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Loadshedding will be suspended from midnight to 16:00 every day until further notice, with Stage 3 implemented over the evening peak, due to "further improvement on the available generation capacity".

The Stage 3 load shedding will last from 16:00 until midnight.

Breakdowns are currently at 16 056 MW of generating capacity while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 2 407 MW.

Eskom said that over the past 24 hours, a generating unit each at Kriel and Majuba power stations were returned to service. At the same time, a generation unit each at Duvha, Hendrina, Kendal, Lethabo and Matla power stations were taken out of service due to breakdowns.

"The further delays in returning to service a generating unit at Arnot, Camden and Hendrina power stations are contributing to the current capacity constraints."

Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago gave MPs a spirited defence of his policy to continue hiking rates amid criticism that this is not taming inflation.

On Tuesday, Kganyago addressed Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance on the bank's financial stability report.

The bank hiked rates by another 50 basis points in May, bringing the increase to 4.75% points since November 2021. He has been criticised by economists who argue that higher rates are not bringing down inflation, which is due to rand depreciation, and are killing growth.

"We take no pleasure in people losing houses, but the fact of the matter is that inflation is eroding people's incomes, and something must be done. And when people say interest rates are a blunt instrument, they are, but that is what we have. The instrument we use is the interest rate. If we want lower rates, we have got to beat the monster of inflation," said Kganyago.

Kganyago said that while initially central bankers around the world had assumed that the reappearance of inflation was temporary, because it was caused by supply-side shocks - or shortages of particular goods due to Covid-19 disruptions – this had fed into other prices.

In the case of South Africa (SA), the bank considers prices of inputs such as fuel, food, and electricity to be "exogenous" and not a result of the business cycle. However, when other price setters in the economy raise prices in response to higher input costs, "second round effects" kick in, and inflation of items excluding exogenous factors start to rise.

"Once this happens, if you do not act, people will adjust their inflation expectations to a higher level, causing a wage-price spiral . That wage-price spiral sets in when the central bank fails to act decisively when there is an indication that inflation is starting to be broad-based.

"With respect to my fellow economists who hold a different view to the central bank: I am sorry - inflation has spread beyond the headline, we have seen core inflation rising and second-round effects kicking in, we are seeing inflation and... [have] to deal with that. Failure to do that will mean that the incomes of SA will continue to be eroded."

This is the first time that MPs have called the Reserve Bank to Parliament to discuss the financial stability report, which highlighted how new threats – such as secondary sanctions in response to SA's relationship with Russia, loadshedding and greylisting – had raised SA's risk profile and threatened financial stability.

The outflow of capital from the bond market by foreign investors since the start of the year, which came in response to heightened global and domestic risk, has raised the cost of government borrowing. It has also, for the first time since the 1990s, reduced the depth and liquidity of domestic capital markets, raising fears of the financial sector's stability.

Despite record levels of loadshedding and aggressive rate hikes, South Africa's first-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.4%. This was exactly in line with economists' consensus forecast, according to a Thomson Reuters poll. The economy shrank by a revised 1.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022. Growth in the first quarter means South Africa avoided a technical recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of a shrinking economy. While the South African economy is now slightly bigger than before the Covid pandemic, it still remains below its peak in the third quarter of last year.

The South African Reserve Bank previously estimated that loadshedding will shave two percentage points off GDP growth this year. The bank's aggressive rate hiking cycle - 475 basis points over 18 months – is also restricting the economy.

Still, the manufacturing industry continued to grow (1.5%), with food and beverage output expanding the most in the first quarter.

The finance, real estate and business services industry (+0.6%), personal services industry (+0.8%) and the transport, storage and communication industry (+1.1%) also saw growth.

However, agriculture slumped by 12.3%, weighed down by a decline in the production of field crops and animal products, Statistics SA said. The motor trade also recorded a decrease in economic activity.

The Bloemfontein High Court has dismissed Dr Nandipha Magudumana's urgent application to declare her "deportation" from Tanzania unlawful.

Judge Phillip Loubser, however, found the "deportation" was, in fact, a "disguised extradition" but ultimately found against Magudumana because she had willingly consented to leave the country.

Magudumana fled South Africa with her lover, rapist and killer Thabo Bester, in April.

Bester was serving a life sentence in the Manguang Correctional Centre when he escaped in May 2022 after orchestrating a fake suicide by fire.

The couple was tracked to Tanzania and "deported" to South Africa on 13 April 2023.

