Category: Key Issues

The North West provincial government says efforts to contain veld fires across the four districts of the province are currently in full swing.

“Government has assembled a team of firefighters, environmentalists and government officials to develop and implement a plan to respond to the disaster,” a statement read on Thursday.

This comes as devastating veld fires destroyed over 50 000 hectares of grazing land in Kagisano Molopo Local Municipality over the past two weeks.

The fire also damaged fence lines, poles, kraals, and six water sources such as pipes and water tanks.

In addition, cattle were also killed in the fast-moving wildfire, the provincial government said.

According to the SABC News, wildfires have been blazing for over a week in large parts of the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District and have been reported in parts of the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality as well.

The provincial government is currently creating firebreaks in high-risk areas, while firefighters are on the ground in various parts of the province.

“Additional resources in the form of trucks and manpower have been sought from district municipalities to assist in extinguishing the fire.”

Meanwhile, a joint-operation centre has been created to coordinate the deployment of resources to various areas that are affected by veld fires. The operation includes the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Working on Fire, North West Umbrella Fire Protection Association and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality.

North West Premier Kaobitsa Bushy Maape said government is working around the clock to normalise the situation.

“We are working hard to bring the situation under control. We have deployed officials of government in various parts of the province to deal with this situation and they are working for hand in glove with other stakeholders to respond swiftly to this disaster,” said Maape.

He has also appealed to residents to desist from starting open fires.

“Residents must note the danger of starting open fires. The destruction might come at the cost of human life. The current veld fires have destroyed properties. It might take time before some farmers recover from this calamity,” the Premier stressed.

In the meantime, the Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism will also deploy environmental specialists to assess sensitive biodiversity areas.

Meanwhile, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is looking after injured animals.

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has issued a warning about health products linked to the 33 babies who died in The Gambia.

This comes after 33 children in The Gambia died of kidney-related illnesses after consuming cough syrup manufactured by an Indian company, Maiden Pharma.

However, according to international reports, 66 children have lost their lives.

“SAHPRA, like other regulators globally, has been alerted to dubious health products being traded by an Indian company, Maiden Pharmaceuticals,” the statement read on Monday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has since issued a global alert over the four cough syrups identified in The Gambia and reported to the organisation in September 2022.

According to the WHO, substandard medical products are products that fail to meet either their quality standards or specifications and are, therefore “out of specification”.

“These products have been identified in The Gambia, but there is a possibility that these products may be distributed to other countries.”

The four products are Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals.

According to SAHPRA these products are not registered for use in South Africa.

“The WHO conducted laboratory tests which linked the medication to those deaths. The four products contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol which are toxic substances and can prove to be fatal,” the regulator said.

“The fact that these medicines were administered to children makes the matter far more serious.”

Toxic effects following the consumption of the products, according to SAHPRA, include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state, and acute kidney injury which may lead to death.

“If you are in possession or come across any of these products, please ensure that you do not consume these products, nor should you administer them to children.”

SAHPRA CEO, Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela, said the watchdog’s mandate is to ensure that the public has access to quality, safe and effective health products.

“The safety of the public is of paramount importance. Our Regulatory Compliance Unit will work with law enforcement agencies to eradicate any substandard and falsified health products,” she added.

SAHPRA urged citizens to contact their Regulatory Compliance Unit at Mokgadi.fafudi@sahpra.org.za if they have any information about these products.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres play a critical role in laying solid foundations for South Africa’s future leaders.

The President was addressing the nation through his weekly newsletter just days after opening the Little Flower ECD centre in Bizana, in the Eastern Cape.

The President emphasised that children in these centres must be nurtured.

“The young children in these centres are the next generation of South Africans who must be able to live up to their full potential as responsible, capable and outstanding citizens.

“They must be able to pursue their dreams so that we all may achieve our shared dream of a free, prosperous and happy nation,” he said.

The President added that although government does what it can to assist ECD centres, society also has a role to play in the development of South Africa’s youngest citizens.

“Preparing our youngest citizens with the tools they need to succeed in life is a responsibility we must collectively shoulder. We must continue to do all we can, as government, the private sector and development organisations, to support early childhood development.

