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South Africa now has close to 19-million citizens surviving on permanent government social grants and it's costing the taxpayer more than R200-billion per year.

Additionally, an average of 8.5-million beneficiaries are receiving the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, incurring an expenditure for the 2022/23 financial year of R30.2-billion.

Not all beneficiaries of the R350-grant are paid on time every month, and sometimes they are not paid at all, which means the total expenditure could be even higher.

Overall, the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) pays more than 27-million beneficiaries monthly, accounting for about 45% of the country's population.

These figures were shared on Wednesday during a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development, who scrutinised the annual reports of the Department of Social Development and its entities.

The department's director-general, Linton Mchunu, said they were expanding their services to people with disabilities, victims of gender-based violence, the elderly, and those hit hard by Covid-19.

The number of social grants in payment increased from 18 677 339 at the end of March 2022 to 18 829 716 at the end of March 2023.

A total of R239-billion was made available to Sassa for the payment of social grants between April 2022 to March 2023.

Below is the monthly breakdown:

April: R20.5-billion

May: R20.5-billion

June: R20.6-billion

July: R20.6-billion

Aug: R20.6-billion

Sept: R20.7-billion

Oct: R20.7-billion

Nov: R20.7-billion

Dec: R20.7-billion

Jan: R20.7-billion

Feb: R17.9-billion

March: R14.3-billion

"Provision of social grants reduces poverty and contributes to the reduction of income inequality in the country, and empirical evidence shows that CSG [Child Support Grant] contributes to improved school attendance, educational attainment and access to food.

"Social grants proved to be the most effective mechanism available to government to cushion millions of the most vulnerable individuals and households from the dire socio-economic impact of Covid-19," Mchunu said.

He said there were policy proposals on a basic income support for those aged between 18 and 59.

This had been reviewed and finalised, and the stakeholder consultations were conducted.

Mchunu said a consultation report had been compiled.

Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said: "The release of the statistics is very important to us. The population has grown to 62-million people. It is very important for the work we do. We are doing the most we can, but we know that it is still not enough.

"Receiving unqualified audit outcomes is a remarkable improvement from previous years. The ANC will stop at nothing to strengthen the relationship between the mandates of government and visibly improving the state of our communities."

In September, a "systems glitch" on the Postbank software affected thousands of social grant recipients, who spent days waiting for their social grants.

This error was a result of a "payment switch" to software that enables Postbank to connect to the BankservAfrica platform and process transactions through the Integrated Grant Payment System.

About 35% of grant recipients - 6.3-million people - receive their money through this system, which pays the money into Sassa/Postbank accounts.

According to Sassa, the overall number of beneficiaries paid across all payment platforms increased by 91 090 over the 12 months.

"The number of beneficiaries paid through IGPS (Sassa/SA Post Office Card) and Mzansi (Postbank) has decreased by 1 077 454 and 17 925, respectively, over the period from April 2022 to March 2023. Whereas, the beneficiaries paid through their own bank accounts increased by 1 186 469 over the same period," the Sassa presentation said.

The Democratic Alliance's Alexander Abrahams said the department spent a significant amount of its budget on social grants.

"This amount has increased, and will continue to increase annually, as more South Africans find themselves forced into t...

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) led a large-scale government search and seizure operation against several alleged members of coal smuggling syndicates across the country on Thursday, including former Eskom employees.

"The alleged coal-smugglers and their related entities are active and have a presence in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and Limpopo," the tax authority said in a statement.

"The suspects targeted today include former Eskom employees who facilitated procurement fraud, as well as other individuals involved in the diversion of high-grade coal."

Sars said it established that the suspects had contravened several tax laws, including non-registration for income tax, failure to submit tax returns, under-declaration of income, claiming undue VAT refunds, and making false submissions.

Sars put the loss of revenue to the fiscus by the syndicates at over R500-million.

Coal smuggling syndicates have been a consistent problem for Eskom. Often, trucks transporting coal to power stations are diverted to specific coal yards, and high-quality coal is swapped out for low-grade product, scrap or rocks. When the lower-grade products are used at the station, they cause infrastructure damage, rendering them unable to generate electricity, leading to more loadshedding.

Sars Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said the raids were a massive breakthrough in ongoing investigations into the syndicates.

"It is because of such naked greed that the country has experienced unprecedented loadshedding, which harms business, undermines foreign direct investment and leads to job losses - all of which negatively affect revenue collection.

