Category Archives: South African News

News24.com | The Western Cape’s crippling police shortage by numbers

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The Western Cape has the highest shortage of police officers in the country, with 85% of police stations in the province understaffed. The standing committee on community safety in the Western Cape legislature asked the Public Service Commission (PSC) to investigate last year after it held a series of public hearings into the matter.

The PSC has since completed its investigation and released its report. News24’s Jenna Etheridge unpacks some of the stark numbers that prompted the PSC’s investigation and highlighted the state of policing in the province.

2 392 – The number of police vacancies in the province in 2014, according to parliamentary replies. 

2 375 – The number of officers who left the police service between 2011/12 and 2015/16, mostly through resignation and discharge.

1 012 – The shortage of police officers in the Western Cape, according to a National Assembly reply in 2013. This was in comparison to Gauteng, which had the next highest shortage of 748 officers.

222 – The number of new police recruits in 2013, as opposed to 1 103 new recruits for the province in 2005.

128 – The amount of understaffed police stations in the Western Cape. This means that 85% of police stations were understaffed.

51 – The number of dogs the Maitland K9 unit had despite being equipped with more than 150 kennels seen by the committee during an oversight visit in 2015. 

25 – The number of dockets that each detective should have in terms of the national norm. The committee found that police stations in the Cape Town metro, except Claremont in the Southern Suburbs, had in excess of this.

21 – The number of police stations in the Cape Town metro that had less than one officer for every 500 people. These were almost all in high-crime communities. 

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Wheels24.co.za | Here’s how much South African neighbouring countries are paying for fuel

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Cape Town- As of Wednesday (July 4) South Africans are paying even more for their fuel than in June.

The recent hike came after midnight when petrol and diesel respectively increased by 23 cents a liter, hiking the price to R16.02  for petrol inland, R15.43 coastal and R14.44 for the 50ppm diesel – the highest prices in South African history.

Most South Africans do not understand why they are paying more for fuel than their neighbours when said neighbours get their fuel supply from our country.

GlobalPetrolPrices.com explains the process on how you end up paying for fuel and the various price differences.

The average price of fuel around the world is R16 per liter.

As a general rule, more affluent countries have higher prices while poorer countries and the countries that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices.

One notable exception is the United States which is an economically advanced country but has low fuel prices.

The differences in prices across countries are due to the various taxes and subsidies for fuel. All countries have access to the same petroleum prices of international markets but then decide to impose different taxes. As a result, the retail price of petrol is different. 

eNCA | South Africans paying too much for private healthcare

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JOHANNESBURG – South Africans are paying too much for private healthcare, the Competition Commission on Thursday, adding patients are sometimes prescribed treatments they don’t need by an industry with limited competition.

Presenting its findings of a four-year investigation into the sector, the Competition Commission said private health providers sometimes recommended pricey treatments unnecessarily.

“This happens, for example, if a doctor orders more tests than are absolutely necessary or conducts a Caesarean section when it is not absolutely necessary to do so,” said Sandile Ngcobo, a former chief justice who headed the Commission’s investigating panel.

The findings could boost health minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s efforts to cut costs for patients as the government works towards implementing the National Health Insurance that aims to give the poor greater access to healthcare.

South Africa spends roughly 9 percent of gross domestic product on healthcare but more than half of that is spent by about 16 percent of the population with private medical schemes, according to the health department.

Watch: Is private healthcare putting profits before people?

The inquiry also found there was limited competition in both the healthcare insurance and the private hospital markets.

South Africa’s private hospital industry is dominated by Mediclinic International, Life Healthcare and Netcare, while the medical insurance sector counts Discovery Ltd , Liberty Holdings and MMI Holdings among the biggest players.

“One of the challenges of this, from a competition perspective, is that it affords the big-three hospital groups “must-have” status in bargaining for contracts with funders which reduces funders’ countervailing power,” Ngcobo said.

To address the concentration, the Commission proposed divestments and imposing a moratorium on issuing new licences to the three large hospital providers until such time as their national market share is no higher than 20 percent.

WATCH: SA healthcare system on verge of collapse: Health Ombudsman

It also proposed setting up a regulator to set tariffs for health services after extensive consultation with stakeholders in a public forum.

South Africa already uses a regulator to set the price of electricity, the bulk of which is supplied by utility Eskom.

Stakeholders have until September 7 to comment on the findings and proposed recommendations.

Ngcobo and his team will consider the comments and, if necessary, revise the report. The final report and recommendations are expected to be published by the end of November.

Reuters

News24.com | Here they are – 100 young Mandelas

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2018-07-04 08:51

Here they are: News24’s first 100 young Mandelas of the future.

Leadership. Vision. Creativity. Compassion. Resilience.

These were the five values chosen by News24’s journalists that embodied Madiba for us. In the centenary of former president Nelson Mandela’s birth, we set out to find a new generation of leaders to take South Africa forward.

Looking back is good. We must learn from the past and avoid the mistakes of those who came before us.

But looking towards the future is crucial. Who will be the architects of our beloved land over the next 100 years? What are the issues that will determine our fate? Who are our new Nelson Mandelas?

We were overwhelmed by your response to our call for entries.

In a time when one could easily be duped into believing that South Africa is more polarised than ever before if you listen to certain “leaders” or walk the grubby streets of social media networks, we were blown away by the over 1 300 entries we received to be part of our first 100 young Mandelas series.

It was extremely difficult to select only 100 from the hundreds of incredible nominations we received.

Your stories have inspired and delighted us. Police officers, teachers, school children, doctors, entrepreneurs, social workers, IT specialists, filmmakers, activists, academics and lawyers – we received nominations from a broad range of people with one thing in common: their love, commitment and compassion for South Africa and all who live in it.

