August 1, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:
 

Gauteng MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy welcomes Gauteng’s improved municipal performance.

NGOs raise concerns about Sanral's application for certain court documents and hearings to be kept secret..

And, former South African president Thabo Mbeki says intelligentsia is needed to help Africa.

Gauteng MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy has welcomed the significant improvement of the audit outcomes of municipalities in South Africa’s most populous province.

The Auditor-General’s 2013 financial year audit outcomes released earlier this week showed that, of the 37 municipalities and municipal entities audited, three had achieved clean audits, 32 achieved unqualified audits and only two received qualified audits, a decline from six last year.

There were no regressions among Gauteng’s three metropolitan municipalities, two district municipalities, seven local municipalities and 25 municipal entities.

Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu pointed out that Gauteng’s municipalities, which had an overall total expenditure of R83.8-billion during the year under review, had achieved a reduction in irregular and unauthorised expenditure, as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Two non-governmental organisations (or NGOs) have raised concerns about Sanral's application for certain court documents and court hearings to be kept secret.

The main concern is that the degree of secrecy that is being imposed is greater than is necessary to protect any confidentiality interests at stake, if any, said the Right2Know Campaign and Section 16 in a statement.

The application, brought by the South African National Roads Agency Limited and Protea Parkways Consortium, would be heard in camera in the Western Cape High Court on Monday. The application is part of litigation around the proposed N1/N2 Winelands Toll Highway Project.

The NGOs were concerned that open justice and debate on a matter of significant public interest were being stifled.

South Africa’s former president Thabo Mbeki has suggested that African intelligentsia be brought back into crucial processes, as was the case in the 1960s and 70s, to help with the continent's "pressing strategic" problems.

Speaking at a meeting of African leaders in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, on Thursday Mbeki said he would like to suggest that the African intelligentsia has a critically important role to play.

Mbeki said some governments weren’t implementing continental policies and part of the problem was a failure to manage diverse societies. He said Africa's failure to manage its diverse societies had resulted in persistent social instability, civil war and violent conflicts, exclusion and inequality, a lack of cohesion, and an increased "brain drain".

Also making headlines:

Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies says South Africa has been at the centre of exploring trade opportunities between the US and Africa.

A South African court has ruled it would allow a $7.5-billion class action suit against state logistics firm Transnet on behalf of thousands of retired employees, in what is likely to be the largest such lawsuit in the country's history.

And, a US aid worker who was infected with the deadly Ebola virus while working in West Africa will be flown to the US to be treated in a high-security ward at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Also on Polity:

Keep up to date with South Africa’s political situation by reading the latest speeches and statement form government, political parties and civil society.

Follow us on Twitter @PolityZA for updates on breaking news.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.