MILLIONS of rands in State funds are being used to pay suspended Department of Health officials, some of whom have been away from work for close to seven years. Last year, officials at the department’s head office said up to R1.5 million was used to pay the salaries and other benefits of officials who remained [...]

IT was hailed as the Eastern Cape’s answer to improving matric results, but the much-vaunted Mathematics, Science and Technology Centre still remains pie in the sky. Twice now the academy has featured in speeches by Premier Noxolo Kiviet – during her State of the Province address last year and again last week when the matric [...]

PROVINCIAL police have jumped the gun in denying, before an audit report has been completed, that firearms were stolen from the forensic laboratory. This comes after the police forensic unit, based in the Eben Donges building, North End, was hit by five armed men who tied up the on-site security guards and raided the laboratory.

THE appointment of former Education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase into a top job in the Office of the Premier (OTP) has come under fire from the opposition. ANC spokesperson Mlibo Qoboshiyana confirmed yesterday that Qwase took up a deputy directorgeneral post in the OTP with effect from January 1.

Confusion reigned in the Nelson Mandela municipality after residents discovered that most municipal customer service centres were closed. The explanation was that the mayor had declared January 3 a “public holiday” for municipal employees. “This is totally inappropriate from the cost point of view, especially given the fact that the Nelson Mandela municipality is in [...]

The Western Cape is the only province ruled by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which has much to gain if it does so effectively. This year the province won major boasting rights when international management consultancy McKinsey named it one of the world’s 20 steadily improving education systems. The Western Cape education department hopes to [...]

Only four of seven municipalities in the Eastern Cape have developed a local economic development plan. The DA’s provincial local government spokesman, Dacre Haddon, said Eastern Cape municipalities would only survive if there was a radical economic development programme in every area of the province. The system of incorporating “job zones” was an effective way [...]

THE practice of giving golden handshakes to suspended municipal managers was slammed by Local Government Minister Sicelo Shiceka yesterday. And he revealed that he would be asking the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to explain its decision to give former municipal manager Graham Richards a golden handshake of almost R3-million. DA MPL Dacre Haddon called on [...]

Mandla Makupula, the man tasked with running the beleaguered provincial Education Department, admitted after his swearing-in that he knew nothing about the challenges facing the department. Makapula’s appointment has been met with both scepticism and cautious optimism by opposition parties. DA MPL Bobby Stevenson said Makapula was a “surprise choice … (and) will be the [...]

It’s early days for Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet’s new cabinet, which she announced on Saturday, but it is understandable that DA provincial legislature leader Bobby Stevenson feels the re- shuffle has nothing to do with service delivery. “It’s all about factional politics, aligning the cabinet with the political forces at play in the province,” [...]