First Take SA

The vaccination drive targeting over half a million teachers and support staff is expected to rollout from TODAY. The Department of Basic Education is aiming to innoculate 582-thousand teachers including administrative staff, volunteer food handlers and cleaners in both the public and private education sector. Its goal is to complete the exercise by 8th July as more vaccines are expected to be ava...

The National Prosecuting Authority's Investigating Directorate currently has 16 cases involving billions of rands lost due to corruption, in several courts across the country. It also has restraint orders for over two billion rands on assets belonging to some of the accused. In the case against former Transnet Board member and Gupta family associate, Iqbal Sharma, the restraint order for assets is...

Military medics have been deployed to Gauteng as the province's hospitals buckle under pressure due to rising Corona virus cases. The number of new Covid-19 infections has already breached the cases recorded during the second wave by over 2000 . An interim 60-member SANDF team of medics has been brought in to help with staff shortages in hospitals.

The World Health Organization (WHO) YESTERDAY announced that South Africa will be the first location to establish a mRNA technology transfer hub for COVID 19 vaccines. The WHO says South Africa could be producing vaccines in nine to 12 months. Two local companies will work together, Biovac as a developer and Afrigen as the manufacturer. Technology transfer hubs are training facilities where the te...

Parents have ambivalent views on the announcement that schools are to remain open. The Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga made announcement at the weekend. Pressure was mounting for schools to close as the country experiences a third wave of Covid-19 infections

Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, YESTRDAY hosted a webinar on the rights of fathers in the protection of children. The event was in line with fathers day. It also sought to encourage fathers to be part of their children's lives and upbringing.

Although there are laws in place for the rehabilitation of mines, many mine operators still leave their non-operational shafts unattended. This has led to an increase in illegal mining activities. Billions of rand have been set aside to ensure that proper close-out procedures are followed, yet the shafts remain open.

Zambia's founding father and former President, Kenneth Kaunda, has died in the capital Lusaka at the age of 97. He was hospitalised last week with pneumonia. Kaunda led Zambia to independence from Britain - ruling the country from 1964 until 1991. He was also instrumental in assisting other Southern African countries gain independence from minority rule.

Labour Federation, COSATU, says it will continue to put pressure on both the National Treasury and Parliament to speed up the processing of amendments to the Pension Act to allow workers in financial distress limited access to their pensions. COSATU says it made this call last year after witnessing the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, especially on workers

Some political parties say there is nothing to celebrate this Youth Day if more than 60 percent of young people are unemployed and trapped in poverty. South Africa commemorated the day when thousands of young people rose up against the apartheid government, 45 years ago. Until 1994, many of them were killed in the struggle while hundreds of others left the country to join liberation armies of the...

The situation remains tense in Harrismith in the Free State following a violent protest YESTERDAY. A truck was set alight on the N3 during the protest leading to a temporary closure of the busy highway. Residents are calling for president Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene as they want to be removed from Maluti-A-Phofung municipality due to lack of service delivery.

Concerns over keeping to COVID-19 regulations under level 3 continue to rise as thousands of people flock to the KwaHlathi area in LadySmith, KwaZulu-Natal. This follows a visit by the province's Economic Development MEC, Ravi Pillay who called on people to stop the digging of what they believe to be diamonds. Pillay was leading a fact finding visit with a team of national government officials, th...

Political parties have given mixed reactions to President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement that government will be amending Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act for the energy sector. This means that private companies have permission to generate up to one hundred megawatts of electricity and sell it, without a license. The announcement comes as the country is currently experiencing rolling b...

EFF leader Julius Malema has given the Basic Education Department seven days to close down all schools or face a forceful total shutdown. He was briefing the media in Johannesburg earlier YESTERDAY (thursday 10 June). Malema also condemned the fact that the IEC has decided to go ahead with the 2021 local elections while former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke is still evaluating the impact of...

Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says the decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to ease red tape for independent power producers to generate power will not benefit the poor. Ramaphosa has announced the amendment of schedule 2 of the electricity regulation to increase Nersa's licensing threshold for embedded generation projects up to 100 megawatts.

The private health care sector is also feeling pressure on its bed capacity due to rising Covid-19 infections. In one Gauteng private hospital, fifty percent of the beds are occupied by Covid patients. Patients in a less severe condition, are sent home with oxygen tanks to create bed space. Gauteng accounts for over 50-percent of the total cases reported in the country.

The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) says the current load shedding crisis facing the country will have a huge impact on economic recovery. Eskom this afternoon announced it will be implementing stage four load shedding because of additional breakdowns of a unit in Medupi and high winter demand. The Chamber which represents more than 20 thousand small and medium sized busines...

Former Transnet board member and Gupta family associate, Iqbal Sharma, will remain in custody after the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court turned down his bail application. The state opposed bail citing that Sharma presents an overwhelming flight risk and that he has the means and incentive to flee the country. And that he failed to disclose 265-million rand held in his United Arab Emirates' Issar Gl...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has placed beleaguered Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on special leave. The news broke while the Minister was visiting the Northern Cape YESTERDAY (Tuesday), to assess progress in the vaccination roll-out in the province. The Minister, who is facing allegations of involvement in the irregular issuing of tenders by his department, visited two vaccination sites in Kimberle...

Foods and beverages group, Clover South Africa, has cited the lack of service delivery as a reason behind the decision to relocate its biggest cheese production plant from Lichtenburg in the North West province, to Queensburgh in Durban. Clover says the Lichtenburg factory has been experiencing water and power outages, and the surrounding infrastructure has not been maintained by the municipality...

The case brought by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane against National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise and others entered its second day YESTERDAY in the Western Cape High Court. Modise's legal representative, Advocate Andrew Breitenbach sought to counter arguments made by Mkhwebane's counsel Advocate Dali Mpofu. These included the suggestion that parliament was not entitled to add details to the...

The ANC says its National Working Committee will decide on the future of MKMVA and the MK National Council. This follows reports that the two bodies representing ex-combatants of the ANC's armed wing have been disbanded and collapsed into a single entity representing all former ANC soldiers. This has angered MKMVA members who say the decision hasn't been communicated with them.

The Tshwane University of Technology --TUT -- has suspended all contact classes after another student died of COVID-19. The student, who lived on campus, died last week. She is the second TUT student to succumb to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic

Workers in South Africa's education sector will not receive their vaccines this week. That's because the United States medicines regulator, the Food and Drug Administration or FDA", has not yet given the go ahead for the Johnson&Johnson jabs to be released. J&J has offered South Africa 480-thousand doses of the vaccine -- a batch with a shelf life of three weeks. The government made a decision to...

The Gauteng traffic police are asking the public for help to identify the syndicate responsible for the spiking of vehicles on Gauteng's roads. This comes after a shoot-out with vehicle spiking suspects over the weekend. One suspect was shot and killed, while two others escaped into the bushes next to the N1 highway, close to the Stormvoël offramp in Pretoria.