Thusong Service Centres Need To Be More Connected To Their Communities

By Department of Communications (South Africa)

The Thusong Service Centre (formerly known as Multi-Purpose Community Centres — MPCCs) programme of government was initiated in 1999 as one of the primary vehicles for the implementation of development communication and information and to integrate government services into primarily rural communities. 

This was done to address historical, social and economic factors, which limited access to information, services and participation by citizens, as they had to travel long distances to access these services.

Thusong Service Centres are one-stop, integrated community development centres, with community participation and services relevant to people’s needs. They aim to empower the poor and disadvantaged through access to information, services and resources from government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), parastatals, business, etc. enabling them to engage in government programmes for the improvement of their lives.

Government’s vision for Thusong Service Centres is to provide every South African citizen with access to information and services within their place of residence and in each local municipality by 2014 with the purpose of improving the quality of their lives through integrated service delivery.

By the end of March 2012, 171 Thusong Service Centres were in operation, making a crucial contribution to the expansion of infrastructure for access to information and services that citizens can use. 

Typical services found in these centres include those from the departments of Home Affairs, Labour, South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), Social Development, Government Communications and Information Systems (GCIS), and the department of Health as well as telecentres, the Post Office, libraries, agricultural extension offices and municipal services. Community Development Workers, the South African Police Service, NGOs and community-based organisations, also offer services through the centres.

Thusong Service Centre Partners

Harnessing the energy of partners is key to the programme

Building partnerships is a major focus of the Thusong Service Centre programme. Strong partnerships guarantee sustainable and effective service delivery at Thusong Service Centres. Partners support all aspects of the programme, from funding to enhancing the services provided.

Although the programme is driven by government, Thusong Service Centres are ideal platforms from which businesses and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can offer their services and reach a wide sector of the market.

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Partners at Thusong Service Centres are:

• service providers (government, civil society and private sector)
• government strategic planners/policy-makers (national, provincial and municipal)
• local communities benefiting from Thusong Service Centres
• development agencies
• parastatals
• funding partners

Participation and firm commitment are integral to the Thusong Service Centre programme. Consequently, partners have the following critical roles to play:

• Political spheres: Influencing efficient service delivery and participatory partnership
• National, provincial and local government: Strategic planners implement the programme, line departments ensure service delivery
• Parastatals: Critical to infrastructural process
• Civil society, community-based organisations and NGOs: Providing services and resources
• Private sector: Providing services and contributing broader resources.

The Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) provides overall co-ordination and support, reporting to the Governance and Administration Cluster and Cabinet Committee. Other government partners and roles are listed below:

Partners in national government

• National Treasury
  • Funding options and strategy
  • Alignment of funding
  • Public Private Partnership (PPP) strategy for Thusong Service Centres
  • Technical assistance with business planning
• Department of Provincial and Local Government
  • Co-ordination at provincial, local and district level
  • Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG)
  • Alignment of Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy/Urban Renewal Programme with Thusong Service Centres
• Department of Public Service and Administration
  • E-government strategy through E-Gateway Portal
  • Legislation re: access strategy, service level agreements, human resources
  • Community Development Workers’ alignment strategy
  • Thusong Service Centre co-ordination
• Department of Public Works
  • Infrastructure advice and roll-out
  • Lease agreements at centres
• Department of Trade and Industry - Local Economic Development co-ordinators
  • Provision of economic opportunity projects and programmes
• Departments of Home Affairs, Social Development, Labour, Agriculture, and Minerals and Energy
  • Roll-out alignment (budgets and infrastructure)
  • Service delivery plan at provincial and district levels
  • Resource deployment plan at district level (human resources and tools)
  • Reporting to national co-ordinator

Partners in provincial and local government

• Premier’s offices
  • Co-ordination and governance at provincial level
  • Co-ordinate establishment and management of PPP at provincial level
  • Alignment with provincial growth and development summits
  • Report to national co-ordinators
  • Development of proper structures and systems, service level agreements, monitoring, evaluation and support of the programme
• South African Local Government Association
  • Co-ordination of district and local municipalities
• District and local municipalities
  • Co-ordination and governance of implementation at district and municipal levels
  • Provision of centre management and staff
  • Alignment with integrated development plans
  • Development and implementation of district and local promotional and marketing plans

