Update@Noon

South Africa has sunk deeper into junk status after Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings in lowered the country's credit ratings this weekend. Moody's cut the nation's foreign and local-currency ratings to Ba2, two levels below investment grade, from Ba1 while Fitch cut the nation's foreign and local-currency ratings to BB-, three levels below investment grade, from BB, also with a negative...

Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is to lay criminal charges with the police against former president Jacob Zuma after he walked out of the commission last week. Zuma and his legal team walked out of the commission in Johannesburg last week in defiance of the summons it had issued against the former president, after he failed in his bid...

Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has turned down former President Jacob Zuma's application for his recusal. Zondo says Zuma's lawyers have failed to prove that their client will not get a fair hearing. Zuma had alleged that the historical relations between himself and Zondo, the commission's selection of witnesses and the Deputy Chief J...

SABC board deputy chairperson Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi says five of the members are against retrenchments at the public broadcasters. The SABC board has three executive members and 11 non-executive members. Meanwhile, SABC management is adamant that it's continuing with the retrenchment of 400 permanent staff. In an email to staff, SABC management and the board have apologised for what they've ca...

Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, has assured members of Parliament that self proclaimed Malawian prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary, did not leave the country with a delegation of Malawian President, Lazarus Chakwera, while on a state visit last week. Motsoaledi is appearing before Parliament's portfolio committee to explain issues around the Bushiri couple permanent residency. The...

Police have their hands full in controlling scores of ANC supporters who are demanding to be allowed inside the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court ahead of the appearance of party secretary-general Ace Magashule. NPA spokesperson, Sipho Ngwema, believes they have a watertight case against all the accused. Sixty-one-year-old Magashule handed himself over to the Hawks and is currently appear in the Blo...

The SABC has announced it is ready to implement Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act despite months of talks between employer and unions. The number of staff affected by the move however, has gone down from 600 to 400. There are about 170 vacant positions that will be available for employees to apply for, which provides the potential of further reducing the number of affected employees to 230....

South Africa's unemployment rate has increased by 7.5% to 30.8% in the third quarter of 2020. Statistics South Africa has just released the unemployment figure for the third quarter, announcing that the unemployment rose to 30-point-8 percent from 23-point-3 percent in the second quarter. However, the unemployment rate was artificially low in the second quarter because Statistics South Africa only...

The EFF has vowed to intensify its campaign against alleged racism at Brackenfell High School in the Western Cape. EFF members and parents of the school clashed over a private matric celebration organised by some parents which allegedly excluded black students. Western Cape Education Minister Debbie Schafer has warned that if the EFF continues its protest action she will approach the courts to int...

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is prepared to run free, fair and safe by-elections cross country on Wednesday. It will conduct By- elections in 96 wards in 56 municipalities. The commission has been unable to hold elections since March this year due to the coronavirus lockdown and plans to clear the backlog of all outstanding by-elections simultaneously this week. IEC CEO Sy Ma...

Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden is six electoral college delegates shy of winning the United States Presidency after he was projected winner of both key Midwestern states of Wisconsin and Michigan. With the magic number of 270 delegates required to win the White House, Biden could seal his victory with a win in Nevada, where he holds a slight lead over incumbent President Donald Trump, w...

US President Donald Trump has declared an unsupported victory in a speech from the White House. Millions of votes in the 2020 election are yet to be counted. Trump says his administration will head to the Supreme Court to stop all voting and ensure the integrity of the polls. Meanwhile, Democratic challenger Joe Biden has expressed optimism with the United States Presidential Election, saying his...

Pastor Timothy Omotoso has been denied bail by the High Court in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Omotoso and co-accused are facing over 90 charges related to sexual offences. This is the third time Omotoso has been denied bail since his arrest in 2017. Our reporter Veronica Fourie gave us the latest update.

Enlightened Christian Gathering Church leader Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary have been granted bail of R200- thousand each. They have been in custody for almost three weeks. The Bushiri's and four other accused are facing fraud, corruption and money laundering charges. Here is the Pretoria Magistrate's Thandi Theledi outlining the Bushiri's bail conditions. We also got an update from our repor...

Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng has just granted former BOSASA COO Angelo Agrizzi. bail at the High Court in Johannesburg. Agrizzi has been in jail since the 14th of this month after the Specialized Commercial Crimes Court sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court refused to grant him bail. He is facing a corruption charge which relates to the payments made to former ANC MP Vincent Smith who is also o...

Former state security minister Bongani Bongo's has been granted R10 000 bail. He faces new charges of corruption, fraud, theft and money laundering related to three dodgy land deals worth 124 million rands in Mpumalanga. Bongo is today among 14 other co-accused appearearing before the Nelspruit regional court for his alleged role in the said deals where prices were supposedly inflated. The deals h...

There's a heavy police AND SUPPORTER presence at the Randburg Magistrates Court today, as EFF leader Julius Malema and MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi's appear in court. Police officer, Johannes Venter laid a charge of assault against Malema and Ndlozi, after they allegedly assaulted him during the funeral of struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in 2018. We got an update from our reporter, Abongile Dumako.

The murder case of former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain Senzo Meyiwa has been postponed to the 27th of next month in the Boksburg Magistrate's Court east of Johannesburg. At the start of the appearance the five accused refused to enter the dock in the Boksburg Magistrates court saying they did not kill the soccer star. The accused have been identified as Themba Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi,...

Kliptown residents in Soweto say if they had swimming pools in their area the death of two kids aged 13 and 14 could have been avoided. The teenagers were cooling off in the stream over, amid high temperatures being experienced in parts of the country yesterday. We spoke to our reporter Maageketla Mohlabe.

More than 53% of the population is vulnerable to trafficking and the reality is that less than 1% of victims are ever rescued. This is according to anti-human trafficking non-profit organisation, A21. South Africa is known as a source, transit, and destination country, with an estimated 155 000 people enslaved. The beauty and perception of economic prosperity lure people from all over Africa and A...

EFF's Sinawo Tambo explains why the party is not happy with Ranjeni Munusamy’s appointment as Political Secretary for Finance Minister Tito Mboweni

We are still continuing with our feature this month where we put the spotlight on human trafficking. East Africa, especially Kenya, remains the exit point for smugglers transporting Africans to the Middle-Eastern countries to be exploited in ways described as equivalent to modern day slavery. This emerged during a webinar hosted by organised crime programme -- ENACT -- and the Institute for Securi...

The Special Investigating Unit has withdrawn its application to freeze the accounts of the two companies awarded the contract to erect the Beitbridge border post fence. Public Works and Infrastructure department paid Caledon River Properties Limited and Profteam over R21.8 million in advance for the erection of the 40 kilometre barrier, which separates South Africa and Zimbabwe. The fence was proc...

Police have managed to prevent a scuffle between the EFF supporters and farmers in Senekal in the Free State. They continue to monitor the situation. The Human Rights Commission in the Free State is calling for calm. Different groups of protesters have ascended to Senekal for bail application of two men accused of the murder of the farm manager, Brandin Horner. For more what is happening outside o...

Today the world marks International Day of Rural Women with a special focus on building rural women's resilience in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. The United Nation says many Rural Women Suffer From Discrimination. The department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is appealing to South Africans to Use #ruralwomen on social media to show the world that you stand in solidarity wit...