Category: Africa

The Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre has been transformed into a hub for the regenerative blue economy as the second day of the Ocean Innovation Africa Summit reaches its peak.

The three-day summit, from 23 to 25 March 2026, has brought together about 500 delegates, including innovators, policymakers, investors and industry leaders, with the aim to drive the continent’s blue economy forward.

Discussions have centred on key priorities, including scaling regenerative blue business models, promoting nature-positive growth, enhancing marine protection, expanding economic opportunities, strengthening community resilience, and building Pan-African innovation ecosystems.

On Tuesday, 24 March, the programme shifted from high-level plenary discussions to more practical engagements, further positioning Durban as a growing player in Africa’s maritime development.

Activities included immersive technology showcases, highlighting innovative solutions aimed at transforming how people interact with the ocean environment.

A significant focus has also been the summit’s dedicated business-to-business engagement platform, which has facilitated face-to-face meetings between global investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers.

These engagements are expected to unlock partnerships and investment opportunities needed to advancing Africa’s blue economy.

The programme also featured targeted workshops designed to translate strategy into tangible outcomes. Key sessions included the municipality’s Blue Finance workshop, Artificial Intelligence for Good initiatives, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – African Union Commission (AUC) Accelerator Programme validation.

These engagements aim to bridge the gap between international frameworks and local economic opportunities.

Takalani Rathiyaya from the city’s Economic Development Directorate described the summit as a catalyst for local growth.

“The Ocean Innovation Africa Summit is one of the City Manager’s flagship programmes. Our biggest asset is our ocean, and our residents must benefit from this dialogue,” Rathiyaya said.

He added that the workshops are aligned with the Blue Charter, ensuring the municipality implements tangible programmes to empower local businesses.

Outcomes from the day’s engagements demonstrated that the summit is evolving beyond a platform for dialogue into a space for collaboration and investment.

By linking international investors with local innovation and capacity, the event is reinforcing Durban’s position within the global blue economy.

As the summit concludes on Wednesday, the focus remains on ensuring that investment in the ocean economy translates into sustainable local development, job creation, and the protection of vital marine resources. – SAnews.gov.za

Government has welcomed the arrest of 12 members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and a company director in relation to a tender that was awarded irregularly to Medicare 24. 

All accused were expected to make their first appearance before the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday on charges of corruption, fraud and the Contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

They were arrested by the Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC).

“These arrests send a clear and necessary message that no individual, including those entrusted with enforcing the law, is above scrutiny or beyond the reach of law enforcement,” the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) said.

Government has commended the work of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption and other law enforcement authorities for acting decisively in this matter. 

“Their actions demonstrate that accountability mechanisms are functioning and that wrongdoing within the public service will be confronted directly.

“The integrity of law-enforcement institutions is fundamental to public trust, and it is therefore critical that such matters are investigated thoroughly and prosecuted without fear or favour,” the GCIS said.

Government added that the arrests serve as a firm reminder across the public sector that ethical leadership, transparent procurement practices and strict compliance with policies, such as the Public Finance Management Act, are non-negotiable obligations.

“Government is committed to ensuring that law-enforcement institutions are credible, professional and beyond reproach. Strengthening oversight, enforcing consequence management and protecting public resources remain essential to restoring and sustaining public confidence.” –SAnews.gov.za

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Google aimed at advancing digital skills development and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in South Africa’s education sector.

The signing ceremony will take place at Google’s Johannesburg offices in Bryanston on Monday, 30 March 2026, and will be facilitated by Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe.

The landmark agreement is expected to advance digital skills, integrate AI into higher education institutions, and support workforce development in South Africa.

This marks the fourth successful public-private partnership for student and youth skills development concluded by the Deputy Minister.

According to the department, the MoU will prioritise access to training initiatives, including 5 000 Google Career Certificate scholarships in fields such as AI Essentials, Cybersecurity and Data Analytics, among others.

The scholarships will target students, educators, and IT staff in selected public universities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and Community Education and Training (CET) colleges, with a particular focus on rural and township communities.

“Google will offer AI training for educators through programmes like Generative AI for Educators and collaborate on a train-the-trainer model to enable broader skills dissemination,” the department explained.

The partnership will also focus on curriculum development, with Google facilitating access to AI and technology curricula, co-creating localised content, and supporting integration at institutional level.

In addition, the agreement includes technology support measures such as deploying ChromeOS Flex to revitalise existing hardware, providing strategic hardware advisory services, and strengthening institutional IT capacity through advanced training.

The MoU further provides for collaboration on policy and governance, including the sharing of expertise on AI policy development and access to relevant Google AI tools for public institutions.

The signing ceremony will be led by the Deputy Minister and attended by students, departmental officials, and senior Google executives. The event will also feature demonstrations of Google’s AI programmes. – SAnews.gov.za
 

Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Nonceba Mhlauli, has called for a shift in how development is funded, urging global leaders to prioritise measurable impact over expenditure.

This as she officially opened the 2026 Outcomes Finance Alliance Summit in Cape Town.

