Author: svadmin

As the country focuses on economic recovery and reconstruction, Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr David Masondo, has called on the metropolitan municipalities to create a conducive business environment to enable investments.

“There are economic opportunities, which can be explored by private sector institutions within the area of your jurisdiction. However, these opportunities heavily rely on your capacity to provide bulk and connector infrastructure to enable such investments,” Masondo said on Thursday.

Addressing the Metropolitan Municipalities Roadshow on the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan in Pretoria, Masondo said there are also a number of approval processes that are taking place at the metro level to enable private sector institutions to invest.

“Thus, the metros need to create a conducive business environment through streamlining and ensuring more efficient internal business processes that interface with the private sector. Such business processes relate to supply chain management, issuing of business permits, responding to customer complaints, issuing of rates and services accounts, development approval processes, issuing of construction permits and rates clearance certificates and ensuring electricity connections,” the Deputy Minister said.

Together with the World Bank, government has introduced the Ease of Doing Business project, which drives the reforms at national and subnational level to make the country more competitive and business friendly.

“The Sub-National Doing Business reforms that we are rolling out in partnership with the metros are a core component of this broader programme. A major component of this reform process is the optimisation and automation of metro business processes in order to reduce time, cost and numbers of procedures that businesses have to experience,” the Deputy Minister said.

He expressed concern on the failure of many metros to spend on their capital budgets, placing some of the local government conditional grants in jeopardy.

“From our engagements with yourselves, we have identified two major constraints on metro performance in this regard. First, is the metro internal Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes, which are lengthy and tedious. Secondly, it is owing to the criminal elements which have mushroomed under the disguise of 30% requirements of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA),” the Deputy Minister said.

He acknowledged that part of the problem regarding the slow pace of capital spend, is a lack of a project pipeline in some metros.

“To address this concern a project and programme preparation grant will be introduced effective from your new financial year. We urge you to maximize on the use of this grant on major infrastructure projects, which prepare them in a manner that will assist the city to accelerate the infrastructure built programme. Infrastructure investment that can unlock private investment in targeted spatial areas should be prioritised,” the Deputy Minister said.

Masondo emphasised the importance for metropolitan municipalities to strengthen governance in the city.

“A clear demonstration of this should be reflected in the capacity of the city to reduce the unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure (UIFW). It is discomforting that this has been increasing over the years and it does not look like there is an appetite to reduce it. We should be aware that the credit rating has started factoring this issue, which has resulted in a decrease in the credit rating,” the Deputy Minister said.

He expressed concern that the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) does not look like there it has any form of consequence management.

“The capacity of the city to borrow will soon reflect this poor credit rating leading to expensive debt and in some instances reluctance of the financial institutions to borrow you money that is critical for growth enhancing investments.

“The institutional stability of the city is paramount for the successful implementation of the economic recovery. We are concerned about the high turnover at the executive level. This does not build confidence.

“As political principals, it is your duty to ensure that there is a stability to enable the institution to focus on service delivery. Such stability is possible – eThekwini, for example, has retained the same Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for around 20 years,” the Deputy Minister said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa is committed to both supporting and implementing the actions contained in the Global Acceleration Plan for Economic Justice and Rights.

“Our interventions must dismantle the systemic barriers that marginalise women and girls and perpetuate inequality in the global economy,” President Ramaphosa said.

Addressing the Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition Session virtually, he said South Africa is working to shift economic power into the hands of women through, among other things, earmarking 40 percent of all public procurement for women-owned businesses.

“On the continent, we are working towards adopting a Protocol and Programme of Action on Women in Trade to promote the participation of women in the African Continental Free Trade Area. We are working to ensure access to productive resources through financial inclusion.

“Lack of access to financial services and products disproportionately affects poorer women working in the informal sector, those without income and those who are illiterate.

“It increases vulnerability to economic shocks and may, in some cases, even increase exposure to gender-based violence,” President Ramaphosa said.

Innovation in digital financial services in Africa offers an opportunity for rapid scale-up of financial services and products.

“Working in partnership with Queen Maxima, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate on Financial Inclusion, we are committed to establishing the Advocacy Accelerator for Women’s Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa,” President Ramaphosa said.

The initiative will mobilise stakeholders to invest in new platforms and products to increase access to digital financial products and services for women in Africa.

“Through these efforts, through this Global Acceleration Plan, we are moving ever closer to realising our goal of economic justice and rights for women,” the President said.

The Generation Equality Forum (GEF) is a global gathering to accelerate gender equality actions and mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

It is convened by United Nations Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France, in partnership with co-leaders from the Global South and Global North, civil society and the private sector.

South Africa participated actively in the negotiations for the Global Acceleration Plan (GAP) of the Economic Justice and Rights Action Coalition, which presents a clear action plan of commitments and actions that stakeholders must take to advance economic justice and rights.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Buying a new house is an exciting achievement but for some, an unexpected electricity bill of the previous owner, can end the celebration.

It is against this backdrop the City of Ekurhuleni has encouraged new home owners to apply and register prepaid meters into their names, in order to start their municipal account records on a clean slate.

“In an event where the newly bought house is registered under a previous owner or a developer, it is important to speedily change ownership at the nearest customer care centre to have the meter registered in the customer’s name.

“A new homeowner is able to purchase electricity if they have not registered their electricity meter. New customers with prepayment meters receive a once-off allocation of 40 Kilowatt-hour units, to allow time to purchase a new prepayment token,” the city said in a statement on Friday.

The allocation is placed as an arrear amount on the prepayment meter account and is recovered with the first monetary transaction.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Living up to its mandate, to honour the heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for freedom and humanity, Freedom Park, a National Heritage Site, commemorates the late Dr Kenneth Kaunda through a virtual exhibition.

The temporal exhibition is a tribute to the role played by the late Dr Kaunda in the liberation struggle of Southern African countries.

The exhibition was curated by Freedom Park’s curatorial team, launched on 29 June 2021. It will run until 30 September 2021.

Freedom Park commemorates national, continental and international freedom stalwarts.

Some of the heroes and heroines commemorated at Freedom Park include Oliver Tambo, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Samora Machel, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Fidel Castro and many more.

It is therefore not surprising that Freedom Park responded to the national call for mourning the death of Dr Kaunda, by putting up a temporary exhibition, about this iconic leader.

Dr Kaunda visited Freedom Park in 2006. Freedom Park, delegation led by CEO, Jane Mufamadi, reciprocated the visit in 2016.

The purpose of the visit was to capture his recollection about the liberation struggle of South Africa, since Zambia was the headquarters of the African National Congress.

The exhibition features Dr Kaunda’s early life, political life, his visit to Freedom Park in 2006, Freedom Park’s visit to Dr Kaunda and his famous quotes.

Source: South African Government News Agency