Andrew Stegmann

City promises first affordable housing in CBD since 1994

On Thursday, Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Transport Councillor Brett Herron gave a press conference to explain the future development of the Foreshore Freeway Precinct. This comes after a public outcry over the lack of affordable housing within the Cape Town inner-city.

The project spans a six-hectare portion of land under and between the unfinished freeways on the northern edge of the central business district (CBD). Bids for the project must include an unspecified percentage of affordable housing, which can be built within the development, or somewhere else within the CBD.

Herron said the percentage was undefined as the City believed if developers are given a target percentage, only that  amount of affordable housing would be created. Now, developers will have to compete on how much affordable housing they will deliver.

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Andrew Stegmann

How to bribe your way to a licence in Johannesburg

For between R2,500 and R4,300, you can get a learner’s and a driver’s licence from the Randburg Licensing Department – if you are prepared to bribe an official.

I have been twice to the offices and on both occasions I was offered licences in exchange for bribes.

We were alerted by a tip-off from a Johannesburg man whose wife had failed her learner’s test at the offices three times and, at the last booking, was offered a licence in exchange for a bribe of R1,000.

The man said he and his wife had refused the offer, but had noted the name of the official – a certain “Jo”.

His full name is known to GroundUp.

I called Jo enquiring about how to get a learner’s and driver’s licence. Within minutes a bribe of R1,000 was solicited for a learner’s licence. I was told that a driver’s licence would cost R2,000 and the two together could be bought for R2,500.

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Andrew Stegmann

Visa rules force SA language schools to shut down

Cape Town – South Africa’s lucrative English language school industry is starting to crumble with at least two schools shutting down and fears of several others to follow over the country’s recently implemented visa regulations.

Over the last two years, English language schools have been bearing the brunt of South Africa’s visa requirements due to a gap in the system and the lack of coordination between the departments of Home Affairs and Higher Education.

International students studying English in South Africa declined by 37% from 2014 to 2015, according to Education SA (EduSA), a national association of English language centres with 23 member schools.

“Two of our members recently closed down and schools are really starting to struggle after diminished numbers for the past two years,” EduSA vice-chair Torrique Borges told Fin24.

The impact of this fall in student numbers stretches far beyond the schools itself and ultimately means less spending by foreigners.

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Andrew Stegmann

South African Rand Adoption Could Work for Zimbabwe Argues deVere Group

Zimbabwe should speed up the process of replacing the US dollar with the South African Rand, a move that could help the country lower domestic prices and increase international competitiveness.
2016 has seen an escalation of cash shortages in Zimbabwe – a country that is now almost exclusively a US dollar-based economy since the domestic unit was ditched in 2008.

Subsequent years have seen a move from a more diverse basket of currencies used in the country to a near total domination by the Greenback.

Whatever the composition of foreign currencies in use, a chronic lack of foreign investment remains the root cause of the cash shortage – a country that relies on foreign currency of course needs foreign capital flowing in.

The crisis ultimately requires a major policy about-turn from the government, however, shifting away from a reliance on the US dollar, to the South African rand, could well ease some of the pain and buy the government time to implement investor-friendly policies.

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