Addressing delegates from government, the private sector, philanthropy and civil society, Mhlauli said the world faces mounting and interconnected challenges, including rising youth unemployment, persistent poverty, strained health and education systems, and the growing impact of climate change.

“At its core, this Summit speaks to one of the most urgent questions of our time: how do we ensure that every rand, every dollar, and every investment delivers meaningful, measurable change in people’s lives,” she said.

The summit, hosted in partnership with the South African Medical Research Council and other stakeholders, brings together global leaders and policymakers to advance outcomes-based financing as a tool to accelerate social and economic development.

Mhlauli said outcomes-based financing represents a necessary evolution in development finance, shifting the focus from inputs and activities to results and impact.

“Governments are being called upon to do more with less, while citizens demand accountability, transparency and results. Outcomes-based financing responds directly to this reality,” she said.

She highlighted South Africa’s progress in implementing the model, pointing to the Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund as one of the largest globally focused models on employment.

Through the R300 million fund, government pays for verified employment outcomes rather than activities, with over 9 100 verified enrolments and more than 6 800 job placements achieved to date. More than R220 million has already been disbursed based on independently verified results.

“This is not a pilot in theory. It is a demonstration, at scale, that outcomes-based financing can deliver real, measurable employment results,” Mhlauli said.

The initiative targets young people not in employment, education or training, with a strong emphasis on inclusion, particularly for women and those in underserved communities. 

Implementing partners such as BlueLever, Swift and Afrika Tikkun have played a key role in delivering training and job placement support.

Mhlauli said the programme has not only created employment opportunities but restored dignity and hope among young beneficiaries.

“These are not abstract outcomes. They are real transformations. They remind us that outcomes-based financing is about unlocking human potential at scale,” she said.

She also pointed to progress in early childhood development through outcomes-based funding models aimed at improving school readiness and child wellbeing, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

However, Mhlauli stressed that the success of outcomes-based financing depends on strong partnerships across sectors.

“It requires trust, shared risk, and a willingness to move beyond traditional silos,” she said, adding that collaboration between governments, investors, philanthropies and service providers is critical to scaling impact.

The Deputy Minister urged participants to move beyond discussions and commit to concrete actions that will strengthen the global outcomes financing ecosystem.

“We must move from dialogue to action. We must identify practical pathways to scale. We must strengthen the pipeline of investable opportunities.

“We must build the institutional capacity required within governments and implementing organisations. And we must ensure that the benefits of outcomes-based financing reach those who need it most,” she said.

Mhlauli said South Africa remains committed to playing a leading role in advancing innovative financing models that promote accountability, improve service delivery and drive inclusive growth.

She further encouraged participants to use this Summit as an opportunity to share lessons openly, to build meaningful partnerships, and to commit to concrete actions that will advance the outcomes financing ecosystem globally.

“Let us work together to ensure that financing is not only mobilised, but that it delivers real, measurable, and lasting outcomes,” she said. 

The Outcomes Finance Alliance Summit runs from 25 March, bringing together global stakeholders to explore ways to expand outcomes-based financing across sectors such as health, education, climate and job creation. – SAnews.gov.za 

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli has commended members of voluntary community safety structures for their dedication and sacrifice in the ongoing effort to build safer communities free from crime.

The Premier was speaking at a recent engagement with crime prevention structures at Riverview Community Hall in Ward 10 under the Greater Kokstad Local Municipality, within the Harry Gwala District Municipality.

Delivering the keynote address on Tuesday, Ntuli commended the spirit of volunteerism demonstrated by community safety members, noting that their role remains critical in supporting law enforcement agencies and strengthening grassroots crime prevention efforts.

“The provincial government applauds your spirit of volunteerism. We urge you to continue working within the prescripts of the law. Your main responsibility is to ensure that our communities are, and feel safe and protected,” the Premier said.

The Premier also urged community members to take a leading role in combating all forms of crime, with particular emphasis on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF), as well as the rising incidents of kidnappings in the area.

Ntuli highlighted the need for stronger vigilance, improved reporting of criminal activities, and closer collaboration between communities and law enforcement agencies to curb these crimes effectively.

Ntuli further emphasised the importance of implementing stricter screening and vetting processes within community safety structures to prevent infiltration by criminal elements.

He noted that maintaining integrity within the formations is essential to building public trust and ensuring effective operations.

The Premier reiterated the provincial government’s commitment to the capacitation and professionalisation of community safety structures, including providing training, resources and institutional support to enhance their effectiveness.

Building safer communities through partnership

The engagement forms part of ongoing provincial efforts to strengthen community-based approaches to crime prevention, ensuring that residents play an active role in safeguarding their communities.

Ntuli concluded by reaffirming that sustainable safety can only be achieved through collective responsibility, partnership, and a shared commitment to protecting the well-being of all citizens across KwaZulu-Natal. – SAnews.gov.za
 

The National Treasury, together with its partners, has launched the third phase of the Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED) programme, reaffirming a shared commitment to grounding South Africa’s economic policy decisions in rigorous, co-produced evidence. 

