For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: International study reveals 8 out 10 Grade 4 pupils in South Africa can't read for meaning, My Vote Counts heads to court to strengthen Political Party Funding Act and, unemployment rate rises to 32.9% as more people enter the job market

International study reveals 8 out 10 Grade 4 pupils in South Africa can't read for meaning

A staggering 81% of Grade 4 pupils in South Africa can't read for meaning, the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study has revealed.

This means roughly eight out of 10 children need help locating and retrieving explicitly stated information in simple and easy text.

The Department of Basic Education released the findings of an assessment of reading achievement conducted every five years in around 40 countries.

The current figures show a regression of reading literacy levels among Grade 4 pupils to levels last seen in 2011.

My Vote Counts has applied to the Western Cape High Court to get the Political Party Funding Act amended to allow for the disclosure of all private donations made to political parties, and not only for those more than R100 000.

My Vote Counts heads to court to strengthen Political Party Funding Act

My Vote Counts is challenging the constitutionality of aspects of the PPFA, saying the legislation does not require political parties to account for how private funding is spent, unlike the case in relation to public funding.

In January 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation on the commencement of the PPFA, which regulates public and private funding of political parties.

The Act came into operation on April 1, 2021.

Unemployment rate rises to 32.9% as more people enter the job market

Statistics South Africa has revealed that the official unemployment rate has increased by 0.2 percentage points, from 32.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 32.9% in the first quarter of this year.

Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke said South Africa is not creating sufficient employment at the release of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the first quarter.

The survey showed that the overall number of employed persons in South Africa had increased by 258 000 quarter-on-quarter from 15.9-million to 16.2-million.

However, the number of unemployed individuals also increased from 7.8-million to 7.9-million while formal and informal sectors recorded increases in employment of 209 000 and 107 000, respectively.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter[PolityZA]