“With the many valuable services it provides, whether it is educating our children, providing childcare for working parents or creating opportunities for entrepreneurs, ECD makes a huge contribution to the achievement of many of our developmental goals,” he said.

The President emphasised that ECD centres also contribute immensely to the upliftment of society.

“Early childhood development centres don’t just prepare our country’s youngest citizens to succeed in school; they are also an important source of entrepreneurship and job creation. These centres are an important part of the care economy. They sustain livelihoods, especially for women, which contributes to job creation in many communities.

“Since the care economy is mainly driven by women, such support goes a long way towards helping women, especially in disadvantaged communities, to become financially secure and independent,” he said.

President Ramaphosa highlighted that government has recognised the importance of ECD centres and taken steps to ensure that these centres are given the tools needed to succeed.

“As government, we have taken up the task to improve the standards of care and make resources available for ECD centres to run suitable activities for young children to prepare them for formal education. In April this year, we completed the move of the ECD function from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education.

“This is to link early childhood development to the formal school curriculum and to provide training, education and development to staff in ECD centres around the country,” he said.

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) has called on law enforcement agencies to work together to stop the brutality and violation of the rights and dignity of minor children.

The call follows reports of 150 girls between the ages of 10 – 14 having given birth in Free State hospitals in the past five months.

The commission said these statistics call upon society to be on high alert over the growing rape culture of underage children in South Africa.

“The CGE is concerned about the escalating number of girls who lose their future by dropping out of school while those who impregnated them continue with their normal lives. The impregnation of children in the age bracket 10-14 constitutes statutory rape, as they have not reached the legal age of consent.

“The commission calls on the South African Police Service, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and like-minded institutions to work together to stop the brutality and violation of the rights and dignity of minor children,” the commission said.

It also warned the families of affected children not to take these pregnancies lightly or be misled into protecting the perpetrators “even if they are close relatives, family bread winners or other known persons”.

Establishment of 80 sexual offences courts welcomed

The commission added that it is cautiously optimistic after learning that the establishment of 80 sexual offences courts across the country, as part of the fight against gender-based violence is at an advanced stage.

“The commission welcomes this confirmation by Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, and is confident that this will enable the criminal justice system to speedily prosecute rape cases,” it said.

Eskom has announced that stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 4pm to midnight every evening until Wednesday.

This as the power utility lifted load shedding over the weekend for the first time in at least three weeks after recovering some generation capacity.

Eskom said the load shedding will allow it to further replenish its reserves.

“To the extent possible, Eskom will endeavour to limit load shedding to night-time to have minimal impact on the economy and population. The load shedding will be used to replenish emergency generation reserves during the night to bolster generation capacity. Eskom will publish a further update on Wednesday afternoon, or as soon as any significant changes occur,” the power utility said.

By Sunday afternoon, Eskom had lost some 14 061 MW of energy due to breakdowns with a further 5 487MW offline due to maintenance.

The energy producer said, however, that some generation capacity has been brought back online over the weekend.

“Since Saturday two generation units at Kriel and a unit each at Kendal, Komati, Lethabo, Majuba and Matla power stations have returned to service. A generating unit each at Kendal and Kusile power stations were taken offline for repairs.

“Loadshedding is implemented only as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns,” Eskom said.

Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, says the shortage of healthcare workers is threatening the quality and sustainability of health systems in Africa and worldwide.

“Health care is a fundamental human right. But without health workers, there cannot be health services,” he said on Sunday.

The Minister was speaking at an official opening of the 24th Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) international conference under the theme ‘The Health Workforce of the Future and its Regulation’ at the Sun City Resort, North West.

AMCOA is a membership-based organisation with over 30 country members from all regions of Africa and strives to promote best practices among the continent’s regulatory authorities and to respond to their current and future needs.

Phaahla told delegates that the world has been grappling with a “serious” shortage of healthcare workers, even before the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the under-investment in education and training and the mismatch between education and employment strategies in relation to health systems and population needs were some of the contributing factors to this catastrophe.

