New South Wales residents wrongly penalised for Covid breaches say it is “crazy” it took a protracted and costly court case to force the state government to back down and withdraw 33,000 invalid fines. The NSW government was forced on Tuesday to cancel 33,000 fines, worth an estimated $30m, for breaches of Covid-era public health … Read more
Labour was granted an urgent question in the Commons on Thursday about the government’s due diligence in granting PPE contracts to firms via its ‘VIP lane’. This comes after the Guardian revealed Tory peer Michelle Mone secretly received £29m after her husband passed on money from PPE Medpro, a company that was awarded £200m in … Read more
The government must not politicise plans to memorialise the Covid-19 pandemic, the chair of the UK commemoration commission has said, as she urged more people to submit ideas on how to remember the nation’s experience. Nicky Morgan, a former Conservative cabinet minister, said ministers would be “unwise” to put any political spin on plans when … Read more
The Public Servants Association (PSA) will be embarking on a national strike on Thursday, over government’s decision to unilaterally implement a 3% wage hike this month for public servants after wage negotiations deadlocked. However, government says it has put measures in place to mitigate the impact of the strike. Public service strike The PSA represents … Read more
The next phase of a high-stakes inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled parliament over Partygate faces being delayed as a result of government failures to provide crucial evidence to MPs, sources have told the Guardian. Despite a range of documents – including the former prime minister’s diaries, event email invites, No 10 entry logs, briefing … Read more
The North West government has spent R780 000 on 20 donkey carts given to villagers in the province’s Dibono and Manwana districts outside Mahikeng. The provincial Department of Community Safety and Transport Management said on Friday said the villages have for the first time benefited from the non-motorised programme. According to the department, the villagers … Read more
The deaf community in Limpopo is livid, following a video that went viral of a “fake” sign language interpreter translating Police Minister Bheki Cele’s address. Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Friday, sign language activists Andiswa Gebashe and Ntombi Sikuza said the man in the video should not even be called an interpreter. The deaf … Read more
African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) member Lindiwe Sisulu says the criteria she will use in supporting and electing someone is the track record of the person in the ANC and in government. She was speaking during an interview with the SABC on Sunday when she was asked about the coming ANC’s elective … Read more
A new KFF brief analyzes how the accessibility and cost of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests will change after the current government supply is depleted and the public health emergency ends. The Biden Administration has announced that it will have to end its purchase and distribution of COVID supplies as government funding is depleted. The … Read more
As parliament heard of the magnitude of the ongoing pillage of the country’s public infrastructure on Tuesday, experts have warned that government not consulting citizens in decision-making fuelled rampant destruction. Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille told the National Council of Provinces hybrid ministerial briefing of the scale and impact of the destruction … Read more