Brazil cancelled Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s passports on Tuesday, after he failed to comply with a Supreme Court order to turn them in, according to two sources from the federal police, which is trying to locate the former presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, Argentina said it had no record of him entering its territory and the right-wing senator’s aides either declined to say where he was or said they did not know.

Bolsonaro was favoured to win Sunday’s presidential election but ended up losing in a shock result to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

On Monday, he was given 24 hours to hand in his passports as part of a money laundering probe in which he denies wrongdoing, but that deadline has now lapsed, the two sources said, leading to his documents being cancelled.

The mystery over his whereabouts has raised concerns he could follow the path of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who moved to the United States after refusing to concede losing to Lula in 2022.

He eventually returned to Brazil but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup. His son has yet to officially concede defeat — saying on Sunday he would seek the annulment of the result over alleged voter irregularities — but his Liberal Party said on Monday it acknowledged Lula’s victory.

Argentina’s government said it had no record of Bolsonaro entering the country. Following media reports about a private plane at Iguazu International Airport on the Argentina-Brazil border, Argentine authorities checked the aircraft and its crew, finding no flight plan listing the Bolsonaro family, the statement added.

A spokesperson for right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei, who has yet to congratulate Lula on his victory, said, “There is no asylum request,” declining to give further details.

Meanwhile, a senior Brazilian Federal Police official said Bolsonaro has not exited the country via any regular migration point. Brazilians only need an ID card, rather than a passport, to enter neighbouring Argentina.

Right-wing influencer Paulo Figueiredo, who serves as a sort of unofficial spokesperson for the Bolsonaro family, declined to answer questions about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts.

“After months of intense work that has been unfairly thwarted, I am not in the mood to speak to the press,” he said in a message. “If I have any comments to make on any matter, I will get in touch.”

Eduardo Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro’s younger brother who lives in the US, said ahead of the vote that an election loss would require a move.

“If my brother does not win, I’m in favour that he would leave the country,” he told podcaster Steven Crowder on October 23.

Another source close to Bolsonaro said they could not reach him.

“I tried to talk to Flavio this morning by phone,” they said. “It rang and it rang, but he didn’t pick up.”

Reuters

The 70th annual ceremony was held in London on October 26 2026.

BEST

ADEKUNLE GOLD

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As one of the most timid black-tie events, Ballon d’Or attendees rarely take risks. In an attempt to jazz up his look, Adekunle uses accessories to avoid a boring ensemble. Statement earrings, a striking watch and shades to top it all off, it’s a simple yet effective way to rock up at the event.

LUIS DIAZ AND GERALDINE PONCE

Luis Diaz and his partner, Geraldine Ponce ❤️ https://t.co/B7sqdIRoT1 pic.twitter.com/b43byZAbB1

— Athlete Vanity (@AthleteVanity) October 26, 2026

The pair nailed it with their couples co-ord. Football star Diaz stuns in a relaxed boxy fit suit with his missing lapel making an appearance on the skirt of Ponce’s gown. Both looks pay more attention to grooming than over-the-top accessories or hair for a sense of sophisticared yet modern simplicity.

KERSTIN CASPARIJ

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The football star (left) loves her signature slick middle-part bun that is often paired with tailored suits. The look for the night is no exception. While its been popular for men to try cropped boxy jackets, she showcases how to create complimentary shape thanks to the fit and pop of an oversized collar to elevate an understated look.

ANNA PESARRODONA

Joan Garcia and his girlfriend, Anna Pesarrodona 🥹❤️ https://t.co/B7sqdIRWIz pic.twitter.com/9HpjTQnsue

— Athlete Vanity (@AthleteVanity) October 26, 2026

In what best resembles the regal style of Megan Markle with a vampy twist, Pesarrodona is a vision with her gown and jacket combo.

OUSMANE DEMBÉLÉ

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With the right stylist, Dembélé could easily be a force to be reckoned with on any given red carpet. Playing it safe in all burgundy tux and bow tie, he certainly knew how to stand out.

BURNA BOY

There aren’t many people who can pull of a three-piece velvet ensemble, but Burna Boy takes a risk that was worth it in the end. Thanks to his tall and lanky frame, the look doesn’t create an off-putting shape that could have been elevated had he opted for a high-low updo in the hair department.

WORST

SOPHIE TURNER

While she’s no stranger to red carpets, Turner rocked up underdressed for the night. The trousers make the ensemble too casual and the jacket does not have enough design elements to be worthy of a black tie affair.

JORJA SMITH

While Smith brought the elegance, she falls into the same style trap as Turner for a look that seems better suited for a different event. This lacey number screams boudoir or Victoria’s Secret.

ALEXIA PUTELLAS

While Putellas may have been aiming for an elegant Old Hollywood moment, she fell flat with this moulting bird look. The plumes are too much and perhaps need more cinching to really help the slit (if higher) to shine, and the shoulders could do with a drop.

LAMINE YAMAL

Among the boxy looks of the night, it’s not the best — especially with the floral brooch that he can’t seem to pull off as a statement of his own making. While Chanel has never dedicated itself to menswear, Yamal could learn a thing or two from the likes of Jaden Smith, Usher and A$AP Rocky on how to make your personal style shine through the pieces available.

TimesLIVE

What does purple taste like? Johannesburg’s jacaranda-loving residents may be able to tell you what the delicate purple blossoms sound like when they pop beneath the tyres of your car after an afternoon thunder shower, but to get an approximation of the taste of purple, you’ll have to venture to executive pastry chef Nathan Jacob’s kitchen at the Four Season’s Westcliff.

While the rest of the world is contemplating autumn, falling temperatures and the depressing business of putting on coats, Joburgers are driving through great purple tunnels of jacaranda blossoms, some on the way to the beautiful hotel that overlooks this purple network, to sample chef Jacobs’s Jacaranda Afternoon Tea.

Even our expatriates can’t bear it. A journalist friend who abandoned Joburg for New York a few years ago has taken to demanding regular photographic evidence of the jacarandas in bloom, which does nothing but make him homesick.

There are few better places to appreciate Joburg’s annual purple extravaganza than from the terraces of the Westcliff, perched above the city’s northern suburbs like a well-heeled Mediterranean village.

The hotel’s Jacaranda Afternoon Tea is an exercise in making an already beautiful season considerably more indulgent.

I’m barely through the door when Ayanda appears, ready to escort me to my table overlooking the extraordinary canopy of jacarandas below. The city’s northern suburbs spread out beneath us, the streets transformed into rivers of lavender and violet. It’s the sort of view that makes you temporarily forget about potholes, load-shedding and the municipal incompetence that generally dominates conversations about our city.

Before I’ve had time to contemplate any of these things, Ayanda presents me with an ice-cold glass of Moët & Chandon Nectar Impérial, an excellent start to a long and lazy afternoon. Cape Town may have extraordinary views of the Atlantic, but there’s nothing that beats the sea of violet that swirls through Joburg in November.

Then the tea trolley rolls in, which improves everything.

Ayanda, it transpires, isn’t only my waitress but my tea sommelier for the afternoon. And she knows a lot about tea. What she’s serving isn’t the sort of tea most of us make by flinging a bag into a mug, adding boiling water and forgetting about it until it’s brown and full of tanin. No, she is a perveyor of proper tea — tea with provenance, personality, precise brewing temperatures and an entire philosophy attached.

The Westcliff has partnered with Nigiro, the Cape Town-based luxury tea merchant founded by Mingwei Tsai, whose enthusiasm for the ancient art of tea drinking borders on the spiritual.

Nigiro sources loose-leaf teas from China, Japan, Taiwan, India and Sri Lanka, among other countries, and approaches their preparation with a reverence that would make the average local tea drinker feel barbaric.

According to Tsai, tea requires the correct temperature, infusion time, energy and, rather ambitiously, state of mind.

I have generally considered tea successful if it’s hot and someone else has made it. But Ayanda is persuasive. As she introduces the different varieties, explaining their origins, aromas and characteristics, I begin to appreciate that tea can be every bit as complex as wine. There are delicate green teas, richly aromatic blends and darker, earthier varieties, each demanding its own preparation.

Tsai believes that in our frantic, permanently distracted world, the simple act of preparing and drinking tea offers something increasingly rare: a moment of stillness. He may have a point. Particularly when that stillness is accompanied by Champagne and a view of several thousand flowering purple trees.

Of course, no afternoon tea worth its silver teapot is really about the tea. The arrival of the food is the moment when the civilised pretence of restraint begins to crumble. Afternoon tea is, after all, one of the world’s more ingenious culinary inventions: an opportunity to eat several small meals in succession while maintaining the fiction that you’re just snacking on a light refreshment.

But the procession of savoury and sweet delicacies is theatrical, and the careful presentation with its dainty portions is accompanied by the unspoken understanding that nobody is expected to count calories, or eat dinner. Among other delights, all inspired by the purple flowers, are blueberry and citrus tarts, blackberry and vanilla choux, black current macarons, cherry and dark chocolate vacherin.

For the more savoury of tooth, butter chicken pies, mushroom empanadas, beetroot-cured salmon blini, braise lamb croquettes. And then, of course, the traditionals: scones, egg mayonnaise and cucumber sandwiches with their crusts off.

The jacarandas provide the perfect backdrop. Their extravagant purple display is fleeting, lasting only a few glorious weeks before the blossoms fall, carpeting pavements and turning Joburg’s streets into an Impressionist painting.

Maybe that’s why we become so sentimental about them. For all its frustrations, Joburg has an extraordinary capacity to surprise us with beauty. From my table at the Westcliff, with Ayanda explaining another tea and the last of my champagne disappearing, I’m reminded that appreciating a city sometimes requires a change of perspective — an elevated one, with excellent service and something delicious on a plate.

My friend in New York will have to make do with photographs. I’ll send him one of the view, another of the champagne and a third of the tea trolley. There’s no reason homesickness shouldn’t come with a serving of envy.

Reservations

• The Jacaranda Afternoon Tea is served daily from October 1 to November 30 2026, with 12pm and 3pm seatings available.
• The Westcliff Jacaranda Afternoon Tea is priced at R650 per person, including a glass of South African méthode cap classique.
• The Champagne Jacaranda Afternoon Tea is priced at R950 per person, including a glass of Moët & Chandon champagne.
• For reservations, call +27 11 481 6450 or email reservations.johannesburg@fourseasons.com.

Follow Four Seasons Hotel The Westcliff, Johannesburg on Instagram at @fsjohannesburg for the latest news and experiences.

TimesLIVE

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By Michael Georgy

Islamic State (IS), which once controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria and aims to rebuild its presence in the region, is back in focus after Jordan said it killed more than 20 of the group’s militants in airstrikes on southern Syria.

Jordan said the strikes targeted militant hideouts after investigators linked suspects in last week’s church attack, which killed nine people, to “terrorist groups” operating across the border in Syria. Jordanian security forces also arrested three suspects after a shootout.

IS has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

What is Islamic State?

The Sunni Muslim group emerged from the conflicts in ‍Iraq and Syria and quickly proclaimed a caliphate — a form of Islamic government — declaring ​its rule over all Muslims and eclipsing al-Qaeda as the world’s most powerful jihadist organisation.

At its peak in 2014-17, it controlled vast areas of Iraq and Syria, ruling over millions of people. It had a ​base a 30-minute ⁠drive from Baghdad, and seized the city of Sirte on Libya’s Mediterranean coast.

In territory under its control, the group imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law and became notorious for public executions, torture and other acts of brutality, often filmed and distributed as propaganda. It also carried out or inspired attacks in dozens of countries.

The caliphate eventually collapsed after a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition.

Where does it operate now?

After losing its strongholds in the Syrian city of Raqqa and ‌the Iraqi city of Mosul, the group took refuge in the hinterlands of both countries.

It retains a presence in Syria and Iraq and has established activities in parts of ​Africa, Afghanistan, ‍and Pakistan.

Fighters are scattered in autonomous ⁠cells, IS leadership is clandestine and its overall size is hard to quantify. The UN estimates a membership of 10,000 in IS heartlands.

Iraqi intelligence and security officials say the group is no longer capable of holding land but it has established dangerous sleeper cells. Concerns have grown that the withdrawal of remaining US forces from Iraq could leave a security vacuum that IS could exploit.

The group claimed responsibility for an October 5 attack that killed an Iraqi federal policeman near Kirkuk, its first reported assault on Iraqi security forces since the US military completed its withdrawal. Iraqi authorities have also said they foiled an IS suicide bombing plot.

Jordan has long been part of the US-led coalition against IS. The Islamist group captured Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh after his aircraft crashed in Syria and in 2015 released footage purportedly showing him being burnt alive.

Though Jordan is one of the more stable countries in the Middle East, its authorities have repeatedly foiled Islamist militant plots over the years.

Since suffering major setbacks in the Middle East, IS has pivoted towards Africa. According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, 86% of the group’s global operations during the first three months of 2026 occurred on the continent.

Many foreign fighters have joined IS’s Khorasan branch (Isis-K), named after a historic region spanning parts of present-day Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia.

Where has it carried out recent attacks?

Middle Eastern leaders and their Western allies have warned that IS could exploit the 2024 toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s government to stage a comeback in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

The group has declared a new phase of operations in Syria against the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, carrying out a spate of attacks, including one that killed four Syrian government security personnel near Raqqa.

Sources have told Reuters that IS has been reactivating sleeper cells in Syria, gathering intelligence on targets and distributing weapons, silencers and explosives.

A report by the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism said Sharaa and two senior cabinet ministers had been targeted in five foiled assassination attempts by IS.

In July, preliminary investigations into the cell responsible for bombings in Damascus showed it was linked to IS, a senior Syrian security official said. Two explosions near a hotel hosting visiting French President Emmanuel Macron wounded 18 people.

IS has also inspired hard-to-detect lone-wolf attacks.

The 2025 shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach — Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years — raised questions over whether the group was inspiring those operations once again. The police said IS appeared to have influenced the gunmen, who killed 15 people.

Demonstrating its international reach, Isis-K claimed responsibility for the 2024 attack on a concert hall near Moscow that killed 149 people.

What are its goals and tactics?

IS’s stated aim is to spread its extreme form of Islam and rule over Muslims.

Iraqi security officials say IS has undergone a big transformation since losing its territorial strongholds, evolving from a conventional military force into a dispersed underground movement that relies on clandestine cells, loosely connected operatives and courier networks.

Reuters

On a global scale, fashion is in a bit of a scramble. Design houses and conglomerates are making the necessary shifts to keep consumers piling up e-carts and making traffic in brick-and-mortar stores, hotels and pop-up experiences. Thanks to a robust counterfeit market and fast fashion e-tailers, it’s easy to look the part.

In markets where microtrends or subcultures have swayed buying habits towards accessories and fragrance dupes, we’ve seen old-money luxury become a backdoor to a minimal aesthetic that you can cop at any cheap retailer. Why spend thousands on imports for pricey plain tees when you can buy 10 times the outfit at the same price?

But SA Fashion Week is anything but that. Sure, the past couple of seasons have been inundated with monochromatic looks or all-black ensembles and a sea of denim designs, but this season marks a winter that is aching to add a new spark to how people want to dress. All informed by designers wanting to express themselves.

Designing introspection

Fan favourite Michael Reid debuted his eponymous brand at the New Talent Search competition to much anticipation and cheer. Dropping the Xavier Sadan title, he showcased a collection inspired by his pursuit of romance and the person he became failing to find it. The designer has always been sentimental in his approach, even in his entrance for the Scouting Menswear collection where he honoured the late Coenrad De Mol. Pieces were smelted, printed and inspired by the modular nature of Transformer and Lego toys. The grown-up version includes deconstructionism and fabric manipulations that capture the beauty of his difficult journey.

Parents and loved ones were on the minds of his fellow New Talent Search competitors, especially the call for whimsy behind Zour’s colourful collection. It’s a world full of primary colours, floral brooches and prints that have the familiarity of a grandma we all know.

But nothing brings this inward collection together more than Thabo Makhetha. It’s a bold collection, merging kaftans, blankets, capes and kimonos on a runway exploring the intersections between shared culture. Titled EAKA EAHAO (what’s mine is yours), the collection becomes a pertinent conversation on Ubuntu and how we all discuss the diversity in a country riddled with xenophobia and clanishness.

Back to your roots

Seasoned designers opted to look back at what they’ve created to better inform who they are in today’s landscape. Black Coffee’s Jacque van der Watt has pondered what we will wear in the future, but this collection looks back to the house’s roots to ponder the artistry of clothing and what it makes us feel.

That same conversation runs through the threads of Sober and Colleen Eitzen as they explore the female figure. The latter explored A-line silhouettes with a modern air, while Sober celebrates its 20-year legacy with updated classics in its fabrics and print.

David Tlale’s collection was typical of the designer’s elements — a showcase at a monumental space in Joburg — and while it was a magical setting for his safari-ready glamazons, it seemed fresh out of Valentino’s recent collection by Alessandro Michele. While Tlale brings all the boys and girls to the attention of a monument, Michele’s work themes were seamlessly tied to the story his clothing told.

Dali Ngcebetsha, on the other hand, tells the tale of history beautifully with a collection on Xhosa manhood and a playfulness you rarely see in amakrwala fashion.

Newness

SA Fashion Week also happens to be the home of denim. This season, it was the canvas of newness. Ephymol had one of the most jaw-dropping summer collections earlier in the year and this season he continues that intrigue with a “new jeaneration”. His redefined classics are the city slicker to Zayoni’s handcrafted denim that reflects South Africa’s streetwear. Sumo, on the other hand, explores individuality that feels relevant to the unisex silhouettes of today’s trends.

That same spirit of individuality can be found at Emelia D’s show. While the Congolese designer is concerned with a conversation of strength, her Neopolitan palette with bursts of oranges and blues feels like defiant expression — a stance against the grain.

Culminating in all we’ve seen this season are Anunes and Gert-Johan Coetzee. The latter loves a spectacle, even if pieces fall off on the runway. However, memory has been an important conversation for him. His farm days have brought about the new aesthetic of the brand over the past couple of years and a recent Alice in Wonderland cabaret that mirrored his ascent from farm boy to big-city designer.

Today, he explores this with a subtlety that illustrates the elements that made him excited to design — a collection that seems to define the future of the brand with awe-inspired bridal wear and dreamy silhouettes that lend themselves to baroque flair. Anunes, on the other hand, reimagines modern royalty with advanced designs, shapes and details. It’s a new look at luxury with an ochre and azure palette that takes a break from the Afrofuturism and print blocking we’ve become accustomed to.

TimesLIVE

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“Little Tumi” was the focal point of a workshop at the Bana Pele (Children First) leadership summit in Sandton this week, where participants collaborated on a narrative envisioning an ideal childhood for South Africa’s children.

Tumi lives with and is cared for by her grandmother. Her family cannot afford an early childhood development (ECD) programme, and there is no adequately resourced centre nearby.

Although Tumi is fictional, she represents the estimated 1-million children aged between three and five who do not attend early learning programmes (ELPs), as well as those whose centres lack state funding for books, stationery and other learning materials because they do not qualify for the R24-a-child daily subsidy.

A centre must be registered or conditionally registered with the department of basic education to qualify for the subsidy.

Practitioners at the workshop called for greater government support and a direct voice in decisions affecting their ECD programmes.

According to the basic education department’s communications lead, Uvania Naidoo: “For little Tumi to be equal with other children from all walks of life, we need to ensure that all ECDs are equipped with books, [and that children can] learn through play and [have] conducive environments, in spite of where they come from.”

The R24 subsidy helps ECD centres cover the costs of running their programmes and providing learning resources. It was raised from R17 to R24 a day for each qualifying child in October last year.

The workshop came as basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube said the department was working towards a single registration process for early learning programmes as part of the Bana Pele shared blueprint, which aims to bring an additional 1.2-million children into quality early learning programmes by 2030.

Cutting the red tape is among Gwarube’s priorities. A single registration process would help providers enter the subsidised system, including those operating from homes and in rural communities.

The process is onerous at the moment. “Registering one early learning programme requires a social worker, an environmental health practitioner, a municipality and the provincial department. The practitioner should not have to carry that complexity alone,” Gwarube said.

Departments and municipalities need to co-ordinate their requirements and assist applicants, she added.

“We should be able to say, ‘Here is a checklist required by all departments to make the process faster. This is what you need to do. How can we help you?’”

This forms part of her plan to address barriers to access and make registration easier for existing community caregivers.

She also wants to help underfunded ECD providers acquire skills. “How do we make sure that uGogo from Alex is able to get some kind of training to be able to run her finances in her ECD centre?”

Lindiwe Zungu is one such childcare provider. She runs the Ncedo Day Care Centre in KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal, caring for 30 children and charging R100 a month. She has no access to state funding.

“When parents cannot pay, I have to use the money for my family to buy supplies, food and books,” Zungu said. “I have been trying for two years to be registered, to no avail. There is just a delay somewhere that you will encounter.”

In Gauteng, about 5,900 ECD programmes remain unregistered, according to education MEC Lebogang Maile. He cited zoning, fire and food-safety requirements — as well as unreliable water and electricity supplies in informal settlements — as obstacles to registration efforts, TimesLIVE reported.

Ntsiki Bhengu, who runs the Tholulwazi Day Care Centre, near Springs, expressed frustration over delays in registration and funding, which have also forced her to cover the costs of caring for 37 children without government support.

“I have submitted every form available, but I have not received constructive help,” Bhengu said. “This is frustrating because the cost of living is hard, but children need to learn. We are forced to close down because this is unsustainable.”

Programmes initially receive bronze status but must progress to silver or gold to qualify for the R24-a-child daily subsidy. This requires additional documentation and compliance assessments.

In an effort to speed up the process, 1,343 programmes received silver or gold approval between January and September, joining existing programmes already eligible for funding.

Gwarube said nearly 40,000 early learning programmes serving 1.6-million children were registered nationally.

Tracy Fortune, chief executive of the Early Learning Resource Unit, said registration difficulties reflected a wider affordability crisis. She noted that household income in communities with high unemployment often depended on old-age or child-support grants.

“Universal access needs to translate to universal affordability,” Fortune said. “We have seen in the poorest areas that, unless ELPs are anchored by a sustainable revenue stream, access collapses. It is very fragile, and there is a lot of economic fragility. We need a system that enables that sustainability.

“Registration needs a pathway to the subsidy, and we need to cost it and systematise it,” she said.

By 2030, the Bana Pele shared blueprint aims to:

• Expand access to quality early learning programmes, reaching an additional 250,000 children between 2025 and 2027, and 950,000 more between 2027 and 2030, bringing the total to 1.2-million children overall;
• Enable government systems by modernising core business processes, improving management information systems and digitising key functions across provincial education departments and local government;
• Improve programme quality by strengthening developmental outcomes, increasing the proportion of children classified as green (on track) in the Thrive by Five Index from 46% in 2024 to 51% by 2030, while reducing the proportion classified as red (falling far behind) from 28% in 2024 to 19%; and
• Resource the sector by mobilising financial and non-financial resources from public, private, philanthropic and corporate partners to support the targeted expansion.

