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Ahead of an anticipated "avalanche" of cases emanating from the State Capture Inquiry, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has made corruption its priority, said prosecutions boss Advocate Shamila Batohi.

In a briefing on Monday, Batohi said the NPA was preparing to strategically select cases arising from the State Capture Inquiry, based on its limited resources. She added that fighting corruption will remain the NPA's top priority.

"Moving forward, there's going to be an avalanche of work coming from the Zondo Commission. There will be an expectation that there will be quick successes . but there is a big difference between testifying in a commission and putting together a watertight case," said Batohi.

"It will take time to go through that and be very strategic about what the cases are that we take . and that we have the necessary resources to deal with them."

Under the NPA's watch, corruption convictions have seen an uptick compared to last year, said Batohi.

In government, there were 31 corruption-related convictions last year. By the end of the second quarter of this year, there were already 53 convictions. In the private sector, the NPA recorded 84 convictions by the end of the second quarter, in comparison to last year's 68 convictions.

Batohi said while corruption had always been a focus area for the NPA, it had now been decided that while work will continue in other areas, corruption would be prioritised by the NPA. This would include a focus on asset recovery, she said, as well as taking "less serious" cases to court while prosecutors take time working on more complex cases.

The office would also be working to bring in the needed skills to prosecute grand corruption, with Batohi saying this would be done in the next six months to a year.

"Addressing corruption is not a spirit, it is a marathon. But we are on the right track. What is clear is impunity is no longer a given. The taps of corruption and rent-seeking are being closed. There are important cases that have been brought to court that demonstrate [the] rule of law in county is our guiding light," she said.

The Emalahleni local municipality in Mpumalanga has revealed that it owes Eskom over R5-billion for unpaid electricity.

It has, therefore, handed over to its lawyers the accounts of some 30 defaulting customers, in a quest to collect the revenue and pay the debt.

Emalahleni's communications manager, Lebo Mofokeng, told News24 this week the municipality was experiencing a high rate of non-payment of various services by residents, businesses and some government departments.

He said the current rate of unemployment in Emalahleni was high, adding that it also contributed to the non-payment issue.

"If you have electricity arrears that are more than three months, we will cut off your power supply, but it's negotiable if you make arrangements to pay," said Mofokeng.

"About 30 big and small businesses in Emalahleni have been handed over to the attorneys for them to make [payment] arrangements for electricity. The municipality has adopted and is vigorously implementing the credit control and debt collection policy on all defaulting customers."

Mofokeng said the municipality was paying its over R5-billion debt to Eskom on a monthly basis. He said the power utility would not cut off power supply to the municipality in the near future.

"The municipality has won a case against Eskom in the Constitutional Court and power will not be switched off any time soon, unless Eskom approaches the court again," said Mofokeng.

Jonas Nkambule, a resident of Ackerville in Emalahleni, said the impact of the pandemic was the main reason for his household electricity account being in arrears.

"I was retrenched from my job at an upholstery firm in May last year," said Nkambule.

I tried looking for another stable job, without success, and I now rely on part-time, odd jobs to make a living. I have not yet received a call or letter from the lawyers of the municipality, but I will negotiate and make arrangements with them to pay the arrears.

Nkambule did not want to reveal how much he owed the municipality for electricity.

Another resident, James Zulu, said he would go to the municipality to arrange to pay his electricity arrears on a monthly basis.

He also attributed his failure to pay his debt to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Our salaries were reduced after the outbreak of Covid-19 and I could not regularly pay some of my monthly bills," said Zulu, who claimed to be a mineworker.

"My life is slowly returning back to normal and I hope the municipality will give me enough time to pay my electricity debt."

Eskom's national spokesperson, Sikhonathi Mantshantsha, confirmed that Emalahleni owed the power utility more than R5-billion for unpaid electricity.

"I'm not aware of that [Constitutional Court] case. But there is a number of cases in Mpumalanga and other provinces in which the municipalities that owe Eskom went to court to prohibit Eskom from cutting off their power supply," said Mantshantsha.

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) announced on Friday its decision to institute mandatory vaccination at all its campuses and facilities from January 2022.

It will consider religious and medical exemptions but stressed that collective rights will take precedence as per Section 36 of the Constitution.

All staff, students and postdoctoral research fellows – as well as visitors, contractors and other stakeholders – will have to show proof of partial or full vaccination before entering any campus or facility.

