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

Making headlines: ConCourt finds Abrahams' appointment as NPA boss unconstitutional and invalid; Seven killed in DRC exacerbating fight against Ebola; And, Eskom vows to take disciplinary action against striking workers

ConCourt finds Abrahams's appointment as NPA boss unconstitutional and invalid

The Constitutional Court today found that the appointment of National Prosecuting Authority boss Shaun Abrahams was unconstitutional and invalid.

Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga said former president Jacob Zuma's decision to remove Abrahams’s predecessor Mxolisi Nxasana from his position as the National Director of Public Prosecutions was an abuse of power and that Abrahams was a beneficiary of that abuse.

Previously, on December 8, 2017, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria declared Zuma's conduct in the matter unconstitutional.

Consequently, in December 2017 Judge Dunstan Mlambo ordered President Cyril Ramaphosa - while he was still deputy president - to appoint a new head of the NPA after the court declared the post vacant.

Mlambo had ruled that it would not be just for Nxasana to be reinstated and that due to his pending corruption case, Zuma was conflicted in appointing an NDPP.

 

Seven killed in DRC exacerbating fight against Ebola

Highlighting the dangers in containing an Ebola outbreak in a war zone, suspected rebels killed seven people in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and sent residents fleeing.

Global health officials have warned that combating this virus outbreak in the DRC is complicated by multiple armed groups in the mineral-rich region and a restless population that includes one-million displaced people and scores of refugees leaving for nearby Uganda every week.

And, Eskom vows to take disciplinary action against striking workers

Power utility Eskom today vowed to take disciplinary action against its workers who embarked on industrial action and damaged infrastructure last week as the power utility and unions failed to reach an agreement in protracted wage negotiations.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa last week threatened to go on a massive strike at Eskom over the wage dispute, saying the State-owned electricity company was negotiating in bad faith. The National Union of Mineworkers, said it would only sign a deal if Eskom removed the precondition of disciplinary action.

But Eskom is not relenting, saying in a statement that those employees who engaged in potentially criminal acts of destruction of property and sabotage were now outside the company's jurisdiction and in the hands of the police. 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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