Posts tagged with 'south africa'

 

Here are the ex-presidents who cost taxpayers the most

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Wondering which South African ex-presidents, as well as their spouse, costs the taxpayer the most after leaving their political offices?

So far, it was by no means easy to find out and Dr. Leon Schreiber, DA MP, during a parliamentary question to President Jackson Mthembu, asked exactly what benefits these former politicians enjoy, and how much each has cost the taxpayer over the past three years.

So there are currently four former presidents who benefit from the taxpayer in this way, namely FW de Klerk (1989-1994), Thabo Mbeki (1999-2008), Kgalema Motlanthe (2008-2009) and Jacob Zuma (2009-2018) .

Mthembu replied that ex-presidents and their spouses’ benefits extend over eight fields, namely hotel accommodation, private accommodation, alcohol, catering, entertainment, aircraft transport, car transport and security.

Evidence shows that none of the four past presidents or their spouses received any compensation for private accommodation, alcohol, catering, e
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New scam doing the round in SA, people are now renting dead bodies to scam life insurers

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South Africans are renting, and buying, dead bodies to make false funeral claims, a report by the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) says.

Life insurers rejected 1,915 funeral claims worth R176.4 million in 2018, of which 1,127 were found to involve fraudulent documentation.

Another 156 fraudulent claims showed syndicate involvement – and in seven cases beneficiaries were found to have caused the death of the policyholder.

Funeral policies don’t require blood tests and medical examinations and are designed to pay out quickly when an insured family member dies.

“Unfortunately, this makes it tempting for criminals and dishonest individuals to take out funeral cover for people who do not exist with the intention of later submitting claims using death certificates issued for dead bodies rented or bought for the purpose of committing fraud,” Donovan Herman, convenor of the ASISA Claims Standing Committee, says.

“If we allow
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MINISTERS ‘FINANCES MUST BE REDUCED – Taxpayers are picking up the bills for home cleaning products, security improvements and cellphones

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The Minister of Public Service and Administration Senzo Mchunu on Monday announced several changes to the ministerial manual.

Ministers will now not be allowed to pay more than R700 000 for a car, official flights within South Africa must be undertaken in economy class. The state will also no longer pay for security upgrades at ministers’ private homes and ministers may not spend more than R60 000a year on cell phones and phone calls.

The state will also not spend more than R5000 a month on water and electricity per official home. Ministers will also have to buy their own home cleaning products.

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Flooding in Centurion is causing havoc

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Continuous rains in the Central Transvaal are disrupting traffic but in Centurion buildings, roads and low water bridges became dangerous.

Large areas are flooded, and many vehicles are being swept away by the floodwater, but to date it is unknown whether any people died in the floodwater.

In some places, more than 280 mm of rain has been measured for the past week, and meteorologists predict even more rain for Tuesday.

Chaos has arisen on roads and some streets, and load shedding has also caused long queues of vehicles to stand by robots that do not work.

Meanwhile, Die Vryburger learned that parts of the Northern Cape that had not been raining for four years now are “past the stage where drought relief will help”, one of the farmers said.

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Petra Diamonds halts SA mining operations over power cuts – Eskom will be to blame for the downfall of SA’s economy

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Petra Diamonds has confirmed it received a notification from Eskom, asking it to reduce its load to the essential level.

As a result, it has announced it’s in the process of halting its mining operations in South Africa.

Petra Diamonds said all production, hoisting and processing have stopped with immediate effect at its operations in Cullinan, Finsch and Koffiefontein.

The company is removing all miners underground.

“Petra will update the market as soon as it receives a further notification as to how long the load curtailment will last, and therefore what impact this is likely to have upon the Company’s production performance,” the company said in a statement.

This came after Eskom announced stage six load shedding on Monday.

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ANC controlled entity, Prasa placed under administration – SAA, PRASA and who is next?

