First Take SA

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan will TODAY take the seat before Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo at the state capture commission of inquiry in Parktown, Johannesburg. His statement to the commission, which was leaked to the media 2 weeks ago, detailed behind-the-scenes plans to procure nuclear energy, with former President Jacob Zuma insisting the country needed to secure the deal. Th...

Former Cape Town mayor, Patricia de Lille is expected to announce the name of her new political party soon. De Lille resigned as the city's executive mayor and from the DA last month, after an 18-month battle with the party.

The Automobile Association has announced that South Africans could expect a huge drop in fuel prices next month. The AA says based on current data, the price of petrol could drop by R1.54 a litre, the price of diesel by 92c and illuminating paraffin by 85c. However, Efficient Group chief ecnomist Dawie Roodt says motorists may not see the full benefits of the price cuts

Nine learners from Dlulukwana Senior Primary School suspected of food poisoning remain in a stable condition at the St Barnabas Hospital in Libode in the Eastern Cape. This after a total of sixty-nine lerners were rushed to the hospital after complaining of stomach cramps which they say started last week Friday. The province's health spokesperson, Lwandile Sicwetsha says some of the learners had a...

Standing Committee on Public Accounts Chair Themba Godi says the SABC must resolve its irregular expenditure behaviour and not use it as an excuse to retrench workers. The SABC met with SCOPA yesteraday and committed itself to ensuring that it curbs irregular expenditure. For the financial year under review the Corporation has received a disclaimer from the Auditor General and it says because of t...

The Special Investigating Unit - SIU - has managed to set aside a contract which the SABC entered into irregularly with Vision View Production to the value of approximately R52 million. The contract, annulled last Friday, comes hot on the heels of another contract, which the SIU also managed to have set aside in May this year, which had been irregularly entered between SABC and Lornavision (PTY) L...

Explosive evidence is expected to be submitted to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture , which will resume in Parktown, Johannesburg this morning. Former and current ministers of Public Enterprises Barbara Hogan and Pravin Gordhan are expected to testify today and Thursday respectively.

IEC Western Cape Electoral Officer, Courtney Sampson, political parties allowed to lay criminal charges against farmers who prevent election campaign . This follows a complaint by the EFF that a farmer in the Witzenberg municipality prevented them from campaigning on his farm ahead of a by-election this week.

The South African National Blood Services is concerned by the critically low blood stock as the country has just enough units to last 3 days. SANBS spokesperson Sifiso Khoza says South Africa requires an average of three-thousand units of blood to treat thousands of patients daily. He is hoping that people will use the the upcoming festive season to donate blood to match the high demand during tha...

Four people have been injured following an explosion at a chemical factory in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg. Ekurhuleni Emergency Services spokesperson William Ntladi says the injured have been taken to hospital

The impasse between DA and EFF continued last night in parliament following rulings by the house chair, Thoko Didiza. Didiza ordered both parties to apologise for their scuffle. The DA Parly Chief Whip John Steenhuisen says they will not stop giving fair comment against any party in fear of being called racists. Steenhuisen also says threats by EFF of making the DA lose metros will not deter them...

Democrats fight to regain the House of Representatives as more than 35 million people cast their votes in early voting ahead of the official Election Day, a large increase from the 20 million people who cast ballots in the early voting in the 2014 midterms.

Retail giant Woolworths has been ordered by the Constitutional Court to re-instate 44 full time employees whom it had retrenched when they refused to work on a flexible-time working arrangement. The ConCourt found that this was substantively unfair and that Woolworths had failed to consider alternatives to retrenchment.

Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba, is this morning (Tuesday 6/11) expected to brief Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, on the decision to grant the Oppenheimer family permission to operate a private terminal at the OR Tambo International Airport. The Committee wants the Minister to clarify contradictions between statements he made before them and statements he made more recently....

The Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, John Jeffreys, says if government is to improve it's efforts to fight human trafficking there must be an intergrated information system. He was speaking at a Trafficking in Persons summit in partnership with the South African Human Rights Commission and the Conference of Western Attorneys General. The latter has established a partnersh...

Worker Unions have pledged to fight to the bitter end in the ongoing rentrenchments saga at the SABC. Last week, the public broadcaster announced over two-thousand planned retrenchments. Unions have planned Black Wednesday and a national picket on Friday in protest of the looming retrenchments. Meanwhile, according to the World Economic Forum, South Africa has the worst labour-employee relations i...

The Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party registered by Numsa over the weekend says the working class should lead the economy and determine the country's destiny. The party is however yet to decide if it intends on contesting next year's general elections after being given the thumbs-up by the IEC to register as a political party. Meanwhile, former Cape Town mayor, Patricia De Lille may also start...

United States will reimpose oil sanctions on Iran removed under the 2015 nuclear deal with effect from today (Monday). Iranians chanted ''death to America'' and burned the American flag yesterday (Sunday), as the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy coincided with the eve of reimposed sanctions. South Africa has strong trade relations with both countries, with the US being South Afr...

TALKING POINTS *** Rwanda has launched the first Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) in Africa, opening doors for small businesses in continent to take part in cross-border electronic *** Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) commissioners to hire independent forensic experts to look into the missing biometric voter registration kit *** In Zimbabwe the price of bread is set to marginally rise to $1...

President Cyril Ramaphosa says part of the reasons for the immediate termination of the appointment of SARS Commissioner, Tom Moyane is his refusal to meaningfully participate in the Nugent Commission in order to assist with identifying the root causes of the systemic failures at the SARS. Ramaphosa says he accepts the recommendation of the chair of the commission, retired judge Robert Nugent, to...

The ANC in Gauteng will today lead what they are calling a 'People's March' to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in protest against e-tolls, corruption, fuel hikes and VAT increases. The march will be joined by alliance partners COSATU, SACP and SANCO, civic society organisations as well as members of the public. The protest comes after finance minister Tito Mboweni‚ in his first medium-term budget...

Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, resigned as both mayor and a member of the DA, YESTERDAY (wednesday 31 October). De Lille is expected to announce her next career move in two weeks' time. Speculation was rife that she would defy an agreement reached with the party two months ago to step down as mayor. She signed her resignation letter on the steps of the Cape Town High Court and two more DA cou...

The Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has recommended that President Cyril Ramaphosa take disciplinary action against Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba. This after Mkhwebane found that Gigaba had violated the Constitution and the Executive Ethics code by lying under oath when he said he had not approved a private air terminal for the Oppenheimer family in early 2016. Gigaba was afforded an opp...

Over the last few weeks, the Angolan government has expelled over 300,000 Congolese citizens from the country. 50,000 people are currently stranded at Kamako Border Post in Kasai Region of the Democractic Republic of Congo without the means to return home. Many of them are now getting assistance from the Red Cross. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Tendayi Sengwe, Communication Manager for Southern Africa...

TALKING POINT *** Kenya Airways completes first Nairobi-New York direct flight *** Tanzanian farmers stormed a meeting intending to find a solution to the stalemate over raw cashew nut prices *** The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), which is owned by the Indian state, plans to invest up to 800 million US dollars in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique