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

Making headlines: ANC loses KZN ward to IFP in by-elections; Free State premier's official residence in Bloemfontein goes up in flames; And, Lamola says NPO's court bid risks doing away with principle of innocent until proven guilty

 

ANC loses KZN ward to IFP in by-elections

Despite its loss of Ward 12 in Dannhauser, in KwaZulu-Natal, to the Inkatha Freedom Party for a second time, the African National Congress is happy to have increased its support in that region by 35.60%.

The province held its by-elections yesterday in Buhlebezwe, in the Harry Gwala district and in Dannhauser, two prominent strongholds of the ANC. In 2016, the organisation had governed the Harry Gwala region without any coalition.

The IFP regained its vacant seat by obtaining 52% of votes while ANC only obtained 34%. The EFF gained 12%.

Ubuhlebezwe ward 8, in southern KZN, is of the ANC's strongest area in all of South Africa.

The ANC received 70% of the votes, beating the IFP, which obtained only 20%. The EFF received 10%.

The ANC gained 89% of votes in 2016.

 

Free State premier's official residence in Bloemfontein goes up in flames

Free State Premier Mxolisi Dukwana's official residence in Bloemfontein has been engulfed by a fire. 

Confirming the incident is the premier's spokesperson Sello Dithebe.

He added that firefighters and other emergency services personnel were on the scene.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Free State police spokesperson, Brigadier Motantsi Makhele, refused to comment, saying investigations were under way. 

According to Dithebe, there appeared to have been no injuries or casualties due to the blaze.

 

And, Lamola says NPO's court bid risks doing away with principle of innocent until proven guilty

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola is opposing an application that non-profit organisation, The Embrace Project, has lodged in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to challenge what it called "problematic" definitions of consent and rape in the Sexual Offences Act.

If the application is successful, it will do away with the principle of "innocent until proven guilty", chief director of legislative development in the Department of Justice, Leonard Sebelemetja, said in an affidavit filed on behalf of the minister last week.

The organisation approached the court in November last year.

Its case is that, in terms of the Act in its existing form, it is insufficient to prove that an accused person committed an act of sexual penetration without the complainant's consent.

The organisation's director, Lee-Anne Germanos, explained that it must further be proved that, in the accused's subjective state of mind, he/she/they intended to rape the complainant regardless of the complainant not having consented to the sexual penetration.

Germanos said the project wanted the law to apply an objective test, rather than a subjective one.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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