Following the State of the Nation speech by President Zuma on 9 February 2012, the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, will present the 2012/3 National Budget speech on Wednesday, 22 February 2012, in Cape Town.
As in the past few years, SANGONeT will once again produce a special edition of our weekly NGO Pulse e-newsletter to highlight various civil society responses to the National Budget.
In the past few weeks, there has been yet another huge public outcry on the functioning of the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) and this has provoked a range of talk (and a lot of hot air too) about how we can go about fixing things to make one of the larger national development funders in South Africa, work better.
Director of the Wilderness Foundation, Andrew Muir, addressed the portfolio committee on environmental affairs on the topic of rhino poaching on, 26 January 2012. Together with a number of other environmental and wildlife organisations, the Wilderness Foundation offered advice and insight into the way forward to help curb poaching in 2012.
Many thanks to the 450 NGOs who marched to the National Lotteries Board (NLB) offices in Pretoria and the hundreds who signed our petition and supported us. NGOs from throughout South Africa i.e. Eastern, Western and Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, North West, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Gauteng. People travelled from as far as Secunda, Nelspruit, Vereeniging to voice their outrage – one only has to look at the posters to gage their opinions.
The frustrations experienced by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) when applying for lotto funding came under spotlight when a group of NGOs marched to the National Lotteries Board (NLB) offices on 27 January 2012 in Pretoria.
The march highlighted NGOs’ concerns regarding the Lotto which are well-documented in a study undertaken by the Funding Practice Alliance, the class action to the Western Cape High Court and other related issues.
The SME Growth Index is the first and largest study of its kind to be undertaken in South Africa. It differs from previous studies in breadth, scope and intent. It is based on the experiences and perspectives of a Panel of 500 small businesses, across South Africa’s three major metropolitan areas. It delves into the wide spectrum of factors germane to the operation of a business. It also focuses on drivers behind SME survival and growth.
The African National Congress (ANC) held its 100th birthday celebrations from 6-8 January 2011 in Mangaung, Free State, where it was formed in 1912. The celebrations featured events which were attended by among others, sitting and former heads of state, ANC members and supporters from all over South Arica and the alliance partners.
Below are the messages of support to mark the ANC’s centenary:
Negotiators at the United Nations climate talks have narrowly avoided a collapse, agreeing to the bare minimum deal possible. The plan gets the Green Climate Fund up and running without any sources of funding, preserves a narrow pathway to avoid 4 degrees of warming and gets a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol without key members.
I see the phrase ‘sexual activity’ almost on a daily basis, mostly in newspapers or in online articles quoting what a government official said. What does it mean?
Is it a social activity or is it something you do on your own? Do you need to be a member of a certain club and pay a fee?
When do you engage in ‘sexual activity’ and where? Why are teenagers not supposed to take part in it?
Who invented it? Is there a manual on how to do it well? Can you make money from being good at ‘sexual activity’?
So if you are wondering why the long silence since the post last week, well…I am in Durban after all, where things tend to move a little slower than Joburg and about as fast as Cape Town. And it has been busy: the ‘People’s Space’ at University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), mostly at the initiative of Patrick Bond, has taken off and is always buzzing with energy, people and a whole herd of news crews from local and international media.
Headed by Drs Rick and Anita Gutierrez, the Bethel Health Builders organisation, in partnership with the Health Economics and New HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) and the Regional AIDS Training Network (RATN), produced a series of videos aimed at providing cost-effective health education on HIV/AIDS to people living in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Daybreak in Durban was the usual muggy warmth that seems to seep into every pore of your skin just as perspiration is trying to seep out, leaving you feeling grubby and damp and taking three showers before 10am…but that is a waste of water (which is thankfully being recycled) so let’s not dwell here in this damp spot and rather move on to occupying Durban and more specifically occupying the climate change talks…
Every MP who presses the green button to vote ‘yes’ for the Protection of [State] Information Bill (Secrecy Bill) will at that moment take personal responsibility for the first piece of legislation since the end of apartheid that dismantles an aspect of our democracy
Mark this day.
Depending on the actions of the 400 MPs in the National Assembly at 14h00, it will end as a day of triumph or shame for our adolescent democracy.
Abandoned at birth, Lwazi Xinwa (24) spent his first five years growing up in a children’s home in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. Adopted by loving parents, Lwazi spent the next eight years thriving in a stable household.
However, at age 13 his life turned upside down once again. His father was diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Xinwa’s parents revealed to him that he had been adopted. “I was so angry, so many mixed feelings,” says Xinwa. “I was so upset that my father was sick but I felt angry at the same time.”
The Politecnico di Milano University, in collaboration with the Project Management Institute (PMI), is administering a survey to analyse how project managers working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) manage international development projects. The results will be distributed among all the participants.
Since we submitted applications for funding to Lottery last year in March and received a short message service (SMS) acknowledging that our application was received, there is no communication or whatsoever. We have entered Christmas and the New Year a new year without any message.
Applications should not take so much time without a response. We appeal to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) to consider other mechanisms to speed up the processes of responding to application for funding.
The Umzi Wethu Livelihoods Programme aims to equip job seekers with the skills required to find work and to become valuable employees.
Orientation for the next Livelihoods Programme will take place on 23 January, 2012.
Classes will commence from 25 January to 22 February 2012. There are 10sessions, at the cost of R10 per session. Students are expected to attend all sessions in order to receive the full benefit of the programme. Classes start at 08h30 and end at 14h00.
