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

Making headlines: All eyes on ANC as it discusses who to enlist to govern South Africa; Rand Water embarks on extensive maintenance; And, Nigerian unions shut down power grid, disrupt airlines with strike over minimum wage

All eyes on ANC as it discusses who to enlist to govern South Africa

South Africa was on tenterhooks today waiting for the African National Congress to signal whom it will choose as a partner to govern the nation after it lost its majority in last week's election for the first time in 30 years of democracy.

The ANC had comfortably won every previous election since the end of apartheid in 1994 but this time voters weary of joblessness, inequality and rolling power blackouts gave it just 40.2% of the vote, down from 57.5% five years ago.

Its vote share was still the largest of any party but was not enough for the ANC to govern alone, thrusting South Africa into unknown political territory.

The ANC's potential partners are diametrically opposed, ranging from the free-marketeer Democratic Alliance to uMkhonto we Sizwe and the Economic Freedom Fighters, parties that advocate nationalising mines and banks and redistributing land.

With the future direction of government policy at stake, a working committee of 27 ANC officials was scheduled to meet today to prepare a presentation on the party's options to be delivered to the National Executive Committee tomorrow.

Rand Water embarks on extensive maintenance

Water utility Rand Water said today it will be embarking on extensive maintenance on its infrastructure during South Africa’s winter period from June 22 to July 29.

The utility says it has engaged, and continues to do so, with its municipal customers, and has officially issued a notification about the upcoming maintenance project to ensure municipal customers have a 21-day period to plan, establish appropriate contingency plans, manage storage capacity prior and during the maintenance period, and inform their customers accordingly.

Rand Water says that the planned, proactive infrastructure maintenance, under its focused Asset Management Strategy, will preserve the quality and integrity of the infrastructure, reduce maintenance costs in the long term and increase the life span of the infrastructure and assets.

From June 24 to June 27, the Eikenhof System will be impacted by maintenance, with the system pumping at 50% for eight hours and 67% for the remaining 64 hours, and from June 26 to July 13, the system will be pumping at 83% for 15 days.

This will impact Johannesburg Water, Mogale City, Merafong City, Rand West City, Madibeng, Rustenburg, Royal Bafokeng and various mines and Industries.

And, Nigerian unions shut down power grid, disrupt airlines with strike over minimum wage

Nigeria's main labour unions today shut down the national grid and disrupted airline operations across the country as they began an indefinite strike over the government's failure to agree a new minimum wage.

This strike is the fourth embarked upon by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, two of the country's biggest unions, since President Bola Tinubu took office last year.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria said union members drove away operators at the country's power control rooms and shut down at least six substations, which eventually shut the national grid at 02:19 am.

Nigerian airline Ibom Air said it was suspending flights until further notice due to the strike, while another, United Nigeria, said airports across the country have been shut down and that striking workers had permitted none of its flights to operate.

Electricity and aviation unions said in a statement on Monday they had directed their workers to withdraw their services in compliance with the indefinite strike.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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