R500m Gauteng IT tender flagged

The standing committee on public accounts on Friday heard that the auditor-general flagged the R518 million project for tender irregularities and had subsequently instructed the provincial department of finance to institute a probe.

The AG found that bid specifications had been altered – an indication perhaps that conditions of the original tender had been changed to favour the two successful bidders – Cloudseed and China’s Huawei Technologies.

“Contracts relating to the e-learning devices and the e-learning connectivity were awarded to bidders based on points given for criteria that differed from those stipulated in the original invitation for bidding, in contravention of Treasury Regulation 16A6.3 (a) and Preferential Procurement Regulations,” he said.

The AG also found that:

Procurement of IT-related goods and services went against regulations because they were not acquired through the State Information Technology Agency; and

Appropriate risk management was not applied to ensure regular assessment of IT risks.

According to the Public Finance Management Act, the accounting officer must ensure that bid documents and the general conditions of a contract are in accordance with the instructions of the National Treasury or the prescripts of the Construction Industry Development Board.

Source: TimesLive

April 7, 2015 Articles, At Your Service 0

Protect-in

Fall protection for the construction industry

Protect-in are manufactures of fall protection for the construction industry. Our fall protection comes in the form of barricade fencing also known as barrier fencing. The fall protection has excellent properties including the ability to withstand an impact and lateral force resistance of more than 1200kg. This impact force resistance is certainly enough to protect workers on a construction site. The Protect-in fall protection barrier fences are adjustable, flexible and allow different modulations. The flexibility of the fall protection means it is possible to adjust the barriers to fit difficult angles.
Easy assembly of fall protection

The easy assembly of our fall protection means there is a lot of time saved when it comes to protecting the workers on the construction site. As we all know time is money, particularly in construction, where running costs are high. The Protect-in fall protection is constructed of high resistance to impact material and it is constructed of extremely light textile and it is easy to store,and the fences are printable meaning you can showcase your company logo, or and site safety rules at your construction site.

Safety equipment in the construction industry is essential not only for keeping workers safe but also for keeping the public safe if construction is taking place in a busy place such as a city centre. The consequences of not adhering to safety rules and not protecting workers and the general public do not bear thinking about. It should always be “safety first” in the construction industry.

Distributors are wanted across all areas in South Africa

April 8, 2015 Articles, At Your Service, Home Improvements, Building & DIY 0

Planning my Wedding Event

When you think of an event you don’t usually think of a wedding, but a wedding is an event. When you are planning a wedding event and you are reading this article, you are probably planning it for the first time.

A wedding event is one the biggest events you will plan. If you are like me not a wedding planner this would most probably be the first time you need to plan a wedding event. Where do we start, what do we need, what needs to happen and when? These are some of the questions that will come up when you are trying to plan a wedding event.

You’ll most probably think the dress is the place to start, but it is actually not, even though it is important. Start at the beginning, who are we going to invite? The best guideline we used was not inviting anyone that hasn’t made contact with us within the last six months. This may be the list that will cause the most stress in your relationship. Keep that in mind when talking about this with your partner.

Now that is done, get a venue and start with a list of everything you are going to need. Make a wedding event board on Pinterest and start pinning everything you want to use for your wedding event. Start to think about people who are going to help you make these things. Always remember that you as the bride do not want to stress more than you have to, get reliable people.

It is very important to pace yourself in the process of planning a wedding event as it will most probably be the most exciting thing you have planned until now. Take the list of things you want to use or make for your big day and start making time lines, without cutting off your throat.

Planning a wedding event you will be under pressure and there will be goals you will have to meet. Stay calm in every situation, do not become bride-zilla and mess up years’ worth of friendship, because of one event. You have the right to a say, but the way you say it will make a huge difference. Happy wedding event planning!

April 8, 2015 Articles, Weddings & Events 0

Pfizer approach to Actavis could be to circumvent US tax rules

Pfizer has approached Actavis about a deal that could allow the US drug maker to move its address overseas and reduce taxes, in a sign the Obama administration’s efforts to curtail inversions might fall short.

 

Pfizer made its approach before the US Treasury announced new rules on Monday to make such deals — called tax inversions — more difficult, people with knowledge of the matter said. Those changes will not deter Pfizer, even if they are a complication, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

 

Another high-profile inversion deal, Burger King Worldwide’s purchase of Tim Hortons, would proceed, the Canadian company said after the rule changes were revealed.

 

While Treasury Secretary Jacob J Lew could take further steps, he steered clear of ending a key benefit of inversions, which allow companies to lower their US earnings by shifting profits overseas using a technique known as earnings stripping.

 

“The ability to shelter future foreign earnings from US tax seems to be a principal objective and, as far as I can see, that benefit remains,” Robert Willens, a corporate tax consultant in New York, said on Wednesday.

