Andrew Stegmann

SA President Ramaphosa: Tourism is the New Gold in Africa

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said tourism is now emerging as “the new gold” in Africa.

Speaking at the conclusion of the Africa Travel Indaba in Durban, President Ramaphosa hailed the continent for being a tourism hub saying, if nurtured well, the sector would benefit not only individual countries, but also its citizens.

“Tourism is the new gold; it’s the new gold mines that our countries can come across…It is a sector that is thriving and has tremendous potential for further growth, and more particularly for job creation,” said President Ramaphosa.

He said South Africa was determined to take advantage of its tourism potential by overhauling the visa process to encourage more visitors to the country.

The leader also called on other African countries to develop the sector so as to reap the most from it.

During discussions with journalists on Friday, South African Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom acknowledged that visa restrictions and tedious application processes, especially for Nigeria, had discouraged people from applying for the travel document.

Yet, Nigeria was one of the biggest tourism sources for the country outside southern Africa.

Ramaphosa added that crime should be dealt with across Africa so that the continent is not branded an unsafe destination for travel.

He praised Kenya, Uganda and South Africa efforts to ensuring tourists’ safety through Kenya Tourism Federation Safety and Communication Centre, the Uganda Tourism Police and the National Tourism Safety Monitors programme in South Africa.

Tourism offers an opportunity to showcase a country’s arts, culture and industries.

“We tend to think of tourism as being associated with pleasure motives such as visiting iconic sites and getting involved in recreational activities, but it can also embrace business, education, health or religion as a basis for travelling,” said Ramaphosa.

The Africa Travel Indaba is a tourism marketing expo and networking forum that showcases tourism products in Africa.

It is organised by the South African Tourism and attracts regional and international buyers and sellers.

This year’s edition attracted more than 1,000 exhibitors and buyers, including regional tourism board and government agencies.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: Nemanja .O. [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

Angola Launches Electronic Import Licensing Service to Reduce Bureaucracy, Entice Investors

Angola Ministry of Economy and Planning has launched a new Electronic Goods Import Licensing Service to improve the business environment and motivate economic activity.

With the entry of this new service, importers in the sectors of Industry, Agriculture, Fisheries and goods of the basic basket will only have to wait three days to have the import pre-licensing processes completed.

During the ceremony, the Minister of Economy and Planning, Pedro Luís da Fonseca, said that the initiative demonstrates the will of the state to improve administrative productivity and create a better business environment by reducing bureaucracy, simplifying and decentralizing the pre-licensing process.

The minister also stressed that the Executive’s economic policies and reform are promoting greater openness to private investment, making them the most important pillar of structural changes in the economy, the creation of employment par excellence and income multiplier.

“A good business environment is surely a valuable indicator for private capital investment decisions,” he said.

Pedro Luís da Fonseca said that the Executive is implementing the process of facilitation and economic simplification with the help of different institutions, seeking to maximize synergies.

In turn, Refriango’s administrator, Stephen Daniel, said that the new Electronic Import Licensing Service, under the auspices of the Agriculture and Forestry, Industry, Fishing and Sea sectors, is welcome once that there was a lot of bureaucratization in the treatment of import pre-licensing processes.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: chuttersnap [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

Economic Commission for Africa Launches African Women Leadership Fund in Morocco

The Economic Commission for Africa has launched the African Women Leadership Fund in Morocco on the sidelines of the African Regional Forum for Sustainable Development.

In order to strengthen women’s economic empowerment and facilitate the emergence of women fund managers, the fund aims to facilitate the access of African women entrepreneurs and cooperatives to sustainable capital, lower barriers to entry for women asset managers focused on investing in women-owned and women-led businesses.

The fund will also provide technical assistance to accelerate the training and growth of female asset managers.

The Fund was created following a call by the African Women Leadership Network, and has been established by the Economic Commission for Africa under the leadership of the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Chairperson of the African Union, with the support from UN-Women, the Office of the Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security of the African Union Commission and the African Women Leadership Network.

Over the next decade, the Fund aims to invest up to $500 million in businesses run by African women.

The Morocco launch aims to introduce it to Moroccan women, who, like their African counterparts, face daunting financial challenges which impede the sustainability of their businesses, but also to businesses and other players in the national financial ecosystem.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

South Africa’s 2019 Election Results: Which Parties Made Gains and Losses?

Written by Quintin Coetzee

On the 8th of May 2019, South Africans went to the polls for the country’s sixth peaceful general election. Over 17.6 million citizens voted; a turnout of just under 66% of eligible voters. Votes were cast across over 22,000 districts, with 48 parties (19 more than during the 2014 election) contesting seats across South Africa’s 9 provinces.

235,472 people spoiled their ballots. While some of these were possibly accidental, a number of South Africans also intentionally spoil at the polls, in order to, for example, express disillusionment towards the electoral process, or dissatisfaction with all the available political parties. Spoiled ballots made up 1.33% of total votes cast.

International and Special votes

Over 29,300 South Africans registered to participate in the national election in the international voting phase, which took place at 120 international voting stations on 27 April 2019. The overseas ballots will be counted along with the domestic votes on 8 May 2019.

The local special vote phase of the election took place from 6-7 May 2019, accommodating South Africans who are physically infirm, disabled or pregnant or are unable to vote at their voting station on the polling day. More than 770,000 voters had registered for special votes.

How the elections work

South Africa has a parliamentary system of government; the National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by closed list proportional representation. Two hundred members are elected from national party lists; the other 200 are elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The largest remainder method and the Droop quota are used to allocate seats at both the provincial and national level, with the national list seats allocated by subtracting seats won at the provincial level from a party’s allocated total seats to give a more proportional result. The President of South Africa is elected by the National Assembly after the election.

The provincial legislatures, which vary in size from 30 to 80 members, are also elected by proportional representation with closed lists. The premiers of each province will be elected by the respective provincial legislatures.

The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) consists of 90 members, ten elected by each provincial legislature. The NCOP members will be elected by the provincial legislatures in proportion to the party makeup of the legislatures.

2019 results

Below is a results table for all parties that received 10,000 votes or more, published after 100% of the votes cast were counted, by South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

Parliament will see a record number of 14 parties represented when the National Assembly convenes next week for the first time after the election. Until now, 13 parties have held seats in Parliament, but some did not attract enough votes to secure their return, such as the African People’s Convention, and Agang SA.

The National Assembly election was won by the ruling African National Congress (ANC), but with a reduced majority of 57.50%, down from 62.15% in the 2014 election. This was also the ANC’s lowest vote share since the election after the end of apartheid in 1994. The Democratic Alliance (DA) remains the official opposition, and declined from 22.23% to 20.77%, while the Economic Freedom Fighters significantly grew, going from 6.35% to 10.79%. The Freedom Front Plus also grew from 0.9% to 2.38%, which was its highest vote share since 1994.

Eight of the nine provincial legislatures were won by the ANC. The EFF retained its position as official opposition in Limpopo and the North West, while simultaneously beating the Democratic Alliance to second place in Mpumalanga. The DA obtained a second place in five provinces won by the ANC. In KwaZulu-Natal, the Inkatha Freedom Party beat the DA to second place for the first time since 2014 and grew to 3.38% on a national level. In the Western Cape, the only province not won by the ANC, the DA declined from 59.38% to 55.45%.

Seats in the National Assembly after the 2019 election. Red circles are EFF; green circles are ANC; blue circles are DA; gray circles are other parties.

The next South African general election will take place in 2024.

More information

To view the final results and other information about the election on the IEC website, click here.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2], [3]. Image sources: [1], [2], [3].