First Take SA

As President Cyril Ramaphosa prepares for his annual State of the Nation Address on Thursday, he is being called to take responsibility for the controversy surrounding the Astra Zeneca vaccine which arrived in the country last week. Cosatu says it reflects badly on Ramaphosa's leadership that government has procured the vaccine that is expiring in April. Again the vaccine has proved to be less effective for the new variant in South Africa.

The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture has heard how Parliament's Transport Committee failed its oversight duties on state owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said he was shocked and frustrated to hear that members of parliament did nothing about corruption at the entity while the company's fruitless and wasteful expenditure bill continued to mount. Furthermore the committee failed to interrogate enablers of State Capture at PRASA. Zondo was hearing evidence from the committee's former chair Dikeledi Magadzi yesterday.

World Health Organisation Chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus, says he will meet with the organisation's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, or SAGE today. The meeting will discuss SAGE's recommendations on the use of the Astrazeneca COVID19 vaccine. This comes as a recent study revealed that there was minimum protection in mild to moderate infections of the 501y.v2 strain - which was first identified in South Africa. Ghebreyesus says the organisation will expand guidance to vaccine manufacturers and governments on changes needed to combat the mutating virus.

All Medical Aid schemes in South Africa will be covering the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine for their members. This comes after South Africa's Council for Medical Schemes or CMS added the Covid-19 vaccine to its list of Prescribed Minimum Benefits.

Health minister, Zweli Mkhize says they have chosen the AstraZeneca vaccine due to promising results and its flexibility. Mkhize was speaking during a virtual media briefing last night. The briefing follows AstraZeneca's announcement that its vaccine only offers limited protection against mild disease caused by the variant that has been discovered in South Africa. South Africa has already bought one-point-five million doses of the vaccine from the Serum Institute in India of which one million doses arrived in South Africa two weeks ago.

Many households are struggling to repay their loans, and unsecured debt is on average 32 percent higher than it was five years ago. According to the DebtBusters' fourth quarter Debt Index released YESTERDAY (Thursday 4 February), debt -to-income ratio is at 130 percent. This is its highest level in years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures implemented to curb the spread of the virus. Head of Debtbusters, Benay Sager, says borrowing has increased by 32 percent to supplement eroding incomes due to salary cuts and job losses.

Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has expressed outrage at revelations that four ANC MPs who voted with their conscience were told that they would be disciplined by the party's top leadership. Zondo was responding to the testimony of Makhosi Khoza who was removed from her position as Chairperson of the Public Service Portfolio Committee after admitting that she had voted with her conscience in support of the opposition's August 2017 vote of no confidence against Former President Jacob Zuma. A month earlier, the Constitutional Court had ruled that it was lawful for parliamentarians to be guided by their conscience in voting on resolutions.

After a few years of intense political rivalry and seeking to remove Jacob Zuma from the union buildings, Julius Malema has reached out to the former President. If the EFF statement on Zuma's constitutional court ruling is anything to go by, Malema may be in a bid to persuade the former President to rethink his decision to shun the constitutional court which ordered to him appear before the state capture commission. The meeting is scheduled for this coming weekend.

ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule has slammed calls by the Eastern Cape ANC for former president Jacob Zuma to be disciplined saying there is no reason to take action against the former president. This comes as other political parties expressed mixed feelings to Zuma's decision to defy the Constitutional Court order to appear before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. On Monday, Zuma vowed not to co-operate with the commission, despite last week's ruling by the Apex Court compelling him to do so.

The Office of the Auditor General has painted a bleak picture about the financial situation of some of the State Owned Entities. The audit outcomes of some of these entities are showing regress rather than improving.