This story was produced by The Education Desk, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to addressing schooling challenges in South Africa.

I came to Moscow for Fashion Week and the BRICS+ Fashion Summit, courtesy of the Fashion Fund. The summit is a story for another day.

At the hall entrance, I caught a glimpse of a slim woman, towering over the crowd in a millinery creation, caught in the headwinds of the curtains.

We were rushed to our seats, and the dimmed room was packed. Camera torches and portable pocket lights flashed and danced around the room as guests took pictures to immortalise the moment on their phones. Elsewhere, a bold man with a tattooed head, in a dark pleather corset, took his seat with his entourage.

Closer to us sat Ksusha, one of the fashion show co-ordinators and the one who got us through the door. She turned heads herself, with an eclectic personal style that paired a formal blouse with a pencil skirt that had a sultry lingerie bralette stitched into it. As I tried to people-watch, catching what I could on the fly, I felt as though attendees had been given permission to be fashionable, which made me more curious about the show.

On every second seat of the front row, the designer had placed a copy of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, putting the literature into her audience’s hands before a single model walked the runway. A bright pink origami paper bird sat on top of each 19th-century Russian classic. I never worked out what the Crime and Punishment novel was doing there.

The room hummed, then I felt the soft punch of the bass in the music as my expectation heightened, followed by a psychedelic hum of the melody. Then it eased as my eyes fell onto the first look.

The model walked out in a silky, champagne-hued relaxed suit with iridescent jacquard floral embroidery, accented by rose-blush fur collars and cuffs. Her hair was a messy updo with tendrils at the front, and chopsticks pinned the high bun.

The show notes titled the collection Silk of Time and named Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love as its inspiration, a film set in Hong Kong in which the wardrobe is a prominent part of the narrative. “I felt like a producer and director to some extent, because fashion shows were unfamiliar territory for me before,” Linovich said. She founded Masterpeace in 2012, starting with jewellery before the clothing followed.

Throughout the show, “real women” walked among the professional models, and a small pocket of the audience cheered them on as they passed. On the runway, I spotted pieces with Asian influence: floating silk kaftans trimmed with fringe, and intricate brocade-embroidered corsets paired with loosely fitted cargo trousers.

Reflecting on the show later, I stitched the runway pieces to her commentary: how Linovich had borrowed a film’s wardrobe, a country’s literature and a continent’s rich tailoring and pulled it all into one show. It made me wonder how, back home, our runways often draw on street culture and pop nostalgia. Here, I watched a designer reach for literature and a continent’s intellectual history, and I wondered where ours are.

When the lights came up, the guests scurried for the exit. In the seat in front of me, a woman in a Masterpeace minidress used her phone camera as a mirror for one last makeup check. Then she rose, slowly, and joined the crowd.

• Nombuso Kumalo was a guest of Russia’s Cultural Fund for the Development of Fashion and Design.

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Barney Pityana, who is regarded as one of Africa’s leading intellectuals, has condemned the recent wave of anti-migrant violence in South Africa, which has left people dead and caused millions of rand in property damage, saying the world was watching in silence.

He made the remarks yesterday, the first day of the Africa and African Diaspora Conference in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.

The conference, which brings together delegates from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia under the theme “The return to Africa”, serves as an independent, unifying platform dedicated to advancing African sovereignty, reparatory justice and sustainable solidarity between Africa and its diaspora.

Pityana, the former vice-chancellor of Unisa and erstwhile chair of the National Lotteries Commission, also spoke against the “genocide in Gaza” and actions of the US government, saying, “It may look like we live in a different world, or it may look like all our energies, efforts and endeavours and struggles have come to nought.

“When you look around the world in which we live today, you see blatant and stark racism. You see in our country, you see strong anti-immigrant movements that seek to throw people away, in their suffering, out of this country, for whatever reason.”

Anti-migration groups such as March and March have been leading protests across the country, calling on those who are in South Africa illegally to go back to their countries. Some of the protests turned violent, with cars and property said to belong to foreign nationals attacked and set alight. In one incident, a foreign national died after being attacked.

When you look around the world in which we live today, you see blatant and stark racism. You see in our country, you see strong anti-immigrant movements that seek to throw people away, in their suffering, out of this country, for whatever reason.

Barney Pityana

The government, labour federations and some NGOs have condemned the protests, saying foreign nationals can’t be made scapegoats for the socio-economic crises confronting South Africa.

Shifting his focus to geopolitics, Pityana said, “We see war, and a head of state and his wife being taken from their home in one country and thrown in jail in another, in the US. We see a war in Iran and everything else that has happened.”

Former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a US military operation in Caracas on January 3 and flown to the US, where they remain incarcerated at a detention facility in Brooklyn, New York.

Countries including Russia, China, France and Colombia criticised the raid as a breach of international law, while the US defended it as a law enforcement and counter-narcotics operation.

“We see genocide for three years now — a genocide in Gaza and the continuing genocide in the West Bank of Palestine. Let me tell you this: in all of that, it seems to some of us, especially to the victims, that the world is watching in silence,” Pityana said.

“There seems to be no World Council of Churches, and the evangelical movement that we have come to trust … the voice of the church doesn’t seem to be responsive to the pain … and suffering that we see day by day.

“It’s fair to say that nothing will bring peace to the world except us dealing with these issues as effectively as we can.”

The conference, which will have a declaration and action plans, ends on Friday.

Business Day

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JF van Heerden, the 22-year-old Bulls lock, says he has learnt valuable lessons from franchise Springbok teammates and understands he needs more experience to be a genuine contender for the lock position in Rassie Erasmus’ national team.

Gone are the days when Van Heerden was only a prospect in professional rugby. The 22-year-old has come a long way since signing his first senior contract with the Bulls two years ago.

Van Heerden started in this season’s opening round of the Champions Cup, a move that painted a vivid picture of just how far he has progressed within a highly competitive Bulls squad.

His development as a professional rugby player has also been accelerated by his teammates at the Bulls. After all, Van Heerden is learning from some of the back-to-back Rugby World Cup-winning Bok players, including flyhalf Handré Pollard.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times, the 22-year-old spoke candidly about the influence his teammates have had on him, mentioning the likes of Cameron Hanekom alongside the Bok players as influential figures in his career.

JF van Heerden is locked, loaded and always ready for that lineout jump! The Vodacom Bulls rising star gives us a sneak peek into what it takes to play in the number 5 lock position.#LoveChange #TrueToTheBlue @BlueBullsRugby @catolouw

— BrightRock (@BrightRockZA) April 11, 2025

“You have guys that are in the Springboks setup; they bring a different point of view back to Loftus when they come back from the Boks,” Van Heerden said.

“A guy like Cameron [Hanekom], me and him work together a lot. He obviously knows the game well and understands rugby well. So I enjoy being in his presence.

“You learn something from someone every day and it doesn’t even have to be position-specific. I mean, even from guys like Willie [le Roux, utility back] and Handré, just on how to see the game and look at it in different ways.

“The biggest thing any of those guys would tell you on attack and defence is to look up. I think a lot of young guys, and I’m talking about myself as well here, tend to get caught up with the ball and where the ball is and going after the ball and being with the ruck and all of those things.

“I think that makes a big difference — that I learned, especially from Willie, just to look up and be aware of what is in front of you instead of just where the ball is.”

Across the sporting codes, there are few things as exciting as seeing a young player showing signs of readiness for the international scene. As a result, at times, young players’ careers tend to be ruined by being fast-tracked into the Springboks.

I think it’s stuff that comes with game time and being in situations and positions where you need to make decisions like that.

JF van Heerden

However, in Van Heerden’s case, though he has a burning desire to play for the Boks he understands he still has a lot to learn before he makes the step up to international rugby.

“When those guys [the Bok selectors] feel you play well enough to be there, that call will hopefully come. For me, I wouldn’t put a timeline on anything. I think I’m learning a lot and I’m still growing as a player,” said Van Heerden.

“So hopefully, for me, I’m getting better every game, every season and every day. I’m just going after it, and hopefully the work pays off eventually.

“But I do think there is still a lot that I can to improve on as a lock to get there. But, I mean, I think it’s stuff that comes with game time and being in situations and positions where you need to make decisions like that.”

The youngster did not feature in Bulls’ 34-26 victory over Ulster at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday as he was not included in the match-day 23.

However, with the Bulls having sustained major blows against Ulster to Sango Xamlashe, Cheswill Jooste and Pollard, changes will be made, and the youngster is sure to get game time at some stage. He is raring to go for that chance and to make an impression when it comes.

The show at the NFL championship game is the most-coveted showcase in the world of music. US television ratings for the halftime performance often top 100-million viewers and rank higher than the audience for the game itself.

Iconic artists including the Rolling Stones, Beyonce, Madonna, Prince and Bruce Springsteen have taken the Super Bowl stage over the years. Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny headlined the show at the last Super Bowl.

Next year’s Super Bowl will take place on February 14 in Los Angeles. It will be broadcast on Walt Disney’s ABC and ESPN television networks and will stream on Disney+ and the ESPN app.

Jay-Z’s company, Roc Nation, has produced the Super Bowl halftime show since 2019, and he plays a key role in selecting each year’s performer.

“For several years we’ve had the privilege of working closely with Jay-Z and Roc Nation, and I’ve seen the extraordinary impact he has had on the Super Bowl Halftime Show,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.

“When we first reached an agreement with Roc Nation to produce the show, I had just one request: that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day, whenever the moment felt right to him.”

Jay-Z is known for hits such as 99 Problems and Hard Knock Life. The 56-year-old rapper has also collaborated with artists including Alicia Keys on Empire State of Mind and his wife, Beyonce, on Crazy in Love.

Reuters

When he tabled his MTBPS in parliament last week, the minister said that the National Treasury would submit a draft fiscal anchor policy soon for public comment and that legislation was expected to be shown in parliament next year.

The proposed legislation sets out fiscal sustainability as a standard in the Public Finance Management Act, requiring each elected government to commit to its own fiscal objectives, spend and allocate within fiscal guardrails, and stick to a fiscal plan.

Addressing an RMB breakfast last Thursday in Cape Town, Godongwana said that while the government of national unity (GNU) broadly accepted the fiscal anchor, getting it passed in parliament would require two crucial hurdles to be cleared.

“We’ve got to first cross the hurdle of legislative success. In other words, will the legislation [supporting] the fiscal anchor see the [light of] day? Because there would be an argument, and a legitimate argument out of the experience in countries that have had fiscal anchors, that in certain circumstances [they] have constrained the political choices that elected officials have got to make.”

He said the success of the fiscal anchor as a policy in the long term would depend on the power that parliament was willing to grant it when it was introduced in the legislative process. In a veiled reference to parties such as the EFF and MK, he said this was important in the event that a different, more populist configuration of the GNU emerged.

“Populism is growing in this country. That will depend on the political balance of forces at the appropriate time. I can’t answer that question. I know, for instance, that if a combination of two parties I have in mind were to be in power, that fiscal framework and fiscal anchor would be up in the air. So it’s going to depend on the balance of forces at the time.”

Populism is growing in this country. That will depend on the political balance of forces at the appropriate time. I can’t answer that question. I know, for instance, that if a combination of two parties I have in mind were to be in power, that fiscal framework and fiscal anchor would be up in the air.

Enoch Godongwana, finance minister

He said the Treasury has put thought into the arguments against a fiscal anchor by ensuring that the proposals are not tethered to a number but speak to the principle of adhering to fiscal guardrails and not falling into the trap of runaway debt.

“How we are avoiding that argument is by constructing not a numerical anchor but a principled anchor in the sense that parliament must agree that fiscal standards must be maintained. And, therefore, any new administration must develop a fiscal plan and that fiscal plan must meet that fiscal standard.”

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) has warned that the guardrails proposed in the fiscal anchor policy could run the risk of legitimising austerity as law.

In the MTBPS, “Godongwana claimed that his government’s commitment to fiscal stability is now beginning to pay off. But paying off for whom? The government continues to chronically underfund services, persecute social grant holders and underinvest in critical infrastructure in the name of ‘stability’, improved credit ratings, and investor confidence,” it said.

“Increasing unemployment and hunger are not incidental; they are the outcomes of a fiscal strategy that regards debt stabilisation as the supreme goal to which all developmental objectives must be subordinated.”

On top of this, economists at the RMB breakfast warned that economic headwinds for households and businesses were far from over. David Faulkner, RMB’s global markets research lead, said RMB was foreseeing elevated inflation in the region of 4% this year and next year.

Marie Antelme, an economist at Coronation, said that while fiscal discipline was filtering into the system, corporate capital expenditure continued to underperform.

Tidiane Kinda, IMF senior research resident representative for South Africa, said the IMF saw growth reaching 2% in the medium term.

Business Day

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Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi has signalled that the ANC would prefer to form a coalition government without the DA in the province, accusing the party of undermining the ANC by opposing its policies while expecting cooperation in government.

Lesufi said the ANC would first seek an outright majority in the local government elections, but would be prepared to negotiate with other parties if it fell short of that target.

“We want it outright as the ANC first, and if we can’t reach that target, we’ll find a way and mechanism to do it,” Lesufi said.

“We’re very comfortable to run a provincial coalition without the Democratic Alliance, because they are anti-transformation.”

His remarks raise questions about whether the working relationship between the ANC and DA in the national government could be replicated in Gauteng, where the election outcome may require parties to negotiate coalition arrangements.

Lesufi accused the DA of opposing key ANC policies, including the National Health Insurance (NHI) and the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, while seeking the ANC’s cooperation when it suited the party.

This election has exposed their [DA’s] inexperience. It has exposed their inability to run a big metro like Johannesburg.

Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng premier

“What do they do? They go to the Constitutional Court to stop NHI. They go to court to stop the Bela Bill,” he said.

“So they’ve been anti-ANC in their own way and in their own deeds. But when they hit the rock or they hit the wall, they want the ANC to bail them out and say that they want to run [a] coalition government.”

He added: “You don’t insult us during the day and want to work with us at night. It doesn’t work that way.”

Lesufi was once considered the champion of an anti-DA coalition in the days following the 2024 national elections which led to a clash between the Gauteng leadership and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.

While Lesufi has never indicated ambitions to lead the party nationally, those within the ANC who have been anti-DA have expressed their support for him possibly emerging in the national leadership in 2027.

Lesufi also questioned the DA’s ability to govern Gauteng’s metropolitan municipalities, accusing it of failing to manage coalition arrangements and leaving municipalities with debt.

He argued that the party’s campaign relied heavily on its record in Cape Town rather than its performance in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.

“This election has exposed their inexperience. It has exposed their inability to run a big metro like Johannesburg,” he said.

Lesufi claimed the ANC had demonstrated greater experience in managing coalitions, pointing to what he described as stable coalition arrangements in Gauteng’s three metropolitan municipalities.

“The experience, the expertise, the talent that we possess is unmatched,” he said.

The premier also blamed the DA for the water crisis in Tshwane, asking who had been governing the municipality when more than 13 people died of cholera. This is despite the ANC being at the helm in a coalition in the metro.

He further questioned the party’s record on municipal debt and its ability to manage relationships with stakeholders.

Lesufi said the ANC’s election campaign had focused less on large rallies and more on door-to-door engagements and listening to residents about service delivery and other concerns.

“We have abandoned what doesn’t work and concentrated on what works,” he said.

He acknowledged that the ANC still had problems to address, including service delivery failures and the performance of the economy, but said the party remained confident it would secure the results it wanted.

“What impresses us is that ordinary people have given us their ears, and ordinary people have given us advice,” he said.

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The government plans to strengthen its tracking of foreign nationals through electronic registration, biometric technology and a system that alerts visa holders when their permission to remain in SA is about to expire.

The chairperson of the inter-ministerial committee on migration, Mmamoloko Kubayi, outlined the plans during a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday, presenting the outcomes of the committee’s engagement with organisers of protests targeting home affairs offices.

Kubayi said the government had also agreed to establish a structured platform to:

• engage with community leaders;
• address concerns about illegal immigration; and
• prevent continued protests from undermining investment and tourism.

The meeting followed a request from community leaders who wanted to discuss:

• migration management;
• unemployment;
• hijacked buildings; and
• the government’s response to illegal immigration.

Kubayi said the delegation supported efforts to address illegal immigration but stressed it did not oppose legal migration by people who respect South African laws.

She said the government was modernising its ports of entry, including airports and seaports, to improve how it registers and tracks people entering the country.

Under the planned system, people entering SA would be registered electronically, with their visa details and telephone numbers recorded. The system would send SMS reminders before their visas expired, telling them when they had to leave the country.

Kubayi said the government was also engaging mobile network operators about improperly registered SIM cards, which she said could be used to facilitate crime and make it difficult for investigators to trace suspects.

She said the government wanted to strengthen SIM-card registration and improve the ability to trace people who changed telephone numbers.

The minister said biometric information, including fingerprints, would also be part of a broader system to track people entering the country.

Kubayi said these measures formed part of government’s longer-term migration management plans, alongside improved border infrastructure, patrols and technology.

The IMC’s five-point approach comprises:

• enforcing immigration laws;
• securing the country’s borders;
• strengthening the immigration system;
• addressing gaps in migration laws and policies; and
• working with other African countries.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of community leaders joining ongoing court proceedings involving migration and asylum seekers.

Kubayi said the delegation wanted to participate in legal cases but did not have the financial means to do so.

She said legal teams and senior counsel had offered to represent the leaders pro bono, allowing them to present their experiences and support the government’s position in court.

Among the matters discussed was the Constitutional Court case concerning the rights of asylum seekers, as well as conflicting high court judgments on whether people who had applied for asylum could be detained or deported.

Kubayi said the government had consolidated migration-related cases to help it develop a co-ordinated legal approach.

She welcomed the offer of legal assistance, saying community leaders could bring perspectives that government might not be able to present on its own.

Kubayi said community leaders had also raised concerns about hijacked and derelict buildings, including state-owned properties, allegedly being used for human trafficking, drug dealing and other criminal activities.

She said the IMC had already met representatives of all eight metropolitan municipalities to discuss efforts to reclaim buildings and outlined work under way to address the problem.

The committee had committed to continuing engagements with organisations interested in the process and providing updates on progress.

The delegation also raised concerns about unemployment, particularly among young people, and called for action to restore investment confidence and support tourism, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.

Kubayi said the organisers had committed to keeping the first phase of their protest rollout as planned, while working with the government to address the issues they had raised. She said both sides recognised the need for co-operation to prevent demonstrations from continuing without progress on solutions.

The meeting also considered concerns about non-governmental organisations allegedly involved in illicit activities. Kubayi said community leaders wanted the government to ensure that organisations were properly registered, adding that work was under way on this issue.

Kubayi said one of the main criticisms raised during the meeting was that the government was not communicating its work effectively. She acknowledged that officials were carrying out work on migration management but were not always ensuring that the public knew what was being done.

The minister said the government would work with community leaders and other stakeholders to improve communication and provide updates through different platforms.

She also acknowledged the need to make the government briefings accessible to more people, including those who did not understand English.

Kubayi said she had received feedback from radio stations that government briefings conducted in English did not reach all communities. She said the Government Communication and Information System would help explore ways to communicate more effectively in different languages.

She said the meeting was not intended to be a once-off engagement and that the government would continue working with community leaders and civil society on migration management.

TimesLIVE

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South Africa could secure a credit rating upgrade from Moody’s within a year or so, after the agency said the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) tabled by finance minister Enoch Godongwana last week was credit positive, confirming progress in fiscal consolidation.

Moody’s, which revised its outlook on South Africa to positive from stable in May, is scheduled to give its next review on November 27, as is S&P Global. Fitch will publish its own on December 11.

Although some economists see a ratings upgrade next month as unlikely, Bank of America in a recent viewpoint said: “We view Moody’s as the most likely agency to act, with a potential upgrade to Ba1, while an S&P upgrade to BB+ remains a closer call.” On Monday an analyst at the bank said the view still holds after the MTBPS.

In its statement on Monday, Moody’s applauded South Africa’s progress in fiscal consolidation in spite of higher oil prices, tighter monetary policy and weaker nominal GDP growth than assumed in the February budget, saying this would “help to anchor fiscal improvements through the electoral cycle, even as a track record of compliance still needs to be established”.

Godongwana last week reiterated the National Treasury’s commitment to reining in debt, which he said had stabilised at 78.4% of GDP in 2025/26 and would be reduced over the rest of the decade as the country continued to grow the primary surplus and narrow the budget deficit.

He told MPs that efforts to limit bailouts of state-owned entities, to fund new commitments responsibly and prioritise investment over unsustainable consumption were beginning to pay off, creating a stronger foundation for investment, growth and job creation.

Moody’s said broad-based revenue outperformance had allowed the government to lower its consolidated deficit target for the 2026/27 financial year to 3.9% of GDP from the 4% forecast in the February main budget. This was even while absorbing a temporary extension to fuel price relief and funding additional infrastructure investment.

“This is the second consecutive MTBPS without upward deficit revisions, adding to a track record of fiscal delivery that, if sustained, would support debt reduction and upward rating pressure,” the ratings agency said.

The introduction of draft fiscal anchor legislation alongside the MTBPS was credit positive because it would help maintain prudent fiscal policy through the 2027-29 electoral cycle and preserve the strong fiscal gains beyond the administration of President Cyril Ramaphosa, it added.

“Importantly, the updated institutional arrangements will provide greater independent oversight to fiscal policymaking even as the authorities have opted against a binding numerical target.”

Prior to its improved outlook for South Africa in the May review, Moody’s in December 2025 left its credit rating unchanged at Ba2, nearly three weeks after S&P raised the foreign-currency rating for the first time in two decades from BB minus to BB and the local-currency rating to BB+ from BB, while lifting the outlook to positive. In late May, S&P affirmed both the rating and outlook.

Fitch, for its part, upgraded the country’s long-term sovereign rating by one notch to BB from BB- in June, citing prudent fiscal management despite weak growth and economic shocks. It said it saw South Africa’s debt-to-GDP levels well below those expected when it downgraded the country to BB- in 2020.

Importantly, the updated institutional arrangements will provide greater independent oversight to fiscal policymaking even as the authorities have opted against a binding numerical target.

Moody’s

The Treasury at the time said Fitch’s move meant all three major rating agencies now rated the country at BB or Ba2 — two levels below investment grade — “with Moody’s and S&P having the sovereign on a positive outlook, indicating they could look to upgrade their ratings within 12 to 18 months”.

Last week’s MTBPS projections show a rising consolidated primary surplus even with increased infrastructure spending planned, which Moody’s evidenced as a particularly notable commitment to fiscal consolidation, Investec economist Annabel Bishop said on Monday.

