Day: May 26, 2022

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and City of Cape Town invite the media to the launch of an anti-vandalism awareness campaign at Fisantekraal near Durbanville on Friday, 27 May 2022.

This joint launch will be led by the Department of Water and Sanitation Western Cape Provincial Head Ms Ntombizanele Bila-Mupariwa and the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation Councillor Zahid Badroodien.

Recent months have seen several disturbing incidents of vandalism of water and sanitation infrastructure, including the burning of a pump station in Wallacedene, Cape Town. The situation is further aggravated by the attacks on City water and sanitation staff while on duty.

The City and DWS strongly condemn vandalism of infrastructure and the attack on staff as such conduct affects the municipality’s mandate to deliver essential services.

Source: Government of South Africa

MPUMALANGA – Thandeka Dibakwane(43) and Lizzy Precious Smangele Nyathi (42) were released on bail by the Bushbuckridge Magistrate Court on Wednesday, 25 May 2022 after they were arrested by the Hawks Nelspruit based Serious Corruption Investigation on Tuesday, 24 May 2022 for fraud, theft and conspiracy to commit fraud.

It is alleged that in April 2021, a group of four females including Shatale Post Office branch Manager, re-issued SASSA social grand cards by circumventing the system. The manager allegedly colluded with the post office tellers who would delay the issuing of the original cards to the lawful owners and give the cards to the runner who is a private person. Smangele Lizzy Precious Nyathi who would then visit different ATMs and withdraw money which they all shared, resulting in the State being defrauded approximately R17 500-00.

Internal investigation was conducted and the matter was reported to the Hawks Serious Corruption Investigation. Further investigation led to the issuing of warrants of arrest.

The two appeared at Bushbuckridge Magistrate Court on Tuesday, 24 May 2022 and they were released on R20 000-00 bail each. The case was postponed to 21 July 2022 for the arrest of the other remaining suspects. Investigation continues.

“As the Hawks, we shall leave no stone unturned said the Provincial Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Major General Zodwa Mokoena as she was also applauding the team for swift arrest.” General Mokoena urged the public to constantly make follow-ups after applying for social grants.

Source: South African Police Service

The Electoral Commission has, following its consideration of objections material to the outcome of an election, amended the results and seat allocation in the Cape Town Metropolitan Council.

This matter involved, among others, consultations with Party Liaison Committee in the Metro, submissions by affected parties and recounts in identified voting stations.

The culmination of this process is that the Cape Independence Party is now allocated an additional seat, which had been awarded to the Democratic Alliance after the municipal elections held on 1 November 2021.

This process was undertaken after the Cape Independence Party had lodged, with the Electoral Court, an appeal against a finding of the Commission that the Cape Independence Party had failed to lodge its objection in

time and with the necessary details.

The Court remitted the matter to the Electoral Commission for resolution notwithstanding the time delay.

Noting that the Cape Independence Party had, in August 2021, changed its name and abbreviated name from CAPE PARTY/KAAPSE PARTY to Cape Independence Party with an abbreviated name being CAPEXIT which

may have caused confusion, the Commission pursued the process outlined above.

Recounts were conducted in the presence of agents representing political parties and candidates that had contested the affected wards.

The Commission established that – with respect to the initial results dealing with proportional representatives in the Cape Town Metro – the Democratic Alliance had been allocated an additional seat as a consequence of errors

that occurred, partly as a result of confusion emanating from the change in the abbreviated name, at some of these voting stations.

While the total number of votes has generally remained constant, the recounts revealed the misallocation of votes.

The error has been corrected and the wishes of the voters are now correctly reflected in the result system.

It is important to indicate that in all these instances the original results’ sheets had been signed off by the party agents representing political parties, other contestants and observers during the counting process in November 2021.

The Electoral Commission has informed the affected parties and has now written to the office of the Municipal Manager in the City of Cape Town to effect the correction of seats in the legislature in line with the corrected and declared results.

Source: Government of South Africa

Applications for R16 million SMME Booster Fund now open

I am proud to confirm that the application process for Department of Economic Development and Tourism’s (DEDAT) R16 million SMME Booster Fund is now open.

I encourage organisations which implement business development support projects or programmes in the categories of Business Development Support and Access to Markets to apply for project funding via the SMME Booster Fund 2022.

All information on the application process can be found here – https://www.westerncape.gov.za/general-publication/smme-booster-fund

Since the first iteration of the SMME Booster fund in 2019, the Fund has allocated R59 million in funding and supported 730 SMMEs in the Western Cape.

One of my priorities is to make it easier for the private sector, especially small businesses, to do business in the Western Cape, and create jobs. Targeted programmes like the SMME Booster Fund is one of the ways we are helping small businesses and entrepreneurs to get started and to thrive.

Source: Government of South Africa

SASSA urges SRD R350 grant clients to re-apply no automatic continuation

Mpumalanga South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) is urging all R350 grant beneficiaries to re-apply for the R350 COVID-19 Social Relief of distress grant .SASSA Mpumalanga is issuing this statement after the Customer Care Unit received numerous enquiries from beneficiaries. Clients assumed that automatically they will be in payment cycle of April 2022- March 2023. The era of disaster terms and conditions regulation have been repealed. New regulations have published by the Minister of DSD for new application in this new normal era.

Those who are struggling to re-register on the website they must make use of the WhatsApp number 082 046 8553 it is active. Beneficiaries who have already re-applied on the website: srd@sassa.gov.za(link sends e-mail) they must not make many applications, as it confuses the system and prolonging the verification and approval phase processes.

Applicants must ensure that their personal details are correctly captured and avoid donating personal details to scammers. if they choose cellphone payment option they must RICA their cellphone numbers first to avoid disqualification or disapproval of the application.

