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Former President Jacob Zuma has suffered another setback in his attempts to remove the lead prosecutor from his arms deal corruption trial, as a top judge dismissed his latest petition in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

Zuma, ousted in 2018 after nine years in power, accuses the prosecutor of bias against him.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges including corruption, money laundering and racketeering in the long-running case over the $2-billion arms deal in the 1990s.

Zuma had asked the SCA's president, Justice Mandisa Maya, to reconsider an earlier ruling by two SCA judges and allow him to appeal a High Court decision not to take the lead prosecutor off the case.

But the judiciary said in a statement on Thursday that Maya had "issued an order disposing of the application".

The spokesperson of the Jacob Zuma Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zuma's corruption trial has been repeatedly delayed. This month proceedings were adjourned until a holding date in August to give the SCA president time to make her decision.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday he will consider Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s representations, after he had asked her, in March, to provide him with reasons why he should not suspend her.

Ramaphosa received Mkhwebane’s representations on Thursday.

“The Public Protector has complied with the agreed deadline of May 26 and the President will now give due consideration to the submission,” said the Presidency.

Parliament is pushing through with Mkhwebane's impeachment proceedings, opening the way for Ramaphosa to suspend her.

In February, the Constitutional Court effectively gave the Section 194 Committee, which handles the proceedings, the green light to continue with the impeachment as long as Mkhwebane was allowed legal representation.

Former Transnet CEO, Siyabonga Gama, who is among the five people accused of R93-million fraud and corruption in a case relating to the procurement of 1 064 locomotives by the State-owned freight rail company, was released on R50 000 bail following his arrest on Friday.

Gama is facing charges alongside other former Transnet top executives, acting chief financial officer, Garry Pita, ex-group treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi, Regiments' Eric Wood, and Trillian Asset Management director Daniel Roy.

The charges are contravention of the Public Finance Management Act, fraud, corruption and money laundering.

The claims of overpayment and corruption in Transnet's locomotives contracts featured in the State Capture Commission, with a number of the firm's former executives and board members giving evidence relating to the controversial procurement.

Gama is the first high-profile former head of a state-owned entity to be criminally charged on claims of corruption.

Earlier this year, the Zondo Commission recommended that Brian Molefe, Gama's predecessor at Transnet, former chief financial officer, Anoj Singh, and Gama be prosecuted for their role in the corrupt procurement of locomotives by Transnet.

The Investigating Directorate stated that Transnet in 2012 did a Request for Proposal tender to get transaction advisory services to secure funding for $2.5-billion to fund the acquisition of the 1 064 locomotives deal.

In May 2015, the company appointed JB Morgan for advisory services. However, between July and October 2015, the same officials in Transnet started facilitating the termination of the JB Morgan contract. JP Morgan was later replaced with the Gupta-linked Trillian in October 2015.

The accused had been told to present themselves to the police before their appearance at the Palm Ridge Specialised Crimes Court.

Wood was granted bail of R250 000, Ramosebudi R25 000 and the rest were each released on R50 000 bail.

Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority's Investigating Directorate, Sindisiwe Seboka, said that more arrests were expected in the matter.

They were briefly joined in the dock by Kuben Moodley, who was arrested in September 2021 in connection with alleged money laundering of the proceeds from contracts improperly awarded by Transnet to Regiments and Trillian, as well as alleged theft of funds from the Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund, as Fin24 reported previously.

In his affidavit in support of bail, Gama stated that an investigating officer in the case had informed his lawyer that the charges against him were in connection to the so-called "Club Loan" facility which was secure during his tenure at Transnet.

He explained that Club Loan was secured for the purpose of financing the acquisition of locomotives and various infrastructure projects. He also mentioned that he had given evidence at the State Capture Commission on the loan.

"It was clear to me that the evidence leader of the commission intended to prove that I was complicit in wrongdoing in the Club Loan process.

"It is my sincere intention to deal with these allegations levelled against me should the trial proceed against me," said Gama in his affidavit.

Gama was appointed Transnet CEO in April 2016, having acted in that position for the previous 12 months. Prior to that, he had been the head of the company's freight rail unit.

The head of the Investigating Directorate, Andrea Johnson, said the unit was is "on track to hold accountable those alleged to have been at the centre of, or facilitated State capture".

"This is the second seminal matter enrolled this week and more can be expected within six months."

All the accused will return to court on 13 July, where additional people would be added to the case.

