Dr Irvin Kinnes, a research associate at the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Criminology, said municipal police have no constitutional mandate to investigate crime, a function reserved for the South African Police Service (SAPS) under section 205(3) of the Constitution.

His comments come after Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis formally declared an intergovernmental dispute with acting police minister Firoz Cachalia last week, seeking expanded investigative powers for metro police.

Hill-Lewis argues metro police need the authority to investigate cases, compile dockets and secure convictions. He said the city confiscates more than 450 illegal firearms each year, yet only about 5% of those cases end in convictions because metro police cannot investigate the crimes they uncover.

Kinnes said he saw no benefit in the proposal.

“Setting up an investigations system within a police agency is an onerous and difficult task. Detectives require continuous training, advanced investigative methods and increasingly sophisticated forensic expertise, particularly in the 21st century,” he said.

He warned that granting municipalities detective powers would be risky under South Africa’s current political landscape.

“It is dangerous, particularly under the current political arrangements in the Government of National Unity (GNU), to grant municipalities the investigative powers the constitution reserves for SAPS.”

Kinnes described the city’s proposal as a political call that resonates with its support base, particularly in an election year.

“There are good reasons why such powers should not be handed to mayors around the country. They could be abused or used to investigate political opponents at the local level. The disconnect between the municipality, province and national government also speaks volumes about the lack of cooperation between the different spheres of government, despite cooperation agreements having been signed.”

He said the proposal was not new.

“The idea of giving municipal police investigative powers was debated during the drafting of the Interim Constitution. While provision was made for municipal policing, their powers were specifically limited to crime prevention and enforcing municipal by-laws.”

There is a common view that the state is weak, particularly when it comes to policing. To hand greater policing powers to local politicians who ultimately control municipal policing would be a huge mistake. Given the levels of corruption in South Africa, those powers could easily be abused.

Dr Irvin Kinnes, a research associate at the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Criminology

Kinnes pointed to section 221(3) of the 1993 Interim Constitution, which allowed for the establishment of municipal police services with the consent of the provincial MEC responsible for policing. However, he noted that their functions were expressly confined to crime prevention and by-law enforcement.

He argued that weakening national policing by transferring investigative powers to municipalities would be a mistake.

“There is a common view that the state is weak, particularly when it comes to policing. To hand greater policing powers to local politicians who ultimately control municipal policing would be a huge mistake. Given the levels of corruption in South Africa, those powers could easily be abused.”

Instead, he said government should focus on rebuilding SAPS.

“It would be better for the state to clean up the police at national level, restore discipline and strengthen public safety before entering into negotiations about expanding municipal policing powers.”

Kinnes was also critical of the city’s crime-fighting record.

“In every election the DA promises to beat crime, and every time it fails, the blame shifts to national government. After 17 years in control of the city, that narrative is wearing thin.”

He argued that despite significant investment in local law enforcement, gang violence on the Cape Flats remains entrenched.

“The deployment of LEAP officers has not delivered the reductions in gang killings many expected. Recent outbreaks of violence in areas such as Khayelitsha, Philippi and Mitchells Plain show the scale of the challenge.”

Kinnes also rejected suggestions that metro police could easily assume investigative functions.

“The metro police, in its current form, is simply not equipped for investigations. It lacks the training, systems, infrastructure and long-standing working relationships with the National Prosecuting Authority that SAPS detectives have built over many years.

“It would take years to develop those capabilities and could create unnecessary competition and conflict between metro police investigators and SAPS detectives.”

He said operational cooperation between officers on the ground generally worked well, but political interference often undermined policing.

“My experience is that SAPS and metro police officers cooperate every day when arresting and processing suspects. The challenge is getting political leaders to stay out of policing operations. The spectacle of politicians accompanying police raids with media in tow does not inspire confidence.

“Let the work of the police speak for itself. Political leaders at the city, provincial and national levels should stay out of operational policing. We might then see better cooperation between all three spheres of government.”

Hill-Lewis, however, maintains expanded powers are essential to tackling gang, gun and drug crime.

On Friday he said metro police are trained, resourced and ready to investigate specific categories of crime in support of SAPS.

“The acting minister of police continues to state that he has an open mind regarding investigative powers for metro police, and we now await dates from his office to begin the mandatory mediation process under the formal intergovernmental dispute,” Hill-Lewis said.

“The minister says it is necessary to build cross-party consensus. It is not clear what he means. He is the minister. All that is required is leadership and an amendment to the SAPS Amendment Bill before Parliament. Anything else appears to delay doing what is necessary.”

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said expanding policing powers would build on reforms already implemented.

“Municipal peace officers were granted additional crime prevention powers in 2018, paving the way for the LEAP programme, which has demonstrated the significant contribution local government can make when given the opportunity.

“The city is already assisting SAPS through its specialised investigations and information management units. Expanded investigative powers would strengthen that support rather than replace SAPS,” Smith said.

“They were so comforting. You would forget everything else and feel like everything was going to be fine,” her daughter, Shakira Abrahams Buckley, said.

It is a memory that captures the woman behind the celebrated chef, cookbook author and champion of Cape Malay cuisine, who died at the age of 83 on Saturday after a long illness.

Buckley spoke to the Sunday Times two days after burying her mother, describing her as a “force of nature” who transformed a difficult childhood into a life dedicated to food, heritage and the stories carried through generations of family kitchens.

“She was quite an exceptional woman. She came from extremely difficult circumstances. Her father was killed when she was very young. She had a difficult childhood, and she rose through all that adversity and all the challenges in life and achieved so much,” Buckley said.

For decades, Abrahams worked to ensure that Cape Malay cuisine was not treated as a footnote in South Africa’s culinary history.

She began her career as a teacher at schools on the Cape Flats before becoming a home economist at Tastic Rice. But her passion for cooking took root after she married Buckley’s father and became part of a Cape Malay family.

She was particularly inspired by her husband’s grandmother, whom she regarded as an exceptional cook.

“My father’s grandmother did sort of teach her a bit,” Buckley said.

“But as far as the other old people go, she had to kind of steal with her eyes because Cape Malay people are very close with their recipes. They’ll tell you something, and they’ll leave something out.”

As Abrahams developed her own culinary voice, she became increasingly frustrated by what she saw as a food industry that celebrated European traditions while overlooking the rich culinary heritage of communities such as the Cape Malays.

“She used to tell a story about how, at the time, when they would ask chefs, ‘What’s your favourite food?’ they would say some kind of French something,” Buckley said.

“They didn’t acknowledge the fact that Cape Malay cuisine had recipes that were hundreds of years old, that were amazing and were unrepresented.”

For Abrahams, this was more than an omission from the culinary canon. It was the erasure of history.

She began researching the origins of Cape Malay cuisine, tracing recipes, traditions and the stories behind the food.

Buckley said her mother believed those stories had been overlooked because the food of ordinary families, particularly the food prepared by mothers and grandmothers, was rarely afforded the same prestige as that produced by celebrated chefs.

“She felt like the white male dominance of the food world was leaving out so much of the history because the stories of people’s cooking and their heritage all come from your mother’s table,” she said.

“These were not things that people were glorifying. They weren’t looking at your mother’s table. They were looking at the fancy chef in the kitchen.”

She felt like the white male dominance of the food world was leaving out so much of the history because the stories of people’s cooking and their heritage all come from your mother’s table

Shakira Abrahams Buckley, Cass Abrahams' daughter

So Abrahams set out to change that.

Her cookbooks, teaching, research, and public appearances helped bring dishes such as bobotie, bredies, and denningvleis from Cape kitchens to audiences around the world.

But her greatest legacy may be the way she helped generations of people see their own food and the histories attached to it as worthy of celebration.

“It became her mission to represent the heritage, your mother’s food, the food that comforts, home and tradition and all of that,” Buckley said.

“That became sort of what she felt most passionate about.”

Now, as her family grieves, those grand achievements are intertwined with the small, intimate memories of the woman they knew at home: the mother whose food could comfort them when nothing else could.

For Cape Town, however, the loss is also that of a cultural custodian who spent decades making sure the stories simmering in Cape kitchens were heard far beyond them.

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis described Abrahams as a “beloved cultural elder” who gave generations of Capetonians a deeper appreciation of their heritage and the stories behind their food.

“Her legacy will live on in the kitchens, recipes and traditions of this city, and in everyone she inspired,” he said.

And perhaps nowhere will that legacy be felt more deeply than around the family table, where, long before she became a culinary icon, Abrahams was simply the mother whose chicken pies could make her children believe, for a moment, that everything was going to be fine.

The more important point is: what becomes possible because that grant exists?

A grant can therefore do something that is often missing from the public debate about social protection: it can give people the security to take the next step.

That is why Sassa should not be understood merely as a grant-distribution agency. Its work sits within a broader social protection system whose purpose is to protect dignity, reduce vulnerability and create pathways towards greater resilience and, wherever possible, sustainable livelihoods.

The grant is not the destination. It is the bridge.

Social protection can create the foundation from which economic participation becomes possible.

Consider the experience of Ayanda Asanda Novukela from Lindelani in KwaZulu-Natal.

Novukela used R370 from her Social Relief of Distress to start Bhayeka Trading, selling spices, curry powder, dry herbs, sauces and eggs. She subsequently expanded her economic activities, supplying tuck shops and selling directly to customers. Her entrepreneurial journey eventually extended to three businesses, including a pre-school and daycare centre and a company-registration service.

The R370 did not create the business on its own. Novukela’s initiative, determination and willingness to learn were crucial. But the assistance provided an initial platform from which she could act.

That is the opportunity we should be looking for in social protection. Not dependency but possibility.

This is also the thinking behind the Generating Better Livelihoods (GBL) initiative of the department of social development, implemented in partnership with Sassa and development partners.

The initiative seeks to move beyond the conventional model in which social assistance ends with the transfer of money. It connects beneficiaries to livelihood opportunities, financial inclusion, social empowerment, coaching and mentorship.

A person can receive financial assistance and still lack skills, confidence, market access, financial knowledge, business networks or information about employment opportunities.

That is why a cash transfer, while essential, cannot be the whole intervention. People need connections. They need information. They need skills. They need mentorship.

People do not only need assistance. They need pathways.

The question should not be whether a grant makes people dependent.

The better question is: what can we do to ensure that the security provided by a grant helps people move towards greater independence?

But recognising these realities should not prevent us from recognising something equally important: many beneficiaries have capabilities that can be developed and economic potential that can be unlocked.

The grant may be paid to one person, but its impact can extend to an entire household. Social protection is an investment in human capability and social stability.

Some social security experts have argued that social protection works best when it protects people from falling deeper into poverty while also helping create opportunities to climb out of it.

This requires closer connections between Sassa beneficiaries and the broader economic ecosystem.

It means ensuring that, where appropriate, beneficiaries can be referred to skills programmes, employment services, entrepreneurship support, financial education, markets and other livelihood opportunities.

It means recognising that different beneficiaries require different pathways.

A young unemployed person may need skills and employment opportunities. A small trader may need access to markets and working capital. A rural household may need agricultural support. A person with a disability may need opportunities adapted to their circumstances.

There can be no one-size-fits-all pathway out of vulnerability.

The objective is not to take away the safety net. It is to make the safety net a platform from which people can move forward.

Of course, we must be realistic. Not every grant beneficiary can become an entrepreneur. Not everyone receiving social assistance can work. A pensioner cannot simply be told to start a business. A person with a severe disability cannot be expected to overcome structural barriers through determination alone. And no social grant programme can substitute for decent jobs, economic growth, quality education, effective public services and a functioning economy.

Social protection must remain a right and a safety net for those who need it.

But acknowledging these realities should not prevent us from recognising something equally important: many beneficiaries have capabilities that can be developed and economic potential that can be unlocked.

The challenge is to create the conditions in which that potential can flourish. That is the opportunity presented by the next chapter of social protection in South Africa.

Sassa’s role is therefore much bigger than the monthly transaction. It is about ensuring that a child is protected from hunger and given the chance to grow. It is about ensuring that an older person can live with dignity.

It is about supporting people with disabilities and recognising their right to participate in society. It is about preventing households facing unemployment and economic shocks from falling into destitution.

But it must also be about helping those who can work, trade, learn, farm, create and build businesses to access genuine opportunities to do so.

The story of Ayanda Novukela is powerful because it reminds us that opportunity does not always begin with a large investment. Sometimes, it begins with R370.

The task of government is to ensure that stories of transformation such as hers do not remain isolated examples. They should become part of a broader system in which social protection and economic opportunity reinforce each other.

Ultimately, we should change the way we measure the success of social protection.

The number of beneficiaries receiving grants will always matter. The amount paid will always matter. But we should also ask a bigger question: how many people, because they had the security provided by social protection, were able to take the next step towards a more secure and sustainable livelihood?

That is the real promise of social protection.

A grant protects. A grant stabilises. A grant creates breathing space. But with the right support, that breathing space can become opportunity.

Sassa is more than the monthly grant. It is part of the bridge from vulnerability to resilience, from survival to possibility, and from dependence on assistance towards greater economic participation.

• Matlou is the Sassa CEO

Eight others were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.

The incident is a stark reminder that abandoned and unregulated mines can become death traps for people searching for a livelihood.

Illegal mining is a serious crime as it fuels criminal networks and can place surrounding communities at risk. It must be confronted decisively.

Efforts by the police and the South African National Defence Force, through Operation Vala Umgodi, to crack down illegal mining seems to be bearing fruit but it looks like the problem is not going away.

Just last month, police arrested 105 illegal miners in Pilgrim’s Rest in Mpumalanga.

As the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has noted, unregulated mining threatens not only those who descend underground but entire working-class communities through unstable ground, sinkholes, pollution, dust, violence, environmental destruction and damage to homes and infrastructure.

However, the existence of illegal mining at this scale also tells us about poverty, unemployment and weak controls over abandoned mines.

The men might have broken the law, but their deaths should not allow the state, mining companies or society to avoid asking why the conditions exist in the first place.

Abandoned mines are not simply holes in the ground. They are potential death traps. When a mine closes, responsibility cannot end with the last profitable ton of ore being extracted.

Shafts must be rehabilitated, illegal access must be prevented and communities must be protected.

Government must address the poverty and unemployment that drive some people into illegal mining. Authorities should create employment opportunities and close abandoned and dangerous mine sites.

Where criminal syndicates exploit abandoned mines, intelligence-led policing must target those who organise and profit from the trade, rather than treating every person underground as though they occupy the same position in the criminal hierarchy.

Mining companies have a responsibility concerning the land under their control.

Saftu has called for a coordinated national programme involving government, organised labour and affected mining communities to immediately audit, secure, seal and rehabilitate dangerous abandoned mines and shafts, prioritising those threatening surrounding communities.

It has also called on former mine owners to be identified and enforce their rehabilitation obligations, including recovering rehabilitation funds wherever legally possible.

Simply arresting illegal miners will not solve the problem.

Government must address the poverty and unemployment that drive some people into illegal mining. Authorities should create employment opportunities and close abandoned and dangerous mine sites.

Decisive action must be taken before more lives are lost.

Calls for the Italian’s head have grown — including from three major international regions in a strongly-worded open letter declaring his recent backtracked plan to sell an interest in the World Cup was a “fundamental breach of trust”.

Uefa, Concacaf and the AFC said that “when trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned”.

Infantino is facing a revolt after his failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors.

Through it all, African football leaders — it cannot be gauged what support Infantino has on the ground from ordinary people on the continent — have stood firm in their support of Infantino.

US President Donald Trump has warned FIFA would be making a "terrible mistake" if it got rid of Gianni Infantino as head of world football’s governing body 🗣️

Infantino has come under pressure following his doomed plan to sell off stakes World Cup. pic.twitter.com/Kq4rD89cLY

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) August 11, 2026

Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe was first, though his vote of confidence came before the plan to sell a 20% minority stake in a $20bn commercial subsidiary to a private investor group led by Joshua Kushner, brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Motsepe was speaking in a press conference in Johannesburg on July 22 when Infantino was already facing a firestorm over a 2026 World Cup in North America the Caf president praised as the most successful in history, though one that faced unprecedented controversies being held in the US of the Trump administration. Motsepe stressed, “he’s not just a good friend, he’s a loyal friend. He’s loyal to Africa …”

Caf vice-president Fouzi Lekjaa of Morocco, which will co-host the 2030 World Cup, has also been vocal in his support. Last week the Confederation of African Football (Caf), after taking some time to deliberate, solidly threw its weight behind Infantino.

“We are committed to continue working together with Fifa, its member associations, other football confederations and stakeholders to safeguard and adhere to governance, due process,” Motsepe said in a statement.

Caf and ostensibly Africa’s backing as Infantino seeks re-election next year is hugely significant as the continent has the second-largest voting bloc.

This is the lay of the land in Fifa’s continental voting blocs:

• Uefa (Europe) has the most with 55 votes. Having historically voted fairly cohesively, Europe, also the powerhouse of football, often drives much of Fifa policy.

BREAKING: UEFA, CONCACAF and AFC have issued an open letter to the football world saying that FIFA president Gianni Infantino has 'broken trust through deception with the World Cup stake sale process' 🚨 pic.twitter.com/7BLOAXQXLX

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) August 10, 2026

• Caf has the second-most by just one vote, 54. That Africa historically has voted unanimously, as in Infantino’s re-election campaigns, makes this a hugely crucial voting bloc.
• AFC (Asia) has 46 votes and are a diverse bloc, ranging from heavily-funded Gulf states to East and Southeast Asian markets. It has voted almost en masse for Infantino in his three elections.
• Concacaf (North America, Central America and the Caribbean), another geographically and economically diverse bloc, has 35 votes.
• OFC (Oceania), tiny in influence, has historically aligned its interests with larger confederations with its 11.
• Conmebol (South America) has just 10 votes despite being the second-largest footballing powerhouse on the field behind Europe. Its influence is greater than pure numbers given it houses powerhouses Brazil and Argentina.

So Africa’s vote really counts in a Fifa election. Infantino is, of course, like any Fifa president, keenly aware of that.

He has kept a close relationship with Motsepe, who he helped get elected. Infantino and Fifa brokered the deal that saw Motsepe’s opponents when he first stood in 2021 withdraw their candidacies.

Soon after Infantino’s first election to replace disgraced Sepp Blatter in his 2016, he instituted the Fifa Forward Programme to replace his predecessor’s Financial Assistance Programme, notably increasing monetary support to associations.

This is the reason many smaller nations could be crucial to his survival now or in Fifa’s elections in Morocco in March 2027. Such grants are not crucial to survival and hugely influential in revolutionising structures to European associations, which they are to smaller countries. And of course, many of those small federations are African.

It might be cynically viewed as motivated by ensuring Africa’s support. It also cannot be denied Fifa Forward has immensely benefited, if not fundamentally transformed, African football. Investment topping $1.2bn to Caf, regions and associations has resulted in modern training centres, stadium upgrades and sustainable administrative structures across the continent.

Similarly, Motsepe can be viewed with suspicion on the continent for his ties to Infantino and decisions such as the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) going from a two-year to four-year cycle starting in 2028, something the Fifa president had pushed for. Yet the financial influence of both administrators seems mostly seen as superseding such concerns.

🗣️ "It's too late to save his dignity but it's not too late to save football. He should go. Now"

UEFA Football Advisor Luis Figo has launched an astonishing attack on FIFA president Gianni Infantino. pic.twitter.com/CmXNlo6yDs

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) August 5, 2026

Criticism of Africa’s stance on Infantino as transactional has merit. Africa perhaps also has genuine reason to be wary of a Uefa-led overthrow of the incumbent.

Motsepe has been central to a major co-operation between the Uefa of president Aleksander Čeferin and Caf in a Memorandum of Understanding to 2031 that supports the sustainable football development on both continents through knowledge exchange, training programmes, and joint youth initiatives. Yet historically the two continents have often been at odds in their view of Fifa policy and leadership.

Uefa as a body has never explicitly expressed disagreement in more places for African teams at the World Cup. The closest it came was when Čeferin publicly opposed the expansion of the showpiece from 32 to 38 teams in this year’s World Cup, saying it devalued the qualifiers and resulted in “uninteresting” matches.

The sentiment against giving Africa more World Cup places and of disrespect to the Afcon has been underlying or often expressed by leading European football figures or coaches.

Former Uefa president Michel Platini argued against increasing slots for Asian and African teams, pressing rather for the expansion of participants.

Africa faces a tricky balance. Right now it is keeping its path of support for a Fifa president whose apparent self-interest and megalomaniacal leadership style and apparent courting of the resurgent right-wing governments globally, most notable by his open fawning of Trump, including awarding the US president a farcical Fifa Peace Prize, shows him an unfavourable leader for the better wider interests of the sport. It does so because Infantino is seen to be the right leader for African interests.

It may not be the best path for the long-term interests of African football, which exists as part of the global game. Until a potential successor emerges, though — and here, perhaps, lies the rub — who can promise Africa more than Infantino can, the continent looks sure to hold firm. Realpolitik 101, perhaps?

Dread hung in the air.

My phone had just been stolen by two men passing by on a motorbike in one of Rio de Janeiro’s tourist hotspots. I was anxious, had no idea what was going to happen next and instantly felt guilty about taking the afternoon off.

