Latest news with #R1-million
The Citizen
7 hours ago
- Politics
- The Citizen
Former KDM mayor Lindile Nhaca expected to be reinstated this week
Former KDM mayor Lindile Nhaca expected to be reinstated this week The African National Congress (ANC) is expected to reinstate Lindi Nhaca as KwaDukuza mayor, less than eight months after her controversial exit. Sources within the ANC have told the Courier that Nhaca is the front runner for the mayoral election in Thursday's highly anticipated council meeting. Former iLembe District mayor Sduduzo Gumede is said to be the most likely candidate to be appointed as her deputy. This follows the resignations of mayor Ali Ngidi and his deputy Sicelinjabulo Cele earlier this month. The pair stepped down under mounting political and public pressure, stemming from a series of scandals and persistent service delivery failures. Ironically, Ngidi assumed office following Nhaca's own controversial departure at the end of September last year. Ngidi and Cele, who were elected just over a month later on November 5, tendered their resignations following a directive from the ANC, although they will remain in their roles until their successors are officially elected. According to ANC provincial task team co-ordinator Michael Mabuyakhulu, the recall decision forms part of the party's broader strategy of 'rebuilding and renewal.' Ngidi's brief tenure was dogged by controversy. Public dissatisfaction surged in the wake of multiple scandals, including a car hire debacle that saw more than R1-million spent on vehicles, along with a monthly personal security bill exceeding R173 000. Both Ngidi and Cele have been ordered to repay a portion of the car hire expenses, particularly those incurred before formal council approval was granted. The administration also struggled with a wave of crises including widespread and prolonged electricity outages, labour unrest involving hundreds of municipal workers and the embezzlement of R35.7-million in January. Multiple investigations into the municipality's affairs are currently under way, led by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa). These probes focus on numerous allegations of mismanagement. Public frustration continues to grow, with civic organisations and residents demanding accountability and new leadership. The ANC had not responded at the time of publication. Stay in the loop with The North Coast Courier on Facebook, X, Instagram & YouTube for the latest news. Mobile users can join our WhatsApp Broadcast Service here, or if you're on desktop, scan the QR code below.
Daily Maverick
21-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Ground control to FlySafair: we have a problem
Long queues, missed appointments, and almost two dozen cancelled flights marked day one of FlySafair's pilot strike, as more than 200 pilots downed their controls in a labour showdown with the airline. However, by the end of the day, the airline had agreed - under pressure - to participate in the mediation process as requested by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). At OR Tambo International Airport, stranded passengers and grounded pilots found themselves on the same side of the runway as fallout collateral damage in the escalating dispute. Turbulence at the top 'They said there weren't any cancellations but I only found out my flight was cancelled this morning,' said Masego, a frustrated traveler who was due to fly to Cape Town. She was one of many travellers queuing at the FlySafair terminals who had been issued vouchers for their missed flights. Masego didn't want to share her full name for fear that FlySafair would decline her request for a refund rather than a flight voucher. The standoff is not just about the two primary tabled issues — pay and rostering — but also a representation of pilots asserting themselves in what they deem an increasingly airline-dominant space post the Covid-19 pandemic. 'This isn't just about the money,' said one FlySafair pilot to Daily Maverick on condition of anonymity. 'We're professionals, not just numbers on a roster.' How much is a pilot worth? Of FlySafair's roughly 300 pilots, about two-thirds are represented by trade union Solidarity and rejected a proposed 5.7% wage increase, instead demanding what Solidarity describes as a 'market-related' adjustment closer to 10.5%. According to data from Payscale and Glassdoor, commercial pilots earn anywhere between R300,000 to well over R1-million — and FlySafair itself has noted that its pilots earn up to R2.3-million per annum. While this appears to be lucrative, a pilot interviewed by Daily Maverick stated that the higher end of salaries was usually reserved for very senior captains, such as a pilot with 20 years' experience, with the median being closer to the R300,000 mark. The second sticking point is the way rosters are structured. According to a pilot, rosters are released on the 24th of each month, typically with five days on, two days off. But last-minute changes mean that even on scheduled off days, pilots struggle to plan their lives. 