“Moody’s has previously indicated South Africa is in line for a credit rating upgrade, having revised the outlook to positive in May this year, which means an upgrade is likely in around 18 months,” Bishop added.

Business Day

In a report, the intergovernmental economic organisation said the general education certificate (GEC), which recognises learners’ achievements at the end of compulsory education, could help identify learning gaps, recognise practical skills and guide young people towards further education and employment.

However, the OECD warned that the certificate’s success would depend on the availability of credible vocational pathways and the education system’s ability to use assessment results to improve learning outcomes.

The department of basic education began phased in implementation of the GEC in 2025 after a pilot programme that started in 2021. About 80% of schools were implementing the certificate this year, with a national rollout expected by 2027.

The GEC is awarded at the end of grade 9 and is intended to give learners a broader picture of their academic performance, abilities and career interests before they enter grades 10-12 or pursue technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

Under the assessment model, school-based assessment accounts for 60% of learners’ results, while end-of-year curriculum tests account for 40%. The tests are centrally developed by the department for key subjects, including languages, mathematics, natural sciences, and economic and management sciences, while schools or provinces develop tests for other subjects.

The OECD said the centrally developed tests provide an opportunity to assess learners against common national standards, particularly in language and mathematics. However, it recommends reducing the number of centrally developed tests to focus on these two subjects, arguing that the model places additional demands on teachers and schools.

South African teachers reported an average of 77 learners per class in grades 8 and 9 in the OECD’s 2024 Teaching and Learning International Survey. About 72% said excessive marking was a source of stress, compared with 40% across OECD countries on average.

The report also raises concerns about the reliability of school-based assessment, which accounts for a substantial share of learners’ marks. It said research has found differences between school-based marks and results from standardised assessments, raising questions about whether learners across schools are being assessed consistently against national standards.

The OECD recommends using GEC results to identify learners who need additional support, particularly in foundational subjects, and ensuring that the information reaches grade 10 teachers before the start of the school year. It said targeted tuition of small groups could help learners address weaknesses before completing their secondary education.

The report highlights the extent of South Africa’s learning challenges. In the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, 55% of grade 9 learners did not reach the lowest international benchmark for mathematics. In reading, 81% of grade 4 learners failed to reach the lowest international benchmark in the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study.

The OECD said the GEC’s integrated projects, which require learners to apply knowledge across subjects, could help develop skills such as critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration. But it cautions that assessing these skills reliably is difficult, particularly in large classes.

During the 2024 pilot, nearly three-quarters of submissions for the assessment of these skills were incomplete. The OECD recommends reconsidering the existing approach and placing greater emphasis on helping learners recognise and develop these abilities, potentially through self-assessment, rather than relying on direct teacher assessments.

Central concern

A central concern is whether learners will have meaningful alternatives to the academic school pathway after grade 9.

Only about 1% of South Africans aged 15-19 were enrolled in upper-secondary vocational education, compared with an OECD average of 23%, according to the report. It said the country’s vocational education system remains difficult to navigate, with overlapping qualifications, limited access and poor employment outcomes for graduates.

A study of almost 4,000 TVET graduates cited by the OECD found that only 16.6% were employed 12-18 months after graduating, while 45.3% were unemployed. Among those who had found work, fewer than half were employed in fields related to their qualifications.

The report said limited access to technical subjects in ordinary schools further constrained learners’ choices. In 2024, only about 12% of secondary schools offered technical subjects, while no more than 5% of national senior certificate candidates took a technical subject.

The OECD recommends expanding vocational and technical options in grades 10-12, improving access to TVET colleges and working with employers to ensure qualifications meet labour market needs. It also suggests that industry partnerships could help schools access equipment, specialist teachers and practical training opportunities.

The GEC includes an assessment intended to help learners identify their interests and explore possible careers. The OECD said this could improve career guidance but warns that it should not be treated as a tool for assigning learners to a single occupation.

The organisation also cautioned against allowing the GEC to become a barrier to further education. The qualification should recognise knowledge and skills rather than become an exit certificate that prevents those who do not achieve a particular result from progressing to grade 10.

The OECD suggests that the department consider presenting GEC results through a comprehensive report card, combining academic results, integrated project outcomes, career interests and other information about learners’ progress.

Such an approach, it said, could help learners, parents and teachers make better-informed decisions about subject choices and future education pathways, while ensuring that the certificate supports progression rather than restricting it.

Business Day

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The high court in Durban has authorised a curator bonis to sell five luxury residential properties in Sandown, Johannesburg, tied to high-profile businesswoman Shauwn Mkhize and her family.

The court on Monday also ordered that the full proceeds of the sale of the five properties be held by the curator bonis in an interest-bearing trust account.

The court also gave the SA Revenue Service (Sars) a month from the date of the order to institute an action declaring the properties or their cash proceeds executable toward satisfying the outstanding tax debts of Mkhize and the Zikhulise Group.

Presiding over the urgent application by Sars, judge Jacqueline Henriques ruled that the properties must be realised to staunch a rapid erosion of their value caused by runaway maintenance costs, mounting municipal arrears and heavy security expenses.

The ruling stems from a preservation order originally granted on November 21 2024 under the Tax Administration Act (TAA). Sars launched the enforcement action after uncovering substantial unpaid tax liabilities by Mkhize and the Zikhulise Group.

Sars indicated that as at September 19 2025, Mkhize had a personal income tax debt of R13.3m and she had personal liability for the tax indebtedness of the Zikhulise Group, including interest, in the sum of R112.5m.

In its latest application, Sars sought to convert the five immovable properties to cash to be held by the curator bonis pending an action to be instituted to allow it to execute against the cash so generated for either Mkhize’s or the Zikhulise Group’s indebtedness to Sars.

Henriques said the basis on which Sars sought to do so related to the financial burden of preserving the five properties and their deterioration.

She said Sars indicated that these costs were substantial every month and were eroding the value of the immovable properties.

“Such expenses include and are not limited to bi-annual insurance premiums, unpaid monthly municipal charges, the lack of maintenance to the five immovable properties, the monthly cost of security guards and the curator bonis’s fees, which the respondents are liable for but which costs are paid by Sars in the interim,” Henriques noted in her judgment.

The judge said although the five immovable properties were separate properties with two separate registered owners, they effectively formed a single unit.

“Sars obtained a sworn valuation report in respect of the properties and they have a total municipal value of R22,831,000.

“After the valuation, the collective market value of the five properties was estimated as being R35m and the collective forced sale value as being R24.5m.”

Sars also said further expenses were being incurred in respect of the monthly charges owing to the municipality in respect of various amounts levied on the five properties.

However, the Johannesburg municipality has only issued statements in respect of four of the five properties and the total amount outstanding in respect of the four properties at October 3 2025 was R1.8m.

The curator bonis was also instructed to place security guards at the properties, given Sars’ concern that the properties may be vandalised and/or movable assets removed.

A security company was contracted by the curator bonis to provide such security services and the monthly expenses at the five properties are R188,000 which was being paid for by Sars.

The judge said the factual allegations contained in the Sars’ founding affidavit remained unrefuted by the opposing parties.

She said those opposing the application had not disputed any of the facts detailed in the founding affidavit by Sars.

The judge said they, instead, raised various preliminary legal points and failed to deal with the factual basis of the Sars case.

“They have not seriously and unambiguously addressed the facts alleged by the Sars and, as a consequence, I agree with the submission of the Sars that the factual foundation for its case is left entirely unchallenged.”

Henriques said the grounds of opposition advanced by the respondents were without merit and fell to be dismissed.

“(Sars) is entitled to the orders sought for the sale of the properties for the reasons mentioned in the judgment.”

TimesLIVE

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Flamboyant businessman Benjy Maponya is challenging judgment finding him in contempt of court in a bitter legal battle with mining tycoon Solomon Soka Madibela, known as MySol, arguing that the proceedings should never have been brought against him because he was not properly served with the court papers.

In a notice of application for leave to appeal filed on October 23, Maponya argues that acting Johannesburg high court judge Mongezi Ntanga erred in finding that he had made a case for contempt, contending that the serving of the interim order and supporting papers did not comply with the requirements set out in the original order.

The application seeks leave to appeal the October 22 judgment to the Supreme Court of Appeal, alternatively a full bench of the high court.

At the heart of Maponya’s challenge is whether he was properly notified of the order requiring him to remove disputed social media posts, and whether the evidence before the court justified a finding that he had deliberately failed to comply.

His lawyers argue that Madibela had not served him with the interim order, notice of motion and founding papers through the sheriff of the court, as required by the order granted on October 8.

Maponya contends that this failure undermined the contempt proceedings and that the application was brought prematurely.

The notice states that the judge erred in finding that Maponya knew which social media posts he was required to remove, despite what he says was a failure to serve the relevant documents in the manner prescribed by the court.

The dispute places the procedural requirements surrounding service at the centre of the fight, with Maponya arguing that the contempt finding cannot stand when, in his version, the steps required to bring the order formally to his attention had not been completed.

“The learned acting judge erred in finding that the respondent made out a case for the contempt of court against the applicant,” the notice states.

Maponya further argues that the judge failed to consider whether Madibela had complied with paragraph five of the October 8 interim order before launching the contempt application.

He challenges what he describes as a defective return of service, arguing that the document purporting to show service on October 12 did not comply with the original order’s requirements.

The notice also alleges that Madibela had not established that Maponya deliberately failed to comply with the order because, according to Maponya, he had not been properly informed of the specific posts he was expected to remove.

This is a central issue in the proposed appeal. Maponya is not merely disputing the conclusion reached by the court; he is challenging the process that led to the contempt finding, arguing that the application should have been dismissed because the required service had not taken place.

His lawyers also contend that the judge made an order that was not supported by the relief sought in Madibela’s application.

According to the notice, Madibela’s application had asked for an opportunity to supplement his papers if Maponya failed to comply with a contempt order, including in relation to an application for committal. Maponya argues that the order ultimately made by the judge was incompetent and went beyond what had been sought.

The proposed appeal also takes issue with the judge’s treatment of the evidence relating to service, arguing that the court should have considered whether the documents placed before it demonstrated compliance with the October 8 order.

In setting out his grounds, Maponya maintains that the contempt application ought to have been dismissed because Madibela had not complied with the service requirements.

“The applicant contends that the proposed appeal has reasonable prospects of success, and that it raises important points of law that warrant consideration of a higher court,” the notice states.

The challenge follows Madibela’s urgent legal action against Maponya and podcast host Macgyver Mukwevho, popularly known as MacG, after an interim order was granted on October 8 restricting the publication or broadcast of certain statements about the businessman.

Madibela subsequently accused the pair of breaching that order. His contempt application alleged that MacG proceeded with a podcast broadcast shortly after being served, while Maponya failed to remove disputed social media posts within the stipulated period.

Those allegations formed part of the proceedings that culminated in the October 22 judgment now being challenged by Maponya.

The notice of application for leave to appeal does not, however, establish that the judgment has been overturned or that Maponya has been granted permission to appeal. It sets out his grounds for asking the court to allow a higher court to reconsider the decision.

Maponya has reserved the right to amend his notice once the reasons for the judgment have been furnished in terms of the applicable court rules.

The legal dispute therefore remains focused on two competing questions: whether Maponya was properly served with the order and documents, as he argues was required, and whether the court was justified in finding him in contempt.

The outcome of the leave to appeal application will determine whether he is permitted to take that challenge further.

Madibela’s response to Maponya’s grounds of appeal was not included in the notice of application for leave to appeal.

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An expert video and CCTV analyst continued to show footage in the state’s case against seven men accused of killing rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes on Monday, showing a video clip of the moment AKA was shot.

KwaZulu-Natal Organised Crime Unit Sgt Rajen Sanders, who has collected 17 video clips to track the movements of the accused, last week linked three men to being the spotter, tail and supplier of guns that killed AKA and celebrity chef Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane in the Durban high court.

On Friday, he named accused five Lindokuhle Mhlaliseni Ndimande, 29, as one of the spotters in the gang who plotted the musician’s death.

Ndimande — who was constantly on his phone — sat across from AKA and his friends as they enjoyed their meal minutes before they walked outside to their deadly ambush.

AKA and Tibz were gunned down as they left the now defunct Wish restaurant on Florida Road in Durban on February 10 2023.

Ndimande, as well as Lindokuhle Thabani Mkhwanazi, 30, Lindani Zenzele Ndimande, 35, Siyanda Eddie Myeza, 23, Mziwelithini Gwabeni, 36, Malusi Dave Ndimande, 30, and Siyabonga Gezani Ndimande, 31, pleaded not guilty to charges including murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms when the trial began on October 5.

On Monday he played footage of the moment AKA was shot, in slow motion.

He was questioned at length by prosecutor Adv Lawrence Gcaba, who went through the footage frame by frame about the moment AKA fell to the ground after the sparks from the gunshot were seen.

He froze the video on a frame where a pool of blood seeped out from under AKA as he lay on the ground.

Gcaba probed Saunders about the two shooters, both of whom bear a resemblance to two accused and the direction in which they ran.

During questioning after the lunch break, the accused were indifferent to the graphic footage on screen, and it came to the court’s attention that Malusi Ndimande fell asleep with his head resting on the edge of the dock. He stirred when the judge asked his legal representative a question.

Sanders said the two shooters ran across the road, past two benches in the park opposite the restaurant and into Gordon Road. There he showed them getting into a getaway car, a white Mercedes-Benz.

The state has called at least 17 witnesses, including crew members who travelled with AKA from the airport when he landed in Durban.

These witnesses, including his DJ, Tshediso Mokoko, better known as Don Design, musician and old friend Lusaso Ngcobo, manager Tshiamo Letshwene and photographer Thotloetso Kutlwano Mogotsi, recounted AKA and Tibz’s final hours before the panic, fear and blood following the shooting.

Forensic witnesses including fingerprint expert Lt-Col Nathaniel Zachariah linked Myeza to a car used during a hit on a taxi boss in a separate murder, linked by the same gun and cartridges used in AKA’s death, and found on Myeza when he was arrested.

Car rental businessman Sonwabile Bani told the court that he leased a grey VW Polo and white Hyundai i10 to Gwabeni, which were allegedly used to execute the hit. Another witness, Imraan Khan, testified via affidavit that he rented a grey BMW to Gwabeni.

The state also led crucial testimony from a surveillance analyst from King Shaka International Airport, who on the second day of testifying told the court he had received death threats.

He presented video footage from the airport which showed Gwabeni tailing AKA from the airport to Hilton Hotel in uMhlanga and then to Wish restaurant.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

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Mark Nicholson had warned his 31-year-old son, Keenan, to be careful and avoid moving around unnecessarily because of the gun violence plaguing their Lavender Hill neighbourhood. Hours later, he found him dead in the family’s backyard, lying on top of two women, one dead and the other fighting for her life.

Keenan was among five people killed in a suspected gang-related mass shooting in the Cape Flats community on Saturday evening. Three other people were wounded.

“I am not fine,” Nicholson told the Sunday Times on Monday after visiting the mortuary to identify his son’s body.

Earlier that day, father and son had spoken about the dangers of gun violence in their community.

“We talked to him about not moving around a lot because of the gun violence in our area,” Nicholson said.

Keenan had gone to sleep when his friends arrived with plans to have a braai in the family’s backyard. He was due to leave in two weeks for an electrical job, and they wanted to spend time together before his departure.

“They went and sat in the backyard with four beers,” Nicholson said.

The shooting happened shortly after 6.30pm, while Nicholson was in bed preparing for the Sunday church service.

“I was actually going through my Bible when someone came running to say there had been a shooting. Then there was a commotion, and we were all running around. One guy was in my living room and was still talking. I started shouting, ‘Where is my son?’ because I could not see him. Outside, I saw him lying dead on top of two females. One was dead, and the other was still alive. He was shot in the back. Maybe he was trying to run away,” he said.

Seeing his son’s body was devastating, but Nicholson said he had to put his grief aside to call the police and an ambulance.

The pain is too deep. It is going to take time for me to heal.

As he moved around the yard, he counted four bodies outside, while another victim was in his living room.

Nicholson said he was struggling to understand what could have motivated the attack. He believes the shooting may be connected to a court case involving one of the victims, who had been a witness in a case in which the victim had been shot.

The case is expected to go to court. He said the victim, who was wheelchair-bound, had been shot twice.

Nicholson, who co-founded the Lavender Community Centre where Keenan had volunteered, said the loss was particularly painful.

“The pain is too deep. It is going to take time for me to heal,” he said.

Western Cape police commissioner Lt-Gen Sizakhele Dyantyi and provincial police management visited the crime scene in Blode Street, Lavender Hill, on Sunday.

Dyantyi condemned the killings, saying it could not be normal for people to be murdered in such numbers in their communities.

Police resources have been deployed to the area as investigators work to identify and arrest those responsible for the murders and attempted murders.

A R100,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest and successful prosecution of the perpetrators.

Dyantyi also condemned an attack on police officers who responded to the shooting on Saturday evening. Steenberg police were pelted with stones as they arrived at the scene.

Western Cape minister of police oversight and community safety Anroux Marais condemned the suspected gang-related attack, saying no community should have to endure such bloodshed or live in constant fear for their safety.

“The time for decisive, sustained action against gangs is now,” she said.

Marais called on SAPS to intensify intelligence-driven operations against known gang groups, target their leadership and dismantle the networks supplying them with illegal firearms and ammunition.

She also urged Anti-Gang Unit detectives to pursue every lead, while calling on the National Prosecuting Authority to prosecute the cases rigorously and the courts to impose sentences reflecting the severity of the crimes.

“Those convicted of such heinous acts must face the full consequences of the law,” she said.

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Many are familiar with the concept of Murphy’s Law. This is an idea that anything that can possibly go wrong will not only go wrong, but will also do so at the least convenient time possible. Murphy’s Law, meet minister of finance Enoch Godongwana.

When he tabled the MTBPS in Parliament last week, Godongwana made many announcements that piqued the interests of spectators, including temporary fuel price relief and progress on legislative changes to municipal finance transfers and allocations.

But perhaps more consequential than any of these, at least in the long term, was Godongwana’s announcement that, as part of its efforts to safeguard these gains, the government released draft fiscal anchor legislation for public comment in October.

“The legislation is expected to be tabled in Parliament in 2027. The proposed legislation sets out fiscal sustainability as a standard in the Public Finance Management Act, instead of a rigid numerical rule.

“It requires each administration to commit to its own fiscal objectives, consistent with the electoral mandate. It then reports against it at every budget and explains any material deviation to Parliament. The financial and fiscal commission is given new responsibility to independently report on the consistency of the fiscal framework with the administration’s fiscal plan.”

The minister said this approach preserves flexibility in changing economic conditions while strengthening transparency, accountability and fiscal discipline.

“Most importantly, it helps to ensure that developmental priorities and constitutional obligations are pursued at a pace that public finances can sustain. That is how we protect our economic future and our constitutional commitments.”

It is difficult for many to see what the MTBPS says about the fiscal anchor proposal and not see an attempt by the GNU to introduce a hedge in the fiscal planning and budgeting process against a more populist GNU, which may take shape further down the line.

Unfortunately, this adjustment to policy is being introduced at a fraught time of considerable cost pressures around the world as a result of the ongoing US-Iran war and widespread protests against governments cutting various public benefit programmes.

Asked by reporters during a lock-up ahead of the tbling of the MTBPS about what the fiscal anchor would mean in relation to future configurations of the GNU which are likely to table populist budgets, Godongwana said it was important for the government, whoever leads it, to have fiscal guardrails.

“I would be misleading if I said there were issues in Cabinet on the fiscal anchor as a principle, whether we are trying to prescribe to future administrations. In our view, we are not prescribing to future administrations, because each administration will have to produce a fiscal plan.”

Unfortunately, this adjustment to policy is being introduced at a fraught time of considerable cost pressures around the world as a result of the ongoing US-Iran war and widespread protests against governments cutting various public benefit programmes.

Anybody who is anybody knows that France has seen an estimated €1bn in damage to its cities, a thousand people injured and an estimated 2,500 people arrested, according to AP News’ latest reports.

French people are struggling to keep pace with climbing gas prices, which filter through to rising daily expenses and buckling public services, while wages remain under pressure and stagnant. This is a new global reality that South Africa is obviously not exempt from.

Earlier this month, Italy also saw protests against the rising cost of living, stagnant wages, inflation, fuel costs and a severe shortage of affordable housing. Spain and Portugal have also seen widespread protests over housing, while Belgium protested energy costs and Albania protested the rise in the cost of public services.

This is not only happening in the third world. It is happening in countries and societies that are some of the best resourced outside of the Scandinavian region. Even wealthy nations are facing the decision of having to curtail spending on essentials or bankrupting themselves to mollify the masses.

The Institute for Economic Justice warned that the introduction of the proposed ‘principles-based’ fiscal anchor was pitched in the minister’s speech as a return to fiscal policy driven by “developmental priorities and constitutional obligations”.

As Godongwana and his MTBPS stand, South Africa intends to maintain its primary budget surplus, continuing the narrowing of deficits and steadying the debt-to-GDP ratio after it peaks at 78.4% before it starts declining.

But the fight to balance the books while businesses and households struggle to do the same will be a long and arduous fight, especially with parties such as the EFF and MK Party waiting in the wings to promise the world to financially bruised South Africans come 2029.

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Eugene de Kock, who was convicted of apartheid-era killings, on Monday blamed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for neglecting to prosecute apartheid-era atrocities which he said were ordered by both politicians and military generals.

Among other issues, he blamed the NPA and the government for not seeking information from him about killings and bombings he said were ordered by police generals and politicians, including former president PW Botha.

De Kock, dubbed “Prime Evil” because he commanded the police death squad unit at Vlakplaas responsible for the torture and extrajudicial killings during the height of apartheid, testified on Monday before the Khampepe commission of inquiry.

The commission is investigating allegations of political interference in efforts to investigate and prosecute crimes referred by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

De Kock’s evidence is crucial to the commission because he played a central role in some of the atrocities. He was convicted in 1996 of six murders, as well as conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping and other offences.

The crimes related to the activities of what was known as “apartheid death squads”, which operated out of Vlakplaas near Pretoria and were responsible for the killings of several political activists.

The unit worked with some uMkhonto weSizwe double agents who worked for the apartheid police. The agents were called “askaris”.

De Kock described himself as the middleman between high-ranking apartheid generals and officers who carried out killings and bombings, adding that his evidence would have been key to the NPA in seeking to prosecute, but “I was never asked,” even though he was “available all the time in prison”.

RECORDED | Eugene de Kock testifies at TRC inquiry

De Kock accuses Anton Ackermann, who was the head of the NPA unit investigating TRC cases, of negligence. He said that despite being called to meetings by Ackermann, he was never asked about TRC cases, those behind the extrajudicial killings or politicians who issued instructions.