About 15km away, the 26th International Aids Conference had, for days, been filled with the same nagging uncertainty. Different place, much bigger stakes, but the same question filled the corridors: what happens next?

With around 7,000 delegates, it was one of the smallest gatherings since the biennial conference’s inception in 1985. It also took place in the midst of an unprecedented funding crisis.

In the passageways talk turned to layoffs, rather than viral load reductions.

In 2025, the world’s largest HIV donor, the United States government, made sharp, sudden cuts to HIV funding in developing countries, including South Africa. The result: 1,714 HIV clinics and drop-in centres in 46 countries closed and more than 16,000 full-time staff lost their jobs.

Most of these services were run by nongovernmental organisations funded through the US government’s Aids programme, Pepfar. In just one year, Pepfar cut its support by a quarter. More cuts are coming.

Other wealthy countries have since either cut or flatlined their contributions too, pushing donor funding for HIV down to levels last seen before 2008.

Almost none of the organisations that lost US support have managed to replace it. Many are simply scrambling to survive, let alone finding money to send staff to international conferences.

And here’s the cruel irony.

Just as the money was disappearing, science delivered something extraordinary: lenacapavir (LEN), an injection given just twice a year that makes people who use it for HIV prevention extremely unlikely to contract the virus.

But a breakthrough only works if people can get it.

LEN costs money to make, buy and roll out. If too few people use it, even a drug this good won’t make a meaningful dent in new HIV infections.

Which leaves a much bigger question: does the world still have the political will to use the tools we already have to end Aids?

How the HIV world has changed

The conference signalled the end of an era — one where Aids occupied a unique place in global health.

It was treated as exceptional. And it was.

Consider this: the fight over who discovered HIV became so fierce that it reached the highest levels of government. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac signed an agreement to settle a dispute between American and French scientists over the discovery of the virus and the rights to an HIV blood test.

That same month, the scientists at the centre of the dispute, Robert Gallo in the US and Luc Montagnier in France, published a joint account in the scientific journal Nature, setting out the chronology of HIV’s discovery.

Few diseases have commanded that kind of scientific and political attention.

In fact, the likes of late former South African president Nelson Mandela and former US president Bill Clinton regularly attended International Aids Conferences, while celebrities such as Magic Johnson, Princess Diana, Whoopi Goldberg, Bono, Elton John and Charlize Theron publicly fought the stigma and discrimination that came with HIV.

Aids even got its own United Nations programme — UNAids — established in 1994.

All of this helped HIV attract extraordinary levels of international funding. Two huge funding mechanisms were created: Pepfar and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a multilateral fund.

That money helped to fuel fast-moving science, build extraordinarily influential activist movements and deliver lifesaving treatment to poor countries that otherwise would not have afforded it.

Few other diseases have so many conferences dedicated to them.

The International Aids Society alone organises three big biennial meetings: the International Aids Conference, the Conference on HIV Science and HIVR4P, which focuses on HIV prevention. Africa has its own biennial meeting, the International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa, or Icasa. And every year, scientists gather for the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, or Croi, where some of the most significant HIV research findings have been unveiled.

That’s without counting special World Health Organization and UN meetings devoted to Aids.

But the world has changed. Or at least, the funding has.

And the old funding model isn’t coming back.

Which leaves a difficult question: what happens to the HIV movement when Aids is no longer exceptional?

Will Aids conferences continue?

It’s not just the size of the available pot of money that changed in 2025. Who fills that pot has changed too, and there have been some positive shifts.

About 60% of the $17.6bn available for the global HIV response in 2025 came from poorer countries themselves, up four percentage points from 2024.

African countries have also increased their contributions to the Global Fund, even though many are themselves recipients. In 2025, they committed $51.6m.

But these increased commitments still pale in comparison with what’s needed.

No donor can simply step in and fill the hole left by the US — not even the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private funder of global health.

Before the recent US cuts, Congress provided about $5.4bn a year for Pepfar’s bilateral HIV programmes — 25 times the $216m the Gates Foundation spent on its HIV programme in 2024.

This new financial reality will almost certainly change the number, size and shape of Aids conferences too.

Over the years, these gatherings have served an important purpose. Scientific breakthroughs were announced. Health and finance ministers — and sometimes presidents — came together to develop regional HIV plans. Donors met grantees. Activists protested. Journalists found stories. Collaborations were born.

But something else had already started to change.

Once treatment turned Aids in Africa from a death sentence into a manageable chronic condition in the 2000s, many political leaders, ironically, seemed to see the epidemic as less urgent.

What comes out of a conference [or movement] is more important than what happened at the conference. Three to six months from now, we need to ask: are we working differently because we gathered in Rio?

Mitchell Warren, head of HIV advocacy organisation Avac

Over the past decade, Aids conferences have become less visible. Far fewer prominent political leaders attend. Delegate numbers have fallen from a high of about 24,000 at the Washington, DC conference in 2012 to about 7,000 in Rio this year — aside from the unusually small gatherings during Covid. Media rooms are a fraction of the size they were in the mid-2000s.

HIV science has matured too. Game-changing discoveries come less often, while the number of ways to share them has exploded. Scientists no longer need thousands of people in the same convention centre to announce a finding to the world. We have webinars, livestreams and social media — all cheaper and faster.

But that doesn’t make Aids conferences irrelevant.

They remain places where scientists, public health officials, activists and HIV organisations exchange ideas and build alliances. And, as I felt strongly in Rio, they help people feel less alone in a field that has lived through enormous loss and is now facing another deeply uncertain period.

But do we still need as many conferences, in the form we have them now?

A new generation, a different movement

And it’s not just the funding environment that has changed.

An unavoidable generational handover is under way.

The activists who shaped HIV programmes and helped get us through the darkest years of the epidemic still command enormous respect. They should.

But nostalgia won’t decide what comes next.

Young activists live in a different world, with a whole new set of worries competing with HIV for their attention: finding a job, affording a home, staying safe and inheriting a planet increasingly battered by climate change.

For them, the sun doesn’t orbit around HIV; HIV orbits around the sun.

The HIV movement has to find ways to fit into their reality.

TikTok, gaming and WhatsApp — and whatever comes next — may influence how young people organise, learn and connect as much as, or more than, PowerPoint presentations in convention centres.

“Integration” — combining HIV with other health services — has become the buzzword of the funding crisis.

But there’s a danger in confusing integration with simply shutting specialised services.

Many specialised clinics serving sex workers, transgender people, gay and bisexual men, people who inject drugs and young people have closed, leaving people to seek care at general clinics. So far, the consequences for South Africa’s LEN roll-out are worrying: uptake among several of the groups with the highest chances of contracting HIV remains extremely low.

So perhaps the question isn’t whether to integrate, but how.

And perhaps we need to ask whether integration should apply to the HIV movement itself.

Is it time to integrate Aids conferences too — bringing HIV, TB and sexual and reproductive health together rather than continuing to build conferences around a single disease?

What’s next?

I don’t have the answers.

That is perhaps the most frightening part. The HIV movement can no longer plan decades ahead with any confidence. Five years sometimes feels ambitious. Too many things beyond its control — politics, funding, wars, economies — can change too quickly.

Integration may be inevitable. But the HIV movement has to work out how to integrate without losing what made its specialised structures — and its conferences — effective in the first place.

Which brings me back to the question that struck me on that street corner in Rio: what happens next?

Mitchell Warren, who heads the HIV advocacy organisation Avac and has attended every International Aids Conference since 1996, has a useful way of answering it.

“What comes out of a conference [or movement] is more important than what happened at the conference. Three to six months from now, we need to ask: are we working differently because we gathered in Rio?

“If the answer is no, there’s no need to continue to convene. But I hope the answer will be clear: coming together and planning together strengthened our Aids response. That’s the measure of success.”

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.

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The mass repatriation of undocumented foreign nationals has cost the state almost R293m, more than five times the department of home affairs’ annual allocation for deportations.

The department is now seeking additional funding for an operation it says was not budgeted for.

Home affairs director-general Tommy Makhode told parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs on Tuesday that the department and other government entities involved in the operation had not budgeted for the large-scale repatriation drive.

“We have not budgeted for this,” Makhode said. “Repatriations are not provided for in terms of our legislative frameworks. So to date, this is what we’ve spent: R292m.”

The department’s presentation put the known cost at R292.77m. The largest component is R203.5m for buses procured through a travel agency, while the department of public works & infrastructure spent R48m establishing and operating the temporary repatriation processing centre in Musina.

Home affairs received R60m from the criminal assets recovery account for the operation. Makhode said the department had submitted a memorandum through the budget process seeking funding for the unforeseen and unavoidable expenditure.

The department is also seeking reimbursement from the governments of Malawi, Nigeria and Ethiopia for costs incurred in repatriating their nationals.

The scale of the repatriation operation has grown rapidly. The Border Management Authority (BMA) told the committee that 89,936 people had been repatriated through South Africa’s ports of entry by August 7.

Home affairs recorded 82,875 people processed for deportation and repatriation by August 6. The figures cover different stages of the process, with the BMA recording people who ultimately passed through ports of entry and home affairs recording people processed through its repatriation and deportation system.

The BMA’s figures show the operation is overwhelmingly regional. More than 54,000 of those repatriated were Malawian nationals, while about 27,000 were Zimbabwean nationals who exited through the Beitbridge corridor. Mozambicans were the third-largest group.

Home affairs carried out 51,560 deportations in 2024/25 and 57,784 in 2025/26. The department said deportations increased by 46% over the two years, attributing the increase to intensified enforcement, biometric verification and compliance campaigns.

The longer-term trend has also been upwards, from 14,859 deportations in 2020/21 and 20,093 in 2021/22 to 22,560 and 39,672 in the subsequent two years.

The Musina temporary repatriation processing centre was established after the number of people seeking to leave the country overwhelmed existing arrangements and created what Makhode described as a humanitarian emergency.

The facility was designed to accommodate up to 20,000 people. Makhode said its operations were now being scaled back as the number of people being processed declined.

The R293m expenditure is significantly higher than home affairs’ normal budget for deportations. The department’s presentation shows a R57m allocation for deportations through Lindela for 2026/27, meaning the known cost of the broader repatriation operation is more than five times that allocation.

Makhode said transport accounted for the bulk of the additional expenditure, with municipalities including eThekwini and Cape Town reimbursed for buses they arranged to transport people to processing facilities.

The BMA separately incurred R11.8m in additional costs, primarily for deploying extra officials to Beitbridge as large numbers of people arrived from repatriation facilities elsewhere in the country.

The financial pressure comes as the government builds a broader enforcement system to identify, process, remove and prevent the re-entry of undocumented migrants.

The operation forms part of the government’s five-point approach to migration management, approved by cabinet in June. The plan focuses on enforcing immigration and labour laws, securing borders, strengthening the immigration system, closing gaps in laws and policies, and increasing regional co-operation.

Home affairs has also expanded the use of dedicated courts to process immigration cases. Between April and June, a total of 28,736 illegal immigration cases were finalised nationally, with Gauteng accounting for 13,312.

The department plans to establish a dedicated immigration court at OR Tambo International Airport and to expand the Lindela court from one to two dedicated courtrooms.

The number of people declared undesirable has also increased. Home affairs recorded 63,090 declarations of undesirability in 2025/26 and 20,340 in the current financial year to date.

Assistant commissioner for operations and law enforcement at the BMA Balene Mkhabela told MPs that the authority had refused entry to 12,100 people as screening at land ports was intensified.

Officials are increasingly requiring travellers to demonstrate where they will stay, that they have sufficient funds and the purpose of their visit.

Mkhabela said the BMA expected stricter enforcement to generate political pressure but was prepared for it.

The scale of deportations raises a more difficult question: what happens after people are removed?

Mkhabela said 4,239 undocumented people were intercepted attempting to enter South Africa illegally between April 1 and July 21. The figures demonstrate the difficulty of preventing people from returning after deportation, particularly given the length and vulnerability of South Africa’s land borders.

Mkhabela told MPs that one of the biggest threats after deportation was that people would attempt to return outside formal ports of entry.

But the briefing did not provide a measure of how many of those deported subsequently return to South Africa, nor did it provide a clear assessment of how effective the new measures would be in preventing re-entry.

The BMA is working towards moving refugee reception facilities closer to ports of entry. Mkhabela said the current system, under which asylum seekers are given five days to report to a refugee reception centre after entering the country, creates an enforcement gap when people fail to report.

The proposed system would allow applications to be processed closer to the border before people are allowed to enter the country.

The scale of the deportation operation comes amid widespread claims about the number of foreign nationals living in South Africa.

Census 2022 recorded more than 2.4-million international migrants, equivalent to just above 3% of the population. The majority came from the Southern African Development Community, with Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho accounting for the largest shares.

Makhode acknowledged that enforcement could not address the underlying reasons people migrate to South Africa. He said South Africa’s relatively developed economy attracted migrants from countries facing unemployment, instability, poverty and limited economic opportunities.

“Our view is that the solutions require regional co-operation alongside domestic enforcement,” Makhode said.

The government is therefore combining domestic enforcement with diplomatic engagement with neighbouring and other African countries.

Makhode said the government was also seeking to ensure the operation remained consistent with constitutional rights, including equality and human dignity, while making clear that people in South Africa must comply with immigration law.

The scale of the operation nevertheless represents a significant new financial commitment for the state.

With more than 100,000 deportations over the past two financial years, almost 90,000 people repatriated since June and more than R292m in unbudgeted expenditure on the current operation, the government has substantially expanded its immigration enforcement machinery.

But the re-entry figures highlight the central problem facing the strategy: removing people is only one part of migration control. Preventing people from returning through a porous border is a much more difficult and potentially much more expensive task.

The government has outlined plans for additional personnel, technology, surveillance and physical border infrastructure, but Tuesday’s briefing did not establish how many people successfully return after deportation or whether the new measures will be sufficient to prevent this.

Business Day

This was even though the IGI had previously refused to give the report to the Idac after being asked to do so because investigations into the matter were still ongoing.

This was revealed by Idac prosecutor Drushantha Ramsamy, who told the Madlanga commission on Tuesday that the exchange did not follow the normal processes when they had previously exchanged information with the IGI.

“In September, Mr [Dylan] Perumal [suspended Idac chief investigator] told us that the minister, Senzo Mchunu, arranged with someone from [the] IGI to fly to the Eastern Cape and provide him with the report,” said Ramsamy.

The report was later handed to Idac.

“I just know that it wasn’t supposed to come to us in that way [through the minister],” she said.

“There are certain procedures and processes that have to be followed before the sharing of that information. There were channels that had to be followed for that information to be shared.”

The report related to investigations that IGI was conducting into crime intelligence officers, which Perumal had labelled “golden”. That is because it was believed it would assist Idac in the case it was also conducting against crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo and his senior colleagues.

“I just know that it [the IGI report] wasn’t supposed to come to us in that way.”

Idac prosecutor Drushantha Ramsamy

However, a few months before they got the report from Mchunu, Idac had a meeting with the IGI to ask them to provide them with the report. However, the IGI refused, saying investigations were ongoing and their mandate was different from Idac’s.

“It was a fruitless meeting. They [IGI] could not assist us and we could not assist them,” she said.

Ramsamy told the commission that Idac had approached the IGI because there had always been information sharing between Idac and IGI on finalised reports.

However, the sharing of information could not take place at the time, but Mchunu later arranged for Idac to get the report.

This is not the first time Ramsamy suggested that Mchunu was involved in Idac’s investigations against crime intelligence officers.

Last week, she told the commission that Mchunu flew a witness to the Eastern Cape in January 2025 to give evidence to Perumal in relation to an alleged tender procurement irregularity by the police’s crime intelligence unit involving forklifts.

The forklift tender investigations emanated from National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams’ complaint to the directorate in December 2024. Adams’ initial affidavit relating to the forklift tender, however, was not submitted to the commission by former Idac head Andrea Johnson.

Earlier, Ramsamy told the commission that a case against Khumalo and his senior colleagues, which she had been asked to work on, was enrolled in court while she was on sick leave and before she had concluded her assessment.

“In June, I had read the docket, and I found that there were no merits for enrolment; I found that there was no prima facie evidence.

“I had started drafting a memo where I had gone statement by statement, problem by problem and submission by submission, and then you would recommend that there was no case.

“Unfortunately, I [became sick] and did not finish the memo. While on sick leave, I received a call from someone at the office who said, ‘Hey, aren’t you doing crime intelligence matters? Your matter is in court.’ I switched on the TV and saw the crime intelligence officers in court,” Ramsamy said.

That does not mean the EFF is irrelevant, nor does it mean that Julius Malema has suddenly lost his political influence. Politics is about moments, endurance and changing tides, and every new movement eventually discovers that the excitement that comes with being the new kid on the block does not last forever.

The real test is whether a political party can survive those cycles, learn from its setbacks and change with the electorate without losing the reason people supported it in the first place.

That, for me, is where the EFF finds itself today.

When the party was formed in 2013, it found a generation already frustrated with the direction of South Africa. Young people were coming of age in a country where democracy had brought political freedom, but economic freedom remained painfully out of reach, with unemployment, poverty, inequality and exclusion continuing to shape the lives of millions of black South Africans.

Then came the height of #FeesMustFall.

For many of us at universities during those years, politics was not something we watched on television. It was happening around us, in lecture halls, student residences and on the streets, as young people demanded an education system that did not make poverty a barrier to opportunity. We were questioning why, more than two decades after apartheid, a young black person could work hard, get accepted into university and still be unable to continue because their family could not afford the fees.

It was in that environment that Malema seemed to speak directly to us.

Whether you agreed with everything he said was almost beside the point. Malema had an ability many politicians simply did not possess: he could take the complicated frustrations of South African politics and express them in language young people understood. He spoke about land, unemployment, education and inequality without the careful political language that often made other politicians sound as though they were reading from a script.

He sounded angry because many of us were angry too. When he spoke about economic freedom, there was a generation willing to believe that perhaps someone had finally understood that political freedom meant little if you could not find a job, afford university, buy a home or build a decent life. That emotional connection mattered.

The EFF won 6.35% of the national vote in its first election in 2014, rising to 10.8% in 2019 and winning 44 seats in Parliament. But in 2024, its support fell to 9.52%, with the party dropping from 44 seats to 39. The decline was not catastrophic — the EFF remains a major political force but it was significant because it came at precisely the moment when the ANC suffered its biggest electoral collapse since 1994. Instead of the EFF becoming the obvious home for that dissatisfaction, Jacob Zuma’s newly formed MK Party captured 14.58% of the national vote and 58 seats, while millions of South Africans chose not to participate.

So perhaps the question is not whether the EFF has lost the youth vote completely. We simply do not have enough public election data to make such a sweeping claim.

The more interesting question is whether the party has lost some of the political excitement and trust among young people that once made its growth seem unstoppable.

I believe it has. And part of the reason may be that the EFF itself has changed.

When it was established, it looked and sounded like a movement. Today, the party has become so closely associated with Julius Malema that it is increasingly difficult to separate the EFF from the personality of its leader.

Malema remains the face and most powerful voice of the party, while there is still relatively little sense that the EFF has deliberately built a strong second generation of national leaders who could eventually take the movement forward without everything revolving around its founder.

That matters because the EFF was supposed to represent a break from the old politics of powerful individuals controlling political organisations. Instead, critics have questioned the space available for internal disagreement and debate.

The irony is difficult to ignore: a movement that speaks so often about challenging authoritarianism must also be willing to examine the concentration of power within its own organisation.

Then there is Malema’s political consistency. I understand that political parties must adapt, and there is nothing wrong with changing strategy when circumstances change. But there is a difference between adapting and leaving voters wondering what you actually believe. The EFF’s changing positions and alliances, particularly around coalition politics, have sometimes made it difficult for supporters to distinguish political strategy from political principle. That matters because politics is ultimately about trust.

And then there are the promises. The EFF has consistently presented itself as the party that understands youth unemployment and economic exclusion. Its manifestos have promised free education, large-scale job creation, industrial development, economic transformation and greater state ownership of the country’s resources.

For many young people, these were never simply political slogans. They represented hope.

That hope was not irrational. South Africa’s youth continue to face an extraordinary employment crisis. In the first quarter of 2026, the official unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 34 stood at 45.8%, while 45.6% of young people in that age group were not in employment, education or training. Among 15- to 24-year-olds, unemployment was an astonishing 60.9%.

The EFF has been very effective at describing what is wrong with South Africa. Where it has struggled is convincing a growing number of voters that it has a practical and believable path from its promises to implementation.

A young graduate sitting at home without work does not experience unemployment as a statistic. They experience it as a loss of dignity, independence and time. A student unable to register because they cannot afford fees does not experience the cost of education as an economic policy problem. They experience it as a closed door.

That is why Malema’s message was so powerful.

But after more than a decade, young voters are increasingly asking a question political rhetoric cannot answer: how?

How will millions of jobs actually be created? How will free education be sustainably funded? How will nationalisation translate into better lives for ordinary people? How will young people move from unemployment today to stable work tomorrow?

The EFF has been very effective at describing what is wrong with South Africa. Where it has struggled is convincing a growing number of voters that it has a practical and believable path from its promises to implementation.

To be fair, the EFF has never governed South Africa nationally, so it would be dishonest to blame Malema for the country’s entire unemployment crisis. The ANC has been in national government since 1994 and remains primarily responsible for the economic conditions that have produced today’s unemployment and inequality.

