First Take SA

The DA will hold its virtual elective conference this weekend facing a number of challenges. This year alone the official opposition party has lost three provincial leaders with one saying it's no longer the party he joined twenty years ago. This was preceded by the exiting of some senior party leaders including Mmusi Maimane, Herman Mashaba and Athol Trollip among others. The party has also lost...

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the government is ready and committed towards the formalisation, regulation and empowerment of the taxi industry. He was giving a keynote address virtually at the National Taxi Lekgotla underway in Boksburg on Gauteng's Eastrand. The three-day event has brought together various stakeholders within the taxi industry and government to discuss ways of supporting and tra...

Labour union BEMAWU has approached the Labour Court seeking an interdict to stop the SABC from going ahead with any retrenchments. The hearing relating to the application will be heard in the Labour Court in Johannesburg next Wednesday. The public broadcaster plans to retrench about 600 permanent staff and will not renew the freelance contracts of more than a thousand workers.

Thousands of public servants and 68 deceased people are among those who benefited from the Unemployed Insurance Fund's Temporary Employee Relief Scheme. That came out in ongoing investigations by the Special Investigations Unit. The SIU and the office of the Auditor General briefed Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts, on the latest information on issues around the UIF financial mana...

Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, has revised this year's economic contraction from the seven-point-two per cent estimate in June, down to seven-point-eight per cent. According to the National Treasury, the budget deficit will narrow from 15 per cent in this financial year to ten-point-one per cent in 2021/22. Mboweni, who tabled the medium-term budget policy statement yesterday, called for a shift...

Some of the opposition parties in Parliament have criticised Finance Minister Tito Mboweni for allocating 10.5 billion rand to SAA while public workers and representatives are expected to take pay cuts. The governing ANC welcomed the speech.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed rumours that the country is headed for a higher Covid19 lockdown level. He says while he is worried that many South Africans are not adhering to the prevention measures, there are no plans to bring back tougher restrictions. He was answering a variety of questions in the National Council of Provinces, including on the vandalising of rail infrastructure as we...

The family of footballer Senzo Meyiwa says they want to know who orchestrated his murder. Five men arrested in connection with Meyiwa's murder appeared in the Boksburg Magistrates Court on Gauteng's Eastrand yesterday. They are facing charges of murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition. The case was been postponed to th...

The Tshwane Metro is finally set to have a new mayor - at the latest next week. This is after the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein ruled in the DA's favour, dismissing the appeal lodged by the Gauteng Co-operative Governance MEC, Lebogang Maile. Maile had asked the court to suspend the implementation of a Pretoria High Court judgment which overturned the decision to dissolve the Tshwane Met...

Meanwhile Lobby group, Afriforum, alleges that the murder of former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain, Senzo Meyiwa, was an assassination and NOT a robbery gone wrong. The revelation follows the announcement of the arrest of five suspects linked to the murder. Meyiwa was shot dead in Voslorus in Ekhuruleni at the home of his girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo, in 2014. AfriForum's head of Private P...

Police are confident they have finally made a breakthrough in the murder case of former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain, Senzo Meyiwa. Police Minister, Bheki Cele and National Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole yesterday announced the arrest of five suspects in connection with his killing with more arrests imminent. Meyiwa was gunned down in cold blood in 2014, at his songstress...

The Pretoria Magistrate's Court has postponed the bail application for the leader of the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) Church, Shepherd Bushiri and his four co-accused, until Friday. The five are charged with fraud, money laundering and the contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crimes Act involving over 100-million rand

Meanwhile, Deputy President, David Mabuza, says government's poor procurement systems have led to large-scale Covid-19-related corruption. Mabuza was answering oral questions on various issues during a hybrid session of the National Assembly

The DA says that its virtual elective congress scheduled for next weekend will be the most accessible in the party's history. The congress, which is expected to see two thousand delegates attend, will see the election of a new leadership as well as the passing of resolutions to guide the party for the next five years. The party has detailed its preparations for the Congress including how it will e...

Executive Finance Manager at Transnet Freight Rail Yousuf Laher has denied allegations that he co-authored a memorandum which requested the then Transnet board to approve an unjustifiable one-billion-rand increase in Transnet's 1064 locomotives agreement. Yousuf Laher revealed that then Transnet Chief Financial Officer Anoj Singh had asked him ensuring that the calculations of the locomotives memo...

Executive Finance Manager at Transnet Freight Rail Yousuf Laher told the state capture commission he was following then Transnet Chief Financial Officer Anoj Singh's instruction when he prepared a memorandum requesting the then Transnet board to approve an unjustifiable one billion rand increase for the 100 locomotives tender awarded to China South Rail. Laher was responding to previous testimony...

The leader of the Enlightened Christian Gatherings (ECG), Pastor Shepherd Bushiri, his wife Mary and the other co-accused, Landiwe Ntlokwana, spent another night behind bars as their bail proceedings drag on. The three were arrested on Tuesday on charges of fraud, money laundering and contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act to the tune of 102 million rand.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has raised concerns about South Africa's Covid-19 trajectory following the latest spike in Covid-19 cases. Dr Mkhize says epidemiological reports show that over the last 7 days there has been an increase of 9.1% in new cases. Similarly, over the last 14 days, there has been an increase of 10.7%. He is in isolation after he and his wife, Dr May Mkhize, tested positiv...

Former Managing Director of Rail for Hatch Engineering, Henk Bester, has told the State Capture Commission in Johannesburg that he was approached by Gupta associate, Salim Essa, who wanted Hatch to include Essa's company as a supply partner for phase 2 of a Transnet Rail Project worth 800- million-rand. Bester says they had estimated the Manganese project would cost Transnet 27-billion-rand, but t...

Tripartite alliance partners, Cosatu and the SACP are opposed to President Cyril Ramaphosa's recent proposal for the privatisation of some main train routes in the country. It's reported that the proposal forms part of Ramaphosa's new economic recovery plan presented in Parliament last Thursday. The proposal primarily focuses on routes in Gauteng and the Western Cape. The ANC's alliance partners s...

The Special Investigations Unit wants Parliament to create laws that will prevent officials who are under investigation, from moving from one government department to another, without ever being held accountable. The SIU, alongside the Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority, appe

The fight over retrenchments at the SABC continues to rage. This time, the management and worker representatives have given parliament differing versions of where the negotiations are at. The unions have accused the corporation of negotiating in bad faith, while the SABC says it has gone beyond what is required to accommodate the employees.

Former Transnet Board chairperson, Mafika Mkwanazi has conceded that the then Transnet board's decision to award former Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama R17 million in back pay and legal costs - after a disciplinary process found him guilty of misconduct - was indefensible. The State Capture Commission of Inquiry heard that Transnet paid Gama the legal costs which Gama should have paid to the company f...

Union BEMAWU is threatening legal action at the Labour Court against the SABC should it proceed with its retrenchments without further consultation. The public broadcaster YESTERDAY announced that according to the Labour Relations Act, it is now at liberty to unilaterally implement contemplated retrenchments after failed talks facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitrati...

The SABC says according to the Labour Relations Act, it is now at liberty to unilaterally implement the contemplated retrenchments after failed talks facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration - the CCMA. The public broadcaster has been in consultation with workers' representatives over the past four months over its plans to retrench around 600 full time employees.