ROOT

08/03/2024

Happy International Women's Day to all the women of our country and the world. Leymah Gbowee, the Liberian Peace Activist who won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was once asked what is the quickest way to empower women. Her response was simple: “More women in power.” More woman in power means workplaces that equally prioritizes women interests and concerns, that values their contribution and shows full confidence in their leadership. Lets

06/03/2024

YONELA DIKO: KwaZulu-Natal is a Lion on the move, hungry for opportunity

Over the last 30 years, KwaZulu-Natal has had a remarkable and impossible journey.

The African National Congress (ANC) government turned a province known for violence and war into a significant economic player on the continent.

The province is now an enviable economic hub, on the back of improved political and economic stability and some reforms over the last three decades. The remarkable work put in, especially in the early years of democracy, ensured an end to political and ethnic violence, giving the province enough stability and space to begin to rebuild.

As the Premier of the province, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, delivered her State of the Province Address on 28 February, she beamed with pride at what had been accomplished during her short tenure, and by her predecessors, most of whom were invited to celebrate their great work.

READY FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Even as one moves around various economic centres of the province, it's clear that this is a lion on the move.

The province's supply chain infrastructure is world class - from the Dube Trade Port Special Economic Zone, which currently has 41 operational investors, creating 3,300 job opportunities, to the King Shaka International Airport, which is directly connected to more than eight international destinations, feeding into the various distribution centres and transport management systems in different parts of the province.

KwaZulu-Natal is also the closest coastal province to the country's economic hub, Gauteng. This makes its ports the busiest in the country as tonnes of goods move along the N3 corridor for the coastal ports.

As a result, the port of Richards Bay is responsible for handling almost 60% of the country's cargo tonnage, and 4% of the global export of aluminium happens at there.

The province also produces over 50% of all timber in the country, as well as some of the largest sugar cane process plants, both of which are exported easily via ports.

It is this infrastructure already handling much of the global trade that clearly gives the Premier great confidence that the province and country is ready for an acceleration in international trade, particularly the fast implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

CHALLENGES AHEAD

The challenges surrounding Transnet are well understood. It’s not enough to restore Transnet to its pre-crisis levels, but to double down on state-of-the-art electronic systems at ports, to double the efficiency on customs as volumes multiply. This is important for the acceleration of trade, along with better physical infrastructure.

The province must also work hard to eliminate non-tariff barriers. This will boost our intra-trade with the continent and the rest of the world.

KZN has three African countries bordering it, namely Mozambique, Swaziland, and Lesotho – an advantageous geographic dividend in the process of intra-Africa trade.

Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia are the main destination markets for South Africa’s intra-African exports, importing 67% of South Africa’s intra-Africa goods and services.

In this regard, we must also strengthen our open borders, and take advantage of increasing Africa trade

As the great pan-Africanist, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, said: “United, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.”

KwaZulu-Natal is at the centre of accelerated intra-Africa trade.

AREAS OF FOCUS

There are three main areas of focus I believe KZN must focus on and give impetus.

The first area is agriculture. The rural economy has huge potential waiting to be unlocked. And yet, there remains huge tracks of uncultivated but arable land.

The second area is infrastructure investment. Despite the impressive infrastructure already in place, there remains a significant infrastructure backlog. Without infrastructure, intra-Africa trade will remain a dream

The third aspect is deepening integration of our local economies through dealing decisively with issues of rail, to easy the load on our roads, and to increase tonnage into various destinations.

South Africa has a lot to offer the world, including light oils, bituminous coal, ferro-chromium, chromium ores, electrical energy, goods, vehicles, and non-agglomerated iron ores, with KwaZulu-Natal already exporting much of these.

There is plenty of room to grow incrementally to fulfil the 2063 dream of the Africa we want.

29/07/2023

The 2023 BRICS Youth Summit has come to an end!

This Summit was important for integrating youth voices and perspectives in the bigger conversation on BRICS. Climate Change, Trade, Education, Employment, Multilateralism, etc. were some of the key areas discussed.

29/07/2023

”We believe that BRICS countries should use their collective strength to drive the youth developmental paradigm. Youth are key to the development and growth of our economies.”- NYDA Executive Chairperson, Ms. Asanda Luwaca

20/06/2020

Today is World Refugee Day. Contrary to misconception, 86% of Refugees live in developing countries and mostly move to neighboring countries, so there is no influx of Refugees into European countries.. Refugees hardly cross multiple borders looking for refuge. Be that as it may, efforts must be put in stabilizing countries, politics, economy and climate change so that people have less reason to leave home.

27/05/2020

A behavioural change must happen to minimise the risk of infection. The government needs buy-in from every citizen to fight the pandemic, writes Yonela Diko.

