Daily news update: Riots death toll, Transnet hack and Cape Town taxi violence

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Riots death toll trimmed to 330

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has revised the number of deaths as a result of unrest that occurred in parts of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng (GP) to 330 from 337.

This was announced on Friday by Acting Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni during a press briefing on the progress the government has made since last week.

Ntshavheni said that the death toll in GP stays the same at 79, while in KZN it went down to 251 from 258.

National Lotteries Commission ‘clears’ Lamola from corruption scandal

The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) and Ndobela Lamola Incorporated have moved to distance Justice Minister Ronald Lamola from several reports in a GroundUp investigation , saying the minister never worked on the probes while he was a director of the Pretoria-based law firm.

The move by the two organisations comes after GroundUp reported that Ndobela Lamola Inc bungled three reports. It also claimed the reports were littered with forged documents.

IEC agrees with Moseneke report: 2021 local elections won’t be free and fair

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has adopted the final report of former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke’s inquiry into the feasibility of holding this year’s local government elections, scheduled for 27 October 2021.

The commission will approach the courts to seek judicial authorisation to conduct the polls outside of the constitutionally prescribed time periods.

“The commission accepts the rationale and the central thesis of the report that greater immunity through mass vaccination is a desirable precondition for a safe, free and fair election to be realised,” said the chairperson of the IEC, Glen Mashinini, at a media briefing in Pretoria on Friday.

Transnet hack update: Source of possible cyberattack identified

Transnet says it has identified the source of its recent IT challenges, “and would be prioritising time-sensitive export-bound cargo for shipping”.

“Transnet has identified and isolated the source of the disruption to its IT systems, and technical teams continue to work around the clock to ensure that the impact remains minimal,” the state-owned entity (SOE) said on Friday afternoon.

Life Esidimeni inquest postponed again, this time so ‘legal reps can prepare’

The Life Esidimeni inquest has been postponed second time this week “following concerns that newly appointed legal counsel for potentially implicated people in the inquest have not had adequate time to prepare”. 

An inquest into the death of 144 patients who lost their lives between April 2016 and January 2017 due to neglect, dehydration and hunger began on Monday, five years after the tragedy first made headlines.

Cape Town taxi violence: Transport MEC closes lucrative Paarl-Bellville route

Western Cape transport and public works MEC Daylin Mitchell on Friday announced the closure of route B97 between Mbekweni/Paarl and Bellville due to ongoing taxi violence in Cape Town.

The closure of the sought-after route that taxi associations have been warring over will be effective from Monday.

“My decision follows the publication of my notice in the Government Gazette dated 9 July [Government Notice 416 of 2021] that Bellville and Paarl are areas in respect of which extraordinary measures in terms of Section 91 may be made.”

Excess bodies at Phoenix mortuary ‘not necessarily linked to unrest’

KwaZulu-Natal health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane, has dismissed widespread reports that there is an overflow of bodies at a mortuary in Phoenix, located in the north of Durban.

This is after National Funeral Practitioners Association of South Africa (Nafupa), on Wednesday, revealed that there were over 300 unclaimed bodies currently stored at the Phoenix Medico-Legal Mortuary.

Court dismisses case against lotto grant beneficiary who tried to halt SIU probe

The Pretoria High Court on Friday dismissed, with costs, an application by a director of a non-profit organisation (NPO) that allegedly benefited irregularly from a multimillion-rand National Lotteries Commission (NLC) grant.

ALSO READ: Lottopreneur lawyer says President, SIU have no power to investigate Lotto graft

Denzhe Primary Care director, Liesl Moses, in June approached the court seeking an order interdicting the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) from investigating or questioning her about the R27.5 million the organisation received from the NLC in 2016 to build a drug rehabilitation centre in Pretoria.