HARARE - At least 42 passengers have been confirmed dead, Zimbabwe police said Friday, after a suspected gas tank exploded on a bus, with pictures showing the burnt-out wreckage of the vehicle.

"At the moment we know that more than 42 people died," police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told AFP after the accident late on Thursday, with state media reporting a gas tank belonging to a passenger was believed to have exploded.

"Our police officers are at the scene," Charamba added.

READ: 47 killed in Zimbabwe bus crash

The state-owned Herald newspaper said on its Twitter feed that "it is suspected a gas tank belonging to one of the passengers caused the inferno in the bus.

"Dozens have been confirmed dead and several others injured through burns."

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation published photographs showing the destroyed vehicle on a highway from the South African border crossing to the second city Bulawayo.

Last week, 47 people were killed when two buses collided on a road between the capital Harare and the eastern town of Rusape.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa said road safety had to be improved after that crash.

Traffic accidents are common in Zimbabwe, where roads are riddled with potholes due to years of underfunding and neglect, and driving standards can be poor. 

In June last year, 43 people were killed in a bus crash in the north, along the highway leading to neighbouring Zambia.

Editor's note: This livestream is on a break and will be back shortly. Livestream courtesy DStv 403, you can also watch it on DStv Now.

JOHANNESBURG - Interviews to find the country's next head of the National Prosecuting Authority continue on Friday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he will appoint a National Director of Public Prosecutions boss who won't be captured.

Interviews are being held at the Union Buildings.

WATCH: Interviews for NDPP top job continue

This is the first time interviews are open to the media.

The interviews resume on Friday at 9:30 am 

JOHANNESBURG - EFF leader Julius Malema says he’s never met with the controversial Gupta family.

But he says meetings with business people are nothing to be ashamed of, if they're above board.

READ: The rise and fall of the Gupta empire

“I've never met the Guptas. If I said I met them I would have said that. We meet business people, question is whether do you do anything illegal, when you do something above board, never be ashamed, ... I'm an adult I can meet anyone I want to meet."

Malema was speaking to eNCA's Vuyo Mvoko on Tonight with Jane Dutton on Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG - The Gauteng Education Department is doing away with a feeder system that it says excludes many pupils.

READ: Gauteng education system under siege: Lesufi

 On Thursday, Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi introduced new feeder zones that will be more inclusive.

The public has thirty days to comment on the new policies, which will kick in by 2020. 

Lesufi says the plan is to cater for all children, irrespective of race, background or belief.

More than 2000 zone maps have been finalised and will be published in the government gazette for comment.

Gauteng Education has been caught up in a number of standoffs at Afrikaans-medium schools that have refused to admit black pupils.

Editor's note: Livestream courtesy DStv 403, you can also DStv Now.

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom updated the public on the state of the electricity grid.

The embattled power supplier appears to be struggling to meet demand.

It announced this week that the risk of nation-wide power outages had increased significantly.

This after a sharp fall in coal stockpiles at five of its power stations.

Management updated the public on various aspects of Eskom operations.

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom has suspended its executive for the Group Capital Division, Abram Masango.

READ: Eskom evacuates Kusile contractors after protest

In a statement, Eskom said Masango has been suspended with immediate effect, pending an investigation.

Masango is accused of wrongdoing relating to the Kusile Power Station project in Mpumalanga.

KWAZULU-NATAL - Former President Jacob Zuma is taking part in an election campaign in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday.

Zuma is campaigning in his home province along with provincial ANC chairperson, Sihle Zikalala.

READ: 2019 elections most contested since dawn of democracy: Maimane

He's met party supporters at a taxi rank in Pinetown and will later be visiting KwaMashu.

Meanwhile, it is Zuma's deadline to file papers for a permanent stay of prosecution in his corruption trial today.

His legal team's expected to argue that there are flaws in the case against him, which means the prosecution cannot go ahead.

JOHANNESBURG - Is the Economic Freedom Fighters making it easy for those that claim it's just a party of rabble-rousers?

AfriForum has not one, but two cost orders against the party, that's this week alone.

Since March last year, they have piled up five court orders.

At the same time, renowned journalists Thandeka Gqubule and Anton Harber have given the EFF a week to prove their allegations that the pair were apartheid-era spies.

The now-defunct Huffington Post South Africa published unverified information making this claim.

The EFF asked the pair and other unnamed reporters to "confess and ask forgiveness" for allegedly being on apartheid disinformation campaign group Stratcom's payroll.

However, these claims have come back to bite the party. 

Do these court orders bring into question the EFF's credibility or is there a bigger plan at play by the party?

EFF leader Julius Malema responded  in the video above

JOHANNESBURG - The leader of Zimbabwe's opposition MDC, Nelson Chamisa, says by threatening him with arrest President Mnangagwa's government is trying to destroy the party and cause chaos in the country.

Chamisa turned down an invitation to testify before the Kgalema Mothlante Commission about the 1 August army killings of six people.

Testifying before the Motlanthe Commission early this week Zimbabwe police chief Godwin Matanga alleged Chamisa incited streets violence that led to the killing of six people after losing the 30 July elections.

WATCH: Zimbabwe's Chamisa evades kidnapping attempt

But addressing journalists in Harare, Chamisa said his arrest won't remove the Zimbabwe peoples' will for change.

“I would like to say crime does not rot like meat, the records are there to tell, and anytime he can be arrested,” said Matanga.

READ: Zim army denies killing civilians during post-election protests

Meanwhile, Chamisa said: “Tell you what, you can arrest Chamisa that's not arresting the problem. This nation is deeply divided. There was no need for a commission of inquiry if there was no crisis in this country. It tells you there's a crisis. We have deep-seated divisions in this country which cannot been resolved by this kind of tomfoolery tactics.”

Chamisa said Mnangagwa's script is to make sure there are no forces to challenge him which is why the security forces have labelled the MDC as an enemy of the state and a terrorist organisation.

READ: Zimbabwe opposition to declare Chamisa 'president'

“To call us a terrorist organisation, where have you seen a terrorist organization with headquarters along the same road with Parliament of Zimbabwe? Where have you seen a terrorist organisation that will use placards to engage the government instead of using arms of war. We believe in democratic tools such as demonstrations. Where have you seen a terrorist organisation that believes in rallies? We've got rallies because those are democratic tools. We are not like ISIS, al-Shabaab or Boko Haram who have headquarters in the mountains, we have headquarters in this house because we believe in democracy,” he said.

The MDC leader is mobilising nationwide protests over the worsening economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

In the past few months the country has been hit by a serious economic meltdown which left it grappling with shortages of basic commodities, foreign currency, medicine and fuel.
 

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom has cut off electricity to municipalities that owe them billions.

The power utility took this drastic step with municipalities they supply directly that collect money from consumers but often fail to pay it over.

READ: Eskom takes steps to secure coal supply

Eskom's strategies have been unsuccessful in curbing a debt that now stands at R17-billion.

Soweto alone owes R15-billion, and its residents consistently resist any attempts to force them to pay their power bills.