Top news items in major S. African media outlets

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

-- Tensions within business, sparked by differences over the future of President Jacob Zuma, flared on Tuesday, with prominent ANC and business figure Sipho Pityana calling the Black Business Council "crony capitalists" and council chief executive Mohale Ralebitso hitting back, accusing Pityana of distorting the facts.

The dispute first arose on Friday after the council held a scheduled meeting with Zuma at which a range of issues of concern to black business were tabled. While these were mostly business-related and included discussions such as funding for the National Empowerment Fund, the council also expressed strong disapproval of a Pityana initiative to lobby business organizations to take a public position on the removal of the president. (Business Day)

-- The South African Human Rights Commission has welcomed the decision by Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba to put a stop to anti-gay American pastor Steven Anderson's attempts to visit South Africa.

The controversial pastor was banned from entering the country following petitions by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual and Intersexed groups to Gigaba to block him from entering South Africa later in September. (News24)

-- The bodies of two illegal miners were brought to the surface late Tuesday night after they died underground at a disused mine in Langlaagte, south of Johannesburg.

Their bodies were recovered by a group of volunteers after government called off their rescue operations. (South African Broadcasting Corporation) Endit