Ajay Gupta’s lawyer also says Public Protector Thuli Madonsela did not provide a transcript of the interview with Gupta, which he was within his rights to ask for
The timing of the announcement by the NPA is strange as it said last week that there was no case against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, one analyst says
Speaking at the Cape Town press club during the launch of her autobiography, Zille said protesting students keep ‘moving goal posts, negotiation after negotiation’
UNDER a canvas tent, African American businessman and chef Santi Jones is offering barbecue pork tacos outside a Carolina football game as he ruminates on Hillary Clinton and whether black voters will win her the White House.
She needs a strong turnout among minorities, particularly African Americans, if she is to defeat Republican Donald Trump and succeed the nation’s first black president.
Can she rally them to the ballot box on November 8 where it counts, in battlegrounds like North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida? "She can," Jones says. "But she’s got to try a little harder."
Racial tensions, fuelled by a series of police shootings of black men, have simmered in the US since 2015.
Some have accused property billionaire Trump of fomenting the discord through his provocative campaign rhetoric, his years of propagating the "birther" conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the US as well as the embrace of the Republican by white nationalists.
When he was asked about what was necessary to heal the racial divide during his first debate with Clinton, Trump answered by lamenting that "we need law and order in our country".
North Carolina is seen as ground zero for Clinton’s efforts to convert tangible and historically high black support for Obama into her own victory in swing states that will decide the election. Obama narrowly won North Carolina in 2008, then lost it four years later.
Clinton’s campaign is now in overdrive to turn the state blue again.
Blacks comprise 12% of the US electorate, and about nine in 10 support Clinton, according to polls. Yet many black voters remain lukewarm about her.
In a sign of the challenge Clinton faces, even Jones, who supports Clinton, says he is not sure whether he will vote.
At a Clinton campaign field office in Charlotte, volunteers like Arnetta Strickland were making calls to rally Democrats and undecided voters. Strickland, a medical biller, shakes her head when asked if Trump can do or say anything to make her or fellow African Americans reconsider their votes.
"Most blacks are Democrats," she explains. "No matter what he says, they’re not going to vote for him. We’re used to sticking together."
And yet Strickland, who volunteered for Obama, expresses scepticism about whether turnout for Clinton "will be the same as Obama’s".
In September the president issued a stern warning to the black community. "There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter," Obama told a congressional black caucus dinner.
"After we have achieved historic turnout in 2008 and 2012, especially in the African American community, I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election," Obama said.
Clinton holds a slim lead in North Carolina, according to polling. She may expect a bounce in coming days after a shocking video was made public on Friday in which Trump was caught making lewd and demeaning comments about groping women.
At the Anderton barbershop in Charlotte, barber Brendan Watson says he and colleagues registered 2,000 new voters during the previous two elections. "I see us doing like the same thing this time," he says. "I feel a sense of urgency in the community that we will show up." Still, he acknowledges, North Carolina will be "tough" to win.
The challenge comes amid a rise in nationwide racial tension fuelled in part by police killings of unarmed blacks.
Several relatives of African Americans who died at the hands of police or in police custody have become known as Mothers of the Movement, and they campaign for Clinton. They include Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland, whose death in a Texan jail sparked protests.
Reed-Veal acknowledges that the inspiration about Clinton may be different than it was with Obama but she hopes Democratic "loyalty" will convert to votes.
Part of Clinton’s struggle to win black voters, Reed-Veal says, stems from a crime bill that then president Bill Clinton signed into law. In a 1996 speech Hillary Clinton said it aimed to crack down on "superpredators", which many took to mean young black men.
She apologised, but resentment lingered.
Yet Trump cannot seem to attract minority voters. At July’s Republican national convention, he had the smallest share of African American delegates in a century.
One was Ada Fischer, a retired physician in Salisbury and head of North Carolina’s Republican national committee. She expresses confidence that about 10% of blacks will be won over by Trump’s economic vision. She says blacks would be "crazy" to back Clinton and insist s liberals are responsible for poor inner-city conditions.
"Democrats control those areas, not Republicans," says Fischer.
