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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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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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.

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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.”

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.

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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.

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.

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By Isabel Teles

Brazilians headed to the ballot box on Sunday, in a runoff vote that pits right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, against leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Here are the main themes that have driven the campaign:

Inflation

Cost-of-living concerns are widespread. More than two-thirds of respondents told a Quaest poll in August their purchasing power had declined versus the previous year.

• Annual inflation stood at 4.58% in the 12 months through September, above the central bank’s 3% target, pushing prices — including for food — higher
• Lula has pledged to implement measures to allow for steady cuts in borrowing costs and keep inflation under control
• Bolsonaro wants to reduce and stabilise public debt to bring interest rates closer to international levels and steer inflation towards the central bank’s target

Crime

Crime is another major concern for Brazilians. While Brazil’s homicide rate fell by 40% over the last decade, improvements in fighting crime have been uneven, according to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, a think tank.

• Bolsonaro has pledged a heavy-handed approach to criminals, promising maximum-security prisons and chemical castration for serious sexual offences
• Lula wants to increase the federal prison system’s capacity to hold gang leaders, while still investing in poor areas to reduce the influence of organised crime

Corruption

Corruption is also at the top of voters’ minds, with both Lula’s circle and Bolsonaro facing scrutiny in high-profile cases.

• A major scandal that led to the collapse of mid-size lender Banco Master has sparked multiple probes, including into Bolsonaro over alleged corruption and money laundering, accusations he denies
• Bolsonaro has pledged to fight corruption by shielding state-run companies and pension funds from political appointments and expanding transparency in public spending
• Lula has vowed to deepen anti-corruption and transparency policies even as his son ― who has denied the allegations ― is being investigated in probes involving alleged influence peddling, corruption and fraud

Public finances

Brazil’s public finances are under pressure, especially due to pensions and social benefits. The difficult fiscal outlook has sparked fears of welfare cuts, while many Brazilians are struggling with debt arrears due to years of double-digit interest rates.

• Public debt has risen by more than 10 percentage points during Lula’s current term, reaching 82.9% of gross domestic product
• Brazil’s benchmark interest rate of 13.75% remains among the highest in the world
• Long-term interest rates fell sharply after Bolsonaro’s stronger-than-expected first-round performance
• He has promised to ramp up fiscal adjustment, targeting 1.5% of GDP improvement in the primary balance within 18 months to lower borrowing costs
• Lula has reiterated commitments to improve Brazil’s primary balance targeting an effective surplus near 1.3% of GDP by 2030, versus a projected 0.4% deficit this year

Foreign policy

After US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on a swathe of Brazilian goods in 2025, foreign policy became a more prominent issue for many Brazilians.

• Bolsonaro has courted Trump and other right-wing allies globally
• He wants to rebuild ties with Argentina, the US and Israel, arguing relations with each are close to breaking point
• Lula has campaigned for a foreign policy based on multilateralism and stronger ties with the Mercosur bloc of South American states and the Brics nations

Reuters

Having seen the series which began in Gqeberha in March dominated by Kenyans, Xaba ended their dominance to win in 32:10 in a race that started at the famed Grey College and went through central Bloemfontein, as Mangaung got a first taste of a premium road running event featuring elite athletes.

The stocky Xaba had missed out on first position in her last appearance in this series in August in Tshwane, but there was no stopping her this time, though admittedly she was aided by the absence of two Kenyans — Deborah Chemutai and Doreen Cherop — who are winners of the Tshwane and Joburg legs this year.

“I’m excited to have run 32 minutes here,” beamed Xaba at the finish line. “The route was great although there was one challenging hill, but I was not under any pressure.”

It was not the most comfortable victory for the 32-year-old as she was followed closely by another Kenyan, Jackline Rotich (32:15) and Lesotho’s Neheng Khatala (32:19).

Xaba said she would now switch focus to the Hong Kong half marathon, taking place in January, and will look to conclude what has been a great year for her on a high.

“It will be my first half marathon there (Hong Kong) and I hope it will help me in establishing myself as an international athlete,” she said. “I’ve planned these international events with my coach so they can help me become better.”

In the men’s field, Kenyan Filex Masai won in 28:14, a bit off his pre-race promise of dipping under his personal best which stands at 27:24. He was followed by South Africa’s Kabelo Mulaudzi (28:43) and Zenzele Pheko (28:42). “I felt good because I didn’t have any competition from the start to the finish. I enjoyed the race,” boasted Masai.

Sowetan

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The body of Anathi Maguga, 29, a cake baker and business owner from Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, has reportedly been found after she went missing on Thursday evening.

Her family has confirmed her death in a statement expressing heartbreak and gratitude to members of the public who helped search for her.

“It brings our hearts deep pain that we announce the passing of our sister, Anathi Maguga. We would like to sincerely thank every person who shared her missing poster, everyone who organised meetings, and all who went out in large numbers to search for her, even in the darkest of fields. Your support, prayers and love meant everything to us.”

The family asked the public to continue keeping them in their prayers, adding that details of the funeral arrangements would be communicated later.

Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Babalwa Lobishe has also expressed condolences to the family and said she visited them after Maguga’s death.

She said she had been accompanied by the SAPS district leadership, including Brig Humphries and Col Dippenaar from the New Brighton police station and members of the Community Police Forum.

“My visit to the family followed a briefing on the progress of the investigation,” she said.

Lobishe assured the family of the ongoing efforts by police to investigate the circumstances surrounding Maguga’s death and ensure that those responsible were brought to justice.

She said she understood the family’s need for answers but cautioned against publicly disclosing sensitive information that could compromise the investigation or future legal proceedings.

“I therefore call on everyone to allow the investigating team the necessary space to carry out its mandate effectively.

“I am also mindful of the heightened emotions and public concern surrounding this matter. However, I caution against attempts by any political party or individual to exploit this tragedy for political point scoring. While public scrutiny and constructive engagement are legitimate and necessary in a democratic society, the suffering of the Maguga family must not be turned into an instrument for political opportunism.”

She acknowledged the anger and frustration expressed by the family, the community and members of the public, saying the tragedy highlighted the urgent need for a co-ordinated response to gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).

“GBVF remains a serious societal challenge that continues to devastate families and communities. The tragic loss of Anathi Maguga reminds us that the fight against GBVF cannot be left to law enforcement agencies alone. It requires a sustained and co-ordinated response from all spheres of government, civil society, community organisations, political leadership and every member of society.”

Lobishe called for government resources and institutional capacity to be mobilised to strengthen prevention programmes, support victims and survivors, improve access to justice and ensure accountability for perpetrators.

The response to GBVF needed to move beyond expressions of outrage and translate into practical interventions and meaningful support for affected families.

Lobishe also urged members of the public to assist police by providing any information that could help investigators while refraining from spreading unverified information or engaging in conduct that could undermine the investigation.

TimesLIVE

By September 30 2026, net revenue reached R992.2bn — R15.5bn, or 1.6%, above the February 2026 budget, and R67.4bn, or 7.3%, higher than the previous year. According to the medium-term budget policy statement, the revenue requirement for 2026/27 increased by R17.1bn to R2.144-trillion. While these figures are encouraging, they highlight a major challenge: South Africa cannot meet its future needs with a revenue system designed for a past economy.

The transformation in how individuals meet their tax obligations is evident. By September 30 2026, Sars had issued more than 6.9-million auto-assessments, a 25.5% increase from the previous year. Filing Season 2026 introduced expanded verified third-party data, extended auto-assessments to certain provisional taxpayers and added digital channels, including WhatsApp, for assessment notices and supporting documents. This goes beyond convenience: it points to a future in which secure, timely information simplifies routine compliance.

Digital tools can also help Sars target illicit activity more precisely. Smuggling, excise evasion, counterfeit trade, customs manipulation, VAT fraud, illicit financial flows and trade-based money laundering deprive the government of revenue, undermine compliant businesses, expose consumers to unsafe products and erode trust in the economy.

The threat is evident at our borders. In the air freight environment alone, Sars recorded 2,824 seizures valued at about R216m between April and September 2026. These included narcotics, counterfeit goods, medicines and other prohibited or restricted items. Every rand concealed or fraudulently extracted increases the burden on those who comply with the law.

Episodic enforcement is not enough; criminal markets are organised, adaptive and networked. The state’s response must be co-ordinated. Sars is strengthening an intelligence-led approach that links tax, customs and excise data with risk and financial flow analysis, inspections, investigations, legal recovery and collaboration across law enforcement, regulatory and financial intelligence institutions.

The aim is to disrupt the full value chain, from production and importation to distribution, false declarations, beneficial ownership, professional facilitation and criminal assets. Digital declarations, cargo scanning, track-and-trace tools, automated risk engines and stronger information-sharing help Sars identify risk earlier, focus resources and facilitate legitimate trade and travel.

Customs modernisation is central to this approach, strengthening border security while improving trade efficiency. South Africa faces a dual challenge: making its borders more resistant to illicit goods while allowing legitimate goods to cross more easily. Smart seals, cargo-scanning technology, track-and-trace systems, automated risk-assessment tools and integrated border operations can help focus interventions on high-risk shipments while allowing compliant traders to operate with less disruption.

An efficient customs administration is both an enforcement tool and a competitive advantage in global trade.

The South African Traveller Management System (SATMS) is an example of a more modern approach to managing travel. From July 1 2026, travellers entering or leaving South Africa by air, land, sea or rail were generally required to submit an online declaration before travelling, with assistance available at ports. SATMS replaces a largely paper-based process with online, mobile and QR-enabled declarations. To improve the traveller experience, Sars is partnering with the department of home affairs to integrate SATMS with the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system. Sars says it will continue to engage stakeholders and incorporate their input to improve the system.

The system will also allow the country to meet its Financial Action Task Force (FATF) obligations of accounting for cross-border movement of currency and bearer negotiable instruments.

Cape Town International Airport manages about 25 international flights and accommodates around 8,000 travellers arriving and departing each day. After Sars implemented phased, risk-based interventions starting on September 1 2026, compliance with customs declarations increased from an average of 23% between July 1 and August 31 to about 37%.

Implementation must be practical and responsive. At Cape Town International Airport and other locations, Sars will continue to identify and eliminate operational challenges while maintaining compliance and ensuring border security. Collaborating with airlines, tourism bodies, airport operators, and border agencies is essential to integrate declarations into the travel experience, enhance advance passenger information and Passenger Name Record data, expand self-scanning and biometric options, and communicate requirements to travellers before they arrive at the airport.

The aim is not to create additional border obstacles but to develop a smarter system where better information aids enforcement and provides a smoother journey for legitimate travellers.

Modernisation must be matched by restraint, as smaller firms might not be able to absorb every cost of digital reform. Security and privacy are non=negotiable, and automated decisions must be open to human review and correction. New requirements should be subject to consultation, testing and responsible phasing. The test of modernisation is not simply what the technology can do, but whether the state uses it fairly, proportionately and accountably.

Importantly, we defend a clear line: the informal economy is not the illicit economy. South Africa must broaden participation in the tax system, but it cannot treat a street trader or emerging enterprise navigating informality like an organised smuggling syndicate. The former needs education, accessible registration, proportionate obligations and a route into formal economic life. The latter requires intelligence, investigation, disruption and consequence. A sophisticated revenue service must know the difference.

The social contract around tax is simple to state and difficult to maintain. Citizens and businesses must contribute what the law requires. In return, they are entitled to a revenue service that is competent, fair, secure and relentless against unlawful advantage. Sars must make that bargain visible in everyday experience.

The next era of tax administration has begun. Its promise is not a state that knows everything about everyone, but one that knows enough, soon enough, to distinguish compliance from evasion, legitimate enterprise from illicit activity, and administrative friction from genuine risk.

Get that balance right, and modernisation will do more than improve collection. It will strengthen South Africa’s economic integrity and the fiscal foundation of our common future.

• Makhubu is commissioner of the South African Revenue Service

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He might not possess the charisma and larger-than-life persona of predecessors such as Trevor Manuel and Tito Mboweni, but finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s tenure is proving to be one of the most consequential in South Africa’s democratic history.

Appointed to the role in August 2021, Godongwana has drawn both praise and scorn for his stewardship of the country’s fiscal policy.

Coming from the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, which brought the economy to a halt, Godongwana took over a Treasury presiding over spiralling public debt.

In his maiden medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) speech in November 2021, Godongwana focused on navigating economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic and the July civil unrest while restoring public finance sustainability.

“The scarring impact of the [Covid] crisis is evident in increased debt levels, income vulnerabilities, while unemployment, poverty and inequality are deepening. This is a crisis like no other!” he said in his maiden speech, with the market and pundits still sizing him up.

Six years later, Godongwana has defined his path: to stick to fiscal consolidation even as his former constituency, labour and the SACP, express their dissatisfaction at the austerity measures the Treasury has embarked on.

He restrained government spending, tackled excessive debt levels and gradually restored fiscal credibility by navigating economic headwinds in a balanced way that steadily won the confidence of the markets and business.

The fiscal consolidation path is beginning to yield results. South Africa achieved its first primary budget surplus in 15 years for the 2023/24 fiscal year — the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis.

This was followed up by the first consecutive (back-to-back) primary surplus in 16 years, posting R48.9bn (0.7% of GDP) for the fiscal year ending March 2025.

Rating agencies have taken note. Major ones have upgraded South Africa’s sovereign credit rating over the past year, marking the country’s first rating boosts in more than a decade.

In the case of S&P, the upgrade was the first in nearly 20 years.

It is against this background that Godongwana this week tabled his sixth MTBPS — 30 years after the first by Manuel in the full democracy era.

The MBPS showed debt stabilising at 78.4% of GDP in 2025/26 for the first time in nearly two decades — with a narrowing budget deficit and growing primary surplus.

This progress supports the prospect of further upgrades to South Africa’s sovereign credit ratings — with getting the country back at the investment rate being the ultimate test of the success of the reforms.

Prof Raymond Parsons from the North-West University Business School said Godongwana had equipped himself well since his appointment as finance minister, having earned the respect of business and market participants.

“Assessing Godongwana’s track record since 2021 reveals nuanced, mixed accomplishments, with the balance nonetheless well on the positive side. The latest MTBPS especially confirms the significant milestones in fiscal stability now achieved under his stewardship at the National Treasury,” Parsons said.

“Godongwana’s tenure over the past five years has offered steady leadership, which, with the exception of the unfortunate controversy and delayed budgets around the VAT issue last year [2025], has indeed steered South Africa away from the brink of extreme fiscal fragility following on state capture and the pandemic.

“We must therefore appreciate the extent to which Godongwana has in recent years been a crucial stabilising force during a volatile macroeconomic era. During his sojourn at the National Treasury, Godongwana has shown himself to be an excellent ‘crisis manager’ when it was most needed.”

It is not mission accomplished yet for Godongwana. South Africa’s economy is still growing at a painfully slow pace, while unemployment rose to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026 — the highest since the second quarter of 2022.

The infrastructure backlog in key areas such as logistics and water has been a great impediment, while servicing public debt continues to crowd out investment in key areas. The country spends R1.2bn a day servicing its more than R3-trillion debt pile — at the risk of bequeathing future generations with debt.

Johann Els, chief economist at PSG Financial Services, said while there is a long way to go, a lot of progress has been made in the past five years in improving South Africa’s public finances.

He credited the unflinching support President Cyril Ramaphosa has given to Godongwana and his team with making progress possible — the next challenges are speeding up the implementation of the economic reforms, which have found expression in Operation Vulindlela.

“He has been an excellent minister of finance. He understands clearly the need to fix the fiscal situation. Treasury through Operation Vulindlela has also made it easier for the private sector to be involved in the economy,” Els said.

Godongwana in 2025 backed the move to lower South Africa’s inflation target to 3% with a tolerance range of 1 percentage point — creating an operational range of 2% to 4%. It was the first time in 25 years the target was changed.

In what will be a historic fiscal policy moment, Godongwana this week unveiled a proposal for a fiscal anchor, which will legally entrench fiscal discipline.

South Africa has not historically had a formal, binding fiscal anchor, though it relied on broad policy targets and procedural rules.

