First Take SA

Criminologist Zain Halle says it's highly improbable that Sindisiwe Manqele had planned to murder her rapper boyfriend, Nkululeko Flabba Habedi. He's submitting an assessment report in mitigation of sentence in the High Court sitting in Palm Ridge in Ekurhuleni. Manqele was found guilty of intentionally killing Habedi in March last year in his Alexandra home.

Top officials in the ANC were forced to leave the eMakhempini sportsfield in Mandeni on the KwaZulu Natal North Coast after being met by protesting residents. The community demanded that those arrested during violent protests on Monday be released. Residents took to the streets earlier this week after a former mayor was apparently re-nominated. At least six factories were torched as well as vehicles, causing damage to the tune of R15 million.

ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani has confirmed his resignation as member of parliament with immediate effect. Sizani says he will replace Makhenkesi Stofile as South Africa's ambassador to Germany. He says his redeployment is not a sign of lack of confidence in him. The ANC held a special caucus meeting today where the news was broken to party MPs.

The Independent Electoral Commission says it has undertaken a range of initiatives to ensure that all new voting registrations include the addresses of voters. This follows an Electoral Court judgement, in November last year, that ruled in favour of independent candidates in the by-elections at the Tlokwe Municipality, in North West, that the voters' roll should bear the addresses of voters. Chairperson of the IEC Glen Mashinini says a number of measures are in place to obtain location details from voters...

The events of 2015 and this year have raised some fundamental questions about transformation at South Africa's universities. Rhodes University vice chancellor, Professor Sizwe Mabizela, has said this while addressing student bodies and academics attending the official opening of the 5thUnisa Research and Innovation Week in Pretoria. Mabizela calls for a speedy transformation process in all areas of concerns at institutions of higher learning. Meanwhile, the National President of the EFF's Student Command and Unisa student, Mpho Morolane says they insist on having English as the common medium of communication at institutions of higher learning...

Student unrest at universities has reached untenable levels. The tensions have led to violence as well as a number of assaults. We are at a crisis point and we have to act now before lives are lost. As a result, a group of likeminded active citizens have joined forces to provide independent mediation, conflict resolution and facilitation services to the universities and the student movements who request it. The help will be provided under the name #AccessThuto, meaning access education. #AccessThuto is led by former Constitutional Court Judge Yvonne Mokgoro, Sello Hatang CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Kingsley Makhubela CEO of Brand South Africa and Neeshan Balton CEO of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.

Protesting students on the main campus of the University of the Free State have slightly damaged the statue of former state president C.R. Swart after attempting to set it alight. However, university security personnel managed to put out the blaze. The protesting students are members of the EEF and students organisation SASCO. They are supporting workers who are demanding an end to outsourcing. Meanwhile, The gates remain locked with a visible police presence at the University of Pretoria. This follows the clash between a group of students calling for abolishment of the use of Afrikaans language and the group supporting preservation of Afrikaans at the institution. A handful of Front National supporters picketed near the university's main entrance.

A bomb threat has led to the adjournment of sentencing proceedings against Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir in the high court in Johannesburg. Krejcir and five co-accused were quickly ushered to holding cells while the gallery was evacuated. Tactical response officers are combing the building. The court earlier rejected a request by Krejcir to postpone proceedings. The Hawks believe Krejcir is trying to escape before he is sentenced.

Police were called in to keep groups of students apart on the main campus of the University of Pretoria, today. Several people were injured. Tension mounted when a group opposing the use of Afrikaans arrived at the campus to hold a meeting to discuss a way forward. This followed the postponement of a court case against 27 of them. Security personnel had to form human shields between the two sides as they hurled insults at each other. Meanwhile, the 27 students arrested on Friday appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court.

At the beginning of January 2015, Naledi Molope-Serudu received a letter of demand from a company known as Mtimandze Consulting and Projects which said it was collecting debt on behalf of the City of Tshwane. Molope-Serudu, who had moved to Cape town and was renting out her home, immediately made arrangements to pay but the money did not go to the coffers of the City of Tshwane and now it appears that the company no longer exists.