A behavioural change must happen to minimise the risk of infection. The government needs buy-in from every citizen to fight the pandemic, writes Yonela Diko.

17/05/2020

Today, 17 May 2020, the new virus infections in the country of the last 24hours is 1160, and of that total, Western Cape accounts for 890, which is 77% of the infections. Western Cape is now the obstacle and burden in fighting this virus.

11/10/2019

Homelessness in Cape Town: Surviving the underbelly of South Africans meanest-city

According to the Directorate of Social Development and Early Childhood Development 2015 report, Cape Town has just over 7‚300 homeless people prowling the streets of the City. This is a disturbingly high number given that comparable cities like Johannesburg have much lower numbers (2014 Johannesburg city’s audit report stated that Johannersburg had close to 2700 homeless people in the Joburg CBD and City of Ethekwini has above 3500).

Even more disturbing is that only In 2010, Olusola Olufemi stated that Cape Town had 900 homeless people. This means the City of Cape Town has added almost a 1000 homeless people into the our streets in each of the last 7 years. How is this possible? What is pushing Cape Town residents out of their homes into the harsh reality of street living in the heart of the City.

Social work organizations in Cape Town have raised concerns over the City's "overly simplistic" approach to a very complex problem of homelessness.

DA Councillor Shayne Ramsay once wrote that 'Since the homeless rely on our handouts for their existence, if you stop giving to beggars, street people and car guards, they will move elsewhere'. This was echoed by Mayco Member JP Smith, who has been running a campaign of discouraging people for giving money to the homeless because he says it encourages people to remain on the streets. Of course this enraged many Cape Tonians, including Editor Gelnn Brownes who rebuffed that 'the forcing of poor people out of their homes in the inner city, and then pricing them out of "the market", which obviously "perpetuate chronic homelessness" and "chronic privilege" is the real cause to the tragedy of homelessness than these taunted random acts of kindness.

The City's crass thinking about homelessness makes one realize the depth of the crisis we are in given that the people who are suppose to solve the problem are in way over their heads in just simply understanding this challenge. People are on the streets for multiple reasons, including losing their homes, drug addiction, lack of family support, gangs and ex convicts, which have nothing to do with your 2 rand or 5 rand that you may or may not give them.

Homelessness in Cape Town first and foremost has an embedded history of forced removals and the modern day exclusionary practises of gentrification. That is why (64.6%) of all homeless people are coloureds, followed by blacks (25%) and whites (8.3%). This is because the injustices of forced removals from the City's prime lands into congested townships hit the coloured communities the most. Forced removals were the beginning of the sense of displacement and homelessness in the city which has given grounds for more social ills and psychological burdens.

The other disturbing factor about the City of Cape Town's thinking about the homeless is to refer to the places with homelessness people as problem areas (those with 50 and above street people), places like Foreshore, Bellville, Goodwood, Strandfontein, Parrow, Wynberg, Sea Point. The result of this categorization of the homeless is that the City then allocates Metro Police to daily harass the homeless and ill treat them, hoping that this approach will discourage the homeless for being in the streets in the first place. This is cruel and foolish. If people had a choice not to be on the streets they would not be.

According to a street people report conducted in 2015 by the Directorate of Social Development and Early Childhood Development‚ the main reasons for homelessness, among the leading ones were poverty‚ lack of housing‚ substance abuse‚ dysfunctional relationships‚ unemployment‚ exploitation‚ failed rural to urban migration and mental illness.

Homelessness does not only create poverty of subsistence, but has implications for all other dimensions in the person's life. It is also the lack of other life needs such as affection, participation, creation and understanding that may contribute to the vulnerability of persons and result in their becoming homeless.

Kok et al. (2010) and Seager and Tamasane (2010) further highlight the plight of the homeless as having difficulty in accessing grants because of their appearance, low educational qualifications and lack of identity documents. Being homeless cripples your ability to even participate in social activities that you are legally entitled to.

The problem of Homelessness however cannot be allowed to be our inevitable reality about which we cannot do anything. The UNCHS (2000:iv) report makes a welcomed point that "There is little doubt that the best way to combat homelessness is to avoid people becoming homeless in the first place". According to the Salvation Army, homeless people require both immediate care and long-term assistance to help them regain adequate shelter in the context of a stable community. Major Carin Holes, PR Secretary of the Salvation Army’s Southern Africa region also added another worrying factor. He said, 'in South Africa, temporary homelessness increases with localized flooding that occurs at this time of year. This is often because poverty forces people to erect homes on flood plains'.

In order to address homelessness there should be a move towards multifaceted, multidisciplinary, long-term structural changes (Richter et al., 2012; Sanchez, 2010). The UNCHS (2000) confirms the complexity of addressing homelessness and proposes holistic, policy-driven processes.


