Day: August 4, 2022

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Amnesty for water and electricity theft

The City of Tshwane has urged residents who have tampered with the water and electricity network to use the grace period to come clean and apply for amnesty to avoid fines and criminal charges.

The call follows the Amnesty Programme for theft of water and electricity launched this week. This is for residents and business owners guilty of electricity and or water theft to apply for amnesty to be exempted from prosecution and fines under certain conditions.

The city’s Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Finance, Peter Sutton said the Amnesty Programme will run in partnership with law enforcement agencies from 01 August to 30 September 2022.

The amnesty period aims to assist residents and business owners who are guilty of illegally connecting to the electricity and water network, and benefitting from these services without being measured and paying for consumption; tampering with an electricity and/or water meter, resulting in the measuring of incorrect or lower consumption; and illegally reconnecting and electricity and or water meter after a credit control disconnection.

The amnesty period also aims to assist residents and business owners who are guilty of paying a bribe to remove an outstanding amount on an account or paying a bribe to illegally open a new municipal account without following the official process; and paying a bribe to have an electricity and/or meter bypassed to record incorrect or lower consumption.

Conditions for the granting of amnesty

To qualify for amnesty, the applicants must complete the application detailing how the illegal connection was made; who facilitated illegal connection and/or fraud on the account; how and to whom money was paid to facilitate the tampering; and the amount paid and how frequently the bribe money was paid (monthly or once off).

Benefits of applying for amnesty

Sutton highlighted that some of the benefits of applying for amnesty include that, in the case of successful of those implicated in the affidavit, the metering will be corrected and the account holder will start paying for services correctly from the date the amnesty is granted.

“The tampering and illegal connection fine will be waived [and] no criminal charges will be levied against the person or company granted amnesty,” Sutton explained.

Sutton also warned that the city has increased the fines for illegal connections and electricity theft to R200 000 for individual and household accounts, and R10 million for business accounts.

“In addition to these fines, we will also lay criminal charges and pursue recovery of lost income. We have established a highly skilled multidisciplinary revenue – collection team for this purpose, to which we have allocated R68 million in this financial year,” Sutton said.

The amnesty application form is available at www.tshwane.gov.za, where an icon on the landing page of the website, which will, direct you to the amnesty page where you will be able to download the form.

“The amnesty application form will also be made available at all city’s customer care walk-in centres across the seven regions of Tshwane. A dedicated email address has been created for this purpose where the forms can be submitted at amnesty@tshwane.gov.za,” the MMC said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

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Vaccines are safe, says SAHPRA

While a fatality has been reported following the administration of the COVID-19 Janssen vaccine, the South African Health Products and Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has emphasised that benefits of the vaccine greatly outweigh any adverse events that may occur following immunisation.

The assertion follows the death of a patient, who was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre (GBS) Syndrome after receiving the COVID-19 Janssen vaccine.

“The causality assessment was conducted by the National Immunisation Safety Expert Committee (NISEC) through a thorough methodology that is guided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and this is a methodology that is utilised by regulators across the world.

“In this assessment, there is a conclusion that this case of GBS was associated with the event the individual had received the COVID-19 Janssen vaccine,” SAHPRA CEO, Dr Tumi Semete-Makokotlela, said on Thursday.

Addressing a media briefing on adverse events following immunisation, Semete-Makokotlela said SAHPRA authorised the COVID-19 Janssen last year in March for the administration of those who are 18 years and older.

“Having looked at the ongoing review on vaccine safety, the review of the potential risk of GBS and this tragic case as well, we are convinced that the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine in terms of preventing serious and severe COVID-19 infections and death, greatly outweigh the very rare GBS and other adverse events,” said Professor Marc Blockman.

Blockman is a Professor in the Internal Medicine department, and consultant in the division of Clinical Pharmacology at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. He is recognised as an expert on International, National and Provincial Drug Policy and serves on SAHPRA as chairperson of the pharmacovigilance expert committee and member of the clinical expert committee.

He said when the regulator looked at the vaccine programme, it was acutely aware of the inherent risk, and that GBS may be one of the adverse events the country might have to deal with.

“GBS is a rare entity that affects the immune system of patients. It affects about 100 000 people globally, which is a small group of patients that are affected in the world.

“It is about 1 in 100 000 patients that may have GBS. It is characterised by this very rapid, progressive and ascending weakness, which means the weakness starts from the lower limbs and eventually ascends up the body.

“It may cause limb weakness, it has the potential to affect the respiratory system, which may require the patient to be assisted with a ventilation and it may affect the brain as well,” Blockman said.

There are many causes of GBS, which include viruses and bacterial infections. The disease can be mild to very serious.

Since the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, commonly known as Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, more than 37.2 million doses been administered.

Up until the 15 July 2022, just over 6 200 adverse events have been reported to SAHPRA, which indicates a reporting of adverse events of just around 0.017%.

Vaccines are safe, effective and prevent various infectious diseases

Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, reiterated that immunisation remains one of the most successful and cost effective public health intervention.

“I want to emphasise that COVID-19 vaccines remain safe and effective in protecting us against serious illness and hospitilisation. Annually, over 27 million vaccine doses are administered as part of our routine immunisation programme and this is mainly for children.

“Vaccines are safe and effective and prevent various infectious diseases, disability, hospitalisation and death caused by vaccine preventable diseases. However, as with various other medicines, including vaccines, adverse events do occur,” Phaahla said.

He described an adverse event following immunisation as any untoward medical event after immunisation, which does not necessarily and generally have a causal relationship with the use of the vaccine.

“This may be an unfavourable or unintended sign, abnormal laboratory findings, symptoms or disease. Most adverse events following immunisation are mild and resolved within a few days,” the Minister said.

Adverse events following immunisations are reported through a well-established reporting system in corroboration with SAHPRA.

Adverse events following immunisations can be reported through the Medicine Safety Application or the COVID-19 call centre or at any health facility in the country where trained health providers can identify, treat and report the adverse event.

“After an adverse event has been reported, all severe and serious adverse events are fully investigated by the provincial departments of health. This includes collecting all relevant medical reports such as the doctor’s report, doctor’s notes and laboratory result or hospital records.

“Once the investigation is concluded the case [is] forwarded to NISEC. NISEC is a committee of experts appointed by the Minister of Health to review adverse events following immunisation reports,” Phaahla said.

Source: South African Government News Agency