Phaahla described the “crisis in human resources” as one of the most pressing global health issues of our time.

In addition, Phaahla said the undersupply is concurrent with globalisation and the liberalisation of markets, which allow healthcare workers to offer their services in countries other than those of their origin.

He said workers based in rural and poor areas often move to cities for better working conditions and environments, while the urban-based leave the public sector for the private sector.

“Finally, these professionals and their colleagues in the public sector eventually immigrate to more developed countries to obtain greater pay, better working conditions, the overall better quality of life and improved opportunities for themselves and their families.”

He warned that migration to “greener pastures”, particularly in the case of professionals with exportable skills, has always occurred and will continue.

The Minister has since urged regulators to deal with other associated challenges and problems.

Meanwhile, the demand for health services is increasing in light of the ageing population and the prevalence of infectious, non-communicable diseases and multimorbidity.

According to the Minister, these have created greater demand for health and care workers in primary health in particular.

These shortages, he said, continue to undermine access to and provision of health services, particularly in primary care settings.

“This is the most critical challenge to achieving universal health coverage,” he said.

“Without the availability of a competent and appropriately skilled health workforce, adequate numbers and proportionately distributed, many citizens of our continent struggle to get access to the services they need.”

In addition, he noted the countries’ shrinking health budgets due to subdued economic growth.

“This certainly puts a lot of pressure on the whole health ecosystem.”

COVID-19

He also highlighted the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic that has challenged the essential health systems development and provision.

The Minister noted that health workers are often the most vulnerable to infectious diseases when outbreaks strike.

In the early months of the pandemic, he said health professionals made up 14% of all new COVID-19 cases, while about 80 000 to 180 000 healthcare workers are said to have died from the virus between January 2020 and May 2021.

Gender

He also recognised the importance of gender dynamics in this sector, with women constituting 67% of the health and care workforce globally.

Phaahla said improving gender equity is essential to strengthening workforce numbers, distribution, skill mix, and human resource policy and planning failures.

“We are aware that women still encounter gendered issues such as occupational segregation, pay inequality and underrepresentation in leadership and decision‐making in many countries.”

He has called on the delegates to reflect on these complex matters.

“This conference needs, as I argued before, to reflect on the kind of regulatory mechanisms needed for the scopes of practice to deliver health services in our modern societies.”

Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has reiterated government and Eskom’s commitment to ensuring that the power utility surpasses the challenges it is currently facing.

Gordhan was answering questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

The power utility has been under severe pressure with continuous breakdowns at power stations, slow returns to service of generation units and most recently a lack of diesel for open cycle gas turbines leading to uninterrupted days of stage four to six load shedding.

“There will eventually be no more load shedding once we have more megawatts connected to the system. It’s not going to happen overnight. As we recover [from the impact of State Capture] and as we improve the performance of the plants, we will have more megawatts coming onto the system.

“To be frank with the South African public and as government has said repeatedly, we could still have load shedding for another 9 to 12 months. We want to limit it to stage two load shedding if at all possible and the Eskom management at a power station level needs to make sure that those plants are maintained properly, they run efficiently and they minimise the discomfort for citizens and for businesses as well,” Gordhan said.

The Minister warned that although Eskom is working to resolve its issues, load shedding remains a possibility in the immediate future.

“We work hard every single day with every single entity to make sure that the impact on the economy and the impact on the people is minimised to the extent possible. Load shedding…is because of the history of Eskom, the malfeasance we’ve seen in Eskom and the slow rate of recovery as well,” he said.

Responding to questions on Eskom’s proposed 32% tariff increase, Gordhan said the power utility needs to exercise cost saving methods such as reducing diesel and coal costs, in procurement processes and addressing poor contracting work.

“The middle class and the poor both will have some impact in the context where inflation is increasing, interest rates are increasing and therefore the cost of living and the cost of doing business will also be impacted in a negative way.

“The poor in South Africa have their impact mitigated by the free basic services that are provided, part of which is a subsidy on the side of electricity itself.