'It's not like you're knocking off work at 4pm on a Friday,' said one pilot. 'You might get home from that last shift at midnight, and then on Monday your first flight is at 5am.' 'We don't have complete access to the rosters, but the pilots are saying 'I'm tired,'' said Helgard Cronjé , deputy general secretary at Solidarity. 'You can't put a price on missing your kid's rugby match.' FlySafair maintains otherwise. 'Fatigue is not a concern,' said chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon in a previous written response to Daily Maverick. The same reply also stated that 'there are no concerns for flights being disrupted as a result of this industrial action'. This did not turn out to be the case, as at least 26 flights were cancelled on Monday morning, 21 July 2025. Pilots stress that fatigue isn't just a lifestyle issue — it's a safety concern. According to a pilot, many are now flying 90 to 95 hours per month, near the legal maximum. 'That's not sustainable in the long run. People think 90 hours (per month) is nothing because it's less than a nine-to-five job,' said one pilot. 'But they don't realise that flying is mentally and physically demanding. You're in high-stress environments, constantly alert, and that takes a toll.' And it's a toll many no longer want to pay. Pilots estimate 80 colleagues have left the company in the past year, with many heading overseas. FlySafair bowed to pressure after about 90% of pilots affiliated with labour group, Solidarity, declared their willingness to strike. 'FlySafair underestimated how disruptive the lock-out (would) be. It is costing them too much and the passengers are paying the price,' said Cronjé, adding that the airline had indicated it would only be willing to start the negotiation process by Wednesday. 'As a result, thousands more passengers will be affected before FlySafair comes to the table,' she said. Airline dominance Following the Covid-19 pandemic, pilots were furloughed en masse. As aviation resumed, airlines dominated the hiring terms. Pilots say they are now pushing back. Solidarity claims FlySafair refused to provide financial data to justify the wage freeze. 'When we asked for the financials to back this up, they refused,' said Cronjé. 'We believe the company is profitable enough to meet our demands, or at least to come to the table with a better offer.' FlySafair confirmed to Daily Maverick that no such financial disclosures were made, stating that this was not standard practice. 'Salaries are typically determined by market dynamics,' said the company. 'Our pilots are not equity stakeholders — they have not invested capital or assumed financial risk.' Dr Joachim Vermooten, transport economist and former airline executive, told Daily Maverick that low-cost airlines derived profit from high aircraft utilisation and passenger density. He cited European examples as proof that low-cost carriers could be highly profitable. FlySafair, for its part, claims that its current offer, while described as a 5.7% raise, actually constitutes an 11.29% cost-to-company increase. 'This is a generous offer, particularly in a low-inflation environment where many major corporations, including banks, are offering increases closer to 4%,' the airline said. What this means for you If you have booked flights with FlySafair, you should check the updates page before you make plans or even show up at the airport — particularly for flights from Tuesday, 22 July up to and including Monday, 28 July. While FlySafair says contingency crews are in place, delays and cancellations remain likely, and it's likely to be a bumpy journey ahead until the dispute is reconciled. If your flight is affected, you have three choices: Rebook your trip by selecting a different flight on the same route, or pick entirely new flights for a future journey. Cancel your booking and receive a FlySafair voucher for the full value of your original flight. This credit will be loaded to your FlySafair wallet and is valid for 12 months. If you'd prefer a full cash refund instead, you're also welcome to cash out your voucher at any time. The CCMA has been approached to mediate the matter, which might result in a faster resolution.
