First Take SA

The ANC in Tshwane has welcomed the decision by the Gauteng Provincial Government to dissolve the Tshwane metro. The metro has been placed under administration until a new council is elected in 90 days. Premier David Makhura told reporters in Johannesburg that the DA-led metro failed in its constitutional mandate to provide services to the citizens of Tshwane.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has told the National Assembly that the country's first Coronavirus case was confirmed in Kwazulu Natal yesterday. He says the patient has been put in voluntary home quarantine. Mkhize revealed this as he was closing the debate of National Importance on South Africa's state of readiness to deal with the virus.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says government has informed the World Health Organisation of South Africa's first case of the deadly coronavirus. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed that a suspected case of COVID-19 has tested positive in KwaZulu-Natal. The patient is a 38-year-old man who had travelled to Italy with his wife. There has been over three-thousand 200 deaths related to the virus worldwide and 107 in Italy alone.

Criminal charges have been laid against educators at Parktown Boys High in Johannesburg. This follows the release of the report looking at the circumstances surrounding the death of Grade 8 learner, Enock Mpianzi in January at the school yesterday* (Wednesday). The report was finally made public despite media being kicked out of the meeting held at the school with parents. Mpianzi died after a makeshift raft he and his fellow pupils built capsised in the Crocodile River at the Nyati Bush Lodge in the North West. Mpianzi was laid to rest last month. He was the fifth child to die at the camp.

South Africans living in China say they are afraid of returning home after reading threatening messages on social media from South African citizens in the country. This after, it was announced at the weekend that more than 150 South Africans living in the Chinese city of Wuhan would be repatriated within ten days. The expatriates will be quarantined for 21 days as a precautionary measure. While many are elated to be returning home, some have opted to remain in China, as a result of the stigma attached to the virus.

The District Six working committee is crying foul as the Western Cape high court is today set to hear minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane's application for leave to appeal a personal costs order that was granted against her in relation to the restitution for the people of District six. The High Court found that Nkoana-Mashabane was in contempt of the Land Claims Court for not complying with an order to come up with a comprehensive plan to reinstate claimants back to their historic homes. The court also ruled that she be held personally liable for the costs associated with the case.

Deputy President David Mabuza has cast serious doubt on the importance and need for Independent Power Producers saying they have not made any significant contribution to the power supply mix in the country. Mabuza was answering questions in the National Council of Provinces YESTERDAY. This is in sharp contrast to President Cyril Ramaphosa who, in his state of the nation address last month, committed to work closely with Independent Power Producers as part of government's plan to help solve the ongoing load shedding crisis.

Cosatu is adamant that it will not engage government's plans to cut the public wage bill at any forum outside the collective bargaining council. Speaking after attending a meeting of the ANC's National Working Committee at Luthuli House and a meeting between business, government and labour at NEDLAC yesterday, Cosatu General Secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali made it clear that plans to cut the wage bill by 160-billion rand over three years announced in last week's Budget Speech were not up for discussion

Analysts say while a technical recession was expected -- the contraction is far bigger than previously anticipated. This comes as figures released by Statistics South Africa show that the country's economy shrank by one-point-four percent in the fourth quarter of 2019 -- following a contraction of zero-point-eight percent in the third quarter of 2019. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth in a year.

Excluded from evacuation plans, South Africans in other parts of China are making their own arrangements to return to the country. This after the inter-ministerial committee on SUNDAY announced that only citizens in Wuhan City, the epicentre of the CoronaVirus, are being brought home. 151 citizens are expected to be repatriated in the next few days, and will be quarantined for 21 days as a precautionary measure.