Other partners

• Department of Communications, South African Post Office, Sentech, National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa, Telkom
  • Information and communications (ICT) strategy
  • Community radio stations
  • Public Information Terminals (PiTs)
  • Contribute to intersectoral steering committees
• Universal Service Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA)
  • ICT strategy
  • Establishment of telecentres
• State Information Technology Agency
  • ICT strategy
  • Connectivity
• South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI)
  • Capacity-building strategy

Many other government departments (national and provincial), NGOs and private-sector stakeholders support this programme as it intensifies. Partnership in the programme is worthwhile because:

• information needs of citizens are placed first in the communication process
• people are empowered through participation
• development is based on consultation and strong networks at community level
• a wide-level commitment is followed rather than a top-down process
• you find improved access to services
• there is face-to-face interaction between government and the people
• the centre model suits community needs: hubs for large centres, satellites for smaller centres and mobile units for vast/inaccessible geographic areas.

SOURCE: Department of  Communications (South Africa)

The Citizen

National 20.3.2017 10:50 am

14-year-old boy paralysed by school principal has died

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Bongani Mashisane

Choma in hospital.

The boy had allegedly stolen R150. The family now wants R25m in damages from the state.

A 14-year-old boy from Mhluzi township in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, Sphamandla Choma, who was paralysed after allegedly being assaulted by his school principal for stealing R150 has died, Mpumalanga News reports.

MEC for education Reginah Mhaule recently paid a courtesy visit to the family of the learner after he was beaten by his school principal.


“I have received a preliminary report from the school, but there is a need to strengthen the report so that there are no loopholes in it. We have instituted an independent body from other districts to investigate the matter further,” said Mhaule recently.

Last week, Choma’s family, through their lawyer, lodged a R25 million lawsuit against the department of education in Mpumalanga.

– Caxton News Service

Access to low-income houses made easy by moladi

Access to low-income houses made easy by moladi in Africa

low-income houses in Africa

Access to low-income houses in Africa made easy by Moladi

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa on March 11, 2013 in General News

Moladi, a South African based company established in 1986, makes housing accessible to low-income people through innovative and eco-friendly technology.

Decent housing is one of the key factors in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. It is not just about putting a roof over someone’s head – development experts attest.

Academic research proves that access to a clean and stable home implicates an improvement in security, health and education.

The Moladi system consists of a reusable and recyclable plastic formwork mould, which is filled with stone-less concrete and a special chemical additive. This additive ensures that, once the mortar is set, the formwork can be removed – and reused up to 50 times.

According to founder Hennie Botes, the brickless walls can withstand all types of weather. The formwork is lightweight allowing easy transportation. Due to the simplicity in design and the repetitive application scheme, construction costs can be reduced significantly.

The Moladi model is not only cost-effective but fast too. Botes further commented that the wall structure of a house can be completed within one day. A further plus point, especially in remote areas, is that the construction does not require heavy machinery or electricity.

With the motto “Train the unemployed to build for the homeless”, Moladi combines construction with economic development. The company also offers training locally for the unemployed thereby creating jobs and empowering the community as a whole.

Due to the simplicity of the approach, construction techniques and skills can be transferred in a short time. In this way, the communities benefit from affordable shelter and skilled entrepreneurs (in the area of low-cost housing) at the same time.

Moladi’s success in over 20 countries shows that affordable housing is an important key in finding solutions to promoting security and alleviating poverty.



Affordable Housing Production System - moladi

For more information on Access to low-income houses made easy by moladi - visit www.moladi.net

 

Keywords - moladi, Access to low-income houses made easy, low-income housing, Africa, affordable housing, Hennie Botes, formwork, building system, construction techniques, entrepreneurs



Posted 12th March 2013 by Moladi Formwork

President Zuma Successfully Opens the 3rd Presidential Local Government Summit

April 6, 2017

By Jacob Zuma

It is a great pleasure indeed to address you at this Third Presidential Local Government Summit following the two we have held in Khayelitsha and in Gauteng respectively.