“This outcome will ensure that the University’s staff, postdoctoral research fellows, and students have optimal access to the University’s precincts for purposes of working, learning, research, laboratory, and clinical work whilst protecting the health and safety of the University community and its stakeholders. The need for optimal access to the campuses and facilities has become crucial in part because of the socioeconomic circumstances of the University’s students. Additionally, some learning programmes require in-person engagement for research and experiential learning,” the university said.

South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday the country could manage the fourth Covid-19 wave of infections driven by the Omicron variant without invoking stricter lockdown restrictions.

"We can manage this fourth wave, we can manage Omicron. The basic tools we all know. We can still have a reasonably successful festive season," he told a media briefing.

Omicron, which has raised global fears of a surge in infections, was first detected in southern Africa last month.

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has found that members of Parliament should be required to disclose donations they receive in internal political party campaigns – but the judgment will have no impact on President Cyril Ramaphosa's CR17 donations.

On Thursday, a full Bench led by Judge President Dunstan Mlambo found that the Executive Ethics Code, which compels MPs to disclose benefits they receive, was "unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid" because it did not require them to disclose "donations made to campaigns for their election to positions within political parties".

The court found: "The only way in which effectively to meet the constitutional objectives of accountable, transparent and open government, and to ensure that members are not put at risk of a conflict between their official responsibilities and their private interests is for the code to make it clear that members are obliged in all instances to make disclosures of internal campaign donations received from members of the public.

"It is through such required disclosure by members that the public's constitutional right to information and the right to engage in political activities is promoted and fulfilled. We find the code to be constitutionally deficient in this respect."

The court ordered that the declaration of invalidity "shall have no retrospective effect and shall be suspended for a period of 12 months to allow for the defect to be corrected". That means that the ruling will have no impact on President Cyril Ramaphosa's CR17 campaign, which birthed investigative journalism body amaBhungane's challenge to the Executive Ethics Code.

amaBhungane launched the constitutional challenge in response to Ramaphosa's successful bid to invalidate Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's report on his CR17 campaign finances. That case confirmed that, under the current prescripts of the code, Ramaphosa was not under any legal duty to disclose the donations he received for internal party elections because he had not personally benefitted from them.

In a ruling delivered earlier this year, the Constitutional Court's majority found that neither Mkhwebane or the EFF produced any evidence that Ramaphosa had personally benefitted from the CR17 campaign, meaning that – under the Executive Ethics Code as it currently stands – he was not obliged to disclose those donations as benefits.

"It is a leap in logic to hold that the president personally benefitted from the donations made to the CR17 campaign," Justice Chris Jafta wrote.

Jafta added, "That campaign, on the undisputed evidence, existed separately from the president. And there was no evidence that it was appointed to act as his agent. There is therefore no basis in law to regard donations to the CR17 campaign as personal benefits to the president."

In its evaluation of the Constitutional Court's ruling, the High Court found that this meant that "financial donations in support of a member's election to a position in his or her own party are not per se disclosable under the [Executive Ethics] Code."

"Equally, however, they are not per se exempt from disclosure.. The reason why the CR17 donations did not attract a duty to disclose under the code is that, on the facts before the court, they lacked the characteristics necessary to establish them as personal benefits."

Ramaphosa argued that the High Court should not consider amaBhugane's constitutional challenge to the Executive Ethics Code because the Constitutional Court had found that disclosure could be required if private political campaign donations if such donations amounted to a "personal benefit", but the High Court rejected that argument.

"As things stand at present, we know that the code requires disclosure of internal part-political campaign funding by members if this constitutes a personal benefit," Mlambo and his colleagues stated.

"However, what members and the public do not know with certainty is that constitutes a personal benefit beyond the obvious case wher...

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday that it is deploying a surge team to Gauteng to support Covid-19 surveillance, contact tracing, infection prevention and treatment measures.

In Africa, the Omicron variant has now been detected in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana and South Africa. So far, Botswana reported 19 Omicron variant cases and South Africa reported 172. Globally, more than 20 countries have detected the variant to date.

For the seven days leading to November 30, South Africa reported a 311% increase in new cases, compared with the previous seven days.

Cases in Gauteng have increased by 375% week on week. Hospital admissions rose 4.2% in the past seven days from the previous seven days. And Covid-19-related deaths in the province jumped 28.6% from the previous seven days.

WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said African countries were stepping up measures to detect and control the spread of the Omicron variant as weekly new Covid-19 cases in the continent rose by 54% owing to an upsurge in Southern Africa.

Moeti urged countries to adjust their Covid-19 response and stop a surge in cases from sweeping across Africa and possibly overwhelming already-stretched health facilities.

She said the emergence of Omicron was rattling countries around the globe and underlined the importance of pandemic preparedness – the focus of a special session of the World Health Assembly that wrapped up this week.

“Countries agreed to launch a global process to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the WHO Constitution to strengthen pandemic prevention preparedness and response,” she said.

Moeti stated that Botswana is boosting oxygen production and distribution, which are essential for the treatment of critically ill patients.

“Additional epidemiologists and laboratory experts are also being mobilised to boost genomic sequencing in Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia. The WHO has mobilised $12-million to support critical response activities in countries across the region for the next three months,” she added.

African countries are also refining operational plans for stronger disease surveillance and investigations.

INVESTIGATIONS TO UNDERSTAND TRANSMISSIBILITY

Moeti said researchers and scientists in South Africa and the Southern African region were intensifying their investigations to understand the transmissibility, severity and impact of the Omicron variant in relation to the available vaccines, diagnostics and treatment and whether it is driving the latest surge in Covid-19 infections.

She explained that Omicron had a high number of mutations (32) in its spike protein, and preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection when compared with other variants of concern.

She said while new Covid-19 cases were rising in Southern Africa, they had dropped in all other subregions during the past week from the previous week.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura has warned that if more people don't have themselves vaccinated voluntarily, mandatory orders could be implemented.

Speaking during an update on the province's Covid-19 situation, the premier lamented the low vaccination turnout.

So far, more than seven-million people in Gauteng are vaccinated. There are 755 210 people who have still not shown up for their second Pfizer jabs. The West Rand has the highest vaccination rate at 45%.

This week, the province vaccinated an average of 500 000 people a day, Makhura said.

He said the low vaccination levels were worrying, especially because the province is recording the highest number of new daily Covid-19 cases as the country moves towards a fourth wave of infections.

"The best thing is to persuade people first and foremost to take responsibility for their health, and that is what we are doing. We are seeing that more people are coming out. We want to persuade more people to come voluntarily. [With] mandatory vaccination, you only go there when you see that the risk is still very high for everybody.

"Here in Gauteng, we still have eight-million people who are not vaccinated. If we end up with more people not vaccinated, mandatory vaccination might be the only option we have for the sake of all of us."

On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that he had set up a team to look into whether mandatory vaccination is a viable option.

Makhura said it was important to vaccinate as many people as possible before the festive season.

"Our province is at the cusp of the fourth wave. With the new variant, we are the principal focus. We need to catch people here in Gauteng and get them vaccinated. We don't want people to be carrying this variant to other provinces, especially those who are not vaccinated. The only way to beat the fourth wave is that we now have more vaccines than we have ever had before."

Omicron

The chairperson of the Gauteng premier's advisory committee, Dr Mary Kawonga, announced that the Omicron variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 was the dominant variant in the province.

"A lot of work is going on to determine the severity of Omicron. Currently there is no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines we use against the disease will not work against Omicron."

Technically, the province is not in a new wave, but residents need to behave like they are in one, according to Kawonga.

Kawonga added that early hospitalisation data indicated that people under 40 were making bigger contributions to hospitalisation figures.

Hospitalisation rates were lower in the over-60s cohort. This, Kawonga and her team said, might be because of lower vaccination rates among people in younger age groups.

On Wednesday, the province recorded 6 168 new daily cases. This was higher than the number of recorded cases during the peaks of the second and third waves.

Professor Bruce Mellado said: "We are experiencing levels of acceleration we have not seen in the past."

He added that a peak was expected in the second week of December.

"The peak of the resurgence is not the end of the resurgence. We are still going to see community transmission into January. We are going to have very large numbers still in January."

Makhura said that despite the worrying increase in case numbers, the province was prepared.

"We are getting ready for the worst but there is no need to panic. We are not panicking but we are deeply worried about those who are not coming forward for their jabs. We are worried about the rapid rise . and we want to prepare for the worst. We have learnt."

About 700 houses in Diepkloof Zone 3, Soweto, are in the dark after Eskom disconnected its power supply to the area.

Eskom accused residents of illegally connecting electricity to their homes and disconnected them last week.

