NEWS

Contrary to popular belief, the online system used by Department of Home Affairs (DHA) offices across South Africa can at least function partially — even during periods of downtime. That suggests that the notorious “system is offline” issue many people are greeted with when visiting a DHA branch might be blown out of proportion and used as an excuse when it is not relevant. DHA system downtime has often been blamed for significantly disrupting the department’s ID, passport, and other key citizen and resident services. In response to a question in Parliament earlier this year, former DHA minister Aaron Motsaledi revealed that the department had lost nearly 141,000 working hours between the 2019/2020 and 2022/2023 financial years, primarily due to load-shedding and system downtime.

  This is how many South Africans tried to withdraw from the two-pot system in the first day According to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) Commissioner, Edward Kieswetter, close to 2,500 tax withdrawal directives were processed on the first day (September 1, 2024), when the system came into effect. Kieswetter told Daily Maverick that Sars is focused on trying to make sure that all the tax directives are processed in the same amount of time as an assessment, that being five seconds, using Artificial Intelligence (AI). He noted that there are certain requirements one needs to have for your directive to be processed expeditiously. “The three things that would prevent that would be if you were not registered for tax, you have outstanding returns or you owe Sars money. So, we tried to address that ahead of the two-pot system coming into effect,” the commissioner said. Kieswetter noted that by Monday night, Sars had received 2,759 tax directives and the revenue service h...

  Man arrested for murder at hospital, while accompanying “badly assaulted” teenage girl Mpumalanga police arrested a 25-year-old man inside a hospital where he was accompanying a teenage victim, a 17-year-old girl, who later died in the medical facility. Provincial police spokesperson, Colonel Donald Mdhluli said law enforcement agencies were alerted about an incident where a “badly assaulted” girl had been brought to hospital by her family members and a man who is her “friend”. “On arrival at the hospital, members of the police were led to a bed where a lifeless body of the teenage girl was laying motionless. The victim sustained multiple injuries and police made some investigation and learned that a male friend to the victim was somehow fingered,” said Mdhluli. “It was during this time when they arrested the suspect who is expected to appear at the Bushbuckridge Magistrate’s Court soon.” Police said the motive behind the brutal attack is yet to be ascertained.   ...

  ‘There is more extortion going on than meets the eye,’ says Police Minister Mchunu   National Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu addressed the National Assembly on Tuesday as he outlined the measures taken by the South African Police Service (SAPS) to deal with threats posed by extortion across the country. Mchunu said four provinces across South Africa currently carry the majority of the crime rate. “The four provinces: Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal, Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape, currently carry 73% of crime levels in South Africa, the gravity of these crimes alone including extortion, is of serious concern to us over and above their concentration. “Extortion has been emerging over time and has now reached levels where all communities in our country beyond the four provinces have become very angry, bitter, and agitated, the pain has gone very deep. The mood expressed in communities is also reflective of statements that have been made in the house unanimously against ...