Business Times

This is not merely an energy project. It is a nation-building project. It is an industrialisation project. It is a transformation project. The question is simple: will this investment change the structure of the South African economy, or will it merely reinforce the status quo?

If history is our guide, there is reason for concern. When South Africa launched the independent power producer (IPP) programme through bid window 1 and subsequent rounds, the country had a unique opportunity to build a transformed and inclusive energy sector. The programme attracted investment and added generation capacity. But it failed in three critical areas: transformation, localisation and industrialisation.

The energy sector today remains dominated by the same established players. Ownership patterns remain largely unchanged. There is not a single major black-owned energy company that can claim meaningful participation at scale in the sector.

Black businesses remain on the margins of the energy economy. Black women, young entrepreneurs, and persons with disabilities continue to face significant barriers to entry. Even more concerning is that many of the dominant players in our energy market are foreign-owned entities and global energy giants, many of them the equivalent of Eskom in their own countries.

These companies have entered the South African market, won substantial opportunities, and generated significant returns. Yet the promised transformation of ownership and industrial capability has simply not materialised. We must have the courage to acknowledge this reality.

South Africa missed a historic opportunity to use the IPP programme as a lever to create black industrialists, develop local manufacturing capacity and establish a globally competitive domestic energy industry. Too much value was exported. Too many opportunities for local production were lost. Too many South Africans remained spectators in an economy built with South African demand and South African public infrastructure.

We cannot afford to repeat this mistake. The procurement of 14,500km of transmission infrastructure is arguably the biggest strategic procurement programme in South Africa in more than 50 years. The economic implications extend far beyond electricity. This procurement will influence manufacturing, steel production, engineering services, construction, logistics, technology development and skills creation.

The Black Business Council believes that this programme must be designed deliberately to transform ownership patterns, localise production and industrialise the economy. This cannot be left to chance. It cannot be left to market forces. It cannot be left to procurement processes that focus solely on price while ignoring broader economic outcomes.

The notion that transformation will somehow happen organically has been disproven repeatedly. Markets do not correct centuries of exclusion. Markets do not automatically create black industrialists. Markets do not voluntarily dismantle entrenched patterns of ownership and control. Transformation requires intentional intervention.

The government, Eskom and all relevant authorities must establish binding localisation, industrialisation and transformation targets before a single contract is awarded. Every kilometre of transmission line must contribute to building local industries. Every transformer, tower, cable and component must be assessed for local manufacturing opportunities. Every contract must create opportunities for black-owned businesses throughout the value chain.

The objective must be clear and measurable.

The government, Eskom and all relevant authorities must establish binding localisation, industrialisation and transformation targets before a single contract is awarded

We should be pursuing majority local content wherever practical. We should be creating thousands of sustainable jobs. We should be building manufacturing facilities that will continue producing long after this project is complete. We should be developing local engineering expertise that can compete internationally.

Most importantly, we should be creating a generation of black-owned companies capable of becoming major players in the energy sector. South Africa does not need perpetual subcontractors. South Africa needs owners. South Africa needs manufacturers. South Africa needs black industrial champions.

The current procurement framework and legislation already provide sufficient scope to pursue these objectives. This is not a question of changing the law. It is a question of political will, implementation and leadership.

Global companies that wish to participate in this programme must understand that access to the South African market comes with responsibilities. The days of superficial partnerships and box-ticking exercises must come to an end. Meaningful participation should require genuine equity partnerships with local black-owned firms, technology transfer agreements, skills development commitments and local manufacturing investment. International firms should not simply arrive, win contracts, import equipment and repatriate profits. They must contribute to the long-term development of the South African economy.

If they benefit from our market, they must invest in our people. If they benefit from our infrastructure programme, they must help build our industries. If they benefit from South African opportunities, they must contribute to South African transformation.

This is neither unreasonable nor radical. It is precisely how successful economies around the world have built domestic industrial capacity. Countries that have industrialised did not do so by outsourcing opportunity. They did so by leveraging public procurement to develop local industries, local skills and local ownership.

South Africa must do the same. The rewards could be enormous. A properly structured transmission rollout can create tens of thousands of jobs across multiple sectors. It can stimulate manufacturing activity, strengthen supply chains and attract new investment into productive industries. It can expand the tax base and reduce unemployment. It can help unlock economic growth through increased industrial activity and infrastructure-led development.

But these outcomes are not guaranteed. They will only happen if transformation, localisation and industrialisation are treated as core objectives rather than secondary considerations.

This moment demands bold leadership. Future generations will not judge us by how many kilometres of transmission lines we built. They will judge us by whether those transmission lines changed the lives of South Africans. They will judge us by whether they created jobs, built industries and transformed ownership. They will judge us by whether black people, black women, young people and persons with disabilities became genuine participants in the economy rather than perpetual observers.

South Africa has already lost one opportunity through the IPP programme. We cannot afford to lose another. The procurement of transmission infrastructure must become the vehicle through which we fundamentally reshape the energy sector, transform ownership patterns and build an industrial economy that works for all South Africans.

This is not the time for hesitation. This is not the time for business as usual. This is the time for decisive action, bold targets and uncompromising implementation. The transmission build programme must not simply power South Africa’s future. It must transform it.

• Matabane is CEO of the Black Business Council

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The CEO of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), Sy Mamabolo, has conceded that the recent Constitutional Court judgment on candidate lists has “complicated” the logistical preparations for the November 4 municipal elections.

Mamabolo said the IEC was entering “a very big week” that could determine the success or failure of their planning in the last 24 months.

In an interview this week, Mamabolo said the IEC was now working around the clock to ensure about 27-million ballots are printed by the end of Friday October 30, to accommodate the 32 parties excluded from electoral participation until last week’s apex court judgment.

The Constitutional Court last week ruled in favour of the ANC after it challenged the IEC’s decision to reject its candidates’ lists for at least six municipalities because they had not been fully digitally submitted by 5pm on August 28.

The IEC then decided, in the interests of fairness, to extend the benefit of that judgment to the 32 other parties that had been in the same situation as the ANC, even though they had not been party to the ANC’s court action.

“The order of the ConCourt, and the subsequent extension of that order to the 32 other similarly situated parties, has in fact complicated the logistics endeavour,” said Mamabolo.

“Our initial plan was to conclude the printing of ballots on October 18, [but] now with the case situation we can only conclude the printing of the ballot papers next week Friday, and … there may be other aberrations that we may have to deal with," he said.

“So our logistical complexity has exponentially increased because of the ConCourt order as well as the decision of the commission to extend the order to similarly situated parties. But we still think it was an important decision to take in the interests of the constitutional role [of the IEC] in conducting free and fair elections, as well as in promoting the inherent principle of parity of treatment between political parties.”

There will be a significant cost to the reprint

Sy Mamabolo, IEC CEO

Mamobolo also indicated that the costs of the reprinting, even though they were still being finalised, were expected to be huge.

In its papers before the Constitutional Court, the IEC had projected it would need to spend about R720,000 on printing 6.6-million ballot papers for just the six municipalities in which the ANC had failed to finally submit its lists of candidates.

“There will be a significant cost to the reprint — there’s no doubt about that — but now we are still juggling between printers with different [pricing] structures,” Mamabolo said. “So once that process is settled and we know who’s going to [be] doing what [and in] what quantities, only then [will] we [be able to] speak definitively about the cost implications.

“It’s a cost that we are going to [set off] against the existing budget. We must find savings within our current budget and use those to defray those costs. There is no anticipation at [this] stage that I will [need to] go back to the National Treasury.”

The IEC now has just the next five working days to print about 27-million ballot papers, Mamabolo said.

“It’s a huge undertaking by any measure,” he acknowledged.

In 2024, there was the issue of the optimal functioning of voter-management devices, and the optimal functioning of the leaderboard. In 2019, there was the issue of people who claimed to have voted twice

Mamabolo also said that elections, by their very nature, were “never easy to manage”, with every electoral process coming with “its own dynamics”.

“In 2024, there was the issue of the optimal functioning of voter-management devices, and the optimal functioning of the leaderboard. In 2019, there was the issue of people who claimed to have voted twice. So every election brings its own dynamics to the fore.

“In [these] elections, we had proceeded well in terms of implementing our own planning … until we hit August 28 and had that problem with the ANC. And that occurrence has now affected our overall logistical performance, and we are [now] working on a 24-hour basis to recover, so that we have enough ballots to start the electoral process on [the first] special voting day on November 2.

“The more the political context is fraught, the more [difficult] that election becomes. So the easiness or toughness of an election is also a function of the political context in which that election happens.”

Mamobolo said that, if all went according to plan, the electoral outcome would be declared on November 8.

“All things [being] equal, we expect a very good election. It has been a very peaceful campaigning period, barring the deaths of a few candidates here and there. But overall we [have experienced] the campaign as very peaceful, and it is that peaceful spirit that the commission would like to see on November 4.”

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The National Treasury plans to stop municipalities from granting salary increases without the approval of the finance minister, and is also seeking oversight of senior appointments in local government.

The Treasury has proposed legislative amendments to stop municipalities hiring chief financial officers (CFOs) without its approval, a move aimed at halting the appointment of unsuitable and unqualified officials to manage large local government budgets.

Municipal executive authorities and officials, including board members, will face punitive “compliance orders” if they act against the Treasury’s advice by running unfunded budgets or implementing unapproved salary increases.

These measures form part of the sweeping changes contained in draft amendments to key public finance management legislation, the first major legal overhaul of South Africa’s financial architecture since 2003.

The proposals are contained in two draft bills amending the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

Wayne McComans, the Treasury’s chief director for MFMA implementation, said the proposed legislation would enable the Treasury to ensure that municipalities only approve affordable salary increases and was not aimed at undermining the constitutionally enshrined bargaining process at municipal level.

“The Treasury has decided to take a much more proactive role in enforcing accountability.” — National Treasury accountant-general Shabeer Khan

“At the moment, you’ve got a bargaining process that will discuss potential improvements to the conditions of service of municipal officials ... and what is recommended through that process will be implemented verbatim without any assessment being done on whether a municipality can afford that increase,” McComans said.

“So what we have done as part of the amendment is to insert a provision that says that yes, we respect the bargaining process — it’s not our mandate as National Treasury. However, the Treasury must be afforded an opportunity to do an assessment to see how the proposed increase will impact municipal finances to ensure affordability.”

McComans added that “any salary increase in the municipal space can only be implemented with the minister of finance’s concurrence. We believe it will go a long way in ensuring that proposed salary increases can be afforded by a municipality because currently we don’t see that happening in the municipal space.”

The amendments include a proposal to set up a financial misconduct investigative committee as a new permanent body within the Treasury to tackle financial misconduct and mismanagement issues long before the office of the auditor-general gets involved.

The amendments were announced in parliament this week by finance minister Enoch Godongwana when he tabled the medium-term budget policy statement.

The Treasury accountant-general, Shabeer Khan, said on Friday that, among other reasons, the changes were aimed at implementing the Zondo commission’s recommendations that political officer bearers and board members of public entities be held accountable and personally liable for breaches of the PFMA and the MFMA.

Khan said this was related to municipalities incurring irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditures stemming from unlawful instructions from politicians, often issued verbally. The amendments will make it compulsory for senior managers to report such instructions to the proposed financial misconduct investigative committee and to law enforcement agencies.

“The Zondo commission of inquiry exposed serious governance failures; there were a number of procurement irregularities, and we’ve seen a deliberate manipulation of oversight mechanisms,” said Khan, adding that “the Treasury has decided to take a much more proactive role in enforcing accountability”.

He said failing to settle invoices within the mandated 30-day period would now be treated as statutory noncompliance, as this was detrimental to small businesses and job creation.

“If they don’t deal adequately with that matter, we can then refer them to the financial misconduct investigative committee. That’s ... a new instrument in both the PFMA and the MFMA.”

McComans said that while they were not taking away the constitutional powers of municipalities to determine executive appointments, they had a role to play in ensuring that the right people were appointed to run municipal finances.

“Under the MFMA we have compliance requirements in the appointment of a CFO in terms of qualifications and experience,” he said. “But these factors have been ignored in the past, and that is why we have seen people entering the system who don’t align with the requirements. So part of our role will be for the Treasury to make an assessment, and [the] council can then appoint, having responded to the Treasury’s recommendations on their candidates.”

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Guardiola’s gone. Messi’s moved on; and Ronaldo too. But a familiar face remains. Tonight, José Mourinho will prowl the Camp Nou touchline in his 18th El Clásico as Real Madrid coach.

“The Clásico is just another game in the championship, but to say it’s a game like any other would be to lie; it’s totally unreal,” the 63-year-old Portuguese mastermind said.

His record as Madrid’s coach against Barcelona reads: five wins, six draws, and six defeats. At the Camp Nou, he’s won just twice as Madrid’s mentor.

Tonight’s clash, Mourinho’s first since re-joining Madrid in July, pits the table-topping Barcelona against third-placed Madrid. The gap between the teams is six points, and Mourinho is under enormous pressure to ensure it doesn’t get bigger.

Madrid president Florentino Pérez first appointed Mourinho as manager in ​2010 to compete with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, and he will hope the Portuguese can wrest ​the LaLiga title ⁠back to the Bernabéu for a second time.

Mourinho’s first spell coincided with arguably the most heated encounters in the modern history of El Clásico, and there will be numerous cameras trained on his every move at Camp Nou tonight (kickoff: 10pm, SA time).

Mourinho’s return raises the stakes

Recovering the winning formula against Barcelona may well represent a turning point in Mourinho’s second Real Madrid tenure, after two losses ​in their opening nine LaLiga games and frequent whistles from their own fans during home games.

The Clásico is just another game in the championship but to say it’s a game like any other would be to lie; totally unreal

José Mourinho, Real Madrid coach

However, since losing to city neighbours Atlético last month, Madrid have won their next four fixtures, two in LaLiga and two in the Champions League, suggesting Mourinho’s ideas are starting to take hold.

Crucially, they appear not to be missing Vinicius Junior, who will be suspended tonight after pulling the hair of Villareal’s Nathan Saliba.

After his thunderous volley in Wednesday’s Champions League win over RB Leipzig, Côte d’Ivoire’s 19-year-old superstar Yann Diomande has assuaged concerns about Vinicius’s absence.

Two of the main candidates for the Ballon d’or, which will be awarded tomorrow night — Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé — provide an extra layer of grandeur to one of the great occasions in sport.

New faces, same fierce rivalry

Spain’s biggest football fixture will see as many as 14 new faces that could make their El Clásico debuts.

Madrid and Barcelona both made six signings in the close season, while ‌the Catalan club have promoted two youth academy products to their senior squad, injecting the tie with a fresh crop of players keen to leave their mark on the rivalry.

Among them is Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus, who joined Barcelona from Arsenal in September. “Barcelona against Real Madrid is, without a ​doubt, amongst the biggest in the world,” Jesus said ahead of the first meeting between the ​two sides this season.

“It really is a dream to play in the Clásico for the first ⁠time. I’ve never made a secret of my desire to one day wear the Barcelona shirt, and that goal includes ​playing in El Clásico.”

Jesus is no stranger to facing Madrid, having scored three times against Los Blancos in four matches for ​Manchester City. “They were memorable Champions League clashes, including a goal at the Bernabéu,” he said.

The 29-year-old Jesus grew up 8,797km away in São Paulo, and he could line up alongside Xavi Espart, who was born in Barcelona and came through their youth academy.

One of nine academy graduates ​in their squad, Espart highlighted the implications of the match both in the standings and in the rivalry. “The truth is, it’s ​going to be a war. We will go all out; it’s [the] Clásico,” he told DAZN.

“You always have to give 100% , ‌now ⁠we have the chance to extend our lead and we’ll fight to the death.”

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The conversation about alcohol responsibility must continue. Harmful alcohol consumption affects families, communities and public services, making consistent attention and action essential. We need to keep asking what we can do differently, together, to reduce harm.

Regulation is an important part of the solution, but so is implementation. We need to understand what is happening in communities, which interventions are making a difference and how successful approaches can reach more people.

During SAB’s recent “Cheers to responsibility week”, we brought stakeholders together for two engagements that explored these issues. At Wits University, the discussion focused on responsible marketing and its influence on consumer behaviour. A second forum brought together the government, law enforcement, academia, civil society and industry to explore partnerships for safer roads, with contributions from Georgetown University and our global AB InBev colleagues.

