Members of the public have until 7 June 2013 to submit comments on the Draft Amendment Bill of the Lotteries Act of 1997.

Click here to read the article on Polity's website

According to the Minister of Trade and Industry (the dti) Dr Rob Davies, the amendment Bill followed several improvements already made in the administration of the National Lotteries Board. The Bill proposes the appointment of permanent distribution agencies. Davies is of the view that this will address the lack of quorums in the distribution agencies which affect their efficiency.

“To address this we will appoint fulltime distribution agencies because we discovered that part-time distribution agencies do not work. Due to their workloads, there had been unsatisfactory delays from the time that applications were received until funds were distributed. This is caused by the fact that the members are appointed on a part time base and sometimes they struggle to form a quorum. This will be something of the past once the Bill is implemented,” said Davies.

By Alexander O'Riordan

Click here to read the article on SACSIS website

On April 30th 2013, the Mail and Guardian reported that the United Kingdom will phase out aid to South Africa. While the press has implied that the cuts are due to budget reasons, this is not at all the case.

When David Cameron was elected to power he was elected partly on the promise that he would cut spending in every government department except aid, education and health care. In keeping with his commitments, just over six months ago Prime Minister Cameron pledged to increase the UK’s spending on international aid and, in fact, in the government’s own budget aid is projected to grow by 38% between 2012 and 2015 and, in fact, the UK’s aid budget has increased almost 50% since the year before the financial crisis.

So, what is happening is not about budget austerity but rather about changing priorities from using aid to build relationships with developing countries as a whole to focussing on lower income countries and directing the majority of its resources to fragile or conflict prone states. As evidence of these shifting priorities, the Mail and Guardian quotes the UK Development Secretary, Justine Greening, as explaining "It is right that our relationship [with South Africa] changes to one of mutual cooperation and trade.”

By Nicole Copley (BA LLB LLM-tax) (Non practising attorney) Specialist legal consultant to NGOs.

The NGO sector loves a crisis, and fresh out of the mass NPO deregistration and re-registration calamity, panic is spreading again, this time about the supposed ‘deadline’ of 30 April 2013 for former section 21 companies (now called Non Profit Companies) to adopt new Memoranda of Incorporation (what the new Companies Act now calls the founding documents of all companies).

It is not true that NPCs (or any companies) have to adopt a new MOI, and it is also not true that it has to be done by 30 April.

Click here to read the article on Thought Leader's website

The crisis of capital, the rise of the Occupy movement and the crash of Southern Europe have brought the problem of income inequality into mainstream consciousness in the West for the first time in many decades. Now everyone is talking about how the richest 1% have captured such a disproportionate share of wealth in their respective countries. This point came crashing home once again when an animated video illustrating wealth disparities in the United States went viral last month. When an infographic catches the attention of tens of millions of internet users, you know it’s hitting a nerve.

But the global scale of inequality remains largely absent from this story. So we at / The Rules decided to put together a video that would give it some attention.

While this information is not new, it is still startling. In the video we say that the richest 300 people on earth have more wealth than the poorest 3 billion — almost half the world’s population. We chose those numbers because it makes for a clear and memorable comparison, but in truth the situation is even worse: the richest 200 people have about $2.7 trillion, which is more than the poorest 3.5 billion people, who have only $2.2 trillion combined. It’s very difficult to wrap one’s mind around such extreme figures.

But we wanted to do more than just illustrate the brutal extent of inequality; we also wanted to demonstrate that it has been getting progressively worse. A recent Oxfam report shows that “the richest 1% has increased its income by 60% in the last 20 years, with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process,” while the income of the top 0.01% has seen even greater growth.

SAN FRANCISCO—April 18, 2013. The Global Philanthropy Forum (GPF) announced today the formation of its most recent regional affiliate, the African Philanthropy Forum (APF). Like the GPF, the APF will take the form of a peer-learning network of philanthropists — grant-makers and social investors — committed to advancing equity and opportunity in the developing world.

APF members in particular will work to contribute to the expansion of strategic philanthropy by Africans in Africa, while taking part in the GPF’s global community.

“Twenty-seven out of 30 of Africa’s largest economies are experiencing extraordinary economic growth. This represents an enormous opportunity to advance the social good,” said Jane Wales, president and CEO of Global Philanthropy Forum. “But that growth, while robust, is not always broad-based.

And development, while rapid, is not always inclusive. And so poverty persists. These generous African men and women — many at the height of their careers — are determined to change this reality and ensure that the benefits of economic opportunity are more evenly shared.”