We meet today on an important day on which we commemorate the tragic execution of Solomon Mahlangu by the apartheid state in 1979.

He was a dedicated freedom fighter who paid the supreme price for fighting for the liberation of our country and its people.

On this solemn occasion we recall his last words: "My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight."

The execution of the young Solomon Mahlangu provoked widespread international outrage. Today, in his honour the fight continues, this time to accelerate economic transformation and improve the lives of our people.

Compatriots,
When we met in Khayelitsha we emphasised the importance of the strong collaborations among all spheres of government in service delivery.
 In 2014 in Gauteng, we said we must go back to the basics, and recommitted ourselves to providing basic services more adequately, professionally and in a more caring manner.

At the Second Presidential Summit in Khayelitsha there was agreement that local government performance should be improved to ensure provision of basic services and that people’s needs are met.

The objective of the Back to Basics programme launched in 2014, is to create well-functioning municipalities that serve their communities better.

It encompasses five pillars:

Putting people first and ensuring effective public participation platforms for them.

Creating conditions for decent living by consistently delivering municipal services to the right quality and standard. This includes planning for and delivery of infrastructure and amenities, maintenance and upkeep.

Thirdly, good governance, efficient administration and accountability.

The fourth is sound financial management and accounting, prudent management of resources and the fifth, sound institutional and administrative capabilities at all levels.
This Summit is now an opportune time, at the beginning of the new term of local government, to deliberate about the priorities for the next five years.

As this is the first time since the last local government elections that we meet formally, let me welcome our newly elected and returning councillors and thank them for availing themselves for national service.

I would like to congratulate all municipalities - councillors and municipal staff – who have made a difference in changing peoples’ lives and living conditions.

But before we consider the challenges going forward, let us reflect on the achievements and progress we have made over the last two decades in changing people’s lives and living conditions.

According to the latest General Household Survey of Statistics South Africa, the progress achieved between 2002 and 2015 includes an increase from seventy-seven percent to eighty five percent in the number of households with access to electricity.

We achieved an increase from eighty five percent to more than ninety percent of households with access to piped water.
Also, the share of households obtaining sanitation services went up from sixty-two percent to eighty percent.

At the time of the survey more seventy eight percent of South African households lived in formal dwellings, followed by fourteen percent who lived in informal dwellings, and seven percent in traditional dwellings.

Fourteen percent of South African households were living in RDP or state-subsidised dwellings. In addition, eighteen percent female-headed households received a government housing subsidy, whilst twelve percent of male-headed households received a government housing subsidy.

It must be mentioned that South Africa’s population during this period, also increased from about forty million in 2001, to about fifty five million in 2015, and our people are living longer thanks to our improved health services among others.

Although we can be proud of the above achievements we still must confront a number of challenges. I will mention just a few.

We have a high number of households without access to piped water. We have bad roads, poor quality in some of our RDPs, a crumbling water infrastructure and poor sewage systems in some areas. We also face poor financial management in some municipalities and insufficient revenue collection.

There is also still poor interaction between Councillors and communities in some municipalities.
We are aware of these challenges and affected municipalities should work harder and faster to correct them, which is why we come together as we are doing this week.

This Summit aims to provide strategic direction for the new term of local government.

Importantly, from this Summit must emerge a focused action plan on the way in which all three spheres of government and all partners should work together to ensure the deepening of the Back-to-Basics programme.

The action plan must build on the progress registered since our last summit and should enable us to be even more responsive to the needs and aspirations of local communities than before.

The first phase of the Back-to-Basics programme focused on laying the foundation for a developmental local government, by doing the basics that we just outlined, very properly.

We now have to move to the second phase, in which the Back-to-Basics approach continues to build a functional and developmental local government system that delivers on its Constitutional and legislative mandates within a system of cooperative governance.

Critical in this phase as well, is the need to tackle both the spatial challenges and the socio-economic transformation requirements facing our country and communities.

The second phase of the Back-to-Basics programme will focus on a few key interventions;

First, is ensuring that we build programmes to ‘Manage Municipal Spaces for Radical Social and Economic Transformation’;

Second, is affirming the centrality of integrated and spatially coherent development planning across sectors and spheres; and

Third, strengthening intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder relations in Disaster Risk Reduction.

