30 April 2021, 6:54 AM | SABC | @SABCNews
Image: Reuters, Bongisipho MagcabaMbeki paid tribute to former Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mandla Makhanya.
Former President, Thabo Mbeki, says what many witnesses have told the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture shows that the African continent has serious leadership challenges.
He was delivering his annual lecture at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. Mbeki, who also paid tribute to former UNISA Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Mandla Makhanya, said strong leadership with integrity and high ethical morals were needed on the continent.
“In the context of the proceedings of the Zondo Commission on State Capture, in this particular challenge about leadership, much of the inability of the continent to maximise its huge potential can be ascribed to a death in the right caliber of leadership on our
The Zondo Commission has heard jaw-dropping testimony related to activities at the State Security Agency. (Sharon Seretlo, Gallo Images)
Many media houses were immune to approaches by State Security Agency (SSA) operatives hoping to bring them on board, the Zondo Commission on State Capture heard on Friday.
A report on the SSA s Project Wave found that media houses either wanted too much money, or were alert to approaches by security operatives.
Earlier this week, the African News Agency admitted it received money from the SSA, saying it was only for training and writing positive stories.
Many of the media houses that State Security Agency (SSA) operatives tried to recruit for its Project Wave either wanted too much money, or were alert to such approaches and rebuffed them, the commission of inquiry on state capture heard on Friday.
Covid-19 only exacerbated the dire straits that the South African economy found itself in last year. To compliment the millions of job losses and business closures, was the downgrading to junk status. A contracted workforce means reduced tax revenue, meaning that the South African government will have to ‘do more with less’, according to Mcebisi Ndletyana. Reducing government spend is one place to start. It seems to be the right place, too, as Ndletyana explains. ‘According to the Auditor General, in national and provincial departments alone for the year 2017/18, the amount wasted stood at a staggering R2.57bn. While the government denounces ‘the lack of professionalism in the public service’, Ndletyana believes the problem stems from something deeper than
Politicians, not bureaucrats, stand in the way of a professional civil service in SA
By Opinion
By Professor Mcebisi Ndletyana
The post-Covid-19 world will demand that governments do more with less, or at least spend within their means.
Economic activity has ground to a halt. In South Africa’s case, the country was in bad shape even before the pandemic.
Covid-19 coincided with the downgrading of the country’s credit status to junk. More than three million people have since lost their jobs as companies shut down, reducing revenue collection. Estimates put the shortfall in revenue collection for past year between R150 billion and R250bn.