Category Archives: South African News

News24.com | Gigaba ‘erroneously’ said Atul Gupta is not a SA citizen – Home Affairs DG

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Cape Town – The Department of Home Affairs has attempted to clear the confusion surrounding the naturalisation of the Guptas by clarifying that Atul and Rajesh Gupta are indeed South African citizens, but that fugitive Ajay Gupta is not. 

Home Affairs Director General Mkuseli Apleni said on Wednesday that Atul had been naturalised in November 2002 and Rajesh in July 2006. Both of them appear on the IEC voters’ roll.

Apleni said that Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba had “erroneously” told the a media briefing on Tuesday that Atul Gupta was not a South African citizen.

Atul was apparently naturalised before Gigaba became minister of home affairs, the department said. 

Also read: CONFIRMED: Atul Gupta a registered voter – IEC

eNCA | WATCH: Ndlozi, Shivambu kicked out of Parliament

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CAPE TOWN – EFF MPs Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and Floyd Shivambu were forced to leave Parliament on Wednesday after refusing to withdraw a remark that Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba is a liar.

Gigaba had told journalists the day before that Atul Gupta was not a citizen of South Africa.

WATCH: Gigaba on Gupta naturalisation

Gigaba has been in the spotlight over the naturalisation of the Gupta family.

He was supposed to appear in Parliament on Wednesday to answer questions, but was a no-show after calling in sick.

The Independent Electoral Commission said on Wednesday that Atul Gupta was, in fact, registered to vote in South Africa.

eNCA

News24.com | PI company under scrutiny in Siam Lee accused bail application

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Durban – The manner in which a private investigations company arrested an accused in the Siam Lee murder case took centre stage on the first day of the accused’s bail application in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Magistrate Mahommed Motala banned private investigator Brad Nathanson and anyone from his company from attending the proceedings, because they were witnesses.

Lee’s burnt body was found in a sugarcane field in New Hanover after she had gone missing early in January.

The accused cannot be identified because he has not yet pleaded. He faces charges 16 charges, including rape, murder and kidnapping.

In court on Monday, the accused’s legal representative Martin Krog, kept his focus on the arrest of his client and drilled holes in the procedure the private company used to make the “arrest”.

READ: I’ve been tortured since my arrest – Siam Lee murder accused

It was widely publicised that Nathanson and his team had made the arrest in the case.

The accused told the court that he had returned home from Johannesburg when he was confronted by Nathanson, Nathanson’s wife and Nathanson’s associate Wayne Britz.

He said he had arrived home in a hired car on January 17 to find a Mercedes Vito parked in his garage was missing.

As he tried to get his cellphone from his car, a gold Toyota Fortuner pulled up.

“A white gentleman, whom I now know as Brad Nathanson, stepped out, pointed a gun at me and his immediate words were: ‘Open the gate, motherfucker’.”

‘Lay down flat on the floor’

The accused claimed that Britz also got out his car and pointed a firearm at him.

“After Britz got out, Britz said: ‘If you don’t open this fucking gate, I will shoot you’. Fearing for my life, I opened the gate. They then told me to come forward. I walked towards them. I asked them what is the point, who are they, what is going on. They said: ‘Lay down flat on the floor’. Nathanson came to handcuff me.”

Krog then presented the court with a picture of the arrest that Nathanson had posted on his Facebook page.

“It is clear that you can see my client’s face in the picture. He is posing for it,” Krog said.

Krog’s client said Nathanson and Britz “manhandled” him and moved him toward his house.

“They then told me: ‘You murdered Siam Lee’. I said I never murdered anyone in my life or the person mentioned. They said again: ‘Motherfucker, you killed Siam Lee and you better start talking or we will fuck you up’.”

Both Britz and Nathanson choked and punched him, he testified.

“They were in my house and I could hear them calling out to search here and there.”

Krog replied: “So they searched your house without asking you?”

He replied: “Yes.”

The bail application continues.

eNCA | Day Zero will not happen in 2018: Maimane

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CAPE TOWN – Day Zero will not occur in 2018 and this means taps will stay open, provided Cape Town residents continue consuming water at current levels and there is decent rainfall, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane said on Wednesday.

Maimane was speaking at a press briefing at the party’s federal head office in Cape Town.

“Just less than two months ago, the City of Cape Town was in a dire position. We were told that due to the worst drought the city had seen in over 100 years, its water supply was near depletion, and Day Zero, the day on which the taps would turn off was set to arrive on April 12.

“I am therefore happy to announce today that provided we continue consuming water at current levels, and we receive decent winter rainfall this year, Day Zero will not occur in 2018. This means the taps will stay open in 2018!”

