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Government has demonstrated its support to young people in the field of arts and culture by providing them with a platform to showcase their creativity and nurture their artistic potential.

“The Young Creatives Programme (TYCP), a National Youth Service Programme of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, aims to identify, nurture and empower young artists, writers, musicians, performers, designers and creators from diverse backgrounds,” Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Zizi Kodwa said on Thursday.

Each participant will receive a stipend allowance that ranges from R3500 - R4000.

“Many young creatives are often faced with challenges of not having permanent employment as the sector is regarded as informal because it only offers gig work. This is about to change through The Young Creatives Programme,” the Minister said during the launch of the programme in Johannesburg.

The platform serves as a stepping stone for professional development and a catalyst for artistic careers.

“By recognizing and encouraging their talents, the programme seeks to inspire a new generation of creatives who will not only contribute to the cultural fabric of our society but will earn a living through the arts.

“The Young Creatives Programme offers a range of exciting opportunities for participants, including mentorship programs, workshops, exhibitions, performances, networking events, and access to resources and facilities.

“By engaging with experienced mentors and industry experts, young creatives will have the chance to refine their skills, expand their knowledge, and gain valuable insights into various art forms and career paths,” the Minister said.

Kodwa expressed that government believes that investing in the talents of young creatives is crucial for the growth and vitality of the arts and culture sector.

“Fundamentally, this programme is geared towards improving the employability and self-confidence of participants making them to be successful in the job market or in setting up their own enterprises.

“The TYCP will assist the Department to address the plight of young people in the creative industries – by engaging them in meaningful development,” the Minister said.

Reviving community arts centres

The Young Creatives Programme will be implemented also as a strategy to revive the importance of Community Arts Centres.

It will enable Community Arts Centres to become the centre of youth and community development.

“Our plan is that while The Young Creatives will be engaged in the current programmes of the Community Arts Centre where they are placed, they will initiate their creative arts activities or projects at these sites, to grow and be active agents of change.

“The programme will be implemented in partnership with National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and in the first year, will realise the placement of 270 young creatives in Community Arts Centres across the country.

“We are hoping that these cohorts, with the assistance from the Community Art Centre managers as well as the provincial Department officials and NYDA, will help the community arts environment to be much more viable and importantly, become ‘first space of choice’ where young people can converge and share their creative and artistic experiences,” Kodwa said.

The partnership with the NYDA will bolster the Department’s aims of mainstreaming youth development.

“Participants will have Community Arts Centres as sites of their community activism using their creativity as a weapon to fight social ills, as well as a tool to educate and entertain the community surrounding their Community Arts Centres. The NYDA will not only give training to the young creatives, but they will also look after these young participants as they exit the programme,” the Minister said.

Amongst others, the programme intends to:

• Assist the department in its quest to deliver service in creative arts activities;
• Promote patriotism and nation-building;
• Advance social cohesion and
• Assist participants to develop occupational skills necessary to be self-employed, access work-readiness or employability skills of being successful in getting a job and having sustainable livelihood opportunities. – SAnews.gov.za

 

 

 

 

The Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille, has welcomed a decision that will see law enforcement stopping unduly penalising tour operators who have applied for licence renewals and are still awaiting their renewed licences from the Department of Transport.

“The National Department of Transport, through its National Public Transport Regulator Committee (NPTR), is responsible for issuing and renewing tour operator licences. Last year a backlog on applications had a severely negative impact on tour operators across the country,” the Minister said on Friday.

The decision follows in-depth engagements with the private sector and the Departments of Transport and Tourism. Engagement on the matter started last year.

“We agreed that the Minister of Transport would send a letter to all MECs for Transport for law enforcement officers to stop unduly penalising tour operators who are awaiting their licence renewal application decisions.

“The Department of Transport adjudicated 1 432 applications for tour operating licenses and the backlog was cleared last year.

“However, out of the 1 174 approved applications, only 636 operating licenses were uplifted/collected by tour operators,” de Lille said.

In an effort to remedy the slow upliftment and foster relations between the industry and the NPTR, the Department of Transport embarked on collaborative workshops with the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) in the key provinces of Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwa Zulu-Natal.

The solution-oriented roadshows created a platform for operators to engage directly with the NPTR to have their long-standing licensing issues resolved.

In addition, to resolve challenges within the tour operator licence process, a decision was taken at a recent Ministry of Transport and Transport MECs meeting to implore their respective law enforcement officers to correctly interpret Regulation 25(2) of the National Land Transport Regulations.