Magudumana is accused of fraud, defeating the ends of justice, violating a body, and aiding and abetting an inmate to escape from lawful custody, corruption and arson.

On Monday, Loubser found that because a South African delegation willingly participated in the handing over of Magudumana and Bester on 12 April in Tanzania, and because they knew the handing over would be for purposes of her prosecution, they were extraditing Magudumana and not deporting her.

He made the distinction that extradition usually involved the handing over of a person who was accused or convicted of a crime, and deportation was the removal of an unwanted person from a country.

Deportation is usually unilateral, and extradition usually occurs between nations.

Loubser said:

What they did not realise was that such a handing over was, in fact, an extradition without any process and not a deportation.

"This is not the end of the matter".

He added that when Magudumana was handed over at the Tanzanian airport by the South African High Commission to Department of Home Affairs officials, she offered no resistance.

"On the contrary, she informed all and sundry that she wanted to return to South Africa to her children."

Loubser dismissed the application with costs.

Meanwhile, Magudumana's lawyers said they would visit their client on Tuesday for further instructions.

On Wednesday, the petrol price (both 93 and 95 unleaded) will be cut by 71c a litre, while diesel will be lowered by either 80c or 84c a litre depending on the sulphur content.

Illuminating paraffin will be 43c a litre cheaper.

South African fuel prices are largely determined by international oil costs and the rand exchange rate, as oil is priced in dollars.

The rand took a large hit to a record low following US accusation that Russia received arms from South Africa. But the average Brent crude oil price fell from $82.20 to $75.90 a barrel.

In a statement, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy said this was due to concerns about lower-than-expected economic growth in China, which will affect fuel demand. In addition, oil inventories grew faster than expected, while concerns about the US debt ceiling – which could have triggered a debt default and market chaos – also weighed on the oil price.

The latest change brings the price of a litre of 95 unleaded petrol to R22.63 in Gauteng, compared to R24.17 a year before – and a record price of R26.74 in July last year.

The wholesale diesel price is now R19.31 a litre in Gauteng. As recently as in November last year, diesel cost close to R25.50. Diesel is back to levels before the invasion of Ukraine caused a big spike in oil prices.

President Cyril Ramaphosa noted on Monday that the municipal audit findings of Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke are serious and need a coordinated response.

Ramaphosa expressed his disappointment with the municipal audit outcomes for 2021/2022 in his weekly letter to the nation.

Last week, Maluleke released the audit outcomes, which found that only 38 out of 257 municipalities – and only two out of the eight metros – achieved clean audits.

Ramaphosa noted that while clean audits were not the only indicator of good service delivery, there was a clear correlation between achieving good audit outcomes and improving services to communities.

He said it was imperative that municipalities had credible, sustainable, and well-managed revenue collection programmes that applied fair and equitable standards to all customers.

He said a number of municipalities stated that they did not have sufficient funds to implement programmes and projects, explaining that this was often the case because municipalities were increasingly not able to collect revenue for key services such as water and electricity.

He highlighted that citizens should play their part by paying for services.

“All businesses and government departments must pay outstanding debt to municipalities,” he urged.

He explained that local government provided the infrastructure and services that helped improve people’s lives, adding that all spheres of government must, therefore, work together to ensure that municipalities were able to fulfil their responsibilities.

Ramaphosa noted that in the past year, about 88 municipalities failed to spend at least 10% of their Municipal Infrastructure Grant, which was earmarked to eradicate infrastructure backlogs.

Another challenge, he said, was that money that was not allocated for a specific purpose was often misspent.

During the President’s Coordinating Council (PCC) meeting in Cape Town, on Friday, the PCC recommended that National Treasury and the Department of Cooperative Governance develop measures to further support and strengthen municipal revenue collection systems with urgency.

As the Auditor-General’s report noted, municipalities were often to blame for their own financial woes because of poor debt collection practices, Ramaphosa said.

The Hawks are investigating four cases of fraud and corruption that saw the Department of Defence and Military lose R167-million in public funds.

Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya revealed this during a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans on 31 May.

In the latest case reported at Sunnyside police station on 24 April 2023, it was alleged that the Department of Defence and Military Veterans awarded a R57-million tender to a service provider to procure machines and to train 900 people to repair potholes in all the provinces.

But Lebeya said proper supply chain processes were not followed during the awarding of the tender.

Lebeya said investigators interviewed the complainant on 16 May to get more clarity on the matter.

"[The] investigation is ongoing."