READ: City of Cape Town to give update on Day Zero

“This 60% reduction in consumption is an incredible achievement and outperforms many other cities across the world which faced severe droughts, including Sao Paulo, Melbourne, and the State of California,” he added.

Maimane, however, said that while the collective achievement must be celebrated, “this is not the time for complacency”.

“While it is now unlikely to occur in 2018, Day Zero is still a very real possibility during the 2019 summer months if we do not have significant rainfall this winter. I want to reiterate, and cannot stress enough, that we need to keep at current consumption levels until at least after the winter rainfall. We can and we must continue to use less than 50 litres of water (per person) per day so that Day Zero can be defeated in its entirety.”

READ: WCape prepares for another dry summer season

He added that he was confident that residents will not return to previous wasteful water practices. “There is a ‘new normal’ in the Western Cape around water use. We must continue in this current spirit of utmost respect for this precious natural resource, and never waste it. It must also be made clear that this hinges on the national department of water and sanitation honouring its agreement as to the amount of bulk water that will be supplied to the city and the province over the year,” said Maimane.

Depending on the extent of consumption and the amount of rain received over the winter months, the city may be in a position to scale back the current restrictions from Level 6B to Level 5 in the near future Maimane added.

 

African News Agency

Balance of Payments – International trade in goods and services – March 2018

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Publish Date: 2018-03-06
Category: International Trade in Goods and Services

​International trade in goods and services

Attachments:

eNCA | CATCH IT LIVE: MPs to grill Public Protector

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* Editor’s note: This event will be broadcast live on eNCA.com and DStv Now and is expected to start at 10am.

CAPE TOWN – The Public Protector’s fitness to hold office is yet again being questioned.

Busisiwe Mkhwebane will appear before Parliament on Tuesday over her recent public utterances linked to the Absa CIEX report and the Estina Dairy Farm issue.

In the CIEX matter, the North Gauteng High court found that she didn’t understand her constitutional duty.

With the Estina report, Mkhwebane said the Free State Agriculture Department did not improperly enter into a public/private partnership with the Estina dairy farm.

According to the report, it was found that officials flouted procedural rules.

Mkhwebane has told her department she refused to resign until her term ends in 2023.

eNCA

eNCA | Living with listeriosis: A mother’s anguish

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EAST LONDON – While listeriosis has resulted in a high death rate, not everyone has died from exposure to the bacteria.

Lindiwe Ndamase’s stepdaughter Luleka (40) is in Frere Hospital in East London.

Luleke was diagnosed with listeriosis.

Travelling every day by taxi to visit Luleka has put a strain on Lindiwe’s already meagre finances.

* eNCA reporter Sandy McCowen visited a patient recovering from listeriosis. Watch the video in the gallery above.

eNCA

News24.com | Magashule associate convicted over corrupt tender

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Bloemfontein – A marathon corruption case in the Free State involving dodgy tenders awarded by the province’s department of education has culminated in the conviction of a close associate of Premier Ace Magashule.

Isaac “Blacky” Seoe, a former business partner of both Magashule and one of his sons, Tshepiso, was found guilty on charges of corruption, fraud and other related crimes in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein in February.

Seoe is the same Free State businessman who can be seen on CCTV video footage accompanying the premier and officials from the Free State Development Corporation (FDC) on a site visit to a Shell fuel station in Phuthaditjhaba in the eastern Free State in 2014.

News24 recently revealed that Magashule’s daughter secured the fuel station in a questionable property deal with the FDC.

– Read: Magashule and daughter in money-for-jam property scandal

Seoe, who is a former chairperson of the FDC, was first implicated in a corruption racket back in 2001 along with 12 co-accused, including Tebogo Lioma, the provincial education department’s former deputy director-general.

The court has now found Seoe and one of his co-accused guilty of bribing Lioma in order to influence a tender for learning materials awarded to a company called Mabolela Distributors by the provincial education department in 2001.

The court also found that Mabolela Distributors was a front set up by Seoe, resulting in a guilty conviction on a count of fraud.  

The contract awarded to Mabolela formed part of tenders worth around R30m awarded to several companies by Lioma’s department.

Seoe was also convicted on counts of money laundering and racketeering resulting from the corrupt tender.

Seoe and his 12 co-accused will be sentenced in May. Virginia Moseia, Seoe’s former wife, is among the accused.

In 2013, Seoe and Moseia unsuccessfully applied for a permanent stay of prosecution.

Links to the premier

The controversial Free State businessman is linked to Magashule and his family.

In 2011, amaBhungane reported that Magashule’s office had signed off on a government lease deal with Sambal Investment, a company in which the premier and Seoe were once co-directors.

