For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Lumkile Nkomfe.
Making headlines: DA lays fraud charge against under fire Senzo Mchunu; US tariffs on South Africa set to hit white farmers Trump has embraced; And, Trump presses African leaders to take deported migrants, sources say
DA lays fraud charge against under fire Senzo Mchunu
The Democratic Alliance today laid a charge of fraud against Police Minister Senzo Mchunu at the Cape Town Central Police Station, vowing to submit a formal complaint to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests.
DA Deputy Chief Whip Baxolile Nodada said his party was taking firm and urgent action to hold Mchunu accountable for allegedly lying to Parliament, by purportedly making contradictory statements about his relationship with businessman Brown Mogotsi – an individual reportedly linked to serious criminal syndicates and political interference in the police service.
In March this year, while under oath before the Police Portfolio Committee, Mchunu denied knowing Mogotsi. Yet, in a public statement in July, he admitted that he does in fact know Mogotsi, describing him as ‘a comrade’.
Nodada said this reversal directly contradicted Mchunu’s earlier denial and raised concerns about whether he deliberately misled Parliament – a criminal act in terms of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act.
US tariffs on South Africa set to hit white farmers Trump has embraced
US President Donald Trump's threatened 30% tariff on South African exports is set to deal an economic blow to a community he has vocally and controversially championed: white farmers.
Citing false claims that white South Africans are being persecuted, Trump has cut aid to the country, publicly berated its president in the Oval Office and invited Afrikaners - descendants of early European settlers - to come to the United States as refugees.
But for white farmers who remain rooted in their homeland and aspire to keep making a living from the land, the tariffs due to come into effect on August 1 are an assault on those ambitions.
A sixth-generation farmer in Western Cape province's citrus heartland Krisjan Mouton said it does not make sense to welcome South African farmers in America and then the rest that stays behind are punished.
He said this will have a huge impact, noting that it is not profitable to export anymore to the US.
And, Trump presses African leaders to take deported migrants, sources say
Meanwhile, the Trump administration this week pressed five African presidents to take in migrants from other countries when they are deported by the US, two officials familiar with the discussions said today.
The plan was presented to the presidents of Liberia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon during their visit to the White House yesterday, according to a US and a Liberian official who both asked not to be named.
The White House and official spokespeople for the five nations did not respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear if any of the countries had agreed to the plan.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has been pressing to speed up deportations, including by sending migrants to third countries when there are problems or delays over sending them to their home nations.
On Saturday, eight migrants - from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam, according to their lawyers - arrived in South Sudan's capital after they lost a legal battle to halt their transfer.
That’s a roundup of news making headlines today
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