Education and prison reform are ways Republicans reach out to African Americans, far more than Democratic administrations, which provide handouts, she says. "I tell black folks," she says, "‘Tell me, what is it that Obama has done for us but be black?’"
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in July. Picture: REUTERS
UNDER a canvas tent, African American businessman and chef Santi Jones is offering barbecue pork tacos outside a Carolina football game as he ruminates on Hillary Clinton and whether black voters will win her the White House.
She needs a strong turnout among minorities, particularly African Americans, if she is to defeat Republican Donald Trump and succeed the nation’s first black president.
Can she rally them to the ballot box on November 8 where it counts, in battlegrounds like North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida? "She can," Jones says. "But she’s got to try a little harder."
Racial tensions, fuelled by a series of police shootings of black men, have simmered in the US since 2015.
Some have accused property billionaire Trump of fomenting the discord through his provocative campaign rhetoric, his years of propagating the "birther" conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the US as well as the embrace of the Republican by white nationalists.
When he was asked about what was necessary to heal the racial divide during his first debate with Clinton, Trump answered by lamenting that "we need law and order in our country".
North Carolina is seen as ground zero for Clinton’s efforts to convert tangible and historically high black support for Obama into her own victory in swing states that will decide the election. Obama narrowly won North Carolina in 2008, then lost it four years later.
Clinton’s campaign is now in overdrive to turn the state blue again.
Blacks comprise 12% of the US electorate, and about nine in 10 support Clinton, according to polls. Yet many black voters remain lukewarm about her.
In a sign of the challenge Clinton faces, even Jones, who supports Clinton, says he is not sure whether he will vote.
At a Clinton campaign field office in Charlotte, volunteers like Arnetta Strickland were making calls to rally Democrats and undecided voters. Strickland, a medical biller, shakes her head when asked if Trump can do or say anything to make her or fellow African Americans reconsider their votes.
"Most blacks are Democrats," she explains. "No matter what he says, they’re not going to vote for him. We’re used to sticking together."
And yet Strickland, who volunteered for Obama, expresses scepticism about whether turnout for Clinton "will be the same as Obama’s".
In September the president issued a stern warning to the black community. "There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter," Obama told a congressional black caucus dinner.
"After we have achieved historic turnout in 2008 and 2012, especially in the African American community, I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election," Obama said.
Clinton holds a slim lead in North Carolina, according to polling. She may expect a bounce in coming days after a shocking video was made public on Friday in which Trump was caught making lewd and demeaning comments about groping women.
At the Anderton barbershop in Charlotte, barber Brendan Watson says he and colleagues registered 2,000 new voters during the previous two elections. "I see us doing like the same thing this time," he says. "I feel a sense of urgency in the community that we will show up." Still, he acknowledges, North Carolina will be "tough" to win.
The challenge comes amid a rise in nationwide racial tension fuelled in part by police killings of unarmed blacks.
Several relatives of African Americans who died at the hands of police or in police custody have become known as Mothers of the Movement, and they campaign for Clinton. They include Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland, whose death in a Texan jail sparked protests.
Reed-Veal acknowledges that the inspiration about Clinton may be different than it was with Obama but she hopes Democratic "loyalty" will convert to votes.
Part of Clinton’s struggle to win black voters, Reed-Veal says, stems from a crime bill that then president Bill Clinton signed into law. In a 1996 speech Hillary Clinton said it aimed to crack down on "superpredators", which many took to mean young black men.
She apologised, but resentment lingered.
Yet Trump cannot seem to attract minority voters. At July’s Republican national convention, he had the smallest share of African American delegates in a century.
One was Ada Fischer, a retired physician in Salisbury and head of North Carolina’s Republican national committee. She expresses confidence that about 10% of blacks will be won over by Trump’s economic vision. She says blacks would be "crazy" to back Clinton and insist s liberals are responsible for poor inner-city conditions.
"Democrats control those areas, not Republicans," says Fischer.
Education and prison reform are ways Republicans reach out to African Americans, far more than Democratic administrations, which provide handouts, she says. "I tell black folks," she says, "‘Tell me, what is it that Obama has done for us but be black?’"
