Tag: South Africa

The 2024 Budget was tabled to Parliament on 21 February 2024 by South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Tax Pocket Guide Honourable Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula His Excellency,...

South Africans have been slowly marching towards serfdom, and unless something drastic changes, this march will continue. With this year’s budget speech on the horizon, in an election year, the country and the world will get a glimpse as to how bad things could be in the short to medium term.

Removing the causes of mass youth unemployment in South Africa would have multiple positive consequences for job seekers. If small businesses and households, “the natural employers of young and untrained workers in an open labour market”, were free of the burden of the minimum wage and other unnecessary regulatory burdens that have been imposed on them, they could make an unprecedent contribution to the economy.

Why do some states thrive, grow their economies and uplift their people while others, facing similar challenges, slide into low growth, social dysfunction and failure? After decades of work on the ground in states in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, bestselling author Greg Mills seeks to provide answers in Rich State, Poor State.

South Africans are nervous about the future of our country, largely because of the multiple crises we face and the uncertainty about the outcomes of the 2024 election. We are looking down the barrel of overwhelming challenges in virtually every aspect of government and society and a sense of negativity and hopelessness is gathering momentum.

Election season is coming up soon in South Africa, and those with governmental power have started promising jobs to the millions who are unemployed. Yet anyone who has an inkling of economic knowledge would know that the politicians are writing cheques with their mouths, and that they will be unable to cash their actions.

The Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA) is not just a perverse, incompetent, and tyrannical piece of legislation, but yet another milestone on this government’s journey to embracing its own form of Apartheid.

The fact that a South African individual is unemployed, is not well-educated, and has had difficulty in finding employment, does not mean that government officials are entitled to treat them with disrespect. All citizens who obey the laws, and treat their fellow citizens with respect, are not only entitled to be treated with equal respect but also to have their rights, as described in the South African Constitution, fully respected.

The South African Patent Office issued Practice Note 21 of 2023 on 7 April 20213 setting out the requirements for expedited acceptance of patent applications. The Practice Note will go some way to curbing the abuse of the non-examination system by applicants who request expedited acceptance and grant of South African patents, for example, in order to leverage governmental rebates and incentives awarded on grant of foreign patents.

Living in South Africa, racism is at the centre of our history and day to day experiences. We hope that currently, the colour of our skin won’t affect how we are treated but, it’s in all our faces, constantly, even in spaces where your merit should be enough but here, we are again, being white and being wrong is sneezed at but being black and being wrong is punishable by ‘death’.