“It would therefore have been obvious to the prosecuting authorities that I would have a great deal of information that would be of relevance to the prosecution of other individuals as well as the generals who were in command and the politicians who instructed them.

“However, very little attempt was made by advocate Anton Ackermann or attorney-general advocate Jan d’Oliveira to interview me regarding my knowledge of apartheid-era crimes,” De Kock said.

Among politicians involved in apartheid crimes, he listed former presidents Botha and FW de Klerk.

“The politicians were definitely PW Botha, Adriaan Vlok and Louis le Grange, and at a later stage I did receive information that De Klerk, president de Klerk, the one that … urinated himself out of fear, gave the order for the killing of five children in Mthatha," De Kock said.

“I want to know why he was not prosecuted. He actually got a Nobel prize for killing children. I think it is disgusting. It [the Nobel peace prize] should be recalled,” De Kock said.

The NPA has opened an inquest into the October 1993 killing of five youths, including two 12-year-olds, who were shot dead in a South African Defence Force raid on an alleged Azanian People’s Liberation Army base at the Mpendulo residence in the Mthatha suburb of Northcrest.

Read: I did not direct the suppression of TRC prosecutions, says Mbeki

De Kock said that after the bombings were carried out by his unit, he was applauded by top politicians. But when the whip was cracked on apartheid crimes, he was the only one to be prosecuted and to serve jail time, and not those who issued the instructions.

One of the police generals who was responsible for a killing pinned the crime on him, he said.

“I have never been reluctant to provide information to the prosecuting authorities; however, they have simply never approached me to provide this information.

“I disclosed openly and fully my involvement in the crimes for which I had been charged. This would have provided the prosecuting authorities with ample evidence with which to pursue further prosecutions.”

De Kock said Ackermann knew that he had information about the apartheid human rights violation crimes, although he did not disclose it. “I made it clear on many occasions that I wanted to testify; why was he [Ackermann] not prosecuting?”

Ackermann is due to return to the commission for cross-examination.

Read: Kasrils rejects claims of secret meetings with apartheid generals

Ackermann previously testified before the commission on operational challenges which led to the failure to prosecute. He told the commission the Scorpions had declined to investigate TRC cases, leaving the NPA in a dilemma.

While allegations have been made that there were secret meetings between ANC officials and apartheid army and police generals to avoid prosecutions, De Kock said he was not aware of such meetings.

He, however, said the commission should look at those who stood to benefit from the failure of prosecutions: the apartheid generals and politicians who issued the instructions.

De Kock said he was willing to testify “even now” on apartheid killings and those who escaped prosecution.

“For the most part, my instructions came from very senior police officers: the generals. There was a chain of command, and I was a key link between the generals and those who carried out the operations.

“I was [and I am] able to provide evidence about [for example] the role played by Maj-Gen Izak ‘Krappies’ Engelbrecht, who was in the chain of command above me, and about a number of the other generals under whom I worked,” he said.

“The generals have not been prosecuted, despite judge Willem van der Merwe having found at the conclusion of my criminal trial that there was ‘more than enough evidence to charge Gen Engelbrecht’.”

He said his experience demonstrates that political office-bearers were both aware of and involved in what was happening.

“For example, to my personal knowledge, minister Louis le Grange signed off on the bombing of the ANC offices in London. He decorated the people who were involved in this, including me.”

“Minister Adriaan Vlok visited Vlakplaas on many occasions. On one occasion he came there to congratulate me on the bombing of Khotso House [the offices of the South African Council of Churches] and Cosatu House.”

“When I was instructed by Brig Willem Schoon to bomb Cosatu House, he told me that the instruction to do this was ‘from very high’. I asked him how high, and he said that it came directly from president PW Botha,” he said.

De Kock will return to the commission for cross-examination at a date yet to be confirmed.

Business Day

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The death of the ANC, we were assured by some of South Africa’s more anxious and sunburned soothsayers, would be apocalyptic.

The party would rig elections, and when that failed to save it, it would collapse the state around itself, with the terrified rich crowding onto rooftops to catch the last helicopter to Stellenbosch while angry young men in aviator shades roamed the streets below in Datsun bakkies with machine-guns mounted on the back.

Next week, as we gather to vote, and the ANC draws another one of its shallow, final breaths, we will once again see the extent to which the soothsayers got it wrong, just as they got so much else wrong.

To be fair, the young men are still angry, but they do not work for the ANC. They do not work for anyone, which is why they are angry. And as for the roaming Datsuns, well, the roads are dark, and nobody wants to demoralise their comrades by driving into a sinkhole and accidentally squeezing off a burst of the old Kalashnikov in their direction.

Mostly, though, the ANC is dying this small, unremarkable death because it simply doesn’t have the energy to do anything else. After all, if you’ve ever hosted a party you’ll know that, once the young people leave to go to someone else’s house to form the EFF, and the older lounge-lizards in shiny suits have decided to head out to a nearby strip club to go and form MKP, and all you’ve got left are the likes of Cyril Ramaphosa, Paul Mashatile and Fikile Mbalula talking earnestly around the punch bowl, your party has been over for at least the last hour.

Ramaphosa, too, is trying slightly harder than you’d expect for a billionaire who can’t wait to chuck it all in and go and play with his cows.

Not that they’ve given up completely, mind you. Over the weekend we read that Mashatile is going to travel all the way to Bronkhorstspruit to look at taps from which contaminated water came, triggering an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness. He is even preparing a special frown for the occasion, a good, deep frown that will almost certainly convey his various frustrations, whether about the fact that humans have not yet invented a way to transport clean water, or that he will soon be handed a completely dead party to run.

Ramaphosa, too, is trying slightly harder than you’d expect for a billionaire who can’t wait to chuck it all in and go and play with his cows.

On Sunday he was in Diepkloof, offering some surprisingly spirited emotional blackmail as he told voters that “the transformation that we see in our country, whether people like it or not, whether they hate the ANC or not, has been brought about by the ANC”.

He is not wrong, of course, but the implied loyalty he was tacitly demanding was more than a little creepy: by Ramaphosa’s logic, if a fireman saved you 30 years ago, and then promptly became an abusive drunk and gambler, and now arrives at your door every five years asking for money, you are obliged to reach for your wallet, regardless of how much it might damage both of you.

All of these performances, however, are sideshows; distractions drawing our attention away from the historic event that will take place next week, as the ANC enters its final metaphorical hours, drifting away and down towards a place from where it cannot return, and to which it will go increasingly quickly as the last of its electoral support despairs and turns to hurry away from its bedside.

No doubt some opposition politicians will crow, but they should remember that every one of them has been a beneficiary of the ANC these last two decades, their careers made infinitely easier by working in a country in which you can offer voters water in most taps and only slightly damaged roads and sound like a fairy godmother making everyone’s dreams come true.

It is time for the ANC to slip away into history, and entirely fitting that these last rites start being delivered by local government elections, elections that are about the services the ANC so resolutely and contemptuously refused to deliver, and which ultimately hastened its end.

Still, though, I find the death of the ANC surprisingly tinged with regret and thoughts of what might have been; what should have been.

Yes, Tambo, Mandela and Sisulu are long gone, but so are many stars in the sky, and we still sometimes guide ourselves by their lingering lights.

If only there remained a little light where the old ANC once was.

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For years, homeless heroin addict Thabo Mahlangu was a feared presence at traffic lights in Fourways, Johannesburg, with motorists accusing him of intimidation and aggression — until one woman decided to speak out.

eSports broadcaster and content creator Sam “Tech Girl” Wright had a second unsettling encounter with Mahlangu and took to social media to describe what happened and ask whether other motorists had similar experiences.

In her video post, Wright described feeling intimidated and unsafe when she encountered Mahlangu at the intersection of Witkoppen and Main roads as a woman driving alone.

“I recognised him and didn’t want to stop. But he saw me and stepped in front of my car, so I had to slow right down. As he approached he beat my car, hit my side mirror and spat at me,” Wright said.

She contacted her local councillor and the Lonehill Residents’ Association and was advised to open a criminal case at Douglasdale police station.

Her post sparked an online outpouring, with other motorists contacting her to describe similar experiences. Scores of women contacted her with their stories, enabling her to build a long list of victims.

“I tried to lay charges and at first the cops seemed uninterested because I hadn’t suffered any actual damage, and there was some disagreement over whether the case should be registered at Douglasdale or Sandton. But then they called a superior and he came through and said, ‘Oh you’re the TikTok video woman’ and he agreed that I had a case of intimidation.”

The incident attracted widespread attention and Mahlangu was arrested. But the case was dismissed in court because of a lack of evidence and he was released.

“By Sunday I was out of my mind with stress and worry because soon after that another woman posted a photo of him at her window,” Wright said, describing her sense of helplessness.

Her appeals eventually reached local activist pastor Curt van Heerden, who has worked with addicts for the past 10 years. He recently entered politics and is vice-president of The People’s Movement for Change.

“Because of the work I do I got tagged in all the posts. So I watched her video, saw that the guy was an addict and went looking for him,” Van Heerden said.

He tracked Mahlangu down and took him to the Centre for Transformation on the West Rand, where he was admitted to a rehabilitation programme which is helping him overcome his heroin addiction.

The centre’s CEO, pastor Nello Sibinda, said Mahlangu was aware of his challenges and had acknowledged his aggressive behaviour, which he said happened when withdrawal kicked in.

Speaking to the Sunday Times from the clinic, Mahlangu said he felt bad about his actions. He has been homeless and battling addiction for eight years.

“I’m glad to be here. I’m trying to get better. I am very, very sorry and I want to stop these things,” he said.

His case manager, Lindsay Holland, said the process of getting off heroin was agonising and many difficult days lay ahead. But Mahlangu had shown a deep commitment to recovery and started each day by thanking the clinic for the help it was providing for free.

Wright said she was pleased that Mahlangu was receiving help and hoped he would get clean and start a new life.

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Two eThekwini mayoral candidates have called for firmer action against violence in Durban, as civil society alleges foreign nationals are being attacked despite a police and army presence.

KwaZulu-Natal has been on high alert for several months following ongoing anti-migration and xenophobic attacks which last month prompted premier Thami Ntuli to call in the army.

Despite the army’s presence, Durban has continued to experience daily protests and violent flare-ups including the killing of a foreigner, who was beaten to death on Thursday in the CBD.

On Friday spokesperson KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Col Robert Netshiunda said five men were detained for questioning to assist investigators with several cases involving attacks on foreign nationals in the city.

These included the assault of a foreign national in the Durban CBD on Wednesday afternoon, and the murder of a foreign national who was allegedly beaten to death in the CBD on Thursday morning.

Investigators are also probing a case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after two foreign nationals were allegedly assaulted by a group of people marching in Berea on Thursday morning.

In one of those incidents, a group of protesters stormed a visa office in Morningside where they fired shots, damaged the building and assaulted a foreigner.

At the weekend, tensions continued to run high following clashes between local and foreigner delivery drivers in several parts of Durban, during which police and private security were called.

On Monday, Netshiunda said four of the men were charged and expected to appear in court. The fifth man was released.

He didn’t respond to queries about concerns raised about alleged police inaction while protesters are violent and damage infrastructure.

During a march through the CBD in which police were alongside protesters on October 9, police said: “Contrary to some reports that police are simply accompanying marchers and allow crime to be committed in their presence, police wishes to set the record straight that what is unfolding is a crowd management situation and police have a responsibility to preserve lives, to protect property, and at the same strike a delicate balance between allowing people to exercise their constitutional right to march and enforcing the law.”

DA mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen and Active Citizen Coalition mayoral candidate Imtiaz Syed, who also chairs eThekwini Secure, both questioned the effectiveness of the police and army.

It appears that the deployment of the SANDF in eThekwini to support the South African Police Service and Metro Police doesn’t appear to have yielded much results or inspired any confidence in Durban and the residents of Durban.

DA mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen

Their criticism comes alongside allegations by civil society group Siyafana Sonke that assaults and arson have displaced families, including children, and that police have failed to intervene in some attacks.

Hoosen says the security response has not reassured residents.

“It appears that the deployment of the SANDF in eThekwini to support the South African Police Service and Metro Police doesn’t appear to have yielded much results or inspired any confidence in Durban and the residents of Durban.”

He refers to videos which, he says, show police present while people damage property.

“And unless we’re going to take firm action against people who break the law, the situation is not going to change.”

Hoosen says the government must respond to immigration concerns, but that neither those concerns nor the right to protest justify violence.

“The death of an individual regardless of who it is is just simply not acceptable. This is not the society that we must try and build.”

Syed calls for police to act against intimidation and incitement rather than allow protests to become opportunities for violence.

“You can’t be intimidating and inciting because intimidation, incitement, all of those things are illegal. So anyone that’s inciting other people to do something, they need to be put into a van and be arrested.”

March and March founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma however viewed the army deployment as a disgrace, posting pictures to liken the government’s response to the apartheid regime in 1986.

“Anyone who is not concerned by the manner in which the president of the country deals with problems and always breaks the bank to unleash the army or police is very myopic.

“Any president who cannot engage his own people and always resorts to apartheid style tactics of instilling fear and unleashing terror is NOT a leader! We should all be scared of him by now because not even ONE government official has bothered to engage the citizens about their concerns since the ConCourt judgment, instead they keep gaslighting the public.”

Ngobese-Zuma, who has repeatedly said the organisation doesn’t support violence, says it plans to march to the Berea police station on Tuesday “because we want answers about why our delivery drivers keep being assaulted by foreigners without the police doing anything”.

The organisation has repeatedly claimed some police members have taken bribes from foreigner criminal syndicates and drug dealers. They have not substantiated these claims.

Siyafana Sonke — a broad coalition of 160 organisations against Afrophobia and xenophobia — alleges that vigilantes attacked foreign nationals, their businesses and homes.

It says the Che Guevara Road refugee reception centre has been blockaded since October 6, with a camp opposite becoming a staging point for violent marches.

“Many people in the vicinity of the camp have been viciously beaten, despite a large police detachment stationed metres away,” the statement says.

The group also alleges that a recording of one assault shows police doing little to intervene.

Siyafana Sonke said the deployment of police units from other provinces was important, but says the overall response has been inadequate.

It wants eThekwini’s disaster management plan activated to provide protection and temporary shelter.

The Natal Indian Congress Legacy Foundation also condemned the violence against foreigners.

“We state categorically that these socio-political problems are not a creation of foreign nationals but are a consequence of post-apartheid economic realities,” the foundation says, referring to unemployment and poverty.

It welcomes the recent arrests and calls for those responsible for crimes to be held accountable.

Meanwhile the army on Monday denied social media allegations that its members made warnings or recommendations to the government about an influx of foreign nationals.

“Equally, the SANDF does not challenge, oppose or seek to influence government decisions on immigration policy or related matters.”

The statement says soldiers operate within the constitution, applicable legislation and lawful government directives.

The SANDF didn’t respond to criticism of the effectiveness of their deployment which ends on Saturday in accordance with the president’s directive.

1991 — Fulton Allem starts the final day six shots off the pace, but he fires a six-under-par 66 for an overall 15-under 273 to win the Independent Insurance Agent Open (best known as the Houston Open) at the Woodlands by one stroke. He carded five birdies on the back nine to finish ahead of the American trio of Tom Kite, Billy Ray Brown and Mike Hulbert.

1997 — Shaun Pollock takes 5/37 as the Proteas bowl out Pakistan for 92 to win the deciding third Test in Faisalabad by 53 runs and the series 1-0.

2002 — Jacques Kallis takes 5/21 as the Proteas bowl out Bangladesh for 107 to win the second Test in Potchefstroom by an innings and 160 runs to take the series 2-0.

2003 — Gary Kirsten, resuming on 27, scores 118 before South Africa declare their second innings on 371/8 in the second and final Test against Pakistan in Faisalabad.

2006 — Makhaya Ntini takes five wickets as the Proteas thrash Pakistan by 124 runs in an ICC Champions Trophy ODI in Mohali to top their group. South Africa, after losing skipper Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs, at No 3, with only two runs on the board, recovered to post 213/8 in their 50 overs after a 131-run sixth-wicket partnership between Mark Boucher (69) and Justin Kemp (64). Ntini, Charl Langeveldt and Shaun Pollock steamrolled Pakistan for 89 in 25 overs. The Proteas advanced to the semifinals.

2006 — Former three-time world champion Dingaan Thobela, by now overweight and lacking motivation, engages in the final fight of his career, refusing to come out for the 10th round against South African light-heavyweight champion Soon Botes. It was the seventh consecutive loss for Thobela, who had beaten Botes on points in 2000. Botes’ national belt wasn’t on the line because Thobela, who had previously held the WBO and WBA lightweight titles as well as the WBC super-middleweight crown, failed to make the weight limit.

2010 — Rusty Theron takes 4/27 as the Proteas beat Pakistan by six wickets in Abu Dhabi to take the T20 series 2-0. The home side was restricted to 120/9.

2011 — Alison Hodgkinson scores 51 off 37 deliveries to lift the South African women to 128/6, but they lose the first T20 against England in Potchefstroom by seven wickets.

2014 — Lee-Anne Pace wins her only LPGA Tour title, taking the rain-shortened Blue Bay LPGA in China by three strokes after carding a 16-under-par 200.

2019 — The Springboks beat Wales 19-16 in a tight World Cup semifinal in Yokohama. Centre Damian de Allende scored South Africa’s only try, while winger Josh Adams, the tournament’s top try-scorer, dotted down for Wales.

2019 — Brad Binder lands his third Moto2 win of the season as he wins the Australian motorcycle grand prix at Phillip Island.

2022 — Rilee Rossouw scores 109 off 56 balls as South Africa amass 205/5 to beat Bangladesh by 104 runs in a T20 World Cup match in Sydney. Anrich Nortje took 4/10 and Tabraiz Shamsi 3/20.

2023 — Aiden Markram scores 91 as the Proteas chase down the 271-run target to beat Pakistan by one wicket in their World Cup ODI in Chennai. Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi made 11 runs for the 10th wicket.

Story audio is generated using AI

By Mayela Armas and Julia Symmes Cobb

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who returned on Sunday after nearly a year away, will walk a tightrope as she seeks the elections her supporters want without running afoul of a US-backed negotiation process between the interim government and other opposition groups.

Machado’s return to Venezuela after several failed attempts risks straining her ties with US President Donald Trump’s administration. Washington has said she has every right to be in Venezuela, but has praised acting president Delcy Rodriguez and supports a negotiation process between the Rodriguez government and opposition groups that do not include Machado’s Vente Venezuela movement.

The talks, which have continued this month, would remake the electoral council and top court ahead of eventual elections. Both bodies are staffed by ruling party loyalists and backed ousted president Nicolas Maduro in a disputed 2024 presidential election, despite tallies published by Machado’s movement that showed her candidate had won. The Trump administration captured Maduro in January.

Machado supporters, tens of thousands of whom swarmed her caravan between Barquisimeto and Caracas on Sunday, waving flags, chanting her name and festooning her with rosaries, are eager for elections and call her the next president. She has said a presidential vote should happen in 2027.

The idea (at the negotiations) is to hold a regional election before a presidential election. She will probably push for electoral guarantees and for a presidential election to be held as soon as possible.

Ricardo Rios, head of Poder y Estrategia consultancy

Neither Machado’s team nor the communications ministry, which handles government press inquiries, immediately responded to requests for comment.

But though Machado cultivated Trump as an ally for years, he said last month it was too soon to consider democratic elections. On Sunday, Trump said he had been unaware of her return plans, though a person briefed on her movements disputed that.

Risk of short circuit with Washington

Machado’s eagerness for a vote could “short-circuit” the relationship with the US and its three-phase stabilisation, recovery and transition plan for Venezuela, said Ricardo Rios, head of Poder y Estrategia, a political risk consultancy.

“The idea (at the negotiations) is to hold a regional election before a presidential election. She will probably push for electoral guarantees and for a presidential election to be held as soon as possible,” Rios said.

But much remains to be defined before voters cast ballots.

“What guarantees does the ruling sector have to leave power (if it is defeated)?” Rios asked. “That still needs to be defined in order to make this viable, because otherwise, no matter how popular she is, it complicates matters.”

US and EU urge dialogue

Machado’s safe return was a direct outcome of the negotiations, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime champion of Machado, said on Sunday, adding he expects all political actors to support the talks.

The EU echoed that sentiment, saying on Monday authorities and all political actors should advance “an inclusive, Venezuelan-led dialogue towards free and fair elections”.

“The reception she got yesterday will only reinforce the tendency to demand instant results,” said Phil Gunson, senior analyst for the Andes region at the International Crisis Group think tank. “Not only might that provoke a reaction from government hardliners, but it could — if successful — produce a political rupture instead of a peaceful transition, with inadequate post-electoral guarantees and a potentially ungovernable country.”

The opposition included in the talks, led by Dinorah Figuera, a lawmaker elected in 2015 to the last Venezuelan legislative body recognised by the US, said Machado’s return was a significant step in the US plan. The Rodriguez government has not acknowledged Machado’s return and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Her role is also tied to how she interprets the signals from the United States, which has called for reconstruction and reconciliation. She has to be an ally in the negotiations,” said Oswaldo Ramirez, managing director of ORC Consultores.

“Rubio sent a clear message,” he added. “I don’t see her trying to torpedo the negotiations. She can’t stray outside the lines.”

Reuters

Story audio is generated using AI

President Cyril Ramaphosa has accused the City of Tshwane of dereliction of duty in its handling of water services, describing the situation in Bronkhorstspruit as “unacceptable” as the municipality faces questions over a chlorine supply failure linked to an outbreak.

Ramaphosa said the incident exposed weaknesses in municipal water management and underscored the need for national government to intervene more directly in addressing the country’s water crisis.

“What has happened in Bronkhorstspruit is a complete dereliction of the work and the duties that the municipality of Tshwane was supposed to be executing,” he said.

“It is really sad and unacceptable that in the end it leads to diseases that are going to spread among our people.”

This comes as the Sunday Times reported this week that the poor water quality at the Bronkhorstspruit treatment plant had been flagged as far back as the 2023 Blue Drop report, scoring just 42.3% against a benchmark of 95% or higher for drinking-water compliance.

The report said the department of water & sanitation also sent the Tshwane municipality a letter of noncompliance in February, and the city undertook to complete a host of refurbishments to get the compliance levels up. The commitments, however, were not met within the agreed time frames.

Water is a major problem in our country. We’re a water-scarce country and we therefore need to use water sparingly

President Cyril Ramaphosa

At least 400 people fell ill from gastrointestinal illnesses after they were exposed to unchlorinated water from the Bronkhorstspruit treatment plant.

Ramaphosa was speaking amid growing concerns about water security as the country prepares for the effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which he warned would bring reduced rainfall, particularly around the middle of the summer season.

