July 21, 2023.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Lumkile Nkomfe.

Making headlines:

Government agrees it will arrest Putin if he ever sets foot in SA

Investigations to locate source of Joburg gas explosion continuing

And, Items worth more than R1bn recovered in Eskom-related fraud and theft investigations

Government agrees it will arrest Putin if he ever sets foot in SA

The government has agreed to execute the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin if he ever sets foot in the country.

The Democratic Alliance went to the Gauteng High Court today to force government to commit to arresting Putin.

The Department of Justice further agreed to pay the costs of the legal application, which was initially launched by the DA to compel  government to arrest Putin if he were to attend the Brics summit in Johannesburg next month.

Government announced this week that Putin would not physically travel to South Africa and would participate in the summit virtually.

Investigations to locate source of Joburg gas explosion continuing

City of Johannesburg manager Floyd Brink revealed that the City’s preliminary investigations into the recent explosion in the CBD pointed to an accidental leakage of natural gas into the service duct, reaching explosion concentration levels of 5%-15%, and ignited by an unknown source at this stage.

An explosion occurred on Wednesday on Bree street, tearing through the road, claiming a single life and leaving 46 people injured and hospitalised.

Brink said this stage, preliminary investigations have presented three possible scenarios for the explosion.

The first is the ignition of methane gas in underground stormwater systems due to sewerage ingress.

The second possibility considered is the ignition of natural gas, mixed with air in underground stormwater drainage systems or service ducts.

The last possibility, is the ignition of gas from a gas pipe burst.

He said investigations would continue to try to locate the source over the next few days.

Items worth more than R1bn recovered in Eskom-related fraud and theft investigations

Forty-two firearms, 83 loads of coal, and 33 trucks were among items to the tune of more than R1-billion that were recovered during Eskom-related fraud and theft investigations since April last year, according to the police.

In addition, 126 arrests were made since national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola established the priority committee on security energy on 1 April 2022.

More than 1 500 cases are currently under investigation.

According to national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, a truck driver and an Eskom employee were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly stealing fuel worth more than R1-million.

The truck driver is attached to a company subcontracted to supply heavy fuel oil to Eskom.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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