First Take SA

Strong winds in both Knysna and Plettenberg Bay in the Southern Cape have caused fires in the region to flare up again. An aerial fire fighting team is water bombing affected areas and ground crew are also on the scene. Fire fighters still trying to come to terms with the death of their colleague. The 24- year old Bradley Richards succumbed to burn wounds he sustained while fighting this week's fires on the Garden Route. Meanwhile the raging fires together with this weeks storm have claimed 13 lives . Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Managing Director of Working With Fire Trevor Abrahams and Marketing Manager at kulula.com Bridgette Ramuluvhana..

Disaster management teams in the Western Cape say they are working tirelessly to extinguish the fires in various part of Knysna. A family of three was killed in Rheenendal while trying to escape a blaze yesterday, and a three-year old girl's body was today found in Welbedacht. Hundreds of homes, a school hostel, and a church were brought to the ground by the fires. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Chief Director of the Western Cape Disaster Management Colin Deiner

South Africa has suspended imports of all poultry products from Zimbabwe following an outbreak of bird flu virus from that country. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries says they've heightened inspections of all consignments in all ports of entry, especially in and out of Zimbabwe. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Director of animal health at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Dr. Mpho Maja

Male fertility is at an all time low! This is according to the SA Rooibos Council. The spotlight has fallen on male fertility this June, which is recognised as National Men's Health Month. This follows reports by scientists who claim that sperm counts have halved over the past 50 years. According to a study done by the University of Copenhagen, sperm counts in the 1940s were typically well above 100 million sperm cells per millilitre, but researchers found that they have dropped to an average of about 60 million per ml. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to the spokesperson for the SA Rooibos Council Adele du Toit and Professor Shingai Mutambirwa from the urology department at Medunsa

Five learners have died and two others seriously injured in a car accident in the Eastern Cape on Monday morning. The learners from Gumzana high school in Bizana were travelling to school when the accident occurred. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Eastern Cape Education spokesperson, Malibongwe Mtima

The Premier of the Western Cape Helen Zille has until five o'clock deadline on Tuesday to file reasons as to why she should not be suspended from the Democratic Alliance (DA) party activities. Zille was served with a notice of suspension on Saturday by the party's federal executive committee. The disciplinary hearing over her tweets on colonialism is set to take place this Friday. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Independent Political Analyst, Daniel Silke

The Hawks have opened an inquiry into leaked e-mails involving alleged improper dealings between the Gupta family and government. The unit says it will look at the authenticity of the emails and how were they leaked. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi

Former Lesotho Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane seems to be leading as the results of yesterday's election start to trickle in. Basotho went to the polls, following a collapse of a coalition government after parliament passed a motion of no confidence in March this years, against the leader of the Democratic Congress (DC) party, Pakalitha Mosisili. Meanwhile, the Election Observers in Lesotho have raised concern over the overlapping roles between the army and the police. This after Lesotho IEC expressed shock that the army had been deployed at polling stations on Saturday. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to executive director of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), Denis Kadima

The labour court couldn't hear an urgent application brought before it by Former Eskom Group CEO Brian Molefe in an attempt to reverse his removal as Eskom CEO. This follows a failure by Eskom and Public Enterprises Minister, Lynne Brown to file responding affidavits. Molefe approached the labour court after the was fired on Friday by the Power utility board following a recommendation by the Inter- Ministerial Committee. Tsepiso Makwetla spoke to Labour Attorney, Kerry Gantley of the Cowan Harper Attorneys....

The country's unemployment has increased to 27.7 percent in the first quarter of this year. This is the highest unemployment rate recorded since 2003. According to figures released by Statistics South Africa, the growth in unemployment was driven mainly by the agriculture and services sectors. Agriculture jobs declined by 44 000. We are now joined on the line by Agri SA Executive Director Omri van Zyl and Mamokgethi Molopyane who is a mining and labour analyst and Managing Director of Creative Voodoo Consulting