This includes law enforcement officers desisting from the inconvenience resulting from impounding vehicles whose operators have rightfully applied for renewals.  

“The Department of Transport has acknowledged the critical role of tourism in the country’s economy and has committed to continuing with the collaborative engagements between the NPTR, the industry and sector departments to improve regulatory and administrative practices in the operating license processes.

“The penalising and impoundment of tour operator vehicles dealt a heavy blow to the industry and through the collective efforts of government and the private sector, namely the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA), we have been able to resolve this matter.

“The Department of Tourism will continue working with the Department of Transport and all roleplayers to continue reducing red tape and creating an [environment for] ease of doing business for the tourism sector to allow the sector to grow and contribute even more to the country’s economy,” the Minister said. – SAnews.gov.za

The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government will host a series of high-level engagements as a precursor to the 15th BRICS Summit that will take place in August.

Led by Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, the engagements will kick off with the BRICS Gender Dividend Debate to be hosted by the City of Durban at Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC) on Friday, 14 July 2023. 

The debate will be led by prominent female political leaders, including government officials, and economists from BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and African nations. 

Dube-Ncube said the objective of the debate is to explore the political economy of gender in a multipolar world, framing “Tomorrow’s multipolar world, through a gender lens” for Women by Women in BRICS and African nations. 

She said the main topics of discussion will include the impact of the evolving BRICS and African political and economic landscape on transforming industries to become gender-neutral and inclusive. 

“The debate will also focus on identifying revolutionary decisions, investments, and measures of success that BRICS leaders need to deploy to promote gender equity and equality, fostering inclusive and prosperous BRICS and African economies.

“Furthermore, the debate will emphasise converting promises and hopes into practical solutions and framing resolutions, to advance the BRICS needle on gender equality by 2030, contributing to the Johannesburg XV BRICS Summit Declaration,” said the Premier.

The event will be followed by the 9th BRICS Youth Summit and the Meeting of Ministers responsible for Youth Affairs, to be hosted by the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) which will be held from 18-21 July 2023.

The BRICS Youth Summit is a platform for dialogue for delegates from member states, striving for the promotion of peace, security, development in a multi-polar inter-dependent and increasingly complex, globalizing world. 

Held under the theme “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism” the objectives of the summit are to bring together youth participants, affording them an opportunity to share ideas and work on a concrete Action Plan for co-operation in economic, humanitarian, mass media and the science sphere.

NYDA spokesperson, Bongekile Skosana, said this year, South Africa as the Chair of BRICS will direct the summit to focus mainly on discussions that aim to encourage young leaders amongst BRICS nations to actively participate in addressing significant global challenges, economic, social issues, and contribute to the developmental agenda.

“It further focuses to establish constructive engagements on issues relating to youth empowerment, the advancement of youth development and in creating a conducive environment where youth will devise a path to a brighter and better future,” Skosana said.

The BRICS Urbanisation Forum taking place from 26-27 July 2023, will also bring together various stakeholders from the BRICS countries, including BRICS Ministerial delegations, representatives from local governments, policymakers, and other stakeholders to place key issues of urbanisation on their agenda for action. 

The Forum will highlight how to build productive and sustainable urban economies and livelihood survival strategies in urban environments as well as creating inclusive urban spaces.

The last edition of the forum was hosted online under the presidency of China in 2022.

BRICS-AFRICA Women Business Alliance

The events will conclude with BRICS-AFRICA Women Business Alliance (BRICS WBA) Trade Conference, taking place on 20-21 August 2023.

The BRICS WBA Trade Conference is a unique event that brings together 500 women-owned businesses, including micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises from 18 different countries, namely South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Zambia, DRC, Egypt, Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and Lesotho.

The conference is set to be a ground-breaking event, featuring several highlights, including the first ever physical meeting of BRICS WBA national chapters, the launch of the Agrowex e-commerce platform, and the unveiling of the BRICS Center for Labour Mobility and Education Services, “Work and Study”.

BRICS Summit

South Africa will host the 15th BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, from 22 - 24 August 2023.

The Summit will take place under the theme: “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism”. – SAnews.gov.za

 

 

Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan says Komati Power Station not only represents a practical example of how South Africa will conduct its Just Energy Transition but also provides a glimpse into Eskom’s future.

The power station, which was decommissioned in October last year, is the first coal fired power station in Eskom’s fleet to transition to a renewable energy hub.

