Zuma avoiding accountability - DA

Zuma aJohannesburg - President Jacob Zuma has attempted to avoid accountability in his response over the R246m security upgrades at his Nkandla private home, the DA said on Thursday.

"Not only does his response undermine the public protector’s findings, but it is also an attempt by the President to act as both judge and jury on this matter," DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said in a statement. Zuma submitted his response to Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, on Thursday.

Bloom will be disappointed Ebola negative - Motsoaledi

Johannesburg - Government will immediately divulge to citizens when the first case of Ebola is detected in South Africa, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Thursday.

"We have been inundated with calls after Mr Jack Bloom issued a statement. That statement sent the media into a frenzy," he told reporters at the Edenvale General Hospital in Johannesburg."I couldn't allow the country to go to sleep with uncertainty regarding what is happening."

The statement issued earlier on Thursday by Bloom, Democratic Alliance health spokesperson, stated that there was a suspected case of Ebola regarding a patient who arrived from Conakry, Guinea, on 28 July through the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

ANC, Parly mum on Jordan's replacement

Cape Town - The ANC in Parliament and the institution itself could not confirm on Thursday that Nick Koornhof, who joined the ruling party ahead of this year's elections, would be taking up a seat in the National Assembly.

According to reports, he is next in line on the ANC's national list to become an MP, following the resignation of Pallo Jordan. However, ANC parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo told Sapa he did not have such information.

Convict smuggle sergeant - State

Convict smuggle sergeant - State

Cape Town - The State called on Thursday for the conviction of a former police sergeant accused of receiving a bribe to take a food parcel with dagga hidden in it to a prisoner at a Cape Town police station.

Former Sergeant Cornelius Wessels has pleaded not guilty before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg, in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court, to charges of corruption and dealing in or possession of dagga.

The prisoner was in fact part of a undercover police operation aimed at trapping the sergeant, who was suspected of smuggling dagga and other substances to prisoners in the cells.