 

While Pfizer is not just looking to cut taxes — it is also seeking to bolster its product pipeline — CEO Ian Read has made no secret of his objections to US tax policy.

 

“There’s no substantial advantage to being a US company, to doing business in the US,” he said on a July conference call. “We are at a tremendous competitive disadvantage.” Mr Read also said he was tired of criticism directed at companies and CEOs for doing what he says may be the best strategy to help shareholders.

 

Pfizer and Actavis were not in formal talks and Pfizer had not made an offer, the people said. The approach comes after Pfizer in May abandoned a $114bn bid for AstraZeneca.

 

Actavis, which is run from Parsippany, New Jersey, obtained an Irish tax domicile by acquiring Warner Chilcott last year. After its shares rose 2.2% this week, the company has a market value of almost $64bn.

 

Although AstraZeneca rebuffed Pfizer’s approach, the US drug giant was still considering pursuing that deal as well as other options, the people said. Representatives for Pfizer and Actavis declined to comment.

 

Presented under pressure from Democrats, and constrained by the strictures of the tax code, the Treasury’s plan sticks to areas where the administration has clear legal authority without needing approval from Congress. It mostly targets deals where the value of an inversion is derived from unlocking US companies’ stockpiled foreign earnings.

 

That stockpile, now exceeding $2-trillion, is a result of the fact that companies do not have to pay taxes on profits as long as they are kept outside of US borders.

 

Pfizer has indicated it has as much as $30bn in offshore cash and investments.

 

Still, the government did not address earnings stripping — a manoeuvre that companies use to load their US operations with deductions for debt and other items, effectively pushing the profits to the foreign country with a lower rate. “They’re ignoring the most important post-inversion planning, and that’s earnings stripping,” said Bret Wells, a tax law professor at the University of Houston.

 

Although the government may make more changes, “the tepid response that this represents could well embolden companies to believe that the Treasury is not going to deal with earnings stripping through regulations”.

 

Pfizer’s effort to acquire AstraZeneca was among a number of high-profile deals that have caught US legislators’ attention this year, prompting the Treasury’s response, including Burger King’s deal to buy Tim Hortons and move its address to Canada.

 

Source: Business Day Live

April 7, 2015 Articles, Medical 0

OFM journalist scoops prestigious national award

OFM senior journalist, Christal-Lize Muller, has won the prestigious national Vodacom Journalist of the Year award for her radio feature on the trials of the Korkie family. The former teacher from Bloemfontein, Pierre Korkie, was taken hostage 17 months ago in Yemen and his family has since been waiting for his release.
 
Christal-Lize Muller - OFM Radio
Christal-Lize Muller

Christal-Lize conducted an exclusive interview with Pierre’s wife Yolandé, making the best use of her journalistic skills. The interview has not only netted her one of the most sought-after journalistic awards in the country, but also a well-deserved R10,000 prize.

“It’s a wonderful feeling! It’s only hard work that is now being rewarded; support from colleagues, endurance and working long evenings talking to sources. I should also mention Imtiaz Sooliman from Gift of the Givers, who keeps us up to date with Pierre Korkie’s situation. This is a huge honour and I am thrilled to bring back the award to Bloemfontein and to OFM in particular,” says Christal-Lize.

Christal-Lize started her career as a journalist at the Potch Herald community newspaper almost a decade ago. From Potchefstroom she went to Mpumlanga where she worked as a television and radio journalist for the SABC, before trading her journalistic career for a corporate one. After working as communication officer for Anglo Platinum and PRO for an auction company in Cape Town, she returned to Bloemfontein to pursue her first love, journalism. After two years at Volksblad, she joined OFM as senior journalist.

Says General Manager Nick Efstathiou: “We are all extremely proud of Christal-Lize. Her hard work and dedication has yielded rewards and we share her joy. We look forward to many more high quality news stories from this enthusiastic and driven journalist.”

The Vodacom Journalist of the Year award seeks to acknowledge journalists who have shown exceptional commitment to reporting excellence across media platforms.

 

April 8, 2015 Articles, Entertainment, Leisure, Sport & Adventure, Financial, Legal & Business Services 0

New public-private partnership to address skills shortages in agriculture

BKB has formalised a joint venture agreement with government through the Coega Development Corporation for an R11-million wool and mohair training and skills development programme.

Both organisations aim to fast-track the inclusion of emerging wool and mohair producers in the formal economy to unlock the enormous economic potential of the industry for South Africa’s GDP, while simultaneously addressing unemployment, rural poverty and critical skills shortages affecting wool and mohair industries.

According to Isak Staats, BKB’s wool and mohair manager, two systemic barriers are limiting the true economic potential of South Africa’s wool and mohair industry.

