First Take SA

The State Capture Commission is expected to resume THIS MORNING despite the break-in at its offices in Parktown, Johannesburg over the weekend. Electroninc equipment including two laptops were stolen from different floors of the building. Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is expected, later TODAY (monday), to hear parliamentary oversight related evidence from the Speaker of the National Assembly,...

Ordinary Capetonians have taken it upon themselves to house some displaced students from the University of Cape Town. This as fire fighters battled raging fires which led to the evacuation of both the students and staff members from campus. A number of fire fighters are reported to have suffered burn wounds while battling the fires and had to be taken to hospital. Parts of the Rhodes Memorial were...

ANC Deputy Secretary General, Jessie Duarte, has urged the party's embattled Secretary General, Ace Magashule, to disassociate with people who want to sow divisions in the governing party. She was speaking in an exclusive interview with the SABC on a wide range of issues. These included the ANC-branded buses and taxis in support of Magashule and his leaked letters to provinces extending the scope...

The DA in Parliament wants the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to investigate the fact that about 35-percent of senior managers in government do not have the required qualifications for their jobs. The Minister of Public Service and Administration revealed these alarming figures in a written response to a parliamentary question posed by the DA. The official opposition says this situation is...

Western Cape Transport Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela has been suspended from his position for two weeks pending an investigation. The Democratic Alliance's Federal Legal Commission is investigating allegations that the provincial party leader's CV claims a qualification that he does not hold. Madikizela has claimed to hold a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Human Resource Management.

The EFF's Deputy President, Floyd Shivambu, has accused certain judges of belonging in the pockets of politicians. Shivambu was speaking outside the Hillbrow Police station after laying a criminal charge of corruption against Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan. This follows comments by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng during interviews with shortlisted candidates for judicial posts. Mogoeng...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Major-General Thalita Mxakato as the Chief of Defence Intelligence. She is the first woman to hold the position in the SANDF. Major-Genera Mxakato joined the ANC's armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1983 and completed her basic training in Angola and in Germany. Annoucing Mxakato's appointment and other members of the Military Command of the SANDF, President Ra...

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has told Parliament that Johnson and Johnson is refusing to sign off the supply of a further 20 million doses of the Covid -19 vaccine. The pharmaceutical giant first wants a letter from the Department of Trade and Industry endorsing the local investment it has made in Aspen. Mkhize says this is a surprise move as such support is already part of the agreement and ha...

There was chaos at the entrance of the Mbilwi Secondary School in Sibasa outside Thohoyandou in Limpopo, following a bullying incident which allegedly led to the death of a female grade 10 learner. A video showing the deceased being assaulted by another learner went virial on social media on Monday. Other learners can be heard cheering during the assault. The victim later reportedly committed suic...

Surge testing is underway in parts of London after a sudden increase in the number of people testing positive for the Covid-19 variant first detected in South Africa. The UK government says it's the largest surge testing operation to date in the capital - getting underway just a day after lockdown restrictions were eased further.

The ANC National Youth Task Team (NYTT) has called for NEC members Tony Yengeni and Enoch Godongwana to be disciplined. The NYTT was outlining the resolutions taken at its first official meeting held this weekend. The newly-established body has been given six months to prepare and hold the ANC Youth League's National Congress. However, it faces financial challenges and questions about the ages of...

Organisations representing farm dwellers and workers around Mkhondo are calling on the Piet Retief Magistrate's court in Mpumalanga not to grant bail to the four men accused of killing two farm dweller. This is after the four suspects aged between 31 and 58 appeared in court facing two counts of murder. Daniel Malan, Cornelius Greyling, Othard Klingberg and Michael Sternberg are accused of shootin...

The Basic Education Department has gazatted a new set of rules that may see teachers found guilty of sexual misconduct banned indefinitely from teaching in any South African school. The new batch of terms and conditions of employment was gazatted last week Friday by Education Minister Angie Motshekga. Some of the conduct which will qualify teachers for indefinite bans include having a sexual relat...

KwaZulu-Natal premier, Sihle Zikalala says there's a lack of trust between farm dwellers and government in Newcastle, north of the province. Zikalala was speaking during a visit to the Normandien farming community in Newcastle. The area has been in the spotlight, following an escalation of tension between farmers and farm dwellers.

Covid-19 has ravaged the Eastern Cape, claiming more than 11-thousand lives in the province. At the same time, tuberculosis remains a huge problem. The TB survey conducted in 2018 found the disease present in 737 out of every 100-thousand people. Statistics from 2015 showed the Eastern Cape to be the province with the highest prevalence of TB. Currently, there's concern about the sharp increase in...

Nature conservationist in the Eastern Cape have raised an alarm on the amount of birds which continue to drop dead from the sky. More than a 150 birds have been reported to have died without any explanation in parts of the Nelson Mandela Bay and King William's Town, also known as Qonce. A well-known snake handler and owner of Sandula Conservation, Mark Marshall, together with the provincial state...

A Judicial Conduct Tribunal has unanimously found that Western Cape judge president John Hlophe improperly attempted to influence two judges of the Constitutional Court. The report has now been submitted to the chairperson of the Judicial Services Commission which will determine his fate. The complaint against Hlophe was lodged by eleven Constitutional Court judges thirteen years ago, after judges...

South Africa has secured more than fifty-million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and delivery is expected to start later this month. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize made the announcement at the Soweto Home for the Aged in Gauteng. Mkhize conducted a visit of the facility as well as the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Parktown, Johannesburg, to access the readiness for the roll out of phase two of th...

Free State artists have joined other provinces and embarked on a month-long sit-in protest at the offices of the Performing Arts Centre of the Free State, PACOFS, in Bloemfontein. They demand action against officials who have been implicated in a forensic report into allegations of corruption. Meanwhile Arts organisation ASSITEJ SA has launched legal action against the National Arts Council (NAC)...

Immediate technical deployment will be directed to Mozambique to aid it's fight against the insurgency in it's northern region of Cabo Delgado. This is a resolution for the SADC's Double Troika Summit held in Maputo, Mozambique, YESTERDAY. The meeting which was convened to discuss the ongoing security challenges also expressed concern on the impact the terrorism is having on the people of that reg...

The Southern African Development Community - SADC, will TODAY hold an extraordinary Troika Summit meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, to deliberate on measures to address terrorism in the host country. The meeting comes after insurgents attacked the strategic town of Palma late last month. The country has seen continued terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado Province over the past few weeks, leaving many pe...

The Competition Commission says there is a lack of integration in the country's public transport system and this is worsened by the inequality between transport modes. The commission released its public transport market inquiry report YESTERDAY (Wednesday 7 April). Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele says they also received many complaints from the public about the sector

Former SABC Parliamentary journalist, Manelisi Dubase, says one of the stories he covered before he was retrenched was the very touching candlelight ceremony to commemorate the coronavirus victims that President Cyril Ramaphosa attended on New Year's eve last year. Dubase and another Parliamentary Journalist Mkhokeli Tanda are among the 621 employees who were affected by the SABC's Section 189 ret...

The defence team in the trial of the former police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd is facing an uphill battle after a growing body of damning testimony against their client. This follows testimony from the emergency room doctor that sought to revive Floyd who had lost consciousness with Derek Chauvin's knee on his neck for over 9 minutes. This was followed by the Police Chief of th...

There continues to be uncertainty as to when the local government elections will be held. This, after the EFF intensified its bid to have the polls pushed back -- lobbying other political parties and approaching the Electoral Commission to put the matter on the agenda. However, there are a number of hurdles it must still overcome, including a rejection of the proposal by some other parties.