Energy Minister, Tina Joematt-Pettersson, has welcomed the huge decrease in the fuel prices, saying they will be a big relief to motorists and users...

read more Southern Africa Business News...

The Jacob Zuma Foundation, which is known primarily for its charitable activities in the field of education, has partnered with the Roman Catholic Church to improve the existing translation of the Bible into isiZulu.

The JG Zuma Foundation said: “As a speaker of isiZulu, President Zuma has long felt that the existing isiZulu translation of the Scriptures is inadequate and a new version will now be directly translated from Biblical languages such as Hebrew and Aramic straight into isiZulu.

“This new version will be more accurate and closer to the original manuscript.”

The only latest version translated by the Bible Society was done in 1959, and leans on other languages rather than isiZulu.

The JG Zuma Foundation, which described this as a “unique venture”, said this work will culminate in a more relevant Zulu Bible, which is considered a critical evangelisation tool for both worshippers and scholars.

President Jacob Zuma, as patron of the JG Zuma Foundation, handed over a R500 000 cheque towards the Bible translation project to the Roman Catholic Church during a prayer service with St Joseph Cathedral in Mariannhill on Sunday. – SAnews.gov.za

The Department of Arts and Culture has conveyed its condolences to legendary piano maestro, Pat Matshikiza.

Matshikiza passed away on Monday in Durban at the age of 76.

“We wish to offer our condolences to the family, friends and, above all, the music fraternity, especially jazz,” spokesperson for the Department of Arts and Culture, Sandile Memela, said.

Matshikiza may be widely remembered for Tshona, his infectious and danceable collaboration with Kippie Moeketsi.

Memela said Matshikiza would be remembered as one of the earliest and greatest exponents of African jazz with a distinctive urban township vibe.

“His recording of Tshona, featuring extraordinaire saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi, established indigenous jazz music as the most distinctive sound outside of America,” he said.

Matshikiza moved to Johannesburg at a young age to become part of Dorkay House where he joined MacKay Davashe's Jazz Dazzles.

“It was in this group that he joined legends like Moeketsi, trumpeter Dennis Mpale and drummer Makhaya Ntshoko, among others, who redefined and energized the local music scene, especially jazz,” Memela said.

He said when artists went into exile in search of better opportunities in the 1960s, Matshikiza stayed behind to serve as an intuitive connection between those who left and those who stayed.

“That he never blossomed into his full potential is a serious indictment on the history of this country and how African artists, particularly were denied opportunities.

“His resilience saw him integrate into the hotel scene where he was acknowledged and recognised by fellow artists and patrons for his skill and talent,” Memela said. - SAnews.gov.za

Pretoria – The number of road crashes and fatalities between 1 December and 28 December have decreased slightly compared to last year.

“We have registered 924 fatal crashes with 1143 fatalities, whilst last year during the same period under review we registered 974 fatal crashes with 1168 fatalities,” Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said on Tuesday.

According to the latest road crash statistics for the busy festive season period, fatal crashes have decreased by 50 and fatalities were reduced by 25.

Thirty-one percent of fatal crashes occurred between 10pm and 6am, with 80 percent of the crashes occurring in residential and or built-up areas.

Minister Peters released the latest December road crash statistics on Tuesday at a media briefing in Durban.

“These figures tell a very unpleasant and discouraging story about our human conduct in the usage of our roads,” she said.

Minister Peters said the Department of Transport had issued 99 060 summons for exceeding the speed limit, arrested 415 people for excessive speeding with the highest speed recorded being 265km/h.

“The substance abuse in particular drunken driving remains a major challenge. During the period under review we arrested 904 drivers who were driving under the influence of alcohol and had exceeded the required limit,” she said.

Minister Peters appealed to motorists to be vigilant and take precautions on the road as many South Africans will soon be returning from their holiday destinations.

She said the department would upscale efforts to work and partner with the youth in rolling out road safety programmes.

“We will also leave no stone unturned in partnering and urging the owners of liquor outlets, especially in residential areas, to work and collaborate in ensuring that their patrons are safe and do not become statistics,” Minister Peters said. – SAnews.gov.za

About 70 graduates, who benefitted from the Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust, have told President Jacob Zuma how their lives and family conditions have changed.On Monday, President Zuma hosted the 13th annual Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust Children and Youth Christmas Party at Mnyakanya High...