“Whilst there’s a section that will say we have shutdown the power station. In fact, we are bringing it down so that it can rise again. It’s not a complete shutdown. We are not breaking anything. We are repurposing and preparing it for a different kind of future and it’s a future that the world itself…is preparing for.

“Komati is South Africa’s reality. It’s where South Africa’s Just Energy Transition is going to be tested and prepared for. Komati is the place where…the tyre hits the road,” he said.

Eskom envisions that within the next few years, the Komati site will feed some 370MW of solar, wind and battery storage power to the grid.

Gordhan said this and the Just Energy Transition presents “huge opportunities” for South Africa and emphasised that through this transition, no one will be left behind.

“The ‘just’ in the Just Energy Transition is absolutely crucial. Not only for saying how do we ensure that our communities cope with the changes that are going to take place at Komati but also in the course of changing the nature of the relationship between Komati and the communities around Komati.

“Can we find new ways of economic inclusivity? Can we find new ways of economic empowerment? Can we find new ways of creating a whole lot of new entrepreneurs in this area [This] is so that it can become real economic activity as opposed to dependence on one power station.

“In that way we reduce the levels of unemployment; we increase the levels of entrepreneurship in South Africa and people learn to become part of the new world,” he said.

Turning to the question of the employment of people who previously worked at the plant, Gordhan highlighted that these workers have either been relocated to other plants or are being re-skilled to do other jobs.

“There are both a number of ideas but also the beginnings of new programmes which will address the issue of jobs, the issue of training and people development and learning how to deal with new forms of technology that we have to inevitably deal with,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has approved generation licences for five preferred bidders of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

The five preferred bidders were approved for the department’s Bid Window 6 at the regulator’s 29 June meeting.

 “The five preferred bidders applied for generation licences in accordance with section 7 of the Electricity Regulation Act, 2006 (Act No.4 of 2006), which requires that no person may operate a generation facility without a licence issued by the Energy Regulator.

“NERSA analysed the applications and determined that they meet all the licensing requirements. No objections to the applications were received,” the Energy Regulator said on Friday.

The preffered bidders are: Doornhoek PV (Pty) Ltd; Boitumelo Solar Power Plant (RF) (Pty) Ltd; Kutlwano Solar Power Plant (RF) (Pty) Ltd; URSA Energy (RF) (Pty) Ltd and Antlia Energy (RF) (Pty) Ltd.

The sixth round of the REIPPPP Bid Window 6 is the second bid window to be procured in response to the Second Ministerial Determination.

The Bid Window called for new generation capacity of 4 200MW, made up of 3200 MW wind energy resources and 1000 MW Solar Photovoltaic energy resources.

The detailed Decision and Reasons for the Decision documents regarding the above decisions will be available on the NERSA website (www.nersa.org.za)  in due course. -SAnews.gov.za

 

 

While economic growth remains subdued, Cabinet says South Africa’s resilient economy continues to create jobs, though not at the preferred pace.

The Cabinet on Thursday reflected on the latest quarterly employment statistics released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

Stats SA announced last week that the total employment in the country dropped by 21 000 in the first quarter of 2023, bringing the level of employment to almost 10 million. 

The survey showed that 97 000 jobs were lost between March 2022 and March 2023.

The hardest hit sectors include business services, trade, transport and construction.

However, according to Cabinet, interventions such as the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme are helping to turn the tide. 

In addition, it said it was encouraged that by March 2023, more than 1.2 million people had directly benefited from the programme since its inception in 2020. 

“So far, about 800 000 short-term jobs, mostly for young people, have been created in the critical areas of education, early childhood development and community safety.”

The programme, the Cabinet added, has also ensured that many vulnerable South Africans participate in meaningful work and receive a stable income. 

“It has helped ease the economic hardships of thousands of families,” read a Cabinet statement issued on Thursday.

Illegal mining 

According to the statement, Cabinet was concerned about illegal mining and that government was taking measures to end it through the National Coordination and Strategic Management Team (NCSMT).

The NCSMT seeks to coordinate government’s efforts to combat illegal mining and the trafficking of precious metals.

“Illegal mining and trafficking of precious metals are harming our economy, and have a negative impact on the safety and health of surrounding communities.”

Community protests

Meanwhile, Cabinet reiterated that violence is not a solution to community problems and called on citizens to use existing channels to address their concerns. 

