Breakfast Edition: 25 August 2015
MONTANA HITS BACK AT MADONSELA: Former CEO of the passenger Rail Association, Lucky Montana has hit back, saying he rejects the report by the Public Protector. Thuli Madonsela yesterday revealed the damning findings of her investigation of mal administration and tender fraud under the leadership of Montana and the irregular awarding of contracts worth R2 billion. Madonsela revealed that Montana abused his position of power during his stint at the state-owned entity. "The allegation that PRASA improperly terminated the contracts of seven cleaning companies and improperly replaced them with Reakgona Commercial and Industrial Hygiene and Katanga Cleaning Services is substantiated," Madonsela said while releasing her investigative report, titled "Derailed", during a media briefing in Pretoria. Montana says he's heading to court.
ECONOMY UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT: All eyes on the economy as markets across the world try to claw their way back after what has now been described as Black Monday. Billions of rands were wiped off stock markets from the US, Europe and Africa to China. According to the Reserve Bank, it will consider intervening in foreign exchange markets to ensure "orderly market conditions". Pieter van der Merwe reports.
FINANCIAL INDICATORS:
MANDELA'S GRANDSON BACK IN COURT: A grandson of former president Nelson Mandela is expected back in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court this morning, where he's accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at a Greenside pub on the 7th of August. The 24-year-old man - who is not being named because of the nature of the crime - is set to continue with his bail application. Maryke Vermaak reports.
MIDO MACIA CASE RESUMES: In the High court in Pretoria, eight former police officers from Daveyton on the East Rand will learn their fate today when judgement is delivered in the case where they've been accused of the murder of Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia by dragging him behind a police van and assaulting him in February 2013. Macia later died in police holding cells.
BEST NEWS: Hollywood actor, George Clooney photobombed supermodel, Cindy Crawford while partying in Ibiza, Spain. Clooney and his wife Amal were in Spain with celebrity friends Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber and the actor just couldn't resist. While Crawford and her husband were taking an adorable selfie, Clooney jumped into the background.
WORST NEWS: The Ashley Madison hack has sparked "spin off" crimes including extortion and may have led to two suicides, Canadian police said Monday, as the adultery website's parent company offered a sizeable reward for leads on the culprits. The release last week of stolen emails and data from some 32 million members of the Canada-based site -- including payment transactions, email addresses and phone numbers -- has stirred up a privacy nightmare for users. "As of this morning, we have two unconfirmed reports of suicides associated to the leak of Ashley Madison customer profiles," Toronto police Staff Superintendent Bryce Evans told a news conference. Evans also pointed to crimes including extortion, blackmail and online scams claiming to provide access to the leaked data and offers to delete it from the web for a fee.
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