Daily news update: Tshwane house fire kills five, DA coalition talks and another bad Eskom audit

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DA coalition talks progressing smoothly, expect announcements soon, says Zille

With less than two weeks left for parties to form coalitions in the country’s 66 hung councils, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, says the party’s coalition negotiations are progressing smoothly and they hope to make “some constructive announcements” soon.

The DA, which came second in the major metros after last week’s local government elections, has been meeting with smaller parties in a bid to form coalition governments in the hung councils after it said it would not work with the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

Eskom ‘on track’ to suspend load shedding by Saturday

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has assured the nation that the power utility remains on track to lift load shedding at 5am on Saturday.

De Ruyter was giving an update on the utility’s current system update on Wednesday.

“We remain on track for lifting load shedding at 5am on Saturday,” said De Ruyter. 

He said that Eskom was hard at work trying to avoid a blackout by managing demand through load shedding.

WATCH: Load shedding leads to sewage spill into Durban Harbour

A video doing the rounds on social media has shown the extent of the raw sewage currently flowing into the Durban Harbour. 

eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality said the sewage flooding into the harbour, via Lavender Creek, was due to the Mahatma Gandhi pump station being flooded, Berea Mail reported. 

The reason for the pump station being flooded is due to load shedding. 

“This damaged the pumping equipment resulting in this unfortunate situation. The city is dosing the spill at Lavender Creek to minimise the negative impact.”

Another year, another (very) bad Eskom audit

The 2020-2021 audit outcomes for embattled power utility Eskom, presented in front of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday, has painted a grim picture for the fourth year in a row. 

The audit, overseen by Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke and conducted by SNG-Grant Thornton, has yet again found a debilitating bout of irregular expenditure. 

Water shutdown doesn’t mean no water, assures Rand Water

Rand Water’s panned water shutdown on 15 to 17 November will not result in a total lack of water supply, the utility clarified in a statement on Tuesday night. 

The clarification, they said, was due to a number of media reports “purporting total water cuts in the Gauteng province”. 

“A planned tie-in is by no means a total cut-off of water supply.” 

Rand Water initially said in their statement on Monday that the shutdown would result in a shortage of water or low pressure. 

Tshwane house fire: Four adults, 6-year-old die in blaze

Five family members, including a six-year-old child, perished in a fire in Pretoria West in Tshwane on Wednesday morning.

Emergency responders and firefighters in Tshwane were notified of the blaze shortly after 1am.

Upon their arrival, the house was already engulfed in flames.

Pretoria fire: Five dead

As reported by The Morning Showon eTV, parts of the roof had already collapsed when firefighters arrived on the scene.

Another year, another (very) bad Eskom audit

The 2020-2021 audit outcomes for embattled power utility Eskom, presented in front of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday, has painted a grim picture for the fourth year in a row. 

The audit, overseen by Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke and conducted by SNG-Grant Thornton, has yet again found a debilitating bout of irregular expenditure. 

Although Eskom said its five-year borrowing programme had decreased by R16.6 billion to R105.3 billion when compared to the previous five-year period, “material misstatements” in submitted financial statements and irregular expenditure still resulted in a qualified audit opinion, with findings.