Our weekly feature Coalface with Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.

Acting Director-General at the Government Communications and Information Systems (GCIS) Phumla Williams has told of how she was bullied and demoted by Minister Faith Muthambi while she was on leave. She is testifying at the State Capture Commission of Inquiry. She earlier told of how former head of GCIS Mzwanele Jimmy Manyi manipulated reporting structures so that employees in key roles could report to him directly. Williams received an sms during the tea break at the commission from Manyi saying she should say that he was not responsible for signing off on the controversial TNA/SABC Breakfasts.

The ANC says the fragile coalitions inthe DA-led metros in Port Elizabeth and Tshwane were bound to collapse. Head of the ANC's election campaign, Fikile Mbalula, says the nature of bullying in the DA will always be a challenge for the party. He says the ANC is ready to take over the metros and deliver services to South Africans. Mbalula addressed the media in Johannesburg earlier today, following the recent ousting of Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Mayor, Athol Trollip. He says what is currently happening in the metros is a result of failed coalitions and not the ANC's inability to govern.

Community leaders at the Sol Plaatjie Municipality in the Northern Cape have urged residents not to take to the streets following the reinstatement of mayor Mangaliso Matika, by the high court in Kimberely yesterday. A community meeting has been scheduled for this afternoon at five where a way forward will be decided on. Matika was removed during a council meeting last month, which the court has ruled was illegal. Unhappy residents had been protesting for days in the run up to Matika’s removal because of a tariff hike he and his officials implemented. There were also allegations of corruption. Our reporter Puleng Modupi is on the story.

Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, Deputy Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo has called on ministers who were summoned to the Gupta residence in Saxonwold Johannesburg, to discuss government business to come forward. Former GCIS CEO Themba Maseko has told the commission that Ajay had revealed during their meeting in 2010 that if ministers did not cooperate they were called to the home or that Zuma was instructed to deal with them. Maseko says he was given orders during that meeting to inform ministers to transfer their advertising spend to the coffers of the GCIS so that the money could be channelled to the now defunct New Age newspaper and ANN7 TV station. He says Zuma has phoned him during his drive to the Gupta home telling him to assist what he described as his “brothers”.

The Somali Community Board in South Africa has denied that spaza shop owners intentionally sell expired and fake products. It says its members buy their goods from reputable wholesalers. This comes after some communities around country decided to remove counterfeit products and those that have reached their sell-by-date. Three people died in Soweto yesterday following what police have described as an act of criminality that is not related to the campaign of confiscating goods from shops owned by foreign nationals. Secretary-General of The Somali Community Board in South Africa, Adirizak Osman, has told Sakina Kamwendo that there is no way that its members can manufacture fake goods in the small backyards which they operate from.

Danielle de Bruyn a teacher at Westville Girls High School, resigned on Monday following an incident last week in which she is accused of calling black people the k-word. It is understood that de Bruyn was embroiled in a heated debate with her English class over drawing similarities between a set book‚ Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'‚ with the South African political landscape and farm killings. The school has since issued a statement condemning her racist remarks‚ insisting that her "loss of control and bigoted view" was not congruent with the ethos of the school.

Former Government Communication and Information System head Themba Maseko has taken the stand at the Zondo Commission currently on-going at Parktown in Johanneburg. Maseko is the fourth witness to come forward with testimony of how the Guptas, with former President Jacob Zuma's assistance, allegedly tried to force him to redirect R600-million of government advertising to the New Age newspaper.

Retail giant Steinhoff is under pressure from Parliament's joint sitting committees seeking to find answers to the reasons which led to the crash of its shares to give times frames on investigations into the matter. The company's board chairperson Heather Sonn is briefing the committee on the latest regarding their investigations.

Former ANC MP, Vytjie Mentor says it was shocking for her to hear that Ajay Gupta was privy to top secret government information. Mentor has been giving testimony for the second day, at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in Johannesburg. She says Ajay Gupta revealed the information while they were at the Gupta residence in Saxonwold before offering her a ministerial post.