Cabinet announced that a Ministerial Task Team has been deployed to Diepsloot in Gauteng to work with community leaders to address their issues of concern. 

“Cabinet called on the community of Diepsloot and other areas to work with government, local councillors and the police to resolve issues such as crime.” – SAnews.gov.za

 

With the Netball World Cup activations getting underway this weekend, the City of Cape Town has encouraged residents to use the opportunity to see the Netball World Cup trophy up close and personal.

 “We have some exciting fun activities lined up at these activations and you can take pictures with the trophy before the start of the tournament. We encourage Capetonians to take the chance to go to their closest trophy activation and enjoy the spirit of the Netball World Cup,” the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, said on Thursday.

The Netball World Cup 2023 gets under way on 28 July and runs until 6 August 2023 in Cape Town.

“This is the pinnacle of the build up to Africa’s first Netball World Cup and as Cape Town we are truly looking forward to welcoming the world to our city. For now, we are excited to receive the famed trophy as the final destination in its journey across the country,” Smith said.

The Cape Town Trophy Tour will kick off at the Tygervalley Shopping Centre Food Court on Saturday, 8 July 2023.  The activation, which will be led by the Cape Town Netball Federation will be at the shopping centre from 3pm until 5pm.

Visitors at the V&A Waterfront will experience the trophy tour at the amphitheatre on Sunday, 9 July from 11am until 2pm. There will be fun activations, games, the official netball mascot Letsatsi and giveaways.

On Monday 10 July, the trophy will make its way to the Langa Civic Hall in Washington Street for a day of more activities, including an exhibition netball game with local players. The activities will start from 10am until 2pm.

The final stop of the trophy tour will be the Canal Walk Food Court on Tuesday 11 July.

Tickets for some of the games are still available at https://nwc2023.org.za/tickets/

 The City will establish a Fan Park outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre where netball fans can watch matches on a big screen, enjoy live entertainment, play games and enjoy a family environment for the duration of the Netball World Cup. – SAnews.gov.za

 

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on Congolese businesses to invest in South Africa and for local companies to do the same.

The President labelled the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the beating heart of Africa, with immense importance to the continent’s history. 

“The DRC has an equally important role to play in the future of our continent, with its minerals propelling the new green industrial revolution.

“It is for this reason that we want to see more South African companies investing in the DRC, and likewise to see more Congolese companies investing in the South African economy,” the President said on Thursday. 

The country's First Citizen was speaking in Kinshasa where he kicked off his working visit at the invitation of President Félix Tshisekedi. 

He co-chaired the Heads of State and Government segment of the 12th Session of the DRC–South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC).

President Ramaphosa said the BNC between the two countries underscores the importance of their relationship.

He told the delegates that the visit was taking place amid challenges. 

These, according to him, include the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising food and fuel prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and climate change that is negatively impacting economies and communities. 

“And yet even though we face some challenges, we are a continent brimming with potential and opportunity.

“From North Africa to South Africa, from East to West, and here in Central Africa, we are favoured with vast endowments.”

He reminded the officials that the countries have abundant mineral resources and fossil fuel reserves, large arable land, and abundant water supply. 

“We have a diverse terrain that supports all manner of infrastructure development, including renewable energy.

“And yet these vast endowments are not producing favourable economic and developmental outcomes evenly across the continent.”

However, he said they were meeting businesses because both nations see the opportunities. 

“Beyond our natural endowments, we have many other strengths as a continent.” – SAnews.gov.za

President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed condolences to the families of those affected by the gas cylinder leakage which claimed the lives of at least 17 people in Boksburg.

The incident occurred at the Angelo informal settlement in the area on Wednesday evening.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed deep sadness at the devastating and tragic loss of innocent lives at the Angelo informal settlement in Boksburg. The President extends his heartfelt condolences to the families that have lost loved ones. 

“President Ramaphosa has described this as a very sad morning. He further urges investigators to get to the bottom of what may have caused this accident to avoid similar disasters in future,” the Presidency said.

Meanwhile, Ekurhuleni Municipality Mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana has pledged the municipality’s support to the affected families.

“As the City of Ekurhuleni we would like to send our condolences to all the families of Angelo and all the families that have lost their loved ones. I know this is a difficult time that we are in and it’s a very shocking tragedy. 

“But we hope that God will be with all the people that have suffered a loss. With the community of Angelo and the city, we promise to give all the necessary support that they need,” Ngodwana said. – SAnews.gov.za