Daily news update: Zuma’s corruption trial, cold front warning and racism allegations rock Cape Town school

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Daily news update 18 May

Judge Piet Koen on Tuesday morning deferred the case to 1 August 2022 for a decision on Zuma’s “reconsideration” application before Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) president Mandisa Maya.

The date of 15 August 2022 was set aside as the holding date for the start of the long-awaited arms deal corruption trial.

“The adjournment is granted on the basis that if the application has been determined by 1 August 2022, and no application to the Constitutional Court is being lodged, the trial shall resume at 10 am on 15 August 2022.”

Racism allegations rock Cape Town school as SAHRC probes Stellenbosch incident

The Good Hope Seminary High School has been rocked by allegations of racism following an incident between two matriculants.

Matric pupils protested outside the school in Cape Town for the second day running, regarding a recent incident where an Indian pupil allegedly called a black girl a derogatory name.

The pupils have also accused the school of not addressing racism and sexual harassment cases.

Case against 53 military veterans who allegedly held ministers hostage withdrawn

The case against the 53 liberation struggle war veterans has been withdrawn. This after the group appeared at the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court earlier on Tuesday.

The matter was withdrawn after the defence made representations to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in Gauteng Division.

According to the NPA, since the trial is not proceeding, the R500 bail paid to secure the veterans’ attendance in court will be reimbursed to them.

Level 2 warning: ‘Bitterly’ cold conditions, hail and disruptive rain to hit SA from Wednesday

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has warned South Africans to expect possibly the coldest weekend since the beginning of the year.

According to the weather service, a cold front will move over the south-west coast of the Western Cape by Wednesday afternoon, with rain spreading along the south coast and adjacent interior in the evening.

Gusty winds of 45-55 km/h can be expected ahead of the cold front over the interior and south coast of the Western Cape as well as the interior of the Northern Cape. These conditions may enhance the risk for veld fire development.

Load shedding back to stage 3 from Tuesday and stage 2 for rest of the week

Load shedding will revert back to stage 3 from 5pm until 10pm on Tuesday.

According to Eskom, the rest of the week will see load shedding implemented at stage 2.

The parastatal ramped up the level of load shedding from stage 3 to stage 4 on Monday due to further loss in generating capacity.

Eskom implemented blackouts at the weekend when eight of its generators suffered losses.

Pravin Gordhan defends decision to privatise struggling SAA

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has defended the decision to privatise struggling South African Airways (SAA).

This comes after the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) threatened to take legal action against the government over the sale of 51% of SAA to Takatso Consortium.

Malema suggested that the sale of SAA was part of a plan by government to privatise all the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the country.

Biden re-establishes US troop presence inside Somalia

President Joe Biden has ordered the re-establishment of a US troop presence in Somalia to help local authorities combat the Al-Shabaab militant group, a senior American official told reporters on Monday.

The move reverses an order from Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, who in late 2020 pulled nearly all US forces from the East African nation as he sought to wind down US military engagements abroad during his final weeks in office.

Biden “approved a request from the Defence Department to reposition US forces in East Africa in order to re-establish a small persistent US military presence in Somalia,” the official said.

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