First Take SA

Last night, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive council confirmed that fourteen people have died from the heavy rains and natural disasters since OCTOBER. In a statement, the council says about seven hundred and ninety-eight houses were affected across the province. As the province enters day six of extremely inclement weather conditions, the end is not yet in sight, with weather authorities issuing yet another warning for severe weather conditions going into the weekend

South African Airways has advised its customers to contact its call centre or their travel agents to make alternate flight arrangements - or request a refund. This after the South African Cabin Crew Association and NUMSA announced that their members will embark on industrial action tomorrow morning over a wage dispute. SAA has cancelled all its domestic, regional and international flights scheduled for tomorrow and Saturday. All flights operated on SA Express, Mango, SA Airlink and other partners will not be affected.

SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter says the office of the Public Protector and SARS -- with an endorsement by the court -- have agreed to hold in abeyance the implementation of the subpoena -- which requested the revenue service to provide Busisiwe Mkhwebane with former president Jacob Zuma's confidential taxpayer information.

The South African Police Service has dismissed weekend reports which claim that the death of former Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper, Senzo Meyiwa was a murder cover up. Meyiwa was shot and killed back in 2014 at the house of Kelly Khumalo's mother in Vooslorus, Ekurhuleni. The Sunday Independent claims that Meyiwa was accidentally shot by one of the people present at the house of the singer's mother and police's lead investigator, withheld crucial statements during initial investigations.

The National House of Traditional Leaders has submitted its report to the Limpopo High Court declaring Toni Mphephu-Ramabulana ineligible as head of the Venda Kingdom in Limpopo and proclaiming Princess Masindi Mphephu as the rightful heir to the throne. The House of Traditional Leaders says it is now upto the High Court to decide on the matter.

he Gauteng Health Department is concerned by the high number of unnatural deaths in the province. This as close to five-thousand people have been killed in the 2018/19 financial year through gunshots, being stabbed and through motor vehicle accidents. Assault cases have also resulted in the death of over a thousand people while nine-hundred and seventy committed suicide. Gauteng Health MEC, Dr Bandile Masuku says emergency services and hospitals are largely stretched over month-ends due to excessive drinking and reckless driving.

The Black First Land First movement has officially been de-registered as a political party. This after the Electoral Court yesterday rejected the BLF's application to appeal its de-registration. In June, the Independent Electoral Commission ruled in favour of the Freedom Front Plus to have the movement officially scrapped from the list of the country's political parties. The IEC says this was based on its constitution which states that it may not register a political party that excludes membership on the basis of race, colour or ethnicity.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) says it welcomes Mboweni's announcement that State owned Enterprises will no longer get bailouts, but loans repayable with interest. Outa has also reacted to government's decision to retain the e-tolling system in its current form.

The South African Growth outlook has been revised down by government. It now expects the economy to grow at 0-point-5 percent this year compared to 1-point-5 percent that was predicted in February this year. Growth is projected to slowly pick up to 1-point-7 percent in 2022. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has blamed weaker investment, lower business activity and declining global growth as some of the reasons behind the latest poor growth outlook.

The City of Johannesburg has admitted that they have yet to ascertain what information cyber attackers have gained access to when they hacked their ICT systems. The attack is understood to have breached the city's network and resulted in authorised access to its systems. Those claming responsibility have demanded that the City of Johannesburg pays four bitcoins valued at approximately 500-thousand rand by late afternoon yesterday. The City has however refused to be subjected to bribery