October, 19 2016.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Madiba.

Making headlines:
Public Protector to brief Parliament on annual report
Thanks, but no thanks, Gordhan tells Abrahams
And, students may lose if they can't channel their anger says Yacoob

New Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane and her team will brief Parliament on the entity’s annual performance for the 2015/16 financial year today.

Mkhwebane reported for her first day of duty on Monday, after advocate Thuli Madonsela’s term ended.

The annual report was the last one Madonsela submitted to Parliament.

Mkhwebane might have to field questions on the contentious "state capture" report, which Madonsela completed and gave to Parliament for safe keeping on Friday.

Parliament returned it to the Public Protector’s office when Mkhwebane assumed her duties.

During the 2015/16 financial year, the public protector’s office handled 17 374 cases, of which 12 735 were finalised and 4251 carried over to the new financial year.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan yesterday told National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams that he would not be taking up his invite to make representations by 17:00.

Instead he invited Abrahams to withdraw the charges against him, in relation to an early retirement payout granted to former SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay in 2010, and the extension of his contract.

His response to Abrahams was set out in a letter by Gordhan’s lawyer Tebogo Malatji on Tuesday.

Abrahams had set a deadline on Tuesday for representations by Gordhan, Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza and SARS commissioner Tom Moyane.

His invite came on Monday, despite Gordhan’s public pronouncement last week that he would not be making representations.

Malatji referred to a letter by Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation sent to Abrahams last week, as the basis for why the charges should be withdrawn.

University students must learn from how the struggle was won almost entirely through passive resistance to make society ungovernable, retired Constitutional Court justice Zak Yacoob said yesterday.

He said he sympathised with where students were, but added that violence should never be on the cards.

Yacoob was an anti-apartheid activist and retired as a Constitutional Court justice in 2013, after a 15-year stint.

He felt former Wits University SRC leader Mcebo Dlamini’s comment in court about needing bail to write a test insulted the intelligence of all citizens.

Government and university officials also needed to be honest. They could not expect students to respect and obey them when they were corrupt, he said.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today