Mantsopa Local Municipality is situated in the Eastern Free State and covers an area of 345 square kilometres. The five towns situated in Mantsopa are Ladybrand, Hob House, Tweespruit, Thaba-Phatswa and Excelsior. Mantsopa Local Municipality was established on 5 December 2000 and is comprised of the previous areas of jurisdiction of Tweespruit Transitional Local Council (TLC), Ladybrand TLC, Hobhouse TLC, Excelsior TLC, ThabaPatchoa TLC and Maluti Transitional Rural Council. It forms part of the Eastern Free State and falls within the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipal area. It borders the Kingdom of Lesotho in the East, Mangaung Local Municipality to the west, Naledi Local Municipality to the south and Masilonyana and Setsoto to the north. The area is accessible via the N8 and R26 roads which traverse the area. A railway line that runs along these routes services the area.
read more »Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality is a Category A municipality. It is situated in the Free State province, in the central interior of South Africa. The Free State is bordered by Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and North West provinces, as well as the neighbouring country of Lesotho.
Mangaung, meaning “the place of the cheetah”, accentuates the vibrant, dynamic and energetic character of the tourism industry in the “City on the move (at the heart of it all)”. The economy is strongly driven by the government sector, which has seen the fastest growth in the last five years as a result of increased government programmes in livelihoods improvement interventions. The finance sector is the second-fastest growing sector due to very active estate and construction activities. Small businesses have a major role to play in the Mangaung economy, in terms of employment creation, income generation and output growth.
Cities/Towns: Bloemfontein, Botshabelo, Mangaung, Thaba Nchu Main Economic Sectors: Government services, finance
read more »The Vulamehlo Local Municipality forms part of the Ugu District Municipality. It is located south of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and is bordered by Umdoni Local Municipality to the east, Mkhambathini and Richmond local municipalities to the north, and Ubuhlebezwe Local Municipality to the west. The municipal area is predominantly tribal with common tribal land patterns.
There are, however, also a few scattered pockets of privately owned land throughout the municipal area. The dispersed, low-density settlement pattern makes the provision of physical and social infrastructure (roads, water, electricity, clinics, schools, and police stations) difficult and the cost of installation, maintaining and operating the infrastructure very high. The Vulamehlo Local Municipality is one of the localities within the Ugu District that are hardest hit by high unemployment levels, poverty, and a negative economic growth rate.
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Indaka Municipality is a newly established municipality (established 18 December 2000), which is mainly rural. The municipality shares borders with Emnambithi, Endumeni, Msinga and Umtshezi municipalities and is situated 49 km east of Ladysmith.
read more »Jozini Local Municipality is under Umkhanyakude District Municipality, located in the north eastern part of Kwazulu Natal. The municipality shares a border with Swaziland to the west and Mozambique to the north. It covers 3057 km² of the total area of Umkhanyakude District Municipality. Jozini was predominatly a rural municipality with 89% of the population residing in rural areas under the jurisdiction of tradional authorities.
Main towns *** Census 2011 reveals that Jozini is the most populated municipalty within Umkhanyakude making up (186 502) 29.8% of the Umkhanyakude District. Jozini has a large dam constructed on the Phongola River on the eastern end of a narrow gorge separating the Lebombo and Ubombo mountains. The main towns include Ingwavuma, Jozini, uBombo, Bhambanana, Mkuze and Ndumo.read more »
Employment is a key economic indicator and it is sensitive to the business cycle. For example employment peaked in 2008 to approximately 13,8 million when the economy was better. However, during the recession of 2009 and 2010 approximately 806 000 persons lost their jobs. After these two successive years of decline, employment grew by 204 000 and 258 000 persons in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Community & social services industry contributed the most to the growth in employment observed in the past two years. This was followed by Finance and other business services.read more »
The registration of deaths in South Africa is governed by the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1992 (Act No. 51 of 1992), as amended. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) uses death notification form DHA-1663 to register all deaths and stillbirths. Stats SA collects completed death notification forms from the DHA head office for data processing, analysis, report writing and dissemination. Causes of death statistics are compiled in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) regulations that require that member nations classify and code causes of death using the tenth revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).
