April 3, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jonathan Rodin.
Making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma will wait for the Special Investigating Unit’s report on Nkandla before commenting on the Public Protector’s report.

Zimbabwe bans fresh fruit and vegetable imports.

And, the low e-tolls Violations Processing Centre payment amount confirms the inefficiency of the e-toll system, says Outa.

Parliament on Wednesday confirmed it had received "comments" from President Jacob Zuma on Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's report into upgrades at his Nkandla homestead.

It said in a statement that Zuma had submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, his comments on the report of the Public Protector... and a copy of her report on the security upgrades at his Nkandla residence.

The president's submission would be published in Parliament's Announcement, Tablings and Committee Reports.

The statement said the President had decided to give a full and proper consideration to all the matters before him and, upon receipt of the Special Investigating Unit’s report, would provide Parliament with a further report on the decisive executive interventions that he would consider to be appropriate.

The Democratic Alliance, however, said this was nothing more than a delaying tactic.

Zimbabwe has banned imports of fresh fruit and vegetables with immediate effect, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday, arguing that increased local production would meet domestic demand.

The ban will mostly impact supplies of tomatoes, potatoes, mangoes, grapes and apples from neighbouring South Africa, the ministry said in a statement, without giving figures on how much the fruit and vegetable import market is worth.

Zimbabwe's farming output, including from its staple maize crop, has slumped by over 60% since 2000, following seizures of white-owned farms by President Robert Mugabe's controversial government.

Mugabe said seizing the farms for redistribution to local blacks was to correct colonial injustices.

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (or Outa) said it wasn’t surprised by the low amount of payments received by the South African National Roads Agency Limited’s Violations Processing Centre (or VPC), stating that this confirmed the organisation’s opinion that the “e-toll debacle is extremely inefficient and a farce of the highest proportions”.

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters earlier this week, in a Parliamentary reply to questions posed by the Democratic Alliance, said that as of March 1, R543-million worth of Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project e-toll invoices had been transferred to the VPC, with only R50-million, or 9.21%, of these having been paid.

However, Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenhage told Engineering News Online that the amount stated by the Minister “appears to be very low, as these values in the VPC process are [supposed to be] around six times [higher than] the e-tagged values”.

Therefore, if this was the case, he said this suggested that about R100-million in e-tag-valued transactions were transferred from the Transaction Clearing House to the VPC.

Also making headlines:

South Africa is on track to achieve universal access to HIV treatment.

Presidents Jacob Zuma and Robert Mugabe stay home as EU and African leaders meet in Brussels for for an EU-Africa summit designed to promote peace and investment on the world's poorest continent.

And, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa expects to make a determination on Eskom’s Regulatory Clearing Account balance submission in either April or May, but insists that there will be no tariff implications for consumers before April 1, 2015.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.