A fuel transport levy, which had cost motorists three cents extra, will be removed from the petrol price from next month, says the Energy Department.

Speaking to media on Thursday, Mashudu Sinthumule, deputy director of fuel pricing mechanisms at the department, said that when the pipeline could no longer transport fuel products from the coast to the in-land, the department introduced the Incremental Inland Transport Recovery System (IITRS) Levy in 2008, which compensated oil companies that used alternative routes to transport fuel.

“To bring the product in by road is much more expensive than bringing it through the pipeline. The cost of bringing it by road was three cents extra,” he said.

In 2012, Transnet started to commercialise the New Multi-Product Pipeline [NMPP] which enables the pipeline to carry all grades of petrol, diesel and jet fuel, making it a full multi-product facility.

“The delay was there from 2012 for not terminating the three cents because we were trying to pay off the backlog of the monies owed to oil companies. The decision was taken that it should be terminated and this will be implemented on 2 April 2014,” said Sinthumule.

The termination of the IITRS levy of three cents per litre applicable in the price structures of petrol and diesel with effect from 2 April has been approved.

Director of the fuel pricing unit at the department, Robert Maake, said that what consumers need to understand is that in addition to the adjustment to the basic fuel price, the department will adjust the transport cost – both the pipeline transport cost and road transport cost.

In March, the petrol price rose by 36 cents a litre. Currently a litre of 95 ULP costs R14.32 in Gauteng. - SAnews.gov.za

Delegates from South Africa and the United States met on Wednesday to review the level of cooperation between the two nations across a range of fields including education, agriculture and health.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation hosted the fifth Annual Bilateral Forum (ABF) under the United States-South Africa Strategic Dialogue.

During the day-long forum, officials from across the South African government hosted their counterparts from the US Mission to look into bilateral cooperation in 14 areas, namely: basic and higher education; agriculture; health; protocol and administration; economic development, trade and investment; energy; water; environment; transportation; science and technology; defence, and safety and security.

US Ambassador to South Africa, Patrick Gaspard, co-chaired the forum. He described the ABF as a roadmap for maintaining and growing close cooperation between the United States and South Africa.

He said one of the areas in which the bilateral cooperation has great potential is law enforcement, which has positive spin-offs for the people of both countries.

“Through this mechanism, we have institutionalised broad bilateral dialogue across our many departments and agencies, allowing us to take stock of and make substantive progress on issues that are important to the security and prosperity of both nations,” he said.

Ambassador John Davies, who also chaired the forum, said: “The ABF is a useful engagement for providing an overview of bilateral relations and it definitely helps us to identify areas for potential growth and development, deal with problem areas and plan for the future.

“There are areas where we can clearly work better together and should concentrate in future on them so that our bilateral ties can strengthen to our mutual benefit.”

The ABF is a big component of the US-South Africa Strategic Dialogue, established by Former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in 2010. – SAnews.gov.za

South African Airways (SAA) on Wednesday reinstated flights to Blantyre, Malawi.The flights were reinstated following urgent runway repairs and...

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SportAccord convention today announced the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) as the official integrity partner of the 2014 convention, taking place 6-11 April at the Susesi luxury resort and convention centre in Belek/Antalya, Turkey. As ‘Official Integrity Partner’ for the 2014 Convention, the ICSS will add its knowledge and expertise in the area of [...]Focus On Sport Integrity is a post from: Time-4-Sport


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Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom says the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will transform perceptions of Africa as the continent is not usually seen as a location for cutting edge science and technology.

“With SKA, things will definitely change. Africa will no longer be the receiver but a major contributor to technology and hopefully young scientist in the continent will benefit,” Henekom said on Wednesday

The minister was speaking to the media after the first Ministerial Meeting of the SKA African Partner Countries – Ghana, Madagascar, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Mauritius and Kenya in Pretoria. The meeting is ahead of the first MeerKAT antenna launch in Carnarvon, in the Karoo tomorrow.

Phase 1 of the SKA will be co-hosted by South Africa and Australia, while the Phase 2 will see the eight countries partnering.

The meeting saw the nine countries signing the readiness strategy and joint implementation plan for SKA, which stipulates time resources, funds and human capital in each country by 2015.

"We encourage each partner country to work towards establishing relevant human capital development programmes and instruments aimed at building a new pipeline of researchers, scientists and engineers, technical skills and expertise for the successful implementation and substainability of the SKA and other radio-astronomy programmes and initiatives," reads a communique issued after the meeting.

They also plan on mobilising funding and technical resources needed to realize Africa's vision for radio astronomy, while facilitating partnerships globally - as countries were not at the same level of readiness for the project.

To ensure the wheels keep turning – Minister Hanekom said South Africa is already providing training for seven Ghanaians, who will operate and maintain the soon-to-be radio telescope at Kutunse in Ghana. It is hoped that more people from all partner countries would be trained in the next few years.

From other parts of the continent, the minister said, 90 students from other African countries had been trained in South Africa.

In addition, he noted that the development of radio astronomy in Africa was also being supported by the European Union, through the Africa Europe Radio Astronomy Programme.

AVN project

Part of this readiness is the African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (AVN) project. The project involves converting surplus large telecommunications dishes in the partner countries into radio telescopes.

The ministers highlighted that the AVN project would develop infrastructure relevant to the SKA and start world-class radio astronomy in the African countries concerned.

The African Renaissance Fund has allocated R120-million to support the development of the AVN, and the South African Department of Science and Technology has added another R21-million.

The SKA, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand, as well as SA and eight other African countries, will be a mega telescope, about 100 times more sensitive than the biggest existing radio telescope.

