First Take SA

With less than four months to go before the ANC's 55th National Conference, the party is racing against time to conclude its provincial conferences. At least six out of the nine provinces have convened their conferences with the North West scheduled to hold its 9th provincial summit in Rustenburg this weekend. The ANC leadership under its former chairperson Supra Mahumapelo was dissolved four year...

Inkatha Freedom Party leader Velenkosini Hlabisa says the new premier of KwaZulu-Natal Nomusa Dube-Ncube is compromised and his party will hold her government accountable. Dube-Ncube became the new premier of KwaZulu-Natal after she defeated the DA's Mabatho Tembe in a secret ballot during a legislature sitting. The DA had fielded its own candidate to contest the position. Legislature members of b...

Workers belonging to the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) at the Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape, have downed tools, demanding salary increases. The union has vowed to continue with the strike action until their demands are met. This as the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (GoGTA) has condemned the strike, saying it is illegal. Elvis Pressli...

The government will pay the 48 outstanding Marikana litigation by the end of this month - 10 years after the massacre. Solicitor General, Fhedzisani Pandelani says 48 cases are outstanding. Families of slain Marikana miners are suing the state and President Cyril Ramaphosa for a billion rand. Elvis Presslin spoke to Khuselwa Dyantyi, a Candidate Attorney at the Socio-economic Rights Institute, SER...

A high-ranking ANC official In KwaZulu-Natal has reportedly been arrested for allegedly assaulting his estranged wife. One of the ANC's regional secretaries reportedly assaulted his estranged wife reportedly with the help of his current girlfriend. Elvis Presslin spoke to ANC Kwazulu-Natal Provincial Secretary Bheki Mtolo... 

The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr. Naledi Pandor, will today host her counterpart, Zimbabwe's Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Frederick Shava in Pretoria. The purpose of Minister Shava's visit to South Africa is to review progress made in implementing bilateral programmes between the two countries. The meeting will afford the ministers the opportunity to...

Twenty people have been arrested in Marabastad, Pretoria for contravening immigration laws. The department of labour and home affairs raided the popular market on Monday in a joint operation following reports of criminal activities and lack of compliance with labour and immigration laws. Elvis Presslin spoke to Advocate Fikiswa Mncanca- Bede, Chief Director for Statutory and Advocacy Services at t...

Millions of Kenyans yesterday came out to vote in the country's hotly contested presidential and legislative elections. By 4 pm yesterday the electoral commission announced that over twelve million Kenyans turned out to vote - This equates to at least over 50% of the total 22 million registered voters. Although there are four candidates, there are only two front runners in this presidential race;...

Residents of Kagiso west of Johannesburg are calling on the government to deploy soldiers to clamp down on illegal mining operations in the Westrand. Yesterday disgruntled Kagiso residents took matters into their own hands by dismantling several illegal mining operations in the area. More than 20 illegal miners were caught and stripped naked by residents and rescued by Gauteng police before being...

Lesotho's Government says it is investigating allegations of its nationals committing crimes in South Africa. In an exclusive interview with SABC News, Chief of Staff of the Lesotho Defence Force, Major General Matela Matobakele, says they have been trying to negotiate with South African authorities to hand over the arrested illegal miners whom he says fled to South Africa after committing serious...

Action SA leader Herman Mashaba has come to the defense of the City of Johannesburg MMC for Economic Development Nkululeko Mbundu after he was accused by the Department of Justice of inciting violence against Socio-Economic Rights Institute staff. This week, informal traders represented by the Social Economic Rights Institute (SERI) trading along De Villiers Street accused Mbundu of inciting viole...

Time to take a look at the current top African economic stories with Victor Kgomoesoana, 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

Members of opposition political parties represented in the National Assembly say President Cyril Ramaphosa should be held accountable for the violation of laws pertaining to the theft on his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo, in which he was implicated. Yesterday the DA, EFF, IFP, ATM, UDM, and ACDP held a meeting in Johannesburg to consolidate and strengthen opposition parties' resolve and commitment t...

Members of the Congress of the People (COPE) Constituency Congress Committees in Gauteng have called for the party president, Mosiuoa Lekota, to step down. This was resolved in a July meeting addressing challenges of growth, rebuilding, and renewal in the party. For more on this, Elvis Presslin spoke to COPE's Ekurhuleni Secretary Mxolisi Ntobela

The National Prosecuting Authority's Asset Forfeiture Unit has frozen assets to the tune of R13 million belonging to former Crime Intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and his co-accused. The move is connected to the Slush Fund corruption case. The restraint order granted by the Gauteng High Court last month was served on Mdluli, former Crime Intelligence supply chain manager Heine Barnard and former c...

Elvis Presslin spoke to Advocate Simba Chitando, a Zimbabwean lawyer, who does high-profile litigation and is registered to practice in South Africa about the ruling issued that foreign nationals without a permanent residence in South Africa will not be admitted and enrolled as practising or non-practising legal practitioners of the High Court

Foreign nationals without a permanent residence in South Africa will not be admitted and enrolled as practicing or non-practicing legal practitioners of the High Court. This after the Constitutional Court upheld that certain sections of the Legal Practice Act were not unconstitutional to the extent that it prohibited non-citizens to be admitted and enrolled as legal practitioners. The applicants,...

The African National Congress (ANC) will be staging a protest at the Krugersdorp Magistrate Court this morning. The party is calling for illegal mines to be shut down following an operation by the South African Police Services to track down illegal miners in Randfontein and Krugersdorp after eight women were brutally raped at an abandoned mine in the area. Over the past weekend, the ANC at its pol...

The family of one of the four people who died during the Tembisa protest yesterday says they are devastated. They say Linda Shabalala was allegedly shot and killed by a police officer. He was shot at a house, a stone's throw away from a municipal property where several buildings and vehicles were torched. Shabalala's sister Beverly Masinga says the 52-year-old was standing inside the yard, where h...

The South African Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU) will later today picket at the Atteridgeville Magistrate Court - to raise awareness about Gender-Based Violence within the retail and hospitality sectors. The workers union says thousands of workers (mainly female) in the wholesale, retail, and hospitality sectors are often subjected to harassment and violence by customers, managers, an...

City of Ekurhuleni Executive Mayor Tania Campbell says protests in Tembisa are a plot to destabilize the Democratic Alliance-led coalition. She was briefing members of the Tembisa Community Forum following violent service delivery protests that saw two people killed. Tembisa residents have accused the Mayor of failing to attend a community meeting last week Friday. A municipal building and several...

Gauteng Health whistle-blower Babita Deokaran reportedly raised the alarm on dubious payments from Tembisa Hospital to ANC Ekurhuleni leader Sello Sekhokho, several days before she was killed. Sekhokho allegedly had three companies supplying medical equipment at vastly inflated prices to the hospital. Deokaran reportedly spoke to provincial Health CFO Lerato Madyo about her concerns and Madyo said...

Time to take a look at the current top African economic stories with Victor Kgomoesoana, 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

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed the party's national Policy Conference as a resounding success. The ANC concluded its three-day policy conference at Nasrec in Johannesburg at the weekend. Delivering his closing remarks yesterday, Ramaphosa said policy proposals will be placed before ANC branches before being put to the 55th National Conference for adoption. For more on this, Elvis Pressli...

Over 80 suspects have been arrested following a shocking and brutal gang rape and robbery in Krugersdorp, West Village, Johannesburg. Eight women, who were part of a production crew, were shooting a music video when they were reportedly attacked by a gang of illegal miners near a mine dump in West Village - where Zama Zamas are known to operate. More than 80 undocumented suspects are expected to a...