First Take SA

he Gauteng Health Department is concerned by the high number of unnatural deaths in the province. This as close to five-thousand people have been killed in the 2018/19 financial year through gunshots, being stabbed and through motor vehicle accidents. Assault cases have also resulted in the death of over a thousand people while nine-hundred and seventy committed suicide. Gauteng Health MEC, Dr Ban...

The Black First Land First movement has officially been de-registered as a political party. This after the Electoral Court yesterday rejected the BLF's application to appeal its de-registration. In June, the Independent Electoral Commission ruled in favour of the Freedom Front Plus to have the movement officially scrapped from the list of the country's political parties. The IEC says this was base...

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) says it welcomes Mboweni's announcement that State owned Enterprises will no longer get bailouts, but loans repayable with interest. Outa has also reacted to government's decision to retain the e-tolling system in its current form.

The South African Growth outlook has been revised down by government. It now expects the economy to grow at 0-point-5 percent this year compared to 1-point-5 percent that was predicted in February this year. Growth is projected to slowly pick up to 1-point-7 percent in 2022. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has blamed weaker investment, lower business activity and declining global growth as some of t...

The City of Johannesburg has admitted that they have yet to ascertain what information cyber attackers have gained access to when they hacked their ICT systems. The attack is understood to have breached the city's network and resulted in authorised access to its systems. Those claming responsibility have demanded that the City of Johannesburg pays four bitcoins valued at approximately 500-thousand...

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's 2019 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement will be tabled on tomorrow. The minister is expected to outline government's revenue and expenditure plans for the next two years. The minister is experiencing huge challenges which are mainly political in a slow growing economy. Revenue collection has been very low and economists predict a revenue shortfall as South African...

Newly elected DA parliamentary leader, John Steenhuisen says there still remains hope for change in South Africa through the Democratic Alliance. Steenuhisen was elected unopposed to replace former party leader, Mmusi Maimane after he resigned from the party and all its political positions. Steenhuisen, who had also stepped down as party chief chip following Maimane's resignation says his main pri...

The South African National Editors Forum - SANEF - has implored Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe to reveal the names of the journalists he says he paid to make a story about an alleged relationship with a young woman disappear. In a story carried by Sunday World newspaper YESTRDAY, Mantashe, when contacted by the paper to comment on allegations that he was involved in an affair with a you...

Springboks have booked themselves a place in the finals of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. This follows a nail biting win against Wales yesterday. The narrow win by the green and gold sent shockwaves across the country as Bok supporters now look ahead to a clash with England at the weekend. President Cyril Ramaphosa will also be making his way to Japan where he will be hoping to follow in the footsteps...

A number of opposition leaders say they are not surprised at the dramatic developments within the Democratic Alliance. Wednesday (23/10) witnessed the resignations of party leader Mmusi Maimane and Federal Executive Chairperson Athol Trollip. Earlier this week, Herman Mashaba announced his resignation as Johannesburg Mayor and his official exit from the party. While some party leaders believe this...

Results of Botswana's general elections are expected later today after counting and verification of ballots continued overnight.. Scores of people flocked to voting stations across the country to cast their ballots yesterday (Wednesday). The Independent Electoral Commission says voting began without any major incidents. Some political analysts say the elections are expected to be the first genuine...

Tensions are rising between e-hailing taxi operators in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, after taxi owners entered the market with the launch of a new operation called YoTaxi. There have been reports that the new kid on the block has warned Uber and Bolt drivers to stop their operations in the province and be incorporated into their service. In a video that has since gone viral on social media, a man believ...

Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula has urged passengers to not panic over yesterday's grounding, promising that operations will return to normal by no later than the end of this week.

Commitment to a pro-poor agenda and patriotism, are some of the reasons outgoing Joburg Mayor, Herman Mashaba has given for his resignation as both Mayor and DA member. Mashaba made the announcement at a media briefing at the Johannesburg council chambers on Monday. This follows the election of Helen Zille to the party's powerful Federal Council Charperson position on Sunday. Two weeks ago, Mashab...

Helen Zille has once again beaten Athol Trollip in a leadership contest becoming the Democratic Alliance's Federal Council Chairperson. Zille, who came ahead of two other senior DA members, takes over from James Selfe who served for 19 years. Zille's new position, is said, comes with an incredible amount of power and influence within the party. Speaking to the media shortly after the results annou...

The residents of Makhanda Eastern Cape, formerly known as Grahamstown, are taking government to court over the raw sewage that continues to flood the town. The residents say the municipality has failed to respond to reported incidents. The town has also been facing a water shortage crisis.

The Democratic Alliance is expected to have a new Federal Council chairperson occupying the seat of its highest decision making body between congress by Sunday. The party will hold its highly contested council election at the weekend, with former party leader, Helen Zille as one of the front runners to replace James Selfe

Negotiators from the UK reached an agreement with officials in Brussels on Thursday that could pave the way for Britain to finally break 46 years of ties with the EU. For both sides, the agreement is a chance to move their political agendas on and to start focusing on their future trading relationship. The European Union said that they believe the deal can be ratified by the end of October and cal...

Drugs seem to be highly accessible in prisons across South Africa. In August a search of the Pollsmoor prison found drugs, cellphones and dangerous weapons in prisoner cells. The light is also on prison wardens following the arrest of a warden at the prison who was in possession of mandrax pills. In the latest incident, the issue of illicit substances in prisons also came to the fore when the now...

The confessed child rapist, Nicholas Ninow, has recited a poem to his victim in the High Court in Pretoria as a way of apologising for raping her. Twenty-one-year-old Ninow cried as he read the poem as well as a letter to the family of the seven-year old victim. Ninow testified in mitigation of sentence. He was found guilty of raping the girl who was six at the time, at a Dros Restaurant in Pretor...

Some of our listeners say Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is 60 himself and should start the early retirement process by leading by example.

Former South African editor and journalist, Nic Dawes (doors), is now the Media Deputy-Executive Director at Human Rights Watch in New York. Dawes says a lot of things they reported on while he was in SA have come to pass and rebuilding the country will take a while.

There continues to be widespread concerns over shortages of critical psychiatric drugs for mental health patients in Gautend and across the country. The drugs in short supply are (include Fluoxetine and Citalopram) both critical inhibitors that ease symptoms of moderate to severe depression. Mental health patients are being told that essential drugs are in short supply or inadequate in supply and...

The United Nations is sounding alarm bells over the high number of children that are suffering the consequences of poor diets and a food system that is failing them. In a report released by UNICEF today (tuesday) called 'The State of the Worlds Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition' extensive reasearch has uncovered that at least 1 in 3 children under five is either undernourished or overwei...

Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, says his department will seek to assist convicted Fees Must fall activist Khanya Cekeshe with an urgent application for a presidential pardon. This comes after the Johannesburg Magistrates Court dismissed Cekeshe's application to appeal his conviction. The court also dismissed his application for bail. The student activist was sentenced...