But an opposition party that wants to become a governing party must eventually convince voters that it can do more than identify the failures of those in power.

It has to demonstrate that it can govern. That is why the 2026 local government elections matter. Local government is where politics becomes part of people’s everyday lives. It is where people experience whether their water works, whether their rubbish is collected, whether their roads are maintained and whether their municipality actually responds when communities complain.

For the EFF, this is an opportunity to demonstrate that its politics can move beyond protest and parliamentary performance into practical delivery. If it wants young voters to believe that it can govern South Africa one day, it needs to show that it can govern municipalities effectively today.

But there is another challenge that Malema cannot simply blame on the EFF’s opponents: young people themselves are changing.

The generation that marched during #FeesMustFall has grown up. Many of us are no longer students. We are now trying to build careers, pay rent, raise families, repay student debt, start businesses and survive an economy that continues to make life extraordinarily difficult.

And today’s first-time voters are entering politics with a different set of expectations. They have grown up with social media, the gig economy, artificial intelligence and a political environment in which switching allegiances is increasingly normal.

The youth are not necessarily politically apathetic. Recent research by the Human Sciences Research Council found that young people are often choosing not to participate because they feel disillusioned with how democracy works in their everyday lives; in 2024, only about 27% of 18- and 19-year-olds and 49% of 20- to 29-year-olds were registered to vote.

This is important because the EFF is not competing only against the ANC, DA, MK Party or the latest political movement promising change. It is competing against political fatigue.

And perhaps that is the real test of endurance.

The EFF may well be going through a “maturing phase”, as former fallist Phethani Madzivhandila puts it. Every political movement experiences moments when its support rises, falls and changes shape. The new parties that are exciting voters today will eventually face the same test. The question is not who is popular in one election cycle, but who can survive changing political tides.

For Malema, surviving means more than simply keeping the EFF on the ballot. It means evolving.

If he wants to rebuild the relationship between the EFF and young voters, he does not necessarily need to abandon the radical politics that made the party successful. He needs to show that radical politics can also be practical, that political conviction can coexist with humility and that the EFF can become an organisation bigger than the personality of its leader.

That means allowing new leaders to emerge, creating greater room for internal debate, explaining its economic promises in language ordinary people understand and, most importantly, demonstrating through local government that the party can turn its promises into services, jobs and opportunities.

The young people who wore red berets during #FeesMustFall have not stopped caring about economic freedom. They have not forgotten what exclusion feels like, and they have not stopped wanting better universities, decent jobs, affordable housing and an economy that gives them a real chance at a future.

What has changed is that many of us are no longer willing to confuse being angry with being effective.

The EFF once understood that distinction better than almost anyone. The question now is whether Julius Malema can prove that it still does and whether the red beret can survive long enough to become more than the symbol of one political moment.

Oliver Meth is a development & political communications strategist.

Details of how Van Heerden was snatched, tracked and eventually found have been shared with the Sunday Times by Bhaai Cassim of the Fairland community policing forum and the station’s victim support unit, who was part of the operation from start to finish.

Van Heerden, 26, was dropped off at Vosloorus police station late on Thursday night, more than 24 hours after she was ambushed by armed men outside her Northcliff home in an incident that was caught on CCTV camera.

The Sunday Times can reveal that Van Heerden and her husband, private investigator Rashad Ismail, have a young son and are separated.

Van Heerden was seized at about 7pm on Wednesday when she was dropped home by an Uber. As she got out of the vehicle, at least three armed men ambushed her, took the Uber driver’s phone and forced her into a white Renault Clio.

We know there are people who have huge problems with Rashad (Van Heerden’s anti-kidnapping specialist husband) and will leak information. But we as specialised investigators on the case are concerned only with facts.

Mike Bolhuis, Van Heerden family's contracted PI

The Uber driver went straight to the Fairland police station to report the case. Police immediately began investigating, visiting the address where the snatching took place to establish the identity of the victim ― quickly ascertaining it was Van Heerden. They reached out to her sister in Pretoria, who came through immediately to join Van Heerden’s young son and babysitter who had been in her apartment when she was kidnapped.

Van Heerden family’s contracted private investigator Mike Bolhuis of Specialised Security Services (SSS), who led a high-intensity tracking operation involving private investigators and police.

Bolhuis said his team was deliberately keeping their focus on evidence rather than speculation.

“We know there are people who have huge problems with Rashad (Van Heerden’s anti-kidnapping specialist husband) and will leak information. But we as specialised investigators on the case are concerned only with facts. We know the history and what’s going on, and we’ve taken all of it into consideration.

“He’s given us feedback from his side and we are now busy with an extremely sensitive and intense investigation,” he said.

Bolhuis said his team used cellphone tracking and tracing as part of a digital and electronic cyber investigation. Police investigators and other private security outfits all worked together ― eventually tracking the kidnappers to the Vaal area where a joint operations centre was set up.

Cassim said footage of the kidnappers’ car registration plate revealed that the number plates were genuine, and so police were able to identify the owner of the car and locate his address. They visited the property where they found the car with some of Van Heerden’s personal effects inside, and arrested the car owner.

At 10pm on Thursday, Van Heerden walked into the Vosloorus police station, Cassim said, and from there she was taken home.

“Her kidnappers had taken good care of her. They had acted on instructions, they gave her food and were told not to hurt her. We don’t yet know why they decided to release her, but they had given her R200 and let her go,” Cassim said, adding that Van Heerden had managed to flag down a passing motorist who dropped her at the police station.

Bolhuis said investigators were now working to establish who was behind the kidnapping, and that further arrests could follow.

“We are looking at what happened before, during and after the recovery. We are taking statements from witnesses and informers and more information is coming through to us,” he said, confirming that the circumstances surrounding Van Heerden’s kidnapping remain under investigation.

Bolhuis said neither Van Heerden nor her family were speaking publicly and had directed requests for comment to his team.

Police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi confirmed that one arrest had been made and that a criminal case had been registered at Fairland police station. She said investigations into the syndicate behind the kidnapping were continuing.

1912 — Aubrey Faulkner takes seven wickets as South Africa bowl out England for 176 at the Oval on the first day of their sixth and final Test of the triangular tournament also featuring Australia.

1933 — Legendary forward Boy Louw and winger Freddy Turner score tries as the Springboks beat the touring Australians 12-3 in the third Test at Ellis Park to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. All-time greats, fullback Gerry Brand and flyhalf Bennie Osler, added points with the boot, Brand kicking a conversion and Osler a drop.

1961 — Flyhalf Keith Oxlee scores 14 points as the Springboks beat Australia 23-11 in the second and final Test at the Boet Erasmus stadium in Port Elizabeth. Oxlee scored one of South Africa’s three tries, converted one and landed three penalties on the day. Fullback Lionel Wilson kicked a drop.

1964 — South Africa is officially barred from the Tokyo Olympics after the country’s National Olympic Committee refused to publicly renounce racial discrimination in sport. It was the beginning of the country’s stay in the Olympic wilderness, which lasted a total of seven Games until 1988. South Africa returned at Barcelona 1992.

1967 — The Springboks play to a lacklustre 6-6 draw against France in the fourth and final Test at Newlands to win the series 2-1. The visitors scored the only try of the match, while for South Africa fullback HO de Villiers slotted a penalty and flyhalf Piet Visagie put over a drop.

1979 — Double world champion Kork Ballington wraps up the 250cc world championship as he races to victory in the British motorcycle grand prix at Silverstone. He also won the 350cc event to keep his hopes alive in that class, with two more GPs to go.

1981 — Lock Hennie Bekker scores a try on debut, but the Springboks lose the opening Test against the All Blacks in Christchurch 9-14. The home side ran in three tries.

2001 — Hestrie Cloete wins the women’s high jump at the world championships in Edmonton, clearing two metres to edge Inha Babakova of Ukraine on countback. The men’s 4x100m relay team of Morne Nagel, Corne du Plessis, Lee-Roy Newton and Matthew Quinn finished second behind the victorious Americans, but their silver was later upgraded to gold after US sprinter Tim Montgomery was banned for doping.

2002 — Herschelle Gibbs scores 114 as the Proteas beat Pakistan by 54 runs in a triangular ODI tournament in Tangier. South Africa made 283/9.

2006 — Roland Schoeman becomes the first man to swim under 21 seconds in the 50m freestyle as he breaks the world short-course record going 20.98sec at a gala in Hamburg, Germany.

2009 — Bafana Bafana go down 1-3 in a friendly against Serbia at Atteridgeville, with Katlego Mphela striking late to put the home side on the board.

2014 — Dane Piedt takes four wickets as the Proteas bowl out Zimbabwe for 181 before the visiting batsmen achieve the 41 required runs to win a one-off Test in Harare by nine wickets.

2016 — Chad le Clos, four years after sharing the Olympic 100m butterfly silver in a two-way tie at the London Games, ends in a three-way tie for second place at the Rio Games. Joseph Schooling won Singapore’s first Olympic gold in a 50.39sec Olympic record, but behind him Le Clos, defending champion Michael Phelps of the US and Hungarian Laszlo Cseh finished second in 51.14.

2017 — Gift Motupa and captain Mario Booysen put Bafana Bafana 2-0 up, but Zambia fight back to draw this African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifier in East London with a stoppage-time equaliser.

2018 — A lacklustre Proteas are hammered by Sri Lanka by 178 runs in the fifth and final ODI in Colombo. Quinton de Kock was the best of South Africa’s batsmen, making 54 in an otherwise dismal innings that was over in the 25th over. The visitors won the series 3-2.

2025 — Dewald Brewis hammers an unbeaten 125 — the highest T20 score by a South African — to lift the Proteas to 218/7 on their way to a 53-run victory over Australia in the second contest to draw level at 1-1 in the three-match series. Brewis, who faced 56 balls in total, hit his first 50 off 25 deliveries and the second 50 came 19 balls later. Kwena Maphaka and Corbin Bosch took three wickets each as the visitors bowled out the Australians for 165.

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Section27 and the Teddy Bear Foundation (TBF) have welcomed the judgment handed down by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) concerning the state’s obligation under the Children’s Act to ensure the effective functioning of the National Child Protection Register.

The register protects children from predators by requiring that school employees are vetted against an up-to-date register of people found unsuitable to work with children.

The case was against the department of social development (DSD) and 16 other respondents, including the department of justice & constitutional development (DOJ&CD), the department of basic education (DBE) and provincial education departments, the Education Labour Relations Council and the South African Council of Educators.

Judge Jabulani Nyathi, in a judgment passed on Friday, held that DSD is responsible for maintaining and keeping the register.

DSD had opposed the application and argued that there were no backlogs in relation to the maintenance of the register, and that it has complied with its legislative obligations.

The court instead held that DSD had not proved a case to show that it had fulfilled its obligations to maintain the register. The court emphasised that the rights of children were paramount, and DSD had an obligation to ensure that the NCPR was maintained.

The court found that TBF and DBE’s settlement agreement, which was made an order of court on July 28, supported the importance of DSD’s role in the NCPR’s vetting and reporting mechanisms. The court said that the NCPR required all departments to work together to ensure its efficacy.

TBF submitted that the DSD had adopted an unduly narrow conception of its statutory obligations.

TBF said the duty to “keep and maintain” the register extended beyond the passive capture of information received from other institutions.

The DSD submitted it had discharged its obligations. It pointed to the digitisation of the register, staffing allocations, audit controls, identity verification mechanisms, training initiatives and the absence of any backlog in relation to compliant referrals.

“The words ‘keep and maintain’ cannot be interpreted in isolation. They must be construed in the context of a statute whose dominant purpose is the protection of children and whose implementation is expressly required to occur through co-ordinated action between organs of state,” Nyathi said.

Nyathi said he was unable to accept the proposition that DSD’s obligation was exhausted once information reached its offices in a technically compliant form.

“The statutory purpose would be frustrated if the custodian of the register were entitled simply to await information while remaining indifferent to systemic deficiencies that prevent qualifying findings from reaching the register in the first place.”

Nyathi said the evidence demonstrated that critical reporting failures had persisted for years.

“The incident that ultimately catalysed this litigation revealed that a perpetrator was entered into a register only after prolonged delay and repeated intervention.”

Nyathi said further concerns arose when specific perpetrators identified by TBF had not appeared in the register despite the existence of qualifying findings.

“In my view (TBF) has established that the DSD’s understanding of its statutory obligations is unduly narrow and that further measures directed at ensuring the efficacy of the register are constitutionally required.”

Nyathi declared DSD’s failure to maintain the register unconstitutional and ordered it to put mechanisms in place to ensure the NCPR is implemented.

The DOJ&CD and SACE did not oppose the matter, and the court granted TBF’s requested relief in respect of these parties.

It found that DOJ&CD must report quarterly to DSD on all people deemed unsuitable to work with children. SACE must report on the number of new entrants on the educators’ roll and whether they have been vetted. It must also report on educators found guilty of misconduct that makes them unsuitable to work with learners, and whether they have been reported to DSD for inclusion on the NCPR.

In addition, SACE must report the number of cases received by it over 12 months, and the number finalised during the same period.

“The judgment affirms the importance of children’s rights, particularly the right to basic education, by recognising that schools must be safe spaces for children.

“The structural orders against the departments will help address failures in implementing the NCPR and bind them addressed to comply with their constitutional obligations,” TBF and Section27 said in a statement on Tuesday.

They said it has been over 15 years since the promulgation of the Children’s Act, and it has taken a court to affirm and mandate these departments to comply with the legislative obligations as it relates to the register.

“Section27 and TBF welcome this judgment and will be monitoring the implementation of the order.”

TimesLIVE

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Gauteng health MEC Faith Mazibuko says the new mobile units the department has deployed to different parts of the province will take services to the people, especially in areas where they have had to travel far for help.

Mazibuko oversaw the handover on Tuesday of seven mobile clinic vehicles that will be deployed in Tshwane, Sedibeng, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg.

“These state-of-the-art mobile units will bring quality services closer to communities. No resident will be left behind,” Mazibuko said.

The handover took place at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto.

The units are fitted with solar-powered systems, oxygen facilities, refrigeration units, generators and clinical examination tools.

Mazibuko said the aim was to take primary care to townships, informal settlements, hostels and farming communities where residents now walk far for treatment.

“There are areas where clinics are not accessible, in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng, hence today is so important.

“We’re happy today that with the little money the department has, we can help out residents in Gauteng,” she added.

She urged district managers to audit their fleets and write off mobile clinics that are not working so money is not wasted on vehicles that never leave the yard.

Gauteng has announced several mobile clinic rollouts over the past five years, but there has been little consistency in services.

Palesa More, a resident from Motsoaledi, says the problem is frequency, not just vehicles.

“They introduced mobile clinics before but it’s not enough because they come once a week and people need care every day. It does not really reduce the pressure on hospitals when they come only once a week,” More said.

The department said the new units would target areas with the worst access but released no schedule for visits.

TimesLIVE

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Italtile expects a subdued economic environment to limit growth in the short term, with consumers continuing to delay discretionary spending on home improvements despite signs of stability in the retail market.

The home-improvement group, which owns brands including CTM, Italtile Retail and TopT, said on Tuesday that the economy delivered modest, steady growth during the year to June, but household spending remained constrained by rising costs and weak consumer demand.

Italtile said geopolitical tensions had recently pushed up fuel and transport costs, while also constraining construction investment and household discretionary spending. Intense competition and excess supply, particularly in the tile market, have added further pressure.

“The current macro environment does not support rapid topline growth,” the group said. Instead, the company pointed to efficiency, cost competitiveness and strengthening its market position as the main drivers of future growth.

The warning came as Italtile reported broadly stable retail trading during the year, suggesting that consumers are still active but highly selective about where they spend.

System-wide turnover across CTM, Italtile Retail and TopT was stable compared with the previous year. Italtile Retail delivered improved sales and volumes, while TopT recorded modest sales growth. CTM was broadly stable, though its second-half performance was slightly weaker.

Italtile said its manufacturing operations are under pressure as global overcapacity and the continued dumping of cheaper tiles into South Africa have contributed to price deflation, while higher energy, transport, fuel and municipal costs have squeezed margins.

The International Trade Administration Commission’s provisional anti-dumping duties on ceramic and porcelain wall and floor tiles, announced in July, could provide some relief to local manufacturers by addressing what Italtile described as an imbalance between excess supply and weak demand.

Italtile expects headline earnings per share for the year ended June 2026 to decline between 7.5% and 12.4%, to between 109.5c and 115.7c, from 125.1c previously. Earnings per share are expected to fall between 7.7% and 12.7%.

TimesLIVE

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Nelson Mandela University chancellor Naledi Pandor has criticised mathematical literacy as an alternative to pure mathematics in the further education and training (FET) phase, describing its introduction as a disaster.

The subject was introduced in 2006 during Pandor’s tenure as basic education minister (2004–2009).

In an interview on the Renaissance podcast, Pandor admitted that allowing the subject to be approved was one of the biggest mistakes of her tenure.

“I suppose one makes mistakes,” Pandor said. “I didn’t support maths literacy because I knew it would be a disaster, but I allowed officials to persuade me.”

She explained that introducing the subject significantly reduced the number of pupils taking pure mathematics.

“What I suspected would happen did happen: a lot of students dropped pure maths in favour of maths literacy, which brought down our overall mathematics numbers.”

Despite her opposition to its implementation as a core substitute, Pandor acknowledged the value of the subject.

“I think it is important, but not as a replacement for pure mathematics. Basic numeracy is something all children should possess, but as a country, we need more mathematicians.”

Pandor also addressed the contentious issue of the matric pass mark, stating that she stood firm against lowering standards during her time in office. She noted that while current pass rates are higher than those during her tenure, the matric exams were tougher under her leadership because she prioritised exam quality.

The class of 2025 achieved an all-time high pass rate of 88% nationally under basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube. Pandor saw her lowest of 62.5% in 2008.

“I got into trouble because I insisted on quality matric exam papers, and perhaps they became too difficult,” Pandor said. “During my time, the matric pass rate went down, and naturally, people blamed the minister. However, the quality of the exam papers was excellent, meaning those who passed were top-tier. That is what we should aim to achieve. At the same time, it doesn’t make sense to have high failure rates; we should have explored other supporting options.”

Pandor suggested that low performance is not always a reflection of a pupil’s ability but often points to ineffective teaching. She suggested that the focus should shift toward evaluating teacher competence rather than testing only pupils.

“To drive real change in society, you sometimes have to confront uncomfortable realities. We often assume teachers understand the content, but there is sometimes a fundamental problem there. We must prioritise upgrading teacher training. Many older teachers were trained under the previous education system, which did not adequately equip them to teach foundational skills like reading and writing.”

Pandor defended the closure of teacher training colleges in the 1990s, emphasising that the change was necessary.

“We had many teacher training colleges. While a few were exceptional, a large number were substandard and cost the state immense amounts of money. Closing them was a necessary adjustment to ensure state resources were spent efficiently.”

She added that many of the colleges focused excessively on educational theory rooted in the Bantu Education framework, rather than subject matter expertise.

“We ended up with teachers who held education qualifications but lacked mastery in core subjects such as mathematics or English. Other successful education systems prioritise strong subject knowledge before professional teaching qualifications.”

TimesLIVE

Former Ukrainian detainees and Ukrainian officials accused Russia on Monday of systematically torturing prisoners of war and civilian detainees, holding captives incommunicado and subjecting them to beatings, electric shocks and sexual abuse, with thousands still in captivity.

Russia rejected the allegations made at an informal UN Security Council meeting, with its deputy UN representative Maria Zabolotskaya calling it “a disinformation campaign” and alleging that Russian prisoners in Ukraine were subjected to “torture and degradation and moral and physical abuse”.

Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya, still an active member of the Ukrainian military, said his Russian captors subjected him to every imaginable form of torture during 1,183 days in captivity.

“Yes ... I was tortured,” he told reporters after the UN meeting. “Anything you can think of that can be done hurtful, humiliating to a man, unwillingly. Anything that comes to your mind, not only verbal, physical abuse, daily beatings, electrocution, excessive, excessive exercises in freezing cold when it’s minus degrees ... sexual abuse. Everything that can be applied to a person into making a person break mentally. It was all applied to me and most of my comrades.”

Garsiya said he was lucky to survive but two of his friends were beaten to death in detention centres in the Donetsk region. Prisoners were held in “overcrowded barracks without adequate conditions”, where “almost all POWs were ill with dysentery” and many were starving, he told the UN meeting.

A Ukrainian with a Cuban father, he said guards targeted him particularly because of his Latino name, accusing him of being “a mercenary and an American spy”.

Anything you can think of that can be done hurtful, humiliating to a man, unwillingly. Anything that comes to your mind, not only verbal, physical abuse, daily beatings, electrocution, excessive, excessive exercises in freezing cold when it’s minus degrees ... sexual abuse. Everything that can be applied to a person into making a person break mentally. It was all applied to me and most of my comrades.

Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya, former Russian prisoner

Crimean Tatar activist Leniie Umerova, released in a prisoner exchange in 2024, said she was detained while trying to visit her seriously ill father in Crimea.

She described being moved through “seven detention facilities” in what she called “a carousel of repression” and accused Russia of using torture against Ukrainians in captivity.

