Update@Noon

The Gauteng Township Economic Development Draft Bill has been gazetted by the provincial Department of Economic Development. It proposes to revitalize and reserve certain sectors of township economies exclusively for South African citizens or naturalized citizens in Gauteng. The bill gives due consideration to the empowerment of township enterprises by seeking to include them in state procurement...

The ANC Youth League in Fezile Dabi Region is offering their members military training. An advert making rounds on social media platforms says this training is for all members of the ANCYL committed to defending the revolution. Activities listed include: Basic military training, hiking, gun handling, guerrilla tactics and political education. However the acting Regional Secretary of the ANC in the...

While recent crime stats for 2019/20 revealed an overall decline when compared to the prior year, only contact crimes for this period were up. We ask- how is South African crime compared to our neighbouring countries? We do a comparative study looking at Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe amd Botswana - questioning where and why we are high in certain areas compared to those countries? Where we can imp...

The council of the Fetakgomo-Tubatse local municipality has taken a resolution to purchase a privately owned civic centre building at a cost of 135 million rand. The property in Burgersfort is owned by Tubatse Properties. The municipality will pay 50 million rand deposit and a monthly instalment of nearly three-million rand for a period of three years. Meanwhile political parties and community str...

The Senekal Magistrate's Court in the Free State has denied bail to 51-year-old Andre Pienaar who's facing charges of attempted murder, malicious damage to property and public violence. The matter has been remanded until the 20th of next month for further investigations. Pienaar was arrested last week following violence in which a group of farmers stormed the court building to demand that two susp...

Sporadic reports recently of young people, especially females, being allegedly lured away from their homes on the promise of lucrative jobs only to find themselves being trafficked for sex- has caused mass panic and paranoia in the country. While cases of kidnappings, abductions and missing persons are also on the rise, a Social Development Trafficking in Person's Indaba last year revealed that at...

The Mayor of Sol Plaatje municipality, Patrick Mabilo has appealed to workers to return to work as it is residents who are bearing the brunt of their protests. On Thursday the municipality asked workers to give them seven days to attend to their grievances, but workers had in response vowed to protest for seven days until their demands are met. The South African Municipal Workers Union has embarke...

Operations have been disrupted in the Sol Plaatje Municipality in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. This is because the South African Municipal Workers Union has embarked on a protest over what it referred to as outstanding labour issues in the municipality since 2011. Workers are picketing outside the municipal offices while the police are monitoring the situation. We spoke to SAMWU's regional secr...

Gauteng Premier David Makhura has fired Dr. Bandile Masuku from his position as Health MEC following allegations of corruption. Presidential spokesperson, Khusela Diko, health MEC Bandile Masuku and his wife - Johannesburg MMC, Loyiso Masuku - were placed on leave in July following a controversial multi-million rand PPE tender scandal. An SIU investigation has found that Masuku had failed to execu...

The Special Investigations Unit says it has referred four criminal matters to the NPA with regard to the procurement of a border fence by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure at the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. SIU Head Advocate, Andy Mothibi says this is with regard to two department officials, as well as two service providers. DPWI Director General Sam Vukela, Ministeri...

The former VBS Chief Financial Officer, Phillip Truter, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, 3 year suspended. He appeared before the Palm Ridge Specialized Commercial Crimes Court on charges of corruption, money laundering, fraud, racketeering and theft. He is accused of facilitating the looting of VBS, and receiving R5.8 million. Truter pleaded guilty on various charges linked to the loo...

ANC has denied media reports that a warrant of arrest has been issued out for its Secretary General, Ace Magashule. Last night media was abuzz with reports that the party's secretary general will be served with an arrest warrant for his alleged involvement in the Vrede Dairy Farm corruption matter. ANC Pule Mabe says Magashule has instructed his lawyers to write to the NPA to confirm whether there...

In the past few weeks, we have been speaking to various stakeholders in the railway industry. Looking to understand the challenges of the railway industry holistically. We spoke to commuter organisations, anti-crime campaigners, metal scrap yard organisations and today we speak to Prasa to find out what is being done to restore services, are they winning the fight against theft and vandalism of th...

