🇲🇺 World Knits layoffs begin as 478 staff wait three months for pay

World Knits layoffs begin as 478 staff wait three months for pay

Termination letters have started reaching World Knits, the textile group under voluntary administration since June, and the first to get them work at its Universal Fabrics plant. Across the group's three factories, Kline Textiles, Universal Fabrics and the World Knits unit itself, 478 people have gone without wages for three months.

Those already let go will recover their unpaid salaries, capped at Rs 50,000, through the Wage Gratuity Fund, Labour Minister Reza Uteem told employees who came to his office with unionist Fayzal Ally Beegun. Talks with the Mauritius Revenue Authority over the Portable Retirement Gratuity Fund are meant to follow, and a US buyer has been mentioned.

What the workers keep asking is blunter than any of that: will their years of service be paid? On that, Uteem promised a file, not a figure. Three months without pay, and the one line that matters most to them still sits empty.

Kobita Jugnauth turns the questions on the FCC over leaked photos

At her fourth session with the Financial Crimes Commission (FCC), Kobita Jugnauth did the questioning. Wife of former Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, she pressed investigators on how seized evidence reached the press: photographs of seven watches, one singled out with an arrow, published as an exclusive. The haul at issue, Rs 114 million found in four suitcases at Josian Deelawon's home in February 2025, is covered by confidentiality rules her defence says were broken. Who leaked the images, and why that one watch, she wanted to know.

CEB promises 675 MW for summer, but the margin looks thin

For summer 2027 the Central Electricity Board (CEB) is counting on 675 MW of capacity, the board says, against a peak demand of 600 to 610 MW. On paper that leaves a cushion of 65 to 75 MW. Experts are not convinced all of it will be running when the island reaches for its air conditioners, after the grid buckled through the 2025 summer. Three large solar farms are due to connect in the coming weeks to shore up the figures.

968 teenagers gave birth last year, 17 of them under 15

Mauritius recorded 968 births to mothers under 20 in 2024, and 17 of them were girls younger than 15, according to the Family Planning and Demographic Yearbook 2024. Numbers like these rarely lead a bulletin, yet behind each one sits a schooling interrupted and a health system left to catch up.

Only 6,900 of 86,000 disabled Mauritians have a job

Fewer than 7,000 of the island's 86,000-plus residents living with a disability hold a job, a gap Attorney General Gavin Glover put on the record this week. That is barely one in twelve. A policy of inclusion exists on paper; these figures are what it looks like when the paper never reaches a workplace.

Shorts

Water tank grant draws a collusion probe – The Competition Commission has opened an inquiry into possible price coordination among tank and pump suppliers.

3,000 foreign workers slip off the radar – Labour Minister Reza Uteem is going after illegal employers, he has put the police on notice over the gap.

A4 sheets laced with drugs seized in parcel – Customs intercepted 162 A4 sheets soaked in synthetic cannabinoids in a parcel from London.

Élodie Thomas heads home after a month – She left hospital nearly a month after being shot in the neck at Camp-Levieux.

Two complaints over the Morne cross climb – After someone scaled the cross at Le Morne, two complaints were filed and the Arts Minister weighed in.

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Rs 8.7 billion

The lottery operator Lottotech says it has passed that much to the state since 2012, a quiet reminder that the national flutter also tops up the budget. Its latest tally lands just as household spending tightens.

15.4 million

That many people who have fled Sudan's war now need emergency shelter and basic household goods, the United Nations says, while aid agencies run short of the money to help them.

66%

Emirates watched its half-year profit drop by that much, the Dubai carrier said this week, a sharp reversal for an airline plenty of Mauritians lean on to reach Europe and Asia.

South Africa's ANC slumps to 32%, its worst result yet

Partial results from South Africa's local elections point to the African National Congress (ANC) landing near 32%, the lowest in the party's history, with about 80% of the vote counted. The ANC has governed since the end of apartheid in 1994, and a result this low would deepen the slide that cost it its parliamentary majority last year. Coalition bargaining now looks certain in councils across country.

Kenyan cult leader gets 200 years for 191 deaths

A Kenyan court handed self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie 200 years for the murder of 190 children and one adult in the Shakahola starvation cult.

Tanzania jails Tundu Lissu for four years

Tanzania's main opposition leader Tundu Lissu was jailed for four years after being cleared of treason, closing a case that drew heavy international criticism.

Paraguay erupts as a bank collapse locks millions out of their savings

Thousands have marched in Paraguay after the collapse of Ueno Bank left close to half the population unable to reach their savings. President Santiago Peña offered to resign, the crowds want an impeachment instead. The scandal has swallowed the government's agenda just as the country heads into a tense political season.

Malaysia's Najib moved to house arrest

Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak will serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest after a fine was paid, as Transport Minister Anthony Loke prepares to resign.

Tesla pulls the plug on the Cybertruck

Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production next year to free its factories for the Cybercab robotaxi, after the angular pickup sold worse than hoped.

A giant banner takes on the data centre next door

How do you picture the cloud? Greenpeace chose something hard to miss: a banner 26 metres on each side, raised on Friday outside a data centre going up at Beringen in northern Switzerland. The protest takes aim at Big Tech's thirst for power and water, the electricity and cooling that the server farms behind our apps quietly swallow. The cloud, it turns out, leaves a huge footprint on the ground.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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