Oleg Gushin of the Ukrainian government’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Ukrainian prisoners were “killed and tortured” in detention.

He said Kyiv had identified “more than 300 places of detention” in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territory and that while more than 9,000 Ukrainians had been returned through exchanges, “thousands” remained in Russian captivity.

Ukraine’s Chargé d’Affaires Volodymyr Pavlichenko called for greater international pressure and accountability for Russia’s treatment of prisoners.

‘Widespread and systematic’

UN assistant secretary-general for human rights Claudia Fuentes Julio said UN monitoring showed that “widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees by the Russian Federation authorities continues,” including sexual violence.

Since February 2022, the UN Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had documented the execution of 129 Ukrainian prisoners of war at the beginning of their captivity and the deaths of 48 in custody, resulting from torture, denial of medical care, or other inhumane conditions of detention, she said.

She said more than 95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war interviewed reported experiencing torture or ill-treatment.

She said more than half also reported sexual violence, including “rape, gang rape, beating while nude, beatings to the genitals, electric shocks to the genitals and nipples, and degrading treatment of a sexualised nature”.

She said the UN had received “consistent accounts of severe beatings with objects such as batons, heavy belts, and wood, electric shocks, dog attacks, mock executions and other forms of torture.”

Fuentes Julio said the OHCHR had also documented torture and ill-treatment of Russian and third-country national prisoners of war held by Ukraine, but “on a fundamentally different scale”.

She said about half of Russian and third-country prisoners interviewed reported abuse during initial stages of captivity.

Reuters

He fled to Moscow, ending more than five decades of iron-fisted rule by his family and opening a new chapter for Syria.

The historic shift was underscored on Tuesday when a Damascus court sentenced him to death in his absence for crimes including killings, arbitrary arrests and torture during the years in which he clung to power.

Assad became president in 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez.

Shaped in its early years by the Iraq war and crisis in Lebanon, Assad’s rule was defined by the civil war, which spiralled out of the 2011 Arab Spring, when Syrians demanding democracy took to the streets, to be met with deadly force.

Assad turned the full power of the Syrian military against his opponents as he sought to crush the rebellion inspired by the Arab Spring movement that had toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.

Inquiries by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations concluded that government forces under Assad used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine as a weapon in attacks during the civil war on rebel-held areas.

Following one poison gas attack in 2018, then-US President Donald Trump declared Assad an “animal”. Authorities denied using chemical weapons, which killed and injured thousands during the war.

His ruthless approach to fighting rebels, including siege warfare tactics condemned as “medieval” by UN investigators, drew comparisons with the way his father had defeated Islamist insurgents in the 1980s.

Justifying his response, Assad compared himself to a surgeon cutting into a wound. “Do we say to him: ‘Your hands are covered in blood?’ Or do we thank him for saving the patient?” he said in parliament in 2012.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the war, cities were flattened, and more than a quarter of the population fled abroad.

A crumbling army

His grip on power appeared to be slipping in the first years of the war, as much of Syria fell to insurgents, some of them backed by Turkey, Gulf Arab states and the US.

Shi’ite militias backed by his ally Iran began arriving in 2012 to fight on his side, shoring up his hold on Damascus. The arrival of Russia’s air force in 2015 allowed Assad to go on the offensive and claw back the bulk of the country.

He outlasted many of the foreign leaders who believed his demise was imminent in the early days of the conflict.

But reliant on Moscow and Tehran for military support and with parts of Syria still beyond his grasp, Assad’s rule remained precarious. In late 2024, insurgents seized a moment of opportunity, attacking when Iran had been weakened by conflict with Israel and Russia was distracted by its war in Ukraine.

Syria’s demoralised army crumbled as rebels led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group swept towards Damascus. Assad left the capital, first to a Russian airbase in Latakia, before being evacuated to Moscow on December 8 2024.

‘State-run machinery of death’

Prisoners freed from Syria’s notorious jails recounted the torture and abuse they’d endured. An international war crimes prosecutor, visiting Syria after Assad was toppled, said evidence emerging from mass grave sites exposed a “state-run machinery of death”. He accused the Assad-led state of having conducted organised killing comparable to Nazi Germany.

In October 2025, Reuters revealed that the Assad government had secretly moved thousands of bodies to a site in the desert east of Damascus, to hide evidence of atrocities.

From the start, Assad described the conflict as an international conspiracy against a country that had stood in opposition to the US and its Middle Eastern allies, especially Israel. He characterised the rebels as foreign-backed Islamist extremists who would have been easily defeated were it not for their supporters overseas. He dismissed the idea that there was such a thing as a moderate Syrian opposition.

After Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander, seized power in Damascus, Assad issued a written statement saying that “the state had fallen into the hands of terrorism”.

Barrel bombs

Assad hailed from Syria’s Alawite minority, a group which follows a religion that is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam and had historically been based in Syria’s coastal region.

Along with the presidency, he also inherited the leadership of the Syrian branch of the Baath Party, an Arab nationalist movement established in the 1940s.

Assad publicly held fast to the idea of Syria as a bastion of secular Arab nationalism even as the conflict appeared ever more sectarian, pitting his Alawite-led state and its Shi’ite backer Iran against insurgents drawn from the Sunni Muslim majority and supported by Sunni-led states.

The use of chemical weapons against rebel-held areas of Syria marked some of the most extensive uses of poison gas since World War One.

The deadliest such attack was on rebel-held Ghouta in 2013. The attack with sarin gas killed hundreds of people. It prompted no Western military response. The threat of a US missile strike was averted when Moscow brokered a deal for Syria’s chemical weapons to be destroyed by the following year.

After another sarin attack, in 2017, Trump ordered a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base.

Earlier this year, the transitional leadership that took power after Assad was toppled said it had located remnants of a clandestine chemical weapons programme, including raw materials and munitions similar to those used to carry out deadly gas attacks during the civil war.

Assad consistently denied accusations that the state was to blame, in one instance accusing the global chemical weapons watchdog of fabricating a report about the use of chlorine gas at Washington’s behest, echoing a broader pattern of rejecting allegations of state brutality.

In a BBC interview in 2015, he appeared to make light of accusations that the army was dropping barrel bombs — barrels packed with explosives that cause indiscriminate destruction — saying: “I haven’t heard of the army using barrels, or maybe, cooking pots.”

When tens of thousands of photos were smuggled out of Syria showing brutal torture of people in government custody, Assad dismissed it as part of a plot funded by Qatar.

In 2025, France issued an arrest warrent for Assad and other former Syrian officials over the bombing of a press center in the city of Homs in 2012.

Eye doctor

Assad hadn’t always been destined for the presidency: Hafez had groomed another son, Bassel, for the role. But when Bassel died in a car crash in 1994, Bashar was transformed from an eye doctor in London — where he studied as a postgraduate — to heir apparent.

The early days of his rule gave rise to cautious optimism about reform in Syria, where a feared security apparatus had underpinned Hafez al-Assad’s rule since 1971. But this hope soon evaporated. The police state remained intact, perpetuating repression that ultimately fuelled the uprising against his rule in 2011.

Dissidents were jailed and economic reforms contributed to what US diplomats described, in a 2008 embassy cable released by WikiLeaks, as “parasitic” nepotism and corruption.

While the elite did well, drought was driving the poor from rural areas to slums where the revolt would blaze.

He is married to British-born former investment banker, Asma Akhras, with whom he has three children.

Reuters

In the study, researchers used machine learning to analyse brain scans of 12 dogs as the animals viewed images of human faces displaying different emotions, the university said in a press release on Tuesday.

Researchers found that brain regions linked to higher cognitive functions and reward processing — the temporal cortex and caudate nucleus — were activated only by images of happy strangers.

Anger, fear and sadness did not trigger those regions, according to the study, published in Cell Press journal iScience on Monday.

However, when the researchers looked at the whole brain, they found distinct activity patterns that differentiated fear from anger and sadness, providing the first evidence that dogs can tell apart specific negative facial expressions.

Dogs “have evolved with us to understand our expressions and co-operate with us, and recognising that can change how we communicate with and care for them”, senior author Laura Cuaya said.

The researchers next plan to investigate how dogs integrate other cues — including body language, voice nuances and scent — to interpret the humans around them.

They also hope to compare how human and canine brains process the same emotional signals.

The researchers added that participants in the study were all pets from loving families and cautioned that dogs outside such environments may respond to human emotional cues differently.

Reuters

Every year the Open Book Festival runs a weekend of events carefully curated to bring a diverse community together who all share a deep love of stories. We have made sure that there is something for everyone.

Our topics and themes range widely from writing to politics, gender identity to poetry performances.

FIND THE PERFECT EVENTS FOR YOU

□Africa & Diaspora □Climate Change □Future Thinking

□Gender Politics □Heritage □Humour & Light-hearted

□Mental Health □Poetry □Queerness □Xenophobia □Youth

With such a wide variety to choose from, we have made it easier to find what you love. Our website now allows you to filter the programme by theme.

Tickets are available via Webtickets.

Yann Martel

Canongate

You don’t pick up a book by Yann Martel expecting something linear or straightforward, and Son of Nobody is no exception. Martel won the 2001 Booker Prize for Life of Pi, which I have to confess was not a book I much cared for, but he has made a name for himself as a writer to follow.

Here his central character is Harlow Donne, a Canadian scholar of Ancient Greek who, while working towards his PhD is offered a year’s scholarship to go to Oxford University and study a collection of fragments of papyri (in fact, Martel is making reference to a genuine collection here). If he accepts, it would mean leaving his fracturing marriage and his beloved six-year-old daughter back in Canada while he pursues his dream. So that is exactly what he does.

Harlow soon claims to have discovered that one of fragments he has deciphered is part of a lost epic of the Trojan War, covering much the same ground as Homer’s The Iliad but from a different angle, and telling a rather different tale. While Homer tells of the exploits of the elite on both sides, what Harlow calls The Psoad deals with the war from the perspective of the common Argive soldier, specifically one Psoas, described as “the son of nobody”. For someone who is shuffling torn and scattered papyrus fragments, Harlow manages to construct an amazingly complete account of the war, and Psoas’s activities during it. And, like Psoas, Harlow is an ordinary man, not one of the Oxford elite who find his efforts ridiculous, not to say fantastical.

Son of Nobody is told through a very unusual way of constructing a work of fiction. Each page is divided horizontally into two: the top half is The Psoad and the bottom half is Harlow’s footnotes to the epic, combined with his own story. When I started the book, I was unsure if this was going to work – or even be readable. But it is, and The Psoad is intriguing and very entertaining. Like The Iliad, it is full of battles, gore and lists but it is also a rip-roaring tale, and in his footnotes, Harlow explains it to his aptly named daughter, Helen.

But, as I said, Harlow is also telling his own story, which, like that of the Trojan war, will be full of tragedy. I found this part of the novel less compelling than The Psoad. Harlow is an unappealing character – a failed husband, a failing academic and, ultimately, absent when his child needs him most. But nonetheless, Son of Nobody has its charms and holds the reader’s attention. And, of course, it fits into the current renewed fascination with the works of Homer which is seeing fiction take a look at the invisible characters of his ancient Greece – women and ordinary nobodies. And now film is joining in, with The Odyssey pulling them in at the box office. You don’t have to be a student of the classics to enjoy the ride.

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Suspended minister Senzo Mchunu arranged for the inspector-general of intelligence (IGI) report to be handed over to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac), after the IGI had previously refused to provide it to the directorate.

This is according to Idac’s Drushantha Ramsamy, who told the Madlanga commission on Tuesday that the exchange did not follow the processes that they normally abide by when they exchange information between them and IGI.

“In September, Mr [Dylan] Perumal [suspended Idac chief investigator] told us that the minister, Senzo Mchunu, arranged with someone to fly to him in the Eastern Cape and provide the IGI report,” said Ramsamy.

“I just know that it wasn’t supposed to come to us in that way [through the minister]. There are certain procedures and processes that have to be followed before the sharing of that information. There were channels that had to be followed for that information to be shared.”

The report relates to the investigations that IGI was conducting into Crime Intelligence and Perumal had labelled “golden”. That is because it was believed that it would assist them in their case against crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo and his senior colleagues.

However, a few months before they got the report from Mchunu, they had a meeting with IGI, and the inspectorate had refused to hand them the report.

“It was a fruitless meeting. They [IGI] could not assist us and we could not assist them,” she said.

She told the commission that they had approached IGI because there was always information sharing between Idac and IGI on finalised reports.

The investigation was ongoing, and the sharing of information could not take place, she said.

Earlier, Ramsamy told the commission that a case against Khumalo, which she had been asked to work on, was enrolled in court while she was on sick leave, before she had concluded her assessment.

“In June, I had read the docket, and I found that there were no merits for enrolment; I found that there was no prima facie evidence.

“I had started drafting a memo where I had gone statement by statement, problem by problem and submission by submission, and then you would recommend that there was no case.

“Unfortunately, I [became sick] and did not finish the memo. While on sick leave, I received a call from someone at the office who said, ‘Hey, aren’t you doing Crime Intelligence matters? Your matter is in court.’ I switched on the TV and saw the Crime Intelligence officers in court,” she said.

The hearing continues.

Sowetan

Story audio is generated using AI

For years, Sarah Langa has been at the forefront of fashion and travel. Now a new chapter in her love of luxury lifestyle experiences has opened with Sarah Langa Interiors.

Dedicated to African creativity, the new interior design studio is dedicated to lovers of contemporary living. It is a new avenue inspired by a successful debut at Decorex Joburg.

The studio offers a carefully curated collection of furniture, décor, artwork and interior styling. One of the most talked-about pieces at Langa’s Decorex showcase was the Umshanelo Chair, a conceptual furniture piece inspired by the traditional African grass broom found in countless South African homes.

To understand more about what to expect and get her tips and tricks for lovers of a well decorated home, we had a chat with Langa about her new venture.

What has been the most exciting aspect of bringing Sarah Langa Interiors to life?

The most exciting part has been watching an idea that lived in my heart for years become something tangible people can experience. I’ve spent years telling stories through fashion and lifestyle, but interiors allow me to create spaces ople actually live in every day. For me, Sarah Langa Interiors isn’t only about beautiful furniture or beautiful homes. It’s about creating environments that make people feel something.

It’s also been incredibly fulfilling to champion African design in a way that feels contemporary, luxurious and globally relevant. Seeing clients connect emotionally with pieces we’ve designed from scratch has been the biggest reward.

How have you approached collaboration in your business?

Collaboration has always been at the heart of my business because I don’t believe great design happens in isolation. Some of my favourite pieces have come from working with incredible local artisans, manufacturers and creatives who each bring their own expertise to the table.

One of the things I’m most passionate about is creating opportunities for African craftsmanship to be celebrated. Whether it’s handwoven elements, custom metalwork or working alongside other designers, collaboration allows us to create work that’s richer because it’s built on shared creativity rather than individual ego.

Homogenisation in the décor sector has frustrated critics who believe we don’t see enough innovation from new talent. How will Sarah Langa Interiors stand out?

I think one of the biggest challenges in design today is that we’re constantly consuming the same images online, so spaces begin to look identical regardless of where they are in the real world.

What excites me is asking, “What does luxury look like through an African lens”? That’s the question that drives everything we do. We’re not interested in copying international trends. We’re interested in creating future heirlooms that couldn’t come from anywhere else.

We experiment with unexpected material combinations, such as stainless steel paired with soft velvets and natural fibres, and we reference African culture in subtle, sophisticated ways rather than relying on obvious motifs. I want people to walk into one of our spaces and immediately know they’re experiencing something uniquely African, but in a way that feels modern, timeless and internationally relevant.

What are common mistakes people make when decorating their homes while chasing popular trends?

I think the biggest mistake is decorating for social media instead of decorating for yourself. Trends are wonderful for inspiration, but they’re temporary. Your home should tell your story, not someone else’s Pinterest board.

People also underestimate the importance of scale, texture and quality. A home doesn’t need to be filled with expensive pieces, but it should feel layered, intentional and personal.

I’d always encourage someone to invest in fewer, better pieces they’ll love for years rather than constantly replacing trend-driven items.

What advice would you give young homeowners or people moving into their first apartment about personalising their space?

My biggest piece of advice is to take your time. You don’t have to furnish an entire home in one weekend. The most beautiful homes evolve over time because they’re collected rather than purchased all at once.

Start with quality foundational pieces such as a comfortable sofa, beautiful lighting and timeless furniture, then build personality through art, books, ceramics, textiles and objects that hold meaning.

Your home should feel like a reflection of who you are and the life you’re building. That’s what makes a space memorable, not how closely it follows trends, but how authentically it tells your story.

Wu, who served as the interim co-CEO of personal and private banking (PPB) until the appointment of Sitoyo Lopokoiyit in April, took to Linkedin to announce her tenure at the country’s third-largest bank had come to an end.

“After almost eight incredible years, I’m wrapping up my chapter at Absa. Walt Whitman wrote: ‘I am large; I contain multitudes.’ That’s how I’ll remember this journey — expanded my multitudes with beautiful contradictions,” Wu wrote.

“During a time of great uncertainty and challenges, I’m proud of the progress we achieved together: advancing and modernising the digital and data agenda, pioneering new customer capabilities that improved the experience we deliver, and building a stronger external orientation through key partnerships. To everyone who was part of this, thank you. It was a privilege.”

The group, which has more than R2-trillion in assets, has been on a hiring spree across its key business units, corporate and investment banking (CIB), PPB and business banking to pursue a new strategy laid out by Fihla in December to build a Pan-African, client-focused lender.

The exits of senior management and the hiring of a slew of new talent are not entirely surprising.

In a frank assessment, Absa in its 2025 annual report acknowledged its shareholders were unhappy about the performance of its South African retail businesses and the depth of talent in its executive team.

Absa’s retail business, historically its biggest strength, has been underperforming rivals for some years, losing its dominant position in the home loans market to Standard Bank.

The lender also used to have the biggest market share in deposits by individuals, a leadership position it has also lost.

A few years ago, in a strategic misstep, the retail business was split into “everyday banking”, “relationship banking” and “product solutions” clusters, a move that failed to yield the desired results.

Charles Russon recombined the businesses in 2024 during his interim CEO stint.

Chief among the concerns raised by shareholders before Fihla’s appointment last year was the bench strength of the group’s executive leadership, a concern Fihla has wasted little time in addressing since taking over the reins in June after a decade of leadership instability.

Fihla has largely looked to Standard Bank, particularly its dominant CIB franchise, to beef up Absa’s top echelons with industry-respected talent.

Absa appointed Zaid Moola as CEO of its CIB businesses. Moola spent much of his career at Standard Bank, rising to the role of head of its global markets business, an indispensable cog in Standard Bank’s CIB business.

Absa appointed Musa Motloung as group strategic risk officer, also joining from Standard Bank, where he was chief risk officer in the CIB business.

Avikaar Ramphal also joined Absa as its head of strategic risk from Standard Bank, where he was portfolio head, strategy enablement, in the CIB business.

Clive Potter, erstwhile head of client coverage in South Africa for Standard Bank CIB, has also joined Absa as the managing executive for client coverage in its CIB business.

Absa has also prised away the head of legal at Standard Bank’s CIB franchise, Francisco Khoza, as its deputy general group counsel.

Investment banker Sola Adegbesan also crossed the floor from Standard Bank.

Adegbesan has been appointed managing executive responsible for CIB Africa Regions, reporting to Moola.

Adegbesan and Moola are no strangers, having worked together at Standard Bank’s global markets team, an important cog in the group’s dominant CIB business.

Absa has not only raided Standard Bank for talent. Investment bankers Saloshni Pillay and Giles Douglas have crossed the floor from Deutsche Bank and Rothschild and Co, respectively.

To get the group’s PPB on a higher growth trajectory, Fihla appointed M-Pesa’s Lopokoiyit to head the franchise. The respected Kenyan-born executive assumed the role in April.

Business Day

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Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga has dismissed Fadiel Adams’ excuse for submitting his statement to the commission late, describing it as “unbelievable” and urging him to take the commission seriously.

The leader of the National Coloured Congress made a brief appearance at the Madlanga commission of inquiry on Tuesday, where the evidence leader, advocate Matthew Chaskalson, applied for a postponement, stating that Adams only submitted his statement on Monday night.

Explaining the delay, Adams said he submitted his statement late because his laptop was malfunctioning.

Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga has dismissed Fadiel Adams' excuse about his laptop after submitting his statement to the commission late. Madlanga described it as “unbelievable” and urged him to take the commission serious.
Video: @Moloi_Herman1 pic.twitter.com/dZL03ldILV

— Sowetan (@Sowetan1981) August 11, 2026

As a result, he became aware of the commission’s rule 3 notice only about three months ago, though it had been sent in October.

A rule 3 notice is a formal communication from the commission to inform an individual that they have been implicated and are afforded an opportunity to address the allegations.

He added that he asked for more time as he wanted to deal with voter registrations.

Madlanga dismissed the excuse, stating that if that were the case, it would mean that he is also unable to do his responsibilities as an MP.

“I find it hard to believe that from October last year, it’s only about three months back that you have received rule 3 notice from this commission — are you telling us the truth?” Madlanga asked.

Adams said he was.

