First Take SA

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) has welcomed the resignation of Transnet group CEO Portia Derby. According to the state owned company, Derby will be stepping down from her position at the end of October. She has been group CEO of the troubled logistics giant since 2020. Transnet has faced backlash from business - especially in the mining sector - for the inefficient l...

Water utility Rand Water is implementing water shifting as an interim measure to stabilise the low reservoir levels. Reservoir levels in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Tshwane municipalities have been low for weeks, with water tankers deployed in many areas. The Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu has encouraged water utilities to implement water shifting in Gauteng due to water supply issues...

Former South African Airways board chairperson Dudu Myeni and her co-accused are facing charges relating to the defunct Bosasa. Myeni and former Sondolo IT director, Trevor Mathenjwa were arrested on Friday and made a brief appearance in the Richards Bay Magistrate's Court on fraud and corruption charges. The pair were granted R10 000 bail each. For more on this, Elvis Presslin spoke to Sindisiwe...

The Economic Freedom Fighters in the Western Cape will be protesting against the impoundment of taxis by local authorities in the province. The party is calling for the release of impounded taxis. The City of Cape Town and the South African National Taxi Council, Santaco have been at loggerheads since August after dozens of taxis were impounded - leading to Santaco staging an eight-day stayaway. M...

 The Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal will today host a Local Government Summit. The party says the summit is aimed at ensuring municipalities work for the betterment of citizens. The Chairperson of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) in KZN, Thami Ntuli and the Mayor of uMngeni Municipality Chris Pappas are among those who will deliver key-note addresses. The summit comes a...

It's  time to take a look at the current top African economic stories.....Elvis Preslin spoke to Victor Kgomoeswana, author of Africa Is Open For Business and Africa Bounces Back. Victor is also the Executive Director for Marketing and Communication at the University of Limpopo

Parliament has been forced to postpone the first day of the start of the preliminary hearing lodged against a number of EFF members after the initiator for the process decided to withdraw. The establishment of the process aims at investigating whether the implicated MPs have indeed breached the Powers, Privileges and Immunities Of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, after EFF MPs stormed t...

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union, NEHAWU will today march to the Social Development department In Pretoria over claims of nepotism. The Union is opposing an alleged attempt by Minister Lindiwe Zulu to reappointment Linton Mchunu - her suspected close ally - as director-general for the Department. Mchunu previously served as Zulu's chief of staff during her tenure as Small B...

Medical legal claims against the Health department are showing a significant increase.  That is according to the Office of the Auditor General.  The office of the AG and the department, led by the deputy minister, Dr. Sibongiseni Dhlomo, briefed Parliament's Select Committee on Appropriations on the impact of medical negligence claims on provincial health budgets and mitigations on medical legal c...

Deputy President, Paul Mashatile, has called on engineers to help government tackle infrastructure challenges made worse by destructive weather patterns. He delivered a keynote address at the 9th United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Africa Engineering Week, which got underway with an engineering conference in Pretoria. South Africa has experienced disasters linked to...

Eleven people are confirmed dead due to a severe weather system, that hit the Western Cape.  According to police reports four of the victims were children aged between 7 and 12 years old.  With heavy rains and strong winds subsiding, clean up assessments and repairs are underway across in the province.  This while many roads remain inaccessible and dangerous. The Western Cape Department of Educati...

The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape has called for  the establishment of a provincial commission of inquiry into state capture in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The party has written to Premier Oscar Mabuyane requesting an independent commission to Investigate alleged state capture in the municipality by politically connected Individuals. The party has given the premier until Friday...

The 32-year-old mayor of the uMngeni Muncipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands - Chris Pappas - has been announced as the Da's KZN Premier candidate in the 2024 elections. Pappas was part of the campaign team which ensured a 42 vote victory over the ANC in 2021. This landed the party it's first municipality that it controls outright in the province. Having built a reputation as a hands-on mayor, P...

The Special Investigating Unit, SIU will probe allegations of maladministration and corruption In the City of Tshwane. President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation authorising the SIU to investigate allegations of corruption relating to the failed Rooiwal waste water treatment plant. The multimillion-rand tender, which was awarded to controversial businessman Edwin Sodi is suspected to have pos...

Emergency services are on high alert as heavy rains and flooding persist in the Western Cape. Heavy rainfall and gale force winds battered parts of the province, causing flooding and damage to infrastructure since the start of the long weekend. This after the South African Weather Service had issued a level 9 warning of disruptive rain and gale force winds. For more on this, Elvis Presslin spoke t...

Elvis Presslin looks at the current top African economic stories with Victor Kgomoeswana, author of Africa Is Open For Business and Africa Bounces Back. Victor is also the Executive Director for Marketing and Communication at the University of Limpopo

The South African Federation of Trade Unions, SAFTU will host the BRICS Trade Union Forum Dialogue in Durban, KwaZulu Natal today. The annual conference which consists of union federations from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will discuss matters of global political and economic interest that affect workers. The BRICS Trade Union Forums follows the recent BRICS Summit in Sandton. The...

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) will be hosting a policy dialogue on "School Dropout of Adolescent Girls during Pregnancy and in the Postpartum Period Policy Dialogue". The dialogue is informed by CGE's recently published research report exploring reasons for school dropout by adolescent girls during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. The research study investigated the social, cultu...

Road Accident Fund CEO Collins Letsoalo says the fund cannot afford to pay out foreign nationals who suffer injuries during accidents on the country's roads. He says the government-funded scheme, which provides compensation to victims of motor vehicle accidents, cannot provide cover to foreign nationals as it is simply unsustainable. The Fund published a directive last year stating lump-sum paymen...

Land invasion in rural areas, crime, mining licenses and contracts are some of the issues that will be tackled today when a conference hosted by the Mpumalanga department of Co-operative Governance and the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders gets underway. The conference will also address the issuing of liquor licenses in outlets under traditional leadership. This comes amid the recent inciden...

Elvis Presslin takes a look at the current top African economic stories with Victor Kgomoeswana, author of Africa Is Open For Business and Africa Bounces Back. Victor is also the Executive Director for Marketing and Communication at the University of Limpopo

The South African Medical Research Council has been awarded a multi-million rand grant to test and develop a novel HIV vaccines in Africa. The U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID has invested approximately 867-million-Rand for a trial of a preventive HIV vaccine. The clinical trial has begun candidate enrollment in the United States and South Africa. The announcement comes at a time t...

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is demanding that power utility Eskom must be given 70% allocation in the renewable energy space. NUMSA expressed concerns that workers will get left behind if they do not occupy all spaces of the debate.  The union says it also has questions, why government is rushing to implement the transition in South Africa, when the carbon emissions...

Parliament's Justice and Correctional Services Committee will go ahead with impeachment proceedings against Judge Nkola Motata and Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe. Both judges have been found guilty of gross misconduct by the Judicial Conduct Tribunal.  Motata, for a drunk driving case in 2007 and Hlophe for influencing two retired Constitutional court judges in 2008 in the matter involvi...

Gauteng police are investigating an incident where at least 90 learners were hospitalised after consuming muffins laced with dagga. The learners from Pulamadibogo Primary school in Soshanguve, North of Pretoria were rushed to various medical facilities after experiencing nausea, stomach cramps and vomiting after consuming the so-called space cookies. Police visited the school and subsequently, a s...