July 28, 2014
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters says unregistered motorists in Gauteng owe Sanral over R1-billion in unpaid e-toll accounts.

Liberia shuts border crossings and restricts gatherings in an effort to curb Ebola spreading.

And, the Ethics Institute of South Africa says the code of ethics for the national and provincial cabinets has flaws.
 

Unregistered motorists in Gauteng owe the South African National Roads Agency Limited over R1-billion in unpaid e-toll accounts, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said.

As of May 31, the unaudited amount owed for more than 90 days was over R156-million while more than R995-million was owed to Sanral in a period of less than 90 days.

Peters noted, however, that the amounts shown were based on the alternative user tariff published in the gazette and not the e-tag tariff. The gazetted e-tag tariff was lower than the alternative user tariff.

DA MP Manny de Freitas said this showed that motorists continued to reject e-tolls. He urged Parliament to listen to South Africans' and push for a complete review of the e-toll system.

The Liberian government on Sunday closed most of the West African nation's border crossings and introduced stringent health measures to curb the spread of the deadly Ebola virus that has killed at least 660 people across the region.

The new measures announced by the government on Sunday came as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone struggle to contain the worst outbreak yet of the virus.

Speaking at a task force meeting, Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the government was doing everything to fight the virus including inspecting and testing all outgoing and incoming passengers by Liberia's airport authority.

Ebola can kill up to 90% of those who catch it, although the fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60%. Highly contagious, especially in the late stages, its symptoms include vomiting and diarrhoea as well as internal and external bleeding.

President Jacob Zuma's failure to meet the deadline and respond to the Public Protector's Nkandla report demonstrates the urgent need to fix the existing code of ethics for the national and provincial cabinets, the Ethics Institute of South Africa (or EthicsSA) said on Monday.

"The code of ethics itself is a perfectly good one, except that it makes no provision for the process to be followed when the alleged transgressor is the president himself," EthicsSA CEO Professor Deon Rossouw said.

The problem was that the code made no provision for the procedure to be followed if the president was the alleged transgressor, and it was not clear if it even covered the president.

A draft amendment was published in 2011, but it has not yet been enacted, said Rossouw. He said the amendment should be fast-tracked to rectify this serious flaw, and prevent future stalemates.

Also making headlines:

The head of economics and trade at the Delegation of the European Union in Pretoria has acknowledged South Africa’s trade negotiators won important concessions in the long-running Economic Partnership Agreement trade talks.

The UN warns of alarming malnutrition rates in the Somali capital.

And, Numsa says there has been some 'development' in strike talks between the union and employers.

 

Also on Polity:

Some recommended reading includes a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute titled “Nigeria’s renewal: Delivering inclusive growth in Africa’s largest economy”, which examines how the country can live up to its economic potential while making growth more inclusive, thus bringing more Nigerians out of poverty.

Also, be sure to read the latest article by the Institute for Security Studies on new code of ethics for MPs.

And, Professor Raymond Suttner examines the Economic Freedom Fighters’ politics of dress.
 

Follow us on Twitter @PolityZA for updates on breaking news

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.