Latest news with #R14bn
TimesLIVE
16-07-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
Zondo commission of inquiry cost R1bn — Mbalula
The ANC has revealed the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture has cost the country R1bn and resulted in 51 individuals and 27 entities facing criminal charges with R11bn in 'stolen assets' recovered. The commission, formed in 2018 by former president Jacob Zuma, was established to investigate allegations of state capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector. It concluded its hearings in 2021 and the final report was submitted in 2022. Concerns have been raised that the report has 'gathered dust', with no action taken against those implicated as there haven't been any arrests. Briefing the media on Tuesday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the commission yielded a substantial return despite its significant cost. 'More than R14bn in assets are frozen, R5.4bn has been recovered and more than 60 individuals and entities are facing criminal prosecution,' Mbalula said. 'The commissions have not only exposed wrongdoing but have informed meaningful legislative and structural reforms.' President Cyril Ramaphosa has established a commission of inquiry to look into allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi against senior law enforcement officials, including police minister Senzo Mchunu, over alleged political interference in criminal cases. Mchunu and deputy national police commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya were placed on special leave pending the outcomes. The move was criticised by the public and political parties, citing previous commissions that produced no arrests. Mbalula said calls for immediate arrests or prosecutions without the process 'reflect disregard for constitutionalism and due process and would ironically mirror the very abuses of power we seek to correct' 'It must be understood that in a constitutional democracy, justice is not a spectacle. The separation of powers doctrine limits the executive's direct intervention in investigations or prosecutions. 'The demand for arrests, politically driven prosecutions, or trial by media undermines the foundation of the rule of law. South Africa's hard-won democracy does not permit leaders to act as judge, jury and executioner. Instead, the president has correctly entrusted independent institutions to do their work and has created an enabling environment for them to succeed.' He called on the public and political parties to respect the process. 'The commission must be allowed to conduct its work thoroughly, independently and without fear or favour. 'The ANC views the settings of commissions of inquiry, while not a substitute for law enforcement, as essential instruments in the pursuit of justice, truth and reform, especially where systemic failure, conflict of interest or possible political interference has paralysed existing institutions.'
TimesLIVE
01-07-2025
- Health
- TimesLIVE
'The time for excuses has passed' — PSA vows escalation until every unemployed doctor in KZN is hired
The Public Servants Association (PSA) has vowed to intensify protest action until every qualified, unemployed doctor in KwaZulu-Natal is absorbed into the provincial health system. The union, which represents thousands of public sector employees, has thrown its weight behind more than 150 unemployed doctors, who despite completing their internships and community service, remain without work. 'These doctors have completed their internship and community service obligations in line with public health policy but have been abandoned by the same government that trained them,' said the PSA in a statement. The union warned it would not back down until the KZN department of health provides clear answers about staffing plans. 'Health care is not a commodity, it is a human right. Doctors are not surplus, they are essential,' said the PSA. In a recent media statement, the KwaZulu-Natal health department confirmed that 20 medical officer posts will be advertised within the next seven days as part of an interim intervention. 'This comes as a result of ongoing engagements between the department of health and the Office of the Premier, which are aimed at finding practical solutions under challenging fiscal conditions,' the department said. Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane, speaking alongside premier Thami Ntuli, explained that the 800 medical posts referenced earlier this year by the national finance minister refer to a national allocation — not a provincial one — and that KZN will only receive a portion. 'We want to make it clear that those 800 posts form part of a national process, which is being handled at the level of the minister of health, the minister of finance, and parliament. KZN, like all other provinces, will receive a portion of those posts. Once national [government] has finalised that process and informed us how many posts we will receive, we will immediately advertise them,' said Simelane. She said they were not ignoring the problem. 'When we realised that our provincial budget would not be enough to absorb all the doctors finishing their community service this year, we escalated the matter to the premier. The premier and I then took the issue directly to the president,' said Simelane. Simelane blamed long-term financial cuts for the current staffing crisis. 'In the past five years, our department has lost R14bn to baseline budget cuts. That has greatly affected our ability to expand our staff complement,' she said. The PSA said these explanations were not enough. 'The PSA demands that minister of health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, must immediately confirm how many of the 1,500 posts he promised on April 10 have been allocated to KwaZulu-Natal,' the union said. 'In addition, budget allocations must be urgently released to allow the provincial department to advertise and fill these critical posts without delay. This delay is a denial of justice, a betrayal of the working class, and a blatant undermining of the right to health for the people of KwaZulu-Natal,' said the PSA. The union painted a dire picture of the state of health care in the province, saying it has a doctor-to-patient ratio of just 0.4 per 1,000 people — far below acceptable standards. 'Emergency units are short-staffed, surgical backlogs are growing, and burnout among medical personnel has reached a breaking point. And yet, over 150 doctors remain jobless. The situation reflects poor governance and a leadership crisis,' said the PSA. 'These are not new posts but critical vacancies that have been left unfilled.' The union has also called for a joint meeting involving national and provincial authorities, unions and community organisations to craft a 'radical and people-centred workforce plan' based on population needs and transparent staffing data. 'These unemployed doctors are not job seekers begging for work. They are professionals demanding the fulfilment of a promise, and the right to serve communities. Government cannot continue to pay lip service to health transformation while it leaves hospitals short of hands and graduates unemployed,' the PSA said. The union warned that unless decisive action is taken soon, it will escalate its mobilisation efforts. 'The time for bureaucratic excuses has passed. The PSA will intensify mobilisation alongside unemployed doctors and progressive forces until every qualified doctor is placed, every funded post is filled and every patient is treated with dignity,' it said.