WATCH: Member of Parliament Fadiel Adams says he is disappointed that he will not testify today at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. @Sowetan1981#madlangacommission pic.twitter.com/YQQMl67erd

— The Journalist (@Moloi_Herman1) August 11, 2026

He is expected to testify about how he received classified documents, which he has publicly said were slipped through his office door.

The commission is also likely to establish the role Adams played in the “orchestrated attacks” against crime intelligence officers.

Madlanga concluded by emphasising that he finds it hard to believe the excuse that Adams gave.

“It seems to me that you are not taking this commission seriously and starting from now and going forward you should not treat this commission the way you have thus far, because everything that you have said this far is totally unbelievable, I cannot believe it,” said Madlanga.

Adams’ testimony has been postponed to August 19.

Sowetan

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South Africa is seeking to replace the existing Gas Act with a new legal framework for the industry, but the proposed Gas Bill will not by itself resolve the broader challenges facing the development of the country’s gas market, according to an industry participant.

The bill, once promulgated, would replace the Gas Act, which has governed the industry since 2001, with a new framework covering areas including liquefied natural gas (LNG), gas infrastructure, investment, licensing and enforcement.

The portfolio committee on electricity and energy called for written submissions on the bill on July 15, with public hearings scheduled for August 11 and 12.

Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa (Igua-SA) CEO Jaco Human said the bill was a necessary modernisation of legislation designed for a very different gas market. However, he said the bigger challenge lay in co-ordinating gas supply, infrastructure, financing and demand.

The existing act was largely designed around pipeline gas supplied from Mozambique. The market has since evolved, with plans for LNG imports and regasification infrastructure, as well as developments in gas trading, mobile gas distribution, gas-to-power and potential new domestic gas resources.

“The Gas Act on its own does not solve a gas problem. It’s an instrument,” Human said.

The bill introduces important changes, including recognising LNG imports, regasification, trading infrastructure, infrastructure capacity trading, mobile distribution, integrated energy projects and cross-border gas trade.

But Human said the legislation still does not adequately connect the upstream, midstream and downstream parts of the gas value chain.

“What is needed is integrated execution, linking gas exploration and production with pipelines and terminals, downstream demand, financing and decisions about where infrastructure should be built,” Human said.

“This is important as South Africa faces a decrease in gas supplies from Mozambique while seeking to develop alternative sources of supply and infrastructure.”

Human said the bill also has gaps that should be addressed before it becomes law. These include stronger protections against vertically integrated companies favouring their own affiliated businesses.

What is needed is integrated execution, linking gas exploration and production with pipelines and terminals, downstream demand, financing and decisions about where infrastructure should be built.

Jaco Human, Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa CEO

For example, a company that produces gas, owns the infrastructure and sells gas to customers could potentially give preference to its own operations, restricting competition or disadvantaging other market participants.

Another concern is the need for clearer “use-it-or-lose-it” rules for infrastructure capacity. Use-it-or-lose-it means that companies holding capacity they are not using may have to release it so that other market participants can access it. Human said the bill should provide greater transparency around how available infrastructure capacity is allocated.

There are also concerns about information submitted during licensing applications. While commercially sensitive information would need to remain confidential, there should be ways for affected customers or other market participants to scrutinise key information used in licensing decisions.

Despite these concerns, Human described the bill as an important step in modernising South Africa’s gas regulatory framework. However, he said updating the law alone would not be enough to unlock the sector’s full potential.

“The gas problem in South Africa is no longer only a regulatory problem. It is a co-ordination problem across supply, infrastructure, financing and demand,” he said.

The parliamentary public hearings will give stakeholders an opportunity to raise these and other issues as lawmakers consider the bill.

Human said that while the bill is an important step, South Africa now needs a more co-ordinated approach if it is to build a functioning gas market.

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Sophie Williams-De Bruyn’s speech on August 9 2026 at a commemoration at the Union Buildings in Pretoria:

Malibongwe! Malibongwe! Igama Lamakhosikazi! Wathinta Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo!

The president of the Republic of South Africa, his excellency Cyril Ramaphosa; our host, minister Gayton McKenzie; The premier of our province, Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi; premiers of all provinces; MECs, ministers and deputy ministers; comrades; ladies and gentlemen, all the women gathered here today [Sunday], iMbokodo — warm greetings to you all and happy Women’s Day!

I stand before you all today with a heart that simultaneously bursts with pride and joy while feeling waves of sadness. Seventy years ago, on this day, August 9 1956, 20,000 of us marched to these hallowed grounds, to these Union Buildings which were then the bastion of apartheid.

Because I was only 18 years old then and many of my compatriots are sadly no longer with us, it has always been an honour to represent the collective leadership of the march and the 20,000 women

Because I was only 18 years old then and many of my compatriots are sadly no longer with us, it has always been an honour to represent the collective leadership of the march and the 20,000 women.

We were young, we were afraid, but we were unified and determined. When we stood undaunted, in silence for those 30 minutes, the world trembled; it took note. We confronted the apartheid regime and boldly said: “[Prime Minister JG] Strijdom, you have targeted women, you have struck a rock, we will crush you.”

The joy of that solidarity, the triumph of knowing we could break the back of oppression, is a fire that still burns deep within me even today.

We emerged from that darkness with a firm belief that our daughters, our children, would walk in absolute freedom from the triple yoke of oppression as a race, class and gender, which we experienced under apartheid.

[The shift] But today, as I look at our beautiful country, my heart is heavy. The freedom we marched and bled for is in reality a painful paradox. How can we fully celebrate our past victories when our present reality is so deeply disappointing and distressful? We fought to banish the pass laws, yet today, our women are prisoners in their own homes. Gender-based violence continues to cast a dark cloud on our society.

Every day I weep for the girl-child, daughters, mothers and grandmothers who are abused, violated and silenced. This is not the freedom we marched for. We fought to dismantle the yoke of the systemic oppression of women as a race, class and gender.

It is also very disappointing that democratic South Africa is still the most unequal country in the world

Yet today we face the cruel suffocations of entrenched poverty, homelessness, a lack of clean water and systemic corruption. When people steal money allocated for education, health, housing and infrastructure, they are in reality stealing education, health and roads. These are real victims of corruption — and furthermore, they are stealing from you and me who pay our taxes. It is also very disappointing that democratic South Africa is still the most unequal country in the world.

The face of poverty and inequality in our country is mainly black, female and young. The impact of spatial racial segregation is still deeply entrenched. As we also mark the 50th anniversary of June 16, when in 1976 the youth picked up the mantle from us, youth unemployment remains stubbornly high, ranking South Africa very high globally.

To see the wealth of our nation stolen by people entrusted with power, while ordinary people starve, while our youth face staggering unemployment, is a profound betrayal of the 1956 sacrifices.

It sears the heart to witness the ideal of our liberation for which we gave our youth, blood was shed and other sacrifices were made, being derailed and wrecked by the staggering greed of a few. [The call to action: finding hope in struggle] And yet, even with these clouds, my spirit refuses to break and give up. My happiness comes from looking at you, the women of today. You are still the rock. You are still resilient. Despite the failures of leadership and the weight of these struggles, you continue to hold our families and communities together.

Your courage is the beacon of hope and the light that keeps this country moving forward. To the officials, politicians and dignitaries here today: I challenge you to look into the eyes of the women here and see the courage, determination, fortitude, hope and moral mettle that birthed this democracy. Do not let our sacrifices be in vain. Cleanse your hands of corruption. Protect our women. Feed our children. Have moral compass and backbone. Match the bravery of 1956 with bold, honest and accountable leadership.

Closing: a final charge

To the ordinary citizens of our country, in particular women, do not give up hope. Your vote, your voice and your unity are your critical weapons. We handed you a free country; it is now up to you to make it a safe and prosperous one. Let us march forward once more, not against pass laws, but this time against crime and insecurity, poverty, corruption, unemployment, homelessness, violence and the many ills that restrict your future, your safety, your freedom and prosperity.

The fire we ignited in 1956 cannot be extinguished. To the young women here today: do not wait for anyone’s permission. Stand up, use your voice and fight for your future. Fight against poverty and abuse just like we fought against apartheid.

Together, let us finish this march we began 70 years ago. Let the spirit of 1956 rise again in each of your hearts. I would be remiss if I did not express solidarity with the women and children in Palestine who are being subjected to genocide and apartheid, both of which are classified as crimes against humanity by the UN and the world. In the words of our late icon and former president Mandela: “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

In conclusion, I would like to make a special plea. There were many women who courageously took part in the march on August 9 in 1956, whose names must be recorded in the annals of history to honour them by name. This could be your grandmother or any of your relatives. If you know any of these courageous women, please submit their names to the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation. We want all of them to be memorialised. We need our unsung heroines to be recognised.

Wathint’Abafazi, Wathint’Imbokodo! You Strike a Woman You Strike a Rock and it will Crush You! MALIBONGWE!

Thank you.

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The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has settled on R10bn annual revenue as an eligibility criterion for multinationals wishing to enter into advanced pricing agreements (APA) with it.

These agreements provide upfront tax certainty for qualifying cross-border related-party transactions.

The R10bn figure, gazetted on Friday as the tax agency moves to implement an APA regime that has been on the cards since 2020, is a huge cut to the R50bn that the agency had initially proposed.

Tax experts and large companies raised concerns during the public consultation process that the R50bn revenue eligibility was unrealistic.

The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) in its submission to Sars argued that more than R50bn per taxpayer is excessively high and “disconnected from the commercial realities” of the South African market.

“For example, the country-by-country reporting threshold is R10bn for consolidated group revenue, as opposed to a single company’s revenue, and only approximately 60 MNE [multinational enterprises] groups in South Africa meet the R10bn consolidated group revenue threshold.

“Very few taxpayers in South Africa would meet the R50bn revenue threshold, which would render the APA programme inaccessible to the vast majority of taxpayers facing genuine transfer pricing complexity and uncertainty.

“The proposed threshold risks undermining the broader policy objectives of the APA regime. APAs are intended to encourage proactive compliance, provide certainty, and reduce disputes before they arise.

“Restricting access to only a very limited number of exceptionally large taxpayers materially reduces the utility and relevance of the programme.”

Another criterion is that the value of the affected transaction for each of the years of assessment must exceed R1bn for a distribution or manufacturing function or R300m for intragroup services.

Transfer pricing has become one of the most material tax risks facing businesses engaged in cross-border transactions.

Restricting access to only a very limited number of exceptionally large taxpayers materially reduces the utility and relevance of the programme.

APAs are a legally binding contract between multinational firms and tax authorities that seek to fix the transfer pricing method for future cross-border transactions, primarily to avoid expensive tax disputes and double taxation.

The introduction of an APA regime to South Africa’s tax framework has been a combination of much deliberation and consultation given the sheer scale of implementing such a regime.

The groundwork for the APA regime was laid in 2020 following the publication of a discussion paper on APAs that examined whether and how to introduce an APA regime, outlining the rationale, potential designs and challenges.

One of the challenges is the lack of Sars capacity. To address this, the tax agency has over the past year been recruiting experts on the subject matter as it builds internal capacity.

Moody’s Analytics UK won a contract with Sars to provide the agency with transfer pricing benchmark tools.

A benchmarking study is the most critical part of any transfer pricing analysis contained in a compliance or policy document and is mainly used to test the arm’s length nature of the connected persons’ transactions.

Canny multinational firms use the technique of transfer pricing to shift profits out of countries where they operate into tax havens.

This can be done through a subsidiary of a multinational in a tax haven charging artificially inflated prices from a sister subsidiary in a country with higher taxes — essentially moving profits out of a country where it genuinely does business to a tax haven — thus avoiding taxes.

Since South Africa’s re-emergence in the international market, there has been a marked expansion of international trade and commerce, with wide-ranging changes in volume and complexity, with an increasing proportion of this international activity carried on between members of multinational companies.

The Sars’ government notice also outlines the fees that will be paid by companies wishing to enter into APAs with it.

Companies will need to pay a pre-application consultation fee of R100,000 and a R1m cost recovery fee for the processing of the application for an APA.

The agency said companies will be disqualified if the proposed agreement does not reflect the economic reality of the affected transaction.

“During the information-gathering phase, Sars will co-ordinate the gathering of information with the competent authority of the other country, based on the facts and circumstances of each case,” the agency said.

“Where practical, functional analysis interviews, site visits and information gathering will be co-ordinated and conducted jointly. Where any information gathering is not conducted jointly, this information must be shared with the relevant competent authority.”

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The health department has defended its public procurement processes and accused a pharmaceutical industry association of misleading parliament about the reasons behind the sector’s recent job loses.

The row goes to the heart of long-running tension between government policies that seek to support local industries and the budget pressures facing the health department, which has repeatedly drawn fire from domestic players for choosing cheaper imports over medicines made in South Africa.

Last week Pharmaceuticals Made in South Africa (Pharmisa) told parliament’s portfolio committee on trade, industry & competition that the health department’s focus on price was squeezing local drug manufacturers out of crucial medicine tenders to such an extent that it had triggered the loss of 2,500 jobs in the past 18 months.

Pharmisa’s members include Aspen Pharmacare, Adcock Ingram, Biovac, Sandoz, the National Bioproducts Institute and Fresenius Kabi.

The organisation said local pharmaceutical manufacturers’ share of the HIV/Aids drug tender had plunged in value from 72% in 2008 to 28% in 2025, while their share of the tender for tablets and capsules by value had fallen from 56% in 2014 to 18% in 2026. It also drew attention to the impact of the health minister’s decision to award a below-inflation increase of just 1.47% for private sector medicine sales in 2026, and the effect on input costs of the war in the Middle East.

The health department hit back at the weekend, saying Pharmisa had presented MPs with a distorted picture of its procurement processes and glossed over crucial market developments putting pressure on manufacturers, such as more stringent regulatory requirements.

“South Africa needs a mature discussion about how to strengthen local pharmaceutical manufacturing. It does not benefit from sensationalism or the selective use of procurement data to create the impression that public procurement has failed,” it said.

“A reduction in the value of some of the contracts awarded to particular manufacturers is not, on its own, evidence that government policy has failed. It reflects a dynamic and increasingly competitive pharmaceutical market in which the government must balance industrial development with its constitutional obligation to maximise access to affordable medicines.”

The department rejected Pharmisa’s analysis of its tender awards, saying the association had used a definition of local manufacturing inconsistent with its own. Its own analysis showed support for local manufacturing had been maintained despite significant reductions in procurement prices.

It did not directly respond to Pharmisa’s analysis of tenders by value, focusing instead on how the tenders were split by volume. “On the solid dosage form tender (for tablets and capsules), the proportion of quantities awarded to locally produced products increased from 38% in 2023 to 45% in 2026. Similarly, on the ARV (HIV treatment) tender, quantities awarded to locally produced products increased from 67% in 2022 to 70% in 2025,” the department said.

Pharmisa had ignored fundamental changes to the pharmaceutical market over the past decade, including reductions in medicine prices through increased competition and the participation of more manufacturers, it said.

The pharmaceutical industry was also operating in an environment where regulatory expectations had increased significantly over the past decade, requiring substantial capital investment and continuous upgrading of production facilities. Companies that had been slow to modernise or make the required changes to maintain regulatory compliance were unable to compete effectively.

Pharmisa chair Stavros Nicolaou rejected the department’s analysis, which he claimed relied on medicine registration certificates instead of production data or customs records of imports. Medicine registration certificates list potential manufacturing sites and do not reflect where production has actually taken place, he said.

Pharmisa defines a local manufacturer as one that has invested in production capacity, imports active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulates medicines in South Africa. It excludes companies that repackage and label imported finished goods. Using this definition, its analysis of the latest Aids drug tender showed six of the eight companies that won a share of the core contract to supply monthly packs of the triple pill taken by most HIV patients had gone to importers, Nicolaou said.

“The only way to resolve this is to [have] a discussion with the health department. We hope it will give us an audience this week, given the gravity of the situation.”

South Africa’s biggest trade union federation, Cosatu, has called for immediate government intervention to halt the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector’s job losses. “While the government must seek the best value for money when procuring goods, including health supplies, this must not be taken to Thatcherite extremes or at the cost of badly needed local jobs, producers and value chains,” it said.

Business Day

During the quarter, the number of unemployed people increased by 345,000 to 8.5-million and there was a decrease of 16,000 in the number of those employed to 16.7-million compared with the first three months of the year, Stats SA said in its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey.

The number of people employed in the formal and household sectors decreased by 41,000 and 9,000, respectively, in the second quarter, while those in the informal sector rose by 34,000.

The largest decreases in employment were recorded in community and social services (57,000) and mining (26,000), as well as agriculture and manufacturing at 15,000 each.

The total number of unemployed young people aged 15 to 34 increased by 264,000 to 5-million, while that of employed youth fell by 40,000 to 5.6-million. As a result, the youth unemployment rate increased by 1.5 percentage points to 47.4% in the second quarter.

Economists had predicted bleak jobs numbers for the second quarter, partly citing higher input costs for businesses due to the US-Iran war, which has sent oil prices spiralling.

The latest Rand Merchant Bank/Bureau for Economic Research confidence index shows local businesses came under significant pressure in the second quarter, with the operating environment deteriorating due to supply constraints linked to the Middle East conflict.

Unemployment, particularly among young people, was the focus of an annual public economics conference hosted by the Government Technical Advisory Centre last month. Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse told delegates that as the dominant divisions in the manufacturing sector, which used to provide jobs, become increasingly less labour-intensive, the country must look to sectors such as tourism and construction to help reduce unemployment.

The government has long acknowledged that the economy, which only mustered growth of 1.1% last year, is not expanding anywhere near the levels needed to create jobs.

In an address to the same conference, finance minister Enoch Godongwana reiterated that “South Africa will not defeat youth unemployment at scale without faster, inclusive economic growth”.

He added: “But growth will not happen by itself. It requires reform. Reform requires implementation. Implementation requires capable institutions. And capable institutions require credible public finances, good data, accountability and discipline.”

Business Day

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About 80% of the reforms outlined in the second phase of Operation Vulindlela to address South Africa’s spatial inequality are either delayed or off track, underscoring the Herculean task of addressing the lingering legacy of apartheid.

Following the success of the first phase of Operation Vulindlela, the joint initiative of the presidency and National Treasury to accelerate structural reforms, the second phase targeted persistent spatial inequality by shifting housing subsidies toward demand-driven models.

Among the central reforms are accelerating the release of well-located public land for affordable housing and clearing title deed backlogs to secure property ownership. However, the progress report on the reforms covering the period from April shows this is one area where Operation Vulindlela is struggling to make headway, though it has made significant progress in areas such as visa reform.

Releasing public land and buildings for affordable housing and other development, clearing the backlog of title deeds and making the titling system more accessible and affordable, as well as reviewing land use, building and other regulations to enable low-cost property developments, are all marked as falling into the “delayed or off track” category.

“While work has been undertaken to develop a new approach to housing policy, progress in implementing new demand-side and capital subsidies for affordable housing, as well as clearing the backlog of title deeds, has been slower than expected due to overlapping responsibilities across national, provincial and local government, as well as the need to build capacity within government to implement the proposed reforms,” the progress report notes.

“Instruments to support investment in affordable housing will be finalised in the next quarter and introduced at a pilot scale in the next financial year, to be scaled up over the medium term.”

When President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the second phase of Operation Vulindlela last year, he noted that the poorest South Africans spend as much as 40% of their income on transport to get to work, more than almost any other country globally.

To address this, the president said the success of Operation Vulindlela should be measured in its ability to address the apartheid legacy of spatial inequality, which has forced millions of South Africans to live far from economic opportunity.

The progress report lays out the plan to achieve this, despite a slow start. It says the department of human settlements will launch two new housing subsidies at a pilot scale in the next financial year — a demand-side subsidy and a capital subsidy for affordable housing — with participating provinces and metropolitan municipalities.

“The analysis of deeds data to determine the scale of the title deeds data backlog and required actions to address the backlog is under way.

“This includes the mapping and digitisation of the titling process and measures to address the legislative challenges to township establishment and proclamation as well as beneficiary administration, which have held up the issuance of title deeds for subsidised housing,” the progress report reads.

“These measures will be introduced in the City of Ekurhuleni and the City of Johannesburg to support access to title deeds.”

A model approach to the release of public land is being developed that will be implemented with two to three priority properties, held by different entities, over the coming year to unlock investment in affordable housing at scale.

The report outlines the next steps and deadlines to make headway in meeting the objectives of addressing spatial inequality:

• Complete the design of two pilots for the affordable rental housing model to test the effectiveness of demand-side and capital subsidies (December 2026).
• Complete analysis of deeds data and address key constraints to inform the prioritisation and sequencing of interventions to clear the backlog (October 2026).
• Implement township establishment and beneficiary verification pilots in the cities of Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg (October 2026).
• Develop an asset registry and dashboard to identify priority land and properties for release to the market (October 2026).

Last month the Constitutional Court handed down a landmark unanimous ruling that the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town had failed in their constitutional duty to address apartheid spatial planning by providing well-located affordable housing as South Africa continues to grapple with redress.

In March the IMF weighed in on South Africa’s spatial planning landscape, noting in a paper that South Africa exhibits one of the highest levels of income inequality globally, reflected in persistent spatial exclusion.