These engagements are important because they allow different perspectives to be heard and create opportunities to turn discussion into action.

Start with the practical questions

Take drinking and driving. The message is clear: if you are driving, do not drink alcohol. But getting that message across requires more than awareness. It calls for education, access to safe transport, visible enforcement and the ability to collect evidence and follow cases through.

Through SAB Sharp, SAB has supported the establishment of 34 alcohol evidence centres nationwide and invested more than R52m in these centres and roadblocks. This is a tangible contribution to efforts to strengthen enforcement and improve road safety.

That is the work we must continue, long after the conversations themselves have ended

We must also look at how these facilities are being used, where the gaps remain and what can be done to make enforcement more effective. Understanding these challenges is important if we want to build on existing efforts and extend successful approaches to other provinces.

The same applies to responsible marketing. Commitments must translate into everyday decisions about whom we speak to, the messages we put out and how moderation is represented. These are decisions that require ongoing attention if responsibility is to become part of how the industry operates, rather than simply a principle it commits to.

Bring experience into the room

Those working closest to these challenges have valuable insights to offer. A law enforcement officer understands where processes break down. A community organisation can explain why an intervention struggles to gain trust. A retailer can speak to the realities of implementing responsible trading standards.

Industry also has a role to play in these discussions, alongside independent research and public scrutiny. Businesses must be prepared to explain their contribution, share evidence and listen to criticism. Just as importantly, community voices need to help shape priorities and inform how interventions are implemented from the outset.

When we share experiences, we should be honest about what has worked, what has not and what others can learn. That is how we build a better understanding of the challenges and identify opportunities to make a difference.

Build on what works

We need more opportunities to have these conversations, and to do so regularly. The focus should be on identifying interventions that have credible evidence behind them, understanding why they work and determining what is needed to extend their reach.

Taking an initiative to more communities is not as simple as replicating it. It requires funding, people, local partnerships and clear accountability. It also means being willing to adapt when an approach is not delivering the intended results.

At SAB, we will continue to contribute through SAB Sharp’s pillars of educate, enforce and innovate. We recognise that addressing harmful consumption requires sustained effort, collaboration and a willingness to keep learning.

Ultimately, the value of these conversations lies in what follows. If they lead to better decisions, stronger implementation and measurable progress in reducing harmful consumption, then they are making a meaningful contribution. That is the work we must continue, long after the conversations themselves have ended.

• Lisa is vice-president of corporate affairs at SAB

During an ANC election campaign stop at the Site C taxi rank in Khayelitsha, bosses from the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta) openly pleaded for presidential intervention against Cape Town’s vehicle impoundment policies.

This is not a dispute over fair labour or economic oppression. Stripped of political spin, it is a demand for the right to operate unroadworthy, unlicensed vehicles driven by undocumented drivers, with absolute impunity.

The subtext of their plea is as clear as it is chilling: “With the ruling party’s help, we can control the roads, run our illicit operations legally, and do crime better.”

For years, the minibus taxi industry has behaved like an elite, untouchable tier of society. When local municipalities attempt to enforce basic safety standards or impound vehicles for reckless driving, they are routinely met with violent strikes, blockaded highways and burning infrastructure.

By turning to the president to override municipal bylaws, taxi operators are trying to formalise their lawlessness. They want a presidential pass to bypass the National Land Transport Act and passenger safety protocols.

If Ramaphosa capitulates to these demands for the sake of cheap campaign votes, it sends a devastating message to every law-abiding South African. It signals that if your industry is aggressive enough, or if you control enough votes, the laws of the country do not apply to you.

The roads of Cape Town belong to the citizens, not to cartels. The president must choose between defending the constitution or validating a mafia state on wheels.

— Dr Fezile Potwana, by e-mail

ConCourt legitimised incompetence

Last weekend’s Sunday Times editorial and contributions from Mathatha Tsedu, Peter Bruce, Makhudu Sefara and FM Lucky Mathebula all commented one way or another on the ConCourt’s decision to pull the chair out from under the Electoral Court and rule that the ANC’s candidates be reinstated.

Some trivialised the case as nothing but a missed click and repeated the point that the ConCourt’s decision must be right because it prevents voters from being disenfranchised. They were wide of the mark. The decision stinks and suggests a creeping loss of independence at the ConCourt.

To start with, no-one would have been disenfranchised — candidates would have been excluded, not voters. Not every party has a candidate in every ward, so affected voters have to vote tactically or not at all.

Second, an election is only fair if the rules apply to everyone, and these IEC rules have been in place since the last election and have been successfully applied to literally tens of thousands of candidates. Suggesting that the process is problematic is nonsense.

Third, what now? The ConCourt’s decision fails the smell test. It is simply not a fair application of one rule for all, and it has legitimised incompetence.

— Martin Neethling, Constantia

Appalling lack of knowledge

I have just read your Q&A interview with the deputy minister of transport.

With considerable professional background in the approach to providing an effective and efficient public transport system for a metropolitan area, I am appalled by his apparent lack of knowledge of a subject he oversees on behalf of the people of our country.

It is impossible to make sense of much of what he says.

In the mid-1990s, I was requested as a specialist witness to give a report to the Goldstone commission of inquiry into violence in the taxi industry. Unfortunately, many of the “dire consequences” I predicted at the time, unless the government acted decisively, have come to pass.

At the time the National Party government saw the taxi industry as a way of providing an income to many previously disadvantaged people in our country and did not act. I was deputy director-general of transport at the time and am aware of this lack of action, which was politically engendered.

Any major conurbation worldwide requires a balanced public transport system efficiently integrating rail, buses and taxis.

The taxi industry, through violence, has completely broken down the system we had, even as poor as it was at the time, and therein hangs a story involving the rail authority.

The deputy transport minister doesn’t seem to understand what is needed for the effective movement of the public — or he does and is pandering to the taxi industry.

— Malcolm Mitchell, by e-mail

DA faces hostile takeover

In the world of business, when a legacy corporation hits a market ceiling, fails to innovate and treats its consumers with arrogance, it becomes prime real estate for a hostile takeover. This is exactly what is playing out in South African politics.

The DA is acting like a bloated, defensive blue-chip company holding a stagnant 21% national market share. Meanwhile, the Patriotic Alliance (PA), which captured a lean 3% nationally in the 2024 general election, is operating as the agile, hyper-aggressive start-up. As the country’s fastest-growing and youngest political disruptor, the PA is systematically eating into the DA’s core base.

This corporate-style raid is driven by the political genius of Gayton McKenzie, alongside his adviser and strategist Charles Cilliers. Together they have identified the DA’s fatal flaw: an inability to expand beyond middle-class urban enclaves.

In response to this existential threat, the DA’s provincial managing director, Tertuis Simmers, has shown deep desperation, launching PR campaigns designed entirely to discredit McKenzie and smear the PA as a criminal enterprise.

The PA has already executed a highly successful hostile takeover of vital working-class coloured areas in Gauteng. McKenzie and Cilliers are now positioned to devour the DA’s historic constituencies in the Western Cape and Northern Cape.

— Grant Son, by e-mail

Death penalty won’t work

I write in response to recent calls for the death penalty to be reinstated.

Reintroducing the death penalty is not likely to lead to a significant reduction in the incidence of violent crime. This is because it is extremely difficult to deter people who know they are unlikely to be arrested and convicted due to poor investigative skills, sub-standard or overworked prosecutors, a shortage of forensic laboratories and so on.

In addition, if the death penalty is indeed significantly scarier than life imprisonment (which is debatable, given the popularity of skydiving, bungee jumping and train surfing) we would be giving armed robbers and rapists more of an incentive to kill victims and witnesses (due to our reliance on eyewitness testimony).

Putting criminals in a position where they no longer have anything to lose could backfire badly. Given the possibility of executing the wrong person, we are better off without it.

— Terence Grant, Cape Town

Vote with courage

The political clock is inexorably ticking as the day of reckoning approaches. November 4 stands as a moment of profound consequence that will determine the trajectory of our communities for the next five years.

The time has come to forge a new path with determination, courage and an unshakeable belief in the promise of change. We have endured, exercised forbearance and demonstrated extraordinary tolerance and civility. Through the ballot box we possess the formidable power to transform frustration into action, disillusionment into determination, and the yearning for change into an undeniable democratic mandate.

— Farouk Araie, Benoni

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One day in mid-September 2022, while Mteto Nyati was kicking back after completing his post-retirement sabbatical, he received an unexpected call. At the end of the line was President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had just cut short a UK trip to attend to a worsening load-shedding crisis, which had reached stage six.

It turned out Ramaphosa was shopping for a new Eskom CEO to replace André de Ruyter at the helm of the beleaguered utility. He wanted to set up an urgent appointment with Nyati.

When they eventually met, Nyati told the president, in a turn of irony, that he considered it a bad idea to replace De Ruyter in order to deal with the crippling power crisis.

“When I was looking at Eskom from the outside, I felt André was saying the right things. And I felt he needed more support from his board to make sure they continued to focus on the right things, versus replacing him. That’s how I felt, genuinely.

“One of my reasons was that we sometimes make mistakes; when problems are surfacing we think the person who caused the problem is the one who happened to be around when the problems were bubbling up. In reality, there’s often a delay between cause and effect.

“The president connected with that because he could see even from his own situation that most of the problems he was handling were inherited. So he was sympathetic to that reasoning and supported it.”

One of the people Nyati consulted on his conundrum was his wife. “I agreed with her that it wouldn’t be the right thing to replace the CEO.

“Second, we agreed that I could not just say no to the president. I needed to offer him something. So we agreed that the next best thing was for me to sit on the Eskom board. I offered to chair the board, and that’s what he accepted,” says Nyati.

But, as government processes would have it, and government being contested terrain, someone else was announced as chair. That notwithstanding, Nyati stayed on the board until his appointment as chair in 2023.

It was during his first tenure that Eskom finally broke the back of a seemingly intractable load-shedding crisis, which had severely affected businesses, citizens and the broader economy.

In September 2026, in the teeth of scathing criticism from some quarters, the cabinet reappointed him for another three years.

It was during his first tenure that Eskom finally broke the back of a seemingly intractable load-shedding crisis, which had severely affected businesses, citizens and the broader economy.

The utility has returned to the black, declaring a profit for the year ended March 2026, making it two years in a row.

In his second stint, Nyati will have to guide the process of sustaining Eskom’s profitability while providing a reliable and affordable power supply. All in a rapidly changing and more competitive operating and trading environment.

He will be drawing on experience spanning leadership roles at companies including Afrox, IBM, Microsoft, MTN and Altron, not to mention the baptism of fire of his last three years at the utility.

Despite achieving a turnaround in Eskom’s generation fortunes, Nyati and his board have not been spared public criticism. Like that of the looming unbundling of Eskom, which will dismantle the entity’s transmission monopoly

Nyati said one of the contributory factors to the Eskom turnaround was the attention paid to staff by the new leaders, who took the trouble to talk to and learn from employees.

The environment in the company when he got there was “dysfunctional”.

“I realised there was a big disconnect between André [de Ruyter] and his leadership team and the people on the ground. These people knew what needed to be done. They were clear, but nobody was listening. And they were so frustrated. They listened to their leaders on TV saying all of these things about them … a lot of talk about corruption and sabotage and all that.”

Despite achieving a turnaround in Eskom’s generation fortunes, Nyati and his board have not been spared public criticism. Like that of the looming unbundling of Eskom, which will dismantle the entity’s transmission monopoly. Organised business has accused the board of seeking to hinder important electricity sector reforms. There were even rumours the government might shun Nyati for a second term.

Asked whether he had expected to be reinstated, Nyati pointed out that he had never applied to head Eskom but had been approached.

“I never said I wanted to be on the board, so I had always seen this as a one-term assignment. I had no expectations to be continuing. In fact, I would have preferred not to. It did not really bother me.”

Upon Nyati’s reappointment, the Black Business Council’s Kganki Matabane referenced what he saw as a lack of recognition of black excellence.

“South Africa’s history,” he charged, “has left a lingering assumption that black leaders hold their positions on sufferance. Nyati’s reappointment offers a chance to retire that assumption.”

So, does Nyati himself see a nexus between race and performance?

“It does not have to be about race, but in South Africa I think I’ve begun to realise that you cannot avoid the race dimension.

“I look at the great work that [Eskom CEO Dan Marokane] has done and continues to do; but who talks about that? I remember saying that if André had done half of what Dan has done, people would be singing his praises. He would be on a road show. The question is, why? The only explanation … there is a race dimension to all of these things.

“I would not really like to be defined by that myself because excellence is excellence. There’s still the thing that if you’re a black person and you’re appointed in a particular role, you have to work twice or three times as hard as a white person to prove yourself.

“I remember sharing with someone that when I moved from MTN to Altron the [latter’s] share price hardly moved because of my movement. Not that I was expecting it to jump but hey, I’ve got a track record, right? It must say something.

“Then I see another colleague who was there with me at MTN moving into another technology company, like me. The share price didn’t jump 5%, 10%, or 15%. It jumped 20% just because he had been announced. He happens to be white, so I’ve learnt that you just work hard and let the results speak for themselves.

“Things will change when you have more and more people like me in leadership positions; people who are able to see performance, not clouded by race.

“When you are a black person and you are the leader, you should be able to see that people don’t have to work doubly hard under you. That’s our responsibility when we have been put into these positions. It has always been my mission personally to create an environment of fairness in the system.

“We have to be intentional about it as the black leaders in these environments.”

Nyati defended the country’s BEE policy, saying it has ensured that workplaces reflect the country’s demographics and facilitate skills development and employment opportunities while opening opportunities for small enterprises.

“I’m just saying as a country we need to look at our history, look at what has worked, change things that are not working. But the concept itself ... shouldn’t be thrown away.”

He also argued for workplace diversity, including race, skills, age and life experience.

The unbundling decision, and differences over its pace, again brought into sharp relief the perennial governance tension in state-owned enterprises among the shareholder (the government), boards and managers.

Eskom, said Nyati, no longer suffers tensions between its board and its managers, as had happened in the past with deleterious consequences for the company.

“That is not happening because you’ve got a board that understands it cannot be operational. Elsewhere, most people get on to boards in order to influence operational decisions. I apply because I know that that may be an opportunity for me to influence things for myself and for my family and for my friends. If you are going into a board with that view, you are going to be occupying the same space as management.

“For me, having been a CEO before, I know what a good chairman looks like. I’ve experienced that. I’ve also experienced a not-so-good chairman. So I’ve made a decision that I will try to be that good chairman for the managers. I have no desire to be operational.”

A factor Nyati does not directly mention, but which is key to Eskom’s current stability, is the political support afforded the board and managers by electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, himself a civil engineer.

While business is at liberty to lobby for enabling policies, it is not its job to tell the government what to do

Despite his recent spat with organised business, Nyati was emphatic about the crucial role of business, including in stimulating innovation.

“You know, we often think growth is going to come from the government. Or that it will address unemployment. The role of business is really to look at the challenges around us and come up with solutions. And as they address those challenges, they will make money.

“It’s like making money by solving our problems. If they’re doing that, they’re making our lives easier … and creating employment.”

While business is at liberty to lobby for enabling policies, it is not its job to tell the government what to do.

“We need to listen more as a country. I do think that as a country we see business as the enemy — and that is one of our failures,” says Nyati, who holds a BSc in mechanical engineering from the former University of Natal.

He ascribed the Eskom unbundling row to a misunderstanding due to poor engagement among the protagonists.

“Everybody agrees on the goal. It was really always about how to get there. Now there’s also alignment on the how. I think people were making assumptions about what they thought others were saying. Most of it was sorted out by engaging each other.”

On the nation’s bugbear — the spiralling cost of electricity — Nyati says it’s a matter that has to be tackled responsibly because of the debt Eskom has to service.

“The reason we are where we are is largely because of corruption and inefficiencies in Eskom,” he says, pointing also to the costly overruns in the construction of the Medupi and Kusile power stations.

“Those costs are still in the system because we had to borrow to fund that. One of the first things we had to do as a board was to drive down the debt.

