Since taking office in 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued 135 proclamations letting loose the Special Investigating Unit on state agencies and departments mismanaging taxpayer money.

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Presidency and Special Investigating Unit officials briefed the Standing Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday about investigations at the SIU following presidential proclamations.

Philippians 4:4-9, John 12: 1-18. What does real spirituality look like?

Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency has released a draft of its human health and ecological risk assessments for glyphosate, a commonly used herbicide, and stated that it intends to seek public comment on the draft.

Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn its interim registration review decision for glyphosate, a commonly used herbicide.

Stephanie M. Chosa has been recognized for her success in leadership as a director of pharmacy

Escuche el programa de este martes 24 de septiembre. La Luciérnaga, un espacio de humor y opinión de Caracol Radio que desde hace 31 años acompaña a sus oyentes en su regreso casa.

Escuche el programa de este martes 24 de septiembre. La Luciérnaga, un espacio de humor y opinión de Caracol Radio que desde hace 31 años acompaña a sus oyentes en su regreso casa.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's lawyers say former spy boss Arthur Fraser's claims about the Phala Phala break-in are like something from a movie - but are founded on nothing more than baseless speculation.

On October 24 and 25, SophosAI presents ideas on how to use models large and small—and defend against malignant ones.

Ramaphosa Has Won the Battle. But Can He Win the War? Expert comment sysadmin 21 December 2017

Cyril Ramaphosa is taking charge of South Africa’s ruling party, the ANC, at its weakest point in post-apartheid history. Expectations couldn’t be higher.

Ramaphosa ran for the leadership of the ANC on a platform of party renewal, economic recovery, and building the capacity of the state. But Jacob Zuma remains the President of South Africa and, under the constitution, can stay in office until elections in 2019. Therefore, meeting expectations on economic recovery will depend on Ramaphosa taking the presidency – and he has a number of political battles to face before that becomes reality.

To begin with, Ramaphosa and his supporters did not win a total victory at the elective conference. The presidency was only one position in the senior cadre – the co-called ‘top six’ – that was elected. This body is now split evenly between Ramaphosa and his allies, and those that supported his opponent Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma - Jacob Zuma’s preferred successor. This creates two centres of power in the ANC, limiting what Ramaphosa will be able to achieve from within the party.

Although there is significant pressure from the electorate to remove Zuma from national office, actually doing so will be difficult. Zuma’s predecessor Thabo Mbeki was removed from the national presidency before his term was up when the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party recalled him from office following Zuma’s assumption of party leadership. But this option may not be available to Ramaphosa. The split within the ‘top six’ and new NEC will make it difficult to present an ultimatum to Zuma. His loyalists will not want a witch hunt within the party.

Corruption and elitism within the party

Much of the tension centres on questions of corruption, the dominant political issue in South Africa at the moment. In the build up to the elective conference Gwede Mantashe - now national chairperson - admitted that “The biggest challenge from where we’re sitting is the image and the reputation of the ANC. The ANC is seen as equal to corruption and looting.” Ramaphosa made anti-corruption initiatives a centrepiece of his campaign, including the establishment of a judicial commission and rapid action to investigate and prosecute the guilty.

But the split within the party may undermine the credibility of these promises. Ramaphosa’s problem is that some of the new ‘top six’ - including Deputy President David Mabuza, and Secretary General Ace Magashule – would be high on the list of those the electorate want to see investigated. Party resistance may restrict the extent to which Ramaphosa can demonstrate a comprehensive break from the past.

Corruption within the party goes far deeper than the headline cases of ‘state capture’ and expropriation. At a branch level, access to political power has become the primary means of access to economic resource. It is a process of selective patronage that differentiates between those who are ‘in’ from those who aren’t. At its broadest, this type of corruption has created a mistrust of the ANC and the new economic elite that the party has created around it – including Ramaphosa himself.

Having lost out to Mbeki in the fight to succeed Mandela despite being the favourite for the job, Ramaphosa spearheaded the ANC’s deployment of cadres in business. He has become one of the country’s richest men, and a highly sought after board member by South Africa’s largest companies across mining, telecoms, and logistics.

One of his biggest challenges will be to remove the perception of elitism as his senior position within the party and economy has given rise to mistrust from a grass roots level. The political tussle at the conference was also largely driven by a small number of the party elite being able to control large groups of delegate votes. The nature of political competition within the party is symptomatic of the ANCs electoral dominance in the early days of the nation’s democracy. But this support is now far less certain, and the party cannot afford to become complacent.

Resetting the relationship with business

Ramaphosa’s business dealings may mean he has to walk a fine line in censuring his colleagues for making money from politics. But it may also be a significant opportunity for the party to reset its relationship with the private sector. Under Mbeki, relations between the ANC and business were distant, but characterized by recognition of mutual dependence.

Under Zuma this relationship deteriorated, and the President demonstrated he was willing to make decisions to boost his political power irrespective of economic consequences. Ramaphosa could, for the first time, truly align the interests of business and government, without abandoning his transformative policy agenda.

