November 18, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma says opposition parties have misread the Public Protector’s directive to repay money.

An explosion at a market in north-eastern Nigeria's Yola kills 32 people.

And, Johannesburg to spend R500m on power substations upgrade.

 

President Jacob Zuma has argued in papers filed to the Constitutional Court that the Democratic Alliance (or DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (or EFF) misunderstood Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s directive that he repay a reasonable amount of the money spent on his Nkandla home.

Zuma suggested that the DA and the EFF may have erred by not launching a legal challenge directly to Police Minister Nathi Nhleko’s report that relieved him of any obligation to refund the State. 

Nhleko’s report was adopted by the National Assembly in August. It, however, spurred both opposition parties to go to court to compel Zuma to comply with Madonsela’s findings in her report on the security upgrades to his private Nkandla residence that cost more than R200-million and included a swimming pool, cattle kraal and chicken run.

In August Madonsela went on record saying Zuma had misread her report, as she never directed him to bring Nhleko into the process.

 

A blast struck a market in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Yola on Tuesday evening, killing 32 people and wounding 80 others, both the Red Cross and National Emergency Management Agency said.

The explosion occurred at a fruit and vegetable market beside a main road in the Jimeta area of Adamawa's state capital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the blast bore the hallmarks of militant Islamist group Boko Haram which had killed thousands over the last six years in its bid to create a state adhering to strict Sharia law in the north-east.

Suspected Boko Haram militants had not struck north-eastern Nigeria since late October when bombings in Yola and Maiduguri left at least 37 people dead.

 

The City of Johannesburg’s power utility City Power will spend more than R500-million over the next three years to upgrade six power substations, adding 1 000 MVA would be added to the city’s capacity on completion of the upgrade, a senior official said yesterday.

The city’s MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Matshidiso Mfikoe, said the existing network, which was more than 40 years old, had limited capacity to meet increased power demand in the region.

She said the equipment had reached the end of its useful life and there were no more spares available or being manufactured.

She added that in the event of power outages, it took longer than necessary to restore power.

The announcement came at a time when South Africa’s struggling energy utility Eskom routinely faces power failures that are costing the country’s economy billions of rands.

 

Also making headlines:

Eleven bodies riddled with bullets were recovered by police at Gold One mine, in Benoni, east of Johannesburg.

Parliament had in principle agreed to pay striking National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union members bonuses based on their annual package.

And, a new study has found that men still dominate corporate boards globally, while women in companies still struggle to achieve equal representation in boardrooms.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today