“I think it was about R460bn and we’re now on about R330bn. The signs are that we are moving in the right direction. From next year we will not be having these double-digit increases,” he says, pinning his hopes on aggressive input cost reduction, the “knock-on effect” of which should lead to a lower tariff regime.

Turning to Eskom’s future energy mix, Nyati struck a pragmatic note, without disregarding the regulatory environment. He said he and Eskom’s board know the country needs to use all its energy sources, coal included, for as long as possible, “while being mindful of communities that depend on coal mining, in a country with 36% unemployment”.

“The issue is not coal itself, it’s emissions. It’s whether we can find a way to reduce them so we don’t create a problem for the environment and people. That’s where we’re applying our minds.

“We’ll probably at some point be left with only Medupi and Kusile, which are our newest power stations. Everything else is going to be either nuclear or renewables,” Nyati said.

He warned against total reliance on renewables, which are “intermittent”, pointing to countries that have backtracked from that path.

To close our conversation, I ask the 61-year-old when the sequel to his best-selling book, provocatively titled Betting on a Darkie, will come out. He concedes that, with his retirement on hold, it won’t be soon.

“I thought I was going to do it now but I can’t because my focus is Eskom. The whole Eskom story needs to be told, and I would like to tell it in my own way,” he says.

• For the full interview with Nyati, go to www.timeslive.co.za

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Former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party is within striking distance of winning an overall majority in the Durban-based eThekwini metro, the eNCA MarkData poll has found.

In Gauteng’s Tshwane metro, the DA will be the largest party by a wide margin but will fall well short of an overall majority, according to the poll.

The full poll results will be announced during a live broadcast on eNCA (DStv channel 403) at 11am this morning, with expert analysis of the findings.

The poll assumed a turnout of 48.8% for the November 4 local election. The margin of error for each metro is about 3%.

In eThekwini, the MK party is polling at 48%, followed by the DA at 25.2%. The ANC’s figures reflect its sharp decline in support in 2024, with the IFP the only other party polling above 5% in KwaZulu-Natal’s only metro.

The results in the Tshwane metro, which includes the country’s administrative capital, Pretoria, are markedly different, with the DA polling at 33.9% and the ANC at 24.3%. Supporters of the EFF, ActionSA and the Freedom Front Plus will take heart from their relatively strong polling results in the metro.

Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya has clearly impressed voters: she is more than twice as popular as ActionSA, the party she represents. All other Tshwane mayoral candidates poll lower than their respective political parties.

In both eThekwini and Tshwane, respondents blame the ANC for service delivery problems, with water a major concern in both metros. The poor response to flood damage has also severely undermined the ANC in eThekwini.

In both metros, ANC candidates are further handicapped by their party’s inability to settle on mayoral candidates.

The eNCA MarkData poll was conducted between August 12 and September 10 in the country’s six largest metros, among 6,000 scientifically selected registered voters who intend to vote in the election — 1,000 per metro. Interviews were conducted in the language of each respondent’s choice.

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The contest for the leadership of Cosatu is over. The struggle over the future of the working class is becoming more consequential, and it will demand considerably more of us than winning a congress.

I assume the presidency conscious of what it means to lead a federation whose internal divisions have played out before the workers who depend on its strength. They are entitled to ask what will change. The answer must be evident in how we lead and whose interests prevail when difficult choices must be made.

The mandate we carry belongs to the whole federation and the broader working class in South Africa, Africa and the world. Every Cosatu affiliate, much like all workers, must have a place in the work ahead, and every member must be able to hold this leadership to account. We cannot ask workers to place their livelihoods in our hands while allowing the divisions of a leadership contest to determine how we serve them.

There is a larger reckoning before us. The global economy is changing the terms under which people work and the power with which they must negotiate those terms.

At home, the failures of public institutions follow workers into their households, consuming incomes already stretched across generations. We have converted into a slogan a painful South African reality: the fact that one income stream supports at least 10 people. A fragmented working class confronts these pressures at an enormous disadvantage. Bringing it together is the defining responsibility of this chapter in Cosatu’s life.

For all the attention paid to our disagreements, the deeper life of this federation continues among people whose names will never appear on a congress ballot. It lives in the shop steward who finishes a shift and spends the evening preparing to defend a colleague confronted with workplace challenges that threaten their livelihoods. It is sustained by members who surrender a portion of an already inadequate wage because they believe that, together, they stand a better chance. That faith places a considerable obligation on those elected to lead.

We must earn it anew. Our history gives us experience from which to draw, but workers confronting the insecurity of the present are entitled to expect an organisation equal to their circumstances. The strength we inherit must be put to work on the problems they face now.

Stats SA recorded official unemployment at 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, with 8.5-million people unemployed. Behind that figure are households quietly reorganising their lives around an absence of opportunity. A salary intended to establish one person’s independence becomes the means of survival for an extended family. Retirement is postponed. A young person’s plans narrow with each unanswered application.

The employed and the unemployed belong to the same families. Their futures are bound together. The insecurity of those outside the workplace bears down on those within it, making the threat of replacement a powerful instrument in an employer’s hands. Which is why, more than ever before, workers must unite — but not superficially — because the enemy before us has become even more sophisticated. A movement that understands this relationship must make the creation of decent employment inseparable from the defence of existing jobs.

We should be troubled by how easily the language of economic necessity is used to settle questions about workers’ lives. The current discourse about the need, or lack thereof, of the social relief of distress grant demonstrates exactly this school of thought. Privilege has created inconceivable distance between the haves and have-nots. A wage is declared unaffordable. A permanent post becomes an expense to be eliminated. Employees are asked to carry additional responsibilities until exhaustion becomes an ordinary condition of employment. Each decision may arrive with a managerial explanation, but its consequences accumulate in the same household.

Workers cannot remain the point at which every institutional failure and commercial pressure is finally absorbed. This demands a federation capable of understanding where economic power is moving and organising early enough to influence it. By the time a closure is announced or a retrenchment notice issued, decisions taken elsewhere may already have determined the limits of what can be negotiated.

The changing global political economy makes that task more urgent. Competition for investment can draw countries into offering ever greater concessions, with workers expected to prove their competitiveness through what they are willing to surrender. We must interrogate an economic proposition that requires people to become cheaper before their country can become prosperous.

South Africa needs productive investment, and labour has every reason to fight for it. Our members’ futures depend on an economy that can manufacture more of what it consumes and derive greater value from what it produces. Public support for investment should carry enforceable obligations towards employment and local development. The public must be able to account for what it receives in return.

Technological change raises equally fundamental questions about who will exercise power in the economy taking shape around us. Research published this year by the International Labour Organisation and the World Bank warns that developing economies may experience disruption from generative artificial intelligence before realising its productivity benefits. The opportunities will depend partly on access to infrastructure and skills, which are already unevenly distributed.

Workers must have a voice in how technology is introduced and a claim on the value it creates. Greater productivity must make better working lives possible. Negotiations must begin while those choices remain open.

The energy transition demands the same foresight. Communities built around an industry need credible employment prospects before existing livelihoods disappear. Investment must reach the places being asked to carry the costs of change. These struggles extend beyond the workplace.

Our own organisations must meet the standards we demand elsewhere. Members must know how their subscriptions are spent and have a meaningful say in decisions taken in their name. Their right to question leadership must remain secure.

That accountability must underpin a renewed effort to organise workers whose insecure employment has left them beyond our reach as trade unions. It must also guide co-operation across the labour movement. Shared campaigns can rebuild trust where years of division have weakened our collective strength.

Our political relationships must serve this purpose. Workers are entitled to expect that the influence exercised in their name advances their interests, including when this requires difficult engagements with longstanding allies.

The awakening we seek will grow as workers recover confidence in their capacity to change their circumstances together. Cosatu must earn its authority through that work.

The leadership contest is over. We assume responsibility for the whole federation and will devote this term to rebuilding the unity through which workers can shape the decisions governing their lives. Every affiliate has a place in that task, and so does the working class. Our mandate now is to ensure that the people whose labour sustains South Africa have the power to shape its future.

• Shingange is president of Cosatu

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.

This comes as more than 400 people have fallen ill of gastrointestinal illnesses after they were exposed to unchlorinated water from the Bronkhorstspruit treatment plant.

The municipality is also accused of failing to warn residents about the dangers of consuming the unsafe water.

The water & sanitation department’s director of compliance monitoring institutions, Anet Muir, told a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting on Friday after the department sent Tshwane a letter of noncompliance in

February, the city undertook to complete the following:

• Filtration refurbishment by May 29; install two new raw-water pumps and upgrade the motor control centre by July 31;
• Commission high-lift pumps and carry out main refurbishment and sludge-removal work by August 31; and
• Recruit critical staff.

None of these commitments were met within the agreed time frames, Muir said, adding that more tests in June, July, August and September confirmed persistent noncompliance, with E. coli detected in samples.

On October 14, department inspectors visited the plant and found that there had been no chlorine since September 23.

Water samples tested positive for E. coli and the plant was immediately shut down.

Read the full story here.

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Some of the kindest, most generous humans I have ever encountered are smokers, drunkards and the friendly ladies employed in the type of Rivonia Road “restaurant” former general Shadrack Sibiya was nabbed in.

It is my firm prediction that at least 16.67% of readers who interact with this column will conclude that its central point is to glorify tobacco, booze and the flesh trade. Let’s see if they’re correct.

During the “good old days” of Bantu and Christian National Education that so many of my fellow apartheid survivors are starting to look back on through nostalgia-tinted glasses, school assembly was often indistinguishable from a church service. This is right on cue because even in the Holy Book, after about 32 years of going round in circles in the Sinai Desert, Moses’s followers also started believing that life under the yoke of the pharaohs had actually been the equivalent of milk and honey.

In my little corner of the KwaZulu bantustan, in Hammarsdale, one of the most charismatic teachers-cum-preachers was a certain Mr Gatsheni from Georgedale. According to legend, he could recite the Sermon on the Mount, a claim I don’t find difficult to believe. Around 1982 he got into some trouble for stating during one of his Holy Spirit-inspired sermons that many thieves, drunks and smokers might get into paradise ahead of most pious, God-fearing churchgoers. According to him, these social outcasts extend more compassion and generosity towards each other.

Because I’m a sadist with a retarded sense of self-preservation, allow me to make a case for why he may have been onto something. It is much easier for me to throw caution to the winds. Unlike in the 1982 homeland, I run no risk of being sentenced to 30 lashes on the buttocks by oqonda (sjambok-wielding community “police”).

I have no recollection of ever seeing a smoker refuse a complete stranger a fag

One of the things I’m grateful for is that, of all my many vices, tobacco somehow eluded me. However, some of my best friends are lifelong sucklers on the cancer stick. And over the years, I have marvelled at the enthusiasm with which smokers share cigarettes with each other. I am closer to the grave than I am to the cradle and I have no recollection of ever seeing a smoker refuse a complete stranger a fag when they had a pack.

Even if a smoker is on their very last ciggie, they will still share a few puffs with a fellow human chimney. On these Mzansi shores, everyone knows that the magic word in all 12 official languages is “skyf”. Mama Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was not making things up during the Covid lockdown when she composed that award-winning hit: “When they zol, they put saliva on the paper.”

As I have shared publicly, the one lifestyle scourge that the universe did not allow me to duck is what I famously have dubbed “the amber-coloured sweet nectar of the gods”. I have just cracked the 15-month mark in my sobriety journey. Part of that journey necessitates healthy dollops of self-reflection about my 39-year-long, on-again, off-again dalliance with “the devil’s juice”, to steal from one of Mr Gatsheni’s sermons.

In the very early stages of this journey, I denied myself permission to reflect honestly about the many positive memories I harbour from my quaffing era because of the waves of guilt I would experience. At the core of my discomfort was the not-so-silly notion that I ran the danger of giving myself permission to relapse “for old time’s sake”.

My heavy bag of these memories is laden with anecdotes of the generosity of boozers towards members of their tribe. There is a point in an imbiber’s lubrication where he is willing to max out his Visa card in the interests of ensuring that everyone around him is as “happy” as he is. I’ve walked into a pub with only enough money to enjoy a solitary Castle draught and staggered out at 2am courtesy of my brand new best pals in the world, Jacques and Gerhard.

Before you hand out judgment on what you might believe is my glorification of these vices, please remember that even the Blessed Virgin Mary subscribed to the same noble pursuit at a wedding in Cana as my pub pals did.

I will leave you with this thought: if the rest of us adopted the puffers’ and boozers’ creed like Mr Gatsheni suggested 44 years ago, would we be any closer to the society we all yearn for? Please be gentle in your judgment of me, I’m a sensitive recovering alcoholic.

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A recent report on South Africa’s faltering waste tyre management (“South Africa’s tyre waste piles up as R1bn recycling plan falters”, October 10) should be read by all South Africans as a warning of a problem causing human suffering, both economically and environmentally. The scale of the problem is enormous. South Africa produces 70,000 waste tyres every day.

As reported in the article, an environmental levy of R2.30/kg is charged on every tyre sold. Yet only about half of it is used for the reason it’s collected. A waste tyre management plan should be applying the levies to supporting local manufacturing, retreading and processing, and making sure the roughly 2,000 tyre dealers are properly serviced.

Just the fire risk of tyre mismanagement is frightening. In 2023, the Lichtenburg waste tyre depot site caught fire, resulting in extensive environmental damage. It was a warning our government did not listen to.

Across the country, depots are functioning as poorly controlled stockpiles, not to mention the unknown fate of the waste tyres that are not collected, which is about one in two. It’s just a matter of time before another catastrophic fire. A large-scale tyre fire burns for days or even weeks, sending a thick black smoke laced with carcinogenic pollutants and heavy metals over surrounding communities, contaminating soil and groundwater with toxic runoff.

The crisis is compounded by the fact that nobody can say how many tyres are actually being recycled. As Nduduzo Chala of the South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference noted, there is simply no reliable data.

The department of forestry, fisheries and the environment’s (DFFE) own reporting reflects this lack of verifiable information. In its recent annual report, it admitted to having given up on measuring its waste performance against its responsibility — a terrible admission.

The DFFE is clearly in breach of its mandate set out in section 24 of the constitution. This admission is also directly contrary to what the director-general, Nomfundo Tshabalala, states in the same report: that the chemicals and waste management programme achieved 100% of its targets.

In an obscure table of the DFFE’s 354-page annual report, it says bluntly that no indicator was set to measure waste management performance. It concedes that delivery on this mandate “was not planned or accounted for, which is likely to result in it not being achieved and undermines transparency and accountability for delivery on mandate”.

Put plainly, the DFFE has acknowledged that it has no control over the diversion of waste and no way of measuring progress. The problem is much wider than just tyres.

It is shocking that a country that generates millions of tons of waste — including medical and chemical waste — every year cannot say how much of it is diverted from landfill, dumped or burnt

It is shocking that a country that generates millions of tons of waste — including medical and chemical waste — every year cannot say how much of it is diverted from landfill, dumped or burnt, and has no serious targets to fix a problem that is literally poisoning South Africans.

In the annual report, the DFFE has to resort to proudly boasting about plans and strategies and countless reviews, including its umpteenth review of the industry waste tyre management plan.

In truth, it has spent more than seven years and millions of rand trying to produce a new tyre plan. Yet the country is still no closer to a workable system, and the tyres continue to pile up.

And this all while a ready-to-implement solution exists. Between 2013 and 2017 South Africa ran an internationally award-winning waste tyre system: the Recycling & Economic Development Inititiative (Redisa) model.

It established a national collection and processing network, grew the number of tyre recyclers from 12 to 32, lifted the recycling rate from 4% to 55%, created more than 3,000 jobs and some 250 small businesses, and won international recognition for it. The model cost the state nothing, as it was funded by the R2.30 levy. Its jobs went to tyre collectors and transporters in the very communities that now bear the brunt of the pollution.

But the model was, in fact, too successful, because it became a target of state capture. An improper attempt to liquidate Redisa was launched in June 2017. The Supreme Court of Appeal found in 2019 that this action was “unlawful”. But by then the Jacob Zuma government already moved waste tyre management to the waste management bureau, from where the government can hand out contracts.

