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By Citizen Reporter

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Daily news update: SA top cop’s security clearance, load shedding, and EFF national shutdown

Here’s your morning news update: From Fannie Masemola to the EFF shutdown.


Here’s your morning news update: An easy-to-read selection of our top stories. Stay up to date with The Citizen – More News, Your Way.

Daily news update: 19 March

SA’s police commissioner Fannie Masemola has no security clearance – report

National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola
National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola speaks during the quarterly crime statistics briefing held at the GCIS in Pretoria, 19 August 2022. Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen

Despite being South Africa’s top cop, General Fannie Masemola does not have the security clearance he needs.

Masemola was appointed as police commissioner in 2022.

According to News24, the country’s most senior police official was last vetted in 2014. The security clearance he received at the time expired in 2019.

The report states that Masemola tried to get his police clearance in 2019 but it wasn’t successful because he has debt.

Read more here

Load shedding downgraded to stage 1 as suspension for Sunday still in place

Eskom load shedding stage 1 suspended
Photo: iStock

Eskom downgraded load shedding from stage 2 to stage 1 on Saturday, but caused confusion when it said the suspension of the rolling blackouts for Sunday and Tuesday would no longer be in place.

Later on Saturday, Eskom provided new information stating that load shedding will still be suspended on Sunday from 5am until 4pm.

“Eskom will provide an update on Sunday afternoon or as soon as any significant changes occur,” it said.

At this stage, there is no new update on the initial plan by Eskom to suspend load shedding on Tuesday as well.

Read more here

DA welcomes court ruling on EFF shutdown, despite failing to have it declared unlawful

DA John Steenhuisen EFF national shutdown
DA leader John Steenhuisen speaks to The Citizen at the DA offices in Bruma, Johannesburg, 26 January 2023. Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen on Saturday said his party welcomes the Gauteng High Court’s ruling on the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF’s) national shutdown on Monday.

This despite the court dismissing the DA’s urgent interdict to have the shutdown declared unlawful.

The court judgment, however, does state that the EFF and its members are prohibited from shutting down schools, stores or businesses.

They also cannot stop any trade of traffic on public roads.

“This judgment is a victory for law and order in South Africa,” said Steenhuisen.

Read more here

Eskom employee arrested for fraud involving millions

Eskom employee arrested for fraud involving millions
Eskom said the employee was arrested at the utility’s Matla Power Station. Photo: Google Maps

A contracted Eskom employee has been arrested at the utility’s Matla Power Station for fraud and corruption worth millions of rands involving a bogus supplier.

The Eskom employee was handcuffed by the South African Police Services’ Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (DPCI) on Friday.

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokoena said the arrest is in connection with “prior transgressions” committed while the suspect was employed by Eskom as a senior buyer at the Arnot Power Station in 2014.

Read more here

‘Count us out,’ military veterans tell EFF about ‘opportunistic’ shutdown

Military veterans EFF national shutdown
EFF members outside the SAHPRA offices in Pretoria on 25 June 2021. Picture: Jacques Nelles

The uMkhonto weSizwe Liberation War Veterans (MKLWV) has distanced itself from the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) March 20 national shutdown, saying the protest was an act of desperation.

Dan Hatto, MKLWV national convener, said the organisation’s standpoint on the shutdown was the defence of the hard won democratic rights for all the citizens of South Africa.

He said their mission was to defend rights for all the citizens of the country and distanced themselves from the planned national shutdown.

Read more here

NSFAS increases students 2023 living allowances

NSFAS increases students 2023 living allowances
Wits University students outside the main campus in Johannesburg, 3 March 2023. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has announced it will increase students living allowances by 10%.

NSFAS said the increase will be backdated to the beginning of the 2023 academic year.

NSFAS spokesperson Maduvha Maseda said the increase follows Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation Blade Nzimande’s agreement to the proposal that was put before him a few weeks ago.

Read more here

PICS: One dead, one injured in horrific head-on collision in KZN

bus car accident one dead
Car driver killed after head-on collision with a bus. Photo: Supplied/AET Security

One person was killed in a horrifying head-on collision between a small vehicle and a bus on Sweetwaters Road towards Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal, on Saturday morning.

AET Security spokesperson Renee Veenstra told The Witness that there were two people travelling in the small vehicle.

She said reports from the scene revealed that the two people were driving home from an all-night church service when the accident happened.

Read more here

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