First Take SA

Government has announced that it will soon be reviving its old policy on housing that will allow people to receive vacant pieces of land to build their own houses as an alternative to the current system of building houses for them. It says this is, in part, because of the housing backlog and the recent land invasions during the lockdown in areas such as the Western Cape. Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has told parliament that her department is expediting the refined housing policy for approval by cabinet.

Managing Director of ENS Forensics, Steven David Powell has named Johannesburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo as one of the individuals who received irregular payments of up to R1.3million from EOH Africa through his service providing company named Molelwane Consulting in 2012. Powell says EOH AFRICA secured a number of payments from the City of Johannesburg without any work being delivered to the City. ENS' Forensics investigation found widespread irregularities amounting to about R1.2-billion in deals between EOH and various government departments

A new report released by humanitarian organisation Oxfam, has revealed that black women continue to suffer huge inequalities in South Africa. The report titled, Reclaiming Power: Womxn's Work and Income Inequality in South Africa, has found that the average CEO takes home as much as 461 black women combined would earn. They also form part of the bottom ten percent of earners in the country, while on average a black woman earns a quarter of her white counterpart.

The Western Cape government has called for an immediate public response in order to contain what it classifies as an established resurgence of new covid-19 infections. This as health minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize is expected to travel to the Eastern Cape today in order to support efforts to contain a rise in new infections in that province. A resurgence is when the number of active cases increases, week-on-week, by more than 20 percent. The province's Premier, Alan Winde says over the last week alone, the province has witnessed a 52.1 percent jump in new cases. Since November, covid-19 hospitalisations across the province have increase by 63 percent while critical care admissions have increased by a staggering 75 percent in the same month alone

A group of foreign nationals who are currently living in a temporary shelter at Wingfield, in Maitland near Cape Town have called on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to urgently intervene and assist them to leave South Africa. The group says the verification of their legal status in the country has continuously failed or been delayed in recent months.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants entering the country through the Beitbridge border fence outside Musina, in Limpopo, have been turned back into Zimbabwe by the army and police. The joint operation at the border is aimed at minimising the influx of undocumented immigrants into the country. The Beitbridge border gate is also experiencing a stream of people travelling from South Africa to Zimbabwe and other African countries.

ANC secretary-general, Ace Magashule has publicly apologised for the utterances he made two weeks ago in Bloemfontein, while addressing his supporters, after his court appearance. The apology follows a complaint by a group of ANC members at the Ngaka Modiri Molema region in the North West. In his address, Magashule said the ANC in the North West could not function without the former premier, Supra Mahumapelo.

Unemployment and alcohol abuse are some of the main contributing factors to the increase in intimate partner violence in South Africa. Gender activists say men tend to compensate for their lack of employment by physically and sexually abusing their partners. One victim of gender based violence says she's desperately looking for a job for her husband so he can stop abusing her.

The first COVID-19 vaccinations could take place in early to mid-December in the United States. This after Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech applied for emergency use of its vaccine on Friday while Moderna is expected to follow suit with a similar application before the end of the month. The head of the U.S. vaccine programme known as Operation Warp Speed also indicated over the weekend that vaccines would be shipped to every state within 24 hours of the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the application for emergency use. Between 20 and 40 million doses could be available and distributed before the end of the year in the United States alone.

Despite a looming eviction order by the Public Works department, a small group from the Khoisan community protesting outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria has vowed that they will not leave until their demands are met. The group has been camping on the lawns of the Union Buildings for nearly two years. They're demanding, among others, official recognition of the Khoisan language and its people as the first indigenous nation in South Africa.