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Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela has sought the services of the Public Service Commission (PSC) to vet the three administrators of the Sector and Education Training Authorities (SETAS) he appointed this week.

This comes amid pressure on Manamela to not only explain the appointment of administrators, but to reconsider and withdraw them.

According to Manamela, he has requested that the PSC conduct fit-and-proper assessments and conflict of interest vetting on Lehlogonolo Masoga, the former deputy speaker of the Limpopo Legislature, who was appointed administrator of Services SETA, Oupa Nkoane CETA, and Zukile Mvalo Local Government SETA.

“The PSC will provide its report and recommendations to the minister, who will act on them without fear or favour,” he said.

Manamela defended the appointments amid public outrage, asserting that due process was followed.

He said the process entailed “due diligence” that “carefully considered” the allegations and past controversies raised in public, and allowed each candidate to respond to the matters before the appointments were made.

“The appointments were confirmed only after the department was satisfied that the appointees could carry out the mandate of stabilising the SETAs,” Manamela said.

DA MP Karabo Khakhau said her party welcomed the investigation into the three ‘administrators’.

“Where there is smoke, there is fire,” Khakhau said.

She added that Manamela was making a huge admission of scandal by bringing in the Public Service Commission.

“No matter what the Public Service Commission finds, this is a stain on Manamela, and he could and should do the right thing and withdraw these cadre deployments instead,” Khakhau said.

EFF MP Sihle Lonzi said they were not moved by Manamela’s referral of the administrators’ appointment to the PSC.

“He is the one who took the decision. If anything, he is undermining the intelligence of the people of South Africa and of the many young people in South Africa, whom the SETAs are supposed to serve.

“If the minister wants to do what is right, he must withdraw the unlawful decision that he has taken to put three SETAs under administration without following due process,” Lonzi said.

Both Lonzi and Khakhau have raised concerns with the administrator’s appointments and the placement of the SETAs under administration.

Khakhau wrote to Manamela, urging him to reconsider the appointments.

She said Nkoane was implicated in a forensic report that details the mismanagement of R872 million in Emfuleni Municipality, Masoga was also implicated in a forensic report for backdating a communications contract worth R4.4 million as the CEO of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone, and Mvalo failed at stabilising SETAs for the past eight years.

Khakhau said the appointment of administrators should be of people who are free from any and all allegations and implications of corruption.

“I, therefore, request that you withdraw the appointment of these administrators in the spirit of fostering public trust and clean and accountable governance,” she wrote in her letter.

In a letter to Khakhau on Friday, Manamela said they were aware of the matters she raised and engaged each candidate directly.

“They provided responses which, at the time, we considered satisfactory in the context of their appointments to stabilise SETAs facing systemic governance failures.”

Manamela also informed Khakhau of his decision to ask the PSC to vet the administrators.

“The PSC has been asked to provide me with a report at the earliest possible time, and I will act on its recommendations without hesitation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Khakhau wrote to House Chairperson Cedric Frolick, asking him to intervene and guide on the matter as Higher Education Portfolio Committee Chairperson Tebogo Letsie was “not acting with urgency in holding Minister Buti Manamela to account”.

Letsie told her in a letter that he had written to Manamela requesting detailed reasons for placing the three SETAS under administration.

“It will be premature to schedule the requested briefing before the minister has responded to the committee. The third term is also comprised of three weeks, and one week is already taken by the committee strategic planning workshop, and the remaining two weeks have agenda items,” he said.

Khakhau said Letsie’s request for reasons from Manamela did not nullify her request for a meeting with the minister.

Khakhau told Frolick that the committee agenda always served with flexibility, given committee members’ requests, and that committees always requested additional dates for meetings.

“Furthermore, Rule 138(2) provides that a committee may at any time summon any person to appear before it to give evidence on oath or affirmation, or to produce documents. This means the committee is not bound to wait for the minister’s correspondence before exercising its right to convene a briefing or hearing on this matter,” she wrote.

*This article was first published by IOL News

The Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) will have to update and maintain the backlog list of cancer patients awaiting radiation oncology services in Gauteng and take all necessary steps to provide treatment to those patients, whether at public or private facilities.

This is in spite of the GDoH turning to the Supreme Court of Appeal to appeal a judgment issued earlier, in terms of which it was ordered to come to the aid of these patients. 

While the pending appeal would ordinarily suspend the order, the Cancer Alliance, supported by Section27, turned to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, to ask that the order remain in force pending the outcome of the appeal.

Judge Fiona Dippenaar, in ruling in favour of the Cancer Alliance, stressed that the backlog meant that patients were being denied treatment within the treatment windows required for radiation to be effective, which had “dire consequences”. 

