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South Africa: Disabled Man Cleans His Street From His Wheelchair

John Martin is a familiar sight in the streets of Kostern, Gqeberha, moving along in his wheelchair, collecting the rubbish left by others. Martin, 65, lives at his cousin’s house with the son of a friend, Shiloh Felix, 13. The two are a common sight in Kostern as they go around picking up rubbish in […]

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South Africa: Godongwana Solicits 2022 Budget Suggestions

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has invited the public to share suggestions on the 2022 Budget he is expected to deliver in February. The Ministry on Thursday said the Minister would deliver his inaugural National Budget Speech on 23 February 2022. “As usual, the budget allocation always aims to strike a balance between competing national spending […]

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South Africa: Smooth Start for Thousands of KZN Learners

Learning and teaching began in earnest on the first day of the 2022 academic year for provincial schools, as thousands of learners in KwaZulu-Natal went back to school on Wednesday. As part of the provincial government’s commitment to ensure a smooth start to the new school year, KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Sihle Zikalala, was out in full […]

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South Africa: NCCC Considering Way Forward On National State of Disaster

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) is considering whether or not the country will continue with the National State of Disaster legislation currently in place. The National State of Disaster was declared by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, as a response to the onset of […]

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South Africa: Concourt Clarifies Act for Asylum Seekers

The apex court has reversed amendments to the act that made it difficult for refugees to apply for asylum while making it easy for Home Affairs officials to unjustly detain and deport them. The Constitutional Court brought much needed clarity to the application of the new amendments to the Refugees Act in relation to asylum […]

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South Africa: A Year After a Devastating Fire, Displaced Masiphumelele Families Are Fed-Up With Their Poor Housing Conditions

Fire destroyed about a thousand shacks in Masiphumelele in December 2020. In response, the City of Cape Town installed a temporary relocation area (TRA) on a nearby sports field in February. On Wednesday, officials from the City, province and national government visited the area. They were met by disgruntled residents, pessimistic about the government’s response […]

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South Africa: Parliament Welcomes Salary Agreement

Parliament has welcomed the 2021/22 salary agreement between National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) and the South African Legislature Employers’ Organisation, representing Provincial legislatures and Parliament. This follows conclusion of the negotiations where the two bodies reached an agreement on Friday. The agreement includes: An annual increase of 1.5% on the total salary […]

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South Africa: Mabopane Railway Line Resumes Operations

With government rebuilding the passenger railway lines, Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, says measures will be put in place to ensure that the newly installed equipment is protected to avoid the recurrence of the destruction of rail infrastructure. Government’s commitment to protecting railway lines comes after the programme to upgrade the Mabopane Corridor infrastructure and […]

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Africa: Covid-19 – How South Africa Differs From the Rest of the Continent

Among African states, South Africa is often singled out as the mysterious exception because, according to official estimates, we have fared much worse through the Covid-19 pandemic than most of the continent. But is this true? Almost certainly not. At least one commentator has used the official statistics to claim that the SA government’s response […]

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South Africa: Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe – Parliament Arson Accused ‘Knew What He Was Doing’

John Hlophe ruled that Zandile Mafe’s further detention at Valkenberg was unlawful ‘and should come to an end with immediate effect’. Setting aside an order that National Assembly alleged arsonist Zandile Mafe be kept at Valkenberg psychiatric hospital for observation, Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe mused that he personally took Mafe’s word “for now” […]

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South Africa: Making Zondo’s Findings Count Is Not Government’s Job Alone

Given South Africa’s poor record on implementing the advice of commissions, business and civil society must pitch in. South Africa’s Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture, corruption and fraud handed the first of its three-part report to President Cyril Ramaphosa on 4 January. This after almost four years of witness statements and cross-examinations, and […]

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Namibia: Lessons Namibia Can Learn From Lindiwe Sisulu

Political Philosophy lays a foundation in the formation of state institutions. Western political philosophy dominated the social and political economics of the world from the domestic to international level. The ideas of Marxism, liberalism and socialism have contributed to the modern state. Current scholars and statesmen of Africa took African political philosophy as the traditional […]

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South Africa: KZN Premier Visits Site Where Two People Drowned but No-One Explains Why There’s Still No Bridge

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison has failed to explain why the construction of a new bridge over the Umdloti River north of Durban, where two people drowned earlier this month, has been stalled since 2018. Two people drowned in the Umdloti River during heavy rains. The old bridge between Ndwedwe and […]

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Africa: Airline Tie-Up for Kenya and South Africa – Possible Rewards, and Risks

Africa has 357 airlines, the top 10 of which carried more than 60% of traffic. This reflects the fact that many airlines on the continent are very small: some have as few as two aircraft. Between them the airlines carried 95 million passengers in 2019, according to Routes, an online source of information on route […]

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South Africa: What You Need to Know About Nutritional Profiling

To consumers, a label on a food product is nothing but a guide to help them make purchasing choices. But to manufacturers of foodstuffs, the labels are much more than that. Labels on food products contain the nutritional profiling of the item. And, acquiring the correct information for these labels is a large responsibility. This […]

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South Africa: Lindiwe Sisulu’s Debased, Deeply Offensive, Vitriolic Campaign Start Sickens Me to the Core

Firoz Cachalia is a law professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was a former MEC in the Gauteng provincial government and is currently a Board member of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation. He writes in his personal capacity. Though the judiciary and President Cyril Ramaphosa are Lindiwe Sisulu’s main targets, she does not appear […]

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South Africa: Gauteng Exits Covid-19 Fourth Wave, New Infections Continue Decline

The Gauteng province has officially exited the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with the rest of South Africa’s provinces already having reached their peak and on a steady decline. This was announced by Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla during the department’s first COVID-19 briefing of the year. “Of note is that the decline in […]

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South Africa: Another Seismic Survey Legal Saga Looms for South Africa #AfricaClimateCrisis

Cape Town — Environmental activists are preparing for another legal battle against a planned seismic survey. This comes less than a month after the Makhanda High Court granted an interdict against oil giant Shell over its intended exploration of the Wild Coast off the province of the Eastern Cape. West coast sighted for for planned […]