Andrew Stegmann

Opinion: Home Affairs Needs Attention

Various ward councillors and officials in the Randburg area held a site visit at the Randburg Department of Home Affairs on 8 April.

There they met with the management of the department to discuss the current state of the facilities.

In the past year, ward councillors worked hard to improve the parking area for visitors to the department. “There is still no proper waiting area for those who are coming to apply for their IDs, birth and marriage certificates,” said Ward 104 councillor Mike Wood.

Constituency Head Kate Lorimer said, “This particular home affairs covers a vast area of Johannesburg. We are all aware of how low the morale of the staff members are at the Randburg Home Affairs, and it tends to provide an unhappy experience for those coming to apply for various documents. There is an important project that needs to be undertaken by the government to upgrade this very busy Home Affairs.”

Wood continued, “In ward 104, I and my fellow ward 102 councillor David Potter are working hard to get this facility sorted out. Home Affairs have been in the press lately for all the wrong reasons, and this one is a prime example. The toilets and the kitchens are in a diabolical state, and the Department of Home Affairs needs to step up to the plate. The working conditions for staff leave a lot to be desired.”

Wood stated that the main aim of the visit was to see how facilities could be upgraded for both staff and visitors to make sure that the experience of coming to home affairs is a pleasant one for all.

Wood also said that there is a budget to improve both the Roodepoort and Randburg departments, but nothing has come to fruition as of yet.

“We need to start with improving the basics, for instance, waiting areas and abolition facilities. The services themselves are good, so good in fact that more and more people from the surrounding areas are making use of this home affairs and not ones closer to them,” Wood added.

During the meeting with home affairs officials, any plans to upgrade the facilities would take place during this financial year.

“Unfortunately, as ward councillors in this regard, we don’t have the power to physically handle the matter ourselves, and all we can do is push the Department of Home Affairs itself to take action.”

Member of the Provincial Legislature in Gauteng Makashule Gana added, “Another important issue to raise is the fact there are over 3 500 identity documents waiting to be collected. With huge elections just around the corner, we urge the community to collect their IDs to make sure they can vote on voting day.”

 

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
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Why Some South Africans are Moving to Mauritius, and How Much it Costs

The fast-growing and crime-free island nation of Mauritius is a good alternative for high net worth South Africans, says Brenthurst Wealth.

Speaking via the group’s ‘Strictly Business’ podcast, Gavin Butchart, a financial director at Brenthurst Wealth, said that Mauritius is good country for investors looking to diversify, particularly due to it’s attractive tax bracket with individuals and companies paying 15% – with no dividends tax, capital gains tax or estate duties.

The podcast discussed Mauritius, its advantages as an investment destination, as a place to live, and what South Africa can learn from the fastest growing African economy.

Citing a world bank report, Butchart, who lives in Mauritius, said that the country ranks highly for ease of use for doing business.

Advantages of moving to Mauritius include, economic growth, good schooling, low crime rates, and is politically stable, Butchart said, noting also that the country’s unemployment rate is below 7%.

To gain permanent residency, a person would need a minimum of $500,000 (R7 million). “That will get you permanent residency,” Butchart said.

He noted that there are additional means of entering the country – namely a retirement non-citizen permit, and a foreign investor permit.

Popular avenues of investment for foreigners looking to invest in Mauritius, and obtain residency, include:

  • Occupation Permit (OP) – a combined work and residence permit that allows foreign nationals to work and reside in Mauritius through an Initial investment of $100,000 in a business activity that should generate an annual turnover of at least MUR2 million (circa $58,000) for the first year and cumulative turnover of at least MUR10 million for the subsequent two years.
  • Residence Permit (RP) – a residence permit that allows foreign nationals to reside in Mauritius through the acquisition of a residential property under the Property Development Scheme (PDS) when he/she has invested more than $500,000 or its equivalent in any freely convertible foreign currency.
  • Permanent Residence Scheme (PRS) – foreign nationals investing more than $500,000 into the Permanent Resident Investment Fund (PRIF) for a period of 10 years are eligible for permanent residence, along with their spouse and children under 18 years of age. For children over 18, an additional deposit of $100,000 per person is required.
    Butchart said that homes prices vary depending on the island. He stressed that non residents are only able to buy into property development schemes.

