ConCourt gives WC three months to set out “affordable housing” plans in Cape Town CBD
The Constitutional Court has given the Western Cape government three months to produce a report “setting out the province’s current policies and programmes for the provision of affordable housing in the CBD, including the steps taken to give effect to the obligations [to provide ‘adequate housing’]” in terms of the Constitution. The order is contained in a unanimous judgment penned by Justice Nonkosi Mhlantla that ended a decade-long litigation against the provincial government and City of Cape Town’s 2015 sale of prime Sea Point land occupied by a former remedial school to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School for R135 million. Justice Mhlantla said the Constitution was clear on the right to adequate housing and location must be treated as a relevant factor in determining what constitutes adequate housing and equitable access to land, having regard to the constitutional imperative to redress the spatial injustice inherited from apartheid. The landmark judgment is considered likely to have ramifications for property development.
Last manganese smelter ceases production to head off firm’s collapse
Transalloys, South Africa’s last Managese smelter, has announced that it has ceased production. The company said that it was unable to continue operations after years of financial losses. Engagements with the government and regulators over electricity tariffs were ongoing, but any further production would accelerate the firm’s collapse. It said that it could not understand why the same reduced tariff model that was applied to ferrochrome smelters would not be extended to non-ferrochrome operations. The closure would impact 600 direct and 3,500 indirect jobs in eMalahleni, and destroy an investment of some R6 billion.
Starlink lobbying: Parliament demands answers
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies Khusela Diko has issued a demand for Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi to inform the committee about his interactions with the public relations firm, Resolve Communications, over matters related to Starlink. This comes after former DA leader and ousted Agricultural Minister John Steenhuisen alleged that Resolve – chaired by one-time DA leader Tony Leon – had attempted to lobby for clients for Starlink access to South Africa. Starlink could provide South Africa with game-changing connectivity, but disputes about ownership requirements have held up its entry. This has been further complicated by the controversial public persona of its founder, South African-born Elon Musk. Resolve has denied any wrongdoing.
City Manager survives assassination attempt
The city manager of Madibeng Local Municipality in the North West, Quiet Kgatla, survived a murder attempt on Wednesday evening. Multiple rounds were fired at his vehicle, and he sustained two wounds.Police said that 30 cartridge casings were recovered at the scene. He has been taken to a safe location outside the province. Attempts have been made to remove Kgatla from office since last year over disputes regarding contracts and payments. Madibeng has endured considerable controversy over the state of its governance.
Mass funeral rites for Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei key to affirming theocratic order – report
Days of mass funeral rites for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by US and Israeli strikes in the opening moments of the war at the end of February, will be presented as a public acclamation of the theocratic state and to suggest that Iranians’ revolutionary fervour still burns strong, Reuters reports. Funeral events will begin over the weekend in Tehran, with mass processions planned next week in Qom and Mashhad and ceremonies in Iraq. Qom Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Saidi declared to state media: “The large public turnout at the funeral procession of the martyred leader and the other martyrs will, in effect, be another referendum for the Islamic Republic.”
Sources: Business Day, News24, Reuters, IOL