“Critical skills shortages for the wool and mohair processing is hampering emerging farmers of communal farming co-operatives in the former Transkei and Ciskei. Because of incorrect shearing and wool classing practices the quality, price and marketability of wool and mohair is often affected adversely,” he said.

“On the other hand, the shortages of skilled shearers is compelling established South African commercial wool and mohair farmers to use around 1,700 foreign national shearers from neighbouring African countries every year.”

Staats believes that if emerging livestock farmers are up-skilled, supported and capacitated to participate in production and agro-processing, the wool and mohair industry’s current annual GDP contribution of R2,7 billion can be significantly increased over the next five years.

“If this segment of the market [emerging farmers] is unlocked, South Africa’s market share of global wool and mohair exports will move from the current 5% to 8-10%,” he said.

Through their partnership, BKB and CDC will recruit 338 beneficiaries from historically disadvantaged communities for a one year, technical shearing and wool classing training programme in PE and Kroonstad jointly funded by both organisations.

The programme and initiative flows from the recent success and outcomes of a R8-million BKB-funded pilot at the agribusiness’s newly established shearing college, which has already provided training and employment to 120 beneficiaries from historically disadvantaged communities. Additional training and skills development are now underway to further capacitate learners to become sustainable production and processing of wool and mohair.

To engender sustainable and responsible transformation of agriculture

Jacobus Le Roux, BKB’s marketing and corporate relations manager, said BKB has and always will be committed to developing, empowering and supporting emerging wool and mohair producers to engender sustainable and responsible transformation of agriculture.

“The production, processing and export of wool and mohair is critical to the economy of the country, to our business and also to thousands of emerging producers and workers that depend on the sector.

“Poverty is inter-generational and widespread in Eastern Cape rural communities, and with 40% of the South Africa’s entire small livestock population roaming the former Transkei and Ciskei, there is an opportunity to grow commercial agriculture in the region in order to reduce socio-economic inequalities and poverty.

“BKB will continue to support and invest in initiatives that empower. Already through our extensive outreach and capacity building programme in excess of 24,000 rural communal producers are under our wing, benefitting from our technical assistance, market access and production finance,” he said.

CDC’s executive manager for corporate services Advocate Zuko Mapoma was highly optimistic over the shearing skills development and training initiative during the signing ceremony with BKB’s chairman Chris Louw.

“Our partnership with BKB is founded on the corresponding need for job creation and skills capacitation. CDC is always on the lookout for industry leaders with extensive experience and networks in South African economic sectors, and BKB is a world-leader in agriculture,” said Mapoma.

“Our involvement in this programme with BKB is a collaboration that will create jobs for those who are unemployed. The envisioned outcome is that the critical and scarce skills will be transferred,” he concluded.

Source

April 8, 2015 Agricultural, Articles 0

Net 1 to fight the National Credit Regulator

Net 1 has come out guns blazing accusing the NCR of making “inflammatory allegations” that it claims are “riddled with factual inaccuracies”.

 

The company’s terse response follows a notice issued by the NCR earlier this week announcing that it had applied to the National Consumer Tribunal to have Moneyline Financial Service’s registration cancelled.

 

The NCR accuses Moneyline of contravening the National Credit Act (NCA) by extending credit to consumers receiving child support and foster grants where the grants were used as income for assessing a consumers’ credit affordability.

 

Moneyline was also accused of granting credit to consumers receving social grants without assessing their debt repayment history and without taking into account their monthly living expenses.

 

The NCR went on to say that Moneyline’s credit agreement with consumers “is not in the prescribed form and does not contain crucial information about the rights and obligations of consumers. Moneyline Financial Services does not keep and maintain documentation in support of the affordability assessments relating to consumers’ income and debt repayment history.”

 

Dr Serge Belamant, Net 1 chairman and CEO, responded to the allegations today saying the company was “perplexed” by the NCR’s decision to release a statement into its investigation into Moneyline’s practice without informing the company first and for failing to give his company a right of response to the allegations.

 

“We strongly deny any contravention of the NCA and will oppose the NCR’s application. As a South African- and US-listed public company, we adhere to stringent internal controls and compliance procedures and we are subjected to regular internal and external audits, all of which are documented and accessible for review by any regulator,” said Belmant in a statement.

 

“We reiterate our commitment to provide affordable, responsible financial inclusion services to all citizens of South Africa, especially those who have no other access to formal financial services and often require short-term credit to improve the lives of their family units,” he said.

 

Wikus Olivier, a debt counsellor at DebtSafe said that it’s entirely ethical and legal for credit providers to extend finance to any section of the population provided that credit providers perform proper affordability assessments, expense analysis and checks and balances to ensure a consumer can reasonably afford the amount of credit extended to them.