Colleagues and compatriots,

We must also strive to develop an integrated approach where we not only focus on governance, but also have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the socio-economic problems facing our people.

We must thus have an in-depth understanding of the differences in the space economies of the various types of our municipalities – the metros, secondary cities, districts and small rural towns.

For this purpose, we must develop a national differentiated socio-geographic classification based on this understanding.

As you are aware, we have decided to focus firmly on radical socio-economic transformation in the remaining term of this government.

But let us remind ourselves what we mean by radical socio-economic transformation!

We mean the fundamental change in the structure, systems, institutions and patterns of ownership, management and control of the economy in favour of all South Africans, especially the poor, the majority of whom are African and female.

We need to see radical socio-economic transformation in local government.

This requires that apartheid’s settlement geography must be confronted and a new and more cohesive society must be born.

Apartheid geography and centralised spatial planning ensured that the majority of our people were housed and located in marginal areas from the city centres, far away from the economic hub and opportunities, as well as from services.

This perpetuated their exclusion from the economy.
 
Therefore, the management of municipal spaces for Radical Social and Economic Transformation requires municipalities to do a few things.

They must radically transform the residential areas by connecting and integrating places of work and human settlements to build an inclusive economy and sustainable human settlements.

They must work hard to raise the living standards and quality of life of all the people in the municipal area.

At the centre of a municipality’s social transformation activities must be the provision of social protection to the vulnerable; in particular women and children, the eradication of poverty, and the building of social cohesion and social solidarity.

A municipality’s objective must also be to turn the tide against the current spatial patterns of apartheid in the next five to fifteen years, though better and coordinated land use management, ensuring that a new built environment and inclusive spatial landscape emerges across the country.

They must include effective public transport infrastructure development, as well as new integrated and sustainable human settlements and post-apartheid cities that are more connected, liveable, smart and green.

The renewal of old towns, inner-city regeneration as well as township renewal must be a key focus of our municipalities.

They must revitalise and mainstream township economies by supporting the development of township enterprises, co-operatives and SMMEs that will produce goods and services that meet the needs of township residents.

Township entrepreneurs must be used to produce food such as bread for school nutrition and hospitals, clothes for school and police uniforms, and furniture for government offices.
If we do this, we would bring millions of township residents into the mainstream of the economy, hence the need to revamp economic infrastructure and improve these areas.

All spheres must work together to ensure that all township roads and streets are tarred, that the bucket system is eradicated and that all hostels are turned into family units.
All spheres must prevent illegal land invasion and growth of informal settlements.

If we do all this, our people will see a difference in their lives and the fruits of freedom will become visible to all.

Colleagues and compatriots,

In this year’s State of the Nation Address, I emphasised that we are building a South Africa that is free from poverty, inequality and unemployment, as guided by the National Development Plan (NDP).

This requires stronger collaborations and changes in the implementation of the Back-to-Basics programme.

Indeed, there is a lot we should do to build better municipalities and ensure that our people’s experience of local government is a pleasant one.

That is what this summit is all about. We must all ensure that when people visit municipal offices, they return home smiling because of an excellent service they would have received.

They should also live in communities where there is water, good roads, electricity, recreational parks and other amenities.

In the 2017 State of the Nation Address we announced that we dedicate 2017 to honour Oliver Reginald Tambo.

It is the year of unity in action by all South Africans as we move South Africa forward, together.
Let us emphasise unity within local government, in honour of OR Tambo, and so that we can achieve all our goals faster.

It is my pleasure and honour to declare the Third Presidential Local Government Summit officially open, and to launch Phase 2 of the Back to Basics Programme.

I thank you.

This is an edited address by President Jacob Zuma on the occasion of the 3rd Presidential Local Government Summit in Pretoria, on April 6, 2017

Daily Maverick

7 April 2017 15:51 (South Africa)

Politics

Op-Ed: When will South Africans learn that the ballot is mightier than the picket?

