April 11, 2025.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines:

IFP, ANC meeting highlights VAT increase as 'most viable' short-term solution

Trade rules must be recalibrated, Ramaphosa tells WTO on 30th anniversary

And, more than 240 construction mafia arrests made since November

IFP, ANC meeting highlights VAT increase as 'most viable' short-term solution

Government of National Unity partners the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress held Budget impasse discussions yesterday, and affirmed their commitment to the coalition government, as well as a view that the May 1 value-added tax increase is a “temporary short-term intervention”.

The ANC is meeting with parties in and out of the GNU amid tensions in the new government, following the passing of the Budget in March.

The IFP and ANC’s meeting was led by IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, and both parties lent support to the revised Budget that was adopted by Parliament.

Owing to South Africa’s economic challenges, both parties dismissed additional government borrowing as an option and said the current arrangement was the most viable for South Africa’s economic stability and long-term development.

The IFP said it was set to meet with the DA on Sunday as part of its aim to strengthen cooperation and consensus-building in the GNU.

Trade rules must be recalibrated, Ramaphosa tells WTO on 30th anniversary

In wishing the World Trade Organisation well on its thirtieth anniversary, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged the body to uphold its aims to ensure smooth, predictable and free trade, amid what he described as "challenging and uncertain times".

As the world grappled with flip-flop tariffs, imposed and suspended, by US President Donald Trump, Ramaphosa called for a recalibration of trade rules that ensured policy space for the industrialisation of developing countries.

He described constraints and potential over-reach of trade rules, globally, which he said limited access to key policy tools.

He called on the WTO to provide reform and to be assertive in its mission, as more than 80% of world trade takes place under WTO rules.

More than 240 construction mafia arrests made since November

Since the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure hosted its Construction Summit on Crime-Free Construction Sites in November last year and key officials signed the Durban Declaration pledging to tackle crime in the sector, more than 745 extortion cases have been reported and 240 arrests made, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson has revealed.

He said the department was working closely with the South African Police Service, the National Treasury and the Construction Industry Development Board to ensure construction mafia criminals were brought to book.

He criticised the existing government procurement policy that mandates 30% of certain public sector contracts, particularly in construction and infrastructure projects, be subcontracted to designated groups, such as black-owned small- to medium-sized enterprises, youth, women, people with disabilities and cooperatives, where feasible.

He said that, just last week, construction company WBHO had informed him that it had seen an 80% decline in lost construction hours year-on-year owing to the actions taken by the DPWI and Saps to secure sites.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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