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The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is increasing its focus on Trusts by embarking on a journey to modernise and improve service offerings to this segment of taxpayers. These improvements aim to make it easy and simple for Trusts to comply with their legal obligations. Pursuant to the above, SARS has conducted a detailed current state analysis of tax compliance by Trusts and their beneficiaries to determine whether all Trusts and their beneficiaries are registered with SARS for tax purposes and whether all Trusts and their beneficiaries have filed their annual income tax returns.

The City’s Corporate Services recently launched the digital internship programme for the City’s Core Application Refresh (CAR) – a ten-year programme for the transformation and upgrade of the software technology systems the administration uses for service delivery, planning and engagement with residents and business at the University of the Western Cape. The digital internship programme is aimed at attracting top talent to apply for internship positions scheduled to commence in January 2023.

The Western Cape Government Department of Economic Development and Tourism seeks your input to improve Provincial government procurement. Procurement have repeatedly been raised as an area for governance reform, particularly to enable innovative ways of working on improving service delivery. It is envisaged that through collaboration with stakeholders such as yourself, the Province will be able to make a significant impact in the procurement space.

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Bellville CBD has become part of the City’s campaign for a cleaner Cape Town, with a focus on business nodes. ‘When businesses help to make sure their areas are pristine, they give existing and potential customers or investors the confidence to support them. Between 2010 and 2021, approved building works in the Bellville area reached R7,3 billion, with major forthcoming investments including the high-tech storage centres for a major shopping chain.

The United Nations General Assembly has designated 29 September as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. Currently all businesses in Cape Town are being required to update their mandated integrated waste management plans by 31 October 2022, to reflect how they will reduce their organic waste (including food waste they produce) that is sent to landfill by 50% before the end of the year, and 100% by 2027. All restaurants, hotels and other businesses that produce organic waste are required to comply.

South Africa’s 122 provincial government departments spent R613,6 billion in 2020/21, according to the latest Financial statistics of provincial government statistical release. This is R16,9 billion more than the R596,8 billion recorded in 2019/20, representing a rise of 2,8%. The 2,8% rise is muted compared with the previous three years that recorded increases of around 7,0%. A closer look at the data reveals that the expenditure growth in 2020/21 was driven by increases in goods and services and compensation of employees, with small positive contributions recorded for social benefits and interest. On the downside, provincial government spent less on subsidies, grants and other payments.

According to the Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES, Q2:2022) survey released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), total employment in the formal non-agricultural sector decreased by 119 000 in the second quarter of 2022, bringing the level of total employment to approximately 9,9 million. The survey showed that jobs increased by 74 000 between June 2021 and June 2022.

The Middle East presents abundant export opportunities for South African products and services. This was said by the Chief Director of Export Promotion at the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), Mr Joseph Senona. According to Mr Senona, there is an interest in South African products as far as the Middle East is concerned and South Africa views the Middle East as a strategic market for the South African products.

The Western Cape Education Department is currently recruiting 20 500 Education Assistants and General School assistants for public and special schools in the province through the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI). The applications are open from 26 September – 16 October 2022. Unemployed youth between the ages of 18 – 34 (turning 35 before or on 31 March 2024) are encouraged to apply for Education and General Assistants posts at a public school within a 5km radius of their place of residence.

Much has been said about the Expropriation Bill and it has been a process spanning over many years, including wide spread public consultation to get to this point where the latest version of the Expropriation Bill is before Parliament for debate. The Expropriation Bill is intended to replace the current and apartheid era law, the Expropriation Act of 1975. The 1975 Act is inconsistent with the Constitution in many respects. The current Bill proposes to bring the law in line with the Constitution.

As the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced that automatic registration will be initiated for Personal Income Tax for an individual that is not registered for tax, but SARS detects 3rd party data that indicates economic activity. The person is automatically registered by SARS in terms of section 22(5) of the Tax Administration Act (Act No. 28 of 2011 as amended).

There is a growing realisation among scientists, innovators and policy makers that innovation is a key factor in stimulating faster economic growth, industrialisation and inclusive development. Dr Blade Nzimande gave a few brief points relating to the investments that the Department of Science and Innovation continues to make with the aim of placing innovation at the centre of our national development efforts. The first point relates to using innovation as an instrument to address our socio-economic challenges as a country.

South Africa has signed the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 190 (C190). By ratifying the Convention, states are obliged to adopt an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive approach to the prevention and elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work.. The protection of employees against harassment does not only apply on physical premises but in any situation related to an employee’s work.