January 18, 2017.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Mbete distances herself from ANC leadership race

AIC gives ANC March ultimatum on Matatiele agreement

And, draft report of SABC inquiry leaked on social media

The ANC’s national chairperson Baleka Mbete has distanced herself from media reports that she has entered the race to succeed President Jacob Zuma as party president.

Mbete appeared to be the third high-profile figure to throw her hat into the succession ring after a Sunday Times report said she had been "approached" by a number of National Executive Committee members to run.

She said the ANC's national working committee had decided this week that leadership pronouncements were premature and needed to be stopped.

The fragile ANC-led coalitions in the Ekurhuleni and Rustenburg councils are again under threat as the party faces an ultimatum from the African Independent Congress.

The AIC said it wrote a letter to ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe giving the party until March to address its demand for Matatiele to be reincorporated into KwaZulu-Natal or face "decisions which might not be favourable" to the coalition.

The AIC, which was formed in protest of the demarcation of Matatiele into the Eastern Cape, became an unlikely kingmaker in the two municipalities after the ANC had failed to win an outright majority.

The draft document compiled following the completion of the ad hoc committee hearing into the fitness of the SABC's board was leaked on social media yesterday, ahead of the planned deliberation later this week.

Committee member Phumzile Van Damme confirmed the legitimacy of the online document as the one which has been distributed to the committee.

According to the working document, among the recommendations was that the SABC board's dissolution be finalised as a matter of urgency, that the interim board institute a probe into all irregular and wasteful expenditure, that action be taken against those behind the expenditure and that steps be taken to recover the money.

Also making headlines:

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane laid criminal charges over leaked Absa report.

ANC slams Madonsela over Absa apartheid bailout report.

And, ANC to review National Development Plan at policy conference.

For a news update each morning, register for Polity’s free daily newsletter
That’s a roundup of news making headlines today