First Take SA

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.

Followers of Nigeria's popular televangelist, Prophet T.B Joshua, have continued to pay their tributes following his sudden death on Saturday night. TB Joshua was 57 and would have celebrated his 58th birthday this month. The circumstances of his death are not yet clear.

The South African Municipal Worker's Union, SAMWU has threatened to bring all municipal services countrywide to a halt as wage negotiations with the employer body,SALGA continue TODAY. The union, which represents 160-thousand workers, is demanding a one-year wage increase of four 4000 rands per month, housing allowance including six months' paid maternity leave and one month paid paternity leave....

The much awaited case of the ANC's suspended Secretary General, Ace Magashule is expected to be heard before the end of the month. A full bench of the High Court is expected to hear the matter where Magashule is challenging his suspension. Magashule who has sought the service of the Senior Council, Advocate Dali Mpofu wants his suspension to be nullified by a court of law. Meanwhile, some have que...

Allegations of tender corruption against Health Minister Zweli Mkhize featured strongly during the Presidency's budget vote debate in Parliament on Wednesday. President Ramaphosa told the House that he's dealing with the matter, while some opposition political parties accused him of failing to fight corruption head-on.

Load-shedding could potentially prove fatal for patients who are on oxygen in their homes. With the Covid-19 pandemic and hospitals under pressure, many patients have opted for home care. But with load-shedding seemingly part of life now, concerns are growing. Most of these patients don't have a back-up power supply to run their oxygen machines during outages.

More job seekers have given up hope of finding employment under the current economic environment. Stats SA data shows the number of discouraged job seekers jumped by 201-thousand or nearly seven percent. The latest figures increase the official unemployment rate to 32.6 percent in the first quarter, from 32.5 percent in the last quarter of last year.

Record high unemployment statistics in South Africa, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced children to become bread winners. As Youth Month kicks off in the country -- Childline South Africa -- says young girls are resorting to sex work in order to feed their families, as the pandemic has rendered their parents jobless. Through the Grow, Learn and Own programme, the organisation empower...

The Pan African Parliament was abruptly suspened after MPs plunge the house in chaos into a third consecutive day of chaos. The members clashed yet again over the electoral system with the southern Caucus pushing for the change to rotational leadership similar to the African Union process. The Eastern and Western Caucauses adamant that there is no authority, which allows the impromptu change. The...

Some Pan-African Parliament members resorted to physical attacks as contention over the leadership voting process continued today. On Monday, the chamber in Midrand - north of Johannesburg erupted in chaos as caucus fought over whether the Presidency should be on a rotational basis versus the current direct elections system. The Southern caucus is leading the call to for rotation while the East an...

If a person is captured in a famous photograph..does it afford them any right or any sort of recognition or compensation? This question came up during an interview with Antoinette Sithole, the sister to the late Hector Pieterson - who died during the 1976 Soweto student uprisings. Sithole is featured in the iconic photograph taken by the late legendary photographer Sam Nzima. In the image, she is...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned of a possible countrywide threat of a third wave of the Coronavirus with four provinces already having reached the threshold. The Coronavirus National Command Council has moved the country to an Adjusted Alert Level Two of the national lockdown from today. He has also decried the slow pace of vaccination due to regulatory concerns over the Johnson & Johnson vac...

West African regional bloc ECOWAS has suspended Mali's membership in response to last week's coup and said authorities must stick to a timetable for a return to democracy, but stopped short of imposing new sanctions. Leaders of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States held an emergency summit in Ghana's capital Accra to agree a response to the Malian military's ouster of a president...

Parents in the Northern Cape have raised concern following an announcement of normal schooling for grade R to 7 learners, from the 26th of July. On Friday Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga gazetted new regulations regarding the reopening of schools. The Gazette stipulates that children will return to normal schooling provided that the risk-adjusted differentiated strategy is implemented. Th...

Investors have cheered news that Eskom managed to reduce its debt by 83 billion rand in the year to March. Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan made the announcement during his department's budget vote in parliament last night.