In a case from 2022, reported to the Pretoria Central police, the Hawks investigated cases of fraud and corruption involving the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Department of Defence.

Lebeya said the matter came to light during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, but was only referred to the Hawks in 2022. According to Lebeya, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) investigated the case and submitted a report to the Department of Defence.

"DoD (Department of Defence) charged its members, and according to their Defence Act, they could not charge the civilians and the companies involved in the commission of crime on the procurement of the PPEs.

"The alleged companies supplied masks to the department and allegedly paid kickbacks to the officials," Lebeya said.

A total of R44-million in public funds were lost. Lebeya told the committee that 17 SA National Defence Force (SANDF) members, four company directors and eight companies were under investigation.

Lebeya said the Hawks also investigated a fraud, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act case reported at Sunnyside SAPS in April 2021. He said a complainant reported maladministration within the Department of Military Veterans offices in Pretoria.

"These allegations eventually led to the suspension of the five suspects. When accepting tenders, they disregarded the policies that are put in place by the DoD governing the procurement processes and the awarding of the tenders.

"This habit led to the service providers being awarded tenders for Sewing Project and Furniture Making Project, but the money was deposited into the closed corporate account that belongs to the individuals," he said.

Lebeya said no valid service level agreements or contracts were signed between the Department of Military Veterans “irrespective of the full compliance with what was expected to be done in terms of giving training to the Military Veterans and their beneficiaries”.

The Hawks investigation found that there were no advertisements nor invitations of the bidders to all the awarded tenders.

"The tenders were awarded to their favoured friends. They irregularly employed their favourites to senior positions without the necessary qualifications. Such people were never graded in terms of the Public Service Act; nevertheless, they were placed in Senior Management Service level," Lebeya said.

Lebeya said five companies and five suspects were linked to the case, which led to the loss of R37.4-million.

In the last case, involving R29-million in fraud, corruption and theft, from January 2022, the Hawks investigated allegations of irregularities regarding the procurement of skills development at the offices of the Military Veterans Department.

Lebeya said it was alleged that a company provided three-day security courses for more than R4-million, despite not being registered with Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA).

He said a second company was awarded a machinery contract of more than R25-million by National Treasury, but proper processes were not followed.

"The third company was appointed as the new service provider; however, correct processes in appointing the...

International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor says the war between Russia and Ukraine should not detract from the world's developmental goals.

Pandor launched a veiled critique of developed nations who fail to reform and transform global institutions.

On Friday, she welcomed non-Brics nations to a dialogue on the sidelines of the foreign ministers' summit in Cape Town.

These countries include the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"It is clear that today, we no longer share an understanding of the greatest global challenge. This is despite the reality that the Covid-19 pandemic set back our efforts to achieve Sustainable Developments Goals by almost a decade," Pandor said.

"We are led by the 2030 Agenda. A regional conflict has not replaced eradicating global poverty as the world's greatest global challenge. How do we bring the world's attention and resources back to this fact?" she asked.

According to Pandor, there is increased economic risk for the most vulnerable with low growth levels in much of the globe and neglect of those in the greatest need.

"Food inflation and high energy prices have strained incomes and resulted in high debt costs and persistent uncertainty. And the attention and resources of our Western partners have been diverted and the agendas of our multilateral organisation no longer respond to the needs and demands of the Global South.

"The world has faltered in cooperation. Developed countries have never met their commitments to the developing world and are trying to shift all responsibility to the Global South," she said.

Furthermore, Pandor said the poor and marginalised are facing the greatest threat in that their plight is forgotten while the so-called great powers fight.

"This is not the world we hoped for when the Cold War ended. This is not the world we promised our people in the 2030 Agenda.

"South Africa desires a return to peace, multilateralism, and partnerships for development," she said.

Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla announced on Friday the appointment of Professor Taole Mokoena as the new Health Ombud of South Africa as of June 1.

Mokoena is a graduate of the Universities of KwaZulu-Natal and Oxford and served as the Chief Surgeon at the Department of General Surgery at the University of Pretoria and at Steve Biko Academic Hospital.

He previously chaired a panel investigating surgical deaths and discrimination within the cardiology department at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

The Health Ombud is an independent body established in terms of the National Health Amendment Act of 2013, with a responsibility to protect and promote the health and safety of users of health services by considering, investigating and disposing of complaints in the national health system relating to noncompliance with prescribed norms and standards.

