South-Africa-health-care-620x350 (1)South Africa’s private healthcare sector could come under increased regulation from government to make them accessible to the country’s majority poor blacks, the country’s Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Friday.

Motsoaledi however clarified that there was no plan to abolish private hospitals, but the government was only seeing to make the cost of accessing care affordable to those who need it most.

“We are running a healthcare system where the poor do not get what they need, while the rich get much more than they need. Which means there is over servicing of the rich and a gross under servicing of the poor,” the minister was quoted by News24 telling the Competition Commissions during a market inquiry session on private healthcare in the country.

Motsoaledi said the trend all over developed nation was to governments moving to regulates health care costs, adding that the South Africa was considering creating “a single fund” that will used to make quality health care in the country affordable for the entire population.

“Such a system should be dictated to by the health needs of the population, not by uncontrolled commercialization,” Business Tech quoted him saying.

“We need to move towards a fairer, more efficient health system for all South Africans, not sections of South Africa, based on the values of justice, fairness and social solidarity.”

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NIGERIA road sign

NIGERIA road sign

On 14 March 2016 the Nigeria Immigration Service (”NIS”) issued a public notice to the effect that a nationwide verification exercise will be conducted immediately.

Who is Affected?

This verification exercise affects employers of CERPAC holders.

What Do Employers Need to Know?

Representatives of companies employing foreign nationals should take the following documents to their local NIS CERPAC Production Centre:

  • Foreign nationals’ CERPACs;
  • Foreign nationals’ passports;
  • A copy of a valid Expatriate quota;
  • A copy of the company’s monthly returns for February 2016.

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randnotereuters1SA Tourism has effectively lost R50 million (€3m) of its overseas marketing budget as a result of the weakened rand, SA Tourism Acting CEO, Sthembiso Dlamini, told Tourism Update this week.

Speaking on the side-lines of the ITB tradeshow in Berlin, Dlamini said the organisation would always be vulnerable to currency fluctuations.

However, she was upbeat about the organisation’s ability to market South Africa despite this challenge. She said the key was to look at creative and innovative ways to market the country, leveraging partnerships. Dlamini said these included partnering with embassies and also joint marketing agreements with trade.

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Flag_of_Niger_5!3.svgNiger will hold a presidential run-off election on 20 March. Following the initial round, held on 21 February, the two top candidates were President Mahamadou Issoufou (48 percent of the vote) and opposition leader Hama Amadou (17 percent of the vote).

Amadou came second despite currently being incarcerated. He has been detained since November on human trafficking charges; he alleges the charges are politically motivated. On 8 March, the opposition Coalition for an Alternative, which supports Amadou’s candidacy, announced that it would boycott the run-off poll, citing election fraud and Amadou’s continued detention. The coalition has also asked its members to suspend participating in national assembly sessions, and the national election commission. Amadou is expected to stand trial on 23 March, following the run-off poll.

Analysis

The election period has been closely contested; however, the continued detention of Amadou has increased political tensions considerably between the regime and the opposition.

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