TimesLIVE
25-06-2025
- Health
- TimesLIVE
KZN premier to create 20 posts for unemployed doctors
Addressing the unemployed doctors on Wednesday, Premier Thami Ntuli — who adjourned a cabinet meeting to attend to the matter with Simelane — explained that problems with budget processes at national level, which trickled down to provinces, were the main reason for the delay in employing them and called for patience until the processes were concluded. Simelane said the posts announced by the national government were still in their hands and the provincial department could advertise them only after getting the go-ahead from head office. 'We want to make it clear those 800 posts form part of a national process, which is being handled at the level of the ministers of health, finance and parliament. KwaZulu-Natal, like all other provinces, will receive a portion of those posts. Once national has finalised that process and informed us how many posts we will receive, we will immediately advertise them.' She said her department became aware last year they wouldn't have sufficient funds in this financial year to employ doctors completing their community service and brought it to Ntuli's attention. Ntuli and Simelane then took it to the president, who referred it to his cabinet. 'As part of that, the president engaged his own cabinet to say 'go and look for extra funding for the province' (but) because they can't deal with just one province they then said it's for national, so the 800 that was spoken of by the minister of finance is in relation to national government. The national department of health will decide what KZN gets,' she said. Simelane said the department had approached Ntuli for help in addressing the unemployment challenge. 'In the meantime, we spoke to the premier to ask if he could give us anything and that amounted to the 20 posts we will be advertising because that is what the province has. The premier is going to approve this today [Wednesday] and we will advertise in the next seven days.' She said the financial struggles facing the department were rooted in the broader fiscal challenges in the country which have resulted in significant budget cuts in provinces. KwaZulu-Natal has lost more than R63bn in the past five years from its baseline budget, with the health department losing R14bn. 'That has greatly affected our ability to expand our staff complement. Nonetheless, we continue to prioritise engagements with the National Treasury and other stakeholders to unlock resources.' Ntuli said the challenges were inherited but the province was working hard to resolve them. 'We have to be honest with you; we don't have magic (but) we have to subject ourselves to a process that will deliver the expectations we put forward.' Simelane appealed for calm while the department continued to liaise with doctors and healthcare workers on various pertinent matters.
