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KASIBC_AFRICA©®™  ONLINE_EDITOR©®™ NATIONAL SKILLS FUND 2024/25 ANNUAL REPORT IN PARLIAMENT, CAPE TOWN Providing funding to catalyse skills development in support of the Post-School Education and Training system remains a crucial mandate for the National Skills Fund .  The 2024/25 financial year reflected steady progress in programme delivery, alongside targeted efforts to address audit findings and operational bottlenecks. While the NSF recorded notable achievements in skills funding, infrastructure investment, and research support, the entity also worked to close persistent gaps in performance verification, contracting timelines, financial controls and consequence management.  The 2024/25 Annual Report therefore aims to reflect and provide a broader state of affairs in the National Skills Fund, herein summarised. Context of the NSF for the Year under review The transition from the 6th Administration into the 7th Administration required shifts in the work of the NSF t...

KASIBC_AFRICA©®™ ONLINE_EDITOR©®™  MITCHELLS PLAIN SHOOTING AND VIOLENT CRIME IN THE WESTERN CAPE  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the horrific mass shooting that took place last night in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain , where three people including a nine-year-old child, were brutally murdered and two others seriously wounded. This tragedy reflects a much deeper, long-standing crisis of violent crime on the Cape Flats , a crisis the EFF has repeatedly warned Parliament, the Provincial Government, and the national security cluster cannot be solved through routine policing, or reactive crackdowns.   According to reports, four armed assailants opened fire on a home from the outside before storming the property and continuing their attack inside. A 21-year-old woman and 26year-old man were killed alongside the young child, while two men aged 51 and 36 remain hospitalised. This was a deliberate, calculated act of terror that has devastated a community already liv...

KASIBC_AFRICA©®™ ONLINE_EDITOR©®™ SIU RECOVERS R14.7 MILLION AND RETURNS FUNDS TO PROVINCES The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has successfully recovered and returned R14.7 million to six Provincial Departments of Transport in its efforts to restore accountability and protect public resources. These funds were irregularly diverted from the Nationwide Rolling Stock Fleet (NRSF) project, and their restitution forms part of a broader investigation under Proclamation R37 of 2017 . This proclamation empowered the SIU to investigate serious maladministration and corruption within the transportation sector, with a focus on vehicle registration, driver licensing, and the eNaTIS system . This restitution is part of a comprehensive program designed to enhance the value chain. It includes thorough investigations, cancellation of fake licenses, and referral of cases for disciplinary and criminal action. The SIU’s approach shows how accountability works, starting with in-depth investigations that...

KASIBC_AFRICA©®™  ONLINE_EDITOR©®™  NEDLAC to drive change from BEE to Empowerment for All Today, the Democratic Alliance presented our Economic Inclusion for All Bill to Nedlac, marking an important step in reshaping South Africa’s empowerment framework. We welcome the constructive engagement at Nedlac and value the perspectives shared by business, labour, and civil society. This feedback will be carefully considered as we advance the Bill through the legislative process. We further welcome discussions on reviewing existing legislation, reaffirming the principle of “once empowered, always empowered”, and exploring alternatives to current ownership requirements, including employee share ownership schemes and the expansion of equity equivalent investment programmes (based on our non-racial, outcomes driven alternative scorecard). For nearly three decades, Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment has served a small, politically connected elite, while millions of South Africa...

KASIBC_AFRICA©®™  ONLINE_EDITOR©®™  ESTABLISHMENT OF A PERMANENT COMMITTEE TO PROVIDE OVERSIGHT ON THE WORK OF THE PRESIDENCY  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has been actively involved in the process to ensure that Parliament restores and strengthens mechanisms of horizontal accountability, particularly in relation to the Office of the Presidency . For too long, this office has exercised wide-ranging executive authority without a dedicated parliamentary structure to provide continuous scrutiny and oversight. It is within this broader commitment that, in 2023, the EFF wrote to the then Speaker of the National Assembly to ask that she consider the establishment of a permanent committee to provide oversight on the work of the Presidency. We did so because we were concerned that there was a growing concentration of key state functions in the Office of the President, without there being a parliamentary mechanism for holding the Presidency to account in relation to t...

KASIBC_AFRICA©®™ ONLINE_EDITOR©®™  MEC MAILE ADDS R 3.3 BILLION TO GAUTENG BUDGET TO IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY ONLINE_EDITOR©®™  Two weeks ago, the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana emphasised during his MTBPS speech that, and I quote: “We are choosing growth, stability, and reform”.  Today, as we table the provincial MTBPS, I would like to affirm that as the Gauteng Provincial Government , we remain singularly focused on protecting social services, supporting inclusive growth, and ensuring that every Rand derives tangible value and benefits to the people of Gauteng. This event takes place as the country commemorates the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign . We therefore applaud the decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare Gender Based Violence a national disaster. GBV is not only a social, political and public health emergency, it is also an economic crisis with significant direct and indirect costs to individuals, com...