Top news items in major S. African news outlets

The following are news items in South Africa's major news outlets on Sunday:

-- South Africa's former public protector Thuli Madonsela said she suspected President Zuma and the State Security Agency (SSA) could be involved in some of the ongoing tensions between herself and her successor.

Madonsela said Saturday that the current spat with her successor Busisiwe Mkhwebane over deductions to her pension may be a result of interference from the president, the State Security Agency, or both. (eNCA)

-- An official launch for the eagerly anticipated Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Project was postponed this week, despite the pilot plan amounting to R200 million (about 14.5 mln U.S. dollars) being set aside for up to 2,000 students this year.

Ikusasa (an isiZulu word meaning "the future") is the private sector's solution to the so-called "missing middle" problem at universities and colleges: the large proportion of the student body too rich to qualify for funding from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), but too poor to access commercial student loans. (City Press)

-- It is exactly a year since the Lily Gold mine disaster near Barberton in Mpumalanga Province. The bodies of three workers are yet to be recovered.

The trio disappeared when the lamp-room container they were working in fell into a massive sinkhole. Twelve months later there is still no word on when the bodies would be recovered.(Eyewitness News) Enditem