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Daily news update: Gauteng water shutdown, Transnet’s R14.5bn irregular expenditure and SAHRC’s July unrest hearing
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.
Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu briefing the media on the 15-to-17 November 2021 Rand Water shutdown. Picture: Twitter/@DWS_RSA
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Mchunu assures Gauteng residents he’s keeping ‘very close watch’ on Rand Water
Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu has assured Gauteng residents that his department is keeping close tabs on Rand Water’s water-supply disruptions.
Mchunu on Monday briefed the media in Tshwane on the water utility’s 54-hour shutdown of water pipes supplying parts of Gauteng that started on Monday and is scheduled to end on Wednesday.
Rand Water announced last week it would be doing maintenance work on its raw water pipe that supplies the Vereeniging water purification plant.
AfriForum calls for an end to curfew, gives Dlamini-Zuma until Friday to respond
Civil rights organisation AfriForum has given Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma until Friday to respond to its call for an end to the curfew.
During his address to the nation on 30 September, President Cyril Ramaphosa moved the country to adjusted lockdown level 1 following meetings with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), the President’s Coordinating Council and Cabinet.
Among other changes, the President implemented a 12am to 4am curfew, later gazetted by Dlamini-Zuma.
South Africa has been in a state of disaster since 15 March 2020.
Police shoot man in guesthouse standoff
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate is probing a case where a police officer shot a guest at the Misty Hills lodge in Muldersdrift on Saturday night
A video of the incident which has been widely circulated on social media shows the naked man arguing with police.
It’s understood the man, later seen in tight blue boxer briefs, was fighting with staff at the lodge.
The manager had requested the guest to leave the establishment and promised to refund him, but he refused.
Telkom burning through billions while warning signs pile up
Telkom burned through close to R1 billion cash in the most recent six months.
It reported negative free cash flow of R839 million in the six months to end-September, a R1.05 billion swing from the R211 million positive figure reported in the first half of last year.
It argues this is due to “an increase of R1.1 billion in capex paid in the period under review”.
This was caused by the Covid-19 lockdown in the first half of the last fiscal. This meant the operator had higher than normal capex in the second half, peaking in the fourth quarter.
First witness in SAHRC’s July unrest hearing takes the stand
Zama Nguse took to the stand as the first witness on Monday morning in the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC’s) public hearings into the violent unrest the country witnessed in July this year.
The SAHRC is conducting a national investigative hearing from 15 November until 3 December into the devastating riots that swept through parts of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng.
The hearings will look into the cause of the unrest and the causes of allegedly racially motivated attacks and killings, among other things.
The commission carried out site inspections in both provinces earlier this year, as well as a national imbizo.
The 8-to-19 July riots resulted in more than 330 people losing their lives, and cost R25 billion in damages.
Transnet racks up R14.5bn irregular expenditure for 2021
Transnet, with total assets of R335.8 billion (2020: R338.3 billion), operates an extensive rail infrastructure and provides freight services, operates a 3 114-km high-pressure petroleum and gas pipeline network, and manages eight commercial seaports – Richards Bay, Durban, East London, Ngqura, Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay, Cape Town and Saldanha.
Transnet was scarred by state capture, and was not spared Covid-19’s negative impact.
Its various operations have also suffered “security incidents”, “incidents of community unrest”, and “theft, vandalism, sabotage to assets and equipment as well as operational disruptions”.
Court orders ailing Denel to pay staff their outstanding salaries
The North Gauteng High court has ordered Denel to pay staff their outstanding salaries.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) took the state-owned aerospace and military technology conglomerate to court because workers have not received their full salaries since May 2020.
Numsa represents about 800 staff members at Denel Dynamics, Denel Land Systems, Denel Pretoria Metal Pressing, Denel Aeronautics and Denel Vehicle Systems.
It’s understood that the entity owes suppliers and workers R900 million and R650 million, respectively.
Safa to lodge official complaint over referees after World Cup exit
The South African Football Association will be writing to the Confederation of African Football and Fifa to demand an investigation into the performance of Senegalese referee Maguette Ndiaye and his two Senegalese assistant referees Djibril Camara and Daouda Gueye in Bafana Bafana’s heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Ghana in their Group G Fifa World Cup qualifier at Cape Coast Stadium on Sunday.