 

Depending on the credit amount the applicants seek, Olivier said Moneyline’s lending practice could potentially lead disenfranchised consumers into a debt trap.

 

NCR CEO Nomsa Motshegare earlier condemned the practice saying: “The use of child support grants as income for purposes of conducting affordability assessments on credit applications is totally unacceptable. It deprives children of money meant to provide for their daily necessities.”

 

Source: Destiny Connect

April 2, 2015 Articles, Financial, Legal & Business Services 0

Municipal rates and taxes track at 2.5 times the inflation rate

Second fastest-growing operating cost item for property owners and investors

To put some numbers around the issue, consider that total operating costs for commercial properties in 2014 averaged R47/m², of which R11.60/m² went to municipal rates and taxes. That means municipal rates and taxes effectively doubled in real terms since 2000, when rates and taxes accounted for R4.93/m².

As Gopal points out, the report concludes that rates and taxes are the second fastest-growing operating cost item for property owners and investors. Indeed, only electricity costs have risen at a higher pace.

“Real increases in rates and taxes have been especially pronounced in the retail sector. Since 2007, retail property rates and taxes have grown by inflation plus 11.6%,” says Gopal.

The report pinpoints other trends that raise red flags for the property sector. While municipal rates and taxes largely moved in line with commercial property values during the early 2000s, before the global recession, the opposite has been the case ever since.

In recent years, rates and taxes in SA have increased at a significantly higher rate than commercial property values.

“By June 2014, that growth had resulted in an over-recovery of commercial rates and taxes of about 12%, and there is little likelihood the gap will close in the foreseeable future,” explains Gopal.

The analysis further finds a weak relationship between a property’s market value and the level of rates and taxes levied. The largest mis-pricing is in the office and industrial sectors of the market – typically sectors where properties have unique characteristics that could impact their value.

To attract more built investment

The report notes that some smaller municipalities could change their rates policies to attract more built investment. Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and Mangaung all charge commercial property rates over two cents in the rand, a position that is not considered pro-business.

“A lower ‘cents in the rand’ rate could act as a catalyst for increase investment flows,” comments Gopal.

This is echoed by SAPOA’s regional Chairman for KwaZulu-Natal Edwin van Niekerk, who believes that municipalities would do well to expand the rates base rather than simply increasing the burden on existing landlords.

“Rates and the cost of doing business are a key consideration in corporate location decisions. It’s a balancing act that cities get wrong at their peril,” he adds.

Still, as he underscores, it’s important to consider the context of individual municipalities. “Consider the case of Ethekweni, which has large areas of previously-disadvantaged communities and a significant need for infrastructure development,” he elaborates. “It’s not realistic to compare that with a municipality which is almost fully developed.”

The challenge is that property rates and taxes are a key generator of revenue for municipalities. This year, property rates and taxes brought in 17% of total municipal revenue for the eight municipalities included in the study.

Source:

April 8, 2015 Accommodation & Travel, Articles, Financial, Legal & Business Services 0

Many South Africans feeling the pinch on World Food Day

As the globe commemorates World Food Day, many in South Africa simply cannot afford basic food stuffs.

A KwaZulu-Natal NGO has been monitoring food prices over the past eight years and says the price of an average basket of food has increased nearly nine percent, year-on-year.

It’s now worried that soaring food prices could lead to even more protests across the country.

Ruth Smith’s main source of income is a pensioners’ grant – just over R1,300.

“It’s quite difficult ‘cos what’s pension money? Pension money is nothing, you must pay your rent, you must pay your money and then my daughter too she helps me out to buy food and everything,” commented Smith.

With just R500 to spare for food every month, Smith struggles to make ends meet.

The 71-year-old supports her daughter and four camera-shy grandchildren.

If food prices continue to climb, she could be forced to cross off everyday items like bread and meat from her grocery list.

“We’ll have to buy less of the tinned stuff. Maybe we’ll have to buy one tin of fish, one tin of baked beans, and all that”. 

Smith’s daily struggle is one that more than half of all South Africans share.

“As food becomes more expensive, people opt for cheaper and cheaper foods. This trend we have seen for a number of years and we have come to the stage where even the cheaper choices of foods have now become unaffordable,” said Mervyn Abrahams of the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action.

NGO Pacsa says the cost of an average basket of food products went up from just over R1,500 to R1,640 rand in September this year.

The price of starches, such as potatoes, maize meal and bread, increased the most.

“If we locate the problem as a problem of availability, then the solution lies within agriculture. If the problem is a problem of affordability, then solution lies in our economics and political choices,” added Julie Smith of the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action.

Source: eNCA

April 7, 2015 Articles, At Your Service 0