🇲🇺 Ganoo says the Rs 30 billion oil deal was never his to sign

Ganoo says the Rs 30 billion oil deal was never his to sign

Former minister Alan Ganoo spent Wednesday inside the Financial Crimes Commission (FCC), the financial-crimes agency, explaining how a Rs 30 billion fuel supply contract went to Mercantile and Maritime Group in 2023. Investigators kept returning to one meeting: a committee of ministers on 20 June 2023, chaired by former PM Pravind Jugnauth, with then finance minister Renganaden Padayachy and then commerce minister Soodesh Callichurn present.

His account, boiled down: he watched it happen. Ganoo knew the offer carried a 60-day payment holiday and would be settled in rupees, not foreign currency, yet said the award belonged to the State Trading Corporation, the state fuel importer. Neither of his ministries, transport or foreign affairs, touched the deal, he said, and he never met or messaged the company.

So the White Oil file keeps its shape: a room of senior names, a Rs 30 billion contract, and nobody who will say the decision was theirs. Whoever the FCC calls next is the one to watch.

Under Warning means the FCC has not charged him, only that it might.

Mauritius writes an AI city into the finance bill

Buried in the Economic and Financial Measures Bill 2026 is a bid to make Mauritius a name in artificial intelligence. The bill rewrites the Economic Development Board Act to set up an AI City Scheme, with a certificate the board grants to qualifying developers.

The ambition is an ecosystem: data centres, advanced computing, tech startups and the founders behind them. Legislating a certificate is the easy half. Building a cluster that pulls real AI firms to a small island is the hard one, and the bill says little about how Mauritius beats the many rivals chasing the same money.

Jugnauth relaunches in Flacq with a pension pledge

Some 21 months after his Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM) was swept from power, former PM Pravind Jugnauth returned to a stage in Flacq on Wednesday to tear into the Ramgoolam government. His promise: restore the universal pension at 60 if the party retakes power.

He accused PM Ramgoolam of ditching a Rs 21,500 pension pledge once elected, and saluted the protesters outside Parliament. A comeback rally is cheap. A universal pension is not, and Jugnauth never said where the money comes from.

China funds a Rs 1 billion battery for the grid

Mauritius signed a donation deal on Thursday for a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), a large bank of batteries that steadies the grid when supply dips, worth close to Rs 1 billion and funded by China. Stored power counts for more as the island leans on solar and wind, they show up when the weather feels like it, not when demand does.

Seven broken cranes leave lorries stuck at the port

Seven gantry cranes have broken down at the Port-Louis harbour, and lorry drivers now wait more than two hours to collect a single container. With that much kit offline, the terminal's capacity has fallen sharply, the sort of bottleneck that eventually reach every shelf and showroom stocked from abroad.

Shorts

Reservoirs fall as the rain stays away – A rainfall deficit is draining reservoirs, and the water authorities now say restrictions may follow.

Regulator lifts fees across 25 licences – The Financial Services Commission has raised licence fees across 25 categories, quadrupling some.

Rs 55 million of drugs seized in one day – Five anti-drug raids in one day netted over Rs 55 million of drugs and five arrests.

Disability pensions cut off after years – Some families say their disability pensions stopped after years, with the ministry now hunting a fix.

Foreign students will need a work permit – Foreign students must soon hold a work permit for paid jobs, with fines up to Rs 500,000 for breaking it.

1,552

Road offences logged by police over three days to 29 July, a reminder that enforcement blitzes fill charge sheets faster than they change habits.

$20 million

FIFA's one-off offer to each of its 211 member federations, with a September 19 deadline to accept stakes sold to private World Cup investors.

1.5%

US economic growth for the second quarter, slower than forecast as inflation stays above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

Ceuta begs Madrid for troops as migrants surge

Ceuta, the small Spanish enclave on Morocco's northern tip, asked Madrid on Thursday to declare a national emergency and send the army as thousands of migrants pushed across its border. Many swam around the breakwater from the Moroccan side, overwhelming a territory of barely 85,000 people.

Local authorities say the arrivals came faster than the border could absorb, and shelters filled fast. A surge this size turns a local border into national test, and Madrid must decide how hard to answer.

Uganda's Besigye collapses in court, now in intensive care

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye is in intensive care after collapsing unconscious during his treason trial, with allies pressing for his release.

Nigeria deports a pangolin scale trafficker to China

Nigeria arrested and deported a Chinese national who trafficked 12 tonnes of pangolin scales, the world's most poached mammal, back to China.

Israeli strikes kill children in Gaza as talks resume in Cairo

Israeli strikes killed at least four people in Gaza on Thursday, among them children, even as the war edges back toward the negotiating table. Hamas officials met mediators in Cairo to weigh a ceasefire plan brokered by the United States.

Each round of talks has stalled on the same questions: the hostages, an Israeli withdrawal, and who runs Gaza afterward. Until those shift, the strikes are the part that keeps moving.

Rushdie's stabber convicted of terrorism

A jury convicted Hadi Matar of terrorism for the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie at a New York arts centre, on top of a state sentence he already serves.

Russian strikes kill eight across Ukraine

Russian missiles and drones killed at least eight civilians across Ukraine, striking hours after President Zelenskyy warned of a big new assault.

The woman who opens Port-Louis before dawn

Who keeps Port-Louis company before the city wakes? For ten years, Nazeemah Faugoo has opened her newspaper kiosk on rue de la Chaussée while the capital is still dark and quiet.

She says the Jardin de la Compagnie next door makes the early hours feel safe, even working alone as a woman in the square. Her stall is half news-stand, half meeting point, where headlines pass hand to hand with a smile.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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