For more information contact the Customer Care toll free number: 0800 60 10 11 or 013 574 9428/9363 from 08:00 – 16:00 during week days Monday – Friday.

Source: Government of South Africa

Grayston Diamond Interchange set to unlock investments worth billions upon completion

A Public Private Partnership between the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport and Sandton Central Management District (SCMD) to redesign the Grayston Drive/M1 interchange has the potential to unlock major investments worth over R3 billion.

This was revealed during a meeting between the Department and SCMD – which oversees South Africa’s commercial centre located in the heart of Sandton.

Providing progress on plans to upgrade the interchange, MEC Jacob Mamabolo indicated the Department remains committed to partnering with the private sector to expand the road network and improve efficiencies in the movement of people and goods.

“Transport infrastructure remains central to our economic recovery and growth efforts. It is only through investments in road infrastructure that we can better the lives of residents, stimulate economic growth and render the province an attractive destination for investment and tourism.

“Improved traffic flow on this major feeder road, which carries traffic from the N1 into the Sandton Precinct, has the potential to unlock investments worth billions through significant projects such as residential/mixed-use development in and around the Sandton area. It is for this reason that we have committed to formalising and kickstarting plans to redesign the interchange in this financial year,” Mamabolo said.

As part of SCMD’s initial contribution towards the planned project, they appointed a company to conduct a micro-simulation model for M1 and Grayston Drive Interchange that includes Katherine Street in September 2020.

SCMD’s Precinct Manager Ms Elaine Jack remarked that congestion in Sandton has restricted its economic growth.

“Traffic delays at the M1/Grayston interchange also affects the east/west bound traffic coming from and going to Alexandra. As demonstrated by the study we commissioned, converting M1 and Grayston Interchange into a diamond diverging interchange similar to what was done at Woodmead and M1 would go a long way in improving traffic flow in the area,” Jack said.

She added the design idea was brought about by the need to improve the efficiency of the interchange.

Source: Government of South Africa

Today, the Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, the Provincial Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagen Allen, and the Provincial Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, officially launched the Western Cape Government’s Safety Dashboard.

The Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, explained that the Safety Dashboard will provide real-time data to provincial safety stakeholders.

“The dashboard is updated every 3 days and is being automated to further provide daily updates. It has been active since the end of March 2022 and is constantly being upgraded. We have further made it accessible to Western Cape safety stakeholders including the SAPS, the Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety and the City of Cape Town,” said Premier Winde.

Premier Winde added, “We need real-time data to not only guide our deployments based on past incidents but also to anticipate where new hotspots may appear so that we can deploy the necessary resources – before lives are lost. While the release of the quarterly crime statistics helps to paint a picture of trends in criminal activity, it does not share real-time information, which is precisely what the Safety Dashboard sets out to do.”

Reflecting on the use of data throughout the pandemic, Premier Winde said: “We know that data is absolutely critical in ensuring effective service delivery. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we established the province’s award-winning COVID-19 dashboard, helping us to not only track cases, hospitalisations and deaths – but further guide our planning ahead of waves. In launching the Safety Dashboard today, we are leveraging the lessons learnt from COVID-19, and are ensuring that we use real-time data to make the province safer for all who live in it.”

As set out in the Western Cape Safety Plan, the Safety Dashboard will help to ensure data-led and evidence law enforcement-based deployments of the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) officers, and will be made available to the relevant safety stakeholders. It will also guide us in terms of our violence prevention interventions. “The Safety Plan further clearly states that this will be achieved by using an evidence-driven and data-led approach,” added the Provincial Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagen Allen.

This Safety Dashboard will further support the establishment of the Provincial Department of Health and Wellness’ Violence Prevention Unit which was announced during the Premier’s State of the Province Address earlier this year. While still in its development phase, the Provincial Department is hard at work to ensure its successful launch.

The Provincial Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, said: “I am proud to announce the establishment of the Safety Dashboard which is part of an ongoing Safety Plan of the Western Cape Government. This is part of ongoing work and we hope to continue to improve existing products and develop new ones. The Safety Dashboard is based on data entered at 34 health facilities in the Western Cape. It allows us to see the patterns of admissions into these emergency centres.”

The foundation of the dashboard is the Hospital Emergency Centre Triage and Information System (HECTIS). The HECTIS is a web-based data collection system for patients attending emergency centres across the Western Cape.

Using HECTIS data, the Safety Dashboard will track:

• When and where injuries occur;

• The mechanism of injury and the pattern of injury presentation over time;

• Patterns of trauma in particular populations such as gender or age groups over time;

• Patterns of trauma among pregnant women presenting at emergency centres; and

• Non-trauma presentations.

“The Safety Dashboard will improve the deployment of policing resources by providing operational teams with information that can assist with resource deployment, strategy and tactics aimed at improving safety in the Western Cape,” added Minister Mbombo.

Minister Allen explained that the evidence-based and data-led deployments of LEAP officers were previously made using the Provincial Department of Health and Wellness’s Forensic Pathology Services data.

“This data is used together with the Safety Dashboard too and has helped to increase the number of firearms confiscated, determine where to deploy LEAP based on homicide incidents, establish a Reaction Unit, and successfully deploy LEAP members through a 24-hour shift system, 7 days a week,” added Minister Allen.

Premier Winde said: “Going forward, we will be bolstering the Safety Dashboard by integrating the Emergency Medical Services data into it. This will give us a more complete picture of violence and trauma in the province. We will also be rolling out the HECTIS system to more facilities, providing us with more data and a wider geographic picture of trauma in the province. Data from HECTIS will further be stored at the Provincial Health Data Centre which will also be displayed on the Safety Dashboard.”

Source: Government of South Africa