Making headlines: Casac files urgent ConCourt application to interdict Shaun Abrahams' Zuma announcement; Mashaba blames NPA for 'hindering' fight against crime in Joburg; And, Gigaba says Ajay and Atul Gupta are not South African citizens

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Paige Muller.

Casac files urgent ConCourt application to interdict Shaun Abrahams

Casac has filed an application to interdict National Prosecuting Authority boss Shaun Abrahams from announcing whether former president Jacob Zuma will be prosecuted, pending a Constitutional Court ruling on an appeal in the case.

The possible charges against Zuma include fraud, corruption and racketeering.

In its papers filed with the ConCourt, the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution's executive secretary, Lawson Naidoo, argues that, if Abrahams takes a decision on the prosecution of Zuma, "there will be reasonable perception that his decision was biased".

He adds that Casac had repeatedly asked Abrahams to postpone the announcement, and he had refused.

This application is brought urgently and Casac asks that this court deals with it before 15 March 2018."

On December 15, North Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo ruled that Abrahams' appointment was questionable.

The court gave then-deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa two months to appoint a new head of the National Prosecuting Authority after it declared the post vacant.

Zuma announcement; Mashaba blames NPA for 'hindering' fight against crime in Joburg

Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba believes the National Prosecuting Authority is to blame for hindering his fight to clean up the metro.

Mashaba said he wished he could have the cooperation of the NPA in dealing with those who had been implicated in fraud and corrupt activities in the city.

The mayor has launched numerous campaigns aimed at cleaning up both the city and the office which runs it. This has resulted in several arrests, including those of officials, some accused of stealing property from the metro. Others have been linked with scams to defraud customers and the City.

Yesterday, Mashaba’s office announced that two Jozi@Work leaders had been arrested for attempting to solicit a bribe from their former supervisor in order to stop protests which were taking place outside of the metro’s offices.

And, Gigaba says Ajay and Atul Gupta are not South African citizens

Fugitive Ajay Gupta and his brother Atul are not South African citizens, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said yesterday as he explained the contentious naturalisation process of some members of the family.

In 2016, after the Guptas began disinvesting in their South African businesses, a spokesperson for the family, Gary Naidoo said that the Guptas were not leaving the country and that they were proudly South African citizens.

In June 2017, the EFF alleged that in 2015 Gigaba, then in his first stint as minister of home affairs, unduly granted Ajay, his wife, mother, and sons citizenship by waiving the residential requirements for naturalisation.

Yesterday, home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni and Gigaba explained the process followed in the Guptas' naturalisation to the media after Gigaba addressed the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs. In June last year he snubbed the committee.

Also making headlines:
The ANC intends to re-table a Parliamentary motion to nationalise the South African Reserve Bank by doing away with its private shareholders.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today
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