She found that patients faced “irreversible and permanent harm” that affected not only their health but also their families and loved ones, which in turn created a broader public health and societal crisis.

The judge noted that some of the irreparable harm had already occurred as patients had died while waiting for treatment, and others had seen their cancer metastasis, rendering such patients ineligible for oncology radiation treatment.

“No irreparable harm to the respondents’ (department) appeal rights would follow if the order is enforced in the interim and the appeal would not be rendered nugatory or redundant.”

Judge Dippenaar added that the department’s constitutional duties necessarily include taking necessary steps to provide radiation oncology services to patients who require them, including the patients on the backlog list.

In this regard she said: “The need to appreciate the full extent of the crisis and how many patients actually require time sensitive radiation oncology treatment is manifest, so that vulnerable cancer patients do not slip through the cracks of the public healthcare system”. 

Judge Dippenaar said to direct in favour of the department that the earlier order is suspended pending the outcome of the appeal, may well be the death knell for many vulnerable cancer patients on the backlog list who have been waiting for years for life saving treatment. 

“They do not have the luxury of time,” she noted.

In March this year the court declared that the GDoH’s failure to develop and implement a plan to address the oncology backlog was unlawful, unconstitutional, and in breach of various sections of the Constitution. 

The judge ordered the department to update and maintain the backlog of cancer patients awaiting radiation oncology services in Gauteng and for it to take all necessary steps to provide treatment to those patients, whether at public or private facilities.

The GDoH and other respondents meanwhile obtained leave to appeal that judgment to the SCA, which subsequently caused the Cancer Alliance, through an urgent application, to apply for the order to remain in force pending the appeal.

They argued that exceptional circumstances exist in this case in that this is a matter of life and death for cancer patients who will suffer irreparable harm if the order is not immediately enforced.

It said that the government cannot delay its constitutional duties while patients’ lives hang in the balance.

In opposing the urgent application, the department forwarded technical arguments, which included that the matter is not urgent, as it was launched months after they had obtained leave to appeal.

It also submitted that the application is legally incompetent as this matter is now before the SCA and the high court’s functions regarding this matter has come to an end. Their arguments were, however, rejected by the court.

*This article was first published by IOL News

South Africa’s women continue to live under the shadow of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide at levels likened to war zones, despite government promises and community interventions aimed at tackling the crisis.

According to the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), 51% of women in the country have experienced GBV, while 76% of men admit to perpetrating violence against women.

The country holds the third-highest rape statistics globally, after Botswana and Lesotho.

“South Africa remains a society profoundly marked by violence and continues to grapple with the enduring effects of decades of institutionalised racism, sexism, exclusion, structural violence, and other factors that have persistently undermined human development and positive social cohesion,” said a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) report.

For many women, these statistics are not numbers but a lived reality.

One survivor, Lelona Nziwani, shared her ordeal on Facebook after being brutally attacked by her ex-boyfriend, Phumlani Songxishe.

“He grabbed me forcefully and told me that he would never break up with me, and that I would stay in a relationship with him no matter what he does with anyone else, or else he would kill me,” she wrote.

“He beat me with a golf stick, hit me with a hammer and a spade handle, and also with the frame of a mirror from his room. I apologised even though I had done nothing wrong.”

Her story echoes thousands of others.

The HSRC’s baseline survey revealed that 33.1% of all women aged 18 and older have experienced physical violence in their lifetime, translating to an estimated 7.3 million women.

Women with disabilities face even higher risks.

Dr Ingrid van der Heijden, a research consultant in inclusive sexual and reproductive health, explained:

“Women with disabilities are one of the poorest populations in the world. The risk of lifetime GBV for women with disabilities increases with the severity of their disability.”

Research shows that 29.3% of women with disabilities experienced lifetime physical abuse, compared to 21.7% of those without disabilities.

Rates of sexual violence are nearly double, with 14.6% of disabled women affected compared to 7.2% of non-disabled women.

Van der Heijden emphasised the cycle of violence.

“Poverty, disability and GBV are directional and cyclic. Poverty increases the risk of GBV, and exposure to GBV leads to poor health, which exacerbates the disability.”

The CSVR found that most victims do not trust the criminal justice system. Survivors often face secondary victimisation at police stations, corruption that leads to missing dockets, and lengthy backlogs in Legal Aid.

“Our work in communities revealed bottlenecks in access to justice and the fight against impunity on GBV,” the researchers said.

Community dialogues held in Gauteng revealed widespread frustration: lack of feedback on cases, limited knowledge of procedures, and ongoing harassment.