• Gwen Ngwenya
• Politics
• 06 Apr 2017 12:55 (South Africa)
183 Reactions

Tomorrow, 7 April 2017, thousands of South Africans will take to the streets to allegedly save South Africa and to defend our democracy. Save South Africa marks it as the day for “a massive people’s push” and goes further to add that “united public protest is the only way to stop further state capture and to defend our democracy”.  Civil society groupings have echoed the likes of Equal Education in urging their members “to participate in all mass actions aimed at freeing our country and defending our democracy from the shackles of the Guptas and Jacob Zuma”. But its the ballot that holds the real power. By GWEN NGWENYA.

There have to date been seven motions of no confidence against Jacob Zuma, all of which have failed. At the most recent of these attempts 58 ANC MP’s did not vote, including the former Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan. What we know is that Zuma is a product of the ANC, bolstered throughout two terms in office by people who cheerfully, or through their silence, supported him. The so called “good guys” in the ANC can’t blame the mirror if they don’t like what they see. There is no nefarious third force conjuring up a mirage of cowardice, the mirror simply reflects what is before it.
 
Fifty-eight MP’s who were probably suffering a crisis of conscious chose not to vote. To now call upon South Africans to mobilise against your own party's failures is contemptuous and an egregious shifting of responsibility. An urban march, even with 100,000 people or more is not a national ballot. The democratically elected leader must step down off the back of an angry mob? That’s not democracy. If Zuma must go then he must be removed by South Africa’s elected representatives, who through a democratic process sit in Parliament vested with the will of the people. 
 
Friday’s march is the will of the people subjugated to well-meaning but confused business professionals, in hand with ANC sympathisers masquerading as civil society, and led by the Communist Party who have put on an act of victimhood and contrition so beguiling it beggars belief. 
 
South Africa’s Communist Party whose first guiding principle is to “end the system of capitalist exploitation in South Africa and establish a socialist society” is going to lead the charge to restore global investor confidence and calm in South Africa’s capital markets? That is what is set to take place in South Africa on Friday, mobilising in support of Communist Party members to save democracy and the economy. Even in a work of political fiction that narrative would appear to stretch the reader’s imagination too far. 
 
The step to any reform begins with the admission that this is not about one man and his cronies. The party cannot get away with the narrative of a “rogue” group vs the good group; 2009 was meant to rid the country of Thabo Mbeki’s cronyism, but the ANC’s patronage networks now make Mbeki look like he handed out lucky packets (children’s party favours) in comparison. And now we’re doing it again, being tricked into thinking if we purge one man and his closest acolytes all will be well. The corruption, Marikana, the under- resourcing of higher education, the deficient governance of state-owned enterprises, the investor hostile policies etc, they all happened under the governing party’s watch. 
 
South Africa was already teetering on the edge of an economic cliff before the reshuffle – we must be cognisant of how we got to so close to the edge, not just on what tipped us over.
Pravin Gordhan kept South Africa on the cliff edge, largely through the art of persuasion; getting in front of investors and giving the right assurances. But given time persuasion would necessarily have given way to deliverables, and on that basis there is little to suggest Gordhan’s fiscal rescue mission would be a success. South Africa’s Public Expenditure Bill had increased, further funds were committed to dysfunctional state-owned enterprises and the taxpayer has been squeezed with little sign of future reprieve as growth projections were pitifully low. The danger then in deifying Gordhan and demonising  Zuma is that the protest loses all legitimacy as being concerned about the future. 
 
The gravest threat to democracy is that many South Africans cannot break free of the ANC, and are doomed to engage in the theatre of freedom on the streets, but never experience the true protest that happens in the secret confines of the ballot box. 
 
It is an astonishing thought that over 20 years into democracy and after five national elections and five municipal elections, there are millions of people who are aggrieved with the ANC but have never experienced the transfer of political leadership. Not because they do not live in a democracy, but because they live in a democracy and are too scared to use it. So jarring is the idea of actually voting differently that Save South Africa can without hesitation pronounce that there is no other option but to march. If the would-be marchers really believe that in an elective system of representation the only option is to march on the streets then the foundations of democracy are severely eroded, and state capture is not to blame. 
 
Millions of South Africans are trapped in a self-imposed one-party state and all their leaders; in business, in civil society, in places of worship seem to be complicit in this ruse. It is the ruse, the idea that the ANC is both the source and solution of South Africa’s problems that is the most serious threat to democracy. 
 
