Author: The Bulrushes

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced the end of the National State of Disaster – imposed 750 days ago to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. During that period, the virus left more than 100 000 dead in its wake. “What this means is that all regulations and directions made in terms of the Disaster Management Act following the declaration of the national state of disaster in response to Covid-19 are repealed with effect from midnight tonight,” said Ramaphosa. The president, however, said there would be a few transitional measures that would automatically lapse after 30 days. “We will still be required…

Microsoft has added isiZulu to its Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services Translator, enabling text and documents to be translated to and from one of South Africa’s official languages. This development announced on Thursday is across the entire Microsoft ecosystem of products and services. isiZulu joins Swahili as the latest African language to be supported, and there are plans to add more of the continent’s most widely spoken languages. Integrations across Microsoft’s ecosystem include Microsoft 365 for translating text and documents, the Microsoft Edge browser and Bing search engine for translating whole webpages, SwiftKey for translating messages, LinkedIn for translating user-submitted content,…

A Pakistan national has been arrested at the Cape Town International Airport while trying to leave the country using a fraudulently acquired SA passport. The suspect, who was arrested Thursday night, had been on the radar of the Home Affairs Counter Corruption Branch for suspected fraudulent activities in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape. “The suspect fraudulently acquired a South African ID in Gauteng and a passport in KwaZulu-Natal,” said Siya Qoza, spokesperson for the Minister of Home Affairs. The Counter Corruption Branch received a tip-off that a Pakistani with a fraudulently acquired SA passport was planning to leave the…

Former president Jacob Zuma and Thales SA will go on trial for corruption next month in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. Zuma is accused of taking bribes from French arms company Thales related to the multi billion rand arms deal in 1999. The former president, who goes on trial a day before his 80th birthday, faces charges of corruption, racketeering and money laundering. Zuma had been objecting to being prosecuted by Advocate Billy Downer SC alleging he was biased against him. Last month Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Piet Koen dismissed Zuma’s attempt to remove prosecutor Advocate Downer SC, saying the former president’s special plea…

South Africa has crossed the grim milestone of more than 100 000 deaths from COVID-19 in the latest update by the NICD. Some 44 people succumbed to the virus bringing the total of COVID-19 deaths to 100 020. There were 1 679 new cases reported. During the same period as many as 33 656 772 vaccinations had been administered. The grime milestone comes as 92,370 Pfizer vials will reach their expiration date today, Thursday, and will have to be disposed of in line with health industry standards.

City Power expects to finish reconnecting electricity supplies on Friday to parts of the Johannesburg central business district, which suffered an outage after an underground fire. “We still hope to finish the repairs and restore power to the rest of the affected customers including Selby and Westgate by Friday – if all goes according to plan,” said City Power Spokesperson Isaac Mangena on Wednesday. “In the meantime, more affected areas within the CBD were restored through backfeeding from Van Beek Substation. They include Commissioner Street, Fox Street, and Market Street.” The underground fire that took more than a day to…

A home affairs department female officer allegedly caught taking a R500 bribe from a refugee who wanted to extend his asylum permit is expected to appear in court today. The Refugee Status Determination Officer based at the Desmond Tutu Refugee Reception Centre in Marabastad, Pretoria, was nabbed on Tuesday. She allegedly took the bribe to extend the validity of the asylum permit of a Bangladeshi national, whose application for international protection was being appealed at the Refugee Appeals Authority of South Africa. The official was allegedly seen by a security guard accepting the money from the Bangladeshi national. The guard…

Amid a failure to deal with corruption amongst its employees and getting the third disclaimer on its financial statement, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is in financial dire straits. Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said in the Annual Report of the PRASA released Tuesday reflects improvement in performance against predetermined objectives. “However, an improvement of 11% from 18% to 29% is a far cry from where we should be and remains unacceptably low,” Mbalula told Parliament’s financial watchdog SCOPA hearings. Mbalula further painted a bleak picture of the future of PRASA. He stated that PRASA was in a…

Most parts of the Johannesburg central business district were still without electricity Tuesday Morning as firefighters continued to battle an underground fire that cut off supply lines. The fire broke out Monday morning in a tunnel. More than a day later, the Joburg Emergency Services (EMS) have not yet declared it safe for City Power technicians to attend to the fault. Apart from the city centre, other areas without electricity include Selby, Wemmer, Village Deep, Park Central, and parts of Booysens. “The fire, which started around 7h30 of Monday, is suspected to have damaged multiple cables that had been running…

As many as 49 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been voluntarily repatriated from South Africa. Home Affairs Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi on Monday said he “welcomes the voluntary repatriation of 49 refugees from the DRC in collaboration with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency”. “This is the first group of approximately 400 refugees who have expressed a desire to return to the DRC.” The department of home affairs said individual reviews were carried out by UNHCR ensuring that returns were voluntary and that the refugees return home with safety and dignity. Together with the UNHCR, the…