Update@Noon

The Office of the Auditor General is today briefing the Standing Committee on Public Accounts in Parliament on the latest audit outcomes of metropolitan municipalities. The Auditor-General's business unit leader for the Free State, Odwa Duda, has reported to members that the audit findings for the Mangaung Metro in the Free State reveal ongoing weaknesses in financial control. Duda, says the audit outcome in Mangaung Metro has remained unchanged for three consecutive years with growing areas of concern.

March and March Movement together with several other political parties are marching to the Union Buildings in Pretoria today. The parties say the march is over unemployment, safety, dignity and access to opportunities. The movement is also concerned about what it describes as the deterioration of the country including crime and illegal migration. To discuss this further Sakina Kamwendo spoke to ATM National Spokesperson, Zama Ntshona.

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has written to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to ask that the National Treasury investigate possible irregularities in the procurement process for textbooks for Grade 1-3 pupils. Allegations surfaced that publishing company Lighthouse Publishers (Pty) Ltd, which stood to make more than R285 million producing textbooks and learning and teaching support materials for the Department of Basic Education, was registered three days after the contract specifications were issued. Minister spokesperson Lukhanyo Vangqa explains

Amnesty International South Africa says the promise of dignity and equality for all remains unfulfilled for millions of people as the country commemorates 32 years since the end of Apartheid. The organisation says millions of South Africans are still denied basic services in the new dispensation. Amnesty International says today, more than five million people live in informal settlements that are routinely flooded, neglected and forgotten, trapped in cycles of hardship that undermine the very freedoms won in 1994. Elvis Presslin spoke to Spokesperson for Amnesty International South Africa, Genevieve Quintal....

The South African Council of Churches and its counterparts the Reformed Church in America (RCA), Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) says they reject the false narrative of a so-called "White genocide" in South Africa. The SACC says on Freedom Day they gather to reflect on the shared and interconnected realities facing our contexts in the United States, South Africa, and Palestine/Israel. We recognize that the church is called not only to spiritual reflection but to prophetic engagement in the face of injustice, violence, and dehumanization wherever it occurs. To discuss this further we are joined on the line by General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America, Rev. Eddy Alemán