Category Archives: South African News

eNCA | Ster Kinekor, Nu Metro face collusion charges

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JOHANNESBURG – Two of the country’s biggest cinema chains will appear before the Competition Commission on Monday for alleged collusion.

Ster-Kinekor and Nu-Metro are accused of engaging in market allocation, stemming from a disagreement over operations at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront shopping complex.

READ: Nu Metro changes hands

The matter went to court, but the two cinema giants settled out of court, agreeing that Nu Metro would only show commercial films, while Ster-Kinekor could only show subtitled or art movies.

Now, the commission is of the view the agreement amounted to market allocation and wants to fine Ster-Kinekor 10 percent of its annual turnover.

eNCA

eNCA | CATCH IT LIVE: Kader Asmal memorial lecture

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Editor’s note: The event is expected to start at 4pm.

CAPE TOWN – Former finance minister Trevor Manuel will on Saturday, deliver the keynote address at the Kader Asmal memorial lecture.

The gathering will be hosted at the University of Cape Town under the theme “moral courage and ethical leadership in the ANC.”

Asmal, a struggle stalwart and academic, served as the Minister of Education under President Thabo Mbeki. He died in 2011 from a heart attack.

eNCA

News24.com | We didn’t even know they could toyi toyi – Mbete hits back at anti-Zuma protesters

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Johannesburg – National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete has hit out at anti President Jacob Zuma protesters, saying she was surprised that some of them even knew how to march.

Mbete was speaking at a mass funeral service in Mpumalanga for the 16 pupils and one adult who died in the horrific taxi crash in Bronkhorstspruit last month. Two other pupils will be buried tomorrow.

Twenty people died in the accident, including the taxi driver when the taxi crashed into a truck.

Addressing the mourners, Mbete made reference to the thousands of protesters who took to the streets in the wake of Zuma’s recent cabinet reshuffle that saw two ratings agencies downgrade SA to junk status.

She said the school children had died when South Africa was facing a difficult time where people whom “we have never seen” were calling for Zuma to go.

“[We are seeing] people that we did not know knew how to toyi toyi … marching out there saying Zuma must go. We are surprised that they even know how to [march]. In the name of these children, let us continue the work that OR Tambo and Nelson Mandela left us with when he died.

“When he and Mandela died they said we must continue to fix the roads, education and everything that is wrong among us,” said Mbete.

“Even if they march and realise that they too can participate in demonstrations, they forget that we are just as big as them, they are busy making noise.”

The spirit of Ubuntu

Using an analogy to address public disputes within the ANC, she said children should be taught that when there are problems at home and family members differ, “we do not go outside and shout to all the neighbours telling them that we do not get along in this household”.

“We do not do that. What we do when we are not getting along, we get in the house, fetch the uncles and aunts, talk about it and find common ground.”

She said Tambo left the ANC in alliance with Cosatu and the South African Communist Party.

“The alliance is important. South Africa needs it. We cannot as leaders destroy it because these little children need the alliance so that when they get older, they will find it in tact and take the country forward, not back.”

She said the death of the school children had shown leaders how to work together.

“An injury to one is an injury to all. That is what our leaders taught us, not that when you see one person swearing at another and then you join in. Condemn that behaviour.”

She told the gathering to tell Mandela and Tambo that the ANC was still alive.

“We as the governing party, which is going to continue to rule, we will not disappoint Oliver Tambo, we will not disappoint Nelson Mandela. When they look down on us from wherever they are, they must say to themselves, that is what we taught them, to move forward together,” said Mbete.

She also told the gathering that when a death occurs in a black community, people show the spirit of Ubuntu by visiting the family because that is what African culture dictated.

“You do this because it is the spirit of Ubuntu.”

She said even abroad in exile, comrades always remembered what they were taught back home.

“We would move the beds, place grass mats on the floor and then sit down, we would respect the souls of the departed.”

She said the children’s souls had gone to meet with Tambo and Mandela.

“[Tambo and Mandela] taught us that in good and bad times let us stick together and work together,” she said.

News24.com | Booing is un-ANC and must come to an end – Ramaphosa

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Johannesburg – Booing needs to come to an end, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa told hundreds of ANC members on Friday night.

