South Africa

Cape Town - Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the country's fiscus was losing billions of rands under the guise of commercial transactions.

Pretoria - The backlog of maintenance at power stations should be resolved at the end of 2013, with the first unit of the Medupi power station expected to come on board in the same year, Eskom said on Friday.

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has appointed nine commissioners to the Commission for Gender Equality.

Pretoria - The Presidency has spoken out on "unfounded allegations about President Jacob Zuma's so-called relationship with Lt-Gen Richard Mdluli" of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

Pretoria - Government, labour and farmers are united in supporting a programme to fast-track the implementation of fair labour practices on wine farms.

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has sent his condolences to the family of the late Reverend Motlalepula Chabaku, who passed away on Friday.

Johannesburg - Mourners from across the country on Saturday bade farewell to former Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka, who passed away two weeks ago.

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has extended good wishes to all South African mothers as the world observes Mother's Day.

Pretoria - South Africa needs to decide now where it wants to be in 2020 in terms of sustainable tourism, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Saturday.

Pretoria - Gauteng Health MEC Ntombi Mekgwe has assured the people of Gauteng that the availability of the antiretroviral drug, Tenofovir, has improved substantially in the province over the past weeks.

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma will on Sunday travel to Benin for the meeting of the African Union Heads of State and Government Ad-hoc Committee on the election of the members of the African Union Commission, the Presidency said.

Pretoria - Government says in its Mid Term Review report, released on Friday, in overall at least 6.8 million hectares of land have been transferred to beneficiaries between 1994 and 2011, through its Land Acquisition and Redistribution Programme and the Land Restitution Programme.

Pretoria - The Department of Home Affairs will this week intensify its campaign to eradicate more than 29 000 duplicate identity documents.

Pretoria - The consultative meeting of the African Union (AU) ad-hoc committee gets underway in the Benin capital, Cotonou, this morning.

Pretoria - The petrol price is to come down by 55 cents a litre, the Energy Department said on Friday.