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News24
an hour ago
- News24
KZN Jazz Festival corruption case: Supreme Court to give State an ear
The SCA has instructed that the State's application for special leave to appeal the dismissal of the controversial KZN Jazz Festival corruption case be reconsidered. The case involves former ANC provincial deputy chairperson Mike Mabuyakhulu and 15 others, who faced charges related to irregular payments and kickbacks from a failed R28.5 million festival in 2012. In May 2023, Judge Mahendra Chetty found that the State failed in leading evidence of financial transactions. The State then applied for special leave to appeal before the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, but it was dismissed. The Supreme Court of Appeal has ordered that the decision of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, dismissing the State's application for special leave to appeal the acquittal of prominent politicians and officials implicated in the controversial KZN Jazz Festival corruption case, be referred to it for reconsideration. The case centres on allegations of irregular payments and kickbacks tied to the failed North Sea Jazz Festival of 2012, involving former ANC provincial deputy chairperson Mike Mabuyakhulu and 15 others who were acquitted earlier in 2023 due to insufficient evidence. The State alleged at the time, that service providers were irregularly paid while the politicians and government officials involved received kickbacks. Mabuyakhulu was KwaZulu-Natal's MEC for economic development, tourism and environmental affairs at the time. In May 2023, Judge Mahendra Chetty found that the State failed in leading evidence of financial transactions. The State then applied for special leave to appeal before the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, but it was dismissed. According to the National Prosecuting Authority, the SCA on 11 July 2025 instructed that the matter be reconsidered and that arguments, including on the merits of the case, be heard if required. 'The NPA welcomes the opportunity to argue its case before the SCA that the honourable Judge Mahendra Chetty erred in law in discharging the accused, that there are reasonable prospects of success on appeal, and that there are compelling reasons for the appeal to be heard by the SCA,' said NPA spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara. 'Prosecutors will continue to vigorously challenge any decision considered to be wrong in law using available legal remedies.'
Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
FCC to Appoint a Babysitter to Make Sure CBS Isn't Anti-Trump
The Federal Communications Commission finally approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance on Thursday after several changes at CBS that were widely seen as efforts to placate President Donald Trump. Part of the deal will apparently require an ombudsman to check the media company's supposed political biases. And FCC commissioner Brendan Carr has been doing the rounds to brag about how he's getting people on TV to be nicer to the MAGA movement. 'They made commitments to address bias and restore fact-based reporting. I think that's so important,' Carr told Newsmax's Greg Kelly on his show Thursday night. 'I mean, look, the American public simply do not trust these legacy media broadcasters. And so, if they stick with that commitment, you know, we're sort of trust-but-verify mode, that'll be a big win.' Carr went on to explain that CBS had committed to 'ending invidious forms of DEI,' a pretext Trump has used to purge the federal government of anyone who isn't white and male in leadership positions. Kelly said that he had heard the media company was going to do something 'different' with 60 Minutes, claiming that a shift to 'fact-based' reporting would be a 'cultural shock' to CBS. 'One of the things they're going to have to do is put in an ombudsman in place for two years,' Carr said. 'So basically a bias monitor that will report directly to the President. So that's something that's significant that we're going to see happening as well.' Before the second Trump era, it would've been seen as a ridiculous violation of the First Amendment to have some kind of monitor making sure the media was being nice to the president. And to have that monitor reporting directly to the most powerful person in the country makes the entire situation that much worse. Trump sued CBS News over a '60 Minutes' interview with the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris. Trump falsely claimed the interview had been deceptively edited, though legal experts claimed the lawsuit was ridiculous and should've been laughed out of court. Instead, Paramount, which owns CBS News, decided to settle with Trump for $16 million, a move characterized by late-night host Stephen Colbert as a 'big fat bribe.' CBS announced Colbert's show would be cancelled just a couple of days after he levied the criticism in a move that Trump celebrated. Kelly asked Carr if TV networks are allowed to be 'woke' if they wanted to be, and Carr didn't answer the question, instead pivoting to insist CBS was simply making a business decision by cancelling Colbert. Kelly said that Colbert had 'insulted President Trump in an unfunny manner,' while acknowledging that the comedian had also insulted his own employers, something Kelly suggested was beyond the pale, saying that he was 'biting the hand that feeds' him. 'You know, we had people like Johnny Carson and Jay Leno and Letterman, they were given a real big platform to succeed,' Carr said, ignoring the fact that every late-night show in history has made fun of the sitting president incessantly. 'And now he's, you know, staring irrelevance in the face and clearly he's not taking it very well,' Carr continued about Colbert, 'But again, this is a business decision for these companies to make and they've apparently made the decision that no, this really isn't working out for them.' Colbert was number one in his time slot, but late-night shows have indeed faced significant headwinds as advertisers flee traditional broadcast media. Letterman's ratings in the 1990s were roughly equivalent to Colbert's ratings today, something that was noted on CNBC Friday morning, where Carr continued his media tour. Carr was asked by CNBC about comments from the sole Democrat remaining on the FCC commission, Anna Gomez, who called the merger approval a 'cowardly capitulation to this Administration.' Carr was asked if there was a quid pro quo, something he didn't directly address. 'Now listen, if you step back, what's happening here is I think President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape,' Carr said without answering the question. 'And the way he's doing that is when he ran for election, he ran directly at these legacy broadcast media outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS. For years, government officials just allowed those entities with execs sitting in Hollywood and New York to dictate the political narrative.' After Carr made numerous references to Colbert, CNBC host Carl Quintanilla pointed out that Colbert is a comedian, not a journalist. 'Well, I think what's interesting about all of this is these late-night shows, not just the Late Night show, but across the board, they have such a storied history,' Carr said. 'And it's sad to see what's happening to Colbert. They obviously can't get it done. They're not making money over there.' 'But I think they need a course correction,' Carr continued. 'And frankly, I think the media industry across this country needs a course correction. Again, the American people simply do not trust the mainstream media.' Gizmodo reached out to CBS and the FCC for comment, and we will update this piece when we receive a reply. It couldn't be clearer that the FCC is a political arm of the Trump regime, dictating what's allowed to be discussed on TV. And Americans will find out soon enough what that looks like in practice, as Trump will now appear to have veto power over what gets broadcast on CBS.
