LOCAL Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago announced a 75-basis point rate hike effective from Friday. This takes the repo rate to seven percent and the prime lending rate to 10.5 percent Economist Goolam Ballim says that the fact that two members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) were more inclined to a 50- basis point rate hike, signals a division in the MPC. The committee based its rates decision on […]
LOCAL Load-shedding will be reduced to stage 3 during the evenings from Thursday and throughout the weekend, Eskom said after PetroSA provided millions of litres of diesel. On Wednesday, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan told parliament state-owned PetroSA has made 50-million litres of diesel available to Eskom, which announced last week it had run out of funds to buy fuel for its open-cycle gas turbines. The reduction to stage 3 is from […]
LOCAL Four brothers have been arrested for allegedly duping the City of Cape Town into paying their company R2.5m for work they did not do. Two city officials, who allegedly helped them, appeared with the brothers in the Cape Town magistrate's court on Thursday. Ilitha Painters and Decorators, represented by Asif Khan, Uwais Khan, Irfaan Khan, Craig Kannemeyer, and Abdullatief Abrahams, and city officials Adam Majiet and Alistair Stanbul were […]
LOCAL A wastewater treatment plant which residents say is largely to blame for an unbearable stench and ongoing pollution of Milnerton Lagoon in Cape Town will benefit from a R5bn capacity upgrade. In the meantime, short-term interventions to address complaints will be rolled out by the city. Environmental protection non-profit #ReThinkTheStink and the Milnerton Central Residents’ Association last week shared the results of independent water tests taken on November 4 […]
INTERNATIONAL Uganda has recorded a drop in the number of new Ebola cases, with some districts going for at least two weeks without registering new infections, health ministry officials said. The development is a major sign the East African country is having a measure of success in efforts to combat its latest outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever disease more than two months after it was declared. Central Uganda’s Mubende […]
INTERNATIONAL The UN's top human rights body voted on Thursday to set up an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests following the death of Mahsa Amini. The motion presented to the UN Human Rights Council passed with 25 in favour, six against and 16 abstentions. Volker Turk, commissioner of the UNHCR, had earlier demanded Iran end its "disproportionate" use of force in quashing protests that erupted after the death in […]
INTERNATIONAL An Israeli court sentenced four Palestinian citizens of Israel to dozens of years in prison after charging them with participating in inter-communal violence during nationwide riots in May last year. Haifa District Court sentenced Mohammed Abu al-Haija, Mohammed Abu Romi and Baha Abu al-Jaija to seven years in prison and Ibrahim Merih to five years. The four Palestinians are from Tamra village, inside Israel, which had witnessed protests in May 2021 against the […]
INTERNATIONAL The head of a United Nations commission probing alleged Israeli war crimes committed against Palestinians has sent a letter to the UN calling for an investigation after accusing the Israeli mission of launching a "personal attack" against her in which she was labelled an "anti-Semite". According to the letter, obtained by the independent news site PassBlue, Navi Pillay had an encounter in October with the Israeli ambassador during a General Assembly committee meeting, […]
INTERNATIONAL Fourteen people were lashed in a football stadium in eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban-led Supreme Court said on Wednesday, in the latest sign of the ruling group applying its strict interpretation of sharia (Islamic law) to criminal justice. It was the second confirmation of lashings by the Taliban this month, signalling a possible return to practices common in its hardline rule in the 1990s. "Fourteen people, including three women were […]
VOC became the first Muslim radio station in South Africa when a special events license was granted to the station in Ramadan/January 1995. Subsequent temporary broadcast licenses were granted, permitting the station to broadcast for 24 hours.
