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The South African Police Service (SAPS) has urged the public to exercise caution and remain vigilant during times of payout.

This is to ensure the personal safety and property of South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grant recipients. 

In order to stay safe when accessing your SASSA grant, the following safety tips are recommended:

• Keep your personal and payment information confidential.
• Protect your SASSA card and PIN at all times.
• Be cautious of strangers around ATMs.
• Be aware of your payment dates and consider waiting a few days after the scheduled date to avoid large crowds at payment points.
• Be wary of unsolicited calls or messages asking for your personal details or card information.
• Be alert and aware of your surroundings before and after using an ATM.
• Avoid using ATMs with blank screens or those located in poorly lit or secluded areas.
• Consider going with a friend and or a family member when collecting cash.
• Be suspicious of strangers who offer help or claim there’s a problem with the ATM.
• Security personnel stationed at ATMs are there to deter criminal activity and are not authorised to assist with transactions.

SAPS encourages the public to report any suspicious activity or criminal incidents by calling the Crime Stop number at 08600 10111, the SASSA grant and fraud hotline 0800 601 or via the MySAPS App. – SAnews.gov.za

Registrations are now open for the Group of 20 (G20) Social Summit, which will be held from 18 – 20 November 2025 at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng.

This Social Summit, organised under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, aims to provide an inclusive platform that amplifies the voices of civil society, grassroots organisations, and local communities.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has stated that the Social Summit – aligned with the G20 Presidency theme of: ‘Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability’ – will bring together both formal and informal networks. 

These include youth groups, women’s organisations, individuals with disabilities, faith-based organisations, community forums, and other grassroots structures. The aim is to engage directly with global issues that impact daily life.

“Government calls on informal groups and community movements across South Africa, the African continent and globally to register and take part in this historic people’s summit.

“It is vital that global commitments are grounded in the lived experiences of communities,” DIRCO said.

During a media briefing in August regarding the implementation of South Africa’s foreign policy, DIRCO Minister Ronald Lamola announced that preparations for the G20 Social Summit were in progress. 

He said the department aims to broaden its outreach efforts to communities beyond the 13 G20 Engagement Groups. This involves inviting civil society organisations, think tanks and academic institutions from across the globe to participate, ensuring that the lived experiences of ordinary people contribute to shaping G20 outcomes.

The G20 Social Summit serves as the main platform for incorporating civil society voices into the G20 decision-making process. 

Its goal is to promote global solidarity, advance inclusive development, and produce a Leaders’ Declaration that reflects the aspirations and experiences of all citizens, particularly the most vulnerable among them.

Building on Brazil’s 2024 innovation of institutionalising civil society input into the G20, President Cyril Ramaphosa committed that South Africa would not only continue but also expand the Social Summit. 

Conceived as a people-centred platform, the summit will elevate issues of social development, equity, and inclusion to the same level of urgency as macroeconomic and financial concerns.

Interested parties are invited to register on the official G20 website at https://forms.office.com/r/tjdH1jBhxp by 24 October 2025. For more information, please email socialsummit@dirco.gov.za. – SAnews.gov.za

Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana has called on the continent to strengthen the resilience of its health financing whilst strategically weaning off external financing that has become less reliable.

“We must ensure that health financing is sustainable, not just for a single financial year but for generations to come. This means strengthening our own domestic resource mobilisation and finding innovative ways of financing our health sectors,” Godongwana said on Thursday in Johannesburg. 

He was addressing the African Union (AU) Commission’s 8th Session of the Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration. 

The STC brought together Ministers of Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration, as well as Health Ministers, central bank governors, senior policymakers, experts, and development partners to deliberate on strategies to close Africa’s health financing gap while responding to emerging global economic shifts.

“Coordination between the finance and the health sector has never been more important due to experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our continent’s health sector is facing a phalanx of multiple crises. It is underfunded, overstretched and faces a distressing decline in Official Development Assistance (ODA). 

“This challenge adds on the existing increase in our debt-service obligations and diminished fiscal space to make available for domestic health spending,” the Minister said.

He encouraged the continent to explore a range of solutions, including increasing budgetary allocations, and committing to increasing the share of national budgets dedicated to health, in line with the Abuja Declaration. 

“There is a need to explore innovative fiscal policies to increase revenue, through targeted taxes on products harmful to health, such as tobacco and alcohol and improve the efficiency and transparency of our public financial management to make sure that every resource allocated for health is used effectively. 

“Our private sector should not be left behind. We should create an enabling environment for both our public and private sectors to join hands and unlock investment and explore public–private partnerships across the healthcare infrastructure value chain,” the Minister said.

He pointed out that the continent’s health financing gap is an issue of global inequality.

