For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: More charges and accused to be added on VBS scandal, World Bank forecasts ‘weak’ recovery for South Africa from Covid-19 and, Nigerian and South Korean finalists for World Trade Organisation top job

More charges and accused to be added on VBS scandal

The case of seven men accused of stealing billions in one of the country's most widely publicised looting scandals, has been postponed to next year.

Prosecutor Heins van der Merwe said the State needed to amend the indictment to include additional charges and accused.

The men's appearance on Thursday in the Commercial Crimes Court, sitting in Palm Ridge, was brief.

Former KPMG engagement partner Sipho Malaba and Phalaphala Avhashoni Ramikosi, the former chief financial officer of the South African Police Service, are co-accused.

World Bank forecasts ‘weak’ recovery for South Africa from Covid-19

The World Bank expects South Africa’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic to be weak relative to most other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, forecasting an economic expansion of only 2.6% in 2021 on the back of a massive 7.2% contraction this year.

In its latest ‘Africa’s Pulse’ publication, the bank attributed the sharp fall in gross domestic product in 2020 to South Africa’s “strict national lockdown” and warned that future local lockdowns could stymie the economic recovery.

The pandemic also exacted a heavy toll on sub-Saharan Africa, where economic activity is expected to contract by 3.3% in 2020, triggering the region’s first recession in a quarter of a century.

Nigerian and South Korean finalists for World Trade Organisation top job

Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea's Yoo Myung-hee are the finalists to become the next director-general of the World Trade Organization, its spokesperson said on Thursday.

The reduction of the field from five to two means, as reported on Wednesday, that the Geneva-based trade body will be led by a woman for the first time since being set up in 1995.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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