Andrew Stegmann

Direct Flights Restore Historic Link Between Cape Town and St Helena

Cape Town will again connect the world with St Helena, one of the world’s most remote islands, when a direct flight begins in December.

“This new route is very exciting, providing fresh opportunities to market tourism to both the Western Cape and St Helena, capitalising on the historic links between the two,” MEC of economic opportunities Beverley Schäfer said.

The RMS St Helena, a cargo and passenger liner which originated in Cape Town, was the key lifeline for St Helena for 28 years until its retirement in 2018.

Airlink began operating the island’s first plane route in 2017, a six-hour flight from Johannesburg to St Helena Airport, which was built by SA construction company Basil Read.

The new Tuesday flights will operate between December 3 and March 31 2020.

News of the new route follows US-based United Airlines’ announcement that it would start direct flights between Cape Town and Newark, New Jersey, in the US.

Tim Harris, CEO of Wesgro, which promotes investment, trade and tourism in Cape Town and the Western Cape, said: “By connecting Cape Town to other tourist attractions around the world, we are able to help visitors put together itineraries with Cape Town at the centre.

“This strengthens our tourism offer considerably.”

St Helena, where Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile in 1821, gives tourists a chance to see his residence, volcanic coastlines and whale sharks.

 

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].

Andrew Stegmann
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SAA Launches Direct Service to Guangzhou – China’s ‘Manufacturing Hub’

South African Airways (SAA) announced on Sunday that it will launch direct flights between Johannesburg and Guangzhou, China, on September 18, 2019, giving customers access to the heart of China’s export led manufacturing industries.

According to a statement by SAA, this is yet another strategy implementation initiative aimed at enhancing its route network.

“The decision to launch this direct service between Johannesburg and Guangzhou means we remain on track in executing our strategy to transform SAA into a fit for the future airline that will operate both efficiently and competitively,” commented SAA CEO Vuyani Jarana.

The Guangzhou route will cater for a spectrum of travellers between Johannesburg and China including business and corporate travellers and will be of special interest to traders. Cargo operations will complement the viability of this route considering that high value cargo is sourced from Guangzhou.

SAA will be the only carrier operating a direct service between Johannesburg and Guangzhou, with flight time of approximately 13 hours and 40 minutes, providing the shortest travel time on a nonstop basis between the two points.

There will be three new flights per week to Guangzhou, in South China, and these will complement SAA’s current operations to Hong Kong. This means, SAA will fly four times a week to Hong Kong. Airbus A340-300 aircraft will operate both the Guangzhou and Hong Kong routes.

Guangzhou is the largest city in the Guangdong province in South China and the third largest Chinese city after Beijing and Shanghai. It is an important transportation hub and trading port, located on the Pearl River about 120km Northwest of Hong Kong.

“Adding a direct service to mainland China, combined with our current popular flights to Hong Kong provides SAA with immense growth opportunities to and from mainland China. It also gives our traders access to the centre of Chinese manufacturing,” said Jarana.

The province of Guangdong is the centre of China’s export led manufacturing industries and described as “the world’s manufacturing hub”. Formal and informal traders source the majority of goods purchased in Sub-Saharan Africa from the province, due to Africa’s poor manufacturing capacity.

For more travel options for SAA customers flying to and from Guangzhou, the airline has interline agreements with China Southern Airlines, China Eastern, Air China and Hainan Airlines.

SAA said it is also negotiating a code share agreement with Hong Kong Airlines, anticipated to be in place this financial year, for further travel options for customers travelling beyond Hong Kong. Hong Kong airlines will codeshare on SAA’s Hong Kong-Johannesburg sector and provide feeder traffic from Japan, Korea, Philippines and China.

 

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 African Visa Issues to Be Resolved

In the days to Africa’s Travel Indaba fete in South Africa, a number of tour operators were denied visas, sparking an uproar on social media platforms.

However, in his remarks at Africa’s Travel Indaba at the ICC Durban on Saturday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his government was working towards reducing the enormous and often unnecessary bureaucratic red tape that tourists, who want to visit his country, face.

“If a tourist is held back by a lot of red tape, they immediately give up and go to another destination. This clearly requires that we should streamline our tourist visa regimes and as South Africa we are committed to working towards the African Union’s goal of a visa free travel dispensation and a single African air transport market,” Mr Ramaphosa said.

He added that his country was in the process of overhauling the visa dispensation and introducing world class e-visa system.

In his Facebook post, Uganda’s tour operator Amos Wekesa, the executive director of Great Lakes Safaris, condemned the continued denial of visas to Ugandans to travel to South Africa, irrespective of travel frequency.

South Africa’s tourism minister Derek Hanekom said:

“I met with a number of hosted buyers, sellers and media from more than 80 countries and asked them what would be a befitting welcome to our president and their message is recognition of tourism industry but from Nigeria to Ghana, from Kenya to Uganda to India and China, the sector has massive potential and to realise it, the visa dispensation must be overhauled.”

Indaba is the continent’s top annual travel and trade fair that attracts thousands of people and media from some 80 countries.

Uganda, represented by Uganda Tourism Board, won the gold certificate for an outstanding stand characterised with structural traits of eco-friendliness thanks to use of grass thatch, natural sticks and showcase of attractions such as gorillas, birds, wildlife and culture among others.

It was Uganda’s third gold win under the category of Southern African Development Community and Africa, having bagged the same award and recognition in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

 

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].