IOL News
19-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Vodacom achieves five-year strategy targets and increases the 2025 dividend by 5. 1%
Vodacom hopes to grow its customer base to 260 million people using its network by 2030, this after reaching 211.3 million customers in its 2025 financial year. Image: Supplied Vodacom Group met five-year targets and lifted its full-year dividend 5.1% to 620 cents a share, even though it served 9.2 million fewer customers in the year to March 31. South Africa's second biggest mobile network operator has also upgraded its medium-term operational earnings growth targets. CEO Shameel Joosub said Monday normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased 7.8% to R55.52 billion in the past year and that the five-year target for this metric had been adjusted to double-digit figures from high single-digit figures. 'As we draw the curtain on our Vision 2025 strategy, I am proud of the progress we made over five years to deliver on our targets. This was despite a challenging environment marked by a global health crisis, currency volatility, geopolitical tensions, inflation pressures and energy disruptions in South Africa,' Joosub said in a statement. He said they finished the second half strongly, despite currency volatility, which had since stabilised, particularly in Egypt. Group revenue increased 1.1% to R152.2bn, despite big foreign exchange headwinds. Group service revenue fell by 0.1% in rands, but increased 11.2% on a normalised basis, above the medium-term target. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Financial services revenue increased 17.6% on the same basis to R14bn, contributing 11.6% to group service revenue. The group now serves a combined 211.3 million customers and 87.7 million financial services customers, including Safaricom on a 100% basis. 'Over the five-year period, we significantly expanded geographic and product diversification resulting in the number of customers using our networks increasing from 115.5 million to 211.3 million, while financial services customers rose from 53.2 million to 87.7 million, including Safaricom, over the same period,' said Joosub. Headline earnings a share for the past year increased 1.3% to 857 cents, reflecting strong growth in the second half. Operating profit was up 10.9% to R35.79 billion. 'We now seek to ensure we deliver against our Vision 2030 ambitions, which include growing our customer base to 260 million and financial services customer base to 120 million,' he said. Group service revenue from beyond mobile was targeted to increase to 30% from 21% currently. Group service revenue and EBITDA targets were upgraded from high single-digit to double-digit growth. He said the performance in South Africa over the past year had been resilient, and there was outstanding, continued growth in Egypt and Tanzania. The businesses in Mozambique and DRC were impacted by post-election tensions and conflict, but with momentum behind peace efforts in both countries, the group was hopeful of improved prospects. The South African business saw service revenue growth of 2.3%, led by a recovery in the prepaid segment, sustained data traffic growth of over 36.4%, and the increasing contribution of beyond mobile services. 'These services, encompassing financial and digital services, fixed and IoT, contributed R11.2bn, or 17.8% of South Africa's service revenue,' he said. The International business spanning DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania achieved 7.1% normalised service revenue growth. Tanzania saw service revenue growth of 20.5% and EBITDA increased 25.2% in shillings. Lesotho and DRC grew service revenue by 10.4% and 8.2% respectively, in local currency. M-Pesa, Africa's largest mobile money platform, processed over $450.8bn in transaction value, reflecting an 18.3% increase. In Ethiopia, a 103.2% increase in customer base to 8.8 million was driven by growing demand for connectivity and a growing commercial trajectory. Service revenue in local currency increased 238.9%. 'As the second most populous country in Africa, Ethiopia remains integral to our long-term growth ambitions, and we are encouraged by the market's response to our entry and the regulatory strides being made,' said Joosub. Egypt delivered service revenue of R27.7bn, contributing 23% to the group. Service revenue for the year was up 45.2%, accelerating to 47.7% in the fourth quarter, supported by a strong commercial campaign and price adjustments across mobile and fixed services in December. The group has lodged an appeal at the Competition Tribunal following a decision to prohibit Vodacom's proposed acquisition of a stake in Maziv, the parent of Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa. Visit:
Daily Maverick
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Education department needs R46bn for new classrooms and toilets at public schools
The Department of Basic Education says it needs R32bn to build new classrooms in 8,222 schools and an additional R14bn to construct toilets at 13,385 schools. On Tuesday, the minister of basic education, Siviwe Gwarube, appeared before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Basic Education to provide an update on the conditions at South Africa's public schools. Gwarube revealed that 90% of 22,381 schools were in fair, very good or good condition. Eight percent were in poor condition, and 2% in very poor condition. She said that 8,222 schools needed new classrooms, and 13,485 additional toilets needed to be constructed. 'We are talking about more than just buildings and new schools; we have a new phenomenon of overcrowded classrooms … or schools with not enough classrooms, and … this is something that we really need to resolve. Over 8,222 schools still require additional classrooms, and that is estimated at R32-billion.' She continued: '13,485 schools require additional toilets to cope with the rising number of learners … and that would require about R14-billion.' The Department of Basic Education (DBE) said that for the current financial year, it had only R15,285,220 for the Education Infrastructure Grant, which was less than what was needed to resolve these issues. Daily Maverick previously reported that in the face of overwhelming workloads, safety concerns and a lack of support, many teachers are reconsidering their future in the profession. Safe sanitation After missing the deadline to eradicate pit toilets by 31 March, the DBE told the committee that the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) programme, which was launched in 2018 to provide adequate sanitation facilities at schools, would be terminated at the end of this financial year. The programme has eradicated 3,235 pit toilets, with 137 still to be attended to. Ramasedi Mafoko, the acting chief director for infrastructure at the DBE, said, 'As the Safe initiative is coming to an end, we are no longer taking any new projects; we will give them over to the provincial education departments with a clear instruction that sanitation is an immediate priority. So any pit latrines identified are given over to the province.' The DBE told the committee that 206 schools out of 22,381 had inappropriate structures, referring to ageing structures, schools built of mud or those that need repairing. Turning to its successes, the DBE said it had helped schools get increased access to water and electricity, had built 1,344 new schools and provided 12,797 schools with libraries. DM