"All law enforcement agencies must continue their aggressive fight against criminality, each according to its mandate. For its part, Sars will continue to pursue taxpayers."

It was not clear from the statement what exactly was seized. In a response to specific questions from News24, Sars said it had led the operation because it had been investigating tax matters. However, it declined to give further information.

"Sars cannot provide any more details on these investigations, in line with the Tax Administration Act," it said.

At present no one has been arrested.

The police also did not immediately respond to requests for further details.

President Cyril Ramaphosa extended his condolences to the victims in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling for the immediate and unconditional opening of humanitarian corridors.

Following an escalation of hostilities on Saturday, over a thousand people were left dead on both sides.

"Our thoughts are with all the victims' families and loved ones during this perilous period of fighting. We remain gravely concerned at the devastating escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the atrocities committed against civilian populations," said Ramaphosa.

He noted that it is vital that all those who require urgent humanitarian assistance are provided with the basic life supporting necessities.

The President called for the immediate cessation of violence and for restraint.

He further urged the international community to accelerate its support for lasting peace that sees a Palestinian State existing in peace alongside Israel, within the 1967 internationally recognised borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

"South Africa stands ready to work with the international community and to share our experience in mediation and conflict resolution as we have done on the continent and around the world," said Ramaphosa.

Policy think tank Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) research director Stefan Schirmer says there is a need to reduce conflict of interest regarding teacher unions, while he called for State capture in the education sector to be tackled.

Schirmer was speaking at the Defend our Democracy webinar, hosted CDE, where findings were shared on State capture in South Africa's basic education sector.

He said in addition to corruption in the education sector, the problem was that State capture was linked to the African National Congress' cadre deployment policy.

He added that education officials should not at the same time be union representatives.

"CDE is not against teacher unions. But union representatives cannot be the same people who employ principals and teachers, as they are meant to have oversight over them, but at the same time, also represent them. It is a conflict of interest," he said.

Schirmer highlighted that corrupt and incompetent officials would always oppose reforms designed to prioritise the interest of learners.

He noted that South African Democratic Teachers Union officials, even if well-intentioned, would confront conflicts of interest blocking them from doing the right thing for learners.

The CDE argued that South Africa needs a systemwide reform, where government must take a public stand against corruption, send cases to the police, prosecute criminality and protect whistleblowers.

Schirmer noted that officials in the Department of Basic Education and in the provinces should not be members of teachers' unions and cadre deployment must be eradicated.

He added that the system must be moved from incompetence to merit and that tackling the issue of State capture was critical for that.

He said improved performance required accountability, calling on public servants to be fully responsible for their actions.

Schirmer said basic education must reintroduce the Annual National Assessment, reinvigorate an independent National Education Evaluation and Development Unit and give principals more power.

He noted that principals were crucial for making schools work, highlighting that there was a lot of evidence pointing to this.

"In order for this to help we have to have responsibility, you cannot be held accountable for something that you have no control over. So they need to be more responsible for who gets hired and promoted at the schools," he explained.

He said there was a need for public pressure to demand a better education system in South Africa.

Principals must be up for the task and teachers must also be strengthened, he emphasised.

Schirmer noted that to improve the quality of teachers coming into the education system, better training in universities must be offered.

He said teacher shortages and training quality issues needed to be urgently addressed. Better teacher support was in turn dependent on the better bureaucracy that would result from the reform to the system CDE was suggesting.

While the call for new leadership in the education department and at a ministerial level is controversial, he believes there is a need for a leadership that can drive reform and that can make tough decisions.

Kwena Mangope, the son of former Bophuthatswana leader Lucas Mangope, is ActionSA's Premier candidate for the North West.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba made the announcement on Wednesday.

If elected, Mangope has promised to follow through on the outcomes of the Zondo Commission inquiry and fix "dysfunctional municipalities" by using skills audits to remove unqualified employees.

Mangope likened himself to biblical figure Nehemiah "[I am] appointed to fix and restore the North West province like he [Nehemiah] restored Jerusalem."

"I and many ActionSA members, like Nehemiah, have witnessed the systematic destruction and mismanagement of the North West province, in particular and South Africa in general," said Mangope.

He said the big question was "how did our country get [to] where we are [today]?"

Mangope, who is a former military soldier, said he chose ActionSA owing to its vision, which he says aims for an inclusive, prosperous and secure future for all South Africans in a country healed from its past.