Read: ConCourt deals apartheid’s spatial planning a fatal blow over Sea Point land

The paper said reducing commuting costs could meaningfully lower unemployment and inequality, as transportation and housing policies were effective tools to promote spatial integration and reduce income inequality.

The Operation Vulindlela progress report also highlights progress being made in getting the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to improve its performance as the country’s pre-eminent passenger rail service.

“Prasa estimates that passengers save on average R29.14 per trip compared to alternative transport, increasing disposable income and easing household expenses,” the report reads. “Prasa has made significant progress in restoring passenger rail services, having recovered 35 of its 40 priority rail corridors.

“This marks a substantial improvement from 2021/22, when only a quarter of the lines were operational following extensive infrastructure damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and widespread vandalism. As a result, passenger journeys increased almost fivefold, from approximately 17-million in 2021/22 to 101-million in 2025/26. Over the same period, on-time train performance improved markedly, rising from 50% to 91%.”

The standout outperformer in the progress report is in the area of visa reform, championed by the department of home affairs. Half of the reforms in this area have been met, while the other half are on track to meet their objectives.

Some of the achievements in this area include the introduction of the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme, the Trusted Employer Scheme, Electronic Travel Authorisation and the Meetings, Exhibitions, Events and Tourism Scheme.

Since the introduction of the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme, 114 tour operators have been approved, “enabling visa applications to be finalised within five days. The scheme has supported the issuance of visas for more than 77,000 tourists from China and India to date, helping to boost tourist arrivals and support growth in South Africa’s tourism sector.”

The department of home affairs has now set a target of clearing the waivers and appeals backlog by March next year and extending Electronic Travel Authorisations, which enable the processing of travellers at airports in under 60 seconds through dedicated lanes, to all countries by next month.

Business Day

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The appearance of National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams at the Madlanga commission will be significant in establishing the circumstances surrounding the allegations that triggered investigations into senior crime intelligence officials.

This is according to crime analyst Chris de Kock who said Adams’ testimony would establish whether he was being used or was part of those who executed “orchestrated attacks” on crime intelligence officers.

Adams is expected to testify at the commission on Tuesday.

Speaking to Sowetan, De Kock said: “They [the commissioners] will have to find out: did Mr Adams take the initiative, or was it the Idac [Investigating Directorate Against Corruption] that pursued the investigations against crime intelligence, which ultimately led to the arrest of Gen Dumisani Khumalo and several other senior officials?” De Kock said.

Lt-Gen Khumalo and his colleagues were arrested following a Section 27 referral to the Idac after Adams alleged that crime intelligence had misused its secret fund and irregularly appointed Brig Dineo Mokwele.

Adams said his allegations were based on classified crime intelligence documents that he had received anonymously in about October 2024. He claimed the sensitive material and procurement files had been slipped under his office door.

The charges were later withdrawn after Idac officials testified that former head advocate Andrea Johnson had “orchestrated the attack” against crime intelligence officers and had failed to follow prescribed procedures during the investigations.

De Kock said the commission’s questioning would have to determine whether Adams was just a useful person “for these strange complaints about the secret fund and the appointment of Mokwele, and he thought he was going to get a lot of publicity ... because he would be [regarded] as a whistleblower, or he was a player in Idac and some people in the crime intelligence”.

De Kock also raised concern about the manner in which Adams handled the documents containing the allegations against crime intelligence, stating he should have referred them to the inspectorate on crime intelligence for further investigation.

“The secret fund is there to run undercover operations, because undercover operations are quite expensive. They have to infiltrate crime, so they can’t just go around in Golfs or small little cars. They have to drive big cars to create a legend that they are also criminals, and then they can infiltrate other criminals.

“So, by going around with documents, you compromise not only operations of crime intelligence, you also endanger the lives of those undercover agents because should the organised criminals know that this guy is not one of us, they would not spare you.”

Political analyst Prof Dirk Kotze said the commission would likely seek to establish Adams’ association with Maj-Gen Feroz Khan and, by implication, his links to crime intelligence.

“They would also want to establish the circumstances surrounding the fact that he received those [classified crime intelligence] documents in his office,” he said.

Kotze said Adams’ testimony could also tie into allegations made by the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner that some politicians and police officials were working closely with criminal syndicates.

“They will want to establish to what extent Adams is indeed part of it [the criminal network] and whether he has been used in parliament to protect them from parliamentary processes,” he said.

Sowetan

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The high cost of communication in South Africa is back in the spotlight, with the department of communications and digital technologies (DCDT) planning a fresh review of the country’s pricing framework.

Affordable voice and data services are no longer luxuries. They are essential tools for education, employment, banking, healthcare, government services and participation in modern society.

The DCDT’s latest initiative acknowledges what many consumers already know: despite years of reforms, the promise of affordable connectivity remains only partially fulfilled.

The Competition Commission’s 2019 Data Services Market Inquiry, Icasa’s subsequent regulations and the long-awaited release of high-demand spectrum in 2022 were all expected to usher in a new era of lower prices. While mobile data costs have declined and operators have generally avoided inflation-beating increases, South Africa still compares unfavourably with many African peers, especially for prepaid users.

The key question posed by the department is therefore the correct one. If spectrum allocation, increased competition and regulatory intervention have already taken place, why do communication costs remain stubbornly high?

Encouragingly, the proposed study appears willing to examine the issue more broadly than previous reviews. Rather than focusing solely on retail pricing, it intends assessing infrastructure costs, market concentration, taxation, spectrum policy, investment incentives, consumer behaviour, international benchmarks and the impact of previous regulatory interventions.

Public debate has often portrayed mobile operators as the sole culprits. While operators should be held accountable where competition is inadequate or pricing excessive, telecommunications pricing is influenced by an entire ecosystem.

Building and maintaining networks is capital intensive. Operators spend billions of rand on spectrum, towers, fibre networks, international connectivity, maintenance and backup power systems to keep services running during South Africa’s electricity challenges. Those costs ultimately find their way into consumer pricing.

World Wide Worx CEO Arthur Goldstuck is correct in arguing that any meaningful review must examine the entire value chain rather than simply demanding lower retail prices. Government cannot ignore the role that policy decisions, regulatory costs and administrative delays may play in keeping prices elevated.

The allocation of high-demand spectrum illustrates the challenge. Spectrum improves network efficiency by allowing operators to carry more traffic at lower unit costs. However, those benefits can be diluted when licences are auctioned at substantial cost. Operators must recover those investments while simultaneously expanding network coverage and meeting regulatory obligations. Every additional cost imposed on the sector eventually affects consumers.

This is why the DCDT’s proposed “Cost to Communicate Roadmap” could become an important policy document, provided it remains evidence-based rather than politically driven.

Competition has intensified, yet affordability challenges persist, particularly for lower-income prepaid users who often pay significantly more per gigabyte than contract subscribers.

There are useful lessons abroad. Several countries have successfully reduced connectivity costs through combinations of lower spectrum costs and infrastructure-sharing arrangements, among others.

The market itself has also changed significantly since the Competition Commission’s inquiry seven years ago. Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) have expanded rapidly, introducing new pricing models through banks, retailers and consumer brands such as FNB Connect, Capitec Connect, Standard Bank Connect, Mr Price Mobile and TFG Connect.

Competition has intensified, yet affordability challenges persist, particularly for lower-income prepaid users who often pay significantly more per gigabyte than contract subscribers.

With the next phase of reform, policymakers should resist simplistic calls for price controls that could undermine investment and network expansion. Instead, the focus should be on removing structural inefficiencies throughout the communications ecosystem while strengthening competition where necessary.

Affordable connectivity will not be achieved through regulation alone, nor by expecting operators to absorb every additional cost imposed on them. It requires coherent policymaking across spectrum management, taxation, infrastructure deployment, competition law and investment incentives.

The DCDT deserves credit for recognising that lowering communication costs requires more than another headline-grabbing intervention. The real test will come once the study is complete. South Africans have seen enough reports and recommendations.

What they need now is decisive action that finally delivers on the long-promised goal of affordable digital access for all.

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Women’s skateboarding in South Africa is steadily gaining momentum, with more girls taking up the sport and stronger community networks emerging.

The sport, which became an Olympic event at the Tokyo Games in 2021, has helped raise the profile of skateboarding globally.

In South Africa, those involved in the sport say the growth of women’s skateboarding has largely been driven by grassroots clubs, volunteers and community organisations. With limited funding and infrastructure, these groups have created safe spaces where girls can learn, train and compete.

While exact national participation figures are not available, Roller Sports South Africa said female participation is increasing, though women remain significantly underrepresented compared with men.

“We try to encourage girls to start, and we have a strong safeguarding policy,” said Roller Sports South Africa president Wendy Gila.

She said organised skateboarding clubs have grown over the past five to 10 years, allowing skaters to compete within World Skate structures while offering women the same competitive opportunities as men.

Asked whether the Olympics had significantly influenced the sport, Gila said the impact had mainly been seen in “the rules and people training hard to qualify”. Despite a gradual increase in participation, there were still “not nearly enough girls” competing at provincial and national level.

According to Gila, accessibility, cultural beliefs and a lack of family support remain among the biggest barriers preventing more girls from entering the sport.

To help develop women in skateboarding, Roller Sports South Africa has hosted Olympic Solidarity women in skateboarding training programmes and trained female administrators who have gone on to chair clubs around the country.

The federation has also seen South African women reach significant milestones.

Gila pointed to Boipelo Awuah, who twice qualified for the Olympic Games, and Sharné Jacobs, who is being trained by World Skate as a coach, as examples of the sport’s progress.

For Awuah, now 20, skateboarding began by following in her older brother’s footsteps.

“I wanted to do everything my older brother did,” she said. “What has kept me going is honestly the challenge and how I am able to express myself through the sport. Being a quiet individual, it has helped me a lot.”

She believes women’s skateboarding has experienced rapid growth since the sport’s Olympic debut.

I had to go the extra mile and actually skate with the boys … to give other South African female skaters the same opportunity as the boys.

Boipelo Awuah

“There have been so many female skate groups and communities all over South Africa, which has contributed to that growth,” said Awuah.

But she acknowledged that gaining recognition required competing alongside boys and matching their standard.

“I had to go the extra mile and actually skate with the boys … to give other South African female skaters the same opportunity as the boys.”

Awuah encouraged young girls not to be discouraged by the male-dominated nature of the sport.

“Start because you enjoy it … and don’t feel intimidated by the boys.”

Across the country, community organisations are working to create spaces where women and girls feel welcome.

Melissa Bester, founder of Skate Smiles Club, said the initiative was inspired by women’s skateboarding organisations abroad that showed how supportive environments could encourage participation.

“We had already been doing our monthly women’s skate nights for a few years, so starting Skate Smiles Club was a way for us to do even more events and projects,” said Bester.

She has witnessed significant growth in recent years.

“There are so many young girls skating and the level is really high. There are lots of community groups for females all over South Africa that are providing safe, encouraging spaces for women and girls to learn.”

Despite this, Bester said many skateparks remain intimidating for beginners.

“The spaces are still very male dominated and it’s really hard to come into that space as a beginner. As a female, you feel like you stand out even more.”

Bester also explained that success in competitions is judged on more than simply landing tricks. Judges assess competitors on their overall impression, taking into account the difficulty and variety of tricks, execution, style, use of the course, flow and consistency throughout a run.

She believes the sport will become more inclusive as more women enter it, but said female-focused activities at competitions and events could accelerate that change.

Among the organisations contributing to that growth is The Skate School Academy in Randburg, which says about 70% of its athletes are girls.

Founder Shayne Robinson believes girls were always interested in skateboarding but often lacked welcoming spaces to develop.

“I don’t think girls suddenly discovered skateboarding. I think skateboarding finally stopped chasing them away,” he said. “For a long time, a girl who wanted to skate had to walk into a park full of boys, be the worst one there in front of an audience, and keep coming back,” said Robinson.

He said creating an environment where beginners felt comfortable had changed participation dramatically.

“Once one girl stays, her friends come. Then her sister comes. Then her mother asks whether she is too old to try.”

Robinson believes South Africa has the talent to compete internationally but lacks the infrastructure needed to support athletes.

“Since skateboarding became an Olympic sport the rest of the world has poured money into concrete parks, coaching structures and pathways for young skaters,” he said.

“Here, most of our skaters are riding whatever their community managed to build itself.”

He said despite limited resources, South African skateboarders continue to excel because of their determination.

“Our kids skate because they love it, in the face of every reason not to. Give this generation of South African girls’ proper facilities and consistent coaching and they will compete internationally.”

Story audio is generated using AI

I can’t say why people choose to write fiction in South Africa. I mean, I can, but I don’t approve of kink-shaming so I won’t. And to be fair, local writers of fiction still have a number of legitimate dreams to cling to, other than the obvious one of marrying rich.

If you’re very lucky, for example, your novel can be prescribed as a high school setwork.

This is a wonderful outcome, especially if you hate children and want to be the means whereby their nascent love of reading is smothered in the crib.

Not only will you stick it to masses of teenagers, with their churlish desire to experience stories as pure delights rather than as units of educational currency to be scraped together and offered to examiners, but you’ll also make life-changing money in the process, as long as that life lasts no longer than 18 months.

Another possibility is that you get hired to write on a soap opera.

This is also very rewarding work and definitely stretches one’s fiction-writing abilities to their limits: I wrote on a soap opera where someone fell off the roof of a skyscraper at the end of one episode and woke up in hospital in the next, and I am quite sure I never encountered that level of character development in any of the great works of fiction.

So Kafka turned Gregor Samsa into a giant bug. And? Did Gregor go from being in bits on a Sandton pavement to being a grumpy patient in the ICU just a day or two later? Kafka Schmafka.

Finally, there’s always the possibility that you will trend-chase cleverly and voraciously enough that you hit the jackpot with a concept that triggers a bona fide bidding war. For instance, a trilogy in which a rich, mysterious young 19th century English aristocrat who is also a werewolf falls in love with a sexually insatiable chambermaid who is actually an assassin working for Rasputin, and together they reveal that Queen Victoria is sneaking out of the palace at night to go and be both Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper, a transformation facilitated by the Faerie Kin as part of their Netherwar against the Darksiders from the Underrealms.

(I am open to offers.)

The trouble with these dreams, however, is that none are sure bets. Prescription committees change. Soaps get canned. Trends move on.

But there remains one other dream to which local storytellers can aspire; a gig that is not only lucrative but, barring interventions by parliament, seems to offer some real job security.

To write for government ― especially an ANC-run ministry ― is to arrive in the literary promised land of the lowest possible expectations remunerated at the highest possible level.

Last week it emerged that some people are upset that the department of social development has allegedly paid a contractor R1.4m to write and edit press releases.

I am not one of the people who are upset. On the contrary, I find this news incredibly exciting because it means that someone in South Africa is earning a lot of money for writing fiction. The dream is still alive.

Of course, competent writers will probably have to wait their turn, because in this instance there’s no actual skill required. There’s no need to construct complicated plots or nuanced characters; to hold readers’ attention with snappy dialogue or dramatic twists. In these penny dreadfuls the big reveal is a tap, and the gripping cliffhanger is whether water comes out when you turn it on.

To write for government ― especially an ANC-run ministry ― is to arrive in the literary promised land of the lowest possible expectations remunerated at the highest possible level.

Here, one’s brief is to produce text-based wallpaper; meaning-adjacent marks on a page; to simulate a constant, quiet, opaque form of communication, like cows gently mooing in a nearby field, reassuring sporadic passers-by that life is continuing while reassuring the political class that change is not yet required.

No, the traditional skills of the storyteller, like creating a vivid picture of how things are or how they might be, are not required at all. For this Dickens of dross, this Poe of pabulum, the brief is simply to eat money and, out of their other end, gently secrete letters arranged in more or less the right order.

As a taxpayer I can muster a small amount of anger.

But as a writer, ah! I must confess that a part of me is gazing up at the faerie folk of the ANC as they wage their Netherwar against the fiscus and basic decency, and feeling oddly grateful that, as it all comes slowly apart, at least one of my kin is making bank.

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The City of Tshwane’s freshly approved Hatfield Precinct Plan has removed a proposed entertainment zone along Lynnwood Road following objections from members of the public and the University of Pretoria.

The goal is to ensure all development and infrastructure investment in the precinct contributes to a safer, more attractive, liveable neighbourhood.

The plan proposes a more integrated public transport system, aligned with the establishment of a network of public open spaces.

It focuses on key areas such as improving pedestrian safety along and across Jan Shoba Street and Lynnwood Road, creating additional parking to alleviate student parking demand and ensuring a safe, vibrant and liveable student hub that serves as a retail, recreation, socialisation and transport hub.

It provides a framework to guide the redevelopment and management of the Hatfield Campus Village and is intended to guide future development, land use and investment in the area while improving the quality, character and function of the precinct.

It also sets out goals relating to affordable and safe public spaces, connectivity, transport, infrastructure and services, and the development of a more integrated educational and mixed-use community.

Tshwane ward 82 councillor Siobhan Muller said the newly approved plan could make a meaningful difference in curbing the establishment of new nightclubs in the area, provided officials enforce its provisions.

Muller said existing rights would remain in place, but new rights for places of entertainment would no longer be allowed along the area locally known as “the strip” ― from Lynnwood Road between Brooklyn Road and Ox Street.

An earlier draft plan was approved for public comment in October 2025 and public participation took place in February and March this year, where 80 written comments were received, including detailed inputs from the University of Pretoria.

The Hatfield precinct has a high concentration of student accommodation, of embassies, restaurants and bars as well as a large shopping centre.

The population of the area doubled between 1996 and 2011, with a strong shift to younger residents and smaller household sizes.

Hatfield is a major metropolitan node for the Gauteng province, with strong transport infrastructure supported by the Gautrain, BRT, Prasa rail, buses, taxis and e-hailing services.

Included in the new precinct plan is the provision of more housing options ― not only student housing but social housing, affordable rental units and inclusionary housing ― so that a wider diversity of typologies and affordability is available.

The reduction of noise pollution from nightclubs and restaurants in the area, and curbing of illegal land uses in the precinct, are also priorities of the precinct plan.

Muller said there was strong opposition to the proposed entertainment zone during the public participation process.

“There was a very big pushback by the public at the public participation. I’m very proud of our public that came out.”

She said Lynnwood, Menlo Park and Brooklyn have been affected by the noise coming from “the strip” and even after multiple engagements, the city would not close them down.

Muller said the section is now owned by one person, and noise has been an ongoing problem since the venue opened about eight years ago.

She said residents have submitted repeated petitions and previously held monthly meetings with officials to raise their concerns.

A resident who did not want to be named out of fear of being victimised said he welcomed efforts to improve Hatfield but questioned whether the plan would make a difference if existing zoning regulations were not enforced.

“I don’t think it’s going to help because fundamentally the city doesn’t enforce the zoning laws,” he said.

The Hatfield resident said that authorities had failed to take action against some nightclubs already operating in areas that are not appropriately zoned for such activities despite repeated complaints.

He said multiple community groups had raised concerns about illegal nightclubs that had been operating along Lynnwood Road since 2016, particularly the section between Lynnwood and Duxbury roads ― “the strip”.

“As it stands, those guys [the clubs] are not zoned to be there. There is not enough parking. With the current plan, they have no right to be there, but the city isn’t doing anything to stop them,” he said.

The resident said in addition to the blare, the nightclub attracts racing in front of the establishment along Lynnwood Road.

“The danger of street-racing/speeding, combined with young people crossing Lynnwood Road while they are drunk, represents a danger to the public that the City of Tshwane cannot ignore. I’ve reported over 150 noise disturbances from the nightclub since 2023.”

He said the lack of enforcement meant zoning regulations were ineffective.

“Ultimately, the zoning doesn’t mean anything if it’s not enforced.”

He also raised concerns about the impact of large crowds on traffic and pedestrian safety, particularly around the entertainment venues that attract high volumes of patrons.

Roads around some venues become heavily congested, with vehicles occupying lanes as customers struggle to find parking.

“When you drive past there, you can only use one lane because the other lanes are used for parking, and then there are drunk people running between the lanes because, again, there’s no parking,” he said.

Muller said one of the main points of contention during public participation was the zoning of the properties, which are classified as Business 1.

She explained that Business 1 zoning permits uses such as places of refreshment with light background music, where noise should not be audible beyond the property, but does not permit nightclubs.

Muller said some students who live in the area routinely change locations to a building more conducive to sleeping and studying.

“That is how bad the noise is from there. Multiple businesses like Airbnbs, bed and breakfast places have been affected very badly because the residents, the people who they rent out to, cannot sleep due to the noise. The students can’t sleep due to the noise. It is actually a disastrous situation where people just refuse to act, and one must ask, why?” Muller said.

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When T-shirts and food parcels cease to turn society into John Gomomo’s voting cattle or Socrates’s currency and merchandise that merchant politicians trade in, raw sewage cannot garner votes.

Recent Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) findings, co-sponsored by the Electoral Commission (IEC), indicate that public support for democracy has plummeted to a record low 36%. While conventional political commentary attributes this erosion of civic trust to short-term governance fatigue, this crisis is fundamentally a spatial-economic manifestation driven by structural exclusion captured in the Labour Disappearance Index (LDI) and the Democracy Collapse Index (DCI).

