First Take SA

Former South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane has accused Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan of arrogance, petty jealousy, and racism. The legal team representing former Sars Commissioner Tom Moyane told the state capture commission. Gordhan has denied Moyane's assertions and accused Moyane of advancing state capture.

Three children aged between six and eight have been electrocuted while swimming in a river at Jika Joe informal settlement in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. People from the settlement have made illegal connections from poles that supply homes in the government sponsored Lindela transit camp with electricity. Locals claim that 5 people have been electrocuted so far this year due to the electric cables hanging over the stream.

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi says 82 per cent of grades one and eight learners have been placed in schools. Lesufi was speaking during a media briefing YESTERDAY (Sunday) in Johannesburg about the Online Application Placement process for the 2021 academic year. The process started at the beginning of last month, and will end today.

Tourism bodies in Cape Town fear that rising Covid-19 infections in the city may have a devastating impact on the industry this festive season. Although no decision has been made on the possibility of restricting the movement of people, concern abound. There are now over eight-thousand active Covid-19 cases in the province and over 1000 people have been hospitalised. Provincial authorities have stressed that the economy cannot afford to go into lockdown, but have discussed possible measures to limit the spread.

The South African Liquor Association has joined efforts to curb the increasing number of new infections in the Eastern Cape. This as liquor outlets, including tarvens have been identified by health officials as key enablers for the rapid spread in infections, especially in areas such as Nelson Mandela Bay. The province now faces possible stricter lockdown regulations as government officials try to balance between saving lives and saving livelihoods. In a meeting between the provincial government and the Liquor Association, the industry committed to train and deploy 80 community patrollers in eight police stations in the COVID-19 hotspots areas in the province to assist in monitoring compliance.

Government will continue engaging with stakeholders in the trucking industry this week, following a meeting over the weekend. This comes at the back of the recent spate of attacks and burning of trucks. Thirteen such incidents have reportedly taken place in the last month, and between April and November 2020, more than eighty attacks have been recorded.

Testifying before the commission of inquiry into State Capture, former Treasurer at Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), Phetolo Ramosebudi claimed that he did not know if Gupta-linked Regiments Capital was entitled to 40-million-rands in fees which were paid to the firm for its involvement in financial instrument transactions between ACSA and Nedbank as well as Standard Bank. Ramosebudi worked for a number of state owned entities including South African Airways, ACSA, and Transnet in a financial management capacity.

Higher Education Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande says the National Student Aid Financial Scheme (NSFAS) has received more than 650-thousand applications for the 2021 academic year. Nzimande says they expect the figure to increase by the end of the month, which is the closing date. Nzimande also says all universities are fully committed to completing the 2020 academic year by mid-March 2021. This follows disruptions caused by COVID-19 and the lockdown.

Hundreds of SABC employees are expected to converge at the Johannesburg Labour Court TODAY as worker's union, BEMAWU seeks an urgent court interdict to stop the retrenchment processes at the public broadcaster. The union wants the SABC board to not only withdraw all notices of redundancy that were issued to employees but also to restart consultations with all relevant stakeholders before Sections 189 is implemented. Earlier in the week, the SABC board, extended the suspension of the process by another 30 days until the end of December. Meanwhile, parliament is also set to debate the impasse at the SABC next week Tuesday.

The Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, is expected to lead an inter-ministerial task team in the Nelson Mandela bay metro TODAY as part of an all out campaign to curb the rapid spread of the corona virus in the city. The Metro has in recent weeks become a Covid-19 hotspot and nearly half the new cases reported nationally, coming from here. The focus will be on testing, tracing and awareness as non-compliance seems to be the biggest driver behind the surge.