Making headlines: Eleven more listeriosis cases recorded as food recall continues; Cabinet welcomes land expropriation motion; And, Abrahams insists 'rogue unit' executives warning statements were obtained

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Simone Liedtke.
 
Eleven more listeriosis cases recorded as food recall continues

Eleven more cases of listeriosis have been reported to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, but no more deaths so far.

The NICD yesterday said that no additional deaths have been reported since the last situation update [on March 8].

So far, 183 people have died of the food-borne disease outbreak and 978 cases have been reported since January 2017.

The NICD has been able to analyse data relating to some of the patients, in an effort to form a picture of who it was affecting the most.

On March 4, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that an investigation into the outbreak had traced the ST6 strain of the listeria bacteria, believed to be behind the outbreak, to Tiger Brands's Enterprise factory in the Limpopo capital, Polokwane.

Cabinet welcomes land expropriation motion

Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane yesterday during a post-Cabinet media briefing said that the Cabinet is concerned "when people go internationally to protect white supremacy.

She added that the people at the extremes of the land debate – those propagating land grabs on the one end and those "demonstrating supremacy" – did not represent the whole of South Africa.

She said that Cabinet knew that those opposed to land reform were not all white and mentioned AgriSA as an example of an organisation who provided constructive proposals.

The Cabinet welcomes the adopted motion to amend the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996 so as to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.

And, Abrahams insists 'rogue unit' executives warning statements were obtained

National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams insists that warning statements were obtained from three ex-South African Revenue Service executives, who allegedly played a role in the so-called "rogue unit".

The three executives, who were summonsed on Friday to appear in court on charges of corruption and the contravention of the RICA Act, have questioned why warning statements were not obtained from them.

The legal representatives of   Ivan Pillay  ,  Johann van Loggerenberg  and Andries Janse van Rensburg wrote a   letter to Abrahams to ask that the NPA withdraw the summonses issued to their clients.

They asked to be given an opportunity to submit representations to the NPA for consideration.

In the letter, which is dated March 12, they also questioned why warning statements had not been obtained prior to the NPA's decision to prosecute, which they said was a procedural prerequisite.

They also asked why prosecutors had not insisted on obtaining the statements and wanted to know if the NPA and the NDPP were aware that they hadn't done so.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today
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