He added that the vision was underpinned by values such as non-racialism, social justice, inclusive economic prosperity, rule of law, quality education, ethical leadership, professional public service and electoral reform.

"For me the value and vision of ActionSA provides winning pathways for overcoming the battle we are faced with. We live in a country plunged into darkness by Eskom, a utility which once was marked in the top five worldwide. We live in a country which has the third highest crime rate in the world, according to the 2023 World Population Review. We live in a country where homeless people and drug addicts direct traffic. We live in a country where children attack and kill teachers in schools. We live in a country where children die in taverns in large numbers in the dark of night. We live in a country where sewerage runs in the streets daily. We live in a country where most small businesses are run by foreigners. We live in a country where rail infrastructure has been deliberately destroyed," said Mangope.

He said his answer to how the country got to where it was today was owing to "doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results".

He said for the past 29 years, South Africans have been voting for the wrong party, referring to the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Mangope said citizens had been voting for loadshedding, inadequate health services, uncaring public servants, potholes, unemployment, corruption, failed SOE's and inferior education.

He said now was the time for him to "go back home to rebuild the ruins".

"I have pledged myself to go back to the North West to rebuild the ruins like Nehemiah did," he declared.

He is mindful that accepting the position is not an easy task as it brings with it the enormous challenges that have beset the North West province, owing to poor governance over many years, since 1994.

He said he would not focus on the failures of the ANC but, rather, on the restoration of the province. He urged the youth to register in their numbers ahead of the upcoming 2024 elections.

He has served ActionSA for 18 months in the North West as provincial chair and Mashaba said he was aware that he was taking a gamble on Mangope as he was not a seasoned politician.

Mashaba pointed out that when he, himself, took over as Johannesburg mayor he was not knowledgeable about mayoral tasks.

"I had no clue whatsoever what the mayor does. I had no clue that there was a councillor in my area of almost 30 years and I had never missed the voting. I didn't know that there was a councillor representing me. That is how dangerous my knowledge of politics was in terms of political experience," said Mashaba.

Backing Mangope's announcement to embark on a skills audit, Mashaba said that in Johannesburg he had let go of people who were in jobs because of who they knew rather than what they knew.

He said he was not getting rid of experienced people but rather experienced thieves.

He r...

South Africa's central bank has more work to do to rein in inflation that remains elevated, with higher food and oil costs posing risks to the outlook for price-growth, central bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said.

"The job on the inflation front is not yet done," he told Francine Lacqua in a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday in Marrakech, where the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are holding their annual meetings. "We remain vigilant and we stand ready to deploy our tools as necessary."

Kganyago has consistently hewed to a hawkish line on price pressures, warning of potential risks that could push it higher, including a weaker rand and rising oil prices. South Africa is also in the midst of an outbreak of avian flu that risks pushing up prices of chicken - an important source of animal protein in the country.

South Africa's central bank held interest rates at 8.25% on September 21, while leaving the door open to more tightening to curb inflation if needed. The monetary policy committee will deliver its next rate decision on November 23.

Annual inflation in South Africa was 4.8% in August, near the midpoint of the central bank's preferred target range of 3% to 6%. The rate has declined from a peak of 7.8% in July, which was the highest since 2009.

"We would still want to see a number of readings that would suggest that inflation has declined sustainably toward our target," Kganyago said.

In forecasts updated last month, the central bank expects inflation to average 5.9% this year down from a prior estimate of 6%, slowing to an average of 5.1% in 2024.

In the last decade, the population in South Africa has increased by around 10-million people, with a total of 62-million people living in the country, according to the 2022 census.

Statistics South Africa released the fourth democratic census on Tuesday. The last census was published in 2011.

According to the data, there are 62 027 503 people in South Africa compared to the 2011 census, which recorded 51 770 560 people. This translated to a population growth rate of 1.8%.

Compared to the first democratic census published in the '90s, the population increased by more than 20-million people from 40 583 573 recorded in 1996.

The census also showed that there are more than 2.4-million international migrants in the country, which equates to around 3% of the total population.

Most of the international migrants come from the SADC region. Around 45.5% of international migrants come from Zimbabwe, 18.7% from Mozambique, and 10.2% from Lesotho.

Population composition

Black Africans remained the dominant population group, accounting for 81.4% of the population, which translates to around 50.4-million.

