(Gemma Ritchie/M&G)
In local headlines today:
The Star
A day after the release of dire unemployment figures and a warning from the International Monetary Fund regarding land, President Cyril Ramaphosa last night moved to announce that the government was working on a stimulus package aimed at arresting the situation.
- Women taking to the streets today
Women across the country were due to unite and take to the streets today in the fight against gender-based violence.
Business Day
- Transnet overpaid R509m in train deal
Transnet paid R509-million more than it needed to on one train deal alone awarded to a Chinese rail company that paid large suspected kickbacks to the Guptas.
- Liquidation of VBS investor Vele granted
The High Court in Johannesburg has granted an order allowing for the the immediate liquidation of VBS Mutual Bank’s largest shareholder, thereby allowing liquidators to begin trying to recover as much as half of the R1.5-billion that was stolen from depositors of the bank.
- Tencent’s big slide hurts Naspers and JSE
Tencent’s share slide since late January has done no favours for the JSE, whose fortunes are partly linked to the Chinese internet company.
- PIC director quits as board clashes over probe
Another nonexecutive director at the Public Investment Corporation has resigned with immediate effect, leaving behind a divided board squabbling over whether to suspend its executive directors pending a forensic investigation into the conduct of Africa’s largest fund manager.
The Citizen
- Expropriation may become law
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced late last night that the ruling ANC will push ahead with plans to amend the Constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.
- Government ‘lying about fuel hikes’
Government was lying about fuel hikes when it claimed fuel hikes were only influenced by the currency exchange rate and would be “kicked out” next year should they fail to address the recent fuel hikes. This was the message at yesterday’s fuel levy hike protest in Pretoria.
Sowetan
- Women have had enough: Total shutdown
When a 30-year-old woman marches to the Supreme Court of Appeal today, she will be thinking about the two women in her life who were sexually violated and never got justice.
In global headlines today:
For years, Cody Wilson, a champion of gun-rights and anarchism from Texas, has waged a battle to post on the internet the blueprints for making plastic guns on 3-D printers, claiming the First Amendment gives him the right to do it.
Plastic guns are difficult to detect, and concerned about making it easier to produce them, the Obama administration had used export laws banning the foreign distribution of firearms to prevent publication of the blueprints. But an abrupt reversal by the State Department last month appeared to finally clear the path for Mr. Wilson to usher in what his website calls “the age of the downloadable gun.”
That age, he said, would start Wednesday when he would begin uploading the instructions. But faced with dire warnings about an imminent risk to public safety from alarmed public officials across the country, a federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday evening abruptly granted a temporary nationwide injunction blocking Mr. Wilson from moving forward with his plans. (The New York Times)
A giant colony of king penguins in the Indian Ocean has lost 90% of its population over the past three decades, a new study shows. From 500 000 breeding pairs in 1982, satellite images now indicate as few as 60 000 pairs. (The Smithsonian)
Facebook has detected “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” before the United States midterm elections that could be linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian-based group with ties to the Kremlin.
On Tuesday, the social network removed 32 pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram that were pushing American political stances and organising events, including a protest against a Unite the Right rally due to take place in Washington next week. (The Guardian)