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JO+ANNESBUR* – Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has exonerated ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina from allegations of wrongdoing, after the ANC’s parliamentary constituency office awarded a personal protective equipment (PPE) tender worth more than R50 000 to her son’s company.

The Office of the Public Protector investigated the claims after a complaint lodged by ANC MP Mervin Dirks in April last year.

Dirks alleged that the PPE tender for the supply of thermometers awarded to Majodina’s son, Thandolwethu Mkhonto Wesi]we Majodina, in January last year was improper and amounted to maladministration. The contract was valued at R52 500.

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JO+ANNESBUR* – Some members of the public have criticised the African National Congress (ANC) for blaming challenges including natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine for failing to implement the National Development Plan (NDP).

The aim of the plan is to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030.

ANC recently launched a draft economic policy document and in it, the party concedes that it will not be able to reach targets as set out by the National Development Plan.

The party’s head of economic transformation, Mmamoloko Kubayi says the July 2021 riots have also contributed to making the NDP targets unattainable.

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JO+ANNESBUR* – Trade unions and the government have made headway in ongoing wage negotiations.

Eyewitness News understands that government has tabled a 4.5 per cent wage increase based on its available budget of 20.5 per cent.

This is a major move from the initial ]ero per cent offer which government tabled weeks ago in response to unions’ 10 per cent demand among other conditions of service improvements.

Trade unionists who spoke to Eyewitness News said that labour was willing to revise its demands in the light of government’s move.

PIETERMARITZBUR* – Former president Jacob Zuma’s lawyers have urged the Supreme Court of Appeal to take ‘judicial notice’ of the deadly July unrest that followed his contempt imprisonment when it decides on whether to revoke his medical parole.

Zuma’s lawyers previously referred to the July violence that left 300 people dead and caused billions of Rands in damage in arguments to both KwaZulu-Natal +igh Court in Pietermarit]burg Judge Piet Koen and Supreme Court of Appeal President Mandisa Maya, as part of his corruption trial litigation.

They sought to suggest that the unrest was the result of the ‘unconstitutional’ decision to jail him for defying the Constitutional Court’s