He said the government had established an interministerial committee to coordinate its response and had made budgetary provisions to prepare for the anticipated conditions.

“We are getting ready. In fact, we are ready in government,” he said.

The president said he had also established a national water crisis committee, saying water security had become a critical national concern that required a coordinated response across all spheres of government.

“Water is a major problem in our country. We’re a water-scarce country and we therefore need to use water sparingly.”

Ramaphosa said municipalities remained responsible for much of the work involved in distributing water to households, but weaknesses at local government level had prompted national government to take a more active role.

“We are now beginning to take charge. We’re beginning to say water is a national right for all South Africans. It is an important issue. We now need as national to get hold of it.”

National government is assisting municipalities with bulk water supply, distribution infrastructure and the management of water resources, he added.

The contributing factor in the outbreak is because of no chlorine, not the warning that they were talking about

Eugene Modise, Tshwane deputy mayor

Tshwane deputy mayor Eugene Modise, who is also the ANC’s Tshwane chairperson, defended the municipality’s response to the Bronkhorstspruit incident, disputing claims by the Sunday Times that it had ignored prior warnings of a possible outbreak.

He attributed the outbreak to a lack of chlorine, alleging that municipal officials had failed to inform political leadership of the problem timeously.

“No, no, let me put it clear. These people are lying. The contributing factor in the outbreak is because of no chlorine, not the warning that they were talking about,” he said, reacting to the Sunday Times report.

Modise said a dispute had arisen with a supplier who allegedly wanted to increase the price of chlorine fourfold, which the municipality could not afford.

“There was a time where they were negotiating price. The supplier was almost greedy in terms of his attitude, because he wanted to increase the price four times, and we couldn’t afford that,” he said.

He said the municipality had initiated consequence management, with the plant manager suspended pending an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

“The plant manager has been suspended, and we are conducting a thorough investigation into what contributed to this unfortunate situation,” he said.

Modise said the municipality had invested in water infrastructure in Bronkhorstspruit ahead of the outbreak, describing the incident as regrettable.

On preparations for El Niño, he said Tshwane was planning to refurbish boreholes to improve the reliability of its water supply and reduce its dependence on rainfall. He said the municipality was also looking at incorporating rainwater into its water supply strategy as it sought to strengthen its capacity to withstand water shortages.

The deputy mayor acknowledged that the city had challenges with water supply, pointing to spillage further upstream as one of the contributing problems.

Ramaphosa’s warning comes as municipalities face pressure to ensure reliable water services while preparing for the possibility of reduced rainfall. The president said addressing the crisis required cooperation between national and local government, with municipalities needing to strengthen their management of water infrastructure and distribution.

TimesLIVE

Scottish referee Ru Campbell was the official in charge for just the fifth time at URC level and it is fair to say neither the Bulls nor Ulster were particularly impressed by his performance.

Leading 21-7 at halftime, the Bulls nearly came unstuck in the second half as they were punished with a string of penalties and yellow card for captain Marcell Coetzee.

“We were not clinical for 80 minutes and Ulster showed a lot of fight but there’s a lot of clarity we need from the referee’s side,” Ackermann said after his team hung on to a five-point lead until the final hooter, with Curwin Bosch kicking a late penalty to deny the northern Irish side a well-deserved bonus point.

Grobbies muscles his way to the try line for the bonus-point try 💪🐂#VURC | #SSRugby pic.twitter.com/rombZTFyOx

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 24, 2026

“There were big moments where there seemed to be a lot of grey areas. I don’t know how many URC games he has done, but maybe it was just the occasion. If we had lost, then it would have been something we would have had to really make an issue of, some clear and obvious things for us.

“Two or three times we were penalised at the breakdown, in the scrums we were hardly rewarded for our dominance and there was one time Elrigh Louw was penalised for a clean that was technically perfect. There was also the question of blocking at the lineout; all we ask for is consistency.”

Coetzee said at least half-an-hour after the game he still did not know what his yellow card was for.

Ulster can't stop the Vodacom Bulls captain 🐂🔵

Marcell Coetzee goes over for a first-half brace 👏

📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/DEGUzuXC2z

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 24, 2026

“The referee was far away from me when he gave me the card, I wanted clarity but he just showed me the card,” Coetzee said.

There were six Bulls players involved in the Springboks’ last Test, the disappointing loss to Australia in Perth, and Ackermann expects to still be able to choose from them for the coming weekend’s match against Scarlets. After that, there is a five-week break in URC action before the Bulls’ big local derby against the Lions at Ellis Park.

Flyhalf Handré Pollard, who had a fine game, is possibly an exception for the Scarlets match as he injured his hamstring late in the game.

“It was the first game where we really suffered some casualties, but the positive is a few of them are just head knocks, nothing long-term. Handré has done a hamstring and time will tell how long he’ll be out. Canan Moodie is on his return-to-play protocol for concussion, and because of his past we are taking it easy with him,” Ackermann said.

TimesLIVE

The challenge in the Western Cape took Van Tonder 49 minutes and 38 seconds to complete, testing his grip, strength and mental endurance as he made his way across a 290m structure with a vertical gain of 61m.

Despite months of preparation, Van Tonder admitted that the crossing was much harder than he had expected.

“I underestimated how long and how difficult it would be,” he said.

He said he had expected to complete the challenge in about 30 to 35 minutes. But when he reached the 30-minute mark and realised he was only halfway across, he knew he was facing a much bigger test. “That was one of the big moments where I realised I am now out of my depth and I’m going to have to find some way to push to the finish.”

For Van Tonder, the challenge came from years of obstacle course racing experience, more than a year of technical planning, and six months of focused physical preparation.

He described it as the biggest challenge of his career.

“My journey as an obstacle racing athlete has taught me a lot mentally, and as a person, it has kind of grown me into the person who dreams up challenges like this.”

The team spent more than a year on technical planning, working out how to build the structure and whether the crossing was possible.

Van Tonder said he would have preferred more time to prepare physically, but other competitions and the need to take advantage of the weather conditions meant he committed to six months of focused training.

He said preparations for the challenge went smoothly, and a bucket of rice helped ready his arms.

“I had suffered a pulled neck muscle, a back muscle injury, tendinitis in my right elbow and a shoulder strain. Using a bucket of rice is a resistance training method,” he said.

To strengthen and condition his hands, wrists and fingers without putting too much strain on his body, he used a bucket of rice as part of his training routine.

The method allowed him to work his wrists and fingers against resistance in different directions, helping with conditioning and recovery.

But even with the preparation, the bridge presented challenges he had not fully anticipated.

Van Tonder said his hands began to fail as he approached the middle section and continued towards the final quarter of the crossing.

He had to find a balance between giving his hands time to recover and keeping his body upright to avoid feeling dizzy.

To keep going, he focused on smaller goals instead of thinking about the entire distance ahead.

“I’m aiming for that piece. So I mentally commit to it instead of aiming at the finish,” he said.

The final 20m became a turning point.

As he approached the end, he saw his family waiting for him and heard people cheering. Their support helped him find the strength to complete the crossing.

“You somehow find that extra something. I guess that’s the beauty of sports sometimes. You just find this another gear, and afterwards you don’t know how,” he said.

Van Tonder said the experience reminded him that people were often capable of more than they think.

“It’s possible to do more than you think. And I think that’s maybe why I love sports so much. It brings out the best in you,” he said.

Beyond the physical achievement, Van Tonder wanted his children to learn something from watching him take on a challenge that was both difficult and frightening.

He said they might not yet understand the significance of what happened, as they were busy eating ice cream and running around after the attempt.

But he hopes they will look back on the experience one day and draw inspiration from it.

Van Tonder said the challenge was also about celebrating SA and taking on something extraordinary in one of the country’s most beautiful settings.

He described Bloukrans Bridge in the Garden Route as the perfect place to attempt a challenge that would push him beyond his limits.

“Only South Africans would know how crazy proud we are of just being South African,” he said.

After completing the crossing, Van Tonder was relieved that his hands had come through the challenge without serious injury.

“Nothing is broken, nothing is bleeding, which is to me, success,” he said.

He said he was not rushing to think about another extreme challenge, however. For now, he wanted to appreciate what he had achieved.

His immediate plans were hugging his wife and high-fiving his children.

“I’m grateful at this stage. I’m trying to take it all in,” he said.

TimesLIVE

Video courtesy of SABC.

Sowetan

Story audio is generated using AI

Thousands of men descended on the streets of Mzansi at the weekend for the 2026 Hollard Daredevil Run.

The race, famous for its purple Speedo swimwear worn by racers, raises awareness for prostate and testicular cancer screening and encourages men to take proactive steps towards their health and wellbeing.

This year the event carried the bold tagline “Lekker Balls. Lekker Life”, reinforcing the potentially life-saving importance of early cancer detection.

Prostate and testicular cancers deserve particular attention, awareness and action. One in eight men is expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with black African men facing a 60% higher risk than other population groups. Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in SA men.

Testicular cancer, while less widespread, is most common in young men aged 15-49, affecting approximately one in every 250 males. When caught early, both cancers are highly treatable.

Western Cape

Northern Cape

Gauteng

North West

Eastern Cape

Mpumalanga

Free State

KwaZulu-Natal

Limpopo

TimesLIVE

Story audio is generated using AI

By Reade Levinson

Ahmad Yahya was nine years old when he fled a wartime attack on his village in North Darfur, Sudan. Separated from most of his family amid the chaos, he walked for days before reaching a dusty refugee camp outside this remote town in Chad.

Ahmad’s little brother Sadam Ismail also made it to the camp, as did a young cousin, Alhadi Saleh. Many of their other relatives scattered or were killed.

That was in 2003. The brutal Darfur war that displaced the boys officially ended long ago, but conflicts continued to simmer, and a major civil war erupted in Sudan three years ago. Ahmad, Sadam and Alhadi are still living in the same houses where they grew up in the refugee camp, and Ahmad is now raising two boys of his own there.

They are among the vast numbers of Sudanese who have become perpetual refugees in one of the world’s poorest countries. Since the latest Sudan war broke out — a clash between rival military factions — some 974,000 people have fled into Chad, bringing the total Sudanese refugee population to 1.4-million.

A generation after the first of these people arrived, there is no path for them to return to Sudan, to build a stable life where they are, or to go anywhere else.

“We don’t have work here,” said Ahmad, now 32. “We don’t have any money. We can’t stay like this.”

Permanence and impermanence

The Iridimi camp sprawls across roughly three square miles on a semi-arid plain in eastern Chad. Aid agencies deliver water once or twice a week. Food is scarce, with some families subsisting only on grain. Ahmad and his wife and children, along with his mother and two sisters who joined him at the camp, live in a sand-coloured brick compound, with multiple rooms and a space to welcome guests. Each year, after the rainy season, they patch the walls.

The family’s carefully tended brick house and their single bag of sorghum with faded aid-agency labels reflect the sense of permanence and impermanence they have lived with since fleeing to Chad. Like about 300,000 others who escaped the Darfur war, Ahmad, his brother and his cousin thought they would shelter safely for a brief time and return to Sudan when peace was restored. Instead, they have been stuck in limbo year after year.

Their predicament is not unique to Chad. An estimated 70% of the world’s 36-million refugees at the end of 2025 were trapped in situations that have dragged on for five years or more with no resolution in sight, according to the UN refugee agency’s estimates.

In the 23 years since Ahmad, Sadam and Alhadi arrived in Chad, humanitarian aid to the country has fluctuated, unable to keep pace with an enduring — and worsening — emergency. Total humanitarian funding to Chad has doubled over the last 20 years, adjusted for inflation, according to ALNAP, a network of humanitarian groups that compiles data from the UN as well as other public and private sources. The refugee population has increased sixfold over the same period, according to UN data.

The aid squeeze comes amid a broader global refugee crisis. The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes, including refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people, rose 33% in the last five years to 118-million, according to the UN. Meanwhile, global humanitarian funding dropped 20% to $33bn, according to ALNAP.

Exacerbating the decline is the $7.4bn in cuts to global humanitarian aid that ALNAP estimates the US government made in 2025, the year that Donald Trump began his second term as president. The US, the single largest donor to Chad, slashed its funding to the country last year. In 2025, the US gave Chad $117m, a 65% drop from its peak the year before, according to data from ALNAP.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said the Trump administration has spent $100m in fiscal year 2026 to respond to needs in Chad and that the “United States is committed to ending the horrific conflict in Sudan.”

Displacement for decades

For Ahmad, Sadam and Alhadi, the sputtering pipeline of humanitarian aid shows the limits of relief programmes that were created to address temporary crises, not to sustain displacement that lasts decades.

There are not enough wells in the Iridimi camp to support its exploding population, and the semi-desert terrain yields little vegetation. Some of the longer term residents, including Ahmad and his relatives, started farming tiny plots of land near the dry bed of a seasonal stream several kilometres away, growing sorghum, millet and other crops.

But severe drought this year meant the family had no harvest at the end of the rainy season in September and October. That forced Ahmad and his extended family, like thousands of others, to rely almost entirely on handouts from a web of international agencies.

In Chad, food aid is distributed mostly in the form of cash payments from the UN World Food Programme, which operates in the area along with other humanitarian groups that primarily provide medical and other support. The WFP uses a combination of electronic transfers to refugees’ mobile accounts as well as more traditional vouchers and paper money. Some agencies also hand out food directly.

These aren’t percentages on a spreadsheet. They mean meals not delivered. Shelters not built. Children not treated.

The WFP was forced to start reducing disbursements at the start of 2026 due to funding shortages, according to interviews with agency staff in Chad. A full monthly ration for a household in Chad is 8,000 Central African francs (CFA) ($14 or R233); Ahmad said his family of four now gets the equivalent of $7 and cannot afford to buy anything at the market.

The falloff in food aid combined with the drought and swelling population have battered the refugee camp’s informal economy. Staples like sugar, oil and sorghum can still be found at the local market, some of it trucked in from neighbouring Niger and Libya. In the past three months, Ahmad said, prices in the market have soared. A gallon of cooking oil is 3,000 CFA, or about $5, twice what it was in the summer and unaffordable for his family, he said.

In the camp’s market, a once-profitable card-playing shop has stopped charging people to play and now only asks them to pay for tea, the owner said. Fewer residents have money for shops that sell cell phones, Starlink access, and bread, according to interviews with people at the camp.

Ahmad’s cousin Alhadi, 33 and newly married, has tried to make ends meet with part-time work repairing cell phones or driving people on a motorized rickshaw he borrows from a friend. But with less cash in the system, there is little work to be had, he said.

“We used to rely only on ourselves, but this year is different,” said Alhadi, who lives with his wife in a house not far from Ahmad’s.

Because the family’s shared farm plot produced nothing this year, they subsist on a stew made from the bag of sorghum that an aid agency delivered last month. “There is nothing to give to our kids, no good food to give them,” Ahmad said.

Only the most vulnerable

The rows of structures that make up the camp tell the history of the Sudan conflict and the struggle of humanitarian agencies to keep up: most of the original Darfur refugees, like Ahmad and his relatives, have built houses of brick. Refugees who fled the current war live in evenly-spaced wood or metal buildings with shiny tin roofs, constructed en-masse by aid organizations. But at the camp’s edges, many new arrivals are given only plastic-covered shelters that offer little protection against the relentless sun.

In September, a UNHCR database of refugees at Iridimi and its adjacent camp Goudrane registered a population of 94,718.

Iridimi, which lies about 80kms from the Sudan border, was established in 2004 by the UN refugee agency and non-governmental organisations. It is the fourth oldest of about 30 refugee camps scattered across the four eastern Chad provinces that border Sudan.

Relations between the two countries have been complex for decades, and people on both sides of the border share deep tribal connections and close family ties. Soon after the 2023 war broke out, Chadian President Mahamat Déby formalised legal protections for all refugees and asylum seekers, including the right to work and move within the country.

The Chadian government did not respond to multiple requests for comment about how it is addressing the challenges of the refugee crisis.

The WFP has been forced to slash the number of refugees who receive food support in Chad, an agency spokesperson said. The agency as of October is providing full monthly rations only to about 200,000 people it classifies as “extremely vulnerable”, the spokesperson said. That is less than 15% of Chad’s Sudanese refugee population.

Another “highly vulnerable” category will receive full rations, but only once every three months, the spokesperson said. In all, about 600,000 refugees in Chad will get any aid at all, down from 1-million earlier this year, the spokesperson said. Marc Sekpon, head of programmes for WFP’s Chad office, said the organisation is working with the government to try to increase agricultural production and livelihood programmes to help address what he called a “drastic decrease” in humanitarian assistance.

These aren’t percentages on a spreadsheet. They mean meals not delivered. Shelters not built. Children not treated.

Tom Fletcher, UN aid chief

In April, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which coordinates with the Chadian government to respond to the Sudanese refugee crisis, said it and other UN agencies are able to help only four in 10 refugees in Chad.

“These aren’t percentages on a spreadsheet,” said Tom Fletcher, UN aid chief, of the cuts. “They mean meals not delivered. Shelters not built. Children not treated.”

In Chad’s Wadi Fira province, where Iridimi is located, nearly three-fourths of Chadian children under age five and almost half of refugee children suffer from malnutrition, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the world’s famine monitor.

Earlier this year, Ahmad’s family was receiving full monthly rations, even though he first arrived from Darfur more than 20 years ago, he said.

That’s because newer refugees are often classified as needier, and Ahmad’s refugee identification card is stamped 2023 — not 2003, the year of his flight from the Darfur war.

Ahmad left Iridimi to return to Sudan in 2018, part of a voluntary UN-backed resettlement programme that paid each participant $600 upon crossing the border. But when the latest war broke out, the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group attacked the city where he was living, Nyala, and he was forced to return in 2023 to the very home in Iridimi that he had left.

Magatte Guisse, the UNHCR representative in Chad, said the country needs a “paradigm shift” away from purely emergency relief toward an approach that combines humanitarian aid, longer-term development and peacebuilding efforts.

“You cannot feed people for 20 years,” Guisse said. “You cannot provide health for 20 years. After 20 years, you should have a mechanism for adapting.”

The world’s attention

Ahmad, Sadam and Alhadi first arrived at Iridimi at a time when the world’s attention was fixed on the Darfur war. The Sudanese government, then led by President Omar al-Bashir, deployed local, largely Arab militias known as Janjaweed (often translated as “devils on horseback”) to help crush a revolt by rebels who accused the government of neglecting the region.

The US accused the Janjaweed of genocide, and foreign aid flowed as the George W Bush administration tried to broker an end to the civil war.

Angelina Jolie, then a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, visited Iridimi and other refugee camps in Chad and met with a US team studying malnutrition there. George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, Mia Farrow and other celebrities raised millions for Sudan’s displaced. The wave of attention from the celebrities, whose spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment on this story, helped keep money flowing into the region in the years just after Ahmad and his brother and cousin arrived.

The stories that emerged from Darfur were horrific: by the end of 2010, according to UN estimates, 300,000 people had died and more than 2-million were driven from their homes.

The Janjaweed wreaked havoc on non-Arab communities like Kornoi, Ahmad and Sadam’s hometown in North Darfur, and Alhadi’s village. Ahmad and Sadam do not know how their father died in the attack, only that he did not survive. Alhadi lost an uncle and nine other family members when Janjaweed fighters raided their village and set fire to his house. By the time he reached the Chad border, he had been twice displaced and lost his animals to thirst and cold.

At Iridimi, humanitarian aid kept the boys fed, and they attended school. But the world’s interest in Darfur’s refugees waned over the years, along with funding for schools and other initiatives.

In 2004, the year funding first took off in response to the Darfur war, government and private donors provided $1,257 per refugee, according to a Reuters analysis of historical UN and ALNAP figures, adjusted for inflation in 2024 dollars. By last year, the figure had fallen to $371.

The International Rescue Committee, a non-governmental organsation that has supported refugees in Chad for more than 20 years, said declines in both public and private funding has forced it to scale back services, including at Iridimi camp.

“Every year we have less and less,” said Alain Rusuku, IRC’s Chad director. “Meanwhile there are more refugees and more camps.”

”Sudanese families continue to flee across the border to Chad as the fighting rages on."

The Sudanese army, which controls the government, is battling the RSF, an Arab-led militia that grew out of the Janjaweed. The war, a power struggle over control of the country and its financial resources, has become a regional flashpoint with combatants on both sides accused of atrocities.

Spokespersons for the Sudan government and the RSF did not respond to requests for comment.

Seeking a better life

Ahmad, Sadam and Alhadi have pursued different strategies to try to cope with their long-term displacement. Alhadi said he will continue to try to find work. Sadam, 28 and unmarried, has made several dangerous and high-risk attempts to find a new life elsewhere. He tried twice to journey to Europe and was arrested by Egyptian authorities both times, he said. After one arrest, he spent 10 months in an Egyptian jail.

He knows chances are slim for a successful crossing, which requires a dangerous journey by boat across the Mediterranean.

“It’s a journey of death,” he said. This spring, he travelled 1,200 km across the country to the border with Libya and Niger to work as a labourer, mining and digging trenches. Ahmad, the only one to ever attempt a return to Sudan, says he would not go back again — even if the war ended tomorrow. He has already tried once, lost what he built and does not intend to lose a second time. But, he said: “If I found any other place to go, tomorrow I would go with my family.”

Reuters

You feel it at markets where a phone has become a till, a bank, a shopfront and, for many traders, the first step towards something bigger.

I feel it in the young people I meet, in the communities and customers MTN Group serves, and in the determination of so many Africans to build a better life. But hope, however strong, must be met with opportunity.

Across our continent, governments are investing in infrastructure, education and the digital economy, often with limited resources and competing demands.

Yet the scale of what is needed is greater than any single institution can meet alone. This is where Africa’s leading companies can, and must, step forward.

That does not mean charity. What the continent needs, and wants, are sustainable businesses committed to serving citizens for the long term.

Those businesses cannot invest in the infrastructure and services required without operating profitably.

And they, in turn, cannot remain profitable unless the markets they serve are thriving. The two’s prosperity are bound together.

When young people cannot access quality education, talent goes undeveloped. When economic exclusion grows, social instability and political uncertainty often follow. When infrastructure fails to keep pace with demand, opportunity is constrained for everyone.

The greatest social impact occurs when businesses deploy their expertise to address societal challenges aligned to their core capabilities.

Corporate purpose drives social impact

What holds all of this together is corporate purpose. It guides strategic decision-making, encourages innovation and drives growth. Importantly, it inspires employees and unites them around the work that needs to be done.

It also gives customers and communities good reason to trust business. Discerning customers compare brand promises with actual business practices as well as employee experiences.

The MTN Group’s commitment to supporting Africa’s prosperity is not separate from our responsibility to deliver returns to our shareholders: they are two sides of the same coin

Nompilo Morafo, MTN Group chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs officer

At the MTN Group, our purpose is “leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress”. It encourages our people to not just build their careers with us, but to help build the kind of society and continent they want to see.