The black African population increased by around 9-million compared to the 2011 census, which recorded around 41-million black people.

The coloured population accounted for 8.2% or around 5-million people, followed by white people at 7.3% or 4.5-million people.

According to the data, the white population has steadily declined from 11% of the total population in 1996 to 8.9% in 2011 and then 7.3% in 2022.

The Indian and Asian population accounts for 2.7% of the total population.

Women constituted 51.1% of the population, while men accounted for 48.5%.

Population distribution by languages spoken at home

IsiZulu remains the language most spoken at home, accounting for 24.4%, followed by isiXhosa at 16.3%, Afrikaans at 10.6% and Sepedi at 10%.

Around 8.7% of the population speak English at home.

IsiZulu speakers increased by 1.7% compared to 2011, while isiXhosa speakers increased by 0.3% and Afrikaans speakers decreased by 2.9%.

Religion

The majority of the population reported that they were Christians (85.3%) followed by traditional African religions (7.8%).

Around 1.6% of the population subscribed to Islam, while 2.9% said they had no religious affiliation.

Population by province

Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal remained the most populated provinces, with 15-million and 12.4-million people living there, respectively. The Western Cape has a population of around 7.4-million.

The Northern Cape has the smallest population of around 1.3-million people.

In terms of internal migration, Gauteng dominated, receiving more than a third of all internal migrants, followed by the Western Cape with 15%.

In the last decade, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and the Free State experienced an outflow of people.

Housing

Based on census 2022 findings, a total of 17.8-million households were recorded in South Africa, an increase from the 14-million households recorded in 2011. This includes formal and informal dwellings.

Gauteng with 5.3-million households and KwaZulu-Natal with 2.9-million, account for just under 50% of all households in the country.

The Northern Cape recorded the fewest households at 330 000.

According to the data, the number of households who reside in informal dwellings has declined from 13.6% in 2011 to 8.1% in 2022.

Meanwhile, households residing in formal dwelling units increased to 88.5% in 2022 from the 65.1% recorded in 1996.

Homelessness

The census also looked at collating the number of homeless people in South Africa.

Around 55 719 people were recorded as homeless in 2022. Of these, 44 512 were roofless while 11 207 were in shelters.

Gauteng recorded the highest number of homeless people at 45.6% followed by the Western Cape at 17.5%.

As a metropolitan area, the City of Tshwane recorded the highest proportion of homelessness.

Most people recorded loss of job/income (41.3%) as the reason for their homelessness, followed by alcohol ...

Amid ongoing hostilities between Israel and Palestine, the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation has expressed its concern at what it holds are "the grave atrocities perpetrated against the people of Palestine".

Committee chairperson Supra Mahumapelo has cited the lack of recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people as the root cause of the ongoing violence.

"We are concerned about the well-being of the people of Palestine as Apartheid is being practiced by Israel in its continued occupation of the Palestinian territory," he said.

The committee has urged all parties to exercise restraint and seize the opportunity for peace to prevent the loss of lives and the destruction of property. It has also urged the United Nations to intervene through the enforcement of what is contained in its Charter to restore international peace and security.

Mahumapelo has also decried Israel's policy of settling its civilians on occupied Palestinian territory, displacing the local population. He held that this contravenes the fundamental rules of international law.

"This cuts deep to us as South Africans as the discrimination, racial oppression and violent attacks by Israeli settlers that we are witnessing against the people of Palestine is nothing short of Apartheid, exactly what we endured in this country under white domination," he said.

Joburg Water networks senior manager Logan Munsamy on Tuesday laid out a range of plans that the municipality would undertake as it deals with critical water supply challenges across various districts.

Between August and September, bulk water supplier Rand Water experienced various challenges with its infrastructure which negatively impacted the various water supply systems in the City of Johannesburg and other municipalities in Gauteng.

On September 27, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu announced that water shifting would be implemented in some areas to deal with the water shortages in the City.

Water shifting involves moving the flow of water from systems with excess water, to areas experiencing water outages.

Meanwhile, Munsamy explained that the City's non-revenue water for the 2022/23 financial year stood at 46.1%.

This includes commercial losses of 9.4%, unbilled unmetered consumption of 12.7% and physical losses of 24.1%.

Joburg Water intends to reduce losses by repairing leaking reservoirs and tower infrastructure, repairing and replacing zonal bulk water meters, through active and passive leak detection, establishing new pressure management zones and minimum night flow analysis, as well as through the retrofitting and removal of wasteful devices.