News24
an hour ago
- News24
US diplomats asked if non-whites qualify for Trump refugee programme for South Africans
In early July, the top official at the US embassy in South Africa reached out to Washington, asking for clarification on a contentious US policy: could non-whites apply for a refugee programme geared toward white South Africans if they met other requirements? President Donald Trump's February executive order establishing the programme specified that it was for 'Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination', referring to an ethnic group descended mostly from Dutch settlers. In a diplomatic cable sent on 8 July, embassy Charge d'Affairs David Greene asked whether the embassy could process claims from other minority groups claiming race-based discrimination, such as 'coloured' South Africans who speak Afrikaans. In South Africa, the term coloured refers to mixed-race people, a classification created by the apartheid regime still in use today. The answer came back days later in an email from Spencer Chretien, the highest-ranking official in the State Department's refugee and migration bureau, saying the programme is intended for white people. Reuters was unable to independently verify the precise language in the email, which was described to the news agency by three sources familiar with its contents. The State Department, responding to a request for comment on 18 July, did not specifically comment on the email or the cable but described the scope of the policy as wider than the guidance in Chretien's email. READ | Unexplained change of US-Afrikaner refugee eligibility is a legally 'significant shift' The department said US policy is to consider both Afrikaners and other racial minorities for resettlement, echoing guidance posted on its website in May saying that applicants 'must be of Afrikaner ethnicity or be a member of a racial minority in South Africa'. Chretien declined to comment through a State Department spokesperson. Greene did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The internal back-and-forth between the embassy and the State Department - which hasn't been previously reported - illustrates the confusion in how to implement a policy designed to help white Afrikaners in a racially diverse country that includes mixed-race people who speak Afrikaans, as well as whites who speak English. So far, the State Department has resettled 88 South Africans under the programme, including the initial group of 59 who arrived in May. Another 15 are expected to arrive by the end of August, one of the sources said. Trump, a Republican who recaptured the White House pledging a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, placed an indefinite freeze on refugee admissions from around the world after taking office, saying the US would only admit refugees who 'can fully and appropriately assimilate'. READ | Two US citizens applied for asylum in South Africa between 2019 and 2024 Weeks later, he issued an executive order that called for the US to resettle Afrikaners, describing them as victims of 'violence against racially disfavoured landowners', allegations that echoed far-right claims but which have been contested by South Africa's government. Since the executive order, US diplomats working to implement the programme have been deliberating internally about which racial groups could be considered eligible, one of the sources said. In the 8 July cable, Greene laid out a summary of the different ethnic and racial groups in the country before seeking guidance on eligibility. In addition to Afrikaners and mixed-race South Africans, Greene mentioned indigenous South Africans known as the Khoisan people. He said that members of the Jewish community had also expressed interest, but that in South Africa, they are considered a religious minority and not a racial group. 'In the absence of other guidance, [the US embassy] intends to give consideration to well-founded claims of persecution based on race for other racial minorities,' Greene wrote. At least one family identified as coloured has already travelled to the US as refugees, two people familiar with the matter said. The cable forced the administration to clarify its position on whether the policy is for whites only, and if it does include other aggrieved minorities, who would qualify, two of the people familiar with the matter a conservative who wrote op-eds promoting the Heritage Foundation's 'Project 2025' plan to overhaul the federal government, is the senior official at the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. During the apartheid era, which ended with the first democratic elections in 1994, South Africa maintained a racially segregated society with separate schools, neighbourhoods and public facilities for people classified as black, coloured, white or Asian. Blacks make up 81% of South Africa's population, according to 2022 census data. Coloured South Africans make up 8%, and Indians 3%. Afrikaners and other white South Africans constitute 7% of the population but own three-quarters of the privately held land in the country. When asked about the programme in May, Trump said he was not giving Afrikaners preferential treatment because they are white. He said: They happen to be white, but whether they are white or black makes no difference to me. In response to a request for comment, a White House official said the administration's policy reflected Trump's executive order. 'We will prioritise refugee admissions for South African citizens, including Afrikaners and other racial minorities in South Africa, who have been targeted by the discriminatory laws of the South African government,' the official said. The assertion that minority white South Africans face discrimination from the black majority has spread in far-right circles for years and been echoed by white South African-born Elon Musk, a US citizen who served as a top White House aide during the first four months of Trump's administration. The South African government has rejected the allegations of persecution and a 'white genocide'. There is no evidence to back up claims of widespread, race-based attacks in the country. During a combative Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in May, Trump showed a printed image of a Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans. The South African Chamber of Commerce said earlier this year that 67 000 people were interested in the programme.
