Daily news update: Lesufi reshuffles Gauteng’s Cabinet, Load shedding suspended and Jacob Zuma officially free

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.

Daily news update: 8 October 2022

Lesufi reshuffles Gauteng’s Cabinet: Here are the new members

Newly-elected Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi made some changes to his executive council on Friday.

Gauteng MEC for Community Safety and Security Faith Mazibuko has once again been trusted with the department after being reappointed by Lesufi.

Lesufi did not make major changes to the previous administration after appointing only two new MECs.

Parks Tau has been replaced as Gauteng Economic Development and Agriculture MEC. Tasneem Motara will take over from him.

Matome Chiloane is the new Education MEC, Lesufi’s previous position.

JUST IN: Eskom suspends load shedding from Saturday

Eskom has announced that load shedding will be suspended at 5am on Saturday morning.

The suspension of load shedding comes after almost a month of deliberate power cuts at different stages.

The ailing paratatal said that while the generation capacity constraints persist, the suspension of load shedding is possible due to the anticipated lower weekend demand, as well as adequate levels of emergency generation reserves.

ALSO READ: Load shedding: ‘I am gatvol and so are 60 million other South Africans’.

Zuma is officially a free man as prison sentence expires

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has announced that former president Jacob Zuma is a free man.

In a statement on Friday, the department confirmed that Zuma’s prison sentence has expired.

Zuma was slapped with a 15-month jail sentence when he was found guilty of contempt by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) in June 2021.

ALSO READ: Zuma now ‘irrelevant but he’ll battle on’, says analyst

The former president had failed to comply with the ConCourt’s ruling forcing him to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture.

‘GogoZille’ back on Twitter – spits fire to clear rumours on DA’s coalition flop

Democratic Alliance (DA) federal chair Helen Zille has found her smartphone and has returned to Twitter with a rant about the party’s coalition flop in the City of Johannesburg and the ousting of former mayor Mpho Phalatse.

Phalatse was removed from office in the City of Johannesburg via a motion of no confidence last week. She was replaced by the African National Congress’ (ANC) Johannesburg regional chair, Dada Morero.

ALSO READ: Mpho Phalatse given 48 hours to apologise for calling the ANC corrupt

In a series of tweets posted on Friday morning, Zille – who also calls herself GodZille and GogoZille said, “There have been so many untruths told during the past week about what caused the break-up of our coalition in Johannesburg, that the facts have barely surfaced.

Sunfoil cooking oil recovered in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng

Some of the 2 litres of Sunfoil Sunflower oil that were stolen from one of Willowton Group’s off-site warehouses in Johannesburg on Wednesday have been recovered.

This was confirmed by the Willowton Group in a statement on Thursday.

It said they were robbed by armed robbers who held up the staff at their off-site warehouse in Kempton Park.

“They proceeded to load three trucks, which is understood to be stolen trucks, with substantial quantities of 2l Sunfoil Sunflower Cooking Oil,” read the statement.

Tweep causes a stir after comparing Mihlali Ndamase’s boyfriend to her father

Twitter user @FluffyGillette2 has erased their tweet and deleted their account after comparing influencer Mihlali Ndamase’s boyfriend Leeroy Sidambe to her late father. 

“Respect to her father, can’t help to notice that she had to date someone who looks like her daddy,” tweeted @FluffyGillette2 along with side-by-side images of Mihlali pictured next to each man. 

The tweet was immediately met with criticism. 

“Every time umntana wabantu lives her life you guys always feel the need to bring up her late father. She did not open up about her father only for to use it against her every chance you get. Stop being weird,” complained @EmihleTshangela.

Springbok women targeting French World Cup scalp

The Springbok women are targeting a big upset in their opening match of the Rugby World Cup as they hunt a win over France at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday.

It is a massive game first up in the context of the team’s hopes of making the competition quarterfinals, as they look to make history with a first ever win over fourth ranked France.

The SA women have themselves risen to a high of 11^th in the world and go into the World Cup with plenty of confidence having won five of their six games so far this year

ALSO READ: Raubenheimer names experienced team for World Cup opener