Latest news with #Kupe
The Citizen
5 days ago
- Business
- The Citizen
National Dialogue: Concerns about financial transparency and hotel bookings for delegates
Several foundations say that the first national convention has been rushed. The Thabo Mbeki Foundation has raised renewed concerns about the funding model for the National Dialogue. This comes after the organising committee for the first convention taking place this week revealed that some delegates will be booked into five hotels in Pretoria. According to the organisers, provision has been made for 1 000 delegates. On Monday, 755 people had been invited from more than 30 sectors and over 200 organisations. Bongani Kupe, a special projects manager at the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, told The Citizen that one of the reasons the legacy foundations had pulled out is because there was no clarity on where delegates would be accommodated. ALSO READ: Ramaphosa-Mbeki feud reignites as foundations withdraw from National Dialogue 'This is why we said, can we postpone this so that we can put everything in context, so that we can lower the cost of this. 'Some of the sectors, I am sure they would have been able to say we will come, but we will foot our own bill. Those that would have said they cannot afford; we could have found reasonable accommodation for them. 'The intention is not to make this a commercial project, the intention should be a substantive project that will change the trajectory of South Africa,' he said. Lack of financial transparency Kupe said the issue of financial transparency is of importance if the dialogue is a citizen led process. 'Initially, we had said this would cost between R76 million and R700 million; there was no figure that had been finalised. We then said to the government, we need to discuss this. They never came back to us in time to say this is what we think we can contribute. They just took the project because they then said they have the resources, they can do this on their own,' he said. Kupe said the foundations did not want to risk their names in a venture that was veiled in secrecy or the lack of transparency. 'Our fear is that you, as reporters, will come to us and ask us how much this cost, and we will say we do not know. Then it will be clear that this is not citizen led,' he said. Kupe said the foundations had decided not to attend the first convention at the end of this week. 'We do not like the fact that the government has taken over instead of the process being citizen-led. We have been planning this thing for some time without the government. We do not want this to be an imbizo where people come together, complain, and then disperse. 'We want this to kick-start a process that is nation-building, that is why we wanted every sector to be engaged even before the first national convention,' he said. ALSO READ: 'Bring all to dialogue': Experts insist national dialogue must be people-driven Where will the money come from? According to a statement from the Presidency on Monday the costs of the first convention are being funded from the existing budgets of Nedlac and the Presidency for secretariat support, communications and logistics. 'The provisions in the Appropriation Act and the PFMA will be used to reimburse the Department of Employment and Labour and Nedlac in the adjustments budget later this year,' said the Presidency. NOW READ: National Dialogue must be place for 'women to raise their voices', Ramaphosa says
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
$200m Set Aside For Crown Stake In New Gas Fields
Hon Shane Jones Minister for Resources The coalition Government is taking action on New Zealand's declining natural gas reserves and has set aside a tagged contingency of $200 million over four years for coinvestment in new gas fields, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The structure of investments is still being worked through, but this signals a willingness, subject to Cabinet consideration, for the Crown to take a commercial stake of up to 10-15 per cent in new gas field developments that feed the domestic market to address sovereign risk. 'Natural gas will continue to be critical in delivering secure and affordable energy for New Zealanders for at least the next 20 years. We are already feeling the pain of constrained supply,' Mr Jones says. 'We are focused on growing the New Zealand economy, creating jobs and increasing prosperity and resilience. The Government is not prepared to sit on the sidelines and watch our industrial and manufacturing dwindle because of energy security concerns. 'Developing a new offshore gas field from exploration to production can carry a billion-dollar price tag and projects of this scale are likely to need offshore investment. We have demonstrated potential for significant gas development and while investors are interested, we need to show their commitment will not be a wasted exercise. 'Talk is cheap but having skin in the game as a cornerstone investor in production demonstrates our own commitment to meeting our future gas needs. We are looking to take a stake in the development of the next Pohokura, Kupe, Mangahewa or Turangi to accelerate the investment needed to support our energy system. 'If we really want to address the current reality that we rely on imported coal, not domestic gas, to get through winter we must be prepared to stand alongside our petroleum sector as a co-investor. I say to my colleagues across the political spectrum, for the sake of energy affordability and security, be pragmatic about the role of natural gas, now and in the coming decades.'
NZ Herald
25-04-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Fallen Anzacs lie in the soil of ‘friendly country': Te Hira Henderson
This sacred pathway, prepared by Kupe to Te Rerenga-wairua/Cape Rēinga, the Place of Departing Spirits. There, where the waters of Waingurunguru fall before the sacred pōhutukawa tree, leap. Dive into the ocean to Whitireia and Rehia, the children of Tangaroa/God of the sea and fish, to carry you all to Manawatāwhi/Three Kings Island. From this island you will come up from the ocean through its freshwater blowhole to be gathered up by te kupenga a Taramainuku /the net of Taramainuku. Taramainuku is the star who gathers the dead into his waka, Te Waka o te Rangi, taking you into the underworld to Hine-nui-te-pō, the Goddess of the Night. Upon the rise of Matariki/Pleiades, Taramainuku will release you all back into Rangi-nui to become stars, kua whetūrangitia/to appear in the night sky. For this Te Waka o Te Rangi, a star constellation, will be led by the rise of Matariki at its front with Tautoru/Orions Belt at its rear. In the night sky is Pōhutukawa/Sterope, the eldest star. It stands apart from the others with the duty of holding you all safe in the night. E moe, sleep. Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate, the dead to the dead. Te hunga ora ki te hunga ora, the living to the living. Tihewa mauri ora, let there be life. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie Chotek, the Duchess of Hohenburg, were assassinated in Sarajevo, the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by a Bosnian Serb nationalist in the belief it would liberate Bosnia from Austrian-Hungarian rule. Four weeks later on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, triggering WWI, and Britain entered the war on August 4, 1914 with Australia and Aotearoa. From April 25, 1915 to January 6, 1916, invading troops from Australia and New Zealand, along with Allied forces, tried to capture Constantinople and gain control of the Dardanelles Strait. The Ottoman forces under Mastafa Kemal Ataturk successfully defended their homeland at Gallipoli, defeating the Allied forces. The Allied forces withdrew from their failed invasion in January 1916. Therefore, likewise in this grief, greetings of love upon greetings of tears to you, the Ottoman soldiers, the heroes who fell standing on your homeland soil in defence of it, ka tika he mihi tangi, he mihi aroha hoki kia koutou rā. As too, also to your mothers. Remain forever in peace with Allah. On the far away home shores of Gallipoli stands the Ari Burnu Memorial inscribed with a quote from the first president of your Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to the world and its mothers. It reads: 'Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives … You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie by side here in this country of ours … You, the mothers who sent their sons from far way countries wipe away your tears; Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.'
