For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Madiba.

Making headlines: High court delays Zuma's corruption trial; Stage 3 load-shedding planned for Tuesday night, for now; And, Second J&J shot prevents hospitalisation, severe Covid-19

 

High court delays Zuma's corruption trial

The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday granted another adjournment in former president Jacob Zuma's arms deal corruption trial, as his legal team pushes for the removal of the lead prosecutor in the long-running case.

Ousted as head of State in 2018 after nine years in power, Zuma claims he is the victim of a political witch-hunt and has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption, money laundering and racketeering over an arms deal in the 1990s when he served as South Africa's deputy president.

He alleges the lead prosecutor Billy Downer is biased against him, but the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal have so far rejected attempts to replace him.

Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Piet Koen delayed the trial to a holding date in August to allow the president of the Supreme Court of Appeal to reconsider previous rulings allowing Downer to remain on the case.

 

Stage 3 load-shedding planned for Tuesday night, for now

South Africa is still on track for Stage 3 load-shedding between 17:00 and 22:00 as a lack of capacity has left the country with evening power cuts for the rest of the week.

Eskom had initially said there would be Stage 3 load-shedding on Monday night as well, but had to escalate to Stage 4 after a unit tripped at Kusile power station, taking 720MW of generating capacity with it.

The utility still maintains that there will be Stage 2 load-shedding from 17:00 and 22:00 every evening from Wednesday onwards for the rest of the week.

 

And, Second J&J shot prevents hospitalisation, severe Covid-19

A new study shows that people who receive a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine are less likely to end up in hospital for the disease.  

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Sisonke Study team, is one of the first real-world studies on vaccine effectiveness against the Omicron variant of the virus that causes Covid-19.

The Sisonke Study gave healthcare workers access to the J&J Covid-19 vaccine through an implementation science clinical trial. 

The latest published study results found that a second dose of the vaccine protected participants from hospitalisation and intensive care unit admission by up to 82% in the first two months after the second dose, compared to unvaccinated populations. 

Initially, J&J was supposed to be a single-shot vaccine, but a second booster shot is recommended.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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