Top news items of S. African major news outlets

The following are highlights of South African major media outlets on Saturday.

-- Ratings agency Moody's on Friday lowered its outlook for the South African banking system to negative from stable, citing deteriorating operating conditions over the next 18 months, sending shares across the sector lower.

Africa's most advanced economy is expected to grow less than 1 percent this year, hobbled by low commodity prices, drought and political ructions that have unnerved investors. (Business Day)

-- Former South African president and world famous icon Nelson Mandela's entire inheritance has been allocated to his beneficiaries as was requested in his will, former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke announced on Friday.

The list of 40 beneficiaries announced at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, north of Johannesburg, included his long-time driver, three members of his staff at his private home, as well as all the high schools and universities he attended while growing up. (News24)

-- Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Piet Koen has reserved judgment in an application by several media houses for access to the disciplinary hearings of public works department officials charged for their role in the Nkandlagate scandal.

The application had been brought by lawyers acting jointly for Media24, Times Media Group and M&G Media, who want reporters to be allowed to sit in on the hearings of the officials who were fingered in the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) report into the R248 million security upgrade on President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home. (City Press) Endit