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

Making headlines: Zim Electoral Commission starts releasing results as Zanu PF leads in Parliament seats; DA says ruling party plans on land expropriation irresponsible; And, Finance Minister Nene extends deadline for VAT panel to submit report to him

Zim Electoral Commission starts releasing results as Zanu PF leads in Parliament seats

The ruling party Zanu PF has taken a lead in the National Assembly seats after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced yesterday the first set of results from Monday’s polls.

This comes after the opposition MDC Alliance held celebrations yesterday to declare victory in Zimbabwe.

Former finance minister Tendai Biti had warned the electoral commission to stop delaying the announcement

However, Zec announced that it had received seven constituency results from the 210 in the country, which saw Zanu PF bagging six, with the MDC Alliance getting one as of 6 pm.

Zec chairwoman Priscilla Chigumba said results for the presidential polls would not be released until Zec had finished its nullification process.

DA says ruling party plans on land expropriation irresponsible

The Democratic Alliance said a resolution by the ruling African National Congress, announced yesterday by President Cyril Ramaphosa, to amend the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation was irresponsible.

The DA said successful land reform did not require amending the Constitution, but rather eradicating corruption and ensuring economic certainty, which it said the ANC had failed to implement.

Ramaphosa made the announcement hours after the national statistics agency said unemployment had risen to 27.2 percent of the labour force.

And, Finance Minister Nene extends deadline for VAT panel to submit report to him

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has extended the deadline for a panel of experts, appointed to review the current list of items exempt from value-added tax, to submit its final report to him, Treasury said yesterday.

In a statement Treasury said the Chair of the Independent Panel of Experts for the review, Professor Ingrid Woolard, requested from the Minister of Finance an extension of today’s deadline for the submission of its report.

The Minister has agreed to extend the deadline from 31 July 2018 to 6 August 2018. The report will be made public soon thereafter.

The panel was appointed after Treasury increased VAT from 14 to 15 percent in April to help raise an additional R36-billion as South Africa tries to narrow its budget deficit.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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