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The state-run Passenger Rail Agency (Prasa) has been placed under administration with immediate effect. Fikile Mbalula, minister of transport, announced the decision Monday morning during a media conference. Furthermore he stated that the immediate dissolution of Prasa’s interim council will also come into effect. Bongisizwe Mpondo was appointed as Prasa’s administrator . This decision comes barely a week after the South African Airways was put into business rescue.

According to Mbalula, the Department of Transport has conducted a review of Prasa over the past few weeks. On this basis, the Department has concluded that the entity faces numerous challenges that will require crucial interventions in leadership and management .

Maroela Media reports that Mbalula explaind that the mere replacement of an interim board with a permanent board will not solve Prasa’s problems. “So I decided to dissolve the interim council and put Prasa under administration,” the minister
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What a disgrace! Table Mountain Cableway: Visitors get stuck amid #Rollingblackouts

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The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company said power surges may have caused the failure of its generator.

The impact of load shedding is being felt across the country, as Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC) on Monday confirmed that visitors got stuck on top of the mountain.

In a statement on Monday evening, TMACC said: “TMACC can confirm that visitors who were stuck on the top of the mountain earlier today, when our backup generator failed to kick into gear, are now being safely brought down from the mountain. Power surges are believed to have caused the failure of our generator.”

Meanwhile, visitors who were at the bottom were offered free tickets for an alternative day after the incident.

“Our technical team is monitoring the impact of the sudden implementation of stage 6 load shedding, to best accommodate our visitors in a safe and responsible manner. We are doing everything within our power to make sure that any visitor’s experience of
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#Rollingblackouts in SA mos definitely caused by BEE, racial quotas, cadre deployment and outright looting!

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Yes, without a doubt the c-ANC-er broke Eskom, like they broke everything else. And they are making money from it too.

It is known that the ANC’s investment arm called Chancellor House made a 5000 % profit on its investment in Hitachi South Africa which had the tender for the boilers of Medupi and Kusile power stations. It was also reported in the media that Hitachi did a shoddy job with the welding of the boilers, which will shorten the life expectancy of the entire Medupi and Kusile. Chancellor House is also a shareholder of Pfisterer, a Pietermaritzburg based company supplying equipment to Eskom.

Today Eskom is producing less electricity than in 2007, costing more per unit price and using a bigger workforce than ever before, earning bigger salaries and bonuses.

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Zuma pulls a Houdini Act, misses Zondo deadline due to Cuba hospital stay

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Former president Jacob Zuma has been hospitalised in Cuba because of ‘complications relating to poisoning’.

Zuma’s lawyers have told the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture that he will not meet today’s deadline to respond to an application by journalist Redi Tlhabi to cross-examine him because he has been hospitalised in an undisclosed foreign country.

The letter from Zuma’s lawyers was sent days before the Sunday World yesterday reported that the former head of state, who did not appear before the Zondo commission of inquiry on his scheduled appearance dates of November 11 to 15 because of alleged ill-health, has been hospitalised in Cuba because of “complications relating to poisoning”.

Presidency spokesperson Khusela Diko referred requests for comment on whether it had been briefed about Zuma’s reported ill-health and its cause to his spokesperson, who has not responded to requests for further information about his hospitalisation and his repor
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#Rollingblackouts – Total darkness creeps closer after Eskom applied Phase 6 load shedding

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South Africa is getting closer to the risk of a total nationwide power shutdown after Eskom applied Phase 6 load on Monday evening at 6pm, shutting down a region’s power for about 9 hours a day. This is due to additional technical problems occurring at the Medupi power station at Lephalale in Limpopo.

Phase 6 load shedding was switched back to phase 4 at about 22:00 on Monday and it will continue until 23:00 on Tuesday, Eskom confirmed late last night.

However, Eskom Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer later told Moneyweb that phase 6 could be scaled back by 23:00.

South African residents have struggled since the announcement of load shedding to get more information on phase 6 load shedding and load shedding schedules on the national power suppliers’ website. It has also been indicated that there is limited access to Eskom’s website. Furthermore, the Cape Town metro’s online load shedding links were also not operational.

Meanwhile, Eskom is trying to a
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