Daily news update: Load shedding suspended, SSA security breach and daily school attendance returns

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Daily news update 06 February

Eskom suspends load-shedding from 9 pm Sunday

Eskom has announced that it will be suspending load-shedding on Sunday night (6 February) at 9 pm. The parastatal is yet to release further details, but it’s ending the power cuts ahead of its original announcement, which stated that load shedding would continue into the early hours of Monday morning.

Eskom implemented Stage 2 load shedding last Wednesday, due to a shortage of generation capacity.

The power giant said that it needed to urgently replenish its reserve supplies of water and diesel after several unplanned breakdowns two weeks ago.

The power utility said ‘load shedding was the prudent step to take to prevent a national blackout.

SSA security breach: Vagrant breaks into Musanda headquarters

A vagrant allegedly gained unauthorised access to the State Security Agency (SSA) Musanda headquarters in Tshwane.

The Musanda complex, aka “the Farm” is located in a remote area far from any urban activity or main roads, and is heavily guarded.

City Press reported the incident happened on January 21, the weekend that a fire had broken out at the Waterkloof Airbase, which is a national key point.

SA National Defence Force ruled out foul play at the airbase and said the fire started due to a leak in the bulk fuel storage.

KZN floods leave more than 130 people homeless

Disaster Management teams have been dispatched to parts of KwaZulu-Natal after two days of heavy rains.

At least 138 people in eMadlangeni and Greater Kokstad local municipalities were left homeless after their homes were flooded on Friday.

In eMadlangeni Local Municipality, 16 people had to be evacuated as a result of flooding.

The torrential rains led to the collapse of a local bridge that is on a road leading to the town of Utrecht.

In the greater Kokstad municipality, a local river burst its banks and flooded surrounding homes in wards 9,5 and 1. As a result of this 122 people were left homeless.

Arson blamed as fire breaks out at church where Tutu is buried

A fire started by an arsonist broke out overnight at the cathedral where Archbishop Desmond Tutu is buried, a church leader announced on Sunday.

The fire was detected in the basement of a section of St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town at around 2am.

“The fire was an act of arson,” father Michael Weeder, dean at the cathedral, said in a note to his parish.

“It appears that a lit piece of cotton/gauze was thrown through the small, barred window near the steps leading up to the cathedral’s (main)… entrance,” he said.

“Someone was spotted running away from the cathedral.”

Return to school will help migration of early childhood development – Motshekga

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says pupils returning to school full-time will help in implementing the migration of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector.

Last year, government decided to shift the ECD sector from the Department of Social Development (DSD) to the Department of Basic Education (DBE), which was lauded as “a great initiative” by many.

Addressing the media on Sunday morning, Motshekga confirmed that ECD migration will commence in April 2022.

“We also are excited that with the return to schools, we will also be able to facilitate our work around the ECD function shift. So the migration gives us, as a sector, an opportunity to craft and implement innovative strategies to strengthen the foundation of learning.

“For this reason, one of the key priorities that we have is to focus on this ECD shift which is going to begin from 1 April this year,” she said.

DJ Fresh’s wife files for divorce – report

It has been reported that DJ Fresh’s marriage to his wife Thabiso Sikwane of 20 years is ending.

The Sunday World reported that Thabiso and DJ Fresh, whose real name is Thato Sikwane, are no longer communicating as a married couple.

The publication cited a source close to Thabiso, who claimed that she had outgrown the former radio host.

“So when she told him that she wants out of their marriage, he tried to convince her to rekindle their love, but she refused and told him that she had made up her mind,” the source claimed.