Last year, the East London Salvation Army ran a “street store” in which homeless people were given the opportunity to choose donated clothes rather than accepting randomly selected items. These are some of the innovative Ideas to bring back dignity to the homeless and integrate them into society.

The Homeless people themselves however have stated that sometimes their own behaviour is one of the reasons for their homelessness, which is linked to their alcohol and drug abuse, bad friends and criminal behaviour, which brought them into conflict with their families.

In order to help the homeless there are specific things we can do in the immediate. There must be a programme that seeks to provide some skills to the poor. This must be provided through NGO's and the City itself. These programmes must be followed through and seen as a City's legal responsibility and not a favor to the poor. Many people on the streets do perform some odd jobs that give them money so some money management skills are needed so that people can build their way out of the streets. Where necessary, more shelters need to be built and these shelters must be transformative grounds for people to come in and come out empowered to be independent.

Its clear however that the City of Cape Town sees the Homeless as a problem they would like to get rid of or hide from the well-mannered and rate paying residents. The City needs to stop this nonsensical thinking and begin to put measures in place to support the people out of their various challenges which have landed them on the streets.

Yonela Diko

29/05/2019

For Immediate Release



29 May 2019



PPF Statement on the newly appointed National Executive

The Progressive Professionals Forum (PPF) congratulates the newly appointed members of the National Executive as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa this evening. We also welcome the reconfiguration and streamlining of the National Departments and we view this as a strong signal to a new chapter of efficient and cost effective government.

PPF is encouraged by the confidence the President has shown in Women and Young People and we are happy with the geographical spread of appointments. As a representative of professionals in the country, we are also encouraged by the evident skills set of the new cabinet which should augur well for the State and its capacity to deliver on its mandate. The PPF endorses the Presidents team and we express our full confidence in the new Cabinet.



PPF considers the main task of this coming term as that of achieving ‘shared prosperity’ and ‘inclusive growth’. This will require a strong economy and a clear transformational agenda. We are confident that the Ministers that have been chosen to lead the economic cluster have the capacity to make government the champion of economic growth and economic transformation through smart policies and developmental programmes. We are also confident that these Ministers know the importance of business confidence and market friendly policies, along with public-private partnerships to leverage the strengths of all sectors of society.



PPF wants to see significant restructuring of the economy in order to open our various industries for broad participation and reduce oligopolies to allow for more entrepreneurs to receive their share of the markets. We want full implementation of the states transformational agenda as clearly articulated in the ANC’s Manifesto.

Says Kashif Wicomb President of the PPF " We believe that the implementation of developmental policies will require various Ministers in critical departments to invest in both medium term and long term developmental goals. We urge the minister of education to follow the NDP and its clear targets, among these the doubling of our undergraduate yearly outputs, including doubling the number of Doctoral degrees. This will help double the number of professionals this country produces which will augur well for economic growth. We also edge the Minister of Health to finally implement the NHI, which will unburden young professionals who are debt stressed by the runaway medical aid bills."

All these goals are implementable in the coming term towards our vision 2030.



PPF is happy that the President has restored the confidence of professionals in government with this new national executive. We welcome President Ramaphosa's performance agreements with Ministers so that all members of the executive will strive to sustain the peoples confidence through hard work and implementation of the vision of government.



Issued by the Progressive Professionals Forum (PPF)

Secretary General

Sithembiso Khubeka

+27 83 353 5124

28/05/2019

For Immediate Release



28 May 2019



PPF asks WC Premier to put social cohesion on top of his terms Agenda



PPF WC has noted with great concern the struggle of black professionals in Western Cape and calls on the Western Cape Government to champion a provincial program that will deal with the atmosphere and climate that makes black professionals feel pressured to socially adjust to fit in, in an otherwise unwelcoming work and living environment.



It is an indictment to the Province that black professionals have only increased by 4% in ten years in this province while the administration promises a ‘South Africa for all’. The Province and City cannot continue depoliticizing black professionals experiences instead of accepting their challenges and realities. The past approach to governing has resulted in the exodus of black professionals in this province, to cities and provinces that are more conducive for their career and life developments.



PPF asks the premier to Honor recommendations of various research reports by multiple experts on the reasons black professionals do not consider this province one of the places of choice to work in. Many professionals have cited hostility, lack of networking opportunities, an expensive lifestyle, and feeling unwelcomed as some of the reasons they leave the city and the province.



PPF calls on the Provincial government to lead professional networking initiatives in partnership with progressive professional bodies in order to ensure young professionals are able to build social capital and fully integrate into communities they live in. These should also make black professionals feel part of the middle-class community outside of the workplace as part of building coherent communities.



