First Take SA

Testifying before the commission of inquiry into State Capture, former Treasurer at Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), Phetolo Ramosebudi claimed that he did not know if Gupta-linked Regiments Capital was entitled to 40-million-rands in fees which were paid to the firm for its involvement in financial instrument transactions between ACSA and Nedbank as well as Standard Bank. Ramosebudi worked f...

Higher Education Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande says the National Student Aid Financial Scheme (NSFAS) has received more than 650-thousand applications for the 2021 academic year. Nzimande says they expect the figure to increase by the end of the month, which is the closing date. Nzimande also says all universities are fully committed to completing the 2020 academic year by mid-March 2021. This follo...

Hundreds of SABC employees are expected to converge at the Johannesburg Labour Court TODAY as worker's union, BEMAWU seeks an urgent court interdict to stop the retrenchment processes at the public broadcaster. The union wants the SABC board to not only withdraw all notices of redundancy that were issued to employees but also to restart consultations with all relevant stakeholders before Sections...

The Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, is expected to lead an inter-ministerial task team in the Nelson Mandela bay metro TODAY as part of an all out campaign to curb the rapid spread of the corona virus in the city. The Metro has in recent weeks become a Covid-19 hotspot and nearly half the new cases reported nationally, coming from here. The focus will be on testing, tracing and awareness as non-...

Government has announced that it will soon be reviving its old policy on housing that will allow people to receive vacant pieces of land to build their own houses as an alternative to the current system of building houses for them. It says this is, in part, because of the housing backlog and the recent land invasions during the lockdown in areas such as the Western Cape. Human Settlements Minister...

Managing Director of ENS Forensics, Steven David Powell has named Johannesburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo as one of the individuals who received irregular payments of up to R1.3million from EOH Africa through his service providing company named Molelwane Consulting in 2012. Powell says EOH AFRICA secured a number of payments from the City of Johannesburg without any work being delivered to the City. ENS'...

A new report released by humanitarian organisation Oxfam, has revealed that black women continue to suffer huge inequalities in South Africa. The report titled, Reclaiming Power: Womxn's Work and Income Inequality in South Africa, has found that the average CEO takes home as much as 461 black women combined would earn. They also form part of the bottom ten percent of earners in the country, while...

The Western Cape government has called for an immediate public response in order to contain what it classifies as an established resurgence of new covid-19 infections. This as health minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize is expected to travel to the Eastern Cape today in order to support efforts to contain a rise in new infections in that province. A resurgence is when the number of active cases increases, we...

A group of foreign nationals who are currently living in a temporary shelter at Wingfield, in Maitland near Cape Town have called on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to urgently intervene and assist them to leave South Africa. The group says the verification of their legal status in the country has continuously failed or been delayed in recent months.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants entering the country through the Beitbridge border fence outside Musina, in Limpopo, have been turned back into Zimbabwe by the army and police. The joint operation at the border is aimed at minimising the influx of undocumented immigrants into the country. The Beitbridge border gate is also experiencing a stream of people travelling from South Africa to Zimbabwe and...

ANC secretary-general, Ace Magashule has publicly apologised for the utterances he made two weeks ago in Bloemfontein, while addressing his supporters, after his court appearance. The apology follows a complaint by a group of ANC members at the Ngaka Modiri Molema region in the North West. In his address, Magashule said the ANC in the North West could not function without the former premier, Supra...

Unemployment and alcohol abuse are some of the main contributing factors to the increase in intimate partner violence in South Africa. Gender activists say men tend to compensate for their lack of employment by physically and sexually abusing their partners. One victim of gender based violence says she's desperately looking for a job for her husband so he can stop abusing her.

The first COVID-19 vaccinations could take place in early to mid-December in the United States. This after Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech applied for emergency use of its vaccine on Friday while Moderna is expected to follow suit with a similar application before the end of the month. The head of the U.S. vaccine programme known as Operation Warp Speed also indicated over the weekend that...

Despite a looming eviction order by the Public Works department, a small group from the Khoisan community protesting outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria has vowed that they will not leave until their demands are met. The group has been camping on the lawns of the Union Buildings for nearly two years. They're demanding, among others, official recognition of the Khoisan language and its people a...

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa says members need to stop treating the party as a cash cow. Ramaphosa was addressing ANC members in Rustenburg, in the North West. The party's National Working Committee descended on the province to address a number of issues ahead of the Branch, Regional and Provincial Conferences.

The CEO of EOH Holdings, Stephen van Coller, says tender irregularities involving government contracts and poor financial controls were rife when he joined the company in 2018. He told the State Capture Commission of Inquiry that some workers in the company colluded with government officials to bypass the tender process and inflate prices. Van Coller says irregular tendering and lack of proper fin...

Former President Jacob Zuma has walked out of the commission of Inquiry into State Capture. This is after Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo refused to recuse himself from hearing Zuma's testimony. The Commisison has now adjourned until next week.

Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago says that monetary policy has eased financial conditions and improved the resilience of households and business amid the economic implications of Covid-19. The bank announced its decision to keep the repo rates unchanged at 3.5 percent as expected. Delivering the Monetary Policy Committee's decision, Kganyago says monetary policy on its own cannot improve the...

The SABC has decided to suspend the Section 189 process for a period of seven days. This follows a board meeting that went on into the early hours of this morning to discuss retrenchments. Hundreds of staff members at the SABC offices across the country have been holding lunch time pickets since Monday to protest against the retrenchments which will affect 400 workers. Today, Communication Workers...

The Right2KNow Campaign has called on the SABC to find other sources of funding rather than letting workers bear the brunt of mismanagement of the past administration. The organisation says it is concerned that the dispute between the public broadcaster management and unions has escalated to the point of a looming strike. This as the Communication Workers Union has served the SABC management with...

Communications and Digital Technologies Deputy Minister Pinky Kekana says SABC Board and Executive members should personally pay the costs of cases they lose in courts. Kekana made the opening remarks as SABC appeared before Parliament's Communications Committee. The SABC Board, Executives and the Ministry appeared before the committee last night. There was also tension between some board members.

The National Taxi Alliance says it will not recognise all decisions and resolutions taken at the recent National Taxi Lekgotla. It also wants answers on the non- payment of 1.35 billion rand Covid-19 relief funds to the taxi industry. The alliance has given Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula and the presidency, 14-days to respond to their demands. Members affiliated to the alliance marched to the...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed to the international community and BRICS partners to support a comprehensive stimulus package for African countries so that the continent can rebuild its economies following the devastating effects of Covid-19. Ramaphosa was speaking at the opening of the virtual BRICS summit yesterday. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the summit under the theme: "Part...

We end with this story, The leader of the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) Church, Shepherd Bushiri, and his wife, Mary, will not be in South Africa on Thursday (19 Nov) as demanded by the Hawks. That's according to their lawyer. The couple fled to Malawi last week in contravention of their bail conditions. They were released on bail in the Pretoria Magistrates court where they, and three oth...

It is still unclear how the self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary, left the country. Members of Parliament's Home Affairs Committee called Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, to account. But Motsoaledi could not provide any more information than what is already in the public domain. The couple have violated their bail conditions and have fled to Malawi. They are charged...