South Africa can and will survive the hegemony of the ANC, and people must be very suspicious of journalists, public commentators and sectoral leaders who speak about saving democracy without speaking of the plurality of the political system. Those who want to lead marches but shy away from speaking of political alternatives peddle the idea that opposition politics are divisive. This is as good as suggesting that democracy is divisive, and is a misplaced sense of unity.
 
To the extent that democracy is about making political choices, then yes it is divisive. We don’t live in a forest commune with a roving chalice, and whoever holds the chalice gets to lead. The ANC understands this, but it seems to be the public intelligentsia who do not. In Gwede Mantashe’s own words: "What do you think the ANC is, Father Christmas? I don't know where this notion comes from that we are a collection of individuals who have conscience. We are members of ANC in a party political system." 
 
We have elections, we vote parties in hopefully when they are “good” and we vote them out when they are “bad”, and we also vote them back in if they become good again. But it is not the citizens’ responsibility to save the ANC. ANC members must fix their own party, and we the voters should vote for them only when they do, not until they do.
 
Nomboniso Gasa, a prolific commentator on South African Twitter, tweeted a suggestion to DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, that he should probably not be the one to convene a meeting with other party leaders, but have it led by “elders not in parties”. She then went on to suggest Anglican Archbishop Rev Thabo Makgoba as a convenor. Why should opposition parties lead a mediated process? 
 
The ANC understands that an ideological battle is being waged here, but it seems the public intelligentsia think it can be resolved in a kind of group circle around a camp fire. Zakes Mda also joined the kumbaya chorus on Twitter, saying: “DA, Stop the silly protest march to Luthuli House. When you do that you're alienating even those ANC leaders who may share your grievance.”
 
The EFF, DA and others have not been voted in to help the ANC become the best version of itself. The post-apartheid treason of South Africa’s intellectuals is a book in need of being compiled, and it would come not a moment too soon. The DA and opposition parties should step back, and maybe we should all unify and encircle the ANC with love and understanding and give the good guys space to do the right thing? There is a battle of ideas that needs to be waged, and arguably some of our best minds are entrapped in the nostalgia of a pre-democracy UDF-type movement. South Africa has enough dreamers – we need doers, it is this sentimental hankering and hand-wringing which has led us here in the first place. 
 
South Africans are not being governed in a coalition, the executive decisions and patronage networks established are of the making of one party alone. The challenges we face are inherently partisan, it is not the opposition’s intervention that makes them so. An important part of democracy is holding politicians to account; the ballot is punitive, and that’s the trouble with the ANC, they’ve never been made to really appreciate that. And perhaps they will never have to if the ballot is kept subservient to the picket. DM
 
Gwen Ngwenya is the Chief Operating Officer at the South African Institute of Race Relations
Photo: People stand in a queue to cast their vote during the municipal elections in Alexandra township, Johannesburg, South Africa, 03 August 2016. Photo: EPA/KIM LUDBROOK
 

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Friday, April 7 March is a Trap. It's White propaganda. Middle class nonsense

Why do you wanna March?

Why don't you march when innocent children get killed daily in the coloured townships or when your boss fires people at your work unjustly.... 

Why don't you March because white people at your work get paid 6 times more for the same job and you taught them when they first came to work at your company..... 

Now you wanna march for what? 

You must be sick!

Why don't you march for your relative that is struggling financially and give them some groceries and financial support but Jy wil March????? 

This March is a Trap. It's White propaganda...... Middle class nonsense......


Your March is gonna disenfranchise the poor tomorrow. It's not gonna pay you tomorrow.... 

Because the boss is gonna say come fetch your pay Monday and family has to go hungry this weekend........

By Emmanual Plachez from Cape Town

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017 IS NORMAL WORKING DAY

Government warns anti-Zuma protesters

TMG Digital | 04 April, 2017 09:01 

 

 President Jacob Zuma.

The government has warned protesters demonstrating against President Jacob Zuma that police will crack down on illegal actions.

