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Mail & Guardian
crisislatest news & developments
Broken: Municipalities around the country are failing to deliver adequate services to residents. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

Ramaphosa got the memo wrong: The crisis is in the municipal structure

Municipalities get 10% of the national budget and must raise revenue from service users, most of whom are the working class poor and unemployed

Food prices jumped by 50% from September 2020 to September 2024 (Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Manufacturing output down 5.2% in February, says Stats SA

The report shows the production of food and beverages was the biggest contributor to the decrease in factory output

Bitter: Sugar cane growers are facing yield losses because of irregular irrigation caused by load-shedding. Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Tiger Brands: Prolonged load-shedding a risk to food security

Tiger Brands and others in the food production chain are struggling under the rolling blackouts

Demonstrators march during a national strike day of action over the high cost of living, organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), in Tshwane, South Africa, on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. Joblessness, rising food and fuel prices and an aggressive interest-rate hiking cycle pose a threat to social stability in an economy still reeling from several Covid-19 lockdowns and deadly riots in 2021. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Brace yourselves: Government’s hands are tied in alleviating pressure on households in short term

There is a limit to what the government can do in terms of subsidies, given the fiscal situation, say experts

Switch on: President Cyril Ramaphosa must act to end blackouts so the government can concentrate on growing the economy and creating jobs. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Splitting Eskom doesn’t solve its problems

Dividing the company into generation, transmission and distribution divides responsibility, and could triple the scale of the problems

Stage two water restrictions were introduced in Joburg this week but these will only be effective if they are enforced as they were in Cape Town during their Day Zero period. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Water apartheid alive and well in Nelson Mandela Bay

Municipality guilty of discrimination as townships run dry while middle-class suburbs are unaffected by the crisis

Annual consumer inflation was unchanged at 3.2% in February at 3.2%, with increases registered in housing and utilities, food and alcoholic beverages and restaurants and accommodation offset by decreases in the services sector, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
 (Guillem Sartorio/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A Marshall Plan for Africa’s food-price crisis?

The rescue proposal designed by and for African countries is targeted at ensuring future food security as the continent struggles to procure key agricultural commodities, such as…

About 32%  of the population is unemployed; of the employed, 35.9% are in informal work; and of the formally employed, nearly 40% earn less than R3,500 a month. Photo: Phill Magakoe/AFP

Jobless crisis: 35 in 100 are out of work

It’s not sustainable for every employed person to support three others, analysts say

Reliable power is essential for economic growth in key sectors such as manufacturing, where growth is vital for absorbing labour and addressing high unemployment levels. (Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images)

Reshuffling the deck chairs at Eskom won’t solve load-shedding

Eskom has had 11 chief executives and countless board changes in 10 years, and its condition remains just as critical. Will another reshuffle make a difference?

IPM Convention 2012 delegates.

Comment: A blueprint for recovery

The situation in the Eastern Cape health department is a "full-blown catastrophe", writes Trudy Thomas.