Mokoena accepted the magnitude of his role in assisting the Department of Health to deliver a healthcare system that timeously responded to the demand of a growing population.

Phaahla expressed gratitude to the outgoing Professor Malegapuru Makgoba for his efforts as the inaugural Health Ombud.

“Professor Makgoba displayed patriotism and commitment to the creation of an improvement of the health services in our country, by impartially and with no favour or prejudice investigating complaints brought to his office and also made recommendations which are invaluable to the health system and the country as a whole,” Phaahla said.

Considering the Life Esidimeni tragedy, the alleged Covid-19 fraud within the Tembisa Hospital and the dilapidated conditions at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, the Minister has heeded the criticisms Makgoba levelled at the Department regarding issues of staff capacity and resource allocation.

Alluding to a high turnover of MECs, Phaahla highlighted the importance of ensuring stability at an institutional level towards ensuring that people in South Africa receive quality healthcare.

“Strengthening management capacity at the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) does help the Ombud administratively and does offer a full secondment of staff. At the moment, there is a core staff complement with an executive manager that works with the Ombud on a day-to-day basis. However, the caseload outweighs the staff complement,” said OHSC CEO Dr Siphiwe Mndaweni.

It was a delicate balancing act: On the one side was its aim to turn things around in the embattled eThekwini metro and avoid being put under administration, and on the other was its attempt to ensure that tariffs were not increased exceedingly amid tough economic conditions.

In the end, the R65.5-billion budget Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda tabled for the metro on Wednesday, which he described as "pro-poor", received the nod from the majority party, so much so that councillors danced and sang in jubilation.

Kaunda said although the City "feels the pain" for residents, tariffs had to increase due to global economic conditions and other factors.

The eThekwini metro is in the clutches of a Section 154 intervention by the national government after a string of governance issues.

If the metro's authorities don't buckle down and turn things around, the metro could be put under administration.

Kaunda dished out R953-million for human settlements in eThekwini, which has almost 600 informal settlements.

He also allocated:

R1.2-billion for sanitation and upgrades to sewer lines, among other things;

R2.9 billion for the expansion and upgrading of 16 wastewater treatment works, which aren't operating optimally due to floods;

R850-million for public transport; and

R205-million for roads.

Delivering the budget, Kaunda said, "Putting this budget together has been a tough balancing act between cost-reflective tariffs and breaking even from a business perspective, while ensuring sustainability and uninterrupted service delivery."

He said it took quite some time to put it together.

The metro recently announced a sharp electricity tariff increase of 21.91%, which was roundly rejected by 16 000 residents in a poll the Democratic Alliance (DA) conducted, according to DA eThekwini executive committee member, Yogis Govender.

But Kaunda brought it down to 18.94% - slightly higher than the nationally loathed 18.49% the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) announced. He said the proposed increase was "aligned" with that which Nersa announced.

But Kaunda stuck to his guns when it came to water tariffs, hitting residents with proposed 14.9% and 15.9 increases for residents and businesses, respectively.

"Some of the key drivers of the water tariff increase include a 5.5% increase imposed by Umgeni Water, a 3% increase related to the construction of the essential Upper Umkhomazi Dam and repairs and maintenance contributes of around 4.3% and security of around 1%," Kaunda said.

Other proposed changes were shrinking the property rates tariffs from 8.9% to 7.9%; decreasing the sanitation tariff from 11.9% to 10.9% for households and from 12.9% to 11.9% for businesses; and taking the refuse tariff increase down to 6.9% from 8%.

In a media briefing on Thursday, Kaunda announced that the changes at Eskom for eThekwini would come with Stage 7 loadshedding for industrial nodes, which will be limited to four hours of no power.

"Stage 7 is not normally a stage that ... kicks in," Kaunda said. "We hope this will enable them to plan their production around this constraint."

The City's website explains that industrial nodes in some blocks start from Stage 7 loadshedding, which comes with four hours of no power.

"Although this victory is significant for residents, it is regrettable that water rates will not be cut. These tariffs continue to be unnecessarily high, and businesses will endure a huge 15.9% hike, which is 2% greater than last year. All of these hikes are substantially above the rate of inflation, putting already struggling households in a financial bind. Such a high tariff increase could have been avoided had the ANC-led government recovered the billions owed to it, removed the yearly non-revenue losses of water and electricity, which total nearly R3 billion, and put a stop to corruption and theft.

"eThekwini is experiencing a gradual collapse, with the national government considering intervention through administration. It is time for Mayor Kaunda and his coll...