“We must not be seen as people who insult others, people who are going to be trying to stop the meetings of other people, people who are booing other people. We are united and we must allow people to express themselves because we know that we are the bearers of good news and the truth, we have a historic responsibility to unite not only our communities, but the people of South Africa.”

Ramaphosa said the ANC needed to bring people together, even those who benefited from apartheid.

“The ANC is no longer seen and heard as the movement that is leading the project of non-racialism in our country, we are no longer the movement that unites all people. Some are saying the ANC is just for Africans, that is not so … we are the uniters of the nation,” Ramaphosa said.  

Our movement is divided

He was addressing the members and the leadership of the region and was joined by Dr Mathole Motshekga, his wife Minister Angie Motshekga, and Reverend Frank Chikane at the launch of the ANC’s OR Tambo Fridays. He was speaking at the Ivory Park North Hall to the ANC’s Greater Midrand Zone 15.

His statements came after Zuma was booed at the Cosatu May Day rally in Bloemfontein where members did not want him to address them, forcing all speeches to be cancelled.

The federation has called for Zuma’s resignation and have publicly stated that they endorsed Ramaphosa to be the next president.

He said, “We need to critically reflect on this project of uniting our people as a whole and the ANC itself. Right now our movement is divided and … factions have formed in our movement.”

Ramaphosa told the gathering that they were not branches that gathered only during the elections.

“There are some branches that only gather during the elections or conferences.”

Another important task he said, was to unite the alliance.

“It is only a united ANC that can unite our country and effectively pursue the program of fundamental transformation. While there are many in the opposition camp who are working very hard to weaken and ultimately destroy the ANC, it is our own actions that will determine whether we will become an effective or strong and united ANC. We should not even be focusing on the opposition, we should focus on ourselves and ensure that our side is united and have the courage to acknowledge that the movement that we belong to, is plagued by factions…”

‘Condemn those amongst us who act dishonestly’

He told the gathering that it had a responsibility of uniting the ANC.

Ramaphosa said competing for resources was what divided ANC members.

“Never let money come between you and your comrades. If you allow that then this unity that you have as a zone will be destroyed. We should build values and principles founded by the ANC.”

He told the gathering to hold on to the values and principles of the ANC.

“Never ever allow the values of the ANC to be taken from you, they are yours…”

He also told the gathering to remain respectful and honest.

“In everything that we do, we need to ensure [that we are] constructive in our engagements and not underpinned by lies and being dishonest.”

He said he had learnt from Oliver Tambo not to listen to gossip and to keep the movement alive.

“That means our leaders have a responsibility and we must condemn those amongst us who act dishonestly, violate the values of the ANC and if we don’t deal with them … then dishonesty will become the new normal. We now say it is okay to be dishonest, to lie, to steal just a little bit. It is not okay because that is not how the ANC should function.

“It is also means that we must be able to tackle this new disease, that is now emerging, which we must condemn, the disease of booing, hackling and disrupting meetings. That must come to an end. [It] is un-ANC.

“I have been told that every meeting that I go to will be booed and hacked and I have been waiting but I know that I will not get it from here,” he said, adding that those with grievances should have the space to speak about it.

He told the gathering that as it goes to the policy conference in June, they should look at the policies closely because they had an impact on the country.

“Make sure that the ANC leaves the conference with good policies that will solve problems in the country.”

‘Restore the glory of the ANC’

He said the branches would take centre stage at both the policy and the elective conference in December. “Beyond the conference, it will be the 54th conference where you will make your presence felt. Your moment has arrived”

He told the gathering that the unity of the ANC was in the hands of the branches. “You will elect new leadership.

“When you go there, say no to all the bad things that have been happening in the conference, no to dishonesty. [When you] go there, you must say we want a renewed ANC, the ANC that will win 2019 elections. Restore the glory of the ANC.”

He told the gathering to go to the conference to elect leaders that bring real radical economic transformation.