Traditional state apparatuses rely on blunt in-out, static administrative typologies — such as Category B1-B4 secondary city designations — that obscure severe sub-municipal inequalities. For instance, aggregate economic metrics in intensive agro-industrial enclaves like Drakenstein mask the acute precarity of surrounding farm-dweller enumeration areas (EA).

By deploying a dynamic census mesh across the 1996, 2001, 2011, and 2022 South African censuses, the Lehohla Ledger* uses spatial-temporal pooling, Global Moran’s I and LISA models to reveal how spatial fragmentation and administrative blindness fuel public alienation.

To reverse this democratic deficit, national policy and Treasury allocations must move beyond administrative fictions and integrate granular EA tracking, ensuring development interventions directly target the empirical realities of South Africa’s diverse human settlements.

A prime example of this analytical failure is found in regions like the Drakenstein Local Municipality or similar intensive agro-industrial enclaves.

Under standard administrative scoring, Drakenstein registers as a successful B1 secondary city driven by high agricultural GDP and a polished urban core. But this aggregate view conceals a profound structural dualism. When we deploy a dynamic census mesh methodology — tracing population shifts, labour dynamics and multi-census microdata across the 1996, 2001, 2011 and 2022 South African censuses down to the EA level — a very different reality materialises.

Beneath the veneer of regional economic success lie pockets of acute farm-dweller precarity, stagnant living conditions and structural isolation. When state resource allocation relies on macro-level administrative labels rather than granular census mesh tracking, public capital bypasses the very EAs where deprivation concentrates. Citizens living inside these neglected pockets experience the state not as an instrument of liberation, but as an absentee landlord. Small wonder, then, that support for the democratic project collapses when the daily material reality is spatial abandonment.

Across all these typologies, the Democracy Collapse Index tracked by the Lehohla Ledger exposes a direct causal link: as spatial fragmentation intensifies and formal labour opportunities contract, as reflected in the Labour Disappearance Index, faith in democratic governance decays synchronously.

When South Africa’s geography is re-envisioned through the Lehohla Ledger’s five dynamic typologies — derived using spatial-temporal pooling, Global Moran’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) models — the national topography reveals why trust in public institutions has evaporated.

• The core accumulation nodes: major metropolitan centres continue to function as high-density islands of formal capital, yet their spatial policies relentlessly push working-class populations into sprawling, underserved peripheries. The structural violence of apartheid spatial engineering remains intact, financialised and repackaged for a new era.
• The transitional peri-urban corridors: as captured by volatile EA growth on the edges of major cities, rapid internal migration crashes against sluggish formal infrastructure. These corridors represent zones of permanent crisis where reactive state interventions are perpetually overwhelmed.
• Mining and extractive scars: bound to the boom-and-bust cycles of global commodities, single-industry extraction nodes experience acute labour distress and environmental dereliction when markets shift, leaving local communities stranded without transitional economies.
• The hollowed-out peripheries: in the deep rural interiors and former homelands, working-age populations continuously out-migrate towards saturated metropolitan rims, leaving behind ageing populations with high dependency ratios who rely entirely on social grants while structural infrastructure stagnates.

Across all these typologies, the Democracy Collapse Index tracked by the Lehohla Ledger exposes a direct causal link: as spatial fragmentation intensifies and formal labour opportunities contract, as reflected in the Labour Disappearance Index, faith in democratic governance decays synchronously.

The HSRC-IEC findings should serve as a definitive wake-up call, but only if policymakers are willing to discard the comfortable fiction of administrative uniformity. Tweaking electoral communication campaigns or launching superficial outreach drives will not reverse a 36% support baseline for democracy.

People do not abandon a democratic system because they misunderstand its virtues; they abandon it because the system consistently fails to alter their spatial and material reality.

To restore integrity to the democratic project, state intervention must undergo a fundamental structural overhaul:

Integrate census mesh metrics into Treasury allocations: national grants, such as those distributed via the Division of Revenue Act, must abandon broad administrative categories and instead use multi-census EAs tracking to direct capital where sub-municipal deprivation is empirically mapped. Use the spatial pooling system on the right map and abandon the one driven by averages.

Mandate spatial-temporal planning in IDPs: local Integrated Development Plans must incorporate LISA mapping and valid metadata instruments to ensure that infrastructure delivery targets the actual mesh of human settlement rather than political convenience.

Dismantle spatial apartheid at the root: urban policy must pivot towards aggressive transit-oriented development, inclusionary housing and proactive land release that breaks the concentric rings of exclusion built around our core financial nodes.

The 36% democratic floor is a mirror reflecting the structural limits of our current spatial and economic trajectory.

If South Africa is to rescue its democratic future, it must first reckon with the uneven, fragmented geography of its past — grounding every policy instrument, budget line and development model in the undeniable empirical realities. The out-in three-decade citizens’ dialogue can now be in citizens’ hands to reclaim their agency and restore trust in democracy.

* This analysis is built on the Lehohla Ledger framework, using 2,752 validated statistical instruments across the 1996, 2001, 2011 and 2022 South African National Population Censuses. Micro-spatial diagnostic routines aggregate contiguous Enumeration Areas (EAs) at ward and place name levels to trace spatial transitions, capital retention and sub-SNA labour contributions

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The smell of sizzling patties fills the air as customers patiently wait for their kotas, some grabbing a quick bite while others stop to chat before heading home.

For 25-year-old Lehlohonolo Motaung from Protea Glen in Soweto and 52-year-old Amanda Rakgetla from Naturena, selling kotas is about much more than food.

It is about creating opportunities, supporting their families and proving that even life’s toughest moments can become the start of something meaningful. It is also part of a culture that has seen Johannesburg selected as one of the top cities for street food in the world.

Motaung, the owner of South Side Grills, registered his business shortly after completing matric in 2020.

Though he studied commerce in high school, he chose not to further his studies because he wanted to build a career in the food industry.

Speaking to Sunday Times, he said he thought he would be working in the corporate world wearing a suit and tie. However, looking back now, he understands where his love for food comes from.

“My passion for food grew while working with renowned businessman Rhulani Shibambo, known as ‘King Kota’, when he prepared meals at major events,” he said

He said he would travel to events with him, prepare food for people and learn how to run a business behind the scenes.

“When I got the opportunity to work with King Kota, I knew this is where I wanted to be. Food makes people happy,”

In 2022, Motaung joined Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), where he saved every penny to build his own food franchise.

“When I worked at KFC I had a clear plan, to save the money I needed to start my business,” he said.

While in high spirits to build a legacy, his biggest turning point came in 2024 when his mother died from heart failure at the age of 56.

“When my mother passed away, everything changed. I became more determined to succeed because she did everything for me,”

He recalls asking his mother for R10,000 to buy a mobile food van when he started.

Though she was unsure about his decision to become a food entrepreneur, she supported him.

“My mother wasn’t sure about my food business, I had to convince her this was what I wanted to do. Making people smile through food gives me joy,” he said.

Today, Motaung employs three young people who, like him, have experienced unemployment.

“Giving someone a job means they can also support themselves and their families. That’s something I’m proud of,” he said.

His menu caters for every budget. The R35 “Gonzalo Bite” comes with chips, cheese, egg, lettuce and his signature sauces, while the R200 ‘Bazoka’ is loaded with chips, double cheese, double eggs, two Russians, two rib patties, two beef patties, two steaks, lettuce and signature sauces.

Among the customers in the area is Thulani Mbonambi, who says South Side Grills has become his family’s favourite.

“There are many kota spots in Soweto, but my family and I don’t mind walking to South Side Grills because they always give you quality food,” he said.

He said the generous portions and signature chip dip sauce make every visit worthwhile.

“Most places don’t give enough chips, but his kota is filling. When I’m too tired to cook, I don’t hesitate to place an order,”

A few kilometres away in Naturena, Rakgetla’s story is one of survival.

She moved to Johannesburg after getting married in 2000. Unable to find work, she started a transport business, taking people to and from work every day before expanding into other small businesses.

She spoke about a period when residents of Naturena were not allowed to operate a business as it was regarded as a suburban area.

“When I got to Naturena people were not allowed to operate businesses, saying we have a mall nearby where we can buy food, not knowing people love fast food and some couldn’t afford to travel to Southgate Mall for a loaf of bread.”

When residents of Naturena were eventually allowed to operate businesses from home, she saw another opportunity to earn a living.

She started selling vegetables and had a telephone where people could call their loved ones using a landline.

The business was going well until her husband was retrenched. She wanted to expand for more income and to pay off their bond.

While in the process of expansion, everything changed the day she was hijacked while dropping off passengers.

“I remember dropping off my last passenger when two men approached my car and demanded money and my car. They drove me to an unknown place where they threw me out of the moving car and left me for dead,” she said.

She was rushed to hospital. Despite efforts by doctors, they could not explain why she had lost feeling in her lower body.

“Doctors gave me vitamin B tablets for my nervous system, but to this day I can’t feel my lower body,”

Rakgetla uses a wheelchair to move around.

When she could no longer manage everything on her own, her youngest son, Tshepo, stepped in to help keep the business running.

The last born of three, the 25-year-old had been studying marketing at Rosebank College before making the difficult decision to drop out of school.

“It was painful to leave school, but I chose to see it as a positive turning point because I also want to become a business owner one day,” he said.

Watching his mother’s determination inspired him to keep pushing forward.

“I had dreams of owning a business, but when I dropped out I shifted my mindset into thinking how the business could benefit me in the long run,” he said

Rakgetla’s fast-food business sells kotas ranging from R16 to R45 packed with chips, cheese, eggs, polony, Russians and the secret sauces that have earned her a loyal customer base.

One of those customers is Tebogo Magamba, who said he happily drives about 2km to buy his favourite Kota.

By 10am, he had stopped by to buy an R18 Kota for himself and his partner.

“For me, a kota is brunch on a budget,” he said.

“I’ve lived in Naturena for 20 years and I’ve never traded Amanda’s kotas for anybody else’s,” he said.

He said it is her chilli sauce that keeps bringing him back.

“There’s something about it that I’ve never tasted anywhere else. I’d recommend anyone, even tourists, to come and buy kotas here. You won’t regret it.”

TimesLIVE

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Two-time world champion Sivenathi Nontshinga’s camp has allayed fears that his decision to remain in the junior-flyweight could backfire in his world title eliminator in the Philippines in September.

Nontshinga will contest the IBF elimination clash against former victim Regie Suganob in Bohol on September 12 in a bid to negotiate for a third title shot.

Nontshinga has already won the IBF title twice, first beating Mexican Hector Flores in September 2022 before losing in an upset when he was knocked out in two rounds by Adrian Curiel in November 2023.

He immediately regained the belt with a revenge 10th-round stoppage of Curiel three months later to join the elite class of South African boxers who have won world titles twice.

He again surrendered the belt via a ninth-round stoppage loss to Japanese Masamichi Yabuki in October 2024 as weight issues began to circulate.

Nontshinga even admitted he would consider moving up to the flyweight division as it was becoming impossible to retain his weight at 108lbs (48.99kg).

However, after more than a year’s layoff, he returned to the same division, knocking out overmatched Tanzanian Sunday Kiwale in two rounds.

The win helped him return to the IBF junior-flyweight ratings, which have since earned him a title eliminator against Suganob.

The bout will double as a rematch of their July 2023 clash when Nontshinga dropped the Filipino in the first round and cruised to a unanimous points decision to register his first defence of the IBF belt.

The roles are now reversed as Nontshinga will travel to the Philippines.

He easily made the weight against Kiwale, so the team is happy for him to stay at 108lbs.

Nontshinga’s manager Colin Nathan

But Nontshinga’s manager Colin Nathan allayed any fears, insisting his charge was used to fighting in opponent’s territory.

“Sive has won on the road before, and he will do it again,” he said.

With his win over Kiwale dismissed as being academic, as the Tanzanian was considered a no-hoper, concerns on whether Nontshinga’s decision to continue campaigning in the junior-flyweight division would not minimise his strength.

But Nathan shot down the concerns, insisting the KuGompo City boxer was still comfortable in this division.

“He easily made the weight against Kiwale, so the team is happy for him to stay at 108lbs.

“He has been working tirelessly in training with trainers Shannon Strydom and Chris Morrow.

“With the fight in over five weeks, we have upped the pace and intensity,” Strydom said.

Daily Dispatch

On Tuesday, a French-born gentle organiser (GO) ― resort staff who run activities and entertain guests ― was granted R5,000 bail in the KwaDukuza magistrate’s court.

The state claimed he plied the student, who studies outside Canada, with alcohol before allegedly raping and sexually assaulting him in his staff quarters, 300 metres away from where his parents slept.

However, the boutique manager, who studied nursing before joining Club Med in the French Alps in 2024, insists the sexual encounter on July 22 was consensual and initiated by the student, who told him he was 20.

Gender-justice activist Pearl Walsh, spokesperson for the Canadian family, who attended court proceedings, said the bail decision was a “slap in the face”.

Walsh said two weeks after the incident, there were delays in the processing of the rape kit and inspection of the crime scene, amid allegations the student’s drink was spiked.

She alleged resort management and a local tourism stakeholder have downplayed the traumatic incident and are more concerned about the impact on the hospitality industry.

Walsh said Club Med management only responded to the father three hours after the alleged assault and only reached out to the family to offer support after news broke in the media.

“He was seriously disorientated, more than just being drunk after the incident. So we are hoping the tests collected at the Stanger hospital will be able to provide the necessary evidence.”

Walsh said evidence pointed to an international trend of predators preying on victims on the eve of their departure, counting on them being too traumatised to undergo the legal process.

“This is exactly what happened in this case. The family were due to fly out the next day, but we were able to at least get him to a hospital for the necessary tests. The boy didn’t want to be involved in the court matter and insisted they fly home as per their booked flights on July 23,” said Walsh.

She said the family’s lives had been “irretrievably” changed by the incident and yet Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa head Brett Tungay claimed “it doesn’t look like it was a violent assault” during a radio broadcast.

“He owes the family an apology. They came to South Africa because it was sold as a safe holiday destination, yet now that trust has been completely violated.”

Tungay told the Sunday Times it was a tragic incident.

“There is alcohol involved and he wasn’t a minor, he was 18. Only the investigation will reveal what happened.

“Obviously this means huge negative publicity for the resort and this is not good for tourism. Covid-19, the riots and the floods took a huge amount out of tourism on the north coast, and after three years it was starting to turn around. An incident like this will affect tens of thousands of jobs in the hospitality industry.”

In his 13-page affidavit, the GO spelt out how he first met the Canadian on July 19 and spent the night drinking with guests and co-workers.

“As a matter of courtesy, I invited him to join us at our table. He told me that he was busy doing business and would join us later. He was on his phone. The complainant joined our table later. He spoke to all of us and became friendly toward me. He told me that he was on a short holiday with his family, was 20 years old and lived in London.”

“The complainant told me he was not on good terms with his girlfriend and that she did not accompany him on holiday. I replied: ‘That’s why I am gay!’”

He said the teen gave him his Instagram address and WhatsApp details.

He said he next saw the student three days later when he joined colleagues and other guests drinking beer at the bar.

“As the music played, some of the employees and I took to the dance floor. My co-employees and I danced to a choreographed sequence and we invited guests to join us in the dance. While I was dancing on the stage, the complainant was looking at me intensely and in a seductive manner while remaining seated at the table. When the music stopped, I returned to the table and we continued drinking.”

He said as the bar closed at midnight, he and the teen ordered extra drinks and went to his staff apartment near the hotel rooms.

“While with me the complainant communicated with his girlfriend on his telephone. He told her that he was spending time with me. At some point the complainant began speaking about sex to me. I told him that I was open to sexual relationships with men. At some stage thereafter, the complainant moved towards my bed. “

He said the boy dropped his trousers and then invited him to perform oral sex, which he did.

“After a while he asked me to stop and said he cannot continue because he has a girlfriend. I immediately stopped. He pulled up his pants, sat for a while and said that he was leaving. He then left my apartment. I estimate that it was about 3am (being July 23 2026).”

He then called him on WhatsApp several times, and he finally answered.

“In that call I asked him why did he leave. He replied: ‘I’ll meet you in London’ and then cut the call.”

He said he fell asleep and was arrested later the same day.

Lawyer Anand Nepaul, appointed by the French national, urged for leniency during the bail hearing.

“We must treat foreign nationals just as we would expect our own to be treated in their countries,” he told the court.

The court imposed several bail conditions.

The accused must surrender his passport, remain at his stated residential address and report to Umhlali Police Station every Monday. He is also prohibited from communicating with state witnesses or attempting to leave the country.

Pending the outcome of the case, the accused will reside at a guesthouse in Salt Rock, provided by his employers.

The resort said: “Club Med takes any allegation of sexual assault or inappropriate behaviour extremely seriously. The safety, respect and wellbeing of our guests and teams are at the heart of our values and remain an absolute priority.”

It said it has “activated its crisis and safeguarding procedures, and the employee was placed on precautionary suspension pending the outcome of the ongoing investigations”.

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New polling does not create the crisis confronting the liberation movement; it reveals how far a long-running loss of trust, state capability and political leadership has advanced.

The latest Social Research Foundation polling is severe enough to tempt sensationalism. The ANC stands at 34% nationally, the DA at 27%, the MK Party at 15% and the EFF at 7%.

In Johannesburg the ANC has collapsed to 18%; in eThekwini it is below 20% and trails both the MK Party and the DA; only in Tshwane, where it records 32%, does it remain within striking distance of its principal competitor.

Yet the most important conclusion is not that one poll has suddenly transformed South African politics. It is that the poll confirms a trajectory that the ANC has repeatedly diagnosed but has not arrested.

Earlier renditions on the movement’s decline argued that the ANC was progressively losing its claim to be the leader of society. The causes were not confined to campaign technique or the personality of a president. They lay in the hollowing out of branches, the displacement of ideas by factional contestation, weak succession planning, deteriorating municipal performance, corruption around the governing centre and an inability to adapt from dominant-party rule to competitive and coalition politics. The new numbers do not displace that argument. They sharpen it.

Structural decline, accelerated by scandal

The point of departure must be a distinction between cause and accelerator. Phala Phala and the daily revelations before the Madlanga commission are accelerators. They compound public suspicion that ethical renewal was a slogan rather than a governing ethic. They weaken the contrast that President Cyril Ramaphosa once represented between reform and the corruption of the preceding era.

But neither episode, on its own, explains why ANC support has been retreating across successive elections, why urban voters have been leaving for a decade, or why economic stagnation and unemployment have become embedded in the political order.

At the 2024 national election, the ANC received 40.18% and lost the parliamentary majority it had held since 1994. The present 34% reading therefore represents a further deterioration from an already historic defeat.

The movement can no longer plausibly present each setback as an isolated interruption before a return to normal. There is no old normal to which it can return. The electorate has already withdrawn unconditional trust and replaced it with contingent, transactional support.

This is consistent with several arguments by analysts that renewal and mere ecdysis are not the same thing. A movement does not renew itself simply by shedding one leadership slate for another while retaining the same organisational incentives, deployment practices and governing habits. Renewal requires a change in institutional character: who is recruited, how leaders are selected, what conduct is sanctioned, whether branches deliberate on policy, and whether deployed representatives are held to measurable standards.

Phala Phala has damaged more than Ramaphosa

The poll’s verdict on the president is politically devastating. Forty-four per cent of likely voters believe that the president is guilty of a crime, against 12% who believe he is innocent. Among black voters the split is 47% to 15%; even among ANC voters it is 37% to 29%. Around four in five respondents say he should be removed if found guilty.

These are perceptions, not judicial findings, and constitutional due process must remain non-negotiable. But elections are decided by political judgment, not only legal verdicts.

The more serious damage is to the ANC’s brand architecture. Ramaphosa was not marketed simply as another leader. He was presented as the proof that the ANC could correct itself. If the public no longer accepts that distinction, Phala Phala creates an equivalence, fairly or otherwise, between the moral claims of successive ANC administrations.

The Madlanga revelations widen the injury by shifting attention from one disputed episode to the condition of the state itself: political interference, criminal networks, compromised institutions and an executive apparently unable to impose ethical coherence.

The proximity of the criminal underworld to senior leaders of the ANC remains the most damaging to its brand. The largesse, conspicuous consumption and celebrity-convention-postures that the annual January 8 pilgrimage of the ANC assumed have attracted the wrong congregants into the proverbial church the ANC has been.

Ministers and senior leaders have accepted that criminals are their comrades, gang leaders gave them money in retail stores branded bags, and senior police generals and prosecutors have been exposed as part of a bigger ring of dishonesty.

The ANC’s danger is therefore not simply that voters may disbelieve one president. It is that they may conclude that the organisation is incapable of producing a qualitatively different governing class. A legalistic defence may protect office, but it cannot on its own repair political authority. Only candour, consequence management and demonstrable institutional reform can begin to do that.

The metropolitan collapse is the decisive battlefield

The metropolitan findings deserve more attention than the national headline. Johannesburg at 18% and eThekwini below 20% point to the potential unravelling of the ANC as an urban governing proposition.

This deterioration did not begin with the current scandals. The ANC lost control of major cities in 2016; by 2021 Johannesburg had already become a fragmented political market, with the ANC at 33.6% and voters dispersing among several alternatives. The present poll suggests that the urban retreat is acquiring a different quality: the party is no longer merely losing majorities but risks becoming structurally secondary in cities central to economic life and national political power.