“At its core, SA-TIED is anchored on a simple and yet powerful principle — good policy must be grounded in credible evidence. Better evidence leads to better policy, and better policy leads to better outcomes for our people,” Deputy Finance Minister, Dr David Masondo, said in Pretoria on Tuesday.

SA-TIED is a research-policy partnership between the National Treasury, the South African Revenue Service (SARS), and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), with financial support from the European Union and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. 

Now entering its third phase, the programme works to close the gap between research and policy implementation by embedding evidence directly within government systems and building analytical capacity.

Phase II has produced a substantial body of evidence directly informing South Africa’s policy priorities. 

Over 130 research papers have been published, with 65% authored or co-authored by South African researchers and 63% featuring women as authors or co-authors. 

More than 200 participants, half of them from government, have been trained in advanced economic modelling, econometrics, spatial analysis, and data science, building skills that will endure well beyond the programme’s lifecycle.

“Research is not a luxury, if anything, it is needed more than ever. In times of uncertainty, bad decisions become very costly, short-term thinking becomes very tempting, and political pressure can crowd out careful thinking. 

“What SA-TIED has built is something very rare: trust between research and policymaking. That trust is the foundation on which Phase III will be built,” incoming UNU-WIDER Director Patricia Justino said.

A defining achievement of Phase II has been the growth of the National Treasury Secure Data Facility (NTSDF), one of the first such institutions in the Global South, which links anonymised administrative tax data. 

The facility has supported over 65 researchers in the past year alone and has directly informed government policy outputs. 

It is increasingly recognised as a model for responsible administrative data use, with several countries already seeking to replicate the approach.

SARS Deputy Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu reaffirmed SARS’ strategic commitment to data-driven policymaking.

“We see tax administration data as the lifeblood of research and economic policy design. We gather data with the end in mind, not only for tax administration purposes, but also for research,” Makhubu said.

Research under SA-TIED has addressed six core areas central to South Africa’s development agenda: enterprise development for job creation and growth; public revenue mobilisation for inclusive development; structural transformation, labour markets, and inequality dynamics; macro-fiscal analysis and policy modelling; food, energy, and water in the context of climate change; and reform implementation and delivery.

Phase III, running from 2026 to 2029, will consolidate and expand on these gains. It will focus on a set of core priorities, including strengthening the link between research and policy implementation, expanding access to administrative datasets and building state capability through training, skills development, and greater integration of research within government. 

Phase III also introduces a new emphasis on public expenditure efficiency, reflecting the reality that, in a constrained fiscal environment, the question is no longer only how much the state spends, but how effectively it spends. –SAnews.gov.za

The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), together with the Presidency of South Africa’s Presidential Youth Employment Intervention are, from today, hosting a summit aimed at addressing South Africa’s most pressing health and development challenges.

Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Nonceba Mhlauli, is expected to deliver the opening remarks at the summit.

Over the next three days, the Outcome Finance Alliance (OFA) summit will bring together global and local partners to “design and test strategies to make pay-for-success financing instruments a cost-effective and scalable proposition to support development agencies and governments to deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals”.

“As South Africa continues to confront high rates of HIV infection, teenage pregnancy, and broader health system pressures, innovative approaches to both service delivery and financing are becoming increasingly critical.

“Outcomes-Based Finance, which links funding directly to measurable results, is emerging as a practical tool to improve accountability, unlock new investment, and ensure that limited resources deliver real impact.

“The SAMRC looks forward to sharing key learnings and challenges, with the aim of identifying pathways to unlock further public–private partnerships that can accelerate the impact and institutionalisation of OBF,” the SAMRC said in a statement.

At the centre of the council’s contribution will be its work in the Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), a model described as enabling “private and philanthropic investors to fund health interventions upfront, with government or donors repaying only when agreed outcomes are achieved”.

“The SAMRC’s first SIB was implemented through the Imagine Programme, a comprehensive intervention targeting adolescent girls and young women in high schools in Moretele and Newcastle, areas with high HIV prevalence and teenage pregnancy rates.

“Launched in 2023, the programme delivers integrated sexual and reproductive health services directly within schools, including access to contraception, HIV testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), pregnancy care, and referrals for further treatment, including ongoing support for those on antiretroviral therapy.

“The programme also provides psychosocial support in safe spaces on the school grounds, helping to reduce stigma and improve overall well-being,” the statement read.

Executive Programme Manager for Social Impact Bonds at the SAMRC, Dr Nevilene Slingers added: “This model fundamentally changes how we fund health interventions.

“By linking funding to verified outcomes, we are able to strengthen accountability, support innovation, and ensure that resources are directed toward interventions that make a measurable difference within health”.

The OFA will provide an opportunity to “deepen collaboration, share lessons, and accelerate the adoption of financing models that prioritise impact”.

“As fiscal pressures continue to mount, these approaches offer a pathway to strengthen health systems while ensuring that investment translates into meaningful and measurable outcomes for communities,” the statement concluded. – SAnews.gov.za