The seven accused in the R255m asbestos corruption matter have been release on bail ranging between one-hundred thousand and five-hundred thousand rand in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court. We spoke to our reporter, Ishmael Modiba.

ANC senior member and former MP, Vincent Smith, appeared in court earlier this morning over alleged charges of fraud and corruption for his beneficial relationship with BOSASA when he was the chairperson of the Correctional Services Portfolio Committee. He was granted bail. Smith handed himself over at the Alberton Police Station this morning, following evidence presented at the State capture Comm...

SASSA says it has plans to reduce SRD Grant rejection rates. SASSA says it has experienced a rise in the number of rejection rates for the COVID-19 grant applications. This can be attributed to several factors such a mismatch between details provided by beneficiaries and reliance on the information derived from data sets obtained from institutions such as UIF and SARS databases among others. In Au...

The Hawks have arrested several officials and businessmen in Gauteng, Free State and Kwazulu-Natal - following evidence at the State Capture Commission relating to the 2014 Free State Asbestos Project. More arrests are expected in various parts of the province today. The suspects are expected to face charges - including fraud, corruption, theft and money laundering - in relation to an over 200-mil...

2.2 million people have lost their jobs in South Africa in the 2nd quarter of 2020. The number of employed people has decreased to 14,1 million compared to the first quarter of 2020. Stats SA has just released the much anticipated job numbers for the second quarter of 2020 after more than a month of postponements. The unemployment figure also reflects the worst impact of the Coronavirus pandemic o...

Sibusiso Matshaya has been sentenced to five life terms and an additional 25 years for raping raping four school girls and two women in and around Vereeniging in the Vaal. Matshaya who is dubbed the Vereeniging serial rapist appeared in the High Court sitting in Palm Ridge east of Johannesburg. The court also ordered that Matshaya's name be added to the sexual offenders' register. Between 2016 and...

The pointing of fingers by three police officials implicated in the killing of Eldorado Park teenager Nathaniel Julies continues in court. The bail hearing is currently under way in the Protea Magistrate's Court in Soweto. Simon "Scorpion" Ndyalvane, Caylene Whiteboy have been charged with murder, defeating the ends of justice and being in possession of prohibited ammunition and discharging a fire...

Action SA leader Herman Mashaba says his legal team has began implementing a legal strategy that will force government to retrieve the container trapped underground 4 years ago at Lilly Mine in Mpumalanga with mine workers: Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule, and, Solomon Nyerende inside. Mashaba held a media briefing earlier today in Sandton Johannesburg. He was joined by family members of the 3 trapp...

The ANC in Gauteng has decided not to release its Provincial Integrity Commission (PIC) report on PPE corruption scandal. The Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) met for two days deliberating on the report which it felt had inconsistencies, contradictions and lacked adequate information. The PEC resolved to extend leave of absence for Health MEC Bandile Masuku, his wife Loyiso who is an MMC in th...

The total number of reports on corruption has increased. In 2020 there were 1-thousand-995 corruption cases reported to civil society organisation Corruption Watch compared to 1-thousand-591 cases last year. This is an increase of over 400 cases. The anti-corruption body says 55 percent of the bulk of corruption cases reported to them were gathered after the national state of disaster was declared...

SALGA in Mpumalanga is calling for the dissolution of the Lekwa Municipality. The municipality has seen a spate of protests action by residents and also the workers of the municipality. The workers were calling for the removal of the municipal manager while workers are concerned about lack of service delivery. We spoke to Muzi Chirwa, SALGA provincial spokesperson in Mpumalanga… Meanwhile The hand...

SAA's creditors are meeting today to possibly discuss liquidation, should government fail to provide the airlines business rescue practitioners with the necessary confirmation. Government has until today to indicate if it's managed to secure the required funds to save South African Airways from possible liquidation. We spoke to our reporter Amina Accram. We also spoke to our reporter, Mbali Mtheth...