First Take SA

It's all systems go for tomorrow's controversial presidential elections in Burundi. Opposition politicians have accused President Pierre Nkurunziza of violating the constitution by running for a third term and are boycotting the vote. Last minute peace talks called to solve Burundi's political crisis were derailed yesterday following a boycott by the Burundi government. Dozens of people have alrea...

The Railway Safety Regulator has just released its preliminary report into Friday's train accident in Booysens this afternoon. About 200 people were injured in that crash. The regulator has raised concern about the lack of maintance of ageing equipment. Metrorail is also expected to release details about it's investigation into the accident.

The City of Johannesburg's Emergency Services says striking fire-fighters are not affecting their services. The fire-fighters have vowed to continue clocking in at 8am and knocking off at 4pm, leaving stations understaffed for three hours until management takes their overtime grievances seriously. Joburg EMS's spokesperson, Robert Mulaudzi, says they are using reservists to cover the three hours p...

Protesting residents of Vuwani in Limpopo have handed a memorandum of their demands to the MEC for Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba in the area today. Ramathuba received the memorandum on behalf of premier Stan Mathabatha. Residents blockaded main roads demanding that the Municipal Demarcation Board reverse its decision to merge their area with Malamulele to form a new municipality. Ramathuba promised t...

In our Arts and Culture section this week.....Number 43, Trelawney Park, a modest house in a suburb of Manzini, Swaziland, was for many years a vital base of operations for the ANC. Told in the first person, Elias Masilela's book puts a tragic, and in some ways nostalgic, human face life in exile during the apartheid years. The book tells the stories of the ANC and PAC cadres who passed through Nu...

Numsa says Cosatu unions opposed to the expulsion of Numsa and former general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi are meeting today to chart a way forward after suffering massive losses at the Cosatu special national congress currently underway in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. They failed to push for the agenda of congress to include debate on the expulsions

Negotiations are continuing between the embassies of South Africa and Britain and Chinese authorities over the arrests of 20 people - ten of them South Africans - in Inner Mongolia. Chinese authorities have accused them of having links to a terror organisation, but have since released eleven people. Five South Africans remain under arrest. According to the Gift of the Givers group the group was on...

COSATU president Sdumo Dlamini says expelled affiliate NUMSA wants to destroy the federation. Dlamini called on affiliates supporting NUMSA to come back to the Central Executive Committee - they have been boycotting since NUMSA was booted out in November last year. But disgruntled unions also hit back during the open debate

Cosatu's Special National Congress is expected go to vote on whether newly formed metalworkers union LIMUSA and Second Deputy President Zingiswa Losi stay in the Congress. It is understood that unions sympathetic to expelled NUMSA and general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi would not accept the credentials until LIMUSA and Losi are excluded. The Congress was discussing credentials behind closed doors af...

Deputy minister of Traditional Affairs Deputy Minister Obed Bapela in the Eastern Cape after a a young man lost his manhood and four others critically in hospital following a botched circumcision

COSATU says it has it on good authority that there are plans to disrupt the much awaited Special National Congress next week. However it says all is in place to ensure it goes ahead as planned. PM Live host Tšepiso Makwetla speaks to COSATU President, Sdumo Dlamini.

President Jacob Zuma has recommitted South Africa to the BRICS member states and undertaken to continue supporting businesses operating in South Africa by those from member states. He was speaking at the 7th BRICS summit in the city of Ufa in Russia.

More than 14-thousand illegal firearms have been destroyed in Vereeniging in the Vaal Triangle. It's the second time a stash of guns has been destroyed by police this year. The initiative is aimed at making South Africa safer. Sashin Naidoo reports

The Labour Court has ordered Telkom to stop its plans to cut four-thousand jobs. The court order followed an application by labour union, Solidarity. Union deputy general secretary Johan Kruger says the judgment is a victory for Telkom workers who are regularly being subjected to restructuring processes. Telkom launched its retrenchment packages in an effort to balance its books. PM Live host TTel...

Lagos State has indicted TB Joshua's Synagogue Church for the collapse of the guest house in which 114 people were killed - including 81 South Africans. Coroner, Oyetade Komolafe, says the church should be probed for not obtaining approval for the the construction of the guest house. Komolafe says the church is guilty of criminal negligence over the collapse. The residential building collapsed in...

The City of Joburg has spent more than 120-million-rand installing 38-kilometres of new bicycle lanes in the CBD, Soweto, Alexandra and even in Orange Farm. This is to promote eco-friendly transport options. Officials are hoping motorists will swop their cars for bicycles. The lanes also provide added safety for cyclists using busy routes such as those between Auckland Park and Braamfontein. But,...

Custom officials confiscated cocaine worth 7 million rand at OR Tambo international airport earlier today. SARS spokesperson Luther Lebelo confirmed that the 26kgs of cocaine is one of the biggest busts at the airport, however no arrests have been made. In addition to that, 40 thousand tablets of Viagra disguised as plastic toys, have also been seized by SARS officials at the National Mail Distrib...

Traditional Affairs Deputy Minister, Obed Bapela, says they're working with other government departments to ensure that they criminalize running of illegal initiation schools.

There still is confusion over reports that African Peoples' Convention president Themba Godi had been suspended by his own party. Godi is the APC"s sole member of Parliament and the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. While Godi refutes the suspension, APC Deputy President, Hlabirwa Mathume says they have written to Parliament to inform it of the latest move. It is alleged th...

The public meeting that will incude the community of Mamelodi, has been set for Sunday, in an effort to resolve the Autopax/taxi operators clashes. The clashes, accompanied by incidents of violence has left several busses damaged and four people injured. The dispute started as a result of PUTCO terminating it's services in Gauteng, including in Mamelodi and the new operator, Autopax taking over. T...

The family of slain former LESOTHO army commander Maaparankoe Mahao says they are convinced that the government is concealing a planned assassination. Addressing a media briefing in the capital Maseru Mahao's brother Nqosa Mahao said the government was on a deliberate propaganda drive to mislead the nation. He says the family expects the government to condemn Mahao's murder and order the arrest of...

The National Energy Regulator says it will look at ways of giving incentives to Eskom to maintain its aging fleet of power plants and penalise the utility for poor performance. Nersa head of electricity Thembani Bukula says they want to incentivise them for good maintenance and penalise them for bad performance. The regulator earlier rejected Eskom's application for a ten percent tariff increase.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has invited Eskom to re-submit a new application for electricity tariff hikes. It earlier rejected the power utiliy's current application, with calls for more certainty and transparency. The regulator says Eskom didn't align its application with the requirements of the Multi-Year Price Determination which guides the levels of increases. Nersa chairpers...

The Gauteng Health Department has announced new alternate measures aimed at resolving disputes around medical negligence claims in the province. These include mediation as the first option before lawyers are brought in. A retired judge will be brought on board to precide over the matters. The department has been sued for millions by patients over negligence on the part of it's staff.

The ANC has again criticised a court decision, saying a ruling by the High Court in Pretoria regarding the al-Bashir saga was political. Judge Dunstan Mlambo outlined a number of reasons today why government was in contempt for letting Sudanese President Orma al-Bashir leave the country last week. He slipped out of South Africa, despite an interim court order prohibiting him to do so. Meanwhile Ju...