At an ANC regional economic colloquium in Johannesburg in November Ramaphosa outlined his ten-point economic plan. It would deliver the party’s adopted mantra of ‘radical economic transformation’, but through broadly neo-liberal policies on private business development and state-owned enterprise reform to allow private capital to co-invest.

He took the ethos and principles of the Freedom Charter – the 1955 statement of core ANC principles – and applied them to a modernising economy. Talk of a ‘new deal’, productive partnerships in the mining sector, and an emphasis on job creation in manufacturing will woo investors. The rand surged upon his election.

But Ramaphosa will not be able to deliver on the economic demands of the country until he is in the office of the presidency - and Zuma still holds many of the cards. Ramaphosa can promise his followers potential power and government positions in future, but Zuma can still offer them now.

Removing Zuma will require skilful internal party politicking, and Ramaphosa will need to limit the fallout – he cannot afford to further damage the credibility of the party before it faces the electorate in 2019. He has won the battle, but the outcome of the war is far from certain.

Ramaphosa Must Act Fast With New Mandate in South Africa Expert comment sysadmin 23 May 2019

In the wake of South Africa’s election, political constraints will ebb momentarily. The president should seize the opportunity to deliver meaningful change.

On 25 May, Cyril Ramaphosa will be inaugurated as president of South Africa, having dragged the African National Congress (ANC) over the line in the 8 May election. The ANC gained a 57 per cent majority, its lowest vote since 1994, its status as national liberator deeply eroded by successive corruption scandals. Only Ramaphosa’s personal popularity stopped it haemorrhaging more support.

His sustained action against corrupt public servants and promises of job-creating economic growth has attracted support from beyond the ANC’s base, including a significant minority of white voters, and generated significant international goodwill. Ramaphosa now has a short window of opportunity to reset social democracy in South Africa before the political cycle of municipal, party and national elections from 2021 to 2024 forces his attention back to party politics.

Defining ‘Ramaphosa-ism’

But personal popularity is fickle, and goodwill alone will not turn around the ailing economy. To attract investment and keep the electorate on side, Ramaphosa’s government needs to move beyond pragmatic crisis responses and articulate a clear, shared vision for how market intervention can allow the economy to grow while simultaneously delivering social transformation.

Growth will be hard to achieve in the short term. The economy is expected to grow 1.2% in 2019 and 1.5% in 2020, according to the IMF. Consumer confidence remains subdued, and a decade of declining GDP per capita and increasing inequality has put a strain on households. A ‘fiscal stimulus’ in 2018 delivered very little new government spending, and over the past 10 years, the government wage bill has increased three times higher than the rate of inflation.

Eskom, the state electricity provider, has debts equating to the GDP of Latvia and is not the only state-owned enterprise (SOE) that has required bailing out by the government. There are plans to break up Eskom into three separate entities but calls for deeper reform – or even privatization – are growing.

The president’s responses to these challenges will go a long way to defining ‘Ramaphosa-ism’ and the role of government in pursuing equitable economy growth.

Economic expectations under Ramaphosa

Ramaphosa was a champion of the introduction of a minimum wage and a proponent of the National Development Plan, which relies on growth to drive job creation. His support for land reform is an individual conviction as much as it is a party line, although his views are softer than many in the party, with state-owned land being the initial target.

Investor uncertainty on land tenure and regulations in mining will need to be addressed through passing key pieces of legislation on land reform and the revised Mining and Petroleum Resources Development Act.

Where Ramaphosa differs from his predecessors is his links with business. Thabo Mbeki enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect with business; this disintegrated under Jacob Zuma. Ramaphosa, however, is part of South Africa’s business community, having founded the Shanduka Group, with investments in multiple sectors including retail, telecoms and extractives, and served as chairman of MTN and Bidvest. As president, he has surrounded himself with close economic advisers from business and banking.

In the short term, anti-corruption measures and competent appointments will ease investor woes. In the long term, there is a need to improve the ease of doing business, including labour market reforms, and to make South Africa a more competitive business environment by reducing the hold of large conglomerates on the economy. Ramaphosa may also make greater use of public-private partnerships for large projects.

Political constraints

Ramaphosa faces few immediate political challenges. The ANC is still deeply divided, but although Ramaphosa does not enjoy the ideological support of the entire party, his opponents are leaderless post-Zuma, and have been unable to offer a coherent alternative. ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule has fallen into the role of interim figurehead of this faction, and allegations of corruption would make it difficult for him to aspire to national leadership.

The need to avoid splits before the election meant Ramaphosa had to make concessions, and his first cabinet in February 2018 included opponents and those accused of corruption or incompetence, such as Malusi Gigaba and Bathabile Dlamini. Such concessions to political opponents are unlikely to continue after the election.

Meanwhile, opposition parties made some advances in the election, but where Zuma was an easy target, they are still grappling with how to confront Ramaphosa. The party with the biggest gains was the Economic Freedom Fighters, whose increase of just over 4 points from the last election gave it 11 per cent of the vote this time. They will likely continue to be an effective disruptor. Ramaphosa may also be challenged by trade unions on his reforms, notably over any break-up of SOEs.