It will include 500 000 antennas, scattered across 3 000km in both southern Africa and Australia. Construction of the first two phases is expected to begin in 2017 and conclude in 2024, at an estimated cost to member countries of €1.5 billion. – SAnews.gov.za

President Jacob Zuma has described the mini summit of the International Conference of the African Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), which he attended in Angola, as a positive and constructive engagement.

"The summit was successful and we have registered positive progress since the previous ICGLR ordinary summit in January 2014. We have discussed and reviewed in detail the overall security situation prevailing in the Great Lakes Region and in Southern Africa and have agreed on necessary measures," the President said.


President Zuma returned to South Africa on Tuesday night, from the summit which discussed and agreed on various critical security issues affecting particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo and the entire Great Lakes Region.


South Africa, as a signatory to the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and a member of the Regional Oversight Mechanism, has reiterated its support to the efforts of the ICGLR at seeking a lasting political solution in the Great Lakes Region. This is in line with SA's foreign policy which promotes a peaceful resolution of conflicts and discourages unconstitutional changes of government.



The relations between South Africa and the Republic of Rwanda were also discussed at the summit which was also attended by Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries are at an all-time low following back-to-back expulsions of diplomats.

During the summit there was an agreement that the two countries must discuss the issue and find a mutually agreeable solution.

President Zuma was accompanied by Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, and Minister of State Security, Siyabonga Cwele. – SAnews.gov.za

A new chapter for skills development in local government has begun, with the signing of an agreement that will see youth being trained to work in the sector.

The agreement was signed earlier this week between the Department of Cooperative Governance, the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA) and the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA).

LGSETA will train unemployed youth in artisanship and other scarce skills, which will see them being employed in the local government sector to build water and electrical infrastructure. They will also maintain this infrastructure after it is built.

Signing the MoU, the Director-General of Cooperative Governance, Vusimuzi Madonsela, said the agreement will improve the quality of lives of unemployed youth.

“With this agreement, we also plan to roll out the training of administrative staff, senior management and councillors as part of government’s priority to professionalise the local government sector,” said Madonsela.

The agreement is a prelude to the Local Government Institute, which will be launched next month by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lechesa Tsenoli.

Elected representatives and municipal staff will also be trained in financial management, technical expertise, public sector leadership and management skills. - SAnews.gov.za

Mbombela – A group of innovative learners, who came up with an idea to install sensors in visually impaired people’s walking sticks to help them navigate easily, has been crowned the winners of the Business Idea Generation Competition. Innovative Learners from School Entrepreneurship During an award ceremony held in Mbombela this week afternoon, officials from [...]Learners’ idea strikes gold is a post from: Teach-the-Brain

The post Learners’ idea strikes gold appeared first on Teach-the-Brain.


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The Department of Social Development will on Tuesday launch a 24-hour call centre to provide support and counselling to victims of gender-based violence.

The toll free number to call in order to speak to a social worker for assistance and counselling is 0800 428 428 (0800 GBV GBV). Callers can also request a social worker from the Command Centre to contact them by dialling *120*7867# (free) from any cell phone.

The Command Centre will be symbolically launched soon after Human Rights Day, commemorated in South Africa annually on March 21.

According to the World Health Organisation, between 40 and 70 percent of female murder victims are killed by their husbands or boyfriends in South Africa.

The South African Police Services (SAPS) further reports 175 880 crimes against women and 66 387 sexual offences were committed in 2012/13.

These are the shocking statistics, which prompted the department, in partnership with Vodacom Foundation to pilot a 24-hour call centre dedicated to provide support and counselling to victims of gender based violence.

The Command Centre will allow social worker agents to provide telephonic support and counselling and can direct the victim’s case to a social worker in the pilot areas.

The pilot areas are in Gauteng (Hillbrow, Moroka, Sunnyside, Akasia, Alexandra) and KwaZulu-Natal (Edendale and Inanda).

Vodacom has invested R4.2 million for a period of six months to help cover the cost of the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and expertise to customise the call centre for the purpose of handling calls from victims of gender based violence.

Social workers in the pilot districts have been provided with training on the GBV Command Centre system and cell phones to provide feedback on the cases directed to them for support and resolution.

The Command Centre is working in collaboration with the SAPS, allowing calls to receive priority and be escalated to a police station nearest to them where necessary.

In addition to providing immediate intervention for victims of gender based violence, the Command Centre will also assist in the prosecution of perpetrators as information collected throughout the intervention process by all role players can be made available to the courts as evidence.

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini said that the Command Centre is aimed at making the department as responsive as possible to gender based violence.

“Additional functionality available to the department on a real time basis includes strategic reporting, which will highlight trends in specific locations or types of violence occurring, as well as an indication of demand for social workers in a specific district,” Minister Dlamini said.

She added that future collaboration and information sharing with other government departments will also improve with the efficient handling of cases and the support required by victims via the Command Centre.

This project emanates from the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Gender Based Violence and was committed to by Minister Dlamini during her 2013 Budget Vote.

It also forms part of service delivery improvements being implemented by the department through Project Mikondzo – a service delivery improvement strategy that seeks to roll out speedier and more innovative methods of meeting community needs. – SAnews.gov.za

Dublin student Kelly McCabe from Scoil Carmel Junior National School was named the overall winner of the sixth annual Doodle 4 Google competition. Beating off tough competition from 74 regional finalists, Kelly’s winning doodle will now be seen by millions of users when it appears on the Google Ireland homepage this Wednesday March 26th. Eight [...]2014 Doodle 4 Google Champion Crowned is a post from: All4Data


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