The result has been almost a decade of decay. And the abandonment of a model that was designed as a proof-of-concept to be expanded beyond just tyres. South Africa has 38 waste streams. Research indicates that managing just 13 of them well could lift GDP by up to 1.5 percentage points.

One hopes that the new minister, David Maynier, takes note of the situation. Waste tyres represent one of the more readily solvable environmental challenges, yet, despite this, a series of ministers have failed to address it.

With good leadership the crisis can be turned into a collection and recycling model that can create jobs, add economic value and put our country on a course towards a true circular economy. Further inaction will continue to pose a real and imminent threat to the health of South Africans and the environment in which they live.

• Crozier is an executive committee member of Redisa

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The ANC will go ahead with a planned “victory rally” to mark the end of its election campaign next weekend, but money shortages mean party members will not be able to gather in eight other venues across the country to watch the live broadcast together as a show of the party’s strength.

ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address supporters at the party’s Siyanqoba rally, to be held at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in KuGompo City, Eastern Cape. The ANC usually uses the rally to demonstrate its popularity across the nation, often hiring venues in eight other provinces to cater for supporters who are unable to travel to the national gathering.

However, this is one of the luxuries the party has been forced to cut back on in this election, thanks to a sluggish economy that translates into less in donations for political parties from businesses and other donors.

This year, political parties have spent significantly less on their campaigns than they did during the 2024 general election.

ANC elections head Mdumiseni Ntuli confirmed this week that donations to the party’s campaign were not as generous as might have been expected. However, he said it should not come as a surprise that the former liberation movement did not bring in as much in fundraising as the DA.

“Remember who owns the South African economy — it is largely whites and white males,” Ntuli said. “In many respects, they have been part of that ownership long before our liberation in 1994. [The DA] goes hand in hand with their political views on what ideological position the country should be taking tomorrow. So they will channel their resources [to] where they believe their ideals will be championed.

“It’s been very difficult to campaign, and it has to do with the state of our economy. As political parties, we survive on donations. If the donors are facing drought and business is not going well, then … it is inevitable that they will be reluctant to pour money into political parties.

As a result of limited resources, said Ntuli, the ANC had been late in launching its billboard campaign and making its presence felt online.

“We have been seriously running behind. It has not been of my own, of our own, making as the elections team, but [rather because of] the reluctance on the part of capital to invest in the election campaign,” he said.

The ANC’s campaign, he added, had been hampered by the party’s poor performance in many municipalities.

“We concluded that the environment was not in the best interests of the ANC. It was not very positive. The municipalities that were not working well — a number of them were governed by the ANC. We wanted to strategise on how to change the mood on the ground in favour of the ANC, to allow us to go to the population and ask them to vote for the ANC.”

[The DA] certainly are using their disproportionate share of funding to get a disproportionate share of votes

Michael Beaumont, ActionSA

Ntuli said this is what precipitated the ANC’s councillor roll-call meeting, which saw thousands of the party’s councillor deployees gathering in one venue last year to receive instructions on how to proceed.

“We convened our councillors and gave them [strict] orders [about] what needed to be done. We also had a gathering on how to fix the economy and address the high cost of living. We understand you can’t just leave your house to campaign for the ANC. You have to level the ground and ensure there is a positive mood on the ground.”

However, the gathering faced a public backlash when Ramaphosa and ANC national chair Gwede Mantashe told councillors that “all well-run municipalities are governed by the DA, and all ANC councillors know how to do is sing”.

Ntuli defended the decision to have the tongue-lashing for underperforming councillors made public, saying it kickstarted the ANC’s campaign and its bid to hold its deployees accountable.

“Maybe, with the benefit of hindsight, while it was correct to hold the meeting publicly, we [should have decided] on the messages that would be broadcast and [those that] would not,” he said. “Convening that kind of meeting is important to demonstrate to the population that we are responding to their pressing challenges. In future, we will decide which messaging must be conveyed publicly and which must be said internally.”

While the ANC says money has been especially tight in this election, the DA says the slow economy hasn’t affected its campaign that much.

The DA got the lion’s share of the most recent quarterly declarations from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), receiving R104m — 89% of this quarter’s recent donations across all parties.

DA federal chair and campaign manager Ashor Sarupen said his party obtained the financial upper hand through sound planning and preparation.

“It was a deliberate move to kick-start our campaign before any [other] party did,” Sarupen said. “Having conceptualised the campaign shortly after the 2024 general elections, and having effectively co-managed the DA’s elections in 2021 and 2024, I came to the conclusion we needed to build our base to secure a bigger pool of voters than we ever ever had [before].”

Sarupen said he convened the party early last year and communicated that it needed to get a head start.

“We never really stopped after the 2024 elections. We did a lot of background work to understand what the electorate was thinking, as well as what their [mental] shifts were after the ANC lost its majority in 2024.”

The DA’s federal chair said the party appreciated the large donations it had received from generous donors who supported their vision for the country, as well as those from many ordinary South Africans who believed in the country’s democracy.

“You always hope that donors and the middle class in South Africa will help, but what is helpful for the DA is that there are many South Africans who will donate with R100 or R200 a month through debit orders, and that gives us a basis of money. It’s not a lot, but it enables the DA’s ground machine between elections [to function]. So we leverage that and use it as the basis from which we build up our campaign.”

Sarupen said the party used some of the money donated to it to help communities facing service delivery challenges.

ActionSA’s national chair and campaign head Michael Beaumont said its local government campaign began on June 4 2024 in the wake of a disappointing national election result.

“We took a number of strategic decisions that have become the foundation of our campaign,” he said. “We now have more members than we had votes in 2024, which is important. We disassociated from a group of parties and coalitions, [and] that has [allowed us] to work in any configuration. We said we would not attach ourselves to people permanently but only on merit, and that’s how we took over Tshwane. It has been difficult there, but we kick-started the city, which had been on its knees for years.”

He insisted votes were won between elections and not during them.

“We have made sure we get candidates from a community-driven process. People who have a following and a constituency have come into our system, and it incentivises the best candidates to perform. We have self-motivated candidates who are driving their own campaigns to get the best results.”

Beaumont said the DA had declared the lion’s share of donations and therefore had an unfair advantage in this election.

“They certainly are using their disproportionate share of funding to get a disproportionate share of votes — there is no question that is at play. ActionSA does sometimes feel like the only choirboy at school when it comes to these things. We disclose our money and get clean audits every year, but then we have to compete against everyone else, who are just free to do as they wish.

“It is a disadvantage, but at the same time we have adjusted our campaign to focus on what’s important. Some people have campaigns that allow mermaids to swim in potholes, while we have on-the-ground campaigns that engage voters and deliver results that are far more [meaningful] than [anything that could be achieved through] TikTok stunts. We’re quite confident that we punch way above our weight, and we defy logic in that way.”

When questioned about the sustainability of party leader Herman Mashaba personally donating millions to the party, Beaumont said his party was “blessed” to [receive family money] that backed the party’s vision.

Rise Mzansi campaign head Makashule Gana said that, despite the party receiving R15m in donations for the 2024 elections, the electoral outcome was not necessarily a fair one.

However, he maintained that voters got their money’s worth.

“We achieved seats in parliament and in the Gauteng legislature. Songezo Zibi chaired the standing committee on public accounts, I was chair of the impeachment committee, and Vuyiswa Ramokgopa emerged as MEC of economic development in Gauteng.”

Gana denied the party’s hefty donation should have guaranteed them more seats in the National Assembly and the provinces they contested.

“I do not look at what my neighbours have; I look at what is in my control and what I have received. Others may have friends with deep pockets, but we ran a very good campaign with the resources we had and were able to mobilise. We thank those who have donated funds to us, and we continue to focus on what is in our control. The best resource Rise Mzansi has is the people who support us. We wouldn’t want to go into the criticism, but we are thankful for every rand and cent sent our way.”

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Just as this newspaper went to print last week, a scribe told Hogarth that the Nkandla Crooner had left the Pietermaritzburg private hospital he had been admitted to and was about to lay his eyes on Kranskop and cross the great Thukela River on his way to his taxpayer-funded KwaDakwadunuse homestead.

Hogarth was sceptical, not because he didn’t want his favourite politician home and safe, but because there had been too many conflicting stories about the former president’s whereabouts. He’d believe it if Msholozi appeared before the Khampepe commission later that week, Hogarth told the reporter. But Baba kaD, never a great fan of appearing before commissions, was a no-show — leaving Hogarth wondering.

But then, on Thursday night, an hour or three short of midnight, the MK Party issued a statement announcing that its secretary-general, the eighth to hold the post in two years, Sibonelo Nomvalo, had been fired.

A late-night leadership reshuffle? JZ is definitely back.

No singing sensation

Happy to see uBaba back, Hogarth imagines, will be scores of MK Party followers who attend its rallies. In his absence, they have had to endure gatherings headlined by one of his deputies, his favourite son Duduzane. It’s not just that Duduzane’s polished private-school English accent doesn’t sound sincere when he tries to propagate party policies on the expropriation of land without compensation, the nationalisation of the mines, or even the chasing away of the very people who made it possible for his family to find refuge in Maputo during the bad old apartheid days. It’s that the dude can’t sing like his dad. In fact, he can’t sing at all, and the only “traditional song” he seems to know is Mafikizolo’s Ndihamba Nawe — which he butchers.

Just jesting

While Baba kaDuduzane missed the Khampepe commission on the grounds that he was still recuperating, his former comrade and ex-close friend Thabo Mbeki seemed quite eager to make an appearance there. Both JZ and TM had previously taken the commission to court, arguing its chair should recuse herself from the hearings because she once worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee, whose recommendations are among the issues being investigated by the commission of inquiry.

So when the commission’s chair asked TM how he was doing just before he started giving his evidence, Hogarth thought the Pipe-Smoking One was spoiling for a fight when he responded, “Half asleep.”

But, no, it turns out this was Mbeki’s attempt at dry humour. Didn’t you all drive the man out of office, accusing him of being aloof and “too serious”? You shouldn’t judge him for trying, even at this late hour.

Those were the days, my comrades

Having failed in 2024 to sway voters in favour of the ANC when he was asked to do so by the party, the Pipe-Smoking One has had no time to canvass for votes for anyone this year. Instead, he is fully committed to the campaign to set the record straight about his time in government. It has become fashionable for people to say South Africa has been badly run for the past 32 years. But the Pipe-Smoking One is not about to accept being associated with the failures of the Nkandla Crooner and McBuffalo. So, every opportunity he gets, he reminds everyone that during the first 15 years of democracy — which happens to have been the time he was deputy president and then, later, president — the economy not only grew but also created jobs.

On Friday, he kicked his argument up a gear, telling an audience that back then the ANC used to go around saying to voters, “Tomorrow will be better than today” — and people believed the party because “it was happening practically”.

“But from 2009 you couldn’t say that, because indeed tomorrow became worse than yesterday,” Mbeki said.

No-one to free him from the furnace

The Not-So-General Shadrack Sibiya was refused bail this week, increasing the prospects of the disgraced former cop spending Christmas behind bars. As he disappeared down to the holding cells after the court ruling, Hogarth remembered Sibiya’s press conference outside his home last year, when he said he felt “like Joseph whose brothers actually threw him into the pit and ended up selling him”.

Hogarth is no expert when it comes to the Good Book, but he wonders if the not-so-good former cop these days does not feel more like the biblical Shadrach being thrown into a blazing furnace, but without his brothers Meshach and Abednego — and certainly without the life-saving fourth figure that made King Nebuchadnezzar free them.

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Looking at the headlines this week, you’d swear some political parties were doggedly trying not to win the upcoming municipal polls.

Ordinarily, political parties ensure that they put their best versions forward ahead of elections to mislead us into trusting them. Even when voters could see through the pretence, they still rewarded the parties for trying, for not being comfortable with dysfunction.

The MKP has shown its secretary-general, Sibonelo Nomvalo, the door with just under two weeks to the polls. As if there was any doubt about instability within the party, he is the eighth secretary-general to be fired since 2023. While perceptions of instability might not affect the party faithful much, they ought to worry anyone who values stability in governance. Why should this party be trusted to govern anything when it clearly can’t govern itself?

In parts of Johannesburg, water supply is currently throttled, if not shut off, and residents are warned to curtail consumption or else! Potential voters in parts of Midrand, west and central Johannesburg, including Fordsburg, Brixton, Melville, Emmarentia, Montgomery Park, Claremont, Kensington, South Hills, Carlswald, Noordwyk and Grand Central, were being frustrated over access to water just as they contemplated who to vote for.

The forgiving voters must return the same suspects back to office? This is shameful

Many of us just blame Dada Morero for all Joburg-related problems because he is the mayor, but the real culprit here is Jack Sekwaila of the ANC, just as Kenny Kunene of the PA must take the rap for the infamous potholes.

Rand Water said this week that Tshwane and Johannesburg were overconsuming water before noting: “We’ve been telling municipalities there are leaks in the system, there are illegal connections. If they can just start there, with the low-hanging fruit, then we will be able to manage consumption.” Essentially, voters are told water is mismanaged but go vote nonetheless and we hope you return us to office. How wonderful, councillor Sekwaila.

In Tshwane, the likeable mayor, ActionSA’s Nasiphi Moya, is facing a surreal firestorm. She’s trying hard to spin grand dysfunction that got more than 400 people sick and plunged a town, Bronkhorstspruit, into a crisis ahead of an election. We know now that she knew — or, as lawyers would put it, ought reasonably to have known — in February that there was a major problem in Bronkhorstspruit, but is reticent over what she did about it. And how on earth do you pump water that is not good for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes or usable even after boiling, into people’s homes and businesses? So people’s bodies are test tubes for this poisoned water to see how long they can survive the sludge. How sickly.

We know how the same test went in Hammanskraal when a cholera outbreak took at least 30 lives in 2023. The water infrastructure is still not fully fixed. Yet the forgiving voters must go and return the same suspects back to office? This is shameful.

In addition to this, the Tshwane CBD was hit with contamination — microbiological noncompliance. Then the Waltloo substation tripped, affecting Silverton and the east of Tshwane, where the paying base of the city is located. The MMC responsible for water and electricity in Tshwane is the ANC’s alderman Molatelo Samuel Mashola, appointed on August 30 this year — with only two months to the polls. He replaced his comrade Frans Boshielo, who is one of the ANC’s mayoral hopefuls.

So the ANC and ActionSA are responsible for the back-to-back crises unfolding in the nation’s capital within weeks of the polls. We can only hope that the many crises are not engineered to ensure the city is allowed to use emergency procurement, which dispenses with competitive bidding, just days before elections. As we report elsewhere this week, many parties are struggling with raising funds to campaign. Just as we know water crises are engineered to allow the tanker mafioso to loot municipalities, we must be suspicious of back-to-back crises just before the polls.

Elsewhere, Uncle Gweezy, as ANC national chair Gwede Mantashe is called, appears determined to just shove his foot into his mouth, almost as if to destroy whatever chances the ANC has to retain some semblance of dominance in this election.

On the campaign trail in the mining town of Rustenburg, Mantashe was asked about ANC councillors demanding sexual favours from vulnerable women in return for jobs. Instead of answering the real question about abuse of office, he reduced it to a private negotiation for sex, using, without being prompted, language only the uncouth are comfortable with. The ANC Women’s League did well to call him out. The laggards in the ANC eventually asked him to apologise.

Given an opportunity to apologise, he became condescending, saying the rest of us are “too Westernised”, did not understand his culture and his language. It was a real pity. Crude and gruff. Completely tone-deaf but still hoping for votes.

This is the same leader who, during an interview with eNCA a few years ago, remarked: “There’s a natural way to punish a woman in the bedroom; I don’t understand why men use physical violence.”

The gaffes by our politicians and evidence of dysfunction in our municipalities are electoral self-sabotage 101. It’s almost as if they’re tired of putting on an appearance of being servants of the people. They’re tired of trying.

When the elections were set for November 4, all politicians must have known it would be summer. Well, we can’t take anything for granted at this rate, but surely they knew temperatures would be high and so would water consumption. The sense of entitlement to our votes in spite of their dysfunction is almost surreal, more so that this happens so close to elections. Yet not voting is not an option.