Company records also show that Seoe and Tshepiso Magashule, the premier’s eldest son, were co-directors in a company called Chitoss Trading. This company was deregistered in 2015.

Seoe was also present when Magashule and his daughter, Thoko Malembe, along with officials from the FDC, visited the Shell fuel station in Phuthaditjhaba in 2014.

The MMAT Trust, of which Malembe is a trustee, bought this property from the FDC in a questionable deal that saw the trust pocket R9m as a result of a favourable lease agreement with Shell. Malembe’s trust also bought the fuel station site from the FDC with the upfront rental it received from Shell.

Magashule’s daughter has done at least one business deal with Seoe.

According to deeds records, her MMAT Trust in 2017 bought a property in the Free State town of Kestell from Robs Properties, a company of which Seoe is the sole director.

TIMELINE: How Magashule’s daughter scored R9m in property scandal

Seoe put the phone down when News24 phoned him for comment. He did not respond to a request for comment sent to him through WhatsApp.

“The honourable premier is aware that a Mr Seoe has been convicted of a crime or crimes, the details of which are not known to the honourable premier,” said Tiisetso Makhele, Magashule’s spokesperson.

Makhele said that there is no relationship between Magashule and Seoe, despite the company records that indicate they were once business partners. Makhele did not respond to a query about why Seoe and Magashule had visited the Shell fuel station in Phuthaditjhaba together.

“In regard to the premier’s son, you should be aware of the Provisions of the Executive Ethics Code, issued in terms of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act, in terms of which the details of the financial interests of a child of the Member of the Executive is confidential and access to that information is limited to only the Public Protector and the Secretary of the Executive Council,” claimed Makhele.

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News24.com | ConCourt set to hear Sassa case on CPS contract extension

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Johannesburg – The Constitutional Court is on Tuesday expected to hear an application by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) to extend the Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) contract by six months.

Roughly 2.5 million beneficiaries will not get their grant payments if the contract with CPS is not extended, the agency argued in court papers.

READ: 2.5 million grant recipients don’t have personal identification numbers to access grants

This contract expires on March 31, 2018.

Sassa’s concern is for the 29% of grant beneficiaries, most of whom live in rural areas and depend on cash deliveries of their social grants, a service that is currently provided by CPS.

Last Wednesday, acting CEO Pearl Bhengu and new Social Development Minister Susan Shabangu appeared in Parliament to update MPs on Sassa and the department’s state of readiness to migrate the nation’s social grants scheme from CPS by April 1.

Sassa has less than a month in which to fully migrate core components of the grants scheme from CPS, as ordered by the Constitutional Court, to the South African Post Office (SAPO), as agreed in December 2017.

ALSO READ: Shabangu in charge of Sassa migration for now – Cabinet

Bhengu told Parliament that there had been very important developments since Sassa requested an extension of the CPS contract in February, including the setting of a court date, March 6. 

“We are waiting to hear if the court will grant us that six-month phase-in, phase-out of CPS. The court will say yes or no,” she said at the time.

Bhengu assured MPs that all payments starting from April would come from Sassa’s corporate account, not CPS’s.

This includes payments to the 5.7 million people who had Grindrod Bank cards.

“On April 1, everyone will be paid, whether CPS is here or not. The only problem may be at the [cash] pay points.

She added that there was a contingency plan in place, should the court say no to the six-month extension.

CPS wins right to participate in future tenders

Bhengu said beneficiaries who use cash pay points, roughly 2.9 million people according to the inter-ministerial committee, had already been categorised.

SAPO chief operating officer Lindiwe Kwele previously told Parliament that, whatever the court’s decision, in principle, SAPO would still be in charge of the scheme come April 1.

The “phase-in, phase-out” period was merely to ensure a smooth transition, she said.

READ: Post Office clarifies Sassa’s request for CPS extension

The Constitutional Court ruled last month that CPS may participate in future Sassa tender processes, as allowed for by the law.

CPS had argued it was not consistent to bar the company from bidding for all future tenders as a result of its current contract being declared invalid.

The March 2017 judgment “did not render CPS ineligible to participate in Sassa’s tender process”, the court’s notice read.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), on behalf of the Black Sash Trust, said it would be in court on Tuesday to ensure that the social grants system and its beneficiaries are protected when the unlawful contract between Sassa and CPS comes to an end later this month.

It said it was unable to oppose the application, given the “significant risk posed to grant beneficiaries”.

Attorney at CALS Wandisa Phama said the agency had known since December 18, 2017, that it would require a CPS cash payment extension.

“It delayed for nearly eight weeks before bringing this application. The conduct of Sassa is unexplained. The silence of the minister of social development is deafening.”