Through South Africa’s Group Twenty (G20) Presidency, government is using the platform to support a new global compact on health financing, a model that is proactive and not crisis driven and is solidarity based.

“We are pushing for reforms to the global financial architecture to make it more equitable and representative. A key priority of our G20 Presidency is addressing the unsustainable debt burdens that destroy developing economies and prevent developing economies from investing in critical public services, including healthcare.

“We are proactively promoting a global framework to combat illicit financial flows and to ensure a fair and just international tax system. This will unlock billions of dollars in revenue that are currently lost to our economies, and funds that could be reinvested in our health systems in strengthening primary healthcare, and in building a resilient health workforce,” Godongwana said.

He stressed that the continent must urgently stabilise its economies by strengthening domestic markets, bolstering institutions and accountability, and protecting the vulnerable.

“Whilst it is true that the world economy is undergoing fundamental changes as demographic shifts and technological advancements reconfigure global markets, this moment too is a transitory one. There are new opportunities for change and growth on the African continent. A new thumping pulse in our veins, if you will.

“The energy transition and new technologies, including artificial intelligence, create new prospects for development and global economic interaction. The prospect of a multipolar world presents the African continent with opportunities to break free from old modes of development and trade,” the Minister said.

With new investments and new sources of investment finance emerging, he said there are opportunities to draw upon new spaces for pragmatic policy experimentation and autonomous development.

“New forms of multilateral cooperation and new partnerships for development are being forged, quite literally as we speak. Africa holds the keys to the solutions for the challenges the world faces. Africa’s youth are striving for development across the continent, demanding change. 

“The continent’s critical minerals, renewable energy advantages, agricultural land, and biological resources make it a central pillar of tomorrow’s healthier world, and an indispensable partner in achieving it,” the Minister said.

He said a new and reimagined developmental approach is required that restores confidence in the promise of development as an empowering partnership. 

“Africa can again be the flywheel around which a new vibrancy can emerge. This calls for new principles of global co-operation, more effective global finance for investment and economic transformation in Africa. 

“The old development models will no longer work, and the era of aid is largely over. I agree entirely, African countries must now approach development through the lens of sharper investment discipline,” Godongwana said. – SAnews.gov.za

A former Home Affairs employee has been convicted of fraud by the Calvinia Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, following a series of offences linked to fraud.

Dawn Celeste Pieterson (45) was found guilty on all nine counts of fraud and two counts of contravening Section 31 (1) (d) of Birth and Death Registration Act 51 of 1992.

The offences were committed between February 2019 and September 2022 when Pieterson was employed at the Department of Home Affairs based in Calvinia.

As part of her duties, she had access to the national population register.  

According to the South African Police Service, Pieterson fraudulently took out funeral cover policies from reputable insurance companies and nominated herself as a beneficiary. 

“To benefit, she manipulated the national population register by falsely issuing BI-1663 forms (notice of death form) to reflect the fictitious death of the victims. The system registered the affected persons as deceased, resulting in a plethora of problems in the victims’ day to day lives,” the police said.

The case has been postponed to 26 January 2026 for sentencing.

Acting Provincial Head of the Hawks, Brigadier Prince Mashimbye, commended the great effort of the investigation and prosecution team for their work in securing the conviction. – SAnews.gov.za

Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport Kedibone Diale-Tlabela has urged motorists to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy and operating within the ambit of the law as the Gauteng Transport Inspectorate (GTI) intensifies its enforcement drive.

Between 22 and 28 September 2025, the GTI removed 62 unroadworthy minibus taxis from the province’s roads during an operation aimed at restoring order and improving commuter safety.

The crackdown also saw officers issuing a total of 1104 traffic infringement notices. Of these 469 were manual notices while 635 were issued through the e-force electronic system.

Violations ranged from serious vehicle defects, such as faulty brakes and lights, to operators driving unlicensed vehicles, some with missing documentation.

In addition to the discontinuations, enforcement officers found a disturbing level of illegal operations, 52 minibus taxi drivers were caught operating without valid driving licenses and 92 were found driving without any form of driving license.

“These violations pose extreme danger to all road users. Unroadworthy vehicles and unlicensed drivers are nothing less than potential death traps, and they have no place on our roads. We will not tolerate such blatant disregard for the law,” Diale-Tlabela said on Thursday.

These weekly operations form part of a long-term strategy to combat lawlessness, enhance road safety, and strengthen regulatory compliance within the public transport sector. 

The MEC emphasised that the Provincial Government has adopted a zero-tolerance approach towards non-compliance in the public transport sector. 

She cautioned that operators who put profit before the lives of commuters will face uncompromising enforcement, including impoundment of their vehicles. –SAnews.gov.za