If you are doubting whether we are on the right track as a country and have the right people to lead the way, look no further than these 100 stories.

Read the story of Johan Pedro, a civil servant from Bellville who earns less than R5 000 a month but uses his money to teach sports after school to underprivileged kids and help them find bursaries.

Be inspired by Dr Mukovhe Phanguphangu from Thohoyandou who is a champion for children with hearing disabilities, breaking international ground with his research and efforts to raise funding for surgically-implantable hearing devices.

Or join Marcelle du Plessis in her efforts to empower the community of Lavender Hill in Cape Town by planting lavender, producing and selling beauty products made from the plants and ploughing back profits into education projects and skills training in the area.

We are publishing contact details for most of our 100 young Mandelas of the future and encourage you to support them in their efforts to make South Africa the country Mandela dreamt of.

In July, Madiba’s birthday month, News24 is celebrating his life and legacy through numerous multimedia features and think pieces to honour him and reflect on his life and times. All of this will be hosted on our dedicated Mandela 100 website.

Also read: Contrary to widespread belief, Mandela was not God

For the next four weeks, we will publish thought-provoking contributions about Madiba’s role in shaping our past and future and encourage you to contribute on our many platforms.

A champion for freedom of expression and defending the rights of those who differed from him, we will attempt to emulate Mandela in giving space to a variety of views and opinions about where we are as a nation, 24 years after he became the first democratically-elected president of South Africa.

The overwhelming reaction from readers to our 100 young Mandelas project has shown us that Madiba’s dream of a united South Africa where equality, freedom and opportunity reign is far from dead.

Speaking in Cape Town after his inauguration as state president on 9 May 1994, Mandela said: “Ours has been a quest for a constitution freely adopted by the people of South Africa, reflecting their wishes and their aspirations. The struggle for democracy has never been a matter pursued by one race, class, religious community or gender among South Africans. In honouring those who fought to see this day arrive, we honour the best sons and daughters of all our people. We can count amongst them Africans, Coloureds, Whites, Indians, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews – all of them united by a common vision of a better life for the people of this country.”

Our first 100 young Mandelas have told us what they are doing to achieve Madiba’s vision of a better life for the people of South Africa.

What are you going to do to fulfil his dream? Join the conversation by sending us your feedback or views to 100mandelas@24.com.

– Basson is editor-in-chief of News24. Follow him on Twitter @adriaanbasson

eNCA | DA using ‘invented Day Zero’ to justify water tariff increases: ANC

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JOHANNESBURG – The African National Congress (ANC) on Wednesday said it was against the new water tariffs in Cape Town because it said the City “manipulated peoples fear and vulnerability over the invented Day Zero armageddon”.

READ: SA’s water crisis far from over: expert

In a statement issued by the ANC in the Western Cape, the party said it was joining more than 80% of Cape Town residents who have strongly objected to the new water and sanitation tariffs, which include a R115 water delivery charge kicked in on Sunday.

The City of Cape Town says it has lost a substantial amount of revenue and restructuring the tariffs was one of the measures to ensure a sustainable source of income.

READ: Punitive water tariffs in WC remains despite Day Zero averted

Democratic Alliance member and Councillor Xanthea Limberg, who oversees informal settlements, water, waste services and energy, is on record as saying: “The City has realised that the way in which the tariffs were structured hasn’t been resilient since the drought started”.

However, in the statement attributed to Provincial Secretary Faiez Jacobs the ANC said this year in March, the City sought to “manipulate peoples fear and vulnerability over the invented Day Zero armageddon by sneaking in a 26.9% tariff increase on water and sanitation. Residents of Cape Town may have been scared but they were not stupid”.

The ANC added: “Even though the City has since recoiled from that ridiculous high tariff, they have still not gone down enough, especially given the current water dam levels and rainfall.

“ANC condemns the City for treating its residents with disdain. On one hand they say they are trying to raise R3 billion for new bulk water projects and on the other hand, they have spent the last few months claiming bulk water supply is the sole responsibility of the National government and repeated that line like a broken record whenever they were called to account for their failures.”

READ: WCape ANC slams DA over water crisis management

Cape Town has faced serious water shortages due to poor rainfall during 2015, 2016 and 2017 winter seasons.

But the ANC said it demands that “all these water and sanitation tariff increases be in line with inflation. The material conditions that resulted in these exorbitant tariff proposals have changed drastically and we demand the City to follow suit. The City deserves water security but it should not break peoples backs”.

The ANC statement further said: “We reject the new tariff increases for households, whether its the 10.10% for those who consume less than 6kl a month or other consumption brackets as these are way above inflation. The conditions that warranted level six water punishment to consumers and these tariffs no longer exist and must be greatly eased.

“The ANC is going to challenge these unjustifiable increases in court and will galvanise all ‘Capetonians’ to march to the city and demand fair tariffs. This is a slippery slope that the City cannot be allowed go into. We cannot allow this thumb sucking of numbers.”‘

African News Agency

eNCA | IFP calls on govt to suspend fuel levies

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PARLIAMENT – The Inkatha Freedom party has called on the government to intervene in the ever-increasing fuel price.

With the latest petrol price hike now officially in effect, motorists are having to dig into their pockets deeper than ever before at the petrol pumps.

READ: Truckers, taxis worst hit by fuel price hikes: Truckers Association of SA

The IFP approached  National Assembly speaker, Baleka Mbete, to table a motion on the suspension of fuel levies.

The IFP’s Mkhuleko Hlengwa said, “The call we are making is to suspend the fuel levies… it will ease the challenges our people are facing… government should tighten its belt… cost cutting should become the order of the day …The Road Accident Fund is in turmoil,  their finances are upside down …in terms of Parliament, let’s schedule a debate. Urgent steps need to be taken. It’s no longer sustainable for the consumer.”

eNCA