Daily news update: Arthur Fraser meets Hawks, Youth Day debate, and Afrikaans test dropped

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Daily news update – 16 June

Arthur Fraser meets with Hawks about Ramaphosa’s farmgate scandal

Former spy boss Arthur Fraser on Wednesday met with investigators from the Hawks, to give them more details into the alleged theft of $4 million (about R61 million) in cash at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s game farm in Limpopo.

Fraser’s lawyer, Eric Mabuza, confirmed the meeting in a brief statement.

“Today, being the 15th of June 2022, Mr Arthur Fraser met with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) in order to assist them with their investigation into his complaint against His Excellency, President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa,” the statement read.

Mkhwebane catches another loss in ConCourt, over Ivan Pillay’s Sars retirement payout

The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) has dismissed Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s application for leave to appeal a previous judgment concerning the early retirement payout given to former deputy Sars commissioner Ivan Pillay.

The court dismissed Mkhwebane’s leave to appeal with costs.

“The Constitutional Court has considered the application for leave to appeal. It has concluded that the application should be dismissed as it bears no reasonable prospects of success,” the judgment read.

AG’s Report: Municipal finances a dumpster fire, while consultants laugh all the way to the bank

The Auditor-General has once again laid bare the financial accountability mess in the country’s local governments, while exposing how consultants made R1,26 billion in 2020/21, doing basic financial accounting tasks for which municipal officials are already being paid over R10-billion in salaries.

This amounts to over R11-billion paid for a financial management system that has only been able to produce credible financial statements in 25% of the cases, with one municipality even paying a consultant R34 million to do its tax returns.

Government faces legal action over Zimbabwe Exemption Permit non-renewal

The Helen Suzman Foundation is threatening to take government to court over its decision not to renew the Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP).

In November, Cabinet decided not to extend the ZEPs, which were renewed every four years.

Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, said at the time that a 12-month grace period would be granted upon the expiry of the exemption permit.

Youth Day: MPs raise concerns over unemployment crisis, substance abuse and GBV

South Africa’s crisis of youth unemployment, access to quality education, gender-based violence (GBV) and substance abuse took centre stage on Wednesday during the National Assembly’s debate on Youth Day.  

MPs held the debate under the theme “promoting sustainable livelihoods and resilience of young people in SA for a better tomorrow”.

The debate was ahead of Youth Day on Wednesday to commemorate the Soweto youth uprising of 16 June 1976.

PSC receives over 700,000 govt corruption tip-offs in first three months of 2022

The Public Service Commission (PSC) has raised concerns over the high number of tip-offs it has received in recent months on alleged corruption in government.

The PSC on Tuesday released its quarterly bulletin on the state of the public service for the period 1 January to 31 March 2022.

The commission revealed that it received a total of 701 227 calls through its National Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH) on alleged corruption in the first three months of this year. These included dropped calls and those which were made for purposes of inquiries and seeking advice.

Ryanair abandons ‘inappropriate’ Afrikaans citizenship test

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said his airline has dropped the controversial questionnaire for South African passengers requiring them to answer questions in Afrikaans.

Ryanair’s decision to quiz South African passport holders in Afrikaans before they boarded the plane was heavily criticised in South Africa.

The airline said it introduced the questionnaire in response to the high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports.

Dineo Ranaka leaves Metro FM for Kaya, Sol Phenduka also joins station

Radio station Kaya 959 shocked their listeners on Tuesday evening, when they announced new hosts on their station, without addressing the elephant in the room which is the status of Thomas Msengana and Skhumba Hlophe’s show. 

The station made a surprising announcement that Metro FM host Dineo Ranaka and Podcast and chill with MacG co-host Sol Phenduka will join the station. 

In an earlier statement, Dineo said after four years at Metro FM on the show The Bridge, she will leave the station on Friday, 17 June. 

No reason to panic, says Bavuma after Proteas’ thumping in third T20

There is no reason to panic, assured Proteas captain Temba Bavuma after his side’s big defeat to India in the third T20 International in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

After chasing down big scores in the first two matches of the series to go 2-0 up the Proteas’ fielding and batting let them down in the third match, the side crashing to a 48-run defeat, after being bowled out for 131 in the final over of their chase.

There are still two matches to be played, with the series 2-1 in favour of Bavuma’s team.