First Take SA

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...

SABC Group Executive for News Phathiswa Magopeni says she will stop issuing retrenchment letters to her staff. She also committed to retracting letters already received by some workers. This after newsroom staff demanded a meeting with top management to address the retrenchment process. BUT...unions representing workers at the SABC have described the partial withdrawal of retrenchment letters by S...

The State Capture Commission yesterday heard arguments about what constitutes bias. The Commission was hearing the recusal application brought by former President Jacob Zuma against Deputy Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo. In his application, Zuma has claimed that he and Zondo are friends - a claim rejected by Zondo. Zuma has also claimed that he would not recieve a fair hearing given Zondo's statemen...

The Commission for the promotion and protection of the rights on Culture, Religion and Linguistic Communitities- the CRL has heard that some church leaders go to West Africa to get initiated in order to get supernatural powers. Apostle Makhado Ramabulana has told the Commission siting in Johannesburg, that he also did this and has now turned his back on the secret society that he was a part of. He...

Supporters of ANC secretary-general, Ace Magashule, have vowed to stand by him. Magashule is among eight people and five companies that face multiple charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering which relates to the multimillion rand asbestos roofing audit contract. He's currently out on 200-thousand rand bail. Magashule's stay as Free State ANC chairperson and premier was not without controv...

The Enlightened Christian Gathering church leader, Sheperd Bushiri has instructed his lawyers to urgently interdict the Pretoria Magistrates' Court from revoking his 200-thousand rand bail. Bushiri and his wife, Mary have contravened their bail condtitions, following their unlawful departure from SA. The couple was recently granted 200-thousand bail each in a theft, fraud and money laundering case...

Political parties have reacted with shock to the news that self-proclaimed prophet Shepard Bushiri has absconded from South Africa to his homeland Malawi. On Saturday, the country woke up to news that Bushiri and his wife Mary had left the country thereby contravening their bail conditions. The couple was recently granted bail of R200 000 by the Pretoria Magistrate court and stand accused with thr...

The country's official unemployment rate - which is a measure of active job seekers - has risen to a record high of 30.8 percent. The expanded definition of unemployment - which includes discouraged job seekers - has increased by 1 percent to 43 percent. This is one the highest unemployment rates in the world. Stats SA released the jobs numbers yesterday.

Tensions are simmering ahead of ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule's court appearance this morning. Opposition parties and some concerned ANC members have welcomed Magashule's arrest. But Magashule's staunch supporters say his court case is politically-motivated. Magashule is to appear before the n the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court.

The issue of corruption featured strongly during the virtual oral questions to President Cyril Ramaphosa in the National Assembly yesterday. Some of the political parties accused him of not doing enough to deal with members of his own party implicated in corruption or wrong doing, while others felt that he's diverting from the commitments he made of rooting out corruption.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned that the Coronavirus pandemic is far from over and government is implementing a resurgence plan to combat the spread of the virus - particularly in the Eastern Cape. Ramaphosa was delivering a national address on the government's response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Ramaphosa says 20 thousand and 11 people have died from COVID 19 and more than 742 thousand cas...

Former Denel Group CEO, Zwelakhe Ntshepe has conceded that he failed to act in the best interest of Denel when he approved the awarding of a multimillion-rand 10-year contract to Gupta-owned VR Laser in breach of Denel's own procurement processes. The State Capture Commission of Inquiry in Johannesburg also heard that Denel bought 51% into a company called LMT holdings with an advanced payment of...

Public money watchdog SCOPA in Parliament wants alleged fraud and corruption by International retail giant Steinhoff to be followed to the end. SCOPA Chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa made this plea when the Anti Corruption Task Team led by NPA Head Shamila Batohi briefed SCOPA on various priority cases of fraud and corruption pursued by the task team. There are 243 cases prioritised by the task team.

The multimillion rand asbestos corruption case will resume in the Bloemfontein Regional Court TODAY. Seven people and five companies face more than 60 charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering. They stand accused of alleged involvement in the irregular awarding of the 255 million rand tender

Over 422 million people worldwide have diabetes, and this number is growing every year. Most people with diabetes Type 1 will eventually need to be treated with insulin, currently only available as an injection. This is a painful experience as in some cases, it requires multiple finger pricks and insulin injections per day to monitor and keep blood glucose levels within the desired range. But ther...