South Africa has established 63 Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs) to assist survivors of sexual violence by providing integrated medical, psychosocial, legal and law enforcement services.

The National Prosecuting Authority reported a 78% conviction rate in sex crimes reported directly through TCCs, with 221 life sentences handed down in the last financial year.

But for many, justice remains elusive. Survivors must still navigate intimidation, bureaucratic red tape, and cultural stigma.

The World Health Organization estimates that 12.1 women in every 100 000 are killed by an intimate partner in South Africa each year, a figure five times worse than the global average of 2.6.

Intimate partner violence affects one in five women nationally, rising to one in three in poorer households.

Mental health consequences are severe. Communities report that stigma around mental health prevents survivors from seeking support.

Many still attribute trauma to “witchcraft” or “a lack of spiritual faith,” pushing women to seek unqualified help instead of professional services.

Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi admitted that “the stories of women getting killed by their partners have become so prevalent on social media, we no longer get shocked or outraged, we just read and move on.”

“This is not acceptable, and we should not accept as a society. Remaining silent is not an option. We all have a responsibility to speak out, to report it wherever it rears its ugly head," She added.

Kubayi confirmed that the Department is expanding sexual offences courts, upgrading 100 district courts to handle domestic violence cases, and planning to publish Africa’s first Femicide Watch to track GBV-related killings.

“Survivors of GBV desire not only to see, but feel that justice was done,” she said.

“Our country adopted the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide National Strategic Plan, which now guides all efforts to fight GBV and femicide in our country.”

Despite frameworks and programmes, the gap between policy and lived reality remains wide. The CSVR stresses that without addressing social and cultural norms, including patriarchal practices, toxic masculinities, and childhood trauma, GBV will remain entrenched.

 “The solution to gender-based violence lies in the whole of society approach in which all stakeholders play a role in building better communities, healthy and safe households. We believe that working together as a society we can defeat the scourge of gender-based violence,” Kubayi

For now, South African women continue to navigate daily life in a country where violence is not only widespread but expected, a state of emergency hidden in plain sight.

*This article was first published by IOL News

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the Council for Medical Scheme (CMS) is seeking legal opinion on appropriate actions to take following the investigation into systematic discrimination against black healthcare providers by medical schemes.

Motsoaledi was responding to parliamentary questions posed by ActionSA MP Kgosi Letlape, who wanted to know the measures he intended to implement to hold medical schemes accountable for the racial discrimination that was uncovered by the Independent Section 59 Panel.

Letlape also asked whether the department has engaged or consulted with the CMS to ensure that sanctions were imposed on medical schemes found to have engaged in discriminatory practices.

In his response, Motsoaledi said CMS was in the process of procuring a firm of attorneys to develop a comprehensive legal opinion to advise it on appropriate actions to be implemented in response to the findings of the Section 59 investigation.

“This opinion will assist CMS in systematically considering the associated risks and determining how to act against those identified in the final report, as well as identifying mechanisms to legally protect individuals who have been negatively affected by the discriminatory practices uncovered,” he said.

Motsoaledi also said the CMS intended to collaborate with relevant stakeholders and issue appropriate guidance to support the alignment of regulatory frameworks between providers and funders, particularly within the context of the Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Tribunal.

He stated that the department has engaged with CMS since the release of the Section 59 final report.

“However, an engagement platform through a multi-disciplinary stakeholder committee is still to be established in consultation with CMS. In parallel, there is a process of establishing an internal task team to oversee the proposed action or implementation plan in line with the recommendations of the report.”

Motsoaledi also said he was in support of legislative and regulatory amendments to provide stronger oversight and enforcement powers over medical schemes engaging in discriminatory conduct.

He said some of the legislative and regulatory measures currently being explored included a collaborative structure between the CMS and the Health Professions Council of South Africa, and CMS being required to issue more regular guidance on the issues arising from the investigation and sanctioning processes.

“CMS should provide procedural certainty for medical schemes in exercising their powers in terms of the Medical Schemes Act (MSA), the remedies available to parties who feel aggrieved by the conduct of schemes, and the penalties against schemes in the event of a breach of the MSA.”

Meanwhile, Health Portfolio Committee Chairperson Sibongiseni Dhlomo told the media earlier this week that they received a briefing on a report detailing systematic discrimination against black healthcare providers by medical schemes.

He said the committee members expressed concern over the disproportionate allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse directed towards Black practitioners compared to their non-black counterparts.

“Committee members emphasised the need for accountability and sought further information on the punitive measures against medical schemes found guilty of discriminatory practices. They enquired about the department's intentions to acknowledge the harm inflicted upon black healthcare providers,” he said.