This social consciousness also becomes a magnet for top talent who want to make a real difference.

With more than 317-million customers, there is no doubt that the MTN Group’s fortunes are inextricably linked to those of the continent.

We want a prosperous Africa and are committed to playing our part in supporting the achievement of that goal. It is not separate from our responsibility to deliver returns to our shareholders: they are two sides of the same coin.

So how do we do this? By connecting people to the power of the mobile internet, we drive digital inclusion. Through platforms like MTN Mobile Money, we drive financial inclusion and enable millions of people to participate more fully in the formal economy.

The importance of showing up

At the MTN Group, we recognise the importance of collaboration and, through our engagement with governments across our markets, deliberately pursue conversations around issues that matter to society.

Unemployment, migration, social cohesion, climate resilience and education are often viewed as public policy concerns, yet they have profound implications for businesses too.

In October, the MTN Group held its annual Ambassador’s Appreciation Dinner. It was an opportunity to strengthen its relationships with the diplomatic community, governments, leaders of public sector and intergovernmental agencies, pan-African business and civil society.

It was also an opportunity to showcase its annual employee volunteerism campaign, “21 Days of Y’ello Care”.

Since 2007, Y’ello Care has mobilised employees across MTN’s markets to devote their time and expertise to pressing social challenges.

This year, MTN’s efforts were guided by the theme “Expanding equitable health for every community”.

For three weeks in June, more than 6,300 employees contributed over 50,000 volunteer hours, reaching more than 400,000 direct beneficiaries.

The theme became even more relevant after the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and spread to neighbouring markets.

When businesses align their capabilities with societal needs, social impact and commercial value reinforce each other

Nompilo Morafo, MTN Group chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs officer

The most meaningful results of volunteers’ work came where teams applied MTN’s own capabilities.

MTN eSwatini, overall winner of the 2026 Y’ello Care Awards for the fifth time, partnered with The Luke Commission on a medical drone link to a remote clinic, cutting medicine delivery times from as many as four hours by road to as little as 30 minutes.

In Uganda, volunteers supported maternal and child healthcare while equipping community health workers with smartphones and digital skills training.

In Benin, teams partnered with the Ministry of Health on blood donation drives, children’s surgeries and facility improvements.

What made these initiatives matter was not only their scale, but because they show that when businesses align their capabilities with societal needs, social impact and commercial value reinforce each other.

That is how trust is strengthened, stakeholder relationships deepened, and the social licence on which sustainable growth depends is reinforced.

I am optimistic about the continent: Africa’s future will be shaped not by governments or businesses acting alone, but by partnerships built on a shared understanding that economic and societal progress advance together.

In the end, the companies that endure will not be remembered only for the wealth they created, but for the opportunities they unlocked, the trust they earned and the societies they helped build. That is not philanthropy. It is good business.

This article was sponsored by the MTN Group.

Apartheid state assassin Eugene de Kock is taking the stand.

Video courtesy of SABC.

Sowetan

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Record-breaking winning streaks, consecutive podium finishes after starting at the back of the grid, and an overall spectacular sophomore drive from Kimi Antonelli have all culminated in the young Italian possibly claiming the Circuit of the Americas as his championship crowning circuit.

Today, Antonelli could cross the start-finish line in Texas a champion, while Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finish fifth and ninth, respectively.

At this stage, his priority should be race management and ensuring he finishes on the podium in the last six races, which would be enough to secure him the championship. But the 20-year-old would most probably see the idea of racing without aiming to win as sacrilege; such is his unrelenting ambition.

With the pace that Russell is exhibiting this weekend, especially in qualifying yesterday, it is unlikely that scenario will come to pass. “Mr Saturday” is doing his best to make sure his Silver Arrow teammate does not see that trophy at the weekend — or any other weekend — as the British driver still has a mathematical chance of winning it all, even if in reality that chance is slim.

Russell, as with the rest of the grid, will have to contend with what Max Verstappen has described as an “unacceptable” track due to the uneven surface in Texas. While, the Circuit of the Americas is a favourite among the drivers, as Verstappen has said, its lumpy nature is unavoidable, as it is built over soft, clay-like soil that moves up and down as weather, rainfall, and ground moisture levels fluctuate over time.

It means that, regardless of the efforts of the track’s management, headed by Bobby Epstein, there is little that can be done, as even the repaving of turns nine and 11 before this weekend has had minor effects on improving the track’s state. The consequences of these bumps have already been seen in Friday’s free practice session as Lando Norris and others found themselves off the track at the apex of turns one, 11 and 20.

Overtaking dives

Although it had little effect on the quality of qualifying, the racing tonight could be dictated by what happens in those corners, as the cars fight for control and when attempting overtaking dives.

As expected, Ferrari looked strong with Charles Leclerc topping the practice session timings. Their advantage, however, is slim, as he was less than a hundredth of a second ahead across the practices, although the sweeping consecutive corners in the first sector and first half of the second highlight the Scuderia’s superiority in the corners and their ability to accelerate out of them.

Their compact power unit’s deficiencies in generating top-end speed and synchronising with the battery to generate power compared to their rivals mean that over a race distance, Leclerc and Hamilton will have to call on their expertise if they want to make something of their race.

It’s a reality Hamilton has had to accept all season long, as he has dragged his car to competitive race finishes at times this season. Despite mounting what looked like a title challenge for part of the season, the Ferrari team still has much work to do before they can aid their man in chasing that elusive eighth championship.

Being behind his teammate by some margin all weekend doesn’t bode well for his race tonight. However, having driven beyond expectation in a race in and a race out, it wouldn’t be beyond the man who’s won the most times around this circuit to manage another brilliant drive.

Russell has, over the course of a remarkable season for the Mercedes team, turned a rocket ship into a U-boat in his failing bid for the championship. While the rocketman Antonelli has skipped swimmingly across the F1 sea, collecting win after impressive win, Russell has been flaccid. He is firmly in crunch time and must point his ship squarely in the direction of victory and sink his challengers to stand any chance of at least delaying what seems inevitable.

Your book is interspersed with childhood memories of the city centre featuring reflections on Jeppe throughout the years: “I’d been shocked, devastated, overjoyed and vulnerable on these streets ... It was the place that sparked in me the will to explore and to write differently about my city.” How did physically interacting with Jeppe’s Ethiopian migrant community change the course of your working life?

In ‘Jeppe’, a shop no bigger than a cupboard can be part of a trading network that reaches across Southern Africa and beyond. When I first encountered the hidden shopping centres of Johannesburg’s inner city, I was astonished by the energy and scale of the businesses packed into these tiny spaces. And intrigued by the people who ran these shops, or who shopped here, or who supplied the stock, or for that matter, who brought them all to Johannesburg. Goods, money and people moved through an intricate web of routes and relationships. Buildings were being subdivided and repurposed to accommodate a massive trading economy. I felt I was watching a city being remade at speed.

Mostly I wondered what this meant for Johannesburg — this extraordinary city-making by people who are largely invisible in the city’s plans. I did not yet know how profoundly this encounter would change the course of my working life. And how I would be uplifted, heartbroken, angered and delighted by my encounters there. And there were moments when documenting what I witnessed no longer felt sufficient, and I was compelled to act.

I began walking the area, looking, listening and talking to people in Jeppe. Over time I added more formal research and survey work, and I spent many hours over months and then years (15) with traders, shoppers, suppliers, porters, coffee sellers, bus drivers and hoteliers. I travelled to Ethiopia to learn more about the places from which many of the pioneers of Jeppe’s trading economy had come, and to meet returnees in Addis Ababa known as the ‘Joburg Boys’. The work challenged my ideas about urban development and governance.

Jeppe taught me to embrace storytelling as research. It has become a place from which to rethink Johannesburg, and my professional urban planning work. I cannot write of the facts and figures and machinations of trade in Jeppe without weaving that with the distressing, the uplifting and the shapeshifting stories I’ve heard and the encounters I’ve had.

The Chaos Precinct depicts Jeppe and its Ethiopian Quarter as a vibrant, welcoming, homogeneous and humane society, yet you authentically write about how its traders are subjected to xenophobia, forced into a life of crime, and extorted by landlords. How, if possible, can these challenges actively be addressed and remedied?

The first act required to address the challenges in Jeppe is recognition — to formally accept it as a cross-border shopping hub that plays an important economic role in the city.

Although this part of town has been referred to as a ‘chaos precinct’, it is in fact what makes Johannesburg a world-class African city. It demonstrates what economic value Johannesburg could extract if it embraced its function as an inland port, servicing Southern Africa. This would require supporting its productive functions rather than wholesale criminalising them.

The vitality of Jeppe is not an exotic implant in the city. Far from being a “Chaos Precinct” that is ungovernable, this is a potential lodestar for navigating the future of the city. This is Johannesburg finding its place among African cities, on a continent bound together by movement, trade and diversity. It is time that Johannesburg reckoned with itself as an African city, a metropolis connected to other metropoles, towns and small settlements on the continent.

Johannesburg could put this cross-border shopping hub, this entrepôt, on the African map as an inclusive global distribution port. Rather than decimating it through petty control by the police, the state could allow it to flourish while tackling the infrastructural risks. This means repairing and maintaining the road and sidewalk infrastructure. And tackling how buildings designed for offices can legitimately and safely accommodate this new retail form. What new regulations are needed, and what design solutions can be sought, building by building, to ensure safety while boosting the benefits of the trade?

Your book covers 15-plus years of traversing the streets of Jeppe’s precinct in your capacity as urban planner and a curious author, which also offered you the opportunity to shape relationships with its traders. How did you go about cultivating these relationships and building mutual trust?

It’s true I made connections with people that have lasted for years. And I heard intimate and detailed accounts of the workings of Jeppe and personal lives. But I’m not sure that I gained trust in any straightforward sense. Over 15 years in the ‘Ethiopian Quarter’, I was often the subject of suspicion. I was asked repeatedly, “Who are you?”, “Are you with the Council?”, “Are you a journalist?”, “Are you the lady from Home Affairs?”, “What do you want from me?”. And, most unsettlingly, I was told, “People are scared of you.”

I had to recognise that my curiosity could look threatening. In a place where livelihoods are precarious and information carries risk, why should people trust an outsider asking questions? I had no single strategy. Each encounter had to be approached on its own terms. With some people, there was an immediate connection. With others, trust took years to develop. Some may never have trusted me at all.

What I could do was keep returning. And I did. Some days I walked to familiar shops and spaces; on others, I wandered into buildings I had never entered before. Was I searching for clues, or for a feeling? I didn’t even know what questions I hoped would be answered. I was trying to see my own city afresh, leading with my ignorance rather than my nostalgia or urban-planning expertise.

Listening often required telling. To ask people to share their stories, I often had to tell my own. And I learned that trust is partial and continually tested.

Nor was I always simply an observer. At times, I publicly advocated for traders whose livelihoods were threatened. Research, advocacy and action became entangled. Returning, listening and being willing to act were my ways of building relationships, without assuming that I had ever fully earned everyone’s trust.

In what way do you think the book “illuminates truthfulness”?

The Chaos Precinct speaks truth to power by confronting some of Johannesburg’s most deeply entrenched assumptions about its inner city. It is common cause that buildings are derelict, the city is in decline, and migrants contribute to urban decay and take opportunities from South Africans. Right now, these narratives are having consequences. They are shaping public policy, justifying interventions, and determining whose activities are recognised as legitimate and whose presence is treated as a problem to be managed or removed.

The Chaos Precinct tells a strikingly different story. One that shows migrant informal traders to be not marginal, but front and centre of the inner-city economy and of boosting the property market. Through close observation, research and intimate glimpses into the lives of those who inhabit this world, the book reveals a thriving inland port city, a major hub in Africa’s fast-fashion economy, connected through transnational networks of trade, finance, transport and migration. The book humanises a bewildering place. What is routinely dismissed as disorder reveals intricate systems of knowledge, coordination and enterprise. What appears to be urban decline is urban transformation.

The book’s truth lies not in simply replacing a negative image with a positive one, but in attending to the contradictions that shape this world. Its characters are neither romanticised entrepreneurs nor passive victims. Their stories reveal the costs of making a living, the precariousness of belonging, the multiple ways migrant entrepreneurs can fall foul of the law, the ingenuity required to sustain businesses in a city that often views them with suspicion.

By bringing this unseen economy into view, The Chaos Precinct challenges those who govern, plan and invest in Johannesburg to reconsider what they think they know about the inner city.

Its challenge is to reshape the city’s approach to urban development so that it recognises and works with the economic activities that are already transforming its buildings, streets and commercial life.

What impression do you want readers to take away after reading your book?

People love to love Johannesburg. I hope people come away from The Chaos Precinct seeing Johannesburg differently, and that its stories find a place in their conversations and in how they feel about the city, deepening their connection to it and nourishing a sense of possibility and belonging. I hope the book makes a city that can feel distant or alienating more intimate, human and alive. We cannot understand a place without understanding the people who inhabit it, nor their lives without understanding the places they make.

I hope readers remember the characters. That they laugh and cry, delight and despair with Yosef who disappeared, Abel who talked about everything except his real business — the money, Tigest who ended up in Johannesburg at 17 — under circumstances she had not chosen, and with other characters. Through these complicated, funny, pained, resourceful, sometimes contradictory people, Jeppe becomes more than a precinct on a map.

I have been moved by the responses of people whose stories appear in the book. Some have recognised their lives in its pages and shared it with their children. Their responses have made me think about what it means for those whose lives are often misrepresented or overlooked to read a record that takes their work, struggles and contributions to the city seriously.

I hope the book unsettles the easy use of the word “chaos”. Jeppe reveals systems of organisation, knowledge and enterprise, alongside exploitation, fear, violence and uncertainty. Disorder is not simply where we have been taught to look for it. It also exists in how the city is governed, as much as in our failure to recognise the potential shaped by thousands of individual opportunists.

I hope readers leave with a richer sense of Johannesburg, and of new ways people of the city are regenerating it. And I hope they find it harder to look away.

Molefe, Tau, Mabusela and Kekana have been charged with the November 2022 murder of Oupa John Sefoka, known as DJ Sumbody.

Video courtesy of SABC.

Sowetan

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The Range Rover Electric made a steep rock climb at JLR’s Gaydon proving ground in the UK feel as demanding as a Johannesburg speed bump. We had crossed sand and gravel before reaching the rocks, and the big SUV picked its way up and over with ease.

JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) has given its first electric Range Rover an equally powerful advantage back at the factory: it can share a production line with versions powered by other technologies. For a manufacturer selling luxury vehicles into countries with vastly different charging infrastructure, that flexibility provides a way to keep serving customers as buying preferences change.

“We know that the penetration rate of full-electric Range Rovers will be different in the different regions of this world,” Martin Limpert, Range Rover global MD, told Business Times at JLR’s Gaydon headquarters.

“That was part of the construct from the beginning: we can build the plug-in hybrid, the mild hybrid, the EV, all on the same plant in Solihull, on the same production line. So we’re flexible and we can adjust our supply to the demand of the individual markets.”

A plug-in hybrid can cover part of a journey on battery power and recharge from a socket. A mild hybrid uses electrical assistance alongside its combustion engine. Building these alongside a fully electric model gives JLR room to change the mix leaving the factory as orders come in.

South African manufacturers could learn from JLR’s example. With 70.5% of South Africa’s light-vehicle production exported in 2025, factories here need the capacity to follow demand across markets moving towards electrification at different speeds.

Some of that investment is already happening, for example, at BMW’s Rosslyn plant, where a R4.2bn upgrade included electrification and workforce training. The plant builds plug-in hybrid and combustion-engine X3s on the same line, and is the sole global producer of the plug-in hybrid version.

At Solihull, JLR’s inclusion of a fully electric Range Rover brings further engineering demands. The company developed its own batteries and electric drive units, the assemblies that combine the motors with equipment delivering power to the wheels. Its engineers had to accommodate those components while preserving the vehicle’s off-road capability.

Limpert was candid about a decision that contributed to the programme taking longer than planned.

“In the beginning, we thought an architecture where we have a permanent-magnet motor on the rear axle and an induction motor on the front would do it. But the more we tested it, especially in terms of repeatability… that was not provided with that technology.”

We could have said, ‘Oh yeah, well, it’s an EV. People’s expectations are going to be different.’ But we didn’t

Simon Fairbrother

Simon Fairbrother, programme chief for Range Rover and Range Rover Sport Electric, offered another example. Fitting the electric drive unit changed the length of the driveshafts connecting it to the wheels. Keeping the existing suspension components would have restricted how far the wheels could move up and down.

“Range Rover’s got 450mm of wheel articulation, and that’s one of the things that gives us the off-road capability,” he told Business Times.

“We could have said, ‘Oh yeah, well, it’s an EV. People’s expectations are going to be different. We’ll just restrict the wheel articulation and it’ll be fine.’ But we didn’t. We changed the suspension component so that we maintained that 450mm of wheel articulation.”

On the rocks at Gaydon, the engineering produced a vehicle that made rough ground thoroughly enjoyable. However, the business case also depends on what happens after an owner leaves the showroom.

Limpert identified home charging as a distinction within markets, as well as between them. A customer with a house can have a very different ownership experience from someone living in an apartment in the same city.

“There will be places like Tokyo, Singapore, maybe also … Cape Town or Johannesburg, where it’s apartment living and the installation of a home charger is not as easy.”

Fairbrother also recognised a South African customer group that has already invested in much of the supporting infrastructure. “Many of the more affluent people in South Africa have already got solar power and battery banks and so on. For them the car’s perfect.”

JLR’s approach gives South African manufacturers a challenge for factory upgrades: how much scope will it provide to supply the vehicles that export markets want next? In short, skills and component suppliers have to develop alongside assembly lines.

• Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI – The African Edge”.

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Choosing a seat in a boardroom may soon be based on the language in which you choose to hear a presentation. Logitech for Business demonstrated the possibility in a recording screened at its Logitech Rise event in Cairo last week: a single speaker system played English to one side of a room and French to the other, simultaneously.

The demo was part of what the computer accessories company called its biggest enterprise product launch ever. It featured among new conferencing equipment, as a technology called Sound Shape, which directs sound to specific areas of a room. Speakers using the system are due for release in mid-2027.

Anyone who has struggled through a business presentation in their second or third language will appreciate the prospect. Understanding the subject can be demanding enough. Translating it in your head is a private obstacle course.

For a South African company training employees from different language backgrounds, this could mean people sharing a room while following the material in a preferred language. A business bringing together teams from across Africa could make an English and French session possible in the same space.

While the demo used separate language feeds, AI can allow automatic translation of an original feed. According to Jawad Jabalane, the Africa head of Logitech for Business, the company is working with Microsoft and Zoom on bringing customers AI options in its speakers. It is also working with Google.

“The job of Logitech is to ensure that anything provided and created, or advanced AI provided by those alliances, are fully embedded into Logitech hardware,” he told Business Times.

Sound Shape’s immediate business proposition addresses a more common irritation: not hearing the person addressing the meeting. In a large room, increasing the volume for those at the back can punish everyone at the front, while additional speakers bring added installation demands.

Karthik Rajagopal, vice-president of engineering at Logitech for Business, has seen the challenge firsthand: “You’re pulling cable, cutting into ceilings, working around lights, sprinklers, HVAC [airconditioning], and every room is different. Installation takes longer, costs more, and becomes much harder to standardise.”

For companies fitting out several offices, each room’s peculiarities can create another installation project. That is just the start, if sound quality is taken seriously.

Traditional speakers are like a light bulb, spreading energy in every direction. These new Rally speakers are like a flashlight, focusing sound energy precisely where it is needed

Karthik Rajagopal

“Now you have to put the room offline, run tests, make calls, tweak it to make this particular room sound right. It works, but then you have to do it all over again in the next room, and suddenly every large room becomes its own custom project.”

Logitech’s remedy puts the sound source at the front. The Rally Speaker 2 Pro uses 32 small speaker drivers to control where the audio goes, with coverage extending to 14m. A Max model uses 64 drivers and extends coverage to 20m.

Rajagopal summed it up neatly: “Traditional speakers are like a light bulb, spreading energy in every direction. These new Rally speakers are like a flashlight, focusing sound energy precisely where it is needed.”

The same control could help in offices with rooms separated by movable partitions. Rajagopal described independent audio zones that could reduce sound leakage across a partition and areas deliberately excluded from coverage. This would work well for a business dividing a large training space into smaller rooms. The attraction for an employer is consistent audibility across a training room, with fewer speakers to install and connect.

The Logitech Rise event included the launch of a conferencing device called the Rally Bar 2, which provides occupancy detection, and can help businesses assess how they use office space.

But Sound Shape offers a more practical prospect: equipment that could help people share that space across languages.

South African customers will want to hear it for themselves, Jabalane told Business Times. As a result, Logitech is preparing its Johannesburg office for demonstrations. He has a refreshing assessment of local buyers: “They know what they are speaking about. They know what they want. Trust is the most important thing between end users and vendors.”

Jabalane is upbeat about the reception of the range in this country. “It’s a developed market, as Morocco is, as Egypt is, compared to some others. South Africa is one of the easiest markets to work with and to work in.”

• Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI – The African Edge.

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Clicks Group CEO Bertina Engelbrecht is steering the retailer beyond its traditional pharmacy roots, betting on specialist health care, medical consumables and the fast-growing GLP-1 weight-loss market to drive its next phase of growth.

The health and beauty retailer, which increased its pharmacy market share to 24.7% and now operates 835 pharmacies and 225 clinics, is building new growth platforms through specialist pharmacy services, digital health care and adjacent categories as it seeks to diversify earnings and strengthen its position in South Africa’s increasingly competitive health-care market.

Among the biggest opportunities, according to Engelbrecht, is the rapid growth of GLP-1 medicines, which are used to treat diabetes and are increasingly prescribed for weight management.

Patients pay between R2,000 and R3,000 a month for these treatments, limiting access for many consumers. Engelbrecht believes broader adoption will follow once generic alternatives receive regulatory approval and prices fall.

“When the price dies down significantly, let’s say to 30% maybe, over the two-to-three-year period, then you’ll get more people using it specifically for weight loss,” she said.

“So I think in the short term that [GLP-1] is the biggest opportunity.”

The opportunity extends beyond simply dispensing medication. Clicks is assessing how its growing network of health-care services, including weight-management clinics, can support customers using GLP-1 treatments and create additional revenue streams through ongoing care and monitoring.

The retailer also sees significant long-term potential in specialist health care, particularly oncology.

“Oncology is a large and growing market, and we have got almost 0% exposure to that market,” Engelbrecht said. “Anything that we do with it is going to be accretive for us.”