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Just days after being discharged from hospital, MK Party leader Jacob Zuma fired his party’s eighth secretary-general, Sibonelo Nomvalo, amid claims Nomvalo used Zuma’s absence to introduce far-reaching changes to the party’s leadership structure, demote senior MPs, and keep other leaders in the dark about the party’s election campaign.

Nomvalo, who has also been sacked as an MP, was further accused by the MK Party of double-dipping in that he was receiving two salaries — one as secretary-general and another as a parliamentarian.

Zuma fired Nomvalo on Thursday, barely a week after the former president returned to his Nkandla residence after nearly two weeks in a Pietermaritzburg hospital, to which he had been admitted after suddenly falling ill during campaigning in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.

“This decision,” Zuma wrote in a letter to Nomvalo, “follows concerns regarding the councillor selection process; the creation of the high-level deployment committees without the knowledge of the president, national officials and the presidency collective; delays in [distributing] campaign materials; parliamentary whippery changes that were not communicated to the party leadership; internal factionalism; and … dual remuneration [from] the National Assembly and the party.”

An MK Party insider told the Sunday Times that what had angered Zuma the most were the changes Nomvalo made to the party’s parliamentary caucus.

“What broke the camel’s back was how Nomvalo decided to contact parliament and move the committee whips around, which was not done in consultation with or [with] the approval of anybody else. He touched people like [former Transnet boss] Siyabonga Gama. [These people] were placed in parliament by Zuma himself, and [their] names were a no-go zone considering their relationship with the president.”

He created a so-called deployment committee, which would have had the mandate to decide who gets backed as a mayor or speaker in the various councils that we are going to win

MK Party insider

A letter penned by the party’s chief whip, Philasande Mkhize, allegedly under Nomvalo’s instruction, made sweeping changes to the party’s whippery as well as completely dissolving its extended whippery.

“The following appointments and responsibilities are discontinued with immediate effect: Hon Adil Nchabeleng is removed as constituency whip, [and] Hon David Skosana and Hon Pinky Mngadi are removed as elections whips. The extended whippery, also referred to as the political governance whippery, is hereby dissolved with immediate effect,” read the letter.

The insider said Nomvalo’s establishment of a deployment committee would have usurped some of the powers the party had reserved for Zuma and his inner circle.

“He created a so-called deployment committee, which would have had the mandate to decide who gets backed as a mayor or speaker in the various councils that we are going to win,” said the source. “Everyone knows that the prerogative to appoint anyone in the party lies with the president, so the creation of another centre of power really upset uBaba [Zuma].”

The deployment committee ruffled many feathers, particularly MK Party deputy president Duduzane Zuma and second deputy president Tony Yengeni, who were not aware of the new structure.

“This deployment committee that Nomvalo set up was a coup of sorts,” the insider said. “It had the power to decide not only on [Electoral Commission of South Africa] candidate lists but … [also] on who becomes mayor, speaker, [and so on]. Officials felt it [was] a parallel structure centralising power in Nomvalo’s hands and [taking it] away from Zuma and the presidency. It has since been dissolved.”

Zuma’s letter also cites Nomvalo’s alleged failures with regard to the MK Party’s election campaign. He essentially accused him of delaying the distribution of campaign materials to party structures.

“Members on the ground are suffering from low morale [when it comes to campaigning],” said the party insider. “They have not been given resources to campaign effectively. There was an event in Phoenix where uBaba unveiled the campaign T-shirt as well as party-branded bakkies, with accompanying boards and posters. We have not seen those distributed.”

It is alleged Zuma was informed about and shown images of these campaign materials gathering dust in storage, and this is said to have drawn the ire of the former president, given the closeness of election day.

“Even the number of T-shirts printed and other party materials [on offer] are [only available] in their thousands — nowhere near the volume discussed for purchase and distribution,” the insider said. “There was no explanation as to why they’re sitting in storage instead of being given to our volunteers to distribute [to potential voters] during door-to-door [canvassing].”

Though he received a salary as an MP, Nomvalo is accused of having taken a decision to pay himself an additional salary as secretary-general.

“Upon his appointment, though it might not have been formally communicated, the president might have expected that Nomvalo would keep his MP’s salary and not require payment for his SG role,” the insider said. “However, Nomvalo saw it fit to allocate himself a salary from the party as compensation for his duties. What makes it worse is that this was unknown and not approved.”

Nomvalo was not only sacked as secretary-general but was also removed from the party’s caucus in parliament, meaning he is no longer an MP. It remains unknown whether he will remain an ordinary member of the MK Party in the wake of his dramatic dismissal.

He could not be reached for comment yesterday despite numerous attempts to contact him.

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Minister of mineral & petroleum resources Gwede Mantashe has ruled in favour of junior coal miner Kunolwazi Resources in its fight with Mike Teke’s Seriti Power over mining rights in Khuthala, Mpumalanga.

Mantashe last month dismissed an appeal lodged by Seriti in the dispute over portions 4 and 28 of Kilppoortjie farm that arose from a now-contested agreement with Kunolwazi two years ago under which Seriti was to abandon its rights to the two portions as part of a BEE-socioeconomic transaction. But to do so, Seriti needed consent from Eskom.

Seriti Power in late September told Business Times this week the two portions in question were an integral part of the Khutala Colliery mining rights that it owns. It said Seriti had never abandoned them, and they had not been transferred to Kunolwazi.

“An agreement concluded between the parties in December 2024 lapsed due to the non-fulfilment of a condition precedent and is of no force or effect in law. The appeals and other related court applications are sub judice,“ Seriti said in response to Mantashe’s decision.

The minister, in a letter seen by Business Times, said the department’s director-general, Jacob Mbele, had in April correctly given Kunolwazi consent to amend its mining right to include these portions in line with section 102 of the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).

The argument by Seriti to the effect that the decision-maker committed an error is without merit and cannot be considered

He said Seriti had “abandoned a small, stranded block within the Khuthala mining area”.

“When Seriti and Kunolwazi applied for the minister’s consent in terms of section 102 of the MPRDA, Seriti did not state in its application that it was conditional on consent by Eskom. Therefore, the argument by Seriti to the effect that the decision-maker committed an error is without merit and cannot be considered,” said Mantashe.

Mantashe said Seriti ought to have known that once consent to amend the mining right was granted in line with the MPRDA, the right would have vested with Kunolwazi whether or not Eskom consented.

He said the decision by Mbele to amend Kunolwazi’s mining right would stand. “Seriti’s appeal lacks merit because the decision of the DG dated April 16 2026 was neither unlawful, unreasonable nor procedurally unfair.”

Asked what its next move would be, Seriti said: “Kunolwazi Resources is highly opportunistic in its approach to a failed transaction, and Seriti will take whatever steps are necessary to protect its rights.”

Kunolwazi had to halt operations at the two portions in May when Seriti appealed in the Pretoria high court against the DG’s decision. In court documents, Kunolwazi director Tshepo Seema said the decision would cause “irreparable” harm to Kunolwazi, its subsidiary Mbali Coal and their employees.

Seema had said in his affidavit that Seriti’s action posed an existential threat to Kunolwazi and Mbali. Kunolwazi supported 300 staff and contractors and was suffering “catastrophic and immediate financial prejudice”.

Seema said the agreement with Seriti would prevent the “sterilisation” of the two portions and ensure “optimal extraction” in line with the spirit of the MPRDA. He also said the disposal “will have no impact on Seriti’s contractual obligations to Eskom”.

He said Seriti had transferred the right on a voluntary basis and that the need for consent from Eskom was “legally irrelevant”.

Business Times

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Tshwane municipality ignored repeated warnings about water quality at its Bronkhorstspruit treatment plant for months before continuing to supply residents with contaminated water, it emerged this week.

Far from being unaware of the dangers until she said she learnt of them this week, Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya and her senior officials had received at least three reports on water quality in the months leading up to the crisis, which left hundreds of residents ill after drinking water contaminated with E. coli.

One of the main sources of E. coli bacteria in water is contamination with human or animal sewage.

With local government elections just two weeks away, the crisis is likely to focus voters’ attention on water quality, amid longstanding warnings that residents across the country — from the biggest metro to the smallest town — face a growing water crisis.

As Moya moved to suspend the plant manager this week, blaming him for failing to alert the metro to the lack of chlorine, it emerged that the department of water & sanitation had issued a letter of non-compliance to the municipality over the Bronkhorstspruit plant in February.

The city responded by submitting an action plan to address the problems — but failed to implement it.

Now, after the plant operated for 21 days without chlorine, Moya is facing mounting questions about how the crisis was allowed to unfold, and why residents were not adequately warned.

The department’s warnings suggest the crisis was not an unforeseeable failure, but the culmination of problems identified long before the chlorine supply ran out.

This is indefensible, especially the issue of chlorine

Nasiphi Moya, Tshwane mayor

The crisis has triggered a backlash. The department has opened a criminal complaint, while the Public Protector and the South African Human Rights Commission have launched investigations.

At a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting on Friday, Moya conceded that the city had failed to implement its own remedial plan, submitted to the department in March.

But her explanations did little to allay MPs’ concerns about why an ageing, under-resourced water treatment plant — flagged as problematic years ago — was allowed to continue supplying contaminated water for three weeks.

“This is indefensible, especially the issue of chlorine,” Moya told MPs, acknowledging that the city had failed to carry out the measures it had promised.

“We couldn’t adhere to the plan we gave to DWS in March and truly apologise for that. We failed to implement our own plan.”

The department’s director of compliance monitoring institutions, Anet Muir, told the committee that the plant had been flagged in the 2023 Blue Drop report, scoring just 42.3% against a benchmark of 95% or higher for drinking-water compliance.

She said that after the department sent Tshwane a letter of non-compliance in February, the city undertook to complete filtration refurbishment by May 29; install two new raw-water pumps and upgrade the motor control centre by July 31; commission high-lift pumps and carry out main refurbishment and sludge-removal work by August 31; and recruit critical staff.

But not one of these commitments was met within the agreed time frames, Muir said.

She said further tests in June, July, August and September this year confirmed persistent non-compliance, with E. coli detected in samples.

On October 14, department inspectors visited the plant and found that there had been no chlorine since September 23. Water samples tested positive for E. coli and the plant was immediately shut down.

Although Tshwane told consumers on October 13 that municipal water was not fit for consumption, Muir said this warning did not adequately explain the severity of the risk, including the dangers of bathing in the water, washing dishes with it or using ice cubes made from it.

According to local water-treatment engineers Blue Water Solutions, the legal limit for E. coli in treated drinking water in South Africa is zero. The bacteria can cause severe vomiting and diarrhoea. Contamination poses an immediate, and serious health risk to vulnerable residents, particularly older people and children under five.

At a public briefing on October 19, Moya said the city had run out of chlorine after its supplier demanded a fourfold price increase and negotiations failed.

“We take responsibility for the negligence,” she said.

She also said officials had failed to inform the city’s leadership about the chlorine problem and that action against those responsible was under way.

But no explanation has been forthcoming about who was responsible for monitoring chlorine supplies or what contingency arrangements were in place when negotiations with the supplier failed. Nor has there been clarity on why the shortage was not escalated before residents began falling ill.

They have told us water from our taps is poop water, and we mustn’t even bath in it

Anna Manana

Moya has not publicly explained how the city’s oversight and escalation protocols failed, or how a shortage lasting three weeks went unaddressed by senior management.

On Friday, Moya said the plant manager’s suspension followed a preliminary investigation into the interruption of chlorine supplies and the failure to escalate the risks and warn affected residents timeously.

She also ordered an independent external investigation into procurement, plant operations, management, communication and whether appropriate controls and escalation procedures had been followed.

Acting group head of Tshwane’s water & sanitation business unit, Billy Sepuru, told MPs that the plant had been operating below capacity because of severe sediment accumulation at its raw-water abstraction point. He said the budget had been increased, but two rounds of tenders had failed to attract competent bidders.

By October 19, the national department of health had recorded 595 cases of gastrointestinal illness, including 269 patients seen in Bronkhorstspruit. Of these, 262 were children younger than four, and 18 had been admitted to hospital.

Daily figures stopped being recorded on October 19 after officials discovered problems with the reporting system, including double-counted cases and others that had been missed.

This week new concerns were raised when the department identified further chlorine problems at another Tshwane water facility on Thursday. Muir told MPs that an inspection of the city’s Findlay treatment works, which draws water from the Fountains springs, found E. coli levels that made consumption risky.

The city was instructed to issue warnings — alerts that water in Pretoria’s central business district was unsafe to drink were issued on Thursday night.

Rand Water chief executive Sipho Mosai told the committee that a 16-week plan had been developed to restore the Bronkhorstspruit plant to full working order. It includes improving operations, strengthening chemical-supply contracts and reducing sludge build-up.

This week, the Sunday Times visited Bronkhorstspruit, where a source said desperate staff had resorted to adding domestic swimming-pool chlorine to the water, but that it had not been sufficient to make an adequate difference.

Thandiswa Tau, who lives in Zithobeni, said her two children had suffered stomach upsets. When she collected tap water in a bucket, she noticed that dirt settled at the bottom. This prompted her to stop using it.

She recently took her six-month-old daughter, Nqobile, to the clinic to be weighed and was told the baby had lost a significant amount of weight because of diarrhoea. The clinic sister told her the child was ill because of the water. Tau was given rehydration solution for the infant, who is now doing better.

Small gatherings are a constant feature outside the nearby Zithobeni Clinic. Women carrying empty water containers wait in line throughout the day to fill them up from a tap outside the entrance. A poster at the clinic warns that municipal water is unsafe and should be used only for flushing toilets.

“We come here every day to get water from the clinic because this tap is borehole water. They have told us water from our taps is poop water, and we mustn’t even bath in it,” said Anna Manana.

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As forensic experts presented conflicting possibilities about whether Anele Tembe jumped or was pushed from a 10th-floor hotel balcony, the father of slain rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes said his family could not afford a prolonged legal battle but remained determined to see the truth emerge.

Tony Forbes, who attended this week’s proceedings at the Cape Town regional court, told reporters he had decided against having legal representation.

“I do not have resources for expensive [legal representation] to sustain such a long fight. But what I do have, and my family has, is the truth, and you guys play an important role in making sure that the truth comes out. There is nothing that can help me more than seeing the truth come out,” he said.

Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with his son’s AKA stage name, Forbes exchanged jokes with journalists before proceedings began on Monday. Inside the courtroom, he followed the evidence closely, occasionally taking notes.

Tembe, 22, who was engaged to the award-winning rapper, fell from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town in the early hours of April 11 2021. AKA, who was staying with her at the hotel, was shot dead in Durban in February 2023.

Forbes said he was initially listed as a witness in the inquest but explained that provisions of the Inquests Act also allowed him — as a party with a specific interest in the outcome — to participate in the proceedings and examine witnesses.

“I hope I don’t have to be in court to question witnesses. However, I have been advised to raise any issues and discrepancies in written submissions and send them to the Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority,” he said.

Forbes said money that would otherwise be spent on lawyers could be put to better use covering school fees and other family responsibilities.

His comments came as the inquest heard forensic evidence about Tembe’s final moments, including the position of her footprints on the balcony, the distance her body travelled during the fall, and injuries found on AKA after her death.

Thirteen witnesses, among them hotel employees, police officers and medical specialists, have testified since the inquest began in September.

During the September hearings, witnesses described hearing a woman screaming, “Leave me alone, get away from me,” followed by a prolonged scream shortly before Tembe fell.

This week, seven witnesses — including senior police officials, forensic experts, a doctor, a toxicologist and a pathologist — gave evidence.

One of the central questions was whether Tembe jumped, slipped, or was pushed from the balcony.

Lt-Col Jeremy Philander, a forensic analyst, told the court that he conducted reconstruction experiments on August 10 and 11 2021 to establish how Tembe could have landed approximately 5.1m from the hotel wall.

The experiments involved two anatomical dummies weighing 33.6kg and 44.8kg, designed to approximate Tembe’s body mass. A drone supplied by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology was used to record the tests.

Philander said the experiments examined flight time, impact velocity, force and trajectory under different scenarios.

An accidental slip resulted in a flight time of approximately 2.39 seconds, with the dummy landing about 1.9m from the wall — a result inconsistent with the physical evidence.

