Author: staff

Agricultural exports during this quarter amounted to $3.30 billion (R59.4 billion), while imports decreased by 10.6% to $1.76 billion (R31.68 billion). (Photo for illustration/iStock) In the first quarter of this year, South Africa’s agricultural sector recorded the largest trade surplus ever for a first quarter, despite challenges such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and falling exports to the USA. According to AgriSA’s latest trade report, the sector achieved a trade surplus of $1.55 billion (more than R28 billion) from January to March this year. This is 16.1% higher than in the same period last year and the highest first quarter trade…

It is NOT known where the body of the leader of the Nyonini church, the Christian Catholic Holy Spirit in Zion, Dr. Thamsanqa Nkonyane, who was the president of the church who passed away two weeks ago, was buried at his home in Durban.The day passed on Saturday, the issue of the suspension of the funeral service of this leader which was going on at the headquarters of this church in Jakkals Span in Sizweni, in Newcastle, is still in the headlines.This comes after the service was about to end and the police who were accompanying Nkonyane’s wife, MaNgcobo, who…

Barbara Creecy, Minister of Transport. (Photo: Road Traffic Management Corporation/X) The DA is intensifying its fight against transport minister Barbara Creecy’s plans for possible new levies to keep the Road Accident Fund (ROF) afloat. According to this party, South Africans should not continue to pay for a fund that has been in a financial crisis for years. Dr. Chris Hunsinger, DA MP and the party’s spokesman on transport, says at a time when South Africans are faced with rising fuel prices, food inflation and increasing financial pressure, the government is considering a new levy linked to vehicle license renewals. “Instead…

IZNYANE le Silo, Prince Mukelile Zibusiso of Zwelithini, has warned the students of Kwa Nodunga, Kwa Maphumulo, Zithabeni Secondary, for mixing education with life. Prince Mukelile said that he will put everything in his father’s mouth because many parents do not talk to their children about issues related to sex. “Don’t look at school books and textbooks. Don’t panic. Didn’t it say who I was born from? How did the Beast speak? Didn’t he just put things as they are? We are Zulus. I can’t deceive you either.” He said he is talking like this because he knows that many…

(Photo: Tania Heyns/X) Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi says there is nothing illegal about the R30 million donation his party received from an entity known as We Are The People and recently declared. Zibi says the Act on the Funding of Political Parties provides for this donation. According to him, it is an earlier loan amounting to R30 million that has been converted into a donation. He made it very clear at a media conference in Johannesburg on Monday that the R30 million was not recently given to Rise Mzansi. “This is previous election debt,” he explained when asked about…

US Representative Thomas Massie set to honour the crew of the vessel on the House floor, bringing attention to the 1967 attack.On June 8, 1967, at least 34 US sailors were killed and 171 others were wounded in an Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, a United States Navy technical research ship stationed in the Mediterranean Sea off Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.Israel claimed it was a case of mistaken identity, saying its naval forces thought the vessel was Egyptian. But some of the survivors and researchers have disputed the Israeli version of the incident. They lament that successive governments did little…

ANOTHER complaint was filed by the Information Regulator (IR), which wanted a review of the decision of the Gauteng High Court, which favored the Department of Basic Education, by continuing to publish matric results in newspapers.The organization went to court to stop the publication of the results, complaining that people’s information is being released, which is not in line with the Protection of Personal Information (POPIA) law. The court’s decision on Wednesday was also in favor of the department as well as the organization AfriForum which is part of this case and wants to continue publishing the results in the…

(Archive photo) International airlines doing business in South Africa no longer have to meet black economic empowerment requirements (SEB) to obtain or renew international air service licences. This follows after Sakeliga received a favorable ruling in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday, in which the court ruled that the International Airline Licensing Council (IASC) acted unlawfully by requiring BEE compliance and other race-based criteria when assessing license applications. According to Sakeliga, the judgment confirms that state organs may not impose empowerment requirements in licensing processes if the legislation that regulates them does not expressly provide for it. The court…

THE ANC has set itself the challenge of getting over a million votes in Durban in the local government elections in November this year. This organization wants to get 1.2 million votes and wants to independently control the Municipality of Thekwini.This climb was put up by Mr. Thabani Nyawose, the organizer of the ANC in the Theku region. He said this yesterday, speaking to volunteers of the organization at the Tills Crescent stadium in Overport, Durban.”We will ensure that the ANC is voted for by 1.2 million people and above. We have made an agreement with volunteers as well as…

Photo for illustration. (Photo: iStock)The department of education in the Free State has launched an investigation after an 18-year-old learner from the Thiboloha School for the Deaf in the Thabo Mofutsanyana district was allegedly assaulted there last week.According to dr. Mantlhake Julia Maboya, the MEC of education in the province, said the alleged incident took place on Tuesday between 16:20 and 17:00.According to the preliminary investigation, it apparently happened in front of two boarding parents and a teacher.The school’s clinic treated the learner immediately after the incident.Maboya says a case has already been lodged with the police and according to…