The move forms part of Clicks’ strategy of expanding across the health-care value chain through specialist pharmacy business UniCare. The group currently operates five UniCare pharmacies and believes the network can eventually grow to between 15 and 20 sites. UniCare is also expected to underpin services such as 24-hour medicine delivery and specialist pharmacy support.

Another growth engine is emerging through pharmaceutical wholesaler UPD following its acquisition of medical consumables distributor Mr First Aid.

The business supplies hospitals with products such as medical-grade gloves, masks, plasters and other consumables, providing Clicks with access to an estimated R8bn market. Beyond hospitals, the group sees opportunities in mining, industrial and workplace health-care settings.

“If you think about mining companies in South Africa, they’ve got huge clinics, for example, and so there are opportunities for us to go into mining, factories and industrials,” Engelbrecht said.

The acquisition enables Clicks to leverage UPD’s distribution network while expanding into health-care segments that are less constrained by medicine pricing regulations. Medical consumables are particularly attractive because the market remains highly fragmented and offers consolidation opportunities.

Digital health care is another pillar of the group’s strategy.

Clicks is trialling an on-demand pharmacy service that allows customers to order over-the-counter medicines for delivery rather than travelling to a store. The company already delivers about 10,000 prescription orders a week and is using the pilot to refine operational and regulatory processes ahead of a wider rollout.

The group aims to increase online sales from less than 2% of turnover currently to about 10% over the medium term.

While health care remains the primary focus, Clicks is also pursuing selective opportunities beyond South Africa. The group has secured a master franchise agreement for Botswana and is close to finalising a similar arrangement in Mauritius. Interest has also emerged from Zimbabwean entrepreneurs looking to expand the Sorbet beauty brand into that market.

“The brand is incredibly well known in the rest of Africa, and I think it has legs to grow,” Engelbrecht said.

Clicks is also looking to extract greater value from its beauty portfolio, which includes The Body Shop, Sorbet and ARC. Engelbrecht said The Body Shop had faced challenges after ownership changes at its international parent company but was showing signs of recovery as new product innovation returned.

“It has an incredibly loyal customer base,” she said. “The really important thing is [that] innovation drives footfall traffic in the beauty range.”

Business Times

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Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso knows, having brought the Caf Champions League trophy back to Mamelodi Sundowns last season, he has the breathing room to feel that exiting in the preliminary stages this campaign does not put him under immediate pressure.

Downs exited in the final round before the group stages, which they had reached the last 11 seasons in a row, with Friday night’s 1-1 second leg draw against Wiliete SC at Loftus Versfeld in a game Cardoso felt his team “controlled completely, we just failed in scoring the goals we had to score”.

Downs had the lead via Tashreeq Matthews’ 11^th-minute strike but were unable to add to the opener. That allowed Wiliete to equalise via their dangerous attacking line and centre forward Mabululu’s 49^th-minute strike that ultimately saw the Angolan club through on away goals, as the first leg had ended 0-0.

Cardoso’s tenure since replacing Manqoba Mngqithi in December 2024 has been marked by successes such as reaching successive Champions League finals and winning Africa’s most prestigious title last season, their second overall and first since Downs previously won in 2016. Those have been punctuated by disappointments such as conceding an eight-campaign run as Betway Premiership champions to a talented Orlando Pirates last season.

The 54-year-old Portuguese defended his record as having more highs than lows.

𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐒 in Pretoria 😯

Mamelodi Sundowns will 𝐍𝐎𝐓 defend their #TotalEnergiesCAFCL crown ❌#SSFootball pic.twitter.com/c4mVYwBi2M

— SuperSport Football ⚽️ (@SSFootball) October 23, 2026

He was also asked what the remainder of the 2026-27 campaign holds after such a major blow as a second preliminary round exit from the Champions League as defending champions.

“It means we have to focus even more on the competitions we have to play. We have a qualifying match already for the Carling Cup in three days, then we have an important Premiership match, then we have a final to play in the Caf Super Cup. So there are a lot of trophies to play for,” Cardoso said.

“Of course, we cannot forget what it means to be out of the Champions League. It’s hard for the club, it’s hard for the coaches. As you can imagine, for myself it’s hard after being in the final three years in a row. And it’s hard for the club that was supposed to have been in the group stage 12 times in a row.

“Great empires also come from ashes. Tonight is a dark night, obviously, but it’s a dark night that has to give us the energy and that purpose to move forward and build more.

“Maybe it’s an important lesson for looking ahead because, as I usually say, we are not what happens to us, we are much more what we do with what happens to us.”

Sundowns, facing a punishing schedule in seven competitions in 2026-27 and with an eight-player core of their squad who had no off-season playing for Bafana Bafana at the 2026 Fifa World Cup, have been hit by injuries since lifting the Champions League trophy in the 2025-26 final against AS FAR of Morocco in May.

'Great Empires comes from ashes,' - Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso after Champions League exit.

WATCH presser on PrimeSportsWithMahlatseTV ➡️➡️➡️https://t.co/dMlW6L8a8S pic.twitter.com/sHzZJGSYSY

— Mahlatse Mphahlele (@BraMahlatse) October 24, 2026

After the club was rocked by the tragic death of Jayden Adams, Downs’ injury list in recent months and weeks has included major performers Khuliso Mudau, Grant Kekana, Keanu Cupido, Aubrey Modiba and Ronwen Williams. Star midfielder Teboho Mokoena went off in the away leg against Wiliete and could not pull through to start the second, though Williams and Modiba did make their returns.

Cardoso acknowledged the personnel losses since last season’s final as clearly affecting the Brazilians but also admitted, with Downs’ depth in talent, his line-up on Friday should have had enough firepower to get past dangerous but far less wealthy and experienced Wiliete.

“When you see this team and compare it to the one that finished the Champions League last year, one has nothing to do with the other. Of course we would be stronger with those players. Because it would give us more variability, allow us to choose other options.

“But that is not an excuse at all. We should have won this match with the players we had on the pitch and those who we introduced [from the bench]. Because we created enough to win. Basically we didn’t lose the match, we drew two matches. But we also have progressed in this competition [in the past] because of away goals.

“So we only have ourselves to blame because of the goals we did not score and the misfortune we had [in front of goal] is what it is — it can happen in the game. That’s why the chances you get you have to finish, so you don’t get exposed to a random goal that comes from the sky.

It’s a big blow this one, it’s a big punch in our faces, yes. But what will make us stronger is how we are going to react, because there’s so many more things to win.

Miguel Cardoso

“And if you don’t, as time goes by [without scoring] you can start to feel the pressure from the players not used to this level. But with all respect, there’s no excuses — we all should have done better.”

The coach was asked about conceding the league title in 2025-26, which might have cost him his job had Downs not won the Champions League, and how that now puts pressure on Cardoso for more domestic success in 2026-27, though also frees the Brazilians to especially put resources into the assault to regain the Premiership.

He defended his record, where Downs have in “four years reached two [domestic cup] semi-finals and two finals, two Champions League finals in a row with one star on the shirt, and in this season two trophies already from two finals and leading the league”.

Downs put aside a domestic cup drought going back to 2022 beating Pirates 2-0 in the MTN8 final last month and overcame Al-Ahli Saudi 1-0 for the African-Asian-Pacific Cup, which forms past of Fifa’s ongoing Intercontinental Cup, in September.

The Caf Super Cup, where Sundowns meet USM Alger at Loftus on November 8; Carling Knockout Cup, where they host Marumo Gallants at the same venue in a first round clash on Tuesday, and season-ending Nedbank Cup all also give Downs plenty of opportunities at more trophies, Cardoso pointed out.

“It’s a big blow this one, it’s a big punch in our faces, yes. But what will make us stronger is how we are going to react, because there’s so many more things to win.”

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ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has called for young people who leave school without matric to receive financial support through a basic income grant, saying they should not be left without hope or opportunities to build their futures.

Addressing community members at Emamnedwini Hall in uMshwathi, KwaZulu-Natal, before the November 4 local government elections, Mbalula said: “Where we are going now, we are going towards a basic income grant because children are having children while they themselves are still young.

“They leave school without matric. Those children, we are going to take them and give them a stipend in the form of a basic income grant so that they can grow. They mustn’t stay there without hope because they don’t have matric.”

Mbalula said the government was also working on training opportunities and called on municipal councillors to help young people access jobs and income-generating opportunities.

Some employment initiatives were already under way and should not be presented as promises that would only be fulfilled in the future.

Mbalula also urged municipalities to prioritise unemployed people when opportunities became available, saying young people should not be excluded because they lack work experience.

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana left the future of a permanent basic income support scheme unresolved when he tabled the 2026 medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) in parliament on Wednesday.

Instead of announcing a transition to a permanent programme, the National Treasury confirmed that the R370 social relief of distress (SRD) grant would be extended for another year, until March 2028.

The extension provides continued support to existing beneficiaries but does not establish a permanent basic income grant.

Treasury said it would continue working to link SRD beneficiaries to employment, training and business opportunities through MzansiXchange, which is a government data exchange platform intended to support beneficiary verification and connect people to economic opportunities.

The uncertainty surrounding a permanent grant comes as South Africa continues to grapple with high youth unemployment.

Official labour figures for the second quarter of 2026 showed that unemployment among people aged 15 to 34 rose to 47.4%, an increase of 1.5 percentage points from the previous quarter.

The number of unemployed young people increased by 264,000 to 5-million.

Treasury has also flagged legal and fiscal risks surrounding the SRD grant while the government awaits the outcome of its appeal against a high court ruling on the grant’s regulations.

Read: Cheaper petrol, gloomier growth: parties split on budget

The ruling, if upheld, could expand the number of people eligible for assistance and significantly increase the programme’s cost. Preliminary estimates cited in the MTBPS suggest the annual funding requirement could rise from about R36bn to R74bn partly because millions more people could qualify.

The potential increase in expenditure is one of the fiscal considerations facing the government as it weighs the future of income support for unemployed people.

Mbalula’s comments refocus attention on the role a basic income grant could play in supporting young people excluded from employment and training opportunities.

TimesLIVE

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Last week, when Rand Water issued an emergency alert asking Johannesburg residents to use less water, many asked, “What water?”

On Tuesday, Rand Water said the bulk water supply system was under severe pressure and pumping at maximum capacity. Continued high demand increased the risk of supply disruptions, it said, warning that Johannesburg needed to immediately reduce consumption by 15%.

“We are raising serious concerns about extremely high water consumption by several municipalities, including Johannesburg, which is placing increasing pressure on the bulk water supply system,” said Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo. “We have also warned them that their non-revenue water losses need to be addressed.”

But for some Johannesburg residents, there has been no water for a week, and in some cases longer.

The notoriously dysfunctional Commando system, in which the Crosby and Brixton reservoirs and the Brixton tower have been critically low all week, has again meant no water for Brixton, Mayfair West, Greenside, Melville, Crosby and Parktown West.

Part of the problem with the Commando system is that residents who receive water from the Hurst Hill 1 and 2 reservoirs are waiting for leaks to be repaired. Hurst Hill 2 was supposed to be finished in April, but nonpayment of the contractor resulted in the date being pushed out to next year.

But it was not only the Commando system that was out. Across the city there have been water outages, sometimes for days and weeks, while contaminated water alerts were issued in at least three suburbs.

By Friday only the Bez Valley alert was still in place, with water in Malvern and Parkhurst cleared for consumption.

Johannesburg Water is an entity under siege, largely due to severe underfunding, ageing infrastructure which loses almost half the water it buys from Rand Water, and a lack of financial resources and human skills.

Some 32% of water is lost through pipe bursts and leaks. On average, there are 140 burst pipes reported every day in the city. Non-revenue water costs the metro R3bn-R3.8bn a year, alongside an infrastructure renewal backlog estimated at R26.6bn-R64bn.

I can give tutorials about speed showering; we are so good at it, but it is so depressing

Parktown West resident Helen Wilson

Helen Wilson, who lives in Parktown West, has had no water for 10 weeks, yet received a water account this week for R28,000.

Wilson and her husband have installed water tanks so they can do the basics. She cannot rent out her cottage because tenants want water.

“There are 23 houses here in Parktown West that have had no water for 10 weeks,” she said. “For the past week or so there has been a trickle in the middle of the night. My husband is getting up at 2am to make sure the tanks are filling up.

“I can give tutorials about speed showering; we are so good at it, but it is so depressing.”

An Ivory Park resident reported that for the past two months there has been no water in the area every Tuesday. She said no explanation has been given. “We just live with it.”

... the pressure gets so low that the washing machine gets stuck in the middle of a cycle

Kensington Ridge resident Shamima Bhabha

Kensington Ridge resident Shamima Bhabha has had little to no water from March when the Alexander Park reservoir was put on bypass and the system reconfigured.

“Some days there is nothing,” she said. “The past three weeks we have had water from midnight to around 5am, but the pressure gets so low that the washing machine gets stuck in the middle of a cycle.”

Bhabha and her family cope by spending thousands on JoJo tanks, pumps and automated systems to get water into their home.

“We’ve had seven months of this, and I am pretty fed up. My pool looks like a bog, but there is nothing I can do about it. There is no water to fill it, and I am not paying to have it filled. To drain and close it will cost R30,000.

“People here are getting into debt just to live normal lives. And the level of incompetence and lack of feedback is so frustrating.”

Nelson Fernandes, a business owner at Central Park in Selby, near the Joburg CBD, described the situation as “a total joke”, saying electricity interruptions had affected the water supply because the pumps could not operate without power. He said his business had had electricity for only four days in September and three days in October, leaving him struggling to keep his business running and his staff at work.

“I cannot afford the diesel; it’s 280 litres a day to run and then [more money] to buy bottled water for staff to drink,” Fernandes said.

Several other business owners in the area told of similar experiences.

Mayfair pensioner Linda Grobbelaar said on Wednesday that her household had been without water for four days. “We have to pay for water, and we don’t get any. It’s frustrating,” she said.

Her son works from home repairing dental equipment, which is difficult without water.

Grobbelaar, who has arthritis, said collecting borehole water had become physically difficult because of the weight of the containers.

On Wednesday, Johannesburg Water issued a statement asking residents to lower their water consumption, saying it was experiencing “significant strain on its systems” due to high consumption.

“Residents and businesses are urgently requested to reduce consumption, avoid using drinking water for nonessential activities and comply with the level 1 restrictions now in effect,” said spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala.

The level 1 water restrictions are no watering of gardens or filling pools between 6am and 6pm and no washing of cars, paved areas or driveways using hosepipes.

Shabala said Johannesburg Water would implement targeted restrictions in areas with high water losses, excessive wastage and low payment. “The city will intensify bylaw enforcement in areas with illegal water connections.”

• This story was produced by Our City News, a nonprofit newsroom that serves the people of Johannesburg

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Former Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo faces sequestration proceedings over an alleged unpaid legal bill of more than R1m, with the attorneys pursuing him telling the Gauteng High Court that he acknowledged the debt but said he was struggling financially.

Motalane Attorneys wants the high court in Pretoria to place Letsoalo’s estate under provisional sequestration over R1,059,736.11 allegedly owed for legal fees and disbursements.

In a founding affidavit filed on October 16, attorney Emmanuel Mojalefa Motalane says Letsoalo engaged his firm in May 2025 to provide legal services in an ongoing matter involving the RAF.

The parties allegedly agreed that Letsoalo would pay R3,000 an hour for the work, in addition to reimbursing the firm for disbursements.

Motalane says the firm rendered legal services on Letsoalo’s instructions between May and December 2025, with payment due upon presentation of invoices.

By the end of December, the account had allegedly reached R1,059,736.11.

The attorney says repeated demands between January and October this year failed to secure payment, prompting him to approach the court.

But it is a message allegedly sent by Letsoalo on October 4 that is a key part of the firm’s case.

In the message reproduced in the affidavit, Letsoalo allegedly wrote:

“Hi MJ. I am sorry to learn about this, my brother. I thought we were to appeal against the decision. At this point I don’t have my cash … and had to even make arrangements for even school fees, let alone other expenses. It’s a big struggle for me. Trust me, I would pay any money if I had it.”

Motalane says the reference to an appeal concerned the outcome of the underlying matter in which the firm had been involved.

He argues that Letsoalo’s message acknowledges the indebtedness and demonstrates his inability to pay the amount due.

“The respondent’s message is an unequivocal statement that he cannot pay any of his creditors,” Motalane states in the affidavit.

“He says that he does not have money, that he is under financial pressure, that he has had to make special arrangements just to meet school fees, and that he would pay if he had the money.”

The attorney says he gave Letsoalo an opportunity to make arrangements to settle the account before resorting to sequestration proceedings.

On October 6, the firm issued a letter of demand calling on Letsoalo to settle the debt within five days.

However, Motalane alleges that the amount remained unpaid when he prepared the application.

“The respondent has not paid the sum due to the applicant or any part of it or secured or compounded it in any manner,” the affidavit states.

Motalane further alleges that no proposal to settle the debt through instalments or other arrangements had been forthcoming.

He argues that the circumstances justify sequestration under the Insolvency Act, saying the process would allow a trustee to investigate Letsoalo’s financial affairs and establish the extent of his assets and liabilities.

The attorney acknowledges that he does not know the full extent of Letsoalo’s financial position but says Letsoalo had referred to obligations involving school fees, bonds on properties and other debts shared with him.

Motalane argues that sequestration would enable a trustee to investigate Letsoalo’s movable and immovable property, examine potentially voidable transactions and determine whether assets could be recovered for creditors.

He also contends that the process would prevent the disposal of assets to the detriment of creditors and ensure that any proceeds are distributed in accordance with the law.

“The only manner in which the full extent of the respondent’s financial position with regard to the value of his assets and the extent of his liabilities can be established is by the appointment of one or more trustees to investigate his financial affairs fully,” he states.

The firm is asking the court to issue a rule nisi calling on Letsoalo and other interested parties to show why his estate should not be placed under final sequestration.

The application also seeks an order dealing with the costs of the proceedings.

Letsoalo didn’t respond to questions sent to him.

Sunday Times

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In the strange and pressurised geometry of South African politics, the calendar has conspired to create a perfect storm. Two weeks from today, the nation will go to the polls for critical local government municipal elections. Yet, before citizens can cast a single ballot to register their verdict on service delivery, sanitation and local economic collapse, they have been subjected to the annual ritual of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).

For the past 32 years, my quantitative analysis, The Lehohla Ledger, has tracked this collision between fiscal reality and political ambition. But the 2026 iteration is fundamentally different. It is not merely a budget speech; it is the opening salvo of the final, desperate municipal campaign.

The Ledger reveals a profound and dangerous pattern: a relentless intensification of crisis rhetoric regarding the “triple challenge” of poverty, inequality and unemployment, juxtaposed against stubborn, almost immovable structural stagnation.

Consider the vocabulary of the 2026 MTBPS. We translated the rhetorical frequency into a normalised “decibel density” metric. In the early years of democracy, these terms registered at a measured, problem-solving volume (around 11.8–15.4 dB). By 2026, “poverty” has amplified to a projected 22.8 dB — the highest recorded level of rhetorical alarm in our dataset. The mentions of “inequality” and “unemployment” follow a similar trajectory, scaling up to signal a government increasingly aware of its own limitations.

The political calculus is obvious: by acknowledging the severity of the crisis in the MTBPS, the incumbent Government of National Unity (GNU) attempts to inoculate itself against blame two weeks before the election. It says to the electorate: “We hear you; we know things are broken.”

Yet this is where the collision with empirical reality occurs. When we plot these amplified decibels against the hard data provided by Stats SA, the disconnect is absolute.

Take unemployment, the apex of South Africa’s crisis. MTBPS rhetoric on unemployment has spiked, hitting a projected 21.0 dB. It is now a central, almost desperate refrain in every budget speech. But the actual, structural reality, validated by the Quarterly Labour Force Surveys, shows that the official unemployment rate has drifted structurally upward from historical bands near 25% to consistently breach the 33% threshold. The expanded definition is pushing past 42%. The political amplification is higher than ever, but the economy is absorbing fewer people than it did when the language was less urgent.

The pattern repeats for poverty. The Upper-Bound Poverty Line tracked by Stats SA shows the headcount of those unable to afford basic needs remains stubbornly high, fluctuating between 55% and 60%.

The core finding of the 2026 Lehohla Ledger is that South Africa is trapped in a rhetorical feedback loop: failure in the real economy generates political panic, which leads to more crisis language in the next budget cycle.

The opposition parties, sensing blood, will dissect the MTBPS not for its fiscal prudence, but for its political vulnerability.

However, the common diagnosis — that this is solely a problem of “implementation” — is insufficient. The Ledger’s deeper analysis, aligned with a recognition of profound institutional atrophy, suggests the failure is structural, etched into an emaciated capacity for effective systems design and design thinking.

As the Sesotho aphorism captures it: “keo khomareli’a kokotane, boko sa eshoa le lenono - fela ke koliamalla ha ho klokomeleha hore e fela e le nete hore hloho ke mothlotlo” (loosely translated, this speaks to the persistence of a systemic rot that is difficult to accept: the idea that one may cling to a structure that is fundamentally hollowed out, and while it may appear solid from a distance, the core is incapable of sustaining life or function, leading to a situation where the ultimate collapse is undeniable, yet the appearance of ‘headship’ or authority is maintained despite the lack of underlying substance).

This aphorism perfectly describes the 2026 MTBPS. The GNU presents a fiscal framework that looks like a budget — it has numbers, columns and allocations — but it lacks the capacity to translate those numbers into functional, human-centred outcomes at the local level. The “head” (the National Treasury) may be speaking with authority and volume, but the “body” (the municipal infrastructure and service delivery apparatus) is emaciated and unresponsive.

The only variable that consistently behaves differently in our analysis is “growth”. It consistently dominates policy vocabulary, registering the highest decibel levels annually (>190 mentions, nearly 23 dB). Growth is positioned as the putative antidote to the triple challenge. Yet, the reality is that real GDP growth remains anaemic, consistently failing to keep pace with population growth, rendering the high rhetorical decibels for “growth” more akin to wishful thinking than empirical policy.

So what does this confluence of budget, ballot and hollowed-out capacity mean for the municipal elections in two weeks?

It suggests that the 2026 MTBPS has failed to offer a credible bridge between the national crisis and the local reality. The GNU’s fiscal strategy, while perhaps stabilising national debt through austerity, starves municipalities of the capital investment and, critically, the design capacity required to fix crumbling infrastructure — the very infrastructure that drives local economic activity.

The ANC-led coalition, attempting to rebrand as the GNU, is running on a platform of “reform and recovery”. But the Ledger proves that the recovery is purely rhetorical. The empirical data shows a steady, 32-year erosion of state capacity and economic inclusion.

The opposition parties, sensing blood, will dissect the MTBPS not for its fiscal prudence, but for its political vulnerability. They will point to the 22.8 dB poverty decibel as a self-indictment by the incumbent. They will argue, with strong justification, that the national economic stagnation is the direct cause of municipal failure, and that the GNU lacks the design thinking to reverse it.

