Making headlines: The public protector, the president and Pravin Gordhan on power cuts

#ICYMI: Take a look at the #Top10 most read news stories of the week.

10. Backlog reduced in parole of inmates serving life sentences

The National Council of Correctional Services (NCCS) says it is making progress in reducing the backlogs in granting parole to prisoners who have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

9. EFF disrupts budget vote debate on the presidency

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had her hands full as points of order were repeatedly raised by the red berets and at times by some from the governing party.

EFF MP Babalwa Mathulelwa is removed from the parliamentary sitting after being accused of disrupting processes during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s third Presidency Budget Vote. Picture: Phando Jikelo/African News Agency (ANA)

8. Comair to be liquidated after failure to secure additional funding

Embattled airline Comair has announced that its business rescue practitioners (BRPs) on Thursday lodged a court application to convert the business rescue proceedings into liquidation proceedings.

Comair had last week announced the suspension of all its flights until it had secured additional funding. Picture: Supplied

7. Maties hero receives medal for rescuing drowning woman in River Thames

Stellenbosch University (SU) alumnus Brandon Visser will quietly commemorate the day a year ago when he jumped into the River Thames near London Bridge to save a drowning woman.

Brandon Visser was recently awarded a bronze medal by the Royal Humane Society, a British charity that grants awards for acts of bravery in the saving of human life.

6. Activists call for harsh sentence for man who assaulted 3-year-old with a sjambok

Child rights activists have called for a heavy sentence for a 27-year-old Oudtshoorn man accused of sjamboking his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son.

Children’s rights activists have called for the justice system to hand down a sentence that will be a lesson to others.

5. Home Affairs alarmed by Afrikaans UK travel test

The Department of Home Affairs described the decision by Irish low-cost airline Ryanair to force South Africans travelling to the UK to take a test in Afrikaans as a backward profiling system.

Ryanair passengers at a check-in terminal. File picture: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

4. Pravin Gordhan on two factors to put an end to load shedding

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said ending load shedding would require commissioning additional electricity to the grid by up to 6 000 megawatts and improving Eskom's coal fleet.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan. Picture: ANA Archives

3. Under-fire money launderer accused President Cyril Ramaphosa suspends Public Protector with immediate effect

With a cloud still hanging over him regarding the US dollars allegedly concealed on his farm, under-fire President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane with immediate effect.

2. Three-month imprisonment for breach of SA’s Immigration Act

Seventeen Lesotho nationals have been sentenced in the Molteno Magistrate’s Court in the Eastern Cape to three months’ imprisonment after facing charges relating to contraventions of the Immigration Act.

1. Ramaphosa’s farmgate loot splurged in Cape Town

The men accused of stealing millions of unexplained US dollars kept at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Limpopo farm went on a shopping spree in Cape Town, spending their loot on high-performance luxury vehicles, according to former State Security Agency (SSA) director-general Arthur Fraser’s affidavit.

Cape Times