Johnson was referring to the arrests this week Gupta stalwart Ronica Ragavan, former mineral resources deputy director-general Joel Raphela and other associates of the controversial family. They face fraud and money laundering in relation to the re...

Government is still deliberating whether to continue with its fuel price relief intervention introduced in March, as the latest data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) shows a marked increase expected for June.

With the hopes that global energy prices would stabilise by the end of May, government introduced a temporary 40% reduction in the duty imposed on each litre of fuel for April and May, helping contain increases in the retail prices of fuel.

The hope was that the two months would create enough of a buffer for local petrol prices to reduce at a more normalised rate. But now time is up, and motorists and commuters are set to face an almost 80% increase in domestic fuel prices since 2020’s pandemic-induced record low.

Fuel prices are set to increase by between R2.27 and R2.36/litre for petrol from 1 June. However, briefing the media on Thursday morning on the outcomes of Cabinet’s meeting on Wednesday, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said government was giving the matter strong consideration.

"Whether the government will intervene again and ensure that fuel prices remain reasonable as it’s a matter that affects the entire country is receiving special consideration because it affects our economy very strongly," said Gungubele.

He added that following deliberations, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe would be the best-placed individuals to address the nation on what steps would be taken by the government to intervene.

Floods

Gungubele said: "Cabinet thanked all non-governmental institutions, faith-based organisations, communities, business people and relief organisations that provided food, clothes, blankets, dignity packs and school uniforms to vulnerable families to meet their basic needs."

He added that while efforts were under way to assist those affected by the floods, there were numerous challenges faced by the government in this regard.

"The National Disaster Management Centre continues under the leadership of CoGTA Minister to coordinate all spheres of government in its effort to provide humanitarian relief to all affected households though there are a number of challenges," said Gungubele.

The government officials who briefed Parliament’s ad-hoc joint committee on flood disaster relief and recovery on Monday said flood disaster relief and recovery in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) was going to cost at least R25 billion.

The province experienced more rains on Saturday, following last month’s devastating floods, which claimed over 440 lives and left a trail of destruction.

National Council of Provinces (NCOP) MP Tim Brauteseth said the recovery is going to cost a lot more than the R1-billion which was allocated – and yet to be released – by Treasury as a relief effort in the wake of the floods.

Continuing blackouts, the rising cost of living, the Zondo Report implicating his party, South Africa's tacit support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the rising tide of xenophobia in the country and plans to build a R22-million flag - these are some current topics MPs might want to question President Cyril Ramaphosa on.

However - in contravention of the National Assembly's rules - they will not have the opportunity to do so this term.

Rule 140(1) of the National Assembly states: "Questions to the President must be - (a) scheduled in accordance with Rule 210 for a question day at least once per quarter during session time within the annual programme."

With only two weeks remaining in the current term, and no date allotted to a presidential question session, the National Assembly Programming Committee on Thursday morning decided to instead invite Ramaphosa for an additional question session in the third term. The third term will only start on 15 August.

Democratic Alliance (DA) deputy chief whip Siviwe Gwarube recently wrote to Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to ask her about scheduling the required question session for this term.

She wrote: "I firmly believe that it is of the utmost importance that members of the NA [National Assembly] are afforded regular opportunities to engage with President Ramaphosa on a range of urgent matters of national and international importance.

"Moreover, it is imperative that President Ramaphosa should set the example as the head of the executive that the government is indeed serious about fulfilling their obligations of being held accountable to the Assembly by ensuring that he attends to his parliamentary duties."

Chief Whips Forum discussed this letter when it met on Wednesday, behind closed doors, as is the norm for this body.

At Thursday's meeting, DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone asked if the question session had been scheduled.

Mapisa-Nqakula referred to Gwarube's letter.

House chairperson Grace Boroto and African National Congress (ANC) MP and parliamentary councillor to Deputy President David Mabuza, Hope Papo, were unimpressed by how the DA raised the matter.

ANC MP and Ramaphosa's parliamentary councillor Gerhard Koornhof said that NAPC and the Chief Whips Forum had agreed to the proposed programme since 24 March.

Programming whip and ANC MP Mina Lesoma presented the programme, which had Mabuza answering questions on 8 June, and the presidency's budget vote, which will be tabled by Ramaphosa, on the 9 June, with Ramaphosa responding to the debate the following day.

"That week, two days, the president will be appearing before the house," Lesoma said.

