First Take SA

July is South Africa's National Savings month and we have been running educational feautures on how you can make your rand stretch and also save enough for rainy days. Today, we are looking at household savings. According to analysis done by MyTreasury, South African's household savings rate comes last when ranked against the G20 countries. This means that too many South Africans are living in debt or eating into their capital. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Warren Kopelowitz, CEO at My Treasury

The Nelson Mandela Rules for the treatment of prisoners, meant to encourage the humane treatment of inmates around the world, have been officially launched. The rules were unveiled by Correctional Services minister, Mike Masutha, at a ceremony held on Tuesday at the Drakenstein Correctional facility in Paarl. The Mandela rules are a set of minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners to which UN member states are committed.Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Vuyi Mlomo-Ndlovu, the project head for the implementation of the Nelson Mandela Rules

The 10th Summit of Heads of State and Government of BRICS countries begins today in Johannesburg. This is the second time South Africa has hosted the summit, since 2013. The summit ends on Friday, and will discuss various strategies that can strengthen the BRICS economic partnerships. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Professor Ari Sitas is chairperson of the South African BRICS Think Tank

The Khoisan community leader, Chief Khoisan SA, who led a group of protesters that staged a month-long protest and hunger strike outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria last year, has accused government of NOT taking them seriously. They claim that since handing over their memorandum of demands to then deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa more than seven months ago, they have not received any feedback. Howeveer, the Presidency's spokesperson, Khusela Diko, has acknowledged that there was was a delay in providing the Khoisan with feedback and that government is addressing their demands. Neo Makwiting reports.

As Mthatha residents prepare to participate in their first public hearings on land expropriation without compensation on Monday, some say the land must be owned by communities and not the state. Mthatha West residents particularly, those who have been embroiled in legal battles with their local municipality over land invasions, strongly believe that land should be registered under traditional councils. Fundiswa Mhlekude has more

National Police Commissioner - General Khehla Sithole - has given a team of top investigators 72 hours to trace and arrest killers of eleven men in Colenso, in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands. The eleven deceased and six survivors belonged to the Ivory Park Taxi Association in Midrand, Johannesburg. They were on their way back to Johannesburg after attending a colleague's funeral at Matimatolo, in KwaZulu-Natal,when unknown gunmen ambushed and killed them using automatic rifles. The appointed task team will work under the command of KwaZulu-Natal Acting Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Mluleki Mntungwa who is the spokesperson for KwaZulu Natal Community Safety MEC Mxolisi Kaunda and Chief Strategic Manager at the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO), Bafana Magagula

There are growing calls for government to urgently set up a team to probe ongoing arson attacks on Metrorail trains. This follows Saturday's torching of 7 coaches, 2 motor coaches and 5 plain trailers at Cape Town Station. The damage is estimated at 30 million rands. But how will this affect metrorail operations in the Mother City this morning? Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Western Cape Metrorail spokesperson, Riana Scott

National Police Commissioner - General Khehla Sithole - has given a team of top investigators 72 hours to trace and arrest killers of eleven men in Colenso, in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands. The eleven deceased and six survivors belonged to the Ivory Park Taxi Association in Midrand, Johannesburg. They were on their way back to Johannesburg after attending a colleague's funeral at Matimatolo, in KwaZulu-Natal,when unknown gunmen ambushed and killed them using automatic rifles. The appointed task team will work under the command of KwaZulu-Natal Acting Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Nhlanhla Nxele

Some members of a panel of experts on a Setswana language station of the SABC concurred that Section 25 of the constitution on land expropriation should be reviewed with the sensitivity it deserves . This was during a round table debate which followed public hearings by a delegation of the Joint Constitutional Review Committee which toured the North-West this week. The panel consisted of a constitutional lawyer , a communal and a commercial farmer, as well as a representative from traditional leadership.The view that land was still in the hands of the whites and should be shared, dominated the debate . Dyaell Gaetsewe reports.

Only twenty-two of the 46 Trek4Mandela climbers made it to Africa's highest peak, Uhuru on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Many climbers experienced altitude sickness. They started their expedition to summit Mt Kilimanjaro on Saturday 14 July, as part of the Mandela Centenary celebrations. The 2018 expedition also sought to raise enough funds to ensure that 500,000 girl children will not miss a day of school and give much-needed accessibility to sanitary towels. Our reporter Gillian Pillay was part of the team and earlier on spoke to FirstTakeSA's Tsepiso Makwetla