Dhlomo said the committee has made several recommendations in response to the findings of the report.

“One key recommendation was to establish an early warning system within medical schemes to alert healthcare providers to potential issues arising under Section 59 of the Medical Schemes Act. The committee believes such a system would safeguard honest practitioners from unwarranted scrutiny, while enabling timely corrective actions to mitigate financial losses.”

He added that the committee has resolved to consult with legal advisors about possible legislative amendments to improve transparency and accountability.

“It also stressed the need for a comprehensive strategy to address the backlog of complaints with the Council for Medical Schemes.”

*This article was first published by IOL News

Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dion George, has signed new regulations to control offshore ship-to-ship fuel transfers in South African waters.

The rules, published under the National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act, prohibit STS operations within marine protected areas, aquaculture zones, and within three nautical miles of the coastline.

They also introduce strict conditions for weather, pollution control, wildlife monitoring, and crew training. Specific restrictions have also been placed on operations in Algoa Bay, including seasonal limits and designated anchorage zones to protect sensitive marine habitats.

"These regulations, which will come into force once published in the Government Gazette, provide South Africa with a clear and enforceable environmental framework to manage offshore ship-to-ship(STS) transfer operations, including bunkering," George said.

Operators must now deploy hydrophone systems to monitor marine mammals and keep a close watch on African Penguins, with mandatory reporting of any wildlife sightings or incidents. Immediate response plans for oiled or injured animals are also required.

"In Algoa Bay, operations may only take place in safe conditions, with wind speeds below 22 knots and wave heights below two metres. The Minister may set conditions elsewhere".

While all crew members must receive environmental awareness training. furthermore the  new rules state that operators are required to submit independent Environmental Management Plans addressing site-specific risks, which must be approved by the Minister.

The Minister also revealed that "non-compliance will be met with firm penalties: fines of up to R2 million, imprisonment for up to five years,or both".

“These regulations are a decisive step to safeguard our oceans and secure the future of our African Penguin. They set strict standards for offshore ship-to-ship transfers, ensuring that maritime activity can only proceed in a safe and responsible way.”

*This article was first published by IOL News

By: Matshidiso Selebeleng

Mounting tensions between traditional taxi drivers and e-hailing service operators are starting to raise serious concerns about public safety in several communities across the country

Recent confrontations, some turning violent, have left commuters caught in the crossfire with local authorities consistently failing to mediate this continuous conflict that disrupts daily commuting and threatens social harmony.

This comes after an e-hailing driver was shot and burned to death in his vehicle at Maponya Mall in Soweto, Gauteng. The violence has caused a ripple effect that is now spreading to other provinces, leaving commuters caught in the middle and uncertain about which mode of transport to use.

“Everyone has a right to choose the transport they want to use because they’re spending their own money,” said Selaocoe Chwi, a student in Bloemfontein who prefers e-hailing services over conventional taxis.

“Ubers and Bolts are more convenient for some of us because they pick you up and drop you off at home—unlike taxis,” she added.

After completing his university studies in 2022, 27-year-old e-hailing driver, Athenkosi Hans, has been relying on the taxi service as his main source of income. He tells Journal News that he and other e-hailing operators in the Free State capital face consistent threats and physical violence from taxi drivers.

“I’ve experienced several incidents - some extremely serious. One of the worst was when my car was written off after a violent attack.

“The most recent incident took place at our waiting bay in Universitas. We were ambushed, some of my colleagues ended up in the hospital, and several cars were overturned and severely damaged,” said Hans.

He added that the ongoing violence has taken a toll on his mental health and also negatively impacted his family, because they constantly worry about his safety.

“Honestly, it’s heartbreaking. We go out to work not to fight. We’re just trying to earn a living like everyone else, but we’re constantly living in fear. It feels like our safety is not a priority, and we’re being left to survive in a system that offers no protection. It’s exhausting and unfair,” he added.

Hans believes that the only way to resolve the conflict and restore peace is to formalise the e-hailing industry.

Meanwhile, SANTACO national spokesperson Rebecca Phala said one of the underlying issues could be an oversupply of transport providers with limited demand. She emphasised the need for urgent government intervention and regulation of the e-hailing sector to prevent further escalation.

The transport ministry has, since the recent incident at Maponya Mall, strongly condemned the never-ending acts of violence between the taxi and e-hailing industries.

In June last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law new regulations which have been approved and are now awaiting the second official language translation for gazetting and implementation.

Under the new law, e-hailing drivers will receive official e-hailing operating licences and will no longer use charter permits and meter taxi operating licences in South Africa as currently required.