August 31, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

A probe has been launched into the Gauteng infrastructure development department.

Egypt is set to begin its long-delayed parliamentary polls in October.

And, President Jacob Zuma outlines the economic impact of a power shortfall as he opens the Medupi Power Station unit.

An investigation is to be launched into allegations of cronyism and corruption within certain Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (or GDID) programmes.

MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza said victims claimed they were not paid regularly.

There were also claims that they were promised work, but friends and family of department staff received work opportunities instead.

The affected programmes were the Expanded Public Works Programme (or EPWP), the Zivuseni job programme, and the National Youth Service.

Victims were jobless South Africans expecting to benefit from job opportunities through the EPWP and Zivuseni. The National Youth Service is a skills development programme.

The MEC said she would be in Orange Farm on Tuesday afternoon to "hear first-hand from each and everyone" as to what was happening.

 

Egypt is to elect its first parliament in over three years in a series of voting rounds starting on October 17, the electoral commission announced on Sunday.

The country has been without a legislature since June 2012, when the constitutional court struck down the results of parliamentary polls that followed the 2011 overthrow of dictator Hosni Mubarak.

That decision led to a constitutional crisis that played a key role in rising political tensions and the eventual downfall of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood had been the largest group in the parliament. 

In the absence of a parliament, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief deposed Morsi in mid-2013 in the wake of mass protests, has been ruling by decree since his election last year.

 

President Jacob Zuma opened South Africa's first new power plant in 20 years yesterday with a warning that the country's perennial energy shortages were hampering economic growth.

Construction on the six-unit, 4 764 Megawatt Medupi plant near Lephalale was started in 2007 but the first 794 MW only came online this week after delays due to strikes, technical issues and cost overruns.

State-owned power utility Eskom, meanwhile, is facing its worst crisis as it struggles to stem power shortages.

Zuma said the shortage of energy caused not only enormous inconvenience, but was also a serious impediment to economic growth.

He said power cuts were South Africa's biggest challenge. They had shaved off one percentage point off growth and contributed to South Africa's economic contraction in the second quarter of this year, he said.

The parastatal’s acting chief executive Brian Molefe said Medupi's Unit 6 brought Eskom's installed capacity to 45 000 MW.

 

Also making headlines:

After recent reports by the Auditor-General and Public Protector pointed to several tender irregularities, as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure, at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa the agency has committed to “taking appropriate steps” to suspend all contracts identified as being “irregular”.

Environment Minister Edna Molewa said the poaching of rhinos has risen in South Africa's Kruger National Park this year but was on the decline elsewhere in the country.

With gross domestic product increases of at least fivefold since 2000, Africa’s growth story has been the good news narrative of recent years.

Tanzania's opposition vows to review mining and gas contracts.

Australian journalist Peter Greste said a decision by an Egyptian court to sentence three Al Jazeera TV journalists to three years in prison was politically motivated and aimed at intimidating the press.

Libya arrested three suspected smugglers over a migrant boat disaster.

And, Ghana faced down the first major challenge to an the International Monetary Fund austerity programme when doctors suspended a three-week strike, but a bigger test of President John Mahama's commitment will come next year as he fights for re-election.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.