Author: Silver Sibiya
As South Africa’s electricity crisis deepens, more organisations are taking to the streets in protest against the government and its management of Eskom’s rolling blackouts which have been increased to Stages 5 and 6 over the last few days. This means residents and businesses are at times forced to stay without electricity for up to 8 hours a day making life unbearable for many South Africans who rely on the power utility for power. The latest march to Eskom’s headquarters in Sunninghill Johannesburg was organised by civil rights groups – #StandUpSA together, NotInMyName and Voice it In Action. The three…
Joined by City Power Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tshifularo Mashava, Amad led a cut-off operation in Roodepoort today as part of efforts to recover some R7.9 billion owed to the metro by residents and businesses. Amad said the city needs to improve its finances urgently because it is in need of revenue. “The entire City is owed about R7.9 billion. You know the City is in a dire need of those finances, we are trying to make sure that we generate revenue so that we stabilise the finances of the City. “Remember these are business institutions, when there is no…
About a thousand residents of Madibeng Community in the North West who live near one of the biggest chrome mines in Brits, Samancor, yesterday handed over a memorandum of demands at the mine’s head offices in Sandton. The residents are demanding that the company stop its corruption tendency and start hiring locals and also invest in the development of their area in line with the company’s Social Labour Plans. Police and Johannesburg Metropolitan Department officers kept the residents in line as at times they were agitated and threatened people who work in the office park they marched to. “We are…
The ANC in Gauteng has welcomed the removal of the DA Mayor, Dr Mpho Phalatse and the party’s Provincial Secretary in Gauteng Thembinkosi “TK” Ncinza said the removal of Phalatse has freed the City from poor governance. “Since coming into office in November 2021, the DA-led multiparty government has done nothing but reverse some of the most important work that it inherited from the ANC-led coalition government that preceded it,” he said. He said while the ANC prioritised black people the DA didn’t show any care towards them. “While the latter had adopted pro-poor policies that sought to improve the…
Ousted City of Johannesburg Mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse said while she is disappointed to have been removed in her position she will continue to serve the residents of the municipality in another capacity. “I’m honoured, I was the first female to serve the Joburg Metro. It will never be removed from the history books and that is one thing that I will always take with me,” she said. Phalatse said this in Braamfontein, shortly after she was voted out in a motion of no confidence. Councillors who supported the motion of no confidence were 140 while 129 voted against it. …
The City of Joburg Mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse will again face a motion of no confidence during a council sitting on Thursday from five opposition parties, including the ANC, that have united to remove her from her seat. The opposition parties, the ANC, the ATM, the PAC, Al Jama-ah, and the Good and African Independent Congress (AIC), will vote together to remove the DA mayor who was re-elected only in October 2022. Last year, Phalatse survived multiple motions of no confidence brought by minority parties and also interdicted the council by going to Johannesburg High Court which ruled in her…
The pass rate for the 2022 matric exams went up by 3.7% to 80.1% compared to the 76.4% achieved by the class of 2021. Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal made history by producing the most Bachelor passes compared to the other provinces. The statistics came out last night when Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the matric results in Joburg. She said the number of candidates qualifying for university entry is 278 814 and an improvement of 8.9% from last year. “This represents 38.4% of the total number of candidates who wrote the 2022 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations. By the way,…
The cream of the crop was hosted by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga this morning at Constantia Kloof. Mthokozisi Gongo from Ixopo in Kwa-Zulu Natal who wants to study medicine in that province said load shedding was one of the challenges he faced but he conquered. “I’m feeling very happy. I’m lost for words, I’m speechless,” he quipped. “I was doing Physical Science, Life Science, Mathematics, Languages and Life Orientation. I was living away from home and when there was load shedding we couldn’t walk at night to study at the school. “Sometimes I didn’t have enough food and those…
However, the businesses accused the power utility of overbilling because it uses faulty metres to determine the amount of electricity used by the entities. One of the businesses whose services were disconnected, is the Catalyst Hotel in Sandton. The hotel General Manager Robert Chifunyise blamed the incorrect meter box for not paying his bills. “We hired so many consultants trying to figure this out that we have paid in the past. We have documents to prove that we have paid over R3 million in the last year. “We pay R600 000 a month as much as we dispute the money…
There has been a 13,9% decrease in road fatalities during the festive season with 1 451 deaths on our roads during the 2022 Festive Season, according to Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula who was briefing the media on road traffic statistics at Grasmere N1 Toll Plaza in Joburg today. However in Gauteng, there was a 5,5% increase in the number of deaths on the road, from 275 to 290 while there was a marked drop from 119 to 94 fatalities reported in the North West Province, a 21% decrease. “The period under review saw a total of 1451 people losing…