NSPCA welcomes long-awaited reform for lion captivity breeding ban

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CAPE TOWN - The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) has  welcomed the announcement by Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George, on the imminent publication of the Lion Prohibition Notice banning new captive lion breeding facilities.   This long-awaited reform marks a pivotal milestone in dismantling an industry built on systemic cruelty, reflecting years of legal action, public advocacy, and inspections by the NSPCA. The prohibition confirms what the NSPCA has long exposed: the captive lion industry has operated largely unabated for decades, inflicting severe animal welfare violations, damaging South Africa’s conservation reputation, and flouting constitutional obligations to protect sentient beings. While limited to new facilities, this ban sends a clear signal that the commodification of lions for tourism, hunting, and the bone trade is no longer defensible. The NSPCA’s decade-long investigations have laid bare the industry’s brutality. O...

President Cyril Ramaphosa commends Matric Class of 2024


PRETORIA - President Cyril Ramaphosa has commended the Matric Class of 2024 on multiple unprecedented achievements that bear testimony to learners’ personal commitment and advances in the basic education sector.
 
In 2024, 615 429 learners passed the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, surpassing the pass rate at any other time in the country’s history.
 
The national pass rate for the National Senior Certificate increased from 82.9% in 2023 to 87.3% last year.
 
Nearly half of learners who wrote the NSC examinations received a Bachelor pass, while nearly 320 000 distinctions were achieved.
 
President Ramaphosa said: “The achievements of the Class of 2024 are a proud contribution to and evidence of our progress as a nation during 30 years of freedom and democracy.
 
“These results reinforce our resolute development of our nation’s most valuable resource, our young people. They also provide proof that we are undoing apartheid’s planned legacy of intergenerational indignity, disadvantage and poverty for the majority of South Africans.
 
“These results demonstrate the agency, resilience and pride of the youth of our nation in creating a better future for themselves and for all of us.
 
“In the public and private basic education sectors, our learners, teachers and parents or caregivers deserve our appreciation, alongside school governing bodies, partners in the private sector, trade unions and academia.
 
“The doors of learning have swung wide open and we will celebrate each new generation that passes through these doors successfully.
 
“As Government and our partners in civil society, we must all work together to ensure that learners such as the Class of 2024 are able to take up as many opportunities as we can create for them to succeed.
 
“This must include the space and inspiration for young people to set their own course as entrepreneurs, innovators, inventors and other embodiments of creativity and self-reliance.
 
“The achievements of the Class of 2024 must also sharpen our resolve to attend to challenges affecting the education sector and our economic performance. We are confident the Class of 2024 will itself produce some of the answers to these challenges.”

Source: The Presidency

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