First Take SA

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula is adamant South Africa will have a zero percent alcohol limit for motorists by the end of this year. Mbalula says the Road Traffic Amendment Bill, which will prohibit drivers from consuming any amount alcohol before driving, is now before parliament. The minister said this YESTERDAY evening when he announced the new transport regulations under level 2 of the nati...

Judgment has been reserved in the case of the Public Protector wanting to stop parliament from kickstarting a process to investigate her fitness to hold office. Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane approached the Western Cape High Court after the National Assembly endorsed a motion by the DA Chief Whip Natasha Mazzone for a panel of indepedent experts to be appointed to assess whether or not Mkhwebane has...

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula says regulations regarding alcohol consumption should be tightened to ensure that people do not drink and drive. Mbalula visited families of the three deceased metro police officers, who died in a head on collision in Pretoria on Sunday morning. Families of the deceased are devastated.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has requested more clarity on the details contained in the report on forced sterilisation of HIV positive women in South Africa. In February, the Commission for Gender Equality released a report on how 48 HIV positive women, were sterilised forcefully at 15 public hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The Commission revealed that the women were forced to sign consent...

The majority of KwaZulu-Natal's 2-point-8 million learners, who have been at home since the start of the lockdown in March, will return to school this week. The provincial government has announced plans for the return of learners at a virtual briefing in Durban. The national plan is for Grades R to 4, and Grades 6, 9, 10 and 11, to return today. The remaining grades will return to class at the end...

Public school learners in grades 1-4, 6 and 9-11 will be returning to school on Monday. The schools were forced to shut down last month after the cabinet decided on a four week break following concerns about rising Covid-19 infections in the country. Grade 12 and 7 had a 1 and 2 weeks break respectively. Some political parties have raised their concerns about the state of schools readiness for mor...

As the World Health Organization has urged African countries to put solid COVID-19 prevention measures in place before the reopening of learning institutions, South African schools are set to welcome back more learners starting this week. In July, President Cyril Ramaphosa had announced that learning would be suspended for four weeks, as Coronavirus infections continued to rise across the country....

Former Botswana President Ian Khama and South African businesswoman Brigette Motsepe will be launching legal action against Botswana's government accusing them of defaming their characters. This comes after a forensic report by a British law firm cleared the pair of allegations of money laundering and financing political unrest. The two high profile figures are key figures in a criminal case in wh...

Black Lives Matter generated heated debate among political parties during a hybrid sitting of the National Assembly. The Debate of National Importance was brought by EFF Chief Whip Floyd Shivambu. While many political parties were in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement,- others criticised it and its purpose. Calls for solidarity with the movement gained prominence following the brutal...

Support for President Cyril Ramaphosa's handling of the covid-19 pandemic response has dwindled from a positive high of 85 percent to 61 percent. This is according to the latest covid-19 democracy survey by researchers from the University of Johannesburg working together with the Human Sciences Research Council. The findings of the survey, to be made public later TODAY, also show that about 73 per...

Coffin assault victim, Victor Mlotshwa has expressed shock and dismay at the release on parole of both Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Jackson. The duo was set free at the weekend as part of the thousands of qualifying low risk offenders released on parole to curb the spread of the corona virus in correctional facilities. Jackson and Osthuizen were initially sentenced to 11 and 14 years respectively fo...

The organisation, Lawyers For Black People, has approached the High Court in Johannesburg to stop police from evicting tenants in Jeppe in the Johannesburg CBD. Landlords are allegedly insructing the police to remove defaulting tenants. The group's Zuko Madikane, says the Jeppe Station Commander and the Minister of Police have been cited as respondents. Angela Bolowana reports that the case agains...

The Gauteng government, together with the City of Johannesburg, have launched a new strategy to stop land invasions and the mushrooming of informal settlements. They'll be deploying one-thousand-500 community patrollers across the province to identify and stop illegal occupations

President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement that the country will today be moving to alert level two of the lockdown has been met with scepticism - with some saying it's too soon to open the economy. The EFF has accused him and the Health Department of manipulating COVID-19 statistics.

A number of sectors will open for business on Tuesday as the country moves to level 2 of the COVID-19 lockdown. These include the hospitality and tourism industry, gyms and fitness centres, and entertainment facilities such as cinemas and theatres. Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma briefed the media on the new regulations following the announcem...

Psychologists have warned parents to exercise caution in interactions with their children during the nationwide lockdown. They say children have been abruptly forced to adapt to a new normal and this could affect them in ways that they are unable to articulate. In a webinar hosted by HWH Global - an organisation on focusing on the transformation of individuals - on how to parent during a pandemic,...

Residents of Marikana in the North West want the place where 34 mine workers where shot and killed on the 16th of August in 2012 - to be marked as a heritage site. The mine workers where shot by police, during an unprotected wage strike. They were demanding that their salaries be increased to 12 500 rand a month.

Eight years after the Marikana shooting, President Cyril Ramaphosa is yet to visit the area in the North West, despite promises. He made an undertaking at Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's funeral in 2018 to visit the widows of those who died on the 16th of August in 2012. But two years on it is still not clear what it will take for him to visit the area

Gauteng is ready to relax lockdown regulations, but this must be done gradually. That's according to a member of the Premier's Advisory Committee, Professor Bruce Mellado. He had been speaking at the weekly briefing on the province's response to the corona virus pandemic. This comes amid reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa has been advised to open up the economy and relax lockdown regulations f...

The ANC will have to overcome the waning public trust if it is to seek a new mandate from voters. Recently the governing party has been struggling to overcome allegations of corruption, unethical leadership and failure to provide basic services to township dwellers and the rural poor. This has prompted voter apathy among some of the party's traditional support base. Our Political Correspondent Nte...

Family, friends, fans and South Africans paid tribute to the radio and television legend, Bob Mabena, during his memorial service in Houghton in Johannesburg. Mabena died on Monday of a cardiac arrest. His career spanned more than three decades where he broke the mould several times. The celebrated rap singer, radio host and producer started his career at Radio Bop when he was 19. He worked at Met...

Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has resolved to take measures to hold municipalities to account for poor performance. This after yet another damning report from the Auditor General on the state of local government. The committee is calling all involved, ranging from municipalities, councillors, national and provincial departments as well as all ot...

The legal team of the Public Protector has argued the unconstitutionality of Parliament's rules to remove the head of a Chapter Nine institution. The matter of the Public Protector challenging Parliament's rules on how to remove the head of a Chapter Nine institution, is currently under way on a virtual platform in the Cape Town High Court. Mkhwebane wants to interdict any further steps to be impl...

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to update the nation soon on whether the country may move to a lower alert level of lockdown. This as the National state of Disaster legislation under which the country's lockdown has been premised,expires on Saturday. On Tuesday, the National Corona Virus Command Council which is headed by Ramaphosa met. Expectations are high that with the national rate of in...

The Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) says the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, hasadopted an untenable and far-reaching position on the banning of the sale of cigarette and tobacco products. This is contained in papers FITA filed before the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein in its application for leave to appeal a high c...