Author: The Bulrushes

South Africa is donating millions of doses of Pfizer and J&J vaccines to other African countries, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced. In his message to the 2nd Global Summit on Covid-19, Ramaphosa – the AU champion for covid-19 response – on Thursday said: “To get more life-saving vaccines to those in need, South Africa is donating 5 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and 10 million doses of the J&J vaccine to other African countries.” He said South Africa has contributed $10 million to the Global Fund and plans to contribute financial support to the ACT-Accelerator. “To address low testing rates,…

An intriguing tale of the theft of more than 100 million rand from ABSA bank, involving murder, and the arrest of six people including a traditional healer – is unfolding in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, Johannesburg. On Thursday, 43-year-old traditional healer, Khumbulani Elvis Ntombela – also known as “Mabalengwe” and 29-year-old Nonelwa Nondlazi, were in the dock for their part in the theft of more than 100 million rand from ABSA. Nondlazi was the former partner of the main suspect – the late Xolela Masebeni. The money was stolen from a Sandton branch between September and December last…

MultiChoice is searching for 60 aspiring film and TV content creators from Southern Africa, West Africa and East Africa to be part of the Class of 2023. Now approaching its fifth year, the MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) (www.MultiChoiceTalentFactory.com) Academy is excited to once again call for applications for its world-class film and TV training programme which kicks off in October this year. The call is open to all emerging filmmakers with either some industry experience or a relevant post-school qualification, to apply for this exciting opportunity to hone their television and film production skills. “Our curriculum combines film studies such…

Eskom will implement Stage 2 load-shedding at 5pm on Monday. The power utility said: “Stage 2 load- will regretfully be implemented from 17:00 to 22:00 this evening as the power system is severely constrained. Earlier on Monday Eskom warned it might have to implement load-shedding at “short notice”. “While the power system has recovered sufficiently to fully meet the demand during the day,” said Eskom, adding that it would like to “caution the public that load-shedding might be required at short notice during the evening peaks should there be further breakdowns in currently available capacity”. Eskom had said it expects…

Security guards on Wednesday found three men stripping the decommissioned Anglo Gold Ashanti Hospital of valuables including copper cables, gas stoves, monitors, and mattresses. Two of the culprits ran away and one was apprehended as he was loading the loot onto a late model bakkie. The matter was reported to the Carletonville Police Station. The security guards also found that two state-of-the-art digital x-ray machines had been vandalised at the hospital located in Carletonville on the West Rand. The Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) said the thefts coincided with its process of moving equipment and machinery out of the disused…

Mukuru – the leading next-generation financial services platform catering to Africa’s emerging consumer – on Wednesday announced new sponsorships, including English Premier League side Crystal Palace Football Club. Mukuru has simultaneously struck a naming rights deal for the top Malawi Super League Team, The Mighty Wanderers FC, and a sponsorship arrangement with Springbok legend Tendai “The Beast” Mtawarira. The financial services platform, which has built a formidable business serving remittances for expatriate Africans, has more than 10 million customers and has completed more than 100 million transactions since its inception in 2004. Commenting on the England-based Crystal Palace Football Club, Mukuru CEO Andy Jury said: “The…

University of Pretoria (UP) graduate Mia Gerber recently received a master’s in Computer Science with distinction for her thesis investigating automating the design of the deep neural network pipeline to address fourth industrial revolution (4IR) problems by using artificial intelligence. Gerber completed her degree in a year and a half following her return to academia after a work stint. The machine-learning techniques that she developed as part of her research not only makes artificial intelligence more accessible but can also be applied to areas that are relevant to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): disease diagnosis, spam detection and sentiment…

The Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday upheld the application by the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) Investigating Directorate (ID) to restrain the assets of Regiment Capital of just over R1 billion. Allegations are that Regiments was corruptly awarded contracts at state-owned logistics company Transnet. Regiments was the transaction adviser to Transnet for the latter’s R54 billion procurement tender for 1 064 locomotives in 2014, which the state alleges was inflated by about R16 billion. The interim restraint initially awarded in favour of the ID in November 2019 was discharged in October 2020 on grounds of failing to disclose material information about…

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has weighed in on the arrest of Advocate Malesela Teffo inside the courtroom, saying it was “unacceptable”. Advocate Teffo was handcuffed inside the Pretoria High Court on Thursday when police executed an outstanding warrant of arrest. Advocate Teffo spent the night in the cells and appeared at the Hillbrow Magistrate’s Court the next day, where he was granted bail of R10 000. However, there was an outcry as to why the advocate – who is representing four of the five men accused of the murder of football star Senzo Meyiwa, was not given a chance to…

The five men who were caught red-handed stealing metal railway sleepers on Tuesday appeared in the Morgenzon Magistrate’s Court, Mpumalanga. The five accused were named as 56-year-old Phillip Thyse, 27-year-old Kashveer Harrilil, 45-year-old Mahlomola Johannes Mphasha, 45-year-old Sipho Maseko, and 53-year-old Mthabine Semid Tsotetsi. METAL RAILWAY SLEEPER HEIST: The laden truck that was intercepted by the Hawks All five were arrested on Friday, 29 April 2022, by the Hawks acting on a tip-off about people who were stealing metal railway sleepers in Morgenzon. The court heard that some of the stolen metal railway sleepers had already been delivered to a scrapyard…