This is where the migration issue becomes politically combustible. Public anxiety about undocumented migration, competition for work and pressure on municipal services is real. So too is the danger of vigilantism and xenophobic mobilisation.

The ANC is trapped between voters who believe the state has lost control and constitutional obligations that prohibit collective punishment. Its answer cannot be denial, moral lecturing or opportunistic imitation of anti-migrant parties. It must demonstrate lawful border administration, credible documentation systems, enforcement against exploitative employers and improved local services. Xenophobia flourishes where the state is absent and scarcity is politically weaponised.

Fragmentation does not mean a new hegemon

The ANC’s decline should not be mistaken for the rise of a replacement dominant party. The DA is broadly stable nationally and stronger in the Gauteng metros, but it has not yet converted administrative claims into a compelling cross-class national majority. Its growth remains constrained by social geography, leadership conflict and the uneven record of coalition government.

The MK Party is the principal beneficiary of ANC losses, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, but its appeal is concentrated and heavily personalised. The EFF remains flat despite the vacuum. The result is not alternation between two governing blocs, but deeper fragmentation.

This confirms another argument from our previous essays: coalition government is not a temporary inconvenience waiting to be outgrown. It is becoming the operating system of South African democracy. Yet the parties continue to approach coalitions as extensions of factional bargaining.

If November produces hung councils across the major metros, another cycle of unstable mayors, opaque agreements and administrative disruption will further damage trust in democratic government itself. The immediate obligation is therefore larger than partisan advantage. South Africa needs enforceable coalition rules, transparent agreements, professional appointments, budget continuity and mechanisms for resolving disputes without collapsing councils.

Motsepe’s lead is a message before it is a candidacy

Patrice Motsepe’s 37% lead over Fikile Mbalula’s 17% in the ANC succession preferences must be interpreted cautiously. Public polling does not elect an ANC president; branches and conference delegates do.

Motsepe has also publicly disavowed political ambition. Even so, the persistence of his lead matters. It reveals what voters believe the existing field lacks: competence, economic credibility, distance from factional warfare and the ability to restore confidence beyond the ANC’s traditional base.

The temptation will be to treat Motsepe as a personality-based rescue. That would repeat the error of investing organisational renewal in the perceived virtues of one leader; it seems not to have worked with Ramaphosa. Any eventual candidacy would raise legitimate questions about conflicts of interest, democratic accountability, organisational experience and proximity to the incumbent president.

More fundamentally, no successor can repair an institution that refuses to repair itself. The significance of the poll is therefore less that it predicts the outcome of 2027 than that it indicts the current leadership supply.

The real points of departure

Five propositions should frame the debate that follows from these results. First, the ANC’s decline is structural; scandals accelerate it but do not originate it. Second, the crisis of trust is inseparable from the crisis of state capability: voters experience the party through water interruptions, unsafe streets, unemployment, billing failures and deteriorating infrastructure. Third, urban decline is now the central electoral battlefield and cannot be reversed by rural majorities or liberation memory alone. Fourth, no opposition party has yet established a national hegemony, making coalition governance unavoidable. Fifth, succession without institutional renewal will merely redistribute responsibility for decline.

These propositions also clarify what should not be done. The ANC cannot communicate its way out of a performance crisis, litigate its way out of a legitimacy crisis or campaign its way out of an organisational crisis. Nor can the country afford parties that celebrate the ANC’s retreat while remaining unprepared to govern fragmented institutions. The polling is a verdict on the governing party, but it is also a warning to every contender that public patience with instability, impunity and municipal failure is running out.

The ANC still has agency. It can choose transparent accountability over reflexive protection, capable appointments over factional deployment, economic reform over ideological immobility, functioning municipalities over slogans and a disciplined coalition doctrine over improvised deals. But the available time is narrowing. At 34%, decline is no longer a future tense. It is the environment in which the movement now operates, and the electorate will judge whether it has finally understood the difference between losing support and losing its historical purpose.

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Higher education has descended into a “mess” under minister Buti Manamela, with the Democratic Alliance accusing him of placing politically connected ANC cadres, some of whom have been flagged in forensic audits, in positions to clean up the country’s troubled skills development sector.

Higher education and training portfolio committee member Karabo Khakhau launched a blistering attack on Manamela and the ANC on the sidelines of the DA’s manifesto launch in Johannesburg on Saturday, accusing the governing party of using cadre deployment to protect its political interests at the expense of effective oversight and consequence management.

“We don’t have leadership. The minister does not inspire confidence in anybody,” Khakhau said.

She singled out Manamela’s appointment of administrators to Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas), claiming some had previously been implicated in forensic investigations.

“We see this in how he has handled the choice of administrators that he appointed for Setas, who are cadres who have been written off by forensic audit reports and [he has] sent them to be custodians and transform a sector that is already riddled with corruption,” she said.

Khakhau said the problem went beyond Manamela. She said ministers from the ANC remained beholden to the party’s structures at Luthuli House rather than acting independently in the interests of the country.

“None of these ministers are independent. They’re all coming from Luthuli House,” she said.

“The way the higher education sector is organised is that there is a very serious core of cadres that control what happens within higher education and training.”

She accused the ANC of allowing a culture of cadre deployment and corruption to permeate government.

“The mandate of cadre deployment, of corruption, is a strictly Luthuli House mandate and we see that manifesting itself over and over,” she said.

Khakhau said the same pattern was evident across national and local government, arguing that meaningful reform would be impossible without removing the ANC from power.

“The culture of the ANC is not going to change itself, particularly because it is not just higher education. We see it across departments, in municipalities and altogether in government,” she said.

Even though they try to put on a show of some sort of independence and that they’re safeguarding the interests of South Africa, their actual goal is that they have a mandate from Luthuli House to protect the ANC’s interest.

Higher education and training portfolio committee member Karabo Khakhau

She also accused the ANC majority on parliament’s higher education portfolio committee of frustrating effective oversight through party study groups and political discipline.

“The chairperson is an ANC deployee, the majority of the committee members are ANC,” Khakhau said.

“Even though they try to put on a show of some sort of independence and that they’re safeguarding the interests of South Africa, their actual goal is that they have a mandate from Luthuli House to protect the ANC’s interest.

“This is what makes oversight quite cumbersome.”

Khakhau said the deteriorating condition of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges was another indictment of the department’s leadership, pointing to crumbling infrastructure and problems surrounding the awarding of tenders.

She said the failure to act against officials involved in problematic appointments and procurement decisions demonstrated a lack of consequence management.

“That in itself indicates a leadership that does not instill consequence management,” she said.

“The same principle applies with appointment processes that are manipulated where even after you have found out that the person was incorrectly appointed, these people are not fired.”

Khakhau said the stakes extended far beyond political infighting, warning that millions of young South Africans depended on the higher education and skills development system to secure an education and ultimately enter the job market.

“I worry because beyond all of the things that are a problem in higher education, the bottom line is that young people are still dependent on them for funding in order to get an education,” she said.

She also took aim at the Seta model, saying the institutions had failed to deliver the skills needed by young people and had instead become vehicles for financial mismanagement.

“The current model is only designed to do one thing, to line the pockets and not really to give tangible skills development for this country’s youth,” she said.

The DA has called for Setas to be scrapped in their current form, with Khakhau arguing that their funding could be redirected to TVET colleges.

“In any case, TVETs hold the mandate of technical and vocational education and that is what skills development is,” she said.

“With the introduction of occupational courses and qualifications, nothing stops TVET colleges from performing their mandate of upskilling the country’s youth.”

Despite her criticism, Khakhau said the government of national unity had created an opportunity for the DA to influence the department from within government.

She expressed confidence in deputy higher education and training minister Yusuf Cassim, saying his experience in student politics and knowledge of the department could help push through reforms.

“We are 100% confident that his contribution there will make a dent and we are anticipating that we will see some reforms that he will bring there.”

2000 — Hendrick Mokganyetsi wins the only Golden League race of his career, finishing first in the 400m at the Weltklasse Zurich.

2008 — The Proteas lose the fourth and final Test to England by six wickets in London, but still take the series 2-1.

2008 — Charlize van der Westhuizen takes 4/30 as the South African women dismiss England for 185 on their way to losing the third ODI against England in Shenley by 77 runs, dropping to an irreparable 0-3 down in the five-match series.

2010 — Katlego Mphela scores in the 42nd minute to give Bafana Bafana a 1-0 win over Ghana, Africa’s top performers at the recent World Cup, in a friendly at Soccer City. It was Pitso Mosimane’s first match in charge as national coach.

2012 — Caster Semenya powers from back of the field to take the Olympic 800m silver at the London Games. The South African clocked 1min 57.23sec to finish second behind Russian Mariya Savinova, who was later disqualified for doping, with the gold going to Semenya.

2016 — Cancer survivor Lawrence Brittain and his rowing partner Shaun Keeling fight back from fourth spot with three-quarters of the race gone to claim Olympic silver in the men’s coxless pair at the Rio Games. Later that day the South African rugby sevens team won bronze by beating Japan 54-14 in the final. But there was an element of disappointment after the Blitzboks had lost to a makeshift British team 5-7 in the semifinals.

2016 — Andrie Steyn scores 43 as the South African women are bowled out for 143 on their way to losing the fourth and final ODI against Ireland in Dublin by seven wickets.

2019 — Brad Binder wins the Austrian motorcycle grand prix in Spielberg for his first triumph of the season.

2024 — Keshav Maharaj takes four wickets for a match haul of eight as South Africa and West Indies play to a draw in the first Test at Port of Spain.

2025 — Neo Maema and Thabiso Kutumela score to give the South African football team a 2-1 win over Guinea in their African Nations Championship match in Namboole, Uganda.

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Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia has revealed grim crime figures, with more than 40,000 rape cases and 190,000 common assaults recorded in the 2024/25 financial year.

Replying to questions in parliament on Thursday, Cachalia provided the figures in response to a question by MP Makashule Gana, who asked the minister about the number of serious crimes reported during the financial year and how many cases were referred for prosecution and resulted in convictions, acquittals or dismissals.

According to Cachalia, South Africa recorded 24,692 murders, 27,630 attempted murders and 40,475 rape cases over the period.

There were also 179,183 cases of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm (GBH) and 190,923 common assault cases.

The reported crime figures are reflected in the South African Police Service’s 2024/25 annual report.

The parliamentary reply also provides insight into what happened to some cases after being reported to police.

Of the murder cases, 10,129 were referred for prosecution, with 3,628 resulting in convictions. A further 893 resulted in acquittals, while 893 were recorded as dismissals.

For attempted murder, 12,714 cases were referred for prosecution, resulting in 1,880 convictions, 436 acquittals and 436 dismissals.

The figures for GBH were considerably higher, with 121,630 cases referred for prosecution. Of these, 11,692 resulted in convictions, while 2,034 resulted in acquittals and the same number in dismissals.

For common assault, 113,696 cases were referred for prosecution, with 9,394 resulting in convictions, 1,919 in acquittals and 1,919 dismissals.

Meanwhile, 23,363 rape cases were referred for prosecution, resulting in 4,229 convictions, 1,495 acquittals and 1,495 dismissals.

Cachalia said the prosecution figures should not be read as a direct outcome of only crimes reported during 2024/25.

The figures were obtained from the South African Police Service 6 system as at February 12 2026, and include cases reported during previous financial years.

The five-year figures supplied by Cachalia show 50,890 murder cases were referred for prosecution, resulting in 16,648 convictions, 4,364 acquittals and 4,364 dismissals.

Over the same period, 114,451 rape cases were referred for prosecution, with 18,884 resulting in convictions, while 6,729 resulted in acquittals and the same number in dismissals.

The figures also highlight the pressure on the country’s courts, with tens of thousands of serious criminal cases still pending.

According to the parliamentary response, 49,465 murder cases, 26,735 attempted murder cases, 126,371 GBH cases, 99,577 common assault cases and 53,582 rape cases are pending in court.

Cachalia’s response noted the figures for acquittals and dismissals are treated similarly in the data because when charges against an accused are dismissed, it constitutes dismissal of the case.

Sowetan

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The South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) has criticised JSE-listed retailer Boxer for what it described as the unfair treatment of its workforce.

Saccawu deputy general-secretary Jerrie Mmoneri called on the Pick n Pay group-owned retailer, which has a market capitalisation of about R33bn, to provide safe and reliable transport for employees required to work late-night and early-morning shifts, and to pay employees for overtime worked, among other demands.

Business Day reported in July that Boxer was on track to deliver its ambitious store expansion strategy, with the discount retailer opening 19 new stores during the first 20 weeks in the second half of its 2026 financial year.

The retailer, spun off from Pick n Pay in 2024, saw its turnover for the 20 weeks ended July 19 grow 7.2%, slowing from the 10.9% growth reported in the second half of its 2025 financial year. Boxer has grown by more than 15% since listing on the JSE, taking its market capitalisation to just more than R33bn, more than double the value of parent company Pick n Pay, which is now valued at R13bn.

“It is unacceptable that workers who play a vital role in the company’s success continue to be denied basic rights, fair working conditions and equal employment benefits,” Mmoneri said.

Despite Boxer being one of South Africa’s leading food retailers, many employees experience exploitation and unequal treatment, the union alleges.

“We call on Boxer to provide reliable transport from the workplace directly to employees’ homes for all qualifying shifts. We are equally disturbed by reports that employees are instructed to clock out at the end of their scheduled shifts and then return to continue working without pay,” said Mmoneri.

“If proven, this practice amounts to unpaid labour and is a serious violation of workers’ rights and South African labour legislation. Every employee deserves to be paid for every hour worked.”

Mmoneri said for more than a decade flexitimers — part-time employees working flexible shifts, such as till packers and cashiers — “continue to be excluded from benefits enjoyed by permanent employees. While they receive funeral benefits, they are denied access to performance bonuses, provident fund membership and meaningful medical aid benefits”.

“This injustice has devastating long-term consequences. Many employees retire after decades of loyal service with no retirement savings, leaving them financially vulnerable. This stands in stark contrast to workers in comparable retailers who are able to retire with meaningful retirement benefits after years of service.”

Saccawu’s demands include the immediate provision of safe and reliable transport for employees working late-night and early-morning shifts, an end to all forms of unpaid work, and the extension of provident fund, medical aid and performance bonus benefits to flexitimers.

The Cosatu affiliate called on Boxer management to engage in what it said were “meaningful negotiations” to resolve the issues.

Boxer has been approached for comment, which will be added once received.

Business Day

What is Trump’s latest plan for Gaza?

The US president on July 30 hailed what he described as a breakthrough in talks to advance a 2025 ceasefire plan, saying that Hamas and other Gaza militants had accepted a 15-point roadmap by his so-called “Board of Peace” to give up their weapons.

That 2025 ceasefire plan has reduced violence but failed to end Israeli attacks in Gaza or secure the militants’ disarmament, both the focus of months of painstaking negotiations between the Board of Peace and Hamas in Cairo.

The roadmap is meant to move the original plan forward, with Israel withdrawing from the territory and Gaza, devastated by two years of full-scale Israeli military assault, being rebuilt under a new US-backed Palestinian technocratic government.

What are the main points of the Gaza roadmap?

The roadmap says Israel and Hamas would immediately cease “all military operations” in Gaza, according to text of the plan published by the Board of Peace. It links Israeli withdrawal from Gaza to the disarming of all militias, including Hamas.

The new technocratic government — known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza — would assume civil governance and oversee a process to “decommission and store heavy weapons, ​military production sites, depots of weapons, and tunnels”, the roadmap says.

The roadmap also says that a temporary peacekeeping body known as the “International Stabilization Force” would deploy to Gaza to secure areas from which Israeli forces withdraw. The ISF would also train new Palestinian police forces and support aid deliveries.

What is happening on the ground in Gaza?

Israel has scaled back its attacks in Gaza since Trump announced his plan, with Israeli officials saying that in compliance with it, the military would act against immediate threats but would no longer carry out targeted assassinations.

Despite the October 2025 truce, Israel had been carrying out near-daily air strikes in Gaza — attacks that Gaza health authorities say have killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Four Israeli soldiers were killed by Gaza militants in that time. Hamas does not disclose figures on its war dead.

Israel says its attacks were aimed at addressing threats to its forces in Gaza or killing militants who took part in the 2023 Hamas attacks that precipitated the war.

The October ceasefire left Israeli forces in control of more than half of Gaza, since expanded to about two-thirds. There, they have bulldozed remaining buildings, destroyed Hamas tunnels and ordered people out.

Gaza’s nearly entire 2-million population is confined to a tiny strip of land under Hamas control along the coast, most in makeshift tents ​or damaged buildings.

Despite the deadlock on the ground, the Board of Peace has been setting up a base in Israel, near the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, that would function as a logistics and staging area for ISF troops if and when they are deployed into Gaza.

Diplomats say the ISF is still likely months away from deployment. So far, only Morocco and Uganda have pledged troops. Kosovo, Albania and Kazakhstan have committed military planners and medics. Indonesia, which previously offered to send thousands of military personnel for medical and reconstruction roles, says its talks are on hold.

What do Israel and Hamas say about Trump’s latest plan?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Trump’s new plan was unacceptable as it stands but that Israel was exchanging ideas on the subject with Washington. He restated that Israel would not pull out of Gaza until disarmament was complete.

Hamas endorsed the roadmap but protested when the Board of Peace later posted on X that it should give up light weapons such as guns and that Israel would only withdraw once disarmament was complete. The roadmap’s text calls for the two to be linked, in phases.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday, Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy, confirmed the process would be phased and carried out “sector by sector”.

Each time a designated area of Gaza has been verified to be effectively weapon-free, with arms stored and rendered unusable, Israel would be required to withdraw, eventually all the way, Mladenov said.

Hamas says it is bound only to the original roadmap text, which allows 14 days to work out a disarmament timeline. That deadline can be extended, and Mladenov said in the interview that talks were ongoing.

Reuters

TimesLIVE

Her story might have remained obscure had Michael de Nobrega not opened a drawer while browsing in an antique shop in Mossel Bay and found close to 200 large format black-and-white photographs. Unsure who had taken them but struck by their quality, he bought the collection and began searching for the photographer.

“We would have been none the wiser if it were not for the guy in the antique shop,” said photographic historian Carol Hardijzer. “She would probably have disappeared into the background without the due acknowledgement.”

The discovery prompted Hardijzer and De Nobrega to reconstruct the career of a photographer who had worked in Johannesburg for decades. Buijskes began as an assistant in the studio of Robinson Christian Engelstoft Nissen, where she initially developed and printed photographs in the darkroom. Hardijzer’s research found Nissen recognised her ability and gave her the opportunity to work behind the camera.

From 1931, Buijskes operated from the top floor of the Barbican, an early Art Deco landmark opposite the Johannesburg City Hall. The building stood neglected and largely empty for years before Italian businessman Michele Ciani acquired it and worked with architect Brian McKechnie on its recent restoration and reopening.

Hardijzer said Buijskes’ surviving portraits reveal an exceptionally skilled studio photographer with a rare understanding of light. “She was such an immensely good photographer. She could play around with light. Very few photographers could do that at the time.”

According to newspaper interviews uncovered during Hardijzer’s research, Buijskes studied the light falling across the faces of fellow passengers while travelling by tram and tried to recreate those effects in her studio.

Much of her commercial work would have included wedding portraits. Hardijzer said, unlike today, when photographers generally travel to churches, venues and parks, wedding couples in Buijskes’ time often went to the photographer’s studio.

Though she is likely to have produced many wedding photographs, Hardijzer is yet to find any. He hopes more of her work remains in private family collections and will eventually surface.

Despite her talent, Buijskes was largely forgotten. Hardijzer believes this reflected the limited value once attached to photography and the sexism facing women in the profession.

His research into a 1957 newspaper interview found Buijskes spoke about the public’s uncertainty over whether a woman could work behind the camera and said she had needed to be thick-skinned to survive. “Female photographers were not acknowledged at the time. I think it was the sexism of those years, just not acknowledging the female,” Hardijzer said.

However, there were men who recognised her ability and helped her career. Nissen gave her an early opportunity, while artist Erich Mayer encouraged her to believe in her work and enter international competitions.

The recovery of Buijskes’ story has coincided with the revival of the Barbican, which was completed in 1931 and recently reopened after years of severe neglect. It now houses Bridge Books, a fashion academy and offices, while its restored top floor occupies the space where Buijskes once worked.

For Kathy Munro, from the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, the building’s importance extends beyond its architecture. “Heritage is not only about buildings. It is also about the life of those buildings and the people who passed through them.”

Hardijzer said photographic heritage was particularly vulnerable because images were frequently discarded before anyone considered the information they contained. “People throw away pictures wherever I go. People tell me, ‘You should have come last year before we put it in the bin’.”

Even photographs of unidentified people can preserve valuable details about buildings, clothing, transport, toys, animals and everyday life. “There’s so much hidden in photographs. All those types of things contain valuable information.”

Munro said preserving heritage was not about resisting change or attempting to save everything. “It’s not about nostalgia,” she said. “It’s about the importance of giving the past the respect that it deserves and preserving that information.”

• This story is produced by Our City News, a non-profit newsroom serving the people of Johannesburg.