Daily Podcast – January 25, 2019

25th January 2019

Daily Podcast – January 25, 2019

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni

January 25, 2019.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines:

ANC’s Kodwa says Bosasa ran 'the country like an underworld’

Tito Mboweni says UP will regret phasing out Afrikaans at Tuks

And, the City of Tshwane will push for accountability in irregular GladAfrica tender

 

ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa has said Bosasa’s alleged undermining of the NPA and the Hawks is shocking and shows that there was a plan to create a "mafia state".

He said "attempts to capture law enforcement agencies in the manner that has been revealed by some of the testimony is shocking".

He branded Bosasa as a cartel that set out to create “a state of lawlessness”, and “a mafia state” following the seventh day of testimony by former Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi.

Kodwa added that once the commission had finalised its report, the ANC would take action.

 

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has come out against the decision by the University of Pretoria to phase out Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and has warned that the university will regret the decision.

The traditionally Afrikaans university announced that English would be used as its primary language at all its campuses.

While students who registered before 2019 would still be given the option to be instructed in Afrikaans, those newly registered will attend English-only classes.

UP spokesperson Rikus Delport said between 1992 and 2015 the number of students who registered Afrikaans as their home language decreased by over 50%, prompting the change.

 

The City of Tshwane municipality has revealed that the Auditor-General found that the awarding of a contract to engineering consultants GladAfrica was irregular, despite the city manager insisting the process was above board.

A statement from mayor Solly Msimanga's administration said the Auditor-General found the contract award did not comply with regulations and procurement was beyond the scope and terms and conditions of the original contract the service provider had with the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Last year the Tshwane council acknowledged that the awarding of a tender to roll out infrastructure projects valued at R12-billion to GladAfrica was irregular, after a leaked preliminary report by the Auditor-General found it did not comply with Municipal Supply Chain Management regulations.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

For a news update each morning, register for Polity’s free daily newsletter