Statistics from civil registration are the only national source of information on mortality and causes of death in South Africa. Such information is invaluable for the assessment and monitoring of the health status of the population and for planning of adequate health interventions. Accordingly, these statistics are also essential in tracking progress and monitoring key development objectives outlined in the National Development Plan (NDP) adopted by the South African government in 2012. The plan asserts that health care can be improved through decreasing mortality by combating infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and the emerging tide of non-communicable diseases. The government objective, ‘Health care for all by 2030’ outlined in the NDP is aimed at reducing child and infant mortality; maternal mortality; and combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases by 2030.read more »
South Africa has a history of exclusion and discrimination on all kinds of grounds, such as race and gender. For this reason we have developed one of the most inclusive constitutions in the world, with a Bill of Rights that specifically refers to equal treatment for all regardless of race, age, disability status, socio-economic status and gender (Section 9). Legislation – such as the Employment Equity Act of 1998 – has facilitated access to formal employment for women, where employers are legally required to work towards more equitable representation based on gender, race and disability. Our National Development Plan 2030 envisions an inclusive society and economy, free from unequal opportunities through capacity building, redress and increased interaction.
Through a combination of legislation, monitoring and accountability, significant progress has been made in this regard, especially in the public sector. For example, the percentage of women in senior management positions in the public service increased from 13% in 1998 to 42% in 2017. Gender and gender statistics are not just about women. Whereas the term sex refers to a biological male/female classification, the word gender connotes more than that. It encapsulates social and cultural differences, and also includes how an individual views him-/herself. The term “gender role” relates to society’s concept of how men and women are expected to act. Gender stereotypes form the basis of sexism, or the prejudiced beliefs that value males over females or vice versa. Gender inequality refers to the unequal treatment and/or perceptions of inequality of men in relation to women or vice versa.
Even though there are instances where discrimination occurs against men, more often than not women are at a disadvantage. This is manifested in, for example, preferential access to work and/or certain jobs for men, unequal pay for equal work, bullying, domination and violence against women, selective abortion of female children, and preferential household expenditure on boys’ education.
While great strides have been made towards equality for women, there still remains great challenges; there is a need for continued measurement and policy and programmatic interventions.
In addition to monitoring progress with regard to the situation of men and women, an understanding of gender gaps in the following key areas will move the agenda of leaving no one behind forward:
Market participation – Equal representation of both sexes in the labour force is important; gender equality allows for an increase in the number of women participating in the work force, which expands the labour force and can contribute towards increased economic productivity and growth.
Resource equity – Indicators of men’s and women’s asset ownership and control are important measures used to monitor gender equality. This is achieved when people are able to access and enjoy the same rewards, resources and opportunities regardless of whether they are male or female. Women’s ownership of and control over resources is one of the key elements of empowerment.
Governance – Gender equality in positions of decision-making, as well as political representation, are important not only from an empowerment perspective, but also to ensure that issues affecting women are considered during policy formulation, planning and programme/project implementation.
Stats SA publishes a wide range of statistics in various reports and publications, highlighting the challenges experienced by women and men in South Africa as measured through household surveys and censuses conducted by Stats SA, as well as other sources.read more »
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) are the two primary measures of inflation for South Africa. Both indicators are published on a monthly basis.The Consumer Price Index tracks the rate of change in the prices of goods and services purchased by consumers. The headline CPI is used as the inflation target measure which guides the South African Reserve Bank on the setting of interest rates.
The Producer Price Index tracks the rate of change in the prices charged by producers of goods. Stats SA publishes PPIs for different industries with the PPI for final manufactured goods being the headline PPI. Additional PPIs are compiled for Agriculture, forestry and fishing; Mining and quarrying; Electricity and water; Intermediate manufactured goods; Imports and Exports; and Construction.
The PPI is widely used by businesses as a contract escalator and as a general indicator of inflationary pressures in the economy.
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