"We totally agree and prescribe to the rules, particularly National Assembly Rule 140, which does direct that the president must appear in the house."

She said Ramaphosa would answer questions in the next term, but if he said he was available now for a question session this term, it would be accommodated.

"However, we are not going to dictate to the president when he is going to appear before the House after he had indicated to us that his diary doesn't necessarily allow him, given that he will be appearing this month, or this quarter twice, because of the compliance matters in terms of the budget votes that needs to be processed and approved," she said.

Rule 140 required that the president answer questions in the House, not just "appear" in the House, which several opposition MPs were quick to point out.

Gwarube said the fact that Ramaphosa would be delivering his budget vote speech did not negate the requirement that he answers questions in the House.

She said the question sessions had to be built into every single term - it was part of the National Assembly's oversight, and a part of the president's responsibility to Parliament.

Freedom Front Plus chief whip Corné Mulder said the rules were clear that the president must avail himself to answer questions. He suggested that they either extend the current term by a week to allow a question ...

Deputy Minister in the Presidency Pinky Kekana has warned that vaccine hesitancy is preventing the country from living beyond the pandemic, and added that it is also taking focus from the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.

She was speaking during a government-hosted webinar, on Thursday, on the research findings on Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy.

Kekana said global vaccine hesitancy is not new or unique to Covid-19 vaccines and South Africa is no exception. She explained that generational differences, knowledge about vaccines, on where the information was sourced and political trust have emerged as the top three reasons for vaccine hesitancy, specifically in South Africa.

A recent research study in partnership with government found that vaccine hesitancy is at 25%. Kekana explained that while this is down from 28% in the previous year, despite evidence that Covid-19 vaccines are safe, hesitancy is still high.

She said South Africa is nearing the halfway mark of fully vaccinated adults at 45.43%, and almost half of South African adults having at least one Covid-19 jab.

This is nowhere near government’s hope of fully vaccinating 70% of the country’s population by this time.

The Gauteng Department of Health has reached its target of vaccinating more than 10-million people in the province against Covid-19, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with more than five-million vaccinations.

The survey tested thousands of citizens across the spectrum of demographics, geographic location and sectors. Some of the major reasons emerging from the study showed that technical language and medical jargon caused people to ignore the information but on the other hand people also do not trust some of government’s communication.

Kekana noted that it falls on government to drive the vaccine confidence strategy and work on earning back people’s trust, which many have lost owing to extensive levels of corruption.

While several communities are not receiving quality water and sanitation services, the Department of Water and Sanitation failed to spend more than R2-billion in the 2021-2022 financial year.

The Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation expressed its concern after learning about this in a committee meeting on Tuesday.

A statement from committee chairperson Robert Mashego said, "Furthermore, the committee finds it ironic and unacceptable given the fact that many communities don't get quality water services."

"The under expenditure has a direct link to non-completion of critical projects that are intended to ensure that people have access to water. This is unacceptable and undermines the drive to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people of South Africa," Mashego said.

The committee's concerns were based on the fact that some significant contributors to the reported under expenditure included the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant and Water Services Infrastructure Grant that had projects such as the Bucket Eradication Programme and drought intervention committed projects and the Vaal River System Intervention.

The committee accepted that the department applied to National Treasury that the unspent budget be rolled over to the next financial year. However, it highlighted that "the rollover doesn't acquit the department from the sin of under expenditure".

The committee called on the department to urgently work on remedial actions to prevent future recurrence of under expenditure.

Also of concern was that the department recorded under expenditure of R112.421-million due to a reduced rate of filling vacancies, despite South Africa's high unemployment rate.

The committee found this unacceptable, as some projects were delayed due to the department's capacity challenges.

The committee welcomed the appointment of 854 engineers and scientists and said it hoped it would add some capacity to the department and be in a better position to implement its projects.

The committee was concerned by irregular expenditure of R9.347-billion for the department's main account and R8.107-billion for the Water Trading Entity.

The committee was of the view that adherence to procurement policies and laws was important to prevent corrupt tendencies from taking root within the department.

Gupta stalwart Ronica Ragavan and several other associates of the controversial family have been arrested and are appearing in court on charges of fraud and money laundering in relation to the rehabilitation funds of the Optimum and Koornfontein coal mines.

Appearing in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday afternoon are Ragavan, Pushpaveni Ugeshni Govender - a former director of several Gupta-owned companies - and former mineral resources department deputy director-general Joel Raphela. Another accused, Ravindra Nath, was not present and reportedly will be charged in absentia.

