First Take SA

Relations between President Cyril Ramaphosa and his predecessor Jacob Zuma are inevitably rocky. These relations were soured by the removal of Zuma as president. Pressure on him to appear before the State Capture Commission has also worsened the already frosty relations. Remarks by Ramaphosa on the nine wasted years under Zuma compounded the animosity. But Zuma didn't help the situation, alleging...

South Africa is expected to begin its COVID-19 vaccination programme TODAY (wednesday). 80-thousand single doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines targeted at frontline healthcare workers were due to be delivered YESTERDAY. 17 hospitals have been identified as vaccination sites and these include Soweto's Chris Hani Baragwanath, Durban's Prince Mshiyeni Memorial and Groote Schuur in Cape Town. Me...

Consumers face a hefty electricity tariff hike in April as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has agreed to Eskom's application to increase its tariff by over 15% for the 2021/22 financial year. The agreement between Nersa and Eskom came after the power utility won a case in the Pretoria High Court in October 2020, which allowed it to push for a higher tariff increase than what...

Former President Jacob Zuma is potentially facing jail time after he failed to appear before the State Capture Commission YESTERDAY (monday 15 February) . Zuma's lawyers confirmed in a letter to the inquiry that the former president would not attend this week. The Constitutional Court earlier ordered Zuma to appear after he walked out of the commission in November and didn't appear before it last...

Stakeholders will have to work together to ensure a success in the education sector this academic year. This is according to Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga during a visit to Nellmapius Secondary school in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria. Motshekga was among government officials who visited schools across the country on the first day of the 2021 academic year, to check on the resumption of cla...

The hearings at the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Neil Aggett have concluded. The focus will now shift to the inquest of another activist, Ernest Dipale, who also allegedly committed suicide at the then John Vorster Square Police Station in Johannesburg in the same year, 1982. The security branch police claimed that both Dipale and Aggett hanged themselves in their cells. Testi...

Attempts by the ANC's top leadership to persuade former President Jacob Zuma to appear before the State Capture Commission TODAY may prove fruitless. High on the party's NEC meeting agenda this weekend has been the implications of Zuma's decision not to appear before the Commission this week. The decision is in breach of a summons issued by the Commission for Zuma to appear, a Constitutional Court...

The ANC Interim Provincial Committee- (IPC) in the North West has condemned the removal of the Mayor of Maqwassi Hills local municipality in Wolmaranstad. She was removed through a motion of no confidence led by the Forum 4 Service Delivery. Thirteen ANC councillors are reported to have joined forces with five opposition party members, and voted in support of the motion.

The Basic Education Department says it's all systems go for TODAY'S schools re-opening. Basic Education minister, Angie Motshekga made the announcement in Pretoria YESTERDAY. Schools were initially supposed to re-open for learners on the 27th of last month, but was delayed by two weeks due to an increase in infections due to a second COVID-19 wave. The Department's Task Team has also concluded tha...

Various political parties in Parliament say it is regrettable that President Cyril Ramaphosa did not say anything new in his State of the Nation Address. The event was significantly scaled down to adhere to Covid-19 regulations. Only 50 people were allowed inside the National Assembly, in an effort to comply with Covid-19 regulations. All other MPs and guests followed proceedings via virtual platf...

In his State of the Nation Address President Cyril Ramaphosa, put emphasis on four areas that he says government will focus on. That is defeating the Covid-19 virus, accelerate economic recovery, implement economic reforms and fight corruption as well as strengthening state institutions. This year's SONA took place amid quite subdued and solemn affair. Only 50 people were allowed inside the Nation...

Fights over money and routes, competition for executive positions within taxi associations, and the unlawful take-over of businesses are some of the contributors to taxi violence. That's according to the findings contained in a report by the Commission of Inquiry into minibus taxi violence in Gauteng. The Commission was set up by Gauteng Premier David Makhura in September 2019 to probe the spate o...

Today's State of the Nation Address will be quite subdued and even a solemn affair. And it will be held at a fraction of the cost of previous years. This, Parliament's presiding officers say, is due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Divisions within the ruling ANC will widen if former president, Jacob Zuma is arrested for failing to appear before the State Capture Commission. This is the view of KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary, Mdumiseni Ntuli. Ntuli met Zuma last week following his widely-publicised and open defiance of the Zondo Commission. The party in the province seeks intervention of Cyril Ramaphosa and the organisation's t...

The Sol Plaatje Municipality in Kimberley in the Northern Cape has revealed that it is owed at least two billion-rand in unpaid electricity fees from ratepayers. This as Eskom asked the provincial government to urgently intervene as the municipality failed to pay its bill to the power utility in December.

Scientists from the World Health Organisation and China's National Health Commission are yet to identify the origins for the novel coronavirus: SARS-COV2. This after four weeks of investigation and research in the city of Wuhan. The joint-team held a press briefing YESTERDAY (Tuesday) to give an update on their work. The studies have concluded that indeed the COVID-19 virus stems from an animal bu...

The South African Civil Aviation Authority is investigating the causes of the high number of fatal aircraft crashes since the start of the year. In January alone, fourteen accidents had been recorded in the industry, four of which had been fatal, claiming the lives of 8 people. According to the Aviation authority, they last saw such a spike in aircraft crashes and deaths in October 2008.

As President Cyril Ramaphosa prepares for his annual State of the Nation Address on Thursday, he is being called to take responsibility for the controversy surrounding the Astra Zeneca vaccine which arrived in the country last week. Cosatu says it reflects badly on Ramaphosa's leadership that government has procured the vaccine that is expiring in April. Again the vaccine has proved to be less eff...

The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture has heard how Parliament's Transport Committee failed its oversight duties on state owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said he was shocked and frustrated to hear that members of parliament did nothing about corruption at the entity while the company's fruitless and wasteful expenditure bill continued...

World Health Organisation Chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus, says he will meet with the organisation's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, or SAGE today. The meeting will discuss SAGE's recommendations on the use of the Astrazeneca COVID19 vaccine. This comes as a recent study revealed that there was minimum protection in mild to moderate infections of the 501y.v2 strain - which was first...

All Medical Aid schemes in South Africa will be covering the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine for their members. This comes after South Africa's Council for Medical Schemes or CMS added the Covid-19 vaccine to its list of Prescribed Minimum Benefits.

Health minister, Zweli Mkhize says they have chosen the AstraZeneca vaccine due to promising results and its flexibility. Mkhize was speaking during a virtual media briefing last night. The briefing follows AstraZeneca's announcement that its vaccine only offers limited protection against mild disease caused by the variant that has been discovered in South Africa. South Africa has already bought o...

Many households are struggling to repay their loans, and unsecured debt is on average 32 percent higher than it was five years ago. According to the DebtBusters' fourth quarter Debt Index released YESTERDAY (Thursday 4 February), debt -to-income ratio is at 130 percent. This is its highest level in years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures implemented to curb the spread of the vi...

Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has expressed outrage at revelations that four ANC MPs who voted with their conscience were told that they would be disciplined by the party's top leadership. Zondo was responding to the testimony of Makhosi Khoza who was removed from her position as Chairperson of the Public Service Portfolio Committee after admitting that she had voted with her conscience in su...

After a few years of intense political rivalry and seeking to remove Jacob Zuma from the union buildings, Julius Malema has reached out to the former President. If the EFF statement on Zuma's constitutional court ruling is anything to go by, Malema may be in a bid to persuade the former President to rethink his decision to shun the constitutional court which ordered to him appear before the state...