SADC Basic Income Grant e-Newsletter
The latest issue of the SADC Basic Income Grant Newsletter is Out. There are new and exciting developments, news, recommended readings and forthcoming events that you should know about. Click here SADC BIG Newsletter [mc4wp_form]
Carbon tax – an important step towards a transition towards a climate smart and resilient economy?
by Gunnel Axelsson Nycander, International Policy Adviser, Church of Sweden The SPII report SADC Poverty alongside mineral wealth: The case for a universal basic income grant gives several reasons for why a regional BIG could and should be financed through an increased and better implemented taxation on extractive industries. It also cautions not to rely […]
2014 Year End Greetings.
Dear Friends of SPII and the SADC- BIG As we draw to the end of 2014, we want to thank you for your ongoing support for our work in various ways, and for the many partnerships that have enabled us to mutually multiply the reach and impact of our work. This last year has been […]
The G-20 Tax Agenda and Africa’s Needs
By Taku Fundira from Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute – The importance of taxation goes far beyond providing income to finance the public sector, investments, and the basic needs of the population. The establishment of states is partly attributed to the tax system which has also contributed to promoting the state’s legitimacy, strengthening democracy, […]
Amplats drop in profit shows strike damage
BY ALLAN SECCOMBE ONCE the financial effects of transactions with Atlatsa Resources are stripped out of the equation, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) shows the full scars of the five-month wage strike at its biggest mines. Amplats, the world’s largest miner of the metal, warned of a fall of at least 20% in headline earnings for 2014 […]
Vavi: Cosatu ‘in tatters’
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has admitted that the trade union federation is in trouble, The Star reported on Friday.”Cosatu today is in tatters and absolutely in trouble. Factionalism is tearing it apart,” Vavi was quoted as saying at a memorial service in Sasolburg on Thursday.”When we see splintering, workers are set up against each […]
Corruption costs emerging countries $1trn/ year
Corruption and tax evasion are costing industry and countries a fortune, activists said ahead of the G20 summit in Brisbane. – Developing countries lose $1trn a year to tax evasion, embezzlement and money laundering.- Corruption wipes an estimated 5% off the world’s economic production.- By turnover, corruption would be the world’s third-largest industry.- Twenty to […]
South Africa’s inconvenient truths
By Patrick Bond – “South Africa is achieving a sizable reduction in poverty and inequality through its fiscal tools.” This was the claim by the World Bank’s Pretoria-based country director, Asad Alam, last week, in the study Fiscal Policy and Redistribution in an Unequal Society (Three million lifted out of poverty). To reach this conclusion, Alam […]
Ebola: Open letter to Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
BY PENNINAH IUTUNG AMOR – “How many lives must be lost to Ebola before the AU cuts through the bureaucratic red tape that is strangling the life out of our people, asks the AHF.” Dear Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, On September 8, preceding the African Union (AU) special commission’s meeting on Ebola, the Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) […]
Taxis to get speed limiters?
The National Road Traffic Act (NRTA) may see some interesting amendments if the most recent Government Gazette is to be believed, including speed limiters for public transport. Wheels24 reported that government seems serious about enhancing road safety and compliance on South Africa’s roads. According to the published regulations, all new taxis, buses and trucks would […]
