For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: ANCWL pushes for equitable representation of women in party leadership, Presidency in Scopa's crosshairs as State Security Agency skips SOE vetting meeting and, France and Germany kick-start JETP funding

ANCWL pushes for equitable representation of women in party leadership

The ANC Women’s League said it wants to see qualitative and equitable representation of women in critical positions of leadership and decision-making at the party’s fifty-fifth national elective conference.

The conference will be held between December 16 and 20.

The Women’s League’s top five nominations comprise 70% women.

It has nominated Cyril Ramaphosa as party president, Thandi Modise as deputy president, Gwede Mantashe as national chairperson, Fikile Mbalula as secretary general, Febe Potgieter as deputy secretary general and Gwen Ramokgopa as treasurer general.

The Women’s League stressed that the ANC and society at large were still lagging in terms representation of women and a variety of minorities in the society.

Presidency in Scopa's crosshairs as State Security Agency skips SOE vetting meeting

Members of Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts were left seething after the State Security Agency refused at the eleventh hour to brief it on the vetting of officials at organs of State, heightening suspicions about what was being kept secret. 

The SSA was due to update Scopa on Wednesday morning on the progress made regarding the 2014 Cabinet directive to have officials in State organs, particularly supply chain management departments, vetted.

The SSA was relocated to the Presidency last year after intelligence weaknesses saw the agency fail to detect or counter the events leading to the July unrest that rocked KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last year.

Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa explained that he was notified by the SSA that they would only brief Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, whose meetings are closed to the media and the public, and that they had a legal opinion to back this up.

France and Germany kick-start JETP funding

The French and German development banks have signed agreements with the South African government to each extend €300-million in concessional financing to support the country’s transition to a cleaner energy system that is less reliant on coal.

The €600-million is the first to be confirmed under the $8.5-billion Just Energy Transition Partnership announced at COP26 in November 2021.

The Just Energy Transition Investment Partnership was officially endorsed by the JETP international partnership group of France, Germany, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU) on November 7, opening the way for the flow of funds under the $8.5-billion funding package.

The financing agreements were signed at a ceremony held on the side-lines of COP27 in Egypt attended by President Cyril Ramaphosa, President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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