This publication covers the period 1979 to 2017. This supplement provides an overview of the current and historical rates for various taxes, duties and levies collected by SARS. For the most important types of taxes, the coverage goes back to 1979, but for the less important ones, only a more recent subset is covered.
Johannesburg – About 100 students from the University of the Witwatersrand are protesting at the institution’s Empire Road entrance over residence related issues, the university said.
University spokesperson Shirona Patel said the protest started at 07:30 on Thursday morning.
Patel said the protest was peaceful, however, one tyre was burnt.
She said the dean of students was on her way to receive a memorandum from the protesters.
Protection services are on the scene, and the academic programme will continue as normal, she said.
Students and staff have been advised to access the campus through alternative entrances.
Protests continuing at Wits Empire gate, entrances blocked and police on the scene @WitsVuvuzela pic.twitter.com/69pzEXVZaD
— Kayla De Jesus (@KaylaBiancs) April 20, 2017
@WitsUniversity Yale Village Residence protesting against their poor living conditions & lack support 4rm Wits management | @WitsVuvuzela pic.twitter.com/9xwNAVXamG
— Nomvelo Chalumbira (@nomvelo_c) April 20, 2017
JOHANNESBURG – Pan-Africanist Congress veteran Philip Kgosana has died at the age 81.
He died in a Pretoria hospital on Wednesday following an operation.
Kgosana became a regional leader of the PAC at the age of 23.
He was arrested on the eve of the anti-pass campaign in the 1960s, and the young Kgosana then led over 30,000 protesters to Parliament.
Funeral details are yet to be announced.
eNCA
JOHANNESBURG – Wits students are protesting at the intersection of Empire and Yale roads, outside the university, on Thursday.
— Yale Village (@YalevillageRes) April 20, 2017
According to the university’s spokesperson Shirona Patel, about 100 students are protesting over issues relating to accommodation.
— Yale Village (@YalevillageRes) April 20, 2017
“Particularly issues relating to Yale Road village, they are complaining about bus stops, Wi-Fi access and other matters,” said Patel.
“The dean of students is on her way to collect a memorandum from the group of students.”
— Yale Village (@YalevillageRes) April 20, 2017
Patel said private security has been deployed to the university, as well as Wits’s campus control.
The South African Police Service is also on standby.
Despite the protest action,classes will continue as usual, according to the university.
Wits has been at the centre of student protests over fees in 2015 and 2016.
Yale village has shut down Wits @KNOCKANDO_HC @BarnieBarnato17 @Sunnyside_Res @JubesHcom @TheWitsJunction pic.twitter.com/zfyLC8u4wz
— Yale Village (@YalevillageRes) April 20, 2017
It has begun…Yale is protesting for service delivery pic.twitter.com/3xnabFme6H
— Yale Village (@YalevillageRes) April 20, 2017
Students are protesting outside Wits University’s Empire Road entrance, reportedly saying that res fees are too high. pic.twitter.com/lM6nD4zbzF
— The Daily VOX (@thedailyvox) April 20, 2017
eNCA
Johannesburg – Do not allow revolutionary sounding slogans to hoodwink the public, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
Speaking at a Black Business Council event in Sandton, Johannesburg on Wednesday evening, Ramaphosa said some were attempting to appropriate the democratic movement, along with its history, symbols and policies in pursuit of factional interests.
“We have now become a country of many slogans where everyone wakes up and comes up with a slogan,” said the deputy president.
His views echo sentiments expressed by the SACP on calls for radical economic transformation.
Recently, the calls were made largely by the ANC’s Youth League and the Women’s League in the lead-up to a controversial Cabinet shake-up by President Jacob Zuma, which saw the axing of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister.
The SACP, following its central committee meeting in February, said the calls were nothing but rhetoric to further enrich the elite.
The deputy president, who had been vocal in calls to fight against corruption, told black business leaders that they would never compromise on the fight against “corruption, patronage and rent seeking”.
‘The usual suspects’
“We will also not allow the institutions of our state to be captured by anyone, be they individuals, be they families that are intent on narrow self-enrichment,” Ramaphosa said.
The deputy president admitted that government continued to disappoint members of the black business community by continuing to do business with “the usual suspects”, referring to white-owned and big businesses.
“It is not correct that our black professionals, be [they] lawyers, be they accountants, be they asset managers, be they engineers, should languish in inactivity,” he said.
Ramaphosa said government would move to correct the error of overlooking black business and create systems to monitor the development to ensure it is actually being addressed.
The deputy president called on the different sectors to put the needs of South Africans first, especially those who are marginalised in the country.
“Whenever you go through the length and breadth of our country…you see a long face, you will see the long face of an African woman because she’s black, because she’s poor,” he said.
Ramaphosa said black women had not benefitted from the economic opportunities which South Africa fought for.
He said they were part of the many who experienced social marginalisation and economic exclusion.
WATCH: Ramaphosa: Time to move beyond lamentations and complaints
James de Villiers, News24
Cape Town – The EFF on Tuesday called for Die Stem to be removed from the national anthem, in celebration of Enoch Sontonga who composed Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.
Tuesday marks the 120th anniversary of Sontonga’s death. He died on April 18, 1905, aged 32.
EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said Sontonga wrote Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika as a prayer against the violence blacks experienced.
“The inclusion of ‘Die Stem’ is not only an adulteration of Sontonga’s prayer, but it is as though Nkosi Sikelela is only made complete by adding what were considered European languages to it,” Ndlozi said.
“The song is an existential plea at the end of the 19th century to a God who seemed deaf to the African cry and blind to its suffering.”
