy and legislation, which in turn must guide the planning and the building of resilient systems to tackle global transport externalities.

“However, agreeing on policies that will enable internalisation of social costs from GHG emissions globally is no easy task, with differences between the more developed and the less developed countries.

“As government we may have to improve the design of incentives to reward those whose transport production or consumption activities results in positive externalities.

“Taxes or subsidies are here imposed so that private costs absolve society’s full costs and benefits accruing from a transaction. Imposing taxes and subsidies however require lots of data towards establishing the true outcomes,” Chikunga said.

She said subsidies might also be used to influence consumer choices to opt for more environmentally friendly transport mode.

“Policies may be put in place to subsidise capital expenditure, as well as operational expenditure related to public passenger transport. Modal subsidies for public transport buses, railway and taxes may be offered.

“It should be noted that to these ends we have already embarked on a process of developing and implementing a public transport subsidy whose benefits must accrue most importantly to the consumer of public transport,” the Minister said.

These actions are intended to stimulate increased use of less intrusive transport modes, when given subsidies.

In addition, fuel economy standards could be set to capture the mileage travelled per unit of fuel consumed.

She also suggested regulation on emission standards, which may be set to impose a limit on the amount of exhaust that a vehicle happens to be giving off in its tailpipe.

Fuel quality standards may be instituted to limit polluting elements in a fuel type, e.g., lead in gasoline and sulphur in diesel.

The Minister’s call comes as the international community prepares to commemorate Mandela Day, which is calling for focus on dismantling poverty and inequality by acting against climate change and creating resilient food environments.

Mandela Day is an annual global celebration that takes place on 18 July to honour the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. This day is a call to action for individuals, communities, and organisations to take time to reflect on Mandela's values and principles and to make a positive impact in their own communities. – SAnews.gov.za