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“Government assures all South Africans that Friday‚ 7th April‚ is a normal working day. We have noted social media messages which call for a shutdown of the country on Friday‚” the government communications unit GCIS tweeted on Monday night.
“The call made in these messages can have unexpected consequences especially for our fragile economy‚ business and communities. Whilst the public has a democratic right to embark on protest action‚ government does not support acts of civil disobedience.”

The GCIS warning comes after a social media campaign called on South Africans to take to the streets on Friday to urge Zuma to step down. Anti-Zuma sentiment has been growing since the president’s cabinet reshuffle last week‚ which booted out respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas.
“When citizens take to the streets illegally‚ we often witness violence‚ destruction of property and lawlessness. These illegal protests do not possess the characteristics of strengthening democracy‚” GCIS tweeted.


“Those found guilty of any form of violence will face the might of the law. Government is of the view that SAns can engage each other on differences through meaningful dialogue and through appropriate platforms.”

CivilSociety organizations, business & society at large are encouraged to work with Gov in strengthening our democracy to create a better SA

— South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) 3 April 2017

The social media messages are sent to disturb the economy and to create the impression of disorder and fear in communities.

— South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) 3 April 2017

The social media messages are sent to bring the image of SA into disrepute

— South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) 3 April 2017

Those found guilty of any form of violence will face the might of the law.

— South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) 3 April 2017

Global Research

Standard and Poor’s Credit Rating Agency Charged With Fraud in Sub-Prime Mortgage Ratings