Die Stem was the national anthem of apartheid South Africa from 1957 to 1994. In 1997, the song was merged with Nkosi Sikelela to create the current South African national anthem. The last section of Die Stem was translated into English during the merger.
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika is the current national anthem of Tanzania.
James de Villiers, News24
Cape Town – The City of Cape Town is preparing to take legal action against the energy minister over where it receives its electricity supply from, mayor Patricia de Lille said on Tuesday.
The city would fight for its right to purchase renewable energy directly from independent power producers (IPP), she told a Cape Town Climate Change Coalition meeting.
“We are doing this not just because we want to buy electricity from IPPs, but because we believe that the whole institutional regime governing energy in the country is completely outdated and needs to be reformed.”
The coalition consists of the private sector, governmental and non-governmental organisations, researchers and educators.
De Lille said the city council would soon adopt a draft climate change policy.
“It has been recognised that climate change is such an important, cross-cutting, and consequential issue that it requires its own dedicated policy approach,” she said.
The city intended to generate 20% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2020.
Quoting former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, De Lille said the city could not wait for national governments or large corporations to act.
“Bloomberg says we can do this not by slowing down economies, but by speeding them up; not by depending on national governments, but by empowering cities, businesses and citizens; not by scaring people about the future, but by showing them the immediate benefits of taking action,” De Lille said.
“We are responsible for the growth and wellbeing of our local economies and our citizens.”
JOHANNESBURG – The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) have joined forces with the United Democratic Movement (UDM) in its application for a secret ballot to take place, in the vote of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma.
A supporting affidavit was filed by EFF leader Julius Malema earlier on Tuesday.
This follows Zuma’s own opposing papers.
Malema says there’s a constitutional obligation to ensure the secret vote in any decision to remove a sitting president, and that the Parliamentary Speaker has the discretion to allow it.
The party believes that the president should have allowed Parliament to resolve the internal processes, with the help of the courts.
eNCA
OHIO – The man who police said posted a video of himself on Facebook killing an elderly man, took his own life after a “brief pursuit” by Pennsylvania state police officers on Tuesday, police said.
Steve Stephens was accused of shooting Robert Godwin snr, 74, on a Cleveland sidewalk on Sunday before fleeing in a car and uploading a video of the murder to Facebook, becoming the subject of a nationwide manhunt.
Pennsylvania state police said officers saw Stephens in Erie County on Tuesday morning. “After a brief pursuit, Stephens shot and killed himself,” the police said on Twitter, providing no further details.
Chief Williams: PA State Police received a tip about the whereabouts of Steve Stephens, short pursuit occurred and ended in his death.
— Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) April 18, 2017
Stephens, who had no prior criminal record, was not suspected in any other killings, Cleveland officials had said. Cleveland police were due to give more details at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
The shooting marked the latest video clip of a violent crime to turn up on Facebook, raising questions about how the world’s biggest social media network moderates content.
The company on Monday said it would review how it monitors violent footage and other objectionable material in response to the killing. The shooting video was visible on Facebook for nearly two hours before it was reported, the company said.
Chief Williams: Our investigators are on their way. Our federal partners are there already working with PA police.
— Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) April 18, 2017
Stephens is not believed to have known Godwin, a retired foundry worker who media reports said spent Easter Sunday morning with his son and daughter-in-law before he was killed.
In interviews before Stephens’ death, Godwin’s relatives said they forgave his killer.
“I forgive him because we are all sinners,” Robby Miller, Godwin’s son, said in an interview with CNN.
Reuters
Pretoria – The Department of Transport says it would have expected over 700 000 vehicles to have hit the road bound for Gauteng on Easter Monday by day’s end.
“The National Department of Transport is expecting all Gauteng bound national routes to be extremely congested this Easter Monday, especially the N1, N2, N3, N4, N12 and N17,” spokesperson Collen Msibi said in a statement on Monday.
The department said the end to both the Easter weekend and the school holidays meant an even busier than usual Easter Monday.
“With Gauteng schools opening tomorrow, each and every national route leading to Gauteng is expected to carry over 130 000 vehicles on average with the gradual traffic volume increase from morning until the evening,” Msibi said.
“This could see over 700 000 vehicles Gauteng bound this Easter Monday alone.”
He said the amount of vehicles that travelled on Thursday, the eve of Good Friday, was:
– N1: 172 283,
– N2: 73 621,
– N3: 136 094,
– N4: 129 489 and
– N12: 45 988
“This brought a total of just over 500 000 vehicles on these national routes [on Thursday],” he said.
From midnight on Monday morning to 13:00, the figures read:
– N1: 75 216; per hour: 6 268
– N3: 54 636; per hour: 4 553
– N4: 33 207; per hour: 2 767
– N2: 22 441; per hour: 1 870
– N12: 6 302; per hour: 525
The 24-hour figures for Monday will be released on Tuesday.
Thousands of traffic police officers will be deployed on these routes, Msibi said.
“The biggest contributing factor to road crashes is expected to be motorists wanting to cover a long distance at a shortest possible time.
“Motorists are therefore urged to exercise extreme care and be vigilant on the road,” he continued.
He urged them to rest after every 2 hours or every 200km to reduce road crashes related to fatigue, and seatbelts must be worn at all times, including back seats and for children.
According to statistics released by the Road Traffic Management Centre, this Easter weekend, 1738 vehicles were caught speeding, 354 for overloading, 843 without drivers licenses and 346 without public drivers permits.
The Department also expressed its heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones on the N7 head-on collision where 8 people perished in the Western Cape.
“Our thoughts are also with the families who lost their loved ones due to reckless driving this Easter weekend.”