🇲🇺 Seven hours of questions for Jugnauth over a Rs 30 billion oil contract

Seven hours of questions for Jugnauth over a Rs 30 billion oil contract

Former PM Pravind Jugnauth left the Financial Crimes Commission at Réduit on Monday after seven hours of questioning, his second session in the probe into how a Rs 30 billion fuel supply contract went to Mercantile and Maritime Group (MMG). Investigators keep circling one meeting at the Prime Minister's Office before the award, where Jugnauth sat with his then finance, commerce and attorney general ministers and a company man pitching the offer.

What they are testing is whether that meeting bent the tender. A rival reportedly put in a cheaper bid, yet the deal still went to MMG. Two ministers from that room, former finance minister Renganaden Padayachy and former commerce minister Soodesh Callichurn, were arrested in June.

Jugnauth denies wrongdoing. His lawyer, Raouf Gulbul, says nothing so far points to anything improper, and that his client waived the right to silence because he has nothing to hide. He is due at Grand-Bois on 11 September.

A cheaper bid that lost anyway is the fact the whole case turns on.

Petrol at Rs 70.65 has taxis and driving schools counting every litre

Petrol jumped from Rs 64.25 to Rs 70.65 a litre just over a week ago, and the squeeze is already showing. Households are trimming trips. Driving schools, whose entire business is time behind the wheel, feel it fastest, while taxi drivers say the maths no longer adds up at old fares.

Logistics and distribution firms report a lighter hit for now, cushioned by scale. For everyone else the extra Rs 6.40 a litre lands straight on the weekly budget. A fare rise is the pressure valve nobody wants to reach for.

Union threatens court action over specialists' unpaid salaries

A binding court ruling ordered the Ministry of Health to pay specialist hospital doctors the back money they were already owed. Months on, nothing has moved, and Narendranath Gopee, negotiator for the Federation of Civil Service unions, now says he will take the ministry to the Supreme Court to force the payment through.

A court order the state simply sits on is its own kind of answer. The wards still need them.

Two in three voters face a trip to the polls before year end

The Electoral Commission is quietly lining up village council polls across about 130 villages, roughly 572,948 voters, before December. Rodrigues wants its regional vote held before 10 February, with 34,140 on the roll. Two ballots loom.

FCC arrests a Grand-Bois man over Rs 4.75 million

Bimal Janoo, a self-employed man of 42 from Grand-Bois, was arrested on Monday by the Financial Crimes Commission on a provisional money laundering charge. Investigators say Rs 4.75 million sat in a Port-Louis bank account they trace to a suspected fraud file, and that he appears in court on Tuesday.

Shorts

CANAL+ bills climb Rs 130 a month – From October, subscribers pay Rs 130 more every month.

MIE lecturer's fast promotion draws fire – Staff at the Mauritius Institute of Education query a lecturer's quick pick to supervise doctorates.

Baby Adriano's father held in hospital – The father, now at Brown Sequard, stays in detention as the autopsy is confirmed.

Masked pair wake a couple in Tamarin – Two masked intruders broke into a Tamarin home and confronted the couple as they woke.

Casino staff take grievances to Parliament – Casino staff at the state group rallied outside Parliament, demanding answers on their future.

Rs 71 billion

in cash now circulates across the country, a pile that keeps growing even as the state pushes cards and digital payments.

2 million

children in Somalia are now acutely malnourished as drought, conflict and aid cuts push about six million people into crisis hunger.

100 million euros

bought Manchester City the teenage Morocco midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille, one of Europe's most chased prospects.

Congo and M23 sign up to a peace plan as monitors move in

The Democratic Republic of Congo and the M23 rebel movement have agreed a peace roadmap brokered by Switzerland and the United States, and a ceasefire team has deployed to South Kivu in the east.

Both sides spent the same day trading accusations of abuses, a deal on paper and a truce on the ground are not yet the same thing.

Conakry landfill collapse kills at least 30

Part of a Conakry landfill collapsed onto homes after heavy rain, killing at least 30 people in the Guinean capital.

Kenya arrests four as Amboseli elephant toll hits 18

What is killing Amboseli's elephants? The toll has risen to 18, and Kenya has arrested four as it investigates suspected poisoning.

US readies its harshest Iran sanctions as the rial caves

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has promised what he calls an economic D-Day, sanctions built to cut every remaining economic tie with Iran. The rial has slumped to a record low.

Tehran warns of a harsh response against Washington and any nation that signs on. A currency in free fall tend to hurt shoppers long before it moves a government.

Uganda offers troops for a Gaza force

Uganda has approved about 1,200 soldiers and Burundi is weighing its own share of a proposed force of 20,000 for Gaza.

Ceferin wants Infantino gone, but not his chair

European football's Aleksander Ceferin has called on FIFA president Gianni Infantino to resign over a failed World Cup investment, then ruled himself out of the job.

Whatever happened to a neutral Eurovision?

The Netherlands says it will skip the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, arguing the show is no longer the apolitical spectacle it claims to be while Israel takes part.

Eurovision has always insisted it floats above politics, glitter and key changes only. A founding country walking out says that line is getting harder to sell.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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