First Take SA

ANC employees have vowed to continue their stay away until the party's leadership addresses the issue of unpaid salaries. Workers say while some have not been paid since last November, others have not been paid since August. The group met with ANC officials last Friday where it was resolved that their salaries would be paid on Saturday but that hasn't happened. A follow-up meeting with the ANC treasurer-general, Paul Mashatile is planned for today. Chairperson of the ANC staff representative committee, Mvusi Mdala

The Congress of South African Students (COSAS) says it stands by the decision by the Basic Education Department not to publish matric results, in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act. This comes as a court challenge by lobby group AfriForum against the decision will be heard in court TODAY. While AfriForum and the department battle it out in court, COSAS says the only people who benefit from the publication of results are media houses and not the learners. COSAS spokesperson Douglas Ngobeni 

Workers in parliament are expected to report for duty today after they refused to work on Monday citing safety concerns. Yesterday staff members gathered outside Parliament's gates, demanding that the management guarantee their safety when working in some of the buildings gutted by fire 2 weeks ago. The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) in Parliament plans to conduct its own independent assessment of all health and safety compliance certificates issued for buildings in the Parliamentary precinct. Branch chairperson Stembiso Tembe

Unit 2 of the Koeberg Nuclear power station will be offline for five months as it undergoes regular refuelling and maintenance. This will be the 25th refuelling outage on Unit 2 since it was commissioned.  The planned outage, to last until June, has hightened fears of power outages and safety at the nuclear power plant. Energy Expert, Ted Blom...

Eskom will today take unit 2 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station offline for what they call a regular refuelling and maintenance outage that is scheduled for five months. The Koeberg Alert Alliance - KAA,  an organization concerned about nuclear reactors and opposed to the building of further nuclear reactors at Koeberg, has described the planned refueling and maintenance outage as confusing and disingenuous. KAA spokesperson Peter Becker

The two Khoi protesters who were arrested by police outside the Union Buildings on Wednesday for illegal cultivation and dealing in dagga appeared in court yesterday. The pair were released on warning ahead of their trial in March. Khoisan SA and Donovan Manuel, who appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court, have been living and protesting outside the Union Buildings for more than three years. They are demanding, among others, greater recognition of the Khoisan people and the return of their land. After their case was postponed, some of their supporters smoked dagga in full view of the police outside court. John van Rooyen, councilor of the National Khoi & San Council & the Supreme Leader of the !Kung Peoples of South Africa

Members of the Food and Allied Workers Union - FAWU, the South African Federation of Trade Unions - SAFTU, and the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa -GIWUSA are threatening to occupy the Union Buildings if their demands are not met. The unions are demanding Presidential intervention in their long-running dispute with the management of the dairy company, Clover.  The workers have been on strike for almost three months now. For more on this here is SAFTU leader, Zwelinzima Vavi.

Some members of Action SA have threatened to collapse the new party over its candidate list for councilors in Johannesburg. The group marched to the City of Johannesburg Council to demand inclusion on the candidate list. The members say, they feel used by the leader Herman Mashaba because they are now seeing new faces representing the party in the council. For more on this, ActionSA's Director of Operations, Fundzi Ngubeni

Time to take a look at the current top African economic stories.....We are joined on the line by Victor Kgomoesoana, author of  "Africa Is Open For Business" and "Africa Bounces Back". Victor is also the Executive Director for Marketing and Communication at the University of Limpopo.

Political analysts say South Africans will begin to ask whether some politicians plan to leave a legacy of strengthening or weakening democracy in their process of campaigning. This was after Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu wrote an article in which she questioned the moral standing of judges. She referred to unnamed black judges as mentally colonized Africans who had settled for the mindset of those who had dispossessed their ancestors. Political analyst, Sandile Swana takes a look at what this means for the political landscape...