Charges have been brought on 11 counts, which include fraud, money laundering, forgery and perjury.

The role players stand accused of effectively looting the Optimum and Koornfontein environmental rehabilitation funds for uses other than their legally required purpose, which is to remediate land which has been mined.

According to the charge sheet, Ragavan is accused number one in her capacity as director of the previously Gupta-owned Koornfontein Mines and Tegeta Exploration and Resources.

Govender is accused number two in her capacity as a director of Optimum and a trustee of the Koornfontein rehabilitation trust. Natha, in his capacity as a director of Tegeta, is accused number six, while Raphela is the seventh accused in his personal capacity and as former deputy director-general of mineral regulation at the Department of Mineral Resources at the time.

Also listed among the accused are three previously Gupta-owned businesses: the Optimum and Koornfontein Mines, as well as Tegeta Exploration and Resources, all of which were placed into business rescue in early 2018.

Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said on Wednesday that Africa Day is an opportunity to celebrate the socioeconomic achievements on the continent.

Africa Day is commemorated every year to mark the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963. The OAU was the predecessor of the the African Union (AU).

This year’s theme is ‘Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent’.

Gungubele said South Africa stood with its counterparts on the continent in addressing pertinent challenges such as nutrition.

Gungubele said the challenge of malnutrition was concerning as it had significant consequences for African children, and it led to decreased social and economic development of nations.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the economic vulnerability of countries, including their health and food systems.

“As part of the long-term vision set out in Agenda 2063, we must strive to fully realise the common aspiration of well-nourished citizens, with a particular emphasis on women and children,” said Gungubele.

He acknowledged while more needed to be done on the continent, the AU had made important progress in two decades and had established itself as the premier organ of unity in Africa.

He said everybody had a role to play to address key challenges on the continent.

Professor Tulio de Oliveira and Dr Sikhulile Moyo have been named in TIME Magazine’s prestigious 100 Most Influential People list, for their work in genomics and epidemiology, a vital field during the global Covid-pandemic.

In November 2021, they led the multidisciplinary team that discovered the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, which quickly became the dominant variant of the virus, globally.

De Oliveira is a Stellenbosch University Professor of Bioinformatics, holding a joint appointment at the university's School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Moyo obtained his PhD in Medical Virology at Stellenbosch University in 2016, and is Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP) laboratory director.

Stellenbosch University Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers said the acknowledgment by TIME magazine proves that Africa's cutting-edge research has a global impact and further establishes De Oliveira and Moyo as international leaders in their field.

“Their research and subsequent discoveries enabled governments worldwide to make scientifically informed decisions about Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, and their inclusion in TIME's list is a just reward for their hard work and expertise. SU is immensely proud of their achievement and will continue to enable ground-breaking research with real-world impact,” said De Villiers.

While the Omicron variant was discovered by South African scientists, it was soon realised that the variant had not originated in South Africa.

The variant of SARS-CoV-2, dubbed widely as the ‘South African variant’, resulted in international travel bans and stigma towards South Africa.

De Oliveira said South Africans will remember the occasion with some chagrin.

“During the pandemic, what we did in South Africa was to remind hundreds of researchers that we're in a very strong position to respond scientifically, because we have the facilities – most of them constructed to deal with HIV and TB – and a lot of experience in dealing with infectious viruses and respiratory pathogens. And we also have the willingness of our government to follow our scientific advice," he said.

Moyo remembered it as “a rollercoaster of emotions” to see the international community react so forcefully with travel bans for Southern African countries.

Despite the negative publicity, African scientists have collaborated to generate over 100 000 genomes in the past two years.

“The only way we can succeed is by collaborating and continuously sharing ideas. Success in science comes through genuine collaboration. Working with leading scientists at Stellenbosch such as Professor De Oliveira and the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa has been so fulfilling for me, and has exposed me to so much great, transparent science and capacity building,” Moyo said.

De Oliveira is the founding director of Stellenbosch University's new Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), and he has already raised more than R300-million in funding.

Moyo, in addition to his position at BHP, is also a research associate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an adjunct senior lecturer at the University of Botswana.

De Oliveira and Moyo believe in leading the fight against epidemics from an African perspective.

“In a country such as South Africa, where people tend to be very good at highlighting their differences, it's important also to highlight what we can achieve when we collaborate for the greater good," De Oliveira said.