Other tests produced different landing distances, including 2.9m for a jump and 4.4m for a slight push.

A deliberate-push scenario produced a landing distance of approximately 5.1m, matching the distance recorded at the scene.

However, the court also heard that a jump involving sufficient forward movement could produce a trajectory similar to that of a push.

Philander explained that the physics of the fall alone could not conclusively establish whether Tembe had jumped or been pushed.

The court heard that a footprint identified on the outside edge of the balcony suggested Tembe had been facing towards the hotel room, with her back to the street.

A crime scene investigator testified that the positioning of the footprints did not establish that a struggle had occurred on the balcony. The absence of visible scuff marks or other disturbances was also discussed.

During questioning, Tembe’s family lawyer raised evidence of a possible altercation before the fall, including witness accounts of screams and injuries documented during medical examinations.

The forensic expert acknowledged that an altercation could not be excluded but said the available evidence did not establish that one had caused the fall.

The inquest also heard that AKA had multiple fresh scratches and bruises when he was medically examined after Tembe’s death.

A doctor described him as stressed and agitated, saying this had made it difficult to obtain a full account of how the injuries were sustained.

Toxicology evidence revealed cocaine-related substances, including cocaethylene, which is produced when cocaine and alcohol are consumed together, in Tembe’s body. The court also heard evidence of substances associated with antidepressant and antipsychotic medication.

A forensic pathologist testified that there was no clear evidence of strangulation. The pathologist attributed Tembe’s death to multiple blunt-force injuries sustained in the fall.

The inquest is expected to resume on November 17.

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ANC veteran Rev Frank Chikane has hardly done any campaigning for the party in Johannesburg — where he is supposed to be one of its three mayoral candidates — because the ANC has not confirmed his candidacy in writing or given him an undertaking his name will be included in its list of prospective proportional representation (PR) councillors.

With a little more than a week to go before the November 4 local elections, Chikane — touted by many in the party as the best candidate to go toe-to-toe with the DA’s Helen Zille for the Johannesburg mayoral chain — has been conspicuously absent from ANC campaigns in the hotly contested city.

In August, the ANC’s national office bearers — including President Cyril Ramaphosa — controversially changed the party’s decision to name its mayoral candidates ahead of the elections, opting instead to announce all those who had been interviewed as candidates for such posts. For Johannesburg, the party then said Chikane, current mayor Dada Morero and ANC Johannesburg regional chair Loyiso Masuku would be the faces for its campaign.

But whereas Morero and Masuku have been involved in numerous door-to-door campaigns in various communities around the city and participated in a number of public debates on behalf of the ANC, Chikane has been largely a no-show.

Why can’t he just do door-to-door [campaigning] as a normal member and be seen to be busy at least?” — anonymous ANC leader

It has now emerged the struggle veteran, who also served as director-general in the Presidency during Thabo Mbeki’s tenure, told the party he would first have to resign from several company boards he serves on before going all out with campaigning as its mayoral candidate, and that he could not do this without written confirmation of his candidacy from Luthuli House.

According to an ANC national executive committee (NEC) member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Chikane has written to the party asking its secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, to confirm in writing that his name will be included on the party’s PR list of candidate councillors for Johannesburg, and that he will eventually be named as the ANC’s mayoral candidate.

Despite having been named in a publicised event attended by Ramaphosa and other leaders as one of the three mayoral candidates, Chikane’s name was left off the final lists of candidates submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in what the ANC claimed was an “error” that would be corrected when a window to amend the lists officially opened just after election day.

However, others in the ANC believe he is a victim of factional fighting in the highest echelons of the party, where some officials are battling to retain Morero and others want Masuku to take over if the ANC wins the elections in Johannesburg.

Since it emerged Chikane had been left off the list, he has attended one election-related public ANC event — an ANC Women’s League gathering in Ivory Park, a township and residential suburb in Midrand bordering Tembisa.

After the Sunday Times asked the party why Chikane was not participating in its campaign programme, it was announced he would be sharing the stage with acting police minister Firoz Cachalia at a dinner event last night.

Several ANC sources said Chikane has insisted he will first have to resign from the company boards he sits on before joining the campaign trail.

Since leaving the government in 2009, he has held board positions at Thebe Investment Corporation, Kagiso Trust and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

He is currently the chair of Kagiso Tiso Holdings, a black-owned and managed investment company that wholly owns Kagiso Media, where he also serves as a director.

Kagiso Media owns Jacaranda FM, East Coast Radio, Urban Brew Studios, Juta and Company, and Mediamark, and also holds shares in Kaya FM, Gagasi FM, OFM and Heart FM.

“Look, my understanding is that he has told both the SG [secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula] and the Johannesburg leadership that [the party’s] failing to confirm him as [its] mayoral candidate [has] meant he cannot wilfully resign from the boards he currently sits on. So he can’t be campaigning for the ANC while he is still on those boards. That’s his answer,” said a highly placed ANC leader this week.

“Remember, everyone expected him to be announced as our mayoral candidate, but we obviously took a different route. Now his problem is that he cannot be out there campaigning as a mayoral candidate when he still sits on these boards. That would be a serious conflict [of interest].”

However, this reasoning has been questioned by other ANC leaders.

“Why can’t he just do door-to-door [campaigning] as a normal member and be seen to be busy at least?” asked one party leader. “He is basically telling us, ‘If you guys don’t confirm me [as a mayoral candidate], don’t count me [in the campaign].’ I don’t know how we are going to explain all this [to Johannesburg residents].”

Chikane this week declined to comment when the Sunday Times approached him via WhatsApp and in person at the launch of the Africa and African Diaspora Conference he will be hosting next week.

ANC Johannesburg regional secretary Sasabona Manganye said “it would not be entirely accurate” to say Chikane had been completely absent from the party’s election campaign.

“We are unable to comment on that simply because we can have engagements with him whenever we need to,” said Manganye. “He’s able to avail himself, but we can’t tell [you] the reasons why, because if I can show you the deployment from the [ANC] Veterans’ League [AVL], he is one of the people the [AVL] itself has deployed to Johannesburg. He’s not expected to campaign simply because he is a nominee — no, he’s also a leader of the [AVL], and for us we did not necessarily treat him as a nominee.”

But an NEC member blamed the debacle on the party’s national officials, saying the “top seven” made “a mistake” when they opted not to name mayoral candidates.

“The ANC should have been bold and announced the mayoral candidates so that people know who the [proposed] mayor is,” the NEC source said. “When [the party campaigns], people [need to] know that the person who’s going to be their mayor is ethical, committed and incorruptible … Now they don’t know who that candidate will be.

“So it is a mistake that was [made], and it should be rectified soon, because people don’t know who their candidate is.”

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There is a lot of trilling at the top of our government about how unlikely the Americans are to keep us in Agoa, the African trade programme that cuts the import duties on our exports to the US if we’re in favour in Washington. We have, for a variety of reasons, fallen foul of the current US president, Donald Trump, but Agoa is up for renewal from next year, and people reckon our time is up.

You’d think, to hear commentators and politicians talking about losing our rights to Agoa, that being cut off from it is some kind of death sentence. The white right takes a quiet pleasure in Trump’s coming requital for all our sins of commission and omission, while the left seems sometimes borderline hysterical about the prospect of No Agoa.

But, and you’ll have to trust me, Agoa is no big deal. It’s just a tax break and, in our case, not a very big one. In fact, if we lose our “access” to Agoa, if we are “kicked out” of Agoa, it doesn’t cost South Africa a single cent. It would, however, cost American importers of goods from South Africa a maximum of R2bn in new US import duties — that is the total saving they are making now on importing from us under Agoa.

R2bn is precious little. The ANC makes money like that vanish in a heartbeat. Elon Musk has spent more on campaign donations to Trump candidates in the approaching midterm elections. It is what Starbucks founder Howard Schultz paid for his starter superyacht.

I guess where the loss of Agoa might make a difference is that — because everyone already thinks it’s more important than it is — we can all treat it terribly seriously if it ever happens and consider ourselves properly punished or victimised.

What is truly astonishing, though, is the extent to which commentary and reportage fixates on the damage Trump might cause us and the damage the Chinese are causing us.

We are so pleased to be able to sell avocados, oranges and cherries into China in 2026 that we lose track altogether of what Beijing is doing in the world and to us

If you were to rank the threats to manufacturing in this country, they would start with high electricity tariffs followed by cheap Chinese imports and then grandiose and useless racial industrial policy initiatives or sham strategies like “saving” steel.

The Americans are nowhere on this list. They remain, in fact, our single most valuable trading partner, importing vehicles and other value-added goods that give us, even now, a bilateral trade surplus we will never achieve with China.

Yet, because the Chinese swamp us with everything from paper clips to electric cars, we crown them as “our biggest trading partner”, as if it were an accolade. We are so pleased to be able to sell avocados, oranges and cherries into China this year that we lose track altogether of the harm Beijing is doing in the world and to us.

Basically, China is manufacturing everything, leaving little for other countries to pick up. As the Industrial Development Corporation here prepares to spend around R7bn buying back a bankrupt ArcelorMittal South Africa (formerly Iscor), the Chinese continue to expand their own domestic steel capability.

They can produce as much steel in a week as Germany can in half a year. And what they can’t use, they put on ships to roam the seas until they find a willing buyer. The same goes for cars, which the Chinese now ship in their thousands without firm orders.

And if you were Bangladesh, thinking you had a shot at old Chinese textiles markets, forget it. The Chinese still produce vastly more fabric than the Bangladeshis.

“All this is the consequence of President Xi Jinping’s ‘dual strategy’,” wrote former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak last weekend. “Its aim is to make the world dependent on China while China depends on no-one. The sheer size of China’s industrial capacity means there’s no end in sight.

“China has the capacity to meet almost two-thirds of the world’s demand for cars and 100% of EV [electric vehicle] demand. By the end of this August, Chinese car exports had already exceeded last year’s record.”

Obviously, as the world continues to fragment, the way small economies like ours survive is to not fall in with either big power. That’s not always easy because the Chinese, in particular, have such a large market to dangle in front of even low-value-added South African products. Fortunately, by and large, our trade policies have been measured and careful.

That can’t be said of industrial policy. As the state breathlessly pursues deeper involvement in a dying steel industry, ramps up BEE programmes and invents — from scratch and far too late — a localisation policy for EV production, it is going to trip over itself and into an ever-deepening hole as we hand ever bigger swathes of local industry to imports.

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Eswatini’s civil service commission has found assistant regional civil registrar Nonhlanhla Malambe guilty of dishonesty and corruption in connection with a scheme to illegally grant Eswatini citizenship and national identity documents to alleged underworld kingpin Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

The decision follows a high-profile investigation triggered by international policing agency Interpol. Malambe faced two counts of dishonesty in contravention of the Public Service Act.

According to official commission documents seen by the Sunday Times, it was alleged that on February 12 2024 Malambe “wrongfully and with intent to mislead, registered and issued [an] Eswatini birth certificate to a foreign national Vusimuzi Dlamini”. She did this by falsely listing a local woman, Thembi Christinah Zulu, as the mother of the “foreign national”, without any of the legally required source documents.

The commission also established that, just eight days later, on February 20 2024, Malambe again acted “wrongfully and with intent to mislead” by issuing an Eswatini national identity card to the same Vusimuzi Dlamini, bypassing established civil registration procedures.

“Ms Malambe used her official position and her user name to commit fraud, by falsifying the parental details of Vusimuzi Dlamini, thus bringing the Kingdom of Eswatini and the ministry of home affairs into disrepute,” the commission found.

These findings come almost a year after Matlala appeared before the South African parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of corruption and capture in the criminal justice system — where he denied possessing an Eswatini ID. He also denied using the surname Dlamini, which was linked to the identity card in question, and claimed that investigators had “planted” an image of the document on his phone.

However, crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo told the committee earlier in 2026 that forensic analysis had proved the ID was part of a personal conversation between Matlala and his wife. The state alleges that Matlala used the ID to pose as an Eswatini prince to secure a lease for a luxury Pretoria mansion in Waterkloof Ridge.

Although Malambe initially pleaded not guilty, she later admitted to her wrongdoing during the proceedings.

The fraudulent operation came to light only after a breakthrough by international law enforcement. Phathizwe Hlatshwayo — the assistant national civil registrar supervising the Hhohho and Shiselweni regions of Eswatini — testified that he had received an urgent verification request from Interpol.

This was for an Eswatini ID number, registered under the name of Vusimuzi Dlamini, who had been arrested and charged in South Africa.

The commission’s report noted: “He stated that he then punched the ID number into the system, which showed that this was not an old ID and had been recently processed by user X1003.”

System audits quickly linked the user account X1003 to Malambe.

Further checks revealed that the registered mother of the arrested foreign national was listed as Thembi Christinah Zulu. However, when Hlatshwayo checked the system for Zulu’s children, Vusimuzi’s name was absent.

The investigation took a dramatic turn when Hlatshwayo tracked down the listed mother to her homestead in the Motshane area. He found Zulu shelling maize at her home.

When questioned about her identity card, Zulu explained that she had lost it at a clinic during a routine medical check-up. She was horrified to learn that her lost ID had been used to manufacture a fictitious son.

Testifying before the commission, Zulu expressed her distress over the identity theft. She stated: “I have eight children and all share the Shongwe surname ... [I] never registered any ID card for anyone in the year 2024.”

She further told the commission that the revelation “shocked” and “really bothered” her, as she feared the community would view her as “a promiscuous woman”.

The commission rejected any suggestion that Malambe’s actions were a mere administrative oversight.

“We are unable to find that this conduct was an error on the part of the accused,” the commission stated in its findings. “Her intention was clear. It was to flout the procedure and issue out the documents. It was a well-orchestrated plan.”

The commission revealed that Malambe had deliberately registered the birth certificate as a “replacement of the old version”, creating the false impression that Matlala had been registered long ago. The tactic was designed “to defeat any audit trail”.

The implications of the fraud are severe. The commission noted that the fraudulent issuance of national documents to a foreign national with “no legal entitlement to Eswatini citizenship” directly undermines the kingdom’s border integrity and national sovereignty.

Further, the incident has “caused diplomatic embarrassment and compromised the integrity of the national civil registration system”. The commission noted with concern that, had it not been for the South African police and Interpol investigation, the ministry of home affairs would have remained unaware of the fraudulent ID.

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Parliament’s standing committee on appropriations (Scoa) has requested a report on embattled state carrier South African Airways’s (SAA) financial and cash position, in the same week the airline notified staff of salary delays for the second consecutive month.

The Sunday Times has seen a letter — dated October 19, just two days before finance minister Enoch Godongwana revealed that government had provided a lifeline for the airline through a billion-rand guarantee — in which Scopa chair Mmusi Maimane informs transport minister Barbara Creecy of a report from SAA employees raising “serious allegations about executive appointments and the accuracy of SAA’s financial position”.

Maimane says in his letter: “Although these allegations are untested and the committee draws no conclusion from them, we do however deem it necessary to request an urgent update on SAA’s current financial and cash position, including the 2025/26 audit.”

He asks Creecy to prepare an update or report by October 30 covering:

• SAA’s current financial and cash position;
• How the proceeds from the sale of a slot at London’s Heathrow Airport — about R1.1bn — were used;
• Any anticipated request for state support; and
• Any update on steps taken to investigate the concerns raised.

Maimane’s letter came a few days before SAA acting chief human capital officer Lourens Erasmus issued a communication to staff informing them that salaries would be staggered, with ground staff and cabin crew to be paid on October 27 and executives on October 31. Pilots would be paid on October 28, and management and specialists on October 30.

“SAA apologises for any inconvenience caused and appreciates employees’ understanding. Employees who require a letter for submission to their bank confirming the revised salary payment date may request one from their HRBP [human resources business partner],” the internal memo said.

This was the second time the airline has delayed salaries, said an insider with intimate knowledge of the situation who did not have permission to speak to the media.

SAA is running out of money, and may soon be grounded

Source

Last month’s salaries were only paid around October 2, the source claimed, adding that the financial difficulties extended beyond salaries. Some service providers now demand prepayment, and the airline is operating only through bank credits.