Eskom Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi said they disconnected power in the township due to high energy losses caused by illegal connections, meter bypassing and the buying of electricity from ghost vendors.

Qithi said reconnection fees of R6 052 per household had to be paid before supply could be restored to homes.

This course of action by Eskom had left many residents fuming and they vented their anger by barricading roads, including the Soweto Highway.

Qithi said seven mini-substations supplied the 700 affected houses.

"Ever since we have converted the area into prepaid, they are not buying electricity. We then gave them fines of R6 052 per household. Illegal connections are rife, which is why they don't buy electricity because they are illegally connected.

"Eskom conducts network audits in all its areas of supply, not only in Soweto. When criminal activities are identified, the same process of disconnections will be followed," Qithi said.

Qithi said removing illegal connections to secure the network, repairing damaged infrastructure, and issuing of disconnection fees to be paid before the supply was restored, would be implemented in identified areas.

While the petrol price still went up on Wednesday, it was by 75c per litre, and not 81c as the department of mineral resources and energy (DMRE) incorrectly stated this week.

"The 6 cents difference is due to the fact that the adjustment of wages for service station workers had already been implemented in September 2021," the department said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

"Although it is for the very first time that such an error has occurred in the history of basic fuel price determination in South Africa, the DMRE profusely apologises for the inconvenience caused. The rest of the fuel prices are correct."

Diesel went up 72.5c a litre (0.05% sulphur) and 74.5c (0.005% sulphur).

Illuminating paraffin went up by 42.2c/l, while the maximum LPGas retail price increased by 183.00c/kg from Wednesday.

At the start of November, petrol prices were hiked by R1.21, while diesel increased by R1.48.

Despite the correction, the latest price hike will still push the price of petrol to above R20 in Gauteng and other inland provinces.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said he could not run away from the "maze of challenges and difficulties" of doing business in Nigeria in his high-level talks with his counterpart President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday.

Speaking to South African businesspeople in Abuja, Ramaphosa acknowledged that the difficulties experienced were regulatory as well as arbitrary.

"This is what we're going to address. We cannot run away from it," he said.

Ramaphosa is leading a South African delegation of ministers and businesspeople to four West African nations, starting in Nigeria.

"We agreed as two countries that we will improve and create an environment for businesses to operate," Ramaphosa said.

He added, "The good thing is that President Buhari and myself and his ministers are determined to improve the relationship between South Africa and Nigeria and do so at a very high and close level. There exists now a very warm and conducive and productive and make it profitable relationship between the two countries."

Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel told a Nigeria-South Africa business forum they acknowledged that there were restrictions in business between the two countries.

South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Thami Mseleku told News24 that South African businesses were exiting the Nigerian economy because of the hurdles imposed.

"The regulatory environment here creates problems for our businesses here. This is one of the things that the president want to engage President Buhari on. This is what's making our businesspeople move out of Nigeria. We had 350 businesses at some stage, now we have about 250 that are here. The bigger actors are having trouble in repatriation of the funds and the tax framework that always changes," he said.

Mseleku said South Africa wanted Nigeria to ease regulations and be consistent with its rules.

Visa regime

Patel told the business forum that the two governments were working to deal with visa regimes and economic regulations.

Mseleku said the visa regime dominated discussions in Nigeria.

"Every meeting, whether you are talking business, political engagements, prisoner exchange, whatever, the visa regime will always come on the table. They want us to review how we deal with that matter; how we provide visas to their people," he said.

Mseleku said the Nigerians had called for a quick turn-around for visa applications and to extend visas for legitimate businesspeople.

"We raised issues on our part, the dominant applicants are fraudulent in nature. We have to be vigilant on how we scrutinise documentations," he said.

South Africa was meant to roll out a pilot programme for e-visa applications like it had done in Kenya, but Mseleku said fraudulent applications created an issue.

He said they had to balance easing visa regimes with the protection of borders.

The president's visit comes as many countries, including four African states, imposed travel bans on South Africa amid the identification of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

While the two African economic giants had been at odds in the past, all leaders conceded that relations had improved drastically.

Mseleku told News24 that the fact that the visit went ahead was a sign that Nigeria was standing with South Africa despite the ongoing travel bans.

"They said 'we stand with you'. They may tone down certain things. Like yesterday we were supposed to have a state dinner, but we did not have that because of Covid restrictions. By and large, we have successfully had a bi-national commission, given the emergence of Omicron and the reaction of the world," Mseleku said.