October 1, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Schalk Burger.
Making headlines:

Three state-owned enterprises miss their reports deadline.

The West Africa Ebola crisis hits tourism and compounds hunger in Gambia.

And, the ANC is adamant that President Jacob Zuma isn’t responsible for Nkandla.

Three state-owned enterprises (or SOEs) failed to table their integrated reports to Parliament on time, Public Enterprise Minister Lynne Brown's office said this week.

Brown informed the Speaker that South African Airways, South African Express Airways (or SAX) and Broadband Infraco failed to meet Tuesday's deadline, in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act.

The Broadband Infraco report's delay was blamed on a technical matter. SAA and SAX could not table their reports "due to delays in the airlines' finalisation of the various reports that must accompany their annual financial statements".

The reports would be tabled at a later date, to be published in Parliament's announcements, tabling and committees bulletin on Tuesday.

The United Nations says pestilence, cyclical droughts and floods, and the West Africa Ebola crisis have pushed hunger to record levels in Gambia, where 200 000 people need urgent food assistance.

Tourism is a significant source of income for the country, and even though Gambia has not seen cases of Ebola, the outbreak in the region has caused visitor numbers to plummet by 60% compared to last year.

A third of the country's 1.8-million people are struggling to have three square meals a day and many have had to sell cattle and take children out of school to buy food.

Ebola – which has killed more than 3 000 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since March – has compounded Gambia's woes. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say some 1.4-million are at risk in the region without immediate action.

African National Congress MPs have moved to absolve President Jacob Zuma of any wrongdoing in the Nkandla controversy as they unilaterally pursued Parliament's consideration of the matter following an opposition walkout.

They said there was no evidence that Zuma asked for luxuries to be added to his private home in KwaZulu-Natal, or knew about an abuse of public funds as the cost of so-called security upgrades to the estate soared to R246-million.

The opposition withdrew from the ad hoc committee on Nkandla last week in protest at the ruling party's reluctance to enforce Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's finding that Zuma must pay for part of the project.

At the start of Tuesday's meeting, senior ANC MP Mathole Motshekga reiterated his view that Madonsela's work was subject to parliamentary oversight and that the opposition was wilfully misreading the law.

Also making headlines:

The seasonally adjusted Kagiso Purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose above the neutral 50-point mark in September, signaling growth for the manufacturing sector for the first time since March.

Some concern has been expressed about recent delays to South Africa’s hitherto successful Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, under which 26 projects have already been connected to the grid following three bid windows during which more than 60 mostly solar and wind projects were selected to proceed.

And, the US warned South Sudan's president and rebel leader to engage in serious peace talks to end nearly a year of violence in the world's newest state or face United Nations sanctions.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.