For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines: Seiso Mohai is PIC's new chairperson; Joburg’s water and sanitation infrastructure needs to double; And, Kenya utility says electricity restored in several regions after outage

Seiso Mohai is PIC's new chairperson

South Africa’s government appointed a new chairperson at the State-owned fund manager that oversees $220-billion, seeking to restore confidence in an institution buffeted by years of governance scandals.

Deputy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Seiso Mohai will replace David Masondo as chairperson of the Public Investment Corporation, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said at a briefing in Pretoria today. Masondo, the nation’s deputy finance minister, resigned the post last week.

The board appointments cap two weeks of management turbulence at the PIC, after Masondo suspended Chief CEO Patrick Dlamini over governance concerns — an action Dlamini is challenging in court. Masondo, in turn, stepped down under pressure from his boss, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, after the two differed over how the issue was handled.

Mohai has been deputy planning minister since July 2024 and previously served as the chairperson of the Select Committee on Appropriations and co-chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Financial Management of Parliament.

Joburg’s water and sanitation infrastructure needs to double

Despite the magnitude of the City of Johannesburg’s existing sewer and water network, infrastructure will need to double over the next ten years to meet the surge in demand, delegates heard at the Symposium on the Future of Water-Efficient Sanitation today.

The two-day symposium is being hosted by the CoJ, together with the Department of Water and Sanitation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the South Africa Local Government Association, the Water Partnerships Office, the Water Research Commission and Planact.

Amid the expected population surge in the next ten years from 5.8-million to seven-million and subsequent rising demand, the city requires R3-billion a year to invest in bulk infrastructure and maintenance, yet the city can only afford R1-billion, said CoJ Mayor Dada Morero.

Highlighting the magnitude of the challenge, he said that the CoJ currently had a sewer network spanning more than 12 000 km, six wastewater treatment plants and 38 pumpstations.

The city has been buckling under the pressure to maintain or replace the existing, aging infrastructure.

And, Kenya utility says electricity restored in several regions after outage

Electricity has been restored in several parts of Kenya, power distributor Kenya Power said, following a power outage on Wednesday evening.

Supply was restored across Mt. Kenya, North Rift, Western, South Nyanza and parts of Nairobi, the capital, the utility said in a statement.

Earlier it said Nairobi, the coast, Mt. Kenya and parts of the Central Rift Valley had been hit by the outage. The remaining parts of Nairobi and the coast region would follow, it added in its statement.

Kenya last suffered major power blackouts on its grid in September and December 2024.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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