Full Story on Education portal ...

The transfer of South African Airways (SAA) from the Ministry of Public Enterprises to the Ministry of Finance was gazetted on Friday. “The transfer is effective from 12 December 2014 and the handover process is well underway. The Minister of Finance [Nhlanhla Nene] has already held an introductory meeting with the board of directors of [...]South African Airways transferred is a post from: South Africa Business
The post South African Airways transferred appeared first on South Africa Business.


more Business South Africa ...

Orna Non-Conformist Conservation Activist – Big 5 You have to take action to make a difference. The key to successful campaigning, is taking action and longevity. Anybody can do an expose’ and it goes away & everyone ‘thinks’ it’s cured. The important thing is to keep it out there in front of people and to […]Africa’s biggest Asset is its Game is a post from: Cape Town
The post Africa’s biggest Asset is its Game appeared first on Cape Town.


read more Cape Town Environment news

The Auditor General recently released an audit report of our municipalities, state entities and government departments. The report once again showed marked improvements in the management of public funds by these public institutions as compared to the previous year.

One of the successes of our democracy was no doubt the establishment of the office of the Auditor General which has since its inception gone a long way to strengthen oversight, accountability and governance in the public sector through independent auditing. Government will continue to cooperate with this office.

The President, Ministers, Premiers and MECs are taking the findings of the Auditor-General seriously and we will put in an extra effort to ensure that internal controls are improved to set us on a path to stringent management and accountability in the finances of the state.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank and applaud the Auditor-General for his leadership when working with officials from all our departments and entities during the current audit period.

It is encouraging to note that the audit outcomes this year show an improvement, with 119 (25%) of the 469 auditees attaining clean audit outcomes compared to 22% in the previous year.

This means that more departments and entities received clean audits or unqualified audits with no findings in the 2013/14 financial year compared to 22%, or 96, that achieved the same result in the 2012/13 financial year.

Although this is a slight improvement, government remains committed to achieving clean audits across all spheres as that would be indicative of sound governance that will set us on the road to improved service delivery.

The report shows that senior managers within the public service are addressing the concerns that the office of the Auditor-General has raised over the past few years. The Auditor-General also reports that 40 departments and 79 public entities operate in environments characterised by strong leadership, good governance and financial and performance management controls that prevent and correct errors and non-compliance.

Fifty-one percent, or 238 departments and entities, achieved unqualified audits with findings in 2013/14 compared to 56%, or 242, in the 2012/13 financial year.

Sixteen percent, or 73 of the departments and entities achieved a qualified audit outcome and the number was the same for the previous financial year.

Most importantly, there has been a reduction of adverse or disclaimer audit outcomes as stipulated in the Auditor-General’s report.

Auditees with an adverse or disclaimer audit outcome with findings dropped to 4%, or 18, in the year under review from 5%, or 21, in 2012/13.

While the Auditor-General has raised concerns over irregular expenditure, we welcome his recommendations to further improve key controls in six risk areas that he identified. This includes the quality of submitted financial statements and performance reports, supply chain management, financial health, human resource management and information technology controls.

The Auditor-General has also called on us to focus on getting the basics right. This requires of us to fill vacant positions with competent officials and implement basic internal controls, as well as enforcing compliance with legislation by following processes and procedures.

The audit outcomes are also consistent with the assessment of 155 national and provincial departments that is conducted by the Ministry in the Presidency for Performance, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation on an annual basis. The assessments, known as the Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT), identify challenges in governance and accountability, human resource management and financial management, amongst others.

Instructions are then given to senior managers in government to implement improvement plans recommended by the MPAT results to improve internal controls and compliance to bolster service delivery. We will not rest until financial management is improved and a lack of compliance related to procurement is enhanced.

We take all issues related to procurement seriously.The most recent assessment results, which were presented to Parliament in September, show that more departments were responding to the recommendations and implementing improvement plans.

However, we will not achieve our goal of having clean audits without paying attention to human resources management. The Department of Public Service and Administration continues to educate public servants on the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act.

