Eskom has again implemented load-shedding. This time it will last for five days until Monday next week.

“This load-shedding is necessary due to a shortage of generation capacity following breakdowns of two more generating units during the night,” the company said.

Eskom provided a virtual update on Wednesday morning.

The power utility’s leadership said the problems are due to funding and the  management of issues.

The case against 11 military veterans charged with kidnapping has been postponed to May to allow them to file representations.

In a wide-ranging interview on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, former Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi explained why he did not vote for his now former party, the DA, in last year’s local government elections.He was at pains to explain to the host, Eusebius McKaiser, how he slowly started feeling estranged from the DA after policy shifts that did not resonate with his political and personal convictions. In particular, he says, the abandonment by the party of using race as a proxy for disadvantage entrenched his conviction that there is a lack of empathy from the party, including the leader John Steenhuisen, of the lived experiences of black people.

If you test positive for Covid-19 but are not showing symptoms, you do not need to go into isolation.

This is among a number of new measures put in place on Monday night after a special cabinet meeting earlier in the day.

Another new rule announced as part of the adjusted alert level 1 regulations was the return to full-time, non-rotational schooling.

Meeting Sicelo Mbata for a hot tea ( I have to mix these meals up) is akin to taking a masterclass with a highly evolved spiritual guru. I thought I was going to talk wildlife conservation and our relationship to nature with a remarkably adept story teller. I had gleaned that much from my speed reading of his book Black Lion – Alive in the Wilderness co-authored with Bridget Pitt. What I got was a crash course in living and dying. And more importantly how to do those things well. The tea, the delightful little buccelato cake from Tortelino D’Oro and the sumptuous seasonal cherries that pop in your mouth like small love bombs were incidental and offered up in my dining room as Sicelo and Bridget rushed around Joburg on a whistlestop publishing tour.

In this episode of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, he explores the claim by some critics of Neil Young that the rock star has abandoned his commitment to free speech. Young’s music was taken off Spotify after he gave them an ultimatum to either kick podcaster Joe Rogan off their platform for disseminating false information about vaccines or to remove his music if they were not prepared to censure the popular podcast host. They sided with their biggest money-making podcaster.

Interestingly, many have argued that Young’s ultimatum to Spotify constitutes intolerance towards those who happen to hold a different view. McKaiser links the Neil Young case study to an aspect of the debate about minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s column in which she attacked the judiciary, the constitution and the rule of law. Some of her defenders also claimed her critics had abandoned any respect for freedom of speech. In this episode, McKaiser argues it is both unhelpful and inaccurate to claim that speech rights are at issue in these debates. He explains how the real issue is about whether the content of Rogan’s podcast and of Sisulu’s columns are reckless or harmful. While we can disagree on the latter issue, argues McKaiser, it is not correct to frame such criticism of Rogan or of Sisulu as a slide towards authoritarianism.

WARNING: This audio content contains graphic details, listener discretion is advised.

The Gauteng high court sitting in Johannesburg on Thursday heard testimony from convicted murderer Muzikayise Malephane on how he killed 28-yer-old Tshegofatso Pule in June 2020.

Malephane is testifying in the trial against the alleged mastermind of the murder and Pule’s boyfriend, Ntutukho Shoba.

KwaZulu-Natal education MEC Kwazi Mshengu visited the Dassenhoek High School in KwaNdengezi after four pupils were stabbed in class by robbers on Wednesday. Mshengu highlighted the need for community members to play their role in helping schools deal with such crimes.

Only 200,000 first-year students will be admitted to public South African universities this year, and that is not even a quarter of the number of applications these institutions received.

Thandi Lewin, acting deputy director-general for university education at the department of higher education & training, says the demand for higher education is growing.

Earlier this week, the Sunday Times reported that nine universities received more than a million applications for this year. That is for the 26 public universities in the country.

The killer and state witness in the Tshegofatso Pule murder case, Muzikayise Malephane, took to the stand to continue his testimony about the events before the death of Pule on June 4 2020. During his detailed account, Malephane admitted to threatening the alleged mastermind of the murder, Ntuthuko Shoba, from his jail cell.