Daily Maverick
18-07-2025
- General
- Daily Maverick
People of Pennington: Tidy Towns pulls South Coast town into competition finals
Residents of Pennington, KwaZulu-Natal, are volunteering their time and money and working with the municipality to improve local services. Now, they're vying for Pennington to be crowned Town of the Year. Trimmed hedges, a walkable town, safety, cleanliness and a Blue Flag beach. It's these little things that improve the experience of a town, and despite challenges such as water outages and other service delivery issues, the residents of Pennington organise daily to help make the town pleasant and comfortable to live in. The chairperson of the Pennington non-profit organisation Tidy Towns, Viv Sandwith, says what they do is like putting lipstick on the town. Sandwith and her team at Tidy Towns played a big role in entering Pennington into a Town of the Year competition, which offers a R1-million prize. Sandwith and her team entered the town in the competition. They are all volunteers who do this work of organising the community over and above their day jobs or commitments. She said this was not possible without willing residents and daily community organising and building. She gave an example of a car park by the beach that Tidy Towns refurbished: 'You couldn't drive in this car park because of the potholes,' she said. 'So, we spent R350,000 repaving from scratch. We took out the tar and paved it. The bathrooms were unusable. They were so bad. And we got them renovated from head to toe. So, they're now like a five-star hotel inside. You can't go in because there's no water. So, basically, we put the lipstick on,' said Sandwith. Street groups 'Just to make our town look beautiful and feel clean. If the rubbish truck hasn't come because they're on strike, we organise rubbish collection. I've started a thing for street groups, so now every street in Pennington has a group and a leader. 'So, if I want to announce something, I put it on, and all the admins are in one group. I put it in one group and then they all spread it out. We can say, guys, rubbish trucks are not coming today, please keep your rubbish inside,' said Sandwith. Tidy Towns is a community-driven project. According to its web page, it is 'Supported by the joining hands of like-minded volunteers, private security companies, Umdoni Municipality, local Law Enforcement, the SAPS and the business sector. Participants are committed to restoring our public spaces to clean and safe environments, for the enjoyment of locals and visitors alike, whilst creating opportunities to improve the livelihoods of the committed cleaning teams created.' Sandwith said the street groups were also helpful because they helped foster safety, especially for the older people in the community. 'It's incredible, we're not living with potholes anymore. We're collecting money on our streets. We're fixing our potholes. Many of our streets are smooth sailing now because of the locals, so people are putting their own money in. But the important thing is that we never work outside of the municipality. I've got a very good relationship with them, with the beach manager. I had a meeting last week with the mayor, the municipal manager, and three of the GMs. We just sat and chatted,' said Sandwith. Despite continuous challenges with the Umdoni Municipality, the community pulls through to create a better community. A recent incident caused the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Umdoni Local Municipality to write to the Public Protector, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, as well as lay an official complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) 'over the Umdoni crisis that continues to cripple services'. This follows another staff strike that has paralysed operations amid calls for the mayor, Councillor Mbali Luthuli, and Acting Municipal Manager Nhlakanipho Khumalo, to go. The strike has entered its second week with no services being rendered. R1-million prize Pennington has got through the initial phases of kykNET's Dorp van die Jaar (Town of the Year) competition, beating competing towns in KwaZulu-Natal to become a finalist in the last round. Top towns from all participating regions in South Africa and Namibia are competing and the winner will win R1-million. Sandwith said they hoped to win so they could continue the work to upgrade and keep up the town. They hoped to buy a soccer kit for the local soccer team, install an outdoor gym, pay the guys who help clean up the town and other initiatives. 'We're going to refurbish the outside of the clinic and the library. Because this clinic serves a lot of Malangeni here,' Sandwith said. 'We want to add three bus stops. Oh, and we want to put in a fitness gym, [an] outdoor fit gym. So we want to put outdoor gym equipment for older people or kids. We want to help fix the roof of that hall because it needs work. We want to fix the showers up a bit here (at the beach),' said Sandwith. The town is small, and it is a retirement town, but it offers a variety of activities from golfing to beach activities and hiking. It also has special businesses such as the Basset Brewery, which has expanded to be a restaurant and nature sanctuary as it is built in what used to be a nursery. Andy Turner founded and runs the Doghouse Craft Café with his partner Natalie Danks. They offer tasting trays and advice on which meals to pair with the craft beer they offer. Turner said that the business originated when he was still making beer at home just for himself. Craft beers 'So I was brewing a little, 20 litres at a time, just trying to make the styles that I knew from Europe. 'And the first one I ever made that I was really proud of, which was good enough to show my friends, was an English bitter type of beer, so I called it Bassett Bitter.' Now they offer a variety of beers with certain crafts blended specifically for different seasons. Turner said the café and brewery had attracted beer enthusiasts from all over the world, along with their pies. He noted that a lot of people liked the beers that tasted most like commercial lagers, but others were more experimental and liked to be exposed to different beers. Danks moved to Pennington 17 years ago and says she loves the do-it-yourself spirit of Pennington residents — 'because either you are going to moan about the problem, or fix it'. DM
The Citizen
17-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Citizen
Will rare Volkswagen Citi Golf find new home for a cool R1-million?
