For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Shomolekae.

Making headlines: Parly education committee applauds class of 2023; Marokane to officially report for duty as Eskom CEO on March 1; And, Tshwane's new deputy mayor not sure if she paid back R10 000 for work trip she didn't go on in 2020

Parly education committee applauds class of 2023

The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education has applauded the class of 2023 for the highest National Senior Certificate pass rate since the dawn of democracy, with Free State taking the top honours with an 89% pass rate.

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga released the matric results on Thursday, in Johannesburg, announcing a record-high overall pass rate of 82.9%.

Committee chairperson Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba said this was an improvement of 2.8% compared with the class of 2022, which managed an 80.1% pass rate.

Mbinqo-Gigaba said that the class of 2023 have managed to outperform all other matric classes in democratic South Africa.

The provincial performance saw KwaZulu-Natal with a pass rate of 86.4% and Gauteng with 85.4%, North West with a pass rate of 81.6%, Western Cape with 81.5% and Eastern Cape with 81.4%

The remaining three provinces that managed to achieve pass rates in the 70% range are Limpopo with 79.5%, Mpumalanga 76.9 and Northern Cape 75.8%.

Marokane to officially report for duty as Eskom CEO on March 1

Eskom has announced that Dan Marokane will assume office on March 1, 2024.

Marokane was named group CEO on December 8, almost a full year after André de Ruyter formally resigned.

Previously, Eskom indicated that Marokane would join the organisation no later than March 31, 2024, so as to allow him time to finalise his existing responsibilities.

At the time when his appointment as Eskom CEO was announced, Marokane was leading troubled sugar producer Tongaat Hullett, which this week named Rob Aitken as acting CEO, following news that the Vision Partners consortium had succeeded in acquiring the company out of business rescue.

And, Tshwane's new deputy mayor not sure if she paid back R10 000 for work trip she didn't go on in 2020

The newly elected Tshwane deputy mayor cannot confirm whether she paid back a R10 000 subsistence and travel allowance for a work trip that she did not take while chief of staff at the capital city.

Following a tedious special Tshwane council meeting yesterday, where arguments were raised around the legality of the election of a deputy mayor, ActionSA's candidate, Dr Nasiphi Moya, was elected unopposed.

Before she was nominated, the Economic Freedom Fighters caucus raised a query about an incident that occurred when Moya was chief of staff during Stevens Mokgalapa's tenure as Tshwane mayor in 2020.

EFF regional chairperson Obakeng Ramabodu said he had documents he wanted to hand to the Speaker, which related to a work trip to Saudi Arabia.

Tshwane Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana noted the allegations and said the accounting officer would look into it and get back to the council with answers. 

Ndzwanana's ruling agitated the EFF caucus, which wanted the election to be put on ice until the question about the allowance was answered. 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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