First Take SA

Agri South Africa has urged farmers and the community to act within the confines of the law during the court case of two murder accused in the Senekal Magistrate Court today. The call follows threats of more chaos by farming community should the two accused get bail. Sekwetje Mahlamba and Sekola Matlaletsa are expected to apply for bail following their arrest two weeks ago. They are accused of the...

Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa's much- anticipated Reconstruction and Economic Recovery Plan has largely been welcomed by organized business and labour. But the government's capacity to implement the plan remains a major cause for concern

The events that led to the reinstatement of former Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama will continue to dominate the state capture commission this morning. Former Transnet Board chairperson, Mafika Mkwanazi, is expected to testify at the judicial Commission today. He played a key role in Gama's reinstatement and settlement agreement.

Opposition political parties say there is not much new in President Cyril Ramaphosa's economic recovery plan announced in parliament. Parties say he has expanded the same programmes he announced in his state of the Nation Address earlier this year. They have also questioned whether there is any capacity and willingness to implement the commitment..

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the Special Covid-19 Grant will be extended further by three months. The President was unveiling government's reconstruction and economic recovery plan during a joint sitting of Parliament yesterday. The plan consists of four priority interventions, which include a massive rollout of infrastructure, energy generation, employment stimulus and industrial...

Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi has spent his first night behind bars after he was denied bail by the Commercial Crimes court sitting in Palm Ridge, Johannesburg YESTERDAY. His legal team tried to persuade the court to grant him bail - citing health reasons. However advocate Arno Rossouw from the Investigating Directorate told the court that Agrizzi was a huge flight risk because of his substanti...

The Special Investigating Unit says it has briefed legal counsel with the aim to recover eight billion rand with regard to six contracts at Eskom. These include three point seven billion rand where the contract to supply coal by Gupta-owned Brakfontein mine was set aside. The SIU head, Andy Mothibi has told Scopa that they are hoping to have a further four billion rand worth of contracts set aside...

The Nigerian Citizen Association of South Africa in Gauteng will TODAY embark on a march against crime, human trafficking, gender-based violence and drugs. Organisers of the march say they will converge at Peter Rose Park in Johannesburg as they seek to stand in solidarity with victims of crime all over South Africa. In September South Africans, under the banner of Action for Change, marched to th...

A witness broke down in tears at the North West High Court, when relating the incidents that led to the death of his police colleagues, three days before the 2012 Marikana massacre. Abraham Masinya, who was a video operator for the Public Order Police Unit related to the court, the incidents that led to the hacking of his colleagues Sello Lepaku and Tsietsi Monene. They were hacked with pangas and...

Some opposition parties have mixed expectations from President Cyril Ramaphosa's address during a Joint Sitting of Parliament tomorrow(Thursday). These include,- how government will intervene to avoid the collapse of the SABC, Eskom and to address the unemployment crisis. The President has written to National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise,- calling for the joint sitting to outline the country's e...

ActionSA President Herman Mashaba says the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) policy must be scrapped and reiterated his party's call for reform of labour laws. Mashaba delivered a media virtual address about the party's economic recovery plan post Covid-19. He said this was in light of a failure of both the government and opposition parties to offer any form of leadership and hope on...

Deputy National Commissioner for Human Resources management, Lieutenant General Bonang Mgwenya has been granted 20-thousand rand bail at the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court. Mgwenya is facing charges of corruption, fraud and money laundering for her alleged role in ensuring a contract to supply emergency warning equipment for the South African Police Service in 2017 went to Instrumentation for Traff...

Former Free State Human Settlements MEC Mosebenzi Zwane has denied that he had a hand in selecting contractors for the province's 2010 1billion rands Housing Project. Zwane who was testifying for the second time at the State Capture Commission explained how it came to pass that over 300 contractors bid for the project, some of whom had been disqualified from an earlier disputed open tender process...

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula says the March by Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) in Gauteng, is retaliation for his actions in cleaning the rot at PRASA. In a statement, Mbalula said this was with particular reference to the termination of security contracts that have achieved the opposite of what they were meant to deliver. The association marched in Johannesburg on Mond...

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has stopped payments of personal protective equipment to service providers in the Free State. This amid SIU's investigation on PPE scandal in the province.

Former Eskom Board Member, Venete Klein, has told the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture that she recalls that former Eskom board member, Ben Ngubane, was persistently on the phone with the former Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, before a decision was made to include Eskom's former Financial Director, Tsholofelo Molefe, on the list of executives who would be suspended in 2015. Ot...

Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, says illegal schools will be shut down and those operating them will be held to account. YESTERDAY (thursday 8 October), Lesufi and the police closed down the Wisdom private school in Ivory Park, east of Johannesburg. According to the department, the school is not registered, is operating illegally and is employing undocumented foreign nationals as teachers.

The ANC's KwaZulu-Natal Integrity Commission has begun its work, summoning party members implicated in various crimes to appear before it. The commission is headed by a team of well-respected veterans, among them Sipho Magwaza, who chairs the commission in the province. Magwaza says those members who have already appeared before the commission have been co-operative.

Former Chief Financial Officer of the now-defunct VBS Mutual bank - Phillip Truter - has spent his first night in jail after he was sentenced yesterday to an effective 7 years imprisonment by the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sitting at the Palm Ridge Court on Gauteng's East Rand. Truter entered into a plea agreement with the state where he pleaded guilty to all six charges against him, incl...

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) wants the Special Tribunal, sitting at the Booysens Magistrates Court, to freeze the assets of contractors involved in the multi million rand Beitbridge Border fence contract. This relates to an advance payment of 21-point-8 million rand by the Public Works Department to two contractors. The contract was for the erection of the 40 kilometer Beitbridge border fe...

The head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Shamila Batohi, says time for impunity is over. Batohi briefed Parliament on the NPA 2019/20 and first quarter of 2020/21 Annual Report. She informed MPs that additional funding has enabled the biggest recruit drive in the history of the organisation, but cautioned that a reduction in resources could seriously hamper the fight against corruption goin...

One person has been arrested following a violent protest outside the Senekal magistrate's court on Tuesday (6 October). A group of farmers went on the rampage after two men appeared briefly in court in connection with the alleged murder of farm manager Brendin Horner last week. The police were overpowered by the group which stormed the building hours after the case was postponed.

Eighteen year old South African Climate Justice Activist Ayakha Melithafa says no one is going to survive climate change is actions is not taken now. Melithafa is one of the speakers who will participate in the 10th Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture today. Today also marks the 89th Birthday of Tutu.

Court proceedings at the Senekal Magistrate's Court in the Free State were yesterday disrupted by angry farmers, who overturned and burnt a police vehicle. The group also stormed the court building and damaged some property. The farmers were baying for the blood of two suspects -- who appeared in court in connection with the murder of farm manager -- Brandon Horner

Former Independent Consultant at Eskom, Nicholas Linnell revealed that he was appointed by former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni to head an inquiry into challenges facing Eskom which also included loadshedding. Linnell says on the 8th of March 2015 Myeni invited him to former President Jacob Zuma's official residence in Durban to discuss the details of the investigation into Eskom's affairs. Lin...