“I urge you to look at everything in the policy conference so that we can take the right decisions.” He told the branches to focus on getting rid of the factions in the party, uniting leaders, and electing the best leaders for the country. “

We must now focus on 2019, never repeat 2016, and the only way to do it is to make sure that you elect good leaders in December,” said Ramaphosa

Information notice on the official gold and foreign exchange reserves of the South African Reserve Bank as at 30 April 2017

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Publish Date: 2017-05-08
Category: Information Notice
Author: Financial Markets

​This notice provides detail of the US dollar equivalent of the level of the South African Reserve Bank’s official gold and foreign exchange reserves, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and foreign currency deposits received from customers published today in the Bank’s Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 30 April 2017.

Attachments:

News24.com | LIVE: ‘I agree with President Zuma that we need radical economic transformation’ – De Klerk

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The national foundations of three former presidents and a deputy president are expected to be part of the national dialogues initiative in Braamfontein today.

The foundations of former presidents FW de Klerk, Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, will join other foundations which will come together to discuss the “deep and pervasive national general crisis” facing the country.

News24.com | Pietermaritzburg housing project remains incomplete four years later

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Pietermaritzburg – Families who are set to benefit from the Vulindlela Development Association (VDA) housing project in Pietermaritzburg have been waiting four years for their homes to be completed, GroundUp reported. 

The R2.1bn housing project in rural Vulindlela in the Msunduzi Municipality was approved by the Department of Human Settlements in 2011.

Beneficiaries of the project believe that construction of about 700 houses has stopped as a result of the poor quality of the structures.

Many of the homes remain incomplete, some without roofs, windows, and doors or cement slabs.

Sizakele Majola, 50, said his family has “lost hope”. Majola said they have made several visits to the VDA offices in a bid to get answers.

“They started building the house in December 2013. In 2014, they told me that they are stopping because the [house’s foundation] was poorly built.

They took the bricks that belonged to us and started building the house next door.

They said they would return to fix the slab [foundation] and continue with our house, but they didn’t. It broke my heart,” she said.

Majola then went to the VDA offices to demand answers and said she was shocked when they told her that according to their system their home was done.

“I may not be educated but that information confused me. How can a house that only ended up with a slab be complete? It’s been four years now. We don’t know if the project will still continue or not,” she said.

Majola’s daughter Zinhle Majola said the family was forced to share a small mud house with other relatives while they wait for their new home.

“We are all squashed in the same rondavel. They should not have raised our hopes. It’s clear that people living in rural areas will always be victims of government projects,” said Majola.

Spokesperson for the Department of Human Settlements Mbulelo Baloyi said they were aware of the incomplete project.

Baloyi said that after the visit by President Jacob Zuma in 2016, VDA management promised to visit the affected households and fix the problems.

He said the delays were also due to residents “fighting over houses”.

When GroundUp contacted VDA Chief Executive Officer Senzo Mfayela, he said they were forced to halt operations due to funding issues.

“The project fund administrator has been replaced. We expect this problem to be resolved in the next two to three weeks,” he said.

Mfayela said that any defects were identified by their quality assurance team. He said a field officer will be visiting the homes of families to investigate their complaints.

eNCA | Police to probe Mpumalanga initiation school deaths

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JOHANNESBURG – Four initiates, aged between 14 and 21, died after complications at initiation schools in KwaMhlanga, Kwaggafontein, Vosman and Belfast, Mpumalanga police said on Thursday.

“All the four initiates aged between 14 and 21, had complications that led to their deaths and a probe is underway,” spokesman Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said.

“A preliminary investigation, discovered that one of the victims was 14-years-old, of which according to the Mpumalanga Ingoma Act 3 of 2011, no person under the age of 16 may attend an Ingoma as an initiate (umkhethwa).”

He said that the circumstances under which the teenager was admitted or accepted at that institution was the subject of their investigation. The Act states that a minor, may not attend an initiation school without his parents’ or legal guardians’ consent.

READ: Initiation school suspected in abduction of Orange Farm boys

According to Schedule 2 of the Act, the consent must be accompanied by a medical certificate issued by a medical practitioner declaring that the minor is fit to participate in the traditional practice concerned. The consent should be submitted at the initiation school.

“In terms of the Act, any person who holds an Ingoma, must at all reasonable times for the duration of an Ingoma have the consent forms completed in terms of subsection (1), pertaining to the abakhethwa (initiates) attending an Ingoma, available for inspection,” Hlathi said.

