For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Bridget Lepere.

Making headlines: Government bill will prevent politicians from being heads of department, South Africa ranks 7th on global crime index and, hundreds of thousands of grant beneficiaries switching to Shoprite

Government bill will prevent politicians from being heads of department

Shooting down the Democratic Alliance's so-called "End cadre deployment bill", the African National Congress argued the bill was "undesirable" because the executive has similar legislation in the works.

Last Tuesday, the National Assembly voted on the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration's report on the Public Administration Laws General Amendment Bill, a private member's bill introduced by DA MP Leon Schreiber in 2021, which he held up as the "cure for cadre deployment".

Only the ANC and Pan African Congress's sole MP voted against the Bill.

The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public and Administration, ANC MP Teliswa Mgweba, said all legislative and policy reforms in the public service are consistent with and complement the Public Administration Laws General Amendment Bill.

South Africa ranks 7th on global crime index

South Africa is ranked seventh out of 193 countries on a scale that measures criminality, according to new data on organised crime.

The second edition of the Organised Crime Index, produced by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, gives a criminality score on a scale of one to 10, where one indicates low levels of crime and 10 indicates high levels of crime.

The index says that South Africa climbed 12 spots up the criminality index, from 19th in 2021 with a criminality score of 6.63, to seventh place in 2023 with a score of 7.18.

According to the index, South Africa grapples with various forms of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, child labour, domestic servitude, organ smuggling, child brides and labour exploitation.

Hundreds of thousands of grant beneficiaries switching to Shoprite

At least 100 000 additional social grant payments are flowing into Shoprite's Money Market accounts every month as beneficiaries grapple with dysfunction in Postbank's system.

Jean Olivier, general manager of Shoprite's financial services division, said that the retailer had noticed a surge in beneficiary payments recently as system glitches at Postbank intensified.

Postbank is the preferred social grant distributor for the SA Social Security Agency, and last week there were reports that 600 000 recipients received only a portion of their money, or no money at all.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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