“SAA is running out of money, and may soon be grounded,” the source alleged.

On Friday, Maimane said he was concerned about SAA’s financial position, referring to the controversial R155m profit declaration the airline made in February, despite the auditor-general having issued a disclaimed audit opinion.

“The reason I’m asking formally is because we need to interrogate the authenticity of SAA’s finances. The auditor-general raised a question about the integrity [of the financials], and part of the allegations is that there is a misrepresentation of SAA’s financial reporting, and we need to deal with that,“ he said.

The airline’s financial position contrasts sharply with its circumstances when it relaunched after business rescue in September 2021. At the time, after the state had spent R38bn settling its old debt during business rescue, the airline started with R2.5bn in working capital and no debt.

However, regaining markets lost during its year-and-a-half business rescue process has proved difficult. The airline reported a R350m loss at the end of March 2024. In February, it announced a R155m profit for the year ending March 2025, but its accounts showed that revenue from operations, at R9.26bn, was lower than its operating costs of R9.58bn.

It subsequently emerged that the airline had received more than R1bn in government support through a transaction structured as a share buyout.

In the past financial year, SAA generated a further R1.1bn from the sale of one of its two slots at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Two sources with direct knowledge of SAA’s financial situation said the airline had initially committed to using the proceeds to expand its fleet from 16 to 21 aircraft and increase its routes.

One source said the proceeds from the sale of the slot were diverted to cover operational losses after SAA’s initial financial projections proved unreliable. The insider claimed that in February 2025, the airline had projected a R500m profit on revenue of R9.9bn, but ended the year with an R800m loss — a negative turnaround of R1.3bn.

Concerns were raised internally that an unrealistic revenue budget of R14.5bn for the following year — coupled with delayed aircraft arrivals and rising costs — placed the airline at risk of bankruptcy.

On Friday, SAA issued a media statement in response to these developments, affirming its commitment to operational sustainability and addressing its financial position.

“The global aviation industry is operating in an increasingly volatile environment, shaped by geopolitical tensions, international disruptions and sharply rising operating costs, particularly aviation fuel,” SAA spokesperson Mphilo Dlamini said.

“These pressures are affecting airlines worldwide by constraining margins, liquidity and the cost of maintaining reliable air services. In response, airlines are reassessing financial assumptions, adapting operating strategies and strengthening measures to withstand external economic shocks.

“Against this backdrop, SAA reaffirms its commitment to operational sustainability, responsible financial management and the wellbeing of its employees.”

On the staggered salaries, Dlamini said: “SAA recognises that its employees are central to the airline’s operations, recovery and future success, and takes its obligations to them extremely seriously.

“Despite the significant liquidity pressures arising from geopolitical disruptions and increased fuel costs, the airline has continued to honour its obligations to staff. These pressures necessitated the staggered payment of salaries for the first time in September and now in October.

“These measures were taken to manage the airline’s sustainability and ensure that it can continue operating while meeting its obligations.”

Dlamini confirmed receipt of the letter from Scoa, saying SAA “is giving the matters raised the necessary attention and the airline will provide a comprehensive response”.

“SAA will engage with Scoa openly and constructively to provide the necessary context on the challenging global operating environment, the financial pressures confronting the business and the measures being implemented by the board and management.”

On state support and funding, the airline said: “In SAA’s case, the R1bn government guarantee has served as a mechanism through which the airline can raise capital to fund its business requirements under the current geopolitical challenges and prevailing aviation fuel hike.”

There’s a solid case to be made for having a state-owned airline. For starters, it stops a whole lot of money being exported

Guy Leitch, aviation analyst

Aviation analyst Guy Leitch said SAA’s financial difficulties reflect a multiyear decline rather than a sudden spiral.

SAA remains fundamentally undercapitalised and underskilled, with overheads that were too high relative to revenue and intense competition on previously profitable regional routes. He characterised recent state support and share transactions as debt-raising exercises to cover ongoing working capital losses.

“There’s a solid case to be made for having a state-owned airline. For starters, it stops a whole lot of money being exported. If you buy tickets to Europe on Emirates, the entire proceeds of that ticket are exported, and all the benefits occur outside the country.

“And then there are all the other developmental aspects in terms of creating highly skilled jobs.”

He said an airline is a difficult enterprises to run, with immense skill and capital requirements, and margins that are extremely thin.

“So you cannot have any inefficiencies, you cannot have senior management who don’t know what they’re doing and hope to compete; yet that is what the government continues to do with SAA.”

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Former crime intelligence boss Maj-Gen Mulangi Mphego has launched a court bid to declare a high-profile police raid on his luxury estate unlawful, arguing that the court that issued the search warrant has no record of the application.

The state is probing allegations that Mphego conspired to steal sensitive police files belonging to his late friend, deputy national commissioner Lt-Gen Sindile Mfazi, who died from poisoning in 2021.

Mphego has dragged acting police minister Firoz Cachalia, top detectives and a senior magistrate to the Pretoria high court where he is demanding the immediate return of his seized property, including three licensed firearms, hard-copy legal files and his cellular phone.

On Monday Mphego was arrested for unlawful possession of the more than 100 rounds of ammunition that was also discovered during the raid. He later appeared in the Johannesburg magistrate’s court and was released on R5,000 bail.

“The operational, financial, and socio-economic bleeding is happening right now, today.” Former crime intelligence boss Maj-Gen Mulangi Mphego

The legal battle stems from a two-day raid in early July at Mphego’s home at Midstream Estate in Centurion. The operation was led by Lt-Col Maria Roodt as part of an investigation into conspiracy to commit murder, premeditated murder and defeating the ends of justice.

Mphego and Sgt Ishmail Phungu are alleged to have personally authorised the removal of Mfazi’s investigative files without any chain of custody. There was no SAPS 13 receipt acknowledging evidence had been taken, or an entry in a police pocketbook. Phungu was Mfazi’s former close protector.

At the time of his death, Mfazi was probing the fallout from the February 2020 burglary at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm.

Mphego has vehemently denied the allegations, labelling them a “malicious social media smear campaign” orchestrated by anonymous accounts, against which he secured a high court interdict in May.

“The events culminating in this application arise from an unlawful, intrusive, and unconstitutional search and seizure operation conducted by the South African Police Service at my private residence and primary place of business,” said Mphego.

Mphego’s legal team, BDK Attorneys, discovered that the Tembisa magistrate’s court, where the search warrant was issued, had no record of the application or the supporting affidavit.

In a confirmatory affidavit, candidate attorney Lené Botha detailed her visits to the court in September. When she inspected the official warrant register, senior magistrate Henro du Plessis was unable to locate any record of the application.

In an email sent to BDK Attorneys on September 17, Du Plessis confirmed this: “It was clear that the search and seizure warrant (J51) was issued and signed by myself on 6 July. Upon a perusal of the warrant register for Section 21 search and seizure warrants, it became further apparent that no copy was made of the said search and seizure warrant and placed on the register on the said day. It cannot be recalled, by myself, as to why this was not done.”

Mphego argues that this proves the warrant was issued in a “complete procedural vacuum”.

He also accuses the police of flagrantly exceeding the scope of the warrant. While the warrant’s annexure strictly restricted seizures to electronic devices — specifically cellphones, laptops and portable storage media — police confiscated three of his licensed firearms: a CZ 9mm handgun, a Glock .40 S&W handgun and a Czech Small Arms .223 manually operated rifle, alongside loose ammunition and boxes of hard-copy documents.

Mphego also raised concern over the presence of heavily armed, masked, and unbadged private individuals clad in military-style camouflage who actively participated in ransacking his home.

When he questioned their presence, Roodt allegedly dismissed his concerns, stating they were “her security” and that their identities “must not concern” him.

“Far from acting merely as security, these masked, unidentified individuals actively ransacked my home, opened my safe, handled my licensed firearms, and participated directly in seizing my property,” says Mphego in his affidavit.

“By seizing and retaining my primary cellular handset and SIM card, the second and third respondents have severed my digital medical safety net,” Mphego states.

He says the seizure has paralysed his business empire, as the confiscated SIM card is the primary two-factor authentication channel for 14 corporate banking profiles across his companies. Without it, he is locked out of his accounts, unable to pay suppliers or disburse payroll. He claims Roodt threatened him with arrest for defeating the ends of justice if he attempted a network SIM swap.

Additionally, as secretary of the Mphego Royal Council, his phone number is the sole administrative link for approximately 7,000 rural community members, who are now cut off from their leadership.

Mphego, who works in high-risk security sectors, says the confiscation of his self-defence firearms has left him vulnerable to retaliatory threats, forcing him to spend over R680,000 on private close-protection services.

“The operational, financial, and socio-economic bleeding is happening right now, today,” Mphego said.

The application, set down for October 27, seeks urgent interim relief under part A, including the immediate return of his firearms, hard-copy documents, and essential communication tools. Part B of the application seeks to set aside the warrant and declare the entire search and seizure operation unconstitutional and unlawful.

Brig Bongani Gininda, the lead investigator, acknowledged receipt of the legal demands via WhatsApp, stating: “I will contact our legal services and revert back to you in due course.”

However, court papers state that no further response has been received from the police. Police have filed papers stating their intention to oppose.

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At The Fussy Vegan in Greenside, Stella Meldau is contemplating an act of wild abandon: a chocolate milkshake. Vegan, naturally.

She tells me she has just welcomed a fluffy baby donkey called Octavia to Woodrock Animal Rescue, which she founded with her husband, Nicholas.

“I honestly feel like Mother Mary. I’m so excited with my little Octavia,” she says.

I cannot tell a lie: this delectable creature sounds so heartachingly cute that I’m contemplating how I could work a donkey into my life.

Stella has been saving animals since she was a small girl in Arcadia — the Jewish children’s home in Parktown — where she walked an imaginary dog in a shoebox.

“I was born on the other side of the Jews, the poorer ones. Nobody actually knows that there are poor Jews,” she tells me. Her father died young.

“My mother kept trying to kill herself. I miss her every day. I can tear up just thinking about her. She was precious, and she adored us.”

Eventually, the girls were placed in Arcadia. “You either fell into the system or you became somebody who was going to take the world and push it to the limits. I think that always groomed me to being not fearful.”

At 12, back home in Orange Grove, she met Nicholas, the Lebanese boy next door, who shared her sensibilities. They have been joined at the hip ever since.

“We would go around the area looking for kittens and little puppies and trying to save boxes of chickens that were sold in Alex, and putting them in his drawers. We had a snake called Lucky and a goat that we put on his bed.”

I knew I was a good teacher. And then I just thought, I’m wasting my time here. I can’t be a nobody. I have to be somebody

Stella Meldau, co-founder of Woodrock Animal Rescue

Stella became a schoolteacher, then an entrepreneur, building and selling businesses in company administration and recruitment.

“I knew I was a good teacher. And then I just thought, I’m wasting my time here. I can’t be a nobody. I have to be somebody.”

They had three children and a home overrun by animals. At one point, they had 35 dogs, so they bought the property next door. A household employee eventually drew the line at a pig.

“She phoned me and said, ‘I will do anything, but I’m not going to have a pig in my kitchen.’”

When the neighbours complained about the barking, the couple bought land in the Hennops River Valley. Woodrock was born. Today, it cares for hundreds of animals and has saved countless numbers over the years.

“My mother said, ‘You’ve got a small yard full of shit. You’re just going to have a big one now.’ But we had a plan of action. That is the only plan I ever had. I never planned a child. We just had three children. But the farm we planned. We planned it strategically.”

Then, at the height of her seemingly charmed life, came breast cancer.

“I called it an acorn because it wasn’t my enemy. But I had missed my mammogram, and I thought, ‘It doesn’t matter. Of course I’m invincible. I’ll go when I get time, because a busy person never finds time for themselves.’”

Her PA insisted on an appointment. Tests revealed advanced cancer. Chemotherapy, radiation and surgery followed. She chose not to have breast reconstruction.

Losing her hair, however, was devastating. “It wasn’t determining that I had cancer, because that I could get through; it was the fact that I had lost the person.”

Her daughter later persuaded her to get a tattoo, a reminder to care for herself.

“We found a dog, Heidi. She’d been tied up in a flour sack with wire and thrown into the river. She’d managed to pull herself out of the river and bark through the flour sack and carry on breathing. Some construction guys found her.”

Heidi also had breast cancer. On the day Stella started chemotherapy, Heidi underwent treatment too.

Heidi survived and was adopted into a loving home. For Stella, rescue must mean a life worth living.

“These animals thrive. They don’t just live; they absolutely thrive. And if they’re not going to thrive, it’s better for them to be put to sleep, purely because they don’t have quality of life.”

She teaches children responsible pet ownership every weekend.

“These animals, they can have food and shelter, but if you don’t have love, what have you got? If you don’t feel accepted, if you don’t feel that you are part of something, life is much harder. These animals are so loved, and they return it a million times over. Coming from an animal, there’s no judgment.”

I ask what she would tell that little girl in Arcadia.

“I’d say do it again. I’d do it all over again. I had no other tools, but that was my toolbox, and I worked with that box, and I used everything in that toolbox to the best of my ability.”

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Controversial businessman Hangwani Morgan Maumela has launched a bid to stop the final seizure of his palatial R70m Sandton home, three months after the state was granted a final forfeiture order against him.

The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Asset Forfeiture Unit was granted a final forfeiture order worth R325m against Maumela by the high court in Johannesburg in July. The order covered several properties, including the Sandton mansion, which the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had placed under preservation in October last year.

The NPA told the Sunday Times that it had received a rescission application from Maumela’s legal representatives last Friday.

“We will be expediting our response and any further processes to ensure that this application is concluded,” NPA spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said.

The NPA had successfully argued in court that the assets were the proceeds of unlawful activities linked to the alleged R2bn looting of Tembisa Hospital.

The forfeiture followed an investigation stemming from a report by whistleblower Babita Deokaran, who had flagged suspicious payments at the hospital.

Deokaran was shot and killed outside her home in Winchester Hills, south of Joburg, on August 23, 2021, after flagging some of the suspects involved.

In July this year, the NPA said Maumela’s forfeited properties would be put up for sale, with proceeds returned to the Gauteng department of health.

The Sunday Times had asked the NPA why the assets, including the Sandton mansion, had still not been put up for sale three months later.

Kganyago said that shortly after the granting of the forfeiture application, “we were engaged by legal representatives for Maumela. They indicated an intention to appeal or to apply for a rescission.”

The multi-storey mansion in Sandhurst has 10 bedrooms, a car wash and a salon.

Other Maumela properties covered by the R325m forfeiture order include an R88m mansion in Bantry Bay, Cape Town, and a property at Zimbali Estate in KwaZulu-Natal.

Luxury vehicles, including four Lamborghinis and a Bentley, as well as a boat and trailer, were among the assets subject to forfeiture.

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A strange, if enterprising, United Rugby Championship (URC) match at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town. The Stormers won 52-40, having led 33-14 at half time.

The hosts had the try-scoring bonus point try by the 33^rd minute, but such was the swing in the match in the second half that, with 15 minutes to play, the scores were level at 40-all.

Stormers flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked six from eight conversion attempts and was a constant menace on attack, setting up scrumhalf Haashim Pead’s first-half try with a delightful back pass.

Stormers front-rowers Zachary Porthen and Ntuthuko Mchunu were devastating in their scrumming, when allowed to scrum and equally prominent in general play.

The Stormers did not concede a penalty in the first half, were disciplined in all facets and had balance in their game, kicking 17 times to the visitors’ 10. They conceded just one penalty in 83 minutes.

They were stronger in the collisions, making 48 post-contact metres in the first half, compared with the Scarlets’ 16. The second half contrasted this, with 32 post-contact metres for the Stormers to the Scarlets’ 17.

Stormers’ frailties exposed

The scrums were uncontested for the final 23 minutes, and by the 65th minute, Scarlets outside centre Joe Roberts had completed his hat-trick.

The Scarlets must be credited for refusing to fold at half time, but their fight was made that much easier by a Stormers approach that was loose, inaccurate and self-destructive.

Individually, Roberts sparkled, and it took a brilliant try-saving tackle from Feinberg-Mngomezulu on left wing