Daily news update: More load shedding, unemployment rate and Pitso vs Sundowns

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SA official unemployment rate hits record high of 32.6%

Picture: iStock

Stats SA announced on Tuesday that joblessness has hit a record high, following a small increase to 32.6% compared with the last quarter of 2020.

Unemployment is still highest in the Eastern Cape.

The number of unemployed people in South Africa increased by about 8,000, with about 7.2 million people without work. The stats have also been affected by new jobseekers joining the market from school and tertiary institutions.

According to the expanded definition of unemployment, joblessness increased by 0.6 of a percentage point to 43.2% in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the final quarter of 2020.

More load shedding until Friday, Eskom announces

Load shedding has been forecast for the winter months of 2021. Photo: iStock

Stage 2 load shedding is set to continue until 10pm on Friday, 4 June, Eskom has confirmed.

This is after Eskom announced the implementation of Stage 2 cuts on Monday and Tuesday.

The power utility said stage 2 would be implemented from 4pm on Tuesday, until 5am on Wednesday morning.

However, due to further breakdowns of generating units at Majuba and Arnot Power Stations, as well delays in returning units to service at Arnot and Tutuka Power Stations, stage 2 load shedding will now be implemented from 10am on Wednesday morning until 10pm on Friday.

AU urged to intervene as Pan-African Parly elections postponed

MPs at the Pan-African Parliament in Midrand on 31 May 2021. Picture: Screenshot

New leadership of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) will now be elected at a later date after proceedings were postponed on Tuesday as tensions reached boiling point yet again.

For the second day running chaos erupted at the PAP in Midrand, Gauteng, with Members of Parliament (MPs) still having divided opinions and disagreements over whether the presidency should be on a rotational basis or via a direct ballot box.

It is understood that southern block is calling for the presidency to rotate while the east and west are against this.

The voting, which was scheduled to happen at 2pm, has been postponed to October according to several news outlets as the MPs are expected to elect the new head of PAP.

Cuban engineers’ R1 million a year salaries R300K more than locals earn

Cuban health workers attend a welcome ceremony hosted by the Western Cape Government Health (WCGH) in Cape Town, South Africa 24 May 2020. The 28 Cuban health workers will be deployed to various provincial health facilities to support efforts in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The group comprises of experts in epidemiology, biostatistics, and public health, family physicians, health care technology engineers and experts to provide technical assistance. Picture: EPA-EFE/NIC BOTHMA

Trade union Solidarity will go ahead with a court application to review the decision to import Cuban engineers, as it was revealed that the Cubans will each be paid close to R1 million a  year, more than local engineers earn.

In a media briefing on Tuesday afternoon, the trade union said through its court application, it received the contract agreements between the department and the Cuban engineers which served to contradict earlier statements by Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

These include the statement by Sisulu that the engineers had not signed employment contracts and were brought in for mentorship purposes.

ANCWL urges Majodina to open assault case against Senegal’s War

Table Talk with new ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina at her parliament office. Date: 11 June 2019, Photo: ESA ALEXANDER/SUNDAY TIMES

The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) has urged the party’s chief whip in Parliament, Pemmy Majodina, to open a case of assault against the Senegalian representative to the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), Djibril War.

War was caught on camera on Monday kicking Majodina during a heated disagreement between MPs of the continental Parliament sitting in Midrand, Johannesburg.

Majodina said she was intervening to break up a physical fight between two MPs when she found herself being assaulted. She said she would open a case of assault with the police against War, but she later changed her mind after he apologised.

Zandspruit mob attacks: police launch manhunt for two ringleaders

Picture: iStock

Gauteng police have launched a manhunt for two people who they claim led the brutal killing of eight people in Zandspruit, west of Johannesburg, last month.

On 17 May 2021, nine young men were severely assaulted in Zandspruit with an assortment of weapons, before being doused with paraffin and petrol and torched.

Four of the victims died on the scene and four others died in various hospitals. One of the victims remains in a critical condition in hospital.

