Delivered. Well done!

The ‘Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone’, a 60 Km2 China-South Africa state-backed steel manufacturing industrial zone – the largest such industrial development in South Africa’s history – will drive the strip-mining of the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve for coal, laying waste to the visionary plan to create a landscape-scale conservation area in this wild but fragile region, along with its prospects for truly transformative growth.

Despite unsettling economic times, municipalities have proposed significant rates and tariff increases across the board in their budget. Most increases are above CPI and applied to water and sanitation, electricity, refuse removal, property rates and an increase in salaries across the board. Luckily, your municipality has invited you to comment on the increases before implementation.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has gazetted regulations for public comment that seek to establish the governance structure of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act.

The highly contested NHI was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year and seeks to create a universal healthcare fund, with the state acting as the primary healthcare buyer for South Africans.

However, the Act has received major criticism, with questions raised about the limited roles of medical aid schemes in the country and the poor performance of other government-owned entities.