READ: Human Rights Commission to investigate horror initiation

“The police urge parents to talk to their children not to go on their own to initiation institutions however, there must be a transaction between the parents and the owners of the initiation schools. On the same note, police also request the owners not to accept children who come on their own but must contact the parents before accepting them in terms of the Act.”

African News Agency

eNCA | House passes Obamacare repeal in tight vote

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WASHINGTON, United States – US President Donald Trump extracted a much-needed victory from Congress Thursday as Republicans narrowly pushed a bill through the House of Representatives repealing the landmark health reforms of his predecessor.

The vote of 217-213 could hardly have been closer in the Republican-controlled chamber, highlighting the concerns of many in Trump’s party who fear the bill could strip millions of Americans of their coverage and send costs skyrocketing.

Although the vote brings Republicans a step closer to fulfilling the singular campaign pledge that has united the party in recent years — and helped Trump win the White House — the bill will almost certainly need substantial revisions if it is to pass the Senate.

Trump nevertheless proclaimed victory over the Affordable Care Act, expressing optimism that the controversial new measure will ultimately become law.

“We’re going to get this passed through the Senate. I feel so confident,” he declared in the White House Rose Garden, surrounded by key Republican lawmakers including House Speaker Paul Ryan, who shepherded the bill to passage.

Hours later, in New York for a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump was still boasting of his party’s “big day.”

“We passed it by a few votes,” he confided to Turnbull.

It is a conservative dream years in the making: ditching Barack Obama’s health care law, which Republicans blame for sending insurance premiums soaring while reducing options for millions.

Democrats counter that Obamacare helped 20 million Americans gain health coverage and saved thousands of lives by barring insurers from denying policies to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Republicans including Trump have campaigned relentlessly on the pledge to dismantle the 2010 reforms.

“This bill delivers on the promises that we have made to the American people,” Ryan told cheering Republicans, while Democrats shouted their disapproval.

“A lot of us have been waiting seven years to cast this vote” to kill off Obamacare, he added. “End this failed experiment.”

‘Fight back’

An earlier version of the Republican plan collapsed in March when party moderates and conservatives refused to get on board — dealing Trump one of his most stinging setbacks since he took office.

In extraordinary scenes on the House floor on Thursday, lawmakers hurled jeers across the center aisle, taunting each another about the controversial legislation.

READ: More Americans sign up for Obamacare

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi painted a bleak picture of looming health care chaos, saying the vote could cost Republicans their majority in upcoming elections next year.

“You vote for this bill, you have walked the plank, from moderate to radical,” she said. “You will glow in the dark” from the vote’s toxic effect.

One signal that health care will remain a political lightning rod came from Trump’s 2016 presidential rival Hillary Clinton, who blasted the Republicans’ “shameful failure of policy & morality.”

In a tweet, she urged Democrats to “fight back on behalf of the millions of families that will be hurt by their actions.”

Despite Trump’s confidence, the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Republicans hold a slender 52-48 majority.

Two Senate Republicans have already stated their opposition to the current plan. Others have expressed concern because it rolls back the expansion of Medicaid, the public insurance program for the poor and disabled.

The rollback could deny Medicaid coverage to millions of working poor.

“The current bill falls short,” Senate Republican Dean Heller said.

“We need assurances that people with pre-existing conditions will be protected.”

Pre-existing conditions?

Several Democrats — who warn that the measure cuts taxes by some $800 billion over a decade with most savings going to the wealthy — insisted the bill was dead on arrival in the Senate.

Republican Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, signaled that his chamber will draft its own legislation, “but will take the time to get it right.”

WATCH: Kimmel blasts Trumpcare in emotional tribute to son’s carers

House leaders won over enough skeptical Republicans with an amendment that adds $8 billion over five years to help cover insurance costs for people with pre-existing conditions.

Experts and health groups ridiculed the amendment, saying it falls woefully short of the hundreds of billions of dollars likely needed to control health costs for the sick under the new bill.

An earlier budget office estimate predicted that the Republican bill would leave 24 million fewer people insured by 2026 than under current law.

Critics blasted House Republicans for holding Thursday’s vote before the publication of a new estimate, although one is expected before the Senate considers the bill.

AFP