The City will also look into infrastructure upgrades and renewals and the by-law enforcement of illegal connection cut-offs and reconnections.

He said water shortages had impacted all municipalities supplied by Rand Water's Zuikerbosch Water Purification Plant.

This includes the Palmiet system which supplies the Linksfield, Alexander Park, and South Hills towers, as well as all of the Sandton and Midrand reservoirs, which were severely affected as some of the systems ran dry.

Through water shifting, Rand Water has redirected some water from the Eikenhof system to Palmiet, but Munsamy explained that during the process Rand Water reconfigured their systems at Eikenhof to operate more efficiently.

He dismissed reports that Eikenhof's output had been reduced.

He explained that Eikenhof was still pumping the exact volumes it did before water shifting was implemented.

Explaining the short-, medium- and long-term contingencies in place to bring down water consumption, Munsamy said that the City was intensifying leak detection exercises by fast-tracking the appointment of a contractor to roll out smart controllers "so that we can reduce the high system pressures which in turn reduces bursts, wastage and by doing so it allows the systems on the Rand Water [side] to recover a bit more quickly," said Munsamy.

Other plans include the construction of 15 additional storage reservoirs in the next five years, which the City believes will increase adequate capacity to buffer water supply interruptions as a result of power supply interruptions.

The City also plans to commission the Zuikerbosch Water Purification Plant Station 5A Phase 2, which will supply an additional 450 megaliters of water a day.

Munsamy also added that the City would install standby generators at the Eikenhof, Palmiet and Zwartkopjes booster pump stations in the next five years.

"These generators will run a few pumps that will keep the system pressurised to mitigate the impact of air locks in the system because of pump stoppages when power supply interruptions occur," he explained.

WATER CONSUMPTION

The City is dealing with the challenge of increased water consumption during a scorching spring season, which is negatively affecting already constrained systems.

Despite the City's interventions, it does not foresee a downward projection in consumption. As a result, the municipality is increasing restrictions and throttling high consumption areas that normally would have high minimum flows.

He said the process was "dynamic" and assured residents that the City was trying to ensure that consumption was reduced.

The City would continue to supply affected residents with water tankers. Munsumy added that the water suppl...

The Palestinian Embassy in South Africa said it believes that political parties should stand on the "right side of history" and support the just cause of Palestinians right to self-determination.

The Embassy has called on the Democratic Alliance (DA), the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) to revaluate their respective policies and positions on Palestinian rights.

On Saturday, the militant group Hamas launched a large-scale invasion and offensive against Israel from the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of people on both sides have died.

On Saturday, the DA condemned what it called an unprovoked attack on Israel's territory by Hamas.

ACDP said the attacks were "unprovoked" and condemned them.

"The ACDP condemns these unprovoked attacks in the strongest possible terms that has led to the loss of many lives, including that of innocent civilians. Israel has a right to defend itself and must do everything in its power to defend itself and protect its civilians from such indiscriminate and violent attacks," it said.

The PA wrote to the Israeli embassy in South Africa, voicing its condemnation of the attacks by Hamas.

It said, "There is no 'cause' that can justify the murder of children, whether they be Palestinian or Israeli. South Africa should be playing a role of encouraging dialogue and the emergence of true leadership from within the territories of Palestine instead of falling for the lie that Hamas represents anything but terrorism sponsored gleefully in the shadows by hatred."

The Palestinian Embassy in South Africa urged the international community to "recognise that Palestinians are responding to the Israeli brutal occupation, illegal colonisation, human rights violations, arbitrary detentions, daily humiliations and the inhumane siege of Gaza".

The Palestinian Embassy commended the South African government, citizens, political parties and faith groups for their solidarity and called for continued support for Palestinian rights.

It noted that the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, The Economic Freedom Fighters, as well as organisations such as the Africa4Palestine, Al-Quds Foundation, Jamaitul Ulama, Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa, the South African BDS Coalition, and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa have issued powerful statements in support of Palestine.

"We thank them for their solidarity, which reflects the shared values of justice, the right of nations to self-determination, and respect for human rights that unite the Palestinian and South African struggles," the Embassy said.

The Embassy said that it looked forward to continued cooperation with South African partners in the pursuit of peace, justice, and the realisation of the rights of the Palestinian people, including the establishment of a viable Palestinian independent State.