The danger for the ruling coalition is that the voter in a neglected ward — someone facing 50% unemployment and rolling blackouts — will hear the high-decibel lamentations of the MTBPS as a cynical two-week trick. The screaming rhetoric of the Treasury will not mask the whispering reality of the ballot box.

The 2026 Lehohla Ledger stands as a quantitative indictment of institutional atrophy. It demonstrates that South Africa is not suffering from a lack of diagnosis; we have been measuring the crisis for three decades. The failure is one etched in emaciated capacity for systems design and genuine design thinking. In two weeks, the people of South Africa will provide their own verdict on this divergence between decibels, data and a hollowed-out reality.

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South Africa has taken important steps in responding to gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). We have strengthened the legal and policy framework, adopted a National Strategic Plan, established a National Council on GBVF and classified GBVF as a national disaster. These measures matter: they give the country tools and institutions to co-ordinate its response.

But institutions and policies are a foundation, not the final measure of success. The test is whether women and children are safer in their homes, workplaces and communities; whether survivors can get help with dignity; and whether perpetrators are brought to justice.

The recent killings of women in Ekurhuleni have brought that test into sharp focus. Since July, the bodies of 11 women have been found in the area. Police are investigating the cases but have not said that all the deaths are connected. Each woman had a life, a family and a future. Their deaths have left communities grieving and fearful and remind us that protecting women cannot wait for the next national outcry. The president has directed that the cases be prioritised. The response must bring justice for those affected and practical action to prevent further violence.

The scale of the wider crisis is also clear. In the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, from April to June 2026, the South African Police Service recorded 50,511 GBVF cases. Of these, 30,736 resulted in arrests or referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority. These figures show the scale of reported cases and the work entering the justice system. They do not tell us how many cases resulted in convictions, nor whether survivors are safer. Arrests and referrals are important steps, but they are not the end of the process.

We accept that it must help turn the measures already in place into lasting improvements. That calls for effective co-operation between police, prosecutors, health and social services and all spheres of government. It also calls for honest reporting on what is working, where cases are delayed and where survivors are still unable to access support. We should recognise progress where it is made and act decisively where delivery falls short.

For many survivors, the first encounter with the justice system is at a police station. Reporting abuse should mark the beginning of protection, not another ordeal. Complaints must be taken seriously, investigations conducted thoroughly and survivors treated with dignity. Where officers fail to fulfil their duties, there must be consequences.

Justice must extend beyond convictions. Survivors need accessible, compassionate support throughout the process

The recovery plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa includes reviewing unresolved cases involving women and children and reducing forensic backlogs. It should be judged by practical results: whether investigations move forward, forensic evidence is processed on time, cases reach court and victims and families receive answers. The National Council on GBVF also has an important role in co-ordinating and monitoring the national response. Its success will depend on whether it can help turn shared commitments into measurable action.

Justice must extend beyond convictions. Survivors need accessible, compassionate support throughout the process. Thuthuzela Care Centres provide integrated services intended to reduce the additional trauma associated with reporting and prosecuting sexual offences. But a service can only help when people can reach it. Transport costs, distance and a lack of information can all create barriers that the government and its partners must address.

Prevention is equally important. We cannot expect to reduce violence while controlling behaviour, entitlement and disrespect are tolerated in our homes, schools and communities. Families, religious institutions, community leaders and men and boys all have a role in challenging attitudes that normalise abuse. Economic vulnerability can also make it harder for a woman to leave an abusive relationship. Access to employment, skills development, safe accommodation and reliable support can expand her choices and strengthen prevention.

Safety also concerns the public spaces women use every day. A woman returning home after work should not have to navigate a dark street because a broken streetlight has gone unrepaired. A girl walking to school should not have to pass along an isolated, overgrown path. Municipalities do not investigate rape or prosecute offenders, but they influence safety through street lighting, transport facilities, infrastructure maintenance and urban planning.

The women’s safety audits announced by the president must lead to practical improvements. Residents should be told what risks have been identified, what action will follow and whether that action has been completed. With the local government elections approaching, communities also have a right to ask whether their safety concerns are being addressed by those responsible for local services.

The ANC will support regular public reporting on three areas: progress on unresolved cases and forensic delays; survivors’ access to support services; and municipal action on safety risks identified through women’s safety audits. Communities should be able to see where progress is being made, where delays remain and who is responsible for addressing them.

We should neither dismiss the progress made nor mistake plans and institutions for the work being finished. The test of our response is whether women and children can move through their communities safely, seek help without humiliation and trust that institutions will act when their safety is threatened. We must be judged by whether the commitments we support make a difference in people’s lives and by whether perpetrators are brought to justice.

• Nokuthula Nqaba is the secretary-general of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL).

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As South Africa counts down to the November 4 local government elections, a fresh eNCA MarkData poll is attempting to crystal ball the political fate of two of the country’s most volatile economic hubs: Tshwane and eThekwini. But whether these numbers offer a genuine snapshot of voter sentiment or just another layer of pre-election spin remains up for debate.

According to the survey, former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party is tracking just shy of the 2% threshold it supposedly needs to capture the eThekwini metro outright, a claim that will raise eyebrows given the party’s dominant performance in KwaZulu-Natal during the 2024 general elections.

Meanwhile, the survey conveniently highlights ActionSA councillor and current Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya as the “ideal mayoral candidate” for the capital, even as the city battles crippling water and sanitation crises.

The numbers game: sampling and scepticism

The survey sampled a modest “over 1,000 people” per metro, carrying a margin of error exceeding 3%, elections analyst Wayne Sussman notes. Compounding the methodological scepticism, data collection was a hybrid patchwork: conducted strictly in person in eThekwini but via a mix of in-person and telephonic interviews in Tshwane.

Critics will probably question whether a sample size of about 1,000 respondents can accurately reflect the pulse of millions of registered voters in sprawling metros such as eThekwini and Tshwane, particularly when pollsters attempt to predict nuanced outcomes such as voter turnout and shifting coalition dynamics.

Service delivery failures and the blame shifting

Unsurprisingly, the survey heaps heavy blame on the governing parties for systemic collapse. In Tshwane, 62.5% of respondents point fingers at the ANC for service delivery failures, rising to a staggering 74.6% in eThekwini.

Yet the timing of these findings coincides conveniently with political manoeuvres in Pretoria and national interventions. The survey drops as the state scrambles to throw money at the problem, pointing to finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s medium-term budget policy statement, which allocates an additional R21.8bn to local government for basic services. Sceptics may ask whether such massive fiscal injections are genuine municipal lifebuoys or frantic pre-election window dressing.

In Tshwane, currently governed by a fragile multiparty coalition of ActionSA, the ANC and the EFF, voter disillusionment runs deep. A notable 27.2% of respondents describe the metro as “extremely badly run”, and 62.6% state that Moya and her mayoral committee have completely mishandled the water crisis. Despite 62.6% branding the leadership “hopeless”, the poll paradoxically pivots to claim that 25.9% still view Moya as the “ideal” candidate, outpolling the DA’s Cilliers Brink (20.1%).

The financial recovery claims: fact or fiction?

Adding to the political theatre, Tshwane’s mayoral committee insists they are leaving the metro in better shape, boasting that cash reserves grew from R835m in October 2024 to R1.8bn by July 2026, alongside a 98% collection rate. Opposition critics and wary residents, many of whom are dealing with unchlorinated water and failing sewage infrastructure, are bound to question these rosy financial metrics against the grim reality on the ground.

Over in eThekwini, the electoral landscape looks equally polarised. The poll places the MK Party in a strong lead at 48% (with the DA at 25.2% and the ANC languishing at 14.5%), yet insists the party needs a miraculous 2024-style turnout and a simultaneous collapse of the ANC and EFF to win outright. Meanwhile, 62.7% of eThekwini respondents feel the municipal leadership under mayor Cyril Xaba is entirely “hopeless”, demanding a wholesale clear-out of the governing majority.

As political parties scramble for pole position before November 4, voters are left wading through a sea of conflicting polls, statistical margins of error, and polished campaign narratives. Whether these numbers reflect reality or merely shape it will be revealed at the ballot box.

Business Day

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The unfolding water crisis in Tshwane is not just a technical failure or an unfortunate accident. It is a serious, preventable betrayal of public trust. Hundreds of residents have become sick, children have been hospitalised, and the whole community is now afraid of water that should sustain life, not threaten it.

What makes this crisis so serious is not just the presence of E. coli in municipal water, which should never happen in a working system, but also that repeated, clear warnings were ignored. The City of Tshwane’s leadership, including mayor Nasiphi Moya and her senior officials, were not unaware. According to the Sunday Times, they received at least three reports on water quality in the months before the disaster.

In February, the department of water and sanitation sent an official letter of non-compliance. The city replied with a promising action plan, but then failed to carry it out. As a result, a water treatment plant ran for 21 days without the chlorine needed for disinfection, putting residents at risk of a serious health hazard.

This was not an unforeseeable failure. It was the result of a long-standing, worsening problem, highlighted in the 2023 Blue Drop report, which gave the Bronkhorstspruit plant a compliance score less than half of the minimum standard. Month after month, more tests showed non-compliance. Even when E. coli bacteria were found in water samples, the needed actions did not happen. When the city finally warned residents, the message was vague and left out important details about the real dangers, like the risks of bathing or washing dishes with contaminated water.

It is indefensible that it took hundreds of ill people, including many young children with severe gastrointestinal distress, before any decisive action was taken.

The explanations from the mayor and her administration have not inspired confidence. Blaming one plant manager and mentioning failed supplier negotiations do not excuse the lack of back-up plans, the failure of oversight, or the slow response as the crisis got worse. It is indefensible that it took hundreds of ill people, including many young children with severe gastrointestinal distress, before any decisive action was taken.

This is not just a local administrative failure. It is a warning to municipalities across South Africa: water safety cannot be left to chance, and it cannot be managed with apologies and blaming others after the fact.

The legal standard for E. coli in drinking water is zero, because the consequences, as Tshwane now knows, are immediate and severe. The public deserves answers: who was responsible for monitoring chemical supplies? What emergency protocols are in place for supply interruptions? Why were these not used when the danger first appeared? Most importantly, how will the city make sure this never happens again?

The current investigations by the public protector and the South African Human Rights Commission are important, but they need to be matched by real, open accountability and urgent corrective action. The restoration plan for the Bronkhorstspruit plant is a start, but trust will only return when residents see proof that their health and safety come before bureaucracy and politics.

As local government elections approach, voters in Tshwane and elsewhere are right to expect more than promises. They deserve basic safety, honest communication, and a government that treats water quality as the essential foundation of public health. Anything less is a failure of leadership and a violation of the social contract.

TPC Africa Mobile, which launched in Midrand on Saturday, will use MTN’s network to offer branded mobile services, combining airtime, data and digital financial services through its app.

Moreki, founder of The Perfume Co. Africa, said the idea was inspired by the needs of her existing distribution network, which relies heavily on mobile connectivity to market products, communicate with customers and manage orders.

“We realised that we use a lot of data and airtime, but it would be nice for us to also sell those products that we are already using,” she said.

The move builds on a business that Moreki says has grown a network of more than 300,000 independent business owners across Southern Africa. She plans to use that footprint to distribute the mobile service, particularly in townships and rural areas where affordability and access remain key concerns.

TPC Africa Mobile will offer airtime, data, voice and SMS bundles, alongside services such as bill and electricity payments and wallet functions. Customers will also be able to make cash payments through resellers for services including DStv subscriptions and money transfers.

Moreki said the aim was to bring services closer to communities that often travel to shopping centres to access them.

“We just want to bring convenience at a broader scale instead of just people having to walk to the nearest shopping centre,” she said.

The company plans to recruit resellers from its wider network as well as unemployed people seeking income opportunities. Resellers will earn commissions and receive training in sales, marketing and compliance through online sessions.

Moreki said the group invested about R1.2m in the venture with part of the investment used to brand SIM cards with the company’s identity.

So many things are going up. We just want to also offer something that is affordable

Entrepreneur Bathabile Moreki

TPC Africa selected MTN after market research indicated customers viewed its network as stronger in rural areas. The partnership also gave the company an opportunity to negotiate packages suited to its target market.

Moreki said rising living costs and increasing demand for internet access among entrepreneurs, students and households had created demand for more affordable connectivity options.

“People are now price-conscious. So many things are going up,” she said. “We just want to also offer something that is affordable.”

TPC Africa Mobile joins over 20 MVNOs using the infrastructure of network operators like MTN and Cell C to offer customers data and voice services.

MTN currently hosts about 20 MVNOs, including Standard Bank Connect, FNB Connect and Capitec Connect, making it one of the country’s largest enablers of the segment.

Story audio is generated using AI

South African rapper Maglera Doe Boy is expanding his creative horizons with his upcoming short film Mzansi, new music and international collaborations, while sharing a mutual admiration with Grammy-winning superstar Tyla.

Filmed in South Africa and Mozambique, the two-part Mzansi marks his acting debut, with a YouTube screening on November 2 and a Johannesburg premiere on November 9.

“Mzansi is based around inter-provincial and cross-border street culture, our fashion, our diversity, and my affinity to the rest of Africa,” Maglera told the Sunday Times.

Two accompanying tracks are forthcoming: Izinja, featuring 25K and Sir Trill, and Ntariana, featuring Young Stunna.

Born Tokelo Moyakhe and raised in Kanana township near Klerksdorp, Maglera has won two South African hip-hop awards and received two BET Awards nominations.

Both Maglera and Tyla are signed to Epic Records, though he believes any collaboration should be creatively driven.

“I’d love to do a song. I’d want any collaboration to be a real moment with us. I wouldn’t want to do things for the sake of doing them just because we’re South Africans.”

He recalled Tyla inviting him onstage at this year’s South African Music Awards in August.

“She was like, ‘Yo, I really wanna show love, like everyone at home. Would you be keen to come on stage and be part of it?’ I was like, ‘yeah, for sure.’ That was fun.”

Fashion is another passion, with his style blending township influences and international luxury.

Asked how he would dress Tyla, he imagined Hollywood-inspired glamour.

“I’d love to see a ‘Broadway Tyla’ in the vibe of elegant Hollywood glam,” he said.

“If we’re going to watch something at the theatre, what would she wear? You know, let’s put on some silk gloves. I love her many sides and nuances, from sexy to classic.”

(A$AP) Rocky is one of the reasons I’m who I am artistically, I think 25% of my lexicon as a creative is from Rocky

Rapper Maglera Doe Boy

Maglera also spoke warmly about Grammy-winning producer Swizz Beatz, whom he considers a mentor.

“He has been like an adviser, a big brother, someone who makes calls for me. He puts me in rooms, like the last time we were in New York he put me together with (rapper) Lil Uzi Vert.”

American rapper A$AP Rocky, with whom he previously collaborated on a PUMA campaign, remains a major influence.

“(A$AP) Rocky is one of the reasons I’m who I am artistically, I think 25% of my lexicon as a creative is from Rocky. The fashion stuff, the visual arts, my love for New York.”

Reflecting on his acting debut, Maglera emphasised purposeful storytelling.

“I think that’s my biggest take — intention. Intention in storytelling, intention in going into a space as a character, intention with the ‘why’ of why we’re telling stories.”

2001 — The Proteas beat India by six wickets in Durban in the final of the triangular ODI tournament also featuring Kenya. Asked to bat first, India were bowled out for 183, with Rahul Dravid top-scoring with 77. Justin Kemp took three wickets for South Africa, and Shaun Pollock and Nantie Hayward two each. Opener Gary Kirsten spearheaded the chase, striking 87 as South Africa reached the target with 47 balls to spare.

2002 — Gary Kirsten scores an unbeaten 154 and Jacques Kallis 107 in the second Test against Bangladesh in Potchefstroom. Herschelle Gibbs, resuming on 36, made 114. Kirsten was out the next day for 160 while Kallis ended on 139 not out when South Africa declared on 482/5.

2002 — Bafana Bafana beat Tanzania 4-3 on penalties to take third place in the Castle Lager Cup competition match in Arusha. Tshepo Ntsoane scored South Africa’s only goal in regulation time.

2002 — In one of the classic local ring wars, Cassius Baloyi fights back to stop former two-time world champion Mbulelo Botile in the 11th round at Carnival City.

2003 — Shaun Pollock takes six wickets as the Proteas bowl out Pakistan for 348 in the second and final Test in Faisalabad.

2007 — The Proteas beat Pakistan by seven wickets in the fourth ODI in Multan to stay alive in the five-match series at 2-2. Younis Khan made 82 as the hosts were restricted to 230/9. South African captain Graeme Smith hit 81 and Shaun Pollock, coming in as a pinch-hitter, smashed 90 from 84 balls as the visitors achieved victory in the 38th over.

2009 — Shandre Fritz scores 42 and Trisha Chetty 31 before the South African women lose their last eight wickets for 18 runs to be dismissed for 101 to lose the second T20 at Newlands by 13 runs.

2010 — Colin Ingram makes an unbeaten 46 off 38 balls as the Proteas score 120/4 to beat Pakistan by six wickets in the first T20 in Abu Dhabi.

2013 — South Africa bowl out Pakistan for 326 to win the second and final Test in Dubai by an innings and 92 runs to share the series 1-1.

2013 — Captain Mignon du Preez scores an unbeaten 79, Marizanne Kapp 72 and Lizelle Lee 65 as the South African women total 274/3 on their way to beating Sri Lanka by 67 runs in the second ODI in Potchefstroom to take the series 2-0. The third and final match was rained out.

2014 — Dane van Niekerk scores an unbeaten 70 as the South African women, needing 133 to win, beat Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the third and final T20 to win the series 2-1.

2017 — Quinton de Kock hits 59 off 44 balls and AB de Villiers an unbeaten 49 off 27 as the Proteas, on 195/4, beat Bangladesh by 20 runs in the first T20 in Bloemfontein.

2021 — Aiden Markram scores an unbeaten 51 off 26 balls as the Proteas, needing 144, beat the West Indies by eight wickets in a T20 World Cup contest in Dubai.

2025 — England-based Reg Bamford wins his sixth men’s singles world croquet championship men’s singles crown, downing England’s Mark Avery in the final at West Palm Beach in Florida. Bamford, who didn’t drop a game throughout the competition, beat world No 1 Robert Fletcher of Australia, the 2013 world champion, in the semifinals.

You realise this very quickly when driving these offerings back to back.

Yes, a product such as the Chery Tiggo Cross 9 delivers a persuasive illusion with its plush veneers. But then you experience the depth of engineering in a traditional premium German, Japanese or Swedish counterpart and are reminded there is more to it than superficial frills.

Toyota’s upmarket division Lexus has always leaned on its engineering strength as a marketing pillar in a bid to entice away followers of German rivals.

Just research the story of the original LS sedan and the lengths the brand went to in building a competitor worthy of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

In the late 1990s, Lexus wanted to make a foray into the sports-sedan market, with the BMW 3 Series in its crosshairs. It released its own rendition of the rear-wheel-drive, six-cylinder recipe in the form of the IS saloon.

Today, both these nameplates are no longer available — shifting markets and all that — but if you want a Lexus in classical three-box configuration, instead of an SUV or crossover, the ES is your pick.

The ES made its first appearance locally in 2013, and more than 2,000 models have been sold. Globally, it is a hit, with more than 3-million copies since inception, and it is currently offered in as many as 80 markets.

Back in 2013, comparisons were drawn between the ES and the defunct Camry nameplate. And there was some credence to that because the model shared a platform with the Toyota counterpart. In fact, it still does share an architectural link with the Camry sold abroad. Beyond the chassis, though, the kinship ends.

This week Lexus launched the eighth-generation ES in the country. The brand did not shy away from the fact that the premium sedan market is shrinking, making up just 12% of total car sales, but it believes it can do reasonable business as a niche seller.

The first thing you notice is how much better the car looks than its predecessor. The seventh-generation version from 2013 was just plain ugly, while the 2018 facelift was a gross overcorrection resembling a sea monster, what with the polarising and ornate Lexus spindle grille.

This new version is a lot more understated and cohesive. Its recessed door handles, taut surfaces and fastback-esque silhouette convey a dynamic appearance, if not an outwardly sporty one.

There are hints of the new Toyota Prius (not sold in South Africa), particularly from the front. This is not a bad thing (Google the latest Prius), as the leading hybrid model has undergone a dramatic “glow up” of late.

This Lexus is a hybrid too, and is also available as a full electric derivative. Gone is the normally aspirated model that marked the entry point of the former range. We sampled both cars at the launch drive from Cape Town to Paarl.

Contemporary consumers may find themselves uninspired by the generic template of current car interiors, dominated as they are by oversized screens and unfriendly interfaces.

The Lexus ticks all the display boxes — you get the customary large infotainment setup and a digital cluster. But there is an air of warmth in the cabin, with elegant decorative inlays (textured wood is on offer) and sumptuous upholstery.

It’s great the car retains physical controls for certain elements, while its three-spoke steering wheel has an almost retro look. A throwback in appearance, but futuristic in reality, its dashboard has buttons that light up when they sense a hand is near.

My one gripe about the interface relates to the on-board navigation system. We had our smartphone’s Google Maps running concurrently, and the vehicle’s navigation routing proved bizarre at times.

This included the car’s system repeatedly suggesting U-turns when there was very clearly an available road to take. Its way of dispensing directions was also confusing, and at times delayed.

That aside, the ES is an extremely serene cruiser. The quiet of the cabin is permeated only by the din of the motor under hard acceleration.

It is a timbre that is more gruff than expected for a four-cylinder and is aided by an electric system, making for a 182kW/235Nm output. More impressive, though, is the quoted consumption of 4.4l/100km and the prospect of being able to go for more than 1,000km on a full tank.

This standard ES 350h EX model starts off at R1,051,2000, and the only feature missing we could spot was heated seats.

However, that omission is remedied in the SE model grade, which costs R1,232,700.

The next step up on the ladder is the range topping, fully electric ES 350e. The outputs are 165kW/267Nm, while the claimed range on a full charge is 615Nm. Since it operates in silence, it adds a further layer of tranquillity to what is already a very relaxing car. Performance is not lively (a claimed 0-100km/h in eight seconds), though the range on paper is adequate.

This version of the ES costs R1,561,000, and the brand specifically mentioned the Volvo ES90, also entirely electric, as its chief rival.

For the other two hybrid derivatives, Lexus says the ES is a competitor to the BMW 3 Series, Audi A5 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

Previously, the Lexus IS was a direct alternative to this German trio. Of course, the ES emphasises comfort more than sportiness, unlike the IS, so bear that in mind.

What may seal the deal for you is the Lexus aftersales assurances, which are superior to its rivals. The warranty and maintenance plan offers seven-year/105,000km coverage. A separate warranty of eight years/160,000km covers the hybrid battery.