Bid of R550 000 for this rare VW hatchback was rejected at a local auction. A VW Citi Golf Mk1 Limited Edition, with 29km on the clock, took bidding at an auction in Bryanston last week to R550 000. This lofty number that many enthusiasts thought would see the iconic car go to a new owner. But the reserve price was not met and rumour has it that this number was almost double that a staggering R1-million. The original owner would have paid R113 500 for the car off the dealer's floor in November 2009. According to a South African inflation calculator, R100 in 2009 is worth R216.76 in 2025. And this translates into a price of only R246 022 today. But we all know that nothing over the past 16 years has gone up by the rate of inflation. ALSO READ: Very rare VW Citi Golf set to fetch big bucks at local auction Low mileage key Rather take a basic return on a R100 000 investment at a local bank, using a rate of 9%. Then the value of this VW Citi Golf Mk1 Limited Edition rises to a more realistic R450 000. Maybe the price offered at R550 000 is not a bad one, but the real value with a car like this is that it's number three of the last 1 000 Citi Golfs ever produced. And when you add in the fact that it is like new with only delivery mileage on the clock, R1-million might just be the magic number. Time will tell. The introduction of the VW Citi Mk1 in 2009 was a send-off and the closing of the final chapter of the best-ever selling hatchback in South African motoring history at the time. Citi had provided South African motorists with a fun, unique, affordable driving package for 25 years. It had defied all marketing norms and theories of how long a lifecycle of model in a brand can continue. ALSO READ: WATCH: Iconic Basil Green Ford Capri Perana sells for R700k at Johannesburg auction Volkswagen of South Africa introduced the Golf 1 in 1978. And the Citi Golf made its first appearance on South African roads in 1984. The Citi was a more affordable alternative to bigger more expensive 'Jumbo' Golf IIs that hit our roads in the same year. Various Citi Golf editions The VW Citi Golf stayed fresh over the years by the ongoing introduction of special and limited-edition models such as the Designa, CTI, Deco, Sonic, Wolf, Bafana Bafana, R Line, Xcite, Billabong and GTS. The Citi Golf Mk1 features the 74kW 1.6-litre fuel injected engine and not the iconic 1.8-litre powertrain from the legendary GTi and CTi. It also came fitted with 15-inch, gunmetal painted alloy wheels; polished exhaust tailpipe, dark taillights, double headlights and chrome highlight around grille. The interior has sport seats with partial leather, leather steering wheel, the original golf ball gear knob, floor mats with Mk1 logo and red stitching detail throughout. And the car was only available in two colours; Black and Shadow Blue metallic.
Daily Maverick
08-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Crypto Corner: Crypto can play a role in the virtual and physical property game
Cryptocurrency is increasingly moving into the real world with even the US Federal Housing Finance Agency considering crypto in deciding whether someone has enough assets to qualify for a home loan. A recent conversation with a game developer about his exploits in the metaverse revealed something to me that I had never quite understood. You see, like most rational adults, I couldn't understand how and why people would spend money on virtual property. There's infinite supply because the developers can just make more space, right? Apparently not. When you're buying virtual property, you're actually buying compute capacity (or computing power) on a server somewhere, and that costs money. Your NFT is like your house key – and GPS coordinates to let that particular part of the internet know where it is (the interplay between the internet and private blockchains is complex, but I digress). This transaction is also done via the crypto token associated with that blockchain, which is Solana in this particular case. What is concerning is that the developer quickly swaps to a stablecoin and then moves to an exchange to cash out – because some bills can't be paid with crypto, yet. Meanwhile, in the meatspace (that's what early metaverse enthusiasts called the physical world), the US Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering cryptocurrency when deciding whether someone has enough assets to qualify for a home loan. So if someone owns R1-million in bitcoin held on Binance, for instance, that might help boost their application. Why is it considering this? Because the housing market is struggling under high interest rates and including crypto could help more people qualify for loans. It also aligns with a Trump administration push to make the US a global leader in crypto innovation. This is also exactly the kind of thing that is quite catchy for emerging economies that are looking to capitalise on the crypto momentum. If the idea spreads here, I wonder if that game developer's crypto earnings could be used to secure a traditional home loan. He could then systematically convert his virtual property gains into rands to pay off the real-world property debt. DM This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