But the biggest and most immediate external political challenge for Ramaphosa will be rebuilding trust between government and society, in a context where social protest has become an alternative form of political participation. A turnout of 65 per cent may be considered normal in Western democracies but is a notable drop for a country as politicized as South Africa, driven by frustration and a sense of exclusion as much as apathy. Turnout by young people was even lower.

Achieving the vision

South Africa has all the platforms it needs to project its renewal and attract vital external investment – it is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, it will take over as chair of the African Union in 2020, it is a member of BRICS and it is the only African member of the G20. But in the recent past, it has struggled to tell a coherent story about its vision for the future and offer to the world.

In the immediate wake of the election, internal and external political constraints will ebb. Ramaphosa must act fast to deliver results before the election cycle starts again. To attract much needed investment stimulus, he will not only need to articulate and market his vision for South Africa, but also outline how he plans to achieve it.

President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk in New York to discuss investment opportunities in SA, the Presidency said on Tuesday.

All of the oat-based cereals tested by EWG had traces of what the World Health Organization has named a "probable carcinogen."

Alliance for Natural Health-USA released tests on breakfast foods, and glyphosate was found in 11 of 24 samples. WHO says the chemical is probably carcinogenic.

Weed killer glyphosate is being carried by foraging bees back to their hives — even organic bee hives.

Traces of the weed killer glyphosate are increasingly being found in food, but the public is at a loss of how to process that information.

The esterfication of hypophosphorous acid is followed by reaction with another molecule of alcohol under the action of a nickel catalyst to provide a green method for the preparation of H-phosphonate diesters. This method avoids the need for any stoichiometric chlorine unlike those based on phosphorous trichloride.

Aqueous glyphosate formulations comprising a surfactant derived from metathesized natural oil feedstocks are disclosed. The formulations comprise a glyphosate salt, water, and a surfactant derived from a metathesis-derived C10-C17 monounsaturated acid, octadecene-1,18-dioic acid, or their ester derivatives. The surfactant is selected from C10 or C12 amine oxides, C10 or C12 quats, C10, C12, or C16 amidoamines, C10 or C12 amidoamine oxides, C10 imidazoline quats, C10 or C12 amidoamine quats, C10, C12, or C16 betaines, C16 amidoamine betaines, C18 diamidoamines, C18 diamidoamine oxides, C18 diamidoamine diquats, C18 diamidoamine oxide quats, C18 diamidoamine oxide betaines, Cis diamidoamine monobetaines, C18 diamidoamine monobetaine quats, C18 ester amidoamine quats, and amidoamines and their oxidized or quaternized derivatives made from self- or cross-metathesized palm or soybean oil. The surfactants noted above impart substantial stability to highly concentrated glyphosate formulations at, above, and below room temperature and perform as well or better than commercial alternatives.

A method includes removing glyphosate from a solution by contacting the solution with a mesoporous inorganic particle having an average pore size of greater than zero and less than about 50 nm, wherein the mesoporous inorganic particle is functionalized with a positively charged moiety selected from ammonium, amine and combinations thereof.

A method for removing glyphosate from a solution by contacting the solution with a polymeric particle including a moiety selected from the group consisting of ammonium, amine and combinations thereof, wherein the moiety is positively charged in the solution.

Alannah MacTiernan says farmers risk losing access to foreign markets because of their reliance on glyphosate, but her remarks draw criticism from farming groups that say the herbicide is a linchpin of the industry.

A Federal Court ruling in the United States in favour of a man suffering from cancer has turned the spotlight again to one of the most commonly used global chemicals.

Stay up to date with the latest news, views and analysis as the number of coronavirus cases in SA increases.

With the working class resorting to online vouchers for groceries and the poor eating less bread than before, is it not impractical for the president to expect ordinary citizens to tighten their belts when MPs, Ministers and government officials' well-fed bellies belie the trouble the economy is in?

With Ramaphosa sworn in as president, the SA public will be watching closely to see if, and when, he reshuffles Jacob Zuma's last Cabinet.

[News24Wire] Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa to request urgent intervention due to backlogs at the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) that are causing delays in test results, he said on Friday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised the parole of selected low-risk prisoners to alleviate pressure at correctional services facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Representational Image

India's leading player Saurav Ghosal stormed into the final of the USD 50,000 Macau Open, a major PSA world tour event, here today.

The national champion, seeded fourth, ousted the top seed Simon Rosner of Germany in five games 11-5, 5-11, 11-6, 11-13, 11-4 in a pulsating semi-final.

The Indian is ranked 28th in the world while the German is placed 11th.

But that did not unsettle Ghosal who showed his characteristic fighting ability and ensured victory in what proved a topsy turvy tussle.

In the title round, Ghosal will meet second seed Egyptian Mohamed Abouelghar.

Century-old agriculture lender is latest state group in need of government support

Five-week shutdown to be eased stage by stage according to a series of rolling levels  

Kim Jong Un is reported to have written to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to congratulate him on the country's Freedom Day, a national holiday.

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa was captured struggling to get his facemask on after delivering a speech on the importance of wearing them, in a blunder livestreamed yesterday.

Dewey Library - HT1521.R455 2019

Ghosal, Sujit

Browsery LC212.42.S44 2019