By Barry Grey Global Research, February 06, 2013

The US Department of Justice on Monday filed a civil suit in Los Angeles charging Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, the world’s biggest credit rating agency, with defrauding investors and the public by inflating the credit ratings it gave to subprime mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. The suit was announced Tuesday at a Washington press conference presided over by Attorney General Eric Holder. He indicated that the government would seek damages of at least $5 billion from S&P, a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have joined the federal suit. Coming nearly four-and-a-half years after the Wall Street crash, the suit is the first federal action against a credit rating firm. S&P and its main competitor, Moody’s Investors Service, played a critical role in the vast edifice of financial speculation and fraud that came crashing down following the bursting of the housing bubble in 2007. S&P, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings are all private, for-profit companies. As previous US government investigations have documented, S&P and Moody’s made huge profits between 2004 and 2008 by landing contracts from Wall Street banks to rate residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), which were assembled by the banks from home loans and sold to other financial institutions and investors around the world. Wall Street drove mortgage lenders to sell high-risk, high-interest subprime home loans to people who could not afford them, bought up the loans from the mortgage companies, bundled them into RMBS and CDOs, and sold off these toxic investments, making massive profits in the process. The entire US and global financial system was infected as a result by what was, in essence, a vast Ponzi scheme. While US bank regulators looked the other way, the credit rating firms facilitated the fraud by giving triple-A ratings to RMBS and CDOs backed by mortgages they knew were headed for default. The credit rating firms had a financial interest in inflating the ratings on RMBS and CDOs, since they were paid by the banks whose securities they were rating. Under the inherently corrupt, deregulated system for rating securities—a system that serves the interests, in the first instance, of Wall Street—banks shop around for the credit rating firm most likely to give their products the highest rating. Consequently, the credit rating firms compete for a share in the lucrative financial derivatives market, which includes mortgage-backed securities, by proving to their bank paymasters that they will deliver the top ratings the banks need to maximize their profits. At the Justice Department press conference, Holder and other officials painted a picture of pervasive and deliberate fraud, costing investors and taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Between 2004 and 2007, Holder said, “S&P executives made false representations to investors and financial institutions, and took other steps to manipulate ratings criteria and credit models to increase revenue and market share.” “Put simply,” he declared, “this alleged conduct is egregious—and it goes to the very heart of the recent financial crisis.” Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West described how the major banks, beginning in 2007, worked furiously to package their failing subprime home loans into CDOs and offload the CDOs to investors, in order to get the bad loans off of their books. “And we have evidence,” he said, “that S&P not only knew this is what the banks were doing; S&P helped them to do it. “As our complaint explains, through the spring and summer of 2007, S&P moved at a record pace, rating hundreds of billions of dollars worth of CDOs packed with subprime mortgage bonds… S&P gave triple-A ratings to nearly all of the CDOs it rated during this time—and they did this despite their own internal reports which showed that the ratings on the mortgage bonds on which the financial quality of these CDOs depended would not hold.” Despite this narrative of outright criminality, amply documented in the 119-page complaint filed by the Justice Department in US District Court, the government does not name a single individual in its legal brief, nor has it pressed criminal charges. The Obama administration is thus maintaining its record of refusing to criminally prosecute a single leading figure on Wall Street for illegal actions that brought the US and world economy to the brink of collapse and triggered the deepest slump and highest unemployment since the Great Depression. The government spent four months in talks with S&P in an attempt to reach a settlement and avoid going to court, as it has done in dozens of previous financial fraud cases. Talks reportedly broke down in the last two weeks when S&P rejected any deal requiring it to admit wrongdoing and objected to a cash payment above $100 million. The Justice Department’s legal complaint cites internal emails, messages and reports demonstrating that the company was well aware it was violating its own standards and giving securities inflated ratings. The legal brief focuses on 40 CDOs S&P rated between March and October of 2007. The document cites one S&P analyst who wrote in 2006 that the company had loosened its criteria for CDOs to create “a loophole big enough to drive a Mack truck through.” In December of 2006, an S&P employee wrote in an internal email: “Rating agencies continue to create an even bigger monster—the CDO market. Let’s hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters.” In April 2007, one S&P analyst told another, “We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it.” In a July 2007 exchange between an S&P analyst and an investment banking colleague, the banker wrote: “I mean, come on, we pay you to rate our deals, and the better the rating the more money we make?! What’s up with that? How are you possibly supposed to be impartial?” The complicity of the credit rating agencies was previously documented in extensive government reports on the financial crisis. “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” issued in January of 2011 by a commission established by Congress in 2009, wrote: “The three credit rating agencies were key enablers of the financial meltdown. The mortgage-related securities at the heart of the crisis could not have been marketed and sold without their seal of approval.” The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations devoted 75 pages of its 639-page report on the Wall Street crash, released in April of 2011, to the role of S&P and Moody’s in facilitating the subprime mortgage swindle. It wrote: “It was not in the short-term economic interest of either Moody’s or S&P, however, to provide accurate credit ratings for high-risk RMBS and CDO securities, because doing so would have hurt their own revenues.” The Senate report found that more than 90 percent of triple-A ratings given to mortgage-backed securities in 2006 and 2007 were eventually downgraded to junk status. Whatever the outcome of the suit filed on Monday, the Obama administration has systematically worked, and will continue to work, to shield the banks and their accomplices from any accountability for their crimes, and create conditions for Wall Street to make more money than ever. The same credit rating system—unregulated and dominated by the banks—remains in place today. The same credit rating companies continue to make millions by giving top ratings to high-risk bonds and derivatives and helping conceal violations of securities laws by the banks, creating the conditions for another, even more catastrophic financial crisis. Url of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/sp-charged-with-fraud-in-mortgage-ratings/5322037

EYEWITNESS NEWS

ZUMA LAUNCHES BIGGEST SOCIAL HOUSING PROJECT IN KZN

The 952 units are rental housing for middle income earners, in the R1,500 and R7,500 monthly income bracket.

President Zuma shakes hands and hands over the home of one of the beneficiaries Nomkhosi Msimang. Picture: Ziyanda Ngcobo/EWN

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Ziyanda Ngcobo | 4 days ago

PIETERMARITZBURG – President Jacob Zuma has used the launch of South Africa's biggest social housing project to encourage citizens to make use of government programmes aimed at providing homes for the middle income group.

Zuma was speaking at the Imbalo township near Pietermaritzburg where 952 houses have been built.

The units are rental housing for middle income earners, in the R1,500 and R7,500 monthly income bracket.

The president was accompanied by acting premier Sihle Zikalala and African National Congress treasurer general Dr Zweli Mkhize.

Zuma says the new accommodation has bridged the gap for those who do not qualify for government subsidies or RDP housing.

“It provides an opportunity to our working youth to live in decent and well located accommodation while promoting social integration and deconstructing the apartheid spatial master plan.”

(Edited by Masechaba Sefularo)