“We need to be frank that Eskom itself, although it says that it requires cost recoverable tariffs, needs to do more to undertake savings that result in the reduction of avoidable costs.  [The] 32% is definitely not affordable by the public and by this economy at this particular point in time,” he said.

After two consecutive quarters of positive growth, real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2022 (Q2: 2022), Statistics South (Stats SA) said on Wednesday.

During this period, the GDP decreased from 7.8% to 7.6%, the agency said.

The period, it said, was characterised by the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal and load shedding, weakening an already fragile national economy, which had just recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

Manufacturing biggest drag on GDP

Stats SA said the floods had a negative impact on a number of industries, most notably manufacturing.

“Manufacturing is the largest industry in KwaZulu-Natal, according to 2019 data, accounting for a fifth of national manufacturing production. The damage to factories and plants, and disruptions to logistics and supply chains, pulled national manufacturing output down by 5.9%.

“The biggest drags on growth were petroleum and chemical products, food and beverages, and transport equipment.”

Statistician General Risenga Maluleke said trade, catering and accommodation were negatively impacted by both the floods in KwaZulu-Natal and power cuts across the country.

“The industry recorded a contraction of 1.5%, as floods damaged retail outlets and storage facilities. There was also a loss of trading hours due to load shedding. Mining production was dragged lower by gold, coal and diamonds, with the decrease in coal production caused partly by the flooding. Mining output was also negatively affected by load shedding.

“Economic activity in the electricity, gas and water supply industry was hampered mainly by load shedding due to lack of generation capacity. There were disruptions to water supply too, caused by both the floods in KwaZulu-Natal and drought in Eastern Cape,” he said.

During this period, agriculture, forestry and fishing activity decreased by 7.7%, pulled lower by a decrease in the production of animal products. Electricity outages and the spread of foot-and-mouth disease contributed to the decline.

On the upside, Stats SA said: “The finance, real estate and business services industry made the biggest positive impact on GDP growth in Q2: 2022, rising by 2.4%. Growth was driven by increased activity in the banking sector, as well as in insurance and pension funding.”

Economic recovery from COVID-19: Not all industries are equal

The agency said the economy took almost two years to recover from the impact of COVID-19, with real GDP reaching pre-pandemic levels in Q1: 2022.

“The recovery was short-lived, with the 0.7% decline in Q2: 2022 dragging GDP back below the Q4: 2019 pre-pandemic level of R1 148 billion.

“Six industries have not yet recovered, with construction currently in the worst shape. The construction industry is 24% smaller than it was before the pandemic.

“Mining briefly recovered in Q2: 2021 but has since remained below its Q4: 2019 level.”

While 151 municipalities are teetering on the brink of collapse, 43 have already collapsed and require urgent intervention to rescue them, National Treasury told Parliament on Wednesday.

Senior officials from Treasury painted a bleak picture when they appeared before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations.

Members of Parliament were briefing on local government underspending in respect of the Municipal Revenue Management Improvement Programme, and progress on the implementation of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).

In a synopsis, Treasury Deputy Director-General for Intergovernmental Relations, Malijeng Ngqaleni, said local government finances are rising indebtedness and creditors.

Elaborating on the unsavoury state of affairs, Sadesh Ramjathan, Local Government Budget Analysis Director at National Treasury, said of the country’s 257 municipalities, only 58 presented unfunded budgets for the 2022/23 financial year.

“This immediately suggests that 98 municipalities plan to spend more than the revenue they collected, which may include the inability to meet financial obligations. There are 175 municipalities that we’ve identified that are in financial distress and these are municipalities that might be in the brink of a crisis,” he said.

A total of 219 municipalities meet the section 138 and 140 triggers – suggestive of financial problems and eminent crisis with service delivery failures.

Above this, 151 municipalities are deemed “bankrupt and insolvent”, and are unable to pay creditors and third parties, include the South African Revenue Service and pension funds.

“The group that will receive attention are the 43 municipalities in crisis, deemed to be beyond the section 154 support and require corrective mode of intervention to rescue them. National Treasury is driving this process, in collaboration with the provinces,” Ramjathan said.

He said the results of the fourth quarter of the 2021/22 financial year reiterated the dismal state of affairs.

