Asanda Nini News Today

SA National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers were deployed to calm violent clashes between taxi operators and the police on Monday, which had caused more than 100 voting stations in the Eastern Cape to remain closed.

Buffalo City Metro is pinning its hopes on a “consortium of outside experts” to deal with the many challenges relating to infrastructure development and maintenance, which will cost a projected R25 million a year.

This may sound like a broken record, but several decades after it was first proposed and nine years after a sod-turning ceremony, the first phase of the Mzimvubu water project will finally commence in the new financial year in April. This was one of the promises made by President Cyril Ramaphosa regarding the Eastern Cape when he delivered his state of the nation address in Cape Town on Thursday evening.

The lengthy cold war over claims of alleged racism, nepotism and favouritism at the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) East London office has found its way to the Constitutional Court, with the matter set to be decided by a panel of justices on a date yet to be confirmed. The case, from 2019, involved three Indian, a coloured and a white administrator going to court in a bid to interdict a group of five “concerned” black prosecutors and a trade union from making defamatory statements...

South Africa, its state of disaster made official, is to have a minister of electricity in the presidency whose job is to end load-shedding. This was the news the nation was waiting for on Thursday night, and the moment President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the state of disaster during his State of the Nation Address (Sona), his audience in the Cape Town City Hall cheered.

Politicians, business leaders and analysts in the Eastern Cape have warned of “imminent instability” if President Cyril Ramaphosa does not adequately address the Eskom crisis in his state of the nation (Sona) address. Some critics warned of the possibility of “total collapse” if no workable and adequately funded plans were put in place to deal with the crippling load-shedding, with DA provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga describing the outages as a “time bomb”.

A former Eastern Cape health department messenger has been sentenced to an effective 10 years in jail in a PPE fraud case totalling R23m. The fraudster, Ayanda Matinise, was sent straight to Mthatha’s Wellington prison after his sentencing on Tuesday morning by Mthatha commercial crimes court magistrate Shylock Ndengezi.

Axed Buffalo City Metro Development Agency (BCMDA) CEO Bulumko Nelana has scored yet another court victory over his employer, as the high court in Makhanda on Tuesday ruled that his January 25 axing by the agency’s interim board be reversed. Nelana, who was initially suspended in November, on January 24 obtained a court order declaring his suspension illegal and set aside.

Buffalo City Metro opposition councillors are unhappy about a “top secret” move by the city to buy an executive “blue light” vehicle for council chief whip Sixolisiwe Ntsasela — against the advice of its own legal unit. It is understood that Ntsasela was granted the executive vehicle and provided with security in 2022 after her security was allegedly threatened.

The crippling service delivery protests at Komani-based Enoch Mgijima municipality last week, which saw police fire rubber bullets to disperse the volatile crowd, has attracted the attention of the national government. A high powered delegation of senior national government politicians and officials will visit the small town early this week, to listen to community grievances and to find lasting solutions to the ongoing service delivery protests.