IDENTITY CRISIS IN SOUTH AFRICA

the issue of frodulant identity documents in south africa is bringing the country to a huge problem. peoples identiy documents are now being sold for sale in the streets by corrupt officials and people have to wait for years to get their id documents or it is either it has a fault http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/36-000-ID-book-mistakes-in-201011-20110623. the department faces a huge number of people who have problems with regards to their id's every year. we all know that in this country everything requies an id book aproval, but we still have people who are not working, applying for varsity or not being able to do  anything because of not having an id book.

peole go thruogh great lengths to get what they want. like the mother who fabricated her child's information to get grant money, by registering her child as her neighbours child and she gives her part of the money for their agreement http://mg.co.za/article/2011-11-18-fake-ids-a-matter-of-survival/. most of the people that suffer because of this are people who are in the rural areas, because they do not have access to information on how to obtain their id books. the question is what has their communiction department done to make sure that this gap between rural and ubarn areas is closed when it comes to information access?

the department has become inundated with inquiries from peoples who want to know when will they be able to get their id books. but they still have to wait for years to get a response or they have to go through legall routes and end up loosing a lot of money. The only time when the department of home affairs makes gives out identity documents on time is when there is an election on  the way. in february of 2010 the department closed down one of it s offices in johannesburg due to corruption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Home_Affairs_(South_Africa)#cite_note-3. a  number of staff mambers appeared in court in charges of corruption and bribery. the allegations included sales of fake passports. quesstion remains on how is deparment going to help people while it tries to curb the corruption that happens in its offices...  

Reregistration of Social Grants Says Goverment

Social grants has been one of the biggest problems that South Africa has been faced with in the past couple of years. the minister of finances  Pravin Gordhan announced on the 22 February 2012 that 15.6 million people,or 31% will receive social grants and this was expected to rise to 16.7 million in 2015. now social development mister Bathabile Dlamini announced that parents should re-register their children due to some misconducts that have been going on in the social grants system http://www.southafrica.info/about/social/grants-200212.htm.

the department is faced with a situation where the are parents who get grants for none existing children. this messes with the budget that is allocated to department.  a new system called biometric-base system will be conducted by the south African social security agency and it has two phases that will kick of from 1 march 2012, and the second phase from 1 June to 31 December 2012 to read more click here .

the question is why now all of a sudden? will it not affect the collecting process? when they were enrolling people for the grants was their communications department not in contact with the communications department of home affairs? this process will have an effect on people who are poor,because it will some how affect the collecting process and people will suffer due to the incompetence of the two departments. why did the communications department of social development not inform people about this in time so they can prepare, and not wait only when the system is already in place? their communication department has failed its duties to communicate the necessary information at the right time and will it come back with a strategy that will help the situation? will have to wait and see. if this is how the department thinks it will flush out corruption will just have to wait and see...      

E-TOLL'S NEGATIVE ENTRANCE

Even before its regime takes place, the E-Toll system has hit the headlines in different tabloids in an unpopular manner. The system is to take place on the 30 of April 2012, but the public feels that it should be scraped due to its high fees that wont be of much help to the tax payers. COSADTU feel that the tolls are very expensive and it is unfair for the road users to pay to use public roads, so government should fit the bill http://mwcnews.net/news/africa/17351-south-africans-strike.html.  

COSADTU went on a national strike on the 7 march 2012 that was against the E-Toll plans, to demonstrate for improved worker rights and against plans to introduce unpopular road tolls http://mwcnews.net/news/africa/17351-south-africans-strike.html. The South African national Road Agency Limited (SANRAL) has announce that anyone who does not want to pay will not be able to renew their vehicle licences without clearing their debt first http://mg.co.za/article/2012-03-16-road-agency-faces-an-uphill-battle/. The toll fees require users to pay per-kilometer-based on the N1, N3, N12 and R21or it can cost R550 per month for light cars. This will be like being forced to pay another amount of money to use the roads that were renovated by the tax payers money.

AA has developed stickers that are in the shape of a number plate with the words "NO TOLL GP" stressing out that the organisation is against the tolling system http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/aa-stickers-to-assist-e-toll-fight-1.1216741. The stickers are sold at R10 each and the money that will be raised will be used towards a planned legal action against SANRAL, said the spokesman of AA  Gary Ronald . Careful consideration with regards to the impact that this will have on the end user is still something that AA feels is being blatantly being disregarded said Ronald.

The government has vowed for this to go ahead as planned or people will dance to the music of the law. Jimmy Manye the ANC spokesman said that people should know that these tolls will be a fact of life and they are going nowhere http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/toll-transgressors-to-be-dealt-with-manyi-warns-2012-02-23. This shows that government does not sympathise with the people that brought it into power and it is willing to put them in jail when they start to exercise their rights against something that they do not want in their lives. Is our government really with us or against us???     

Alcohol Abuse seen as a Lifestyle

Alcohol comsupmtion has been taken as a form of lifestyle by the society and this has taken a negative impact on the youth of South Africa. The hamful usage of alcohol is a worldwide problem that results in millions of deaths, and hundreds of thousands of young lives lost. South Africa has one of the highest per capita drinking in the world, about 5.9 million men and 1.63 million women engage in risk drinking  http://www.alcohol.co.za/statistics.htm. As a result 60% of pedestrians are involved in road accidents and 48% of truama petients that are being admmited in Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on satudays are foud to be intoxicated     http://www.frontline.org.za/articles/alcohol_abuse%20in%20SA.htm. 

 

Alcohol industries are making billions from the comsuption of alcohol every year and the numbers of new consumers increase each year. Now the problem seems to be that the compaigns that warn people against the dangers of alcohol are not having an impact on what they are meant to do. In 2009 stats S.A found that 18-22 years olds were the heaviest drinkers in the country http://www.tnt.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=51. In 2010 when South Africa hosted the world cup this was when alcohol industries saw a rise in the consupmtion of alcohol and young people where engaging in binge drinking. It is esstimated that alcohol abuse costs companies R20 billon in lost productivity http://www.breathalysers.co.za/content.aspx?page=Public+Awareness.

Other things that alcohol impacts on are the risk of people having uprotected sex, fetal alcohol syndrom and a violent behaviour. It is only now that the goverment is trying to stop alcohol advertisements form airing, but is that going to have an effect seeing that the alcohol industry generates large amounts of money towards the economy. It sponsors all of the countries national teams and it also gives out busaries to a lot of young people. The task is going to a tough one seeing that this behaviour was detected in a later stage when this kind of drinking has taken over a lot of peoples lives. Are we going to be able to overcome this so-called "nice life" and grow up? Are We Ever Going To Stop Alcohol Abuse???