Schools ready for pupils despite spike in Covid-19 cases

In terms of the proposed new rules, the parent must separately list the cost of ‘interventions’ at the school ‘in consequence’ of the disability. Photo: iStock

Deputy Minister of Basic Education Reginah Mhaule told the parliament portfolio committee on education on Tuesday all stakeholders had unanimously agreed it would be right for learners to go back to school on a full-time basis.

“We are ready but it will depend upon the advice that we’ll get from the Department of Health,” said Mhaule.

“School governing bodies (SBGs) were consulted and there we no stakeholders who said it would not be right that learners go back to school. What we have is not absolute. When we get contrary advice, we’ll react to that advice as it comes. But for now we are preparing to receive all grades and all learners in primary schools.”

Primary school pupils will have to return to school two months from now.

Mashaba says more than 91% of the ANC won’t pass lifestyle audits

Leader of the ActionSA, Herman Mashaba, addresses a crowd outside Durban City Hall during a rally on April 15, 2021 in Durban, South Africa. ActionSA is political party that was founded in 2020 by former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba. (Photo by Gallo Images/Darren Stewart)

Action SA leader Herman Mashaba is banking on uncomfortable lifestyle audits to oust the ANC in Gauteng’s big metros.

“I can assure you more than 91% of them will never pass their lifestyle audit,” Mashaba told his supporters at Yeoville Recreational Centre in Johannesburg on Monday.

“Most of them earn R800k or a million rands (annually) but they live in a R15 million house, they drive four or five cars and some of them are not even ashamed they own up to 11 cars. They have to tell us where they got this money from.”

WATCH: Snow transforms southern Africa into a winter wonderland

Picture: Twitter @SkiAfriski

The South African Weather Service on Monday warned of a wet and cold week ahead, as temperatures plummeted due to a cold front moving over the eastern parts of the country over the weekend.

The cut-off low-pressure system will be responsible for the majority of adverse weather expected this week, including snowfall accumulation of between 5 and 15 centimeters over Lesotho and the southern Drakensberg mountains in the Eastern Cape.

Social media platforms were abuzz with videos and images of snow turning southern Africa into a winter wonderland. Afriski shared footage of an icy drive along the Mountain Resort pass while Semonkong Lodge shared the excitement of the first snowfall in the region.

Veteran legendary actor MacDonald Ndodana passes away

The late MacDonald Ndodana Mathunjwa. Picture: Instagram

Zanoxolo Mathunjwa announced on social media today that her father and legend in the film and television industry, MacDonald Ndodana Mathunjwa had passed away.

Zanoxolo posted on Twitter: “RIP daddy. #Heartbroken MacDonald Ndodana Mathunjwa gave up the ghost today.”

It is not known what Macdonald’s cause of death was and the Mathunjwa Ndodana family have not yet made his obituary and funeral information known yet to the public.

Pitso’s camp ready to take on Sundowns in court

Pitso Mosimane, head coach of Al Ahly, will be missing some of his key players when they face Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday. (EPA-EFE/KHALED ELFIQI)

What looked like an amicable separation is now appearing to have shifted into a portrait of a nasty divorce between Mamelodi Sundowns and Pitso Mosimane.

Masandawana have issued  a court summons summons for Mosimane’s wife, Moira Tlhagale, who acts as “Jingles” agent with MT Sports Marketing and Management.

Sundowns want to be reimbursed about R8-million of signing on fees Tlhagale received when Mosimane extended his then contract at Sundowns, before having it prematurely terminated four months later to join Egyptian side Al-Ahly.

Three tasks for Kaizer Chiefs’ interim duo

Kaizer Chiefs marketing director Jessica Motaung says Arthur Zwane (pictured) could rise to the first team head coach position in the future. (Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix)

With two games to go, Arthur Zwane and Dillion Shepard have been thrown a curveball by the Kaizer Chiefs management, who fired their leader, Gavin Hunt on Friday. Now the duo are left to guide Amakhosi and ensure they have a good finish to a season that has been a disaster for the Soweto side.

Chiefs could even end up in 15th and a relegation play-off spot, if results do not go their way in the last two DStv Premiership games.

While the job may look difficult from afar, however, Zwane and Shepard could lighten the load for long-suffering Amakhosi fans.