According to Theo Pietersen, Seeff’s MD in Mauritius, the island country has become highly sought-after by local property buyers, some for residency purposes, but increasingly for holiday/second homes, retirement and relocation.

“Mauritius is fast becoming a second home for South Africans and with the recent changes in the Mauritian government’s property investment legislation, it is now a lot easier to invest in residential and commercial property on the island and there is an increased amount of developments available for SA buyers to invest in, both residential and commercial,” he said.

He added that the country now boasts top-class infrastructure including an excellent banking sector, strong economic growth and a favourable investment and tax climate and is regarded as one of the easiest places to do business in.

Pietersen said that property on the island is also regarded as an excellent investment and if you invest early, you can generally benefit from excellent capital growth.

However, there are limited opportunities to invest, especially in prime seafront developments, he said.

Pietersen said that finance is available from both South African banks as well as in Mauritius at interest rates of 7% to 9%, but with 40% cash deposit requirements.

He added that South Africans tend to invest between MUR 6,500,000 and MUR 20,000,000 which equates to approximately R2,628,000 to R8,100,000.

 

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: Guillaume Baudusseau [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

Cape Town Hotel Gets Off the Water Grid with New Desalination Plant

A five-star hotel in Cape Town has built its own desalination plant to enable it to get off the city’s water grid.

The Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront in Granger Bay can produce 7,000 litres of fresh water an hour using sea water pumped from a 100m borehole.

The hotel is the latest large business in Cape Town to install a reverse-osmosis desalination plant so that it is no longer reliant on mains water.

Engineers sank a borehole under the hotel, which is close to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing for up to 11,500l of seawater an hour to be pumped into tanks.

The reverse-osmosis plant treats 7,000l an hour, which is pumped into a 70,000l fresh- water tank.

The desalination system at the Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront, in Cape Town.

“Using a desalination plant allows us to operate completely off the municipal water supply,” said hotel general manager Clinton Thom.

A year ago, Cape Town was only weeks away from “Day Zero” – when taps would have been turned off – after three winters of low rainfall. The city council constructed three temporary desalination plants – in Strandfontein, Monwabisi and the V&A Waterfront.

Dams are now around half full. Four months ago, water restrictions were relaxed from level 5 to level 3.

Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, said: “Only 1% of people in the Western Cape at any one time are comprised of overseas tourists and visitors, but it’s essential that the tourism industry leads the way in sustainable practices.”

 

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
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Cape Town Hosts World Travel Market Africa to Attract More Tourists to the Continent

The doors to the Cape Town International Convention Centre were opened on Wednesday morning with the hope that hundreds of millions worth of currency would change hands in the coming days.

The World Travel Market (WTM) Africa began in Cape Town and focuses on promoting and networking the tourism industry in Africa. In 2017, $365m (about R5.1bn) was exchanged in business transactions at the three-day event.

Nearly 6,000 industry professionals are expected to attend.

“Platforms such as WTM Africa provide us with an opportunity as Africans to share with the world what we have to offer not only as a city, or as a country, but as an African region,” Cape Town mayor Dan Plato told delegates.

“We are looking forward to sharing ideas with our counterparts on how to continue building a globally competitive tourism and business destination.”

The opening seminar focused on the economic potential the tourism industry has for SA.

“Currently, the tourism economy in Cape Town employs around 150,000 people which makes it the sector with the highest growth and employment potential,” said Plato.

Other panelists outlined plans to bring more visitors to SA. Tourism Business Council of SA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa said the organisation aims to double the number of annual tourists in SA by 2030 to about 21-million.

Gillian Saunders, special adviser to tourism minister Derek Hanekom, said marketing strategies need to change be changed to attract more Africans to SA.

“Often aspirational destinations are in Europe, even though there is nothing wrong with Joburg and Cape Town,” Saunders said. “Aspirational destinations of Africans should also be down here.”

The event is hosting about 600 exhibitors and lasts until the evening of Friday 12 April 2019. For more information about the Expo, and to register, 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]. Image sources: [1], [2].