The latest experience of Esethu Mcinjana, a black woman who was looking for work in Sea Point being arrested for no other reason other than being black is disconcerting. Such incidents put even more fissures into an already racially divided province. The process of looking for work is already an expensive and emotionally draining experience. The Provincial government must not bury it’s heard in the sand when such incidents happen but must get ahead of them to reassure its residents, more especially black professionals.



PPF calls for clear programmes with timelines on how the Province is going to entrench social cohesion in this province.



Issued by PPF Western Cape



Azania Matiwane

PPF Provincial Secretary

073 852 6163

27/05/2019

For Immediate Release



27 May 2019





PPF WC calls on the President to prioritize reinforcement of state capacity to run the railway systems



PPF Western Cape calls on national government to reinforce PRASAs capacity to run railway systems, particularly in the Western Cape.



The railway system is the backbone of the Western Cape’s transport system. It is important for the system to be efficient, secure and affordable. This will also encourage more professionals to use the system. Over 700 000 commuters in Cape Town already use trains to and from work on a daily basis so this mode of transport is critical to the provinces and cities economy.



PPF is opposed to the call by the DA for the railway system to be disjointed and runned at different levels of government. PPF has studied experiences from other countries, including countries like Britain, where there is now strong call for the national government to renationalize their railway system after misguided privatization frenzy of yesteryear.



PPF does not consider the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Provincial government as currently having the wherewithal state capacity to run the railway system because they don’t invest in state capacity, relying mostly on partnerships with private companies and NGOs to govern. Even MyCity bus, the City's flagship project is not runned by the City but is runned by a combination of private companies including Golden Arrow and Sibanye at an annual cost of over 4 billion.



PPF is convinced that this approach would make trains expensive, exclusive and out of reach for the current commuters, as unaffordable as MyCity bus services currently is. PPF wants an inclusive public sector system that provides quality and safe services to all Cape Tonians.



PPF calls on government to make the right investments in PRASA, put professional and capable personnel and maintain its infrastructure regularly.



Issued by PPF Western Cape



Azania Matiwane

PPF Provincial Secretary

0738526163

26/05/2019

For Immediate Release



26 May 2019



PPF WC Congratulates President Cyril Ramaphosa on his Inauguration as President of the Republic of RSA



The Progressive Professionals Forum (PPF) in the Western Cape congratulates President Cyril Ramaphosa on his inauguration as the President of the Republic of South Africa. As PPF we see President Ramaphosa as a progressive professional who in the last year and a half of his Presidency has restored professionalism in the office of the President, restored the faith of the professional strata in the ability of government to lead economic development and restored the credibility of government in the market place and in the eyes of our people.



As progressive professionals, we see the extraordinary range of President Ramaphosa's career, a unionist, a politician, a business man and a statesman, as critically important in galvanizing all sectors of society under one vision in order achieve the milestones that we have set ourselves as a country, among these full employment by 2030 and transformation of all sectors of our economy.



In the last year and a half of his Presidency, President Ramaphosa has put the economy at the centre of his Presidency and results of his efforts have been immediate and consequential, particularly for the business strata. We have seen business confidence jumping by double digits and we have witnessed investment pledges into the country that have been elusive for a long time, all on the back of key decisions that the President made over the short period of his Presidency. We hope that the President will continue in that trajectory, with even more vigor and determination.



PPF saw the President choose a much better cabinet, aligning cabinet posts with accumulated experience and bringing new skills in Mining and Finance and we are confident the President will continue to streamline and inject new blood in his new cabinet. We saw the President restore confidence in the South African Revenue Service with new and experienced appointments, a commendable move given the central role SARS plays in the health of the country and economy. We also commend the President for bringing progressive professionals in the Law enforcement institutions, particularly the NPA, an office that must work with utmost professionalism, without any favor or political bias.



As the progressive professionals we have been disappointed by the behavior of many professionals deployed to the State Owned institutions, who have not lived up to the standards of our organization and going forward we will apply more scrutiny to these appointments in order to help the President choose the best among us in our task of transforming our economy using SOE's as pillars of transformation.



As PPF Western Cape we pledge to work closely with government, particularly in ensuring that the task of empowering progressive professionals both in the Private Sector and public sector is fulfilled. Progressive Professionals are the vanguard of growth and transformation in the country.



We will pay particularly attention to the experience of black and woman professionals, who continue to experience victimization for their progressive views and programs, especially in the province of the Western Cape.



Our task is to ensure that our government, as led by the President, succeeds through the decisive help of progressive professionals. We pledge our full support to the new President of the Republic, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa.



We congratulate the President and wish him a successful term of office.



Issued by PPF Western Cape



Azania Matiwane

PPF WC Secretary

073 852 6163