The country’s municipalities, he said, are owed R255 billion by customers.

“In turn, creditors – which include Eskom and water boards – (are) owed just under R90 billion. You’d agree that these numbers don’t paint a good picture for local government.”

At the heart of the failures to collect what is due and pay for services received are “revenue management failures”.

These failures, Ramjathan said, are cut across the entire revenue value chain, with both political and administrative leadership unable to enforce the proper implementation of policies and legislation, and encourage the culture of paying for services consumed.

He said this has been perpetuated by weak controls.

Municipalities, he said, cannot expect to generate revenue if they do not deliver reliable services, and improve the generation of own revenue by local government to become self-sustainable.

To achieve this, Ramjathan said municipalities should ensure that revenue sources are optimised.

Above this, Treasury said councils should introduce initiatives aimed at improving efficiency within the revenue value chain.

Ramjathan said several setbacks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and procurement delays, also contribute to revenue collection.

He said Treasury has also had to pull the plug on the issuing of transversals for smart prepaid meters.

“The problem in local government far exceeds the funding. We had to ensure that the projects and initiatives are carefully chosen and targets the areas of biggest impact,” he said.

Achievements

Despite the challenges, Treasury said some progress and achievements have been recorded.

“Economic and financial viability studies were undertaken in the North West, Gauteng, Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape. This exercise informed us of the potential revenue that can be derived from potential customers and customer base,” said Ramjathan.

Treasury has developed a user-friendly tariff-setting tool, with a guideline and methodology, to assist municipalities to set cost-reflective tariffs in a phased approach.

Other tools include the budget assessment instrument to address the large liability that go to creditors.

“A tool was developed to reconcile the valuation roll to the billing system to ensure completeness of revenue,” Ramjathan said.

Above this, Treasury introduced a revenue monitoring masterclass to assist the crisis-ridden municipalities with best practice procedures and processes to optimise and improve the revenue base.

Ramjathan said it is critical for catalytic projects to be identified. These, he said, will have the biggest impact on revenue for municipalities.

Ngqaleni said a lot of challenges that local government faces emanate from governance and weak administration, which has significant impact on their ability to even absorb the support that is being given.

“In a way, that tends to limit interventions because it is the factors that impact on the work that we do, which we can’t do much about,” she said.

Occupational Health and Safety Inspectors have closed a building leased by the Department of Employment and Labour at the Giyani Labour Centre in the Old Government Complex due to non-compliance.

Acting Chief Director Provincial Operations, Phaswane Tladi, said that it was discovered that a section occupied by the department is non-compliant with the requirements of the following OHS Regulations: Facilities regulations 9, which deals with sanitation facility maintenance.

“It is unfortunate that the building had to be closed during a time when clients require services. However, the health and safety of both employees and customers is a top priority. Inspectors are responsible for preventing any fatalities that may result from such incidents,” Tladi said.

Tladi stated said the department must set a good example, so that others can see that the inspectorate is serious about compliance.

“The inspectorate unit’s services are unaffected by the closure because inspections are conducted on the field.

“At the provincial office, the processing unit will continue to process applications. Staff will be available outside the office from 07h30 to 10:00am to collect payment forms from clients who have already applied to ensure that payments continue,” Tladi said.

The Acting Chief Director said the building will be closed until the landlord resolves the problem.

The department has apologised for the inconvenience caused by the closure. However, clients can still access services online at www.labour.gov.za  or visit the nearest Labour Office in Malamulele.

Meanwhile, another OHS Inspector closed the Department of Education building in Polokwane on 12 of September 2022, as they did not have a certificate of compliance.

It was also found that electrical wires were not covered, housekeeping was not conducive for working and fire extinguishers were blocked, which may result in fatalities should there be a fire.

“A forklift found on the premises was prohibited from being used, as it has never been tested and is operated by officials who were never trained. It was later discovered that employees of the said department violated the prohibition order and have been recommended for prosecution.

“The building will remain closed until the Department of Education rectifies the issue. Subsequent to that, OHS inspectors will do a follow-up inspection to uplift the prohibition,” the department said.