Over the past year, the National Assembly passed the Pubic Administration and Management Bill of 2013 by a majority vote and referred it to President Jacob Zuma for his assent. Once the Bill has been signed into law, the department plans to implement the Act in phases that will pave a way for the development of regulations, norms and standards. This will professionalise the public service and bar public servants from doing business with the state, amongst others.

We are confident that institutions created by our constitution like that of the Auditor General will continue to exercise their oversight role without fear or favour as their independence remains a cornerstone in our democracy. – SAnews.gov.za

In the past 20 years, our country has made significant strides in consolidating democracy and rolling out basic services such as electricity particularly to those deliberately excluded from these services by apartheid.

Since 1994, access to electricity has increased from just over 50% of households to 86%. According to Census 2011 the number of households with access to electricity is now at 12.1 million.

The government plans to connect a further 10 per cent of the population to the national power grid in the coming few years as part of our mass electrification programme to take power into deep rural areas of our country.

However, this massive electrification together with South Africa's steady economic growth, which is increasingly focusing on industrialisation, has inevitably led to a steep increase in the demand for electricity. This in return has further placed pressure on Eskom to build more power station and this work is at an advanced stage.

Our predictions also indicate that South Africa's energy demand is expected to be twice the current levels by 2030.
As we have all seen, Eskom has again embarked on load-shedding as a result of unplanned outages caused by a series of pressure in the national grid. The last time we experienced such severe outages was in 2008 and this week we went back to that painful experience when large parts of the country were hit by rolling blackouts, with traffic lights out in many areas.

These outages were followed by warnings from Eskom that the power grid remains severely constrained. The power system is expected to be very tight over the evening peaks of the next few days and the risk of widespread load-shedding will increase as the power utility diesel reserves decline. The energy crisis has also been exacerbated by multiple tripping of generating units at the Majuba and Matimba power stations.

We are all aware of the frustration that the load-shedding is causing both to businesses and individual households. But as we deal with this problem, government joins Eskom in a call to all South Africans to pull together over the next few months and use electricity sparingly by 'Living Lightly' this summer. Let us realise that Eskom alone, cannot be expected to handle our energy challenge.

At home, simple things like switching off geysers, pool pumps, and non-essential lights will go a long way in reducing demand and pressure on the national grid. Your geyser uses 39% of your monthly energy usage. Switch it off to reduce your energy demand.

Although Government will always appeal to South Africans to monitor their electricity consumption, plans are in place to ensure that in future we can meet the needs of our growing economy as well as connecting new households to the grid. The synchronisation of the first unit at the 4 764 MW coal-fired Medupi power station is set to take place before the end of the year. The Kusile Power Station is anticipated to be completed in early 2017.

The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is our blueprint to meet South Africa’s medium- to long-term energy needs over a 20 year period. It aims also to achieve a balance between affordable electricity and cleaner energy. IRP predicts that electricity consumption will increase from 260 Terawatt hours (TWh) in 2010 to 454 TWh in 2030, and that the peak demand for electricity will increase from 39 Gigawatt (GW) in 2010 to 68 GW in 2030. Therefore the IRP envisages a new generation capacity of 52 248MW over the next 20 years, which will take the country’s total energy generating capacity to 85 241MW in 2030.

South Africa is also committed to increase its renewable energy capacity. The Department of Energy has set a target of 1 million installations of solar water heater (SWH) geysers by end this year. Additionally, Government has ensured that the SWH programme strictly enforces the inclusion of a minimum of 70 per cent local content threshold, in an effort to optimise the benefits of localisation and create much needed jobs.

Government is committed to meeting the country’s energy needs. However, we need South Africans to be responsible citizens and to conserve as much energy as possible. By doing so Eskom will be able to meet energy demands which are crucial to the economic growth and prosperity of our country.

Christchurch to host spectacular Cricket World Cup opening ceremony CWC 2015 – The South Island city of Christchurch is set to host a unique and spectacular opening event for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. This will be held on Thursday 12th February – two days before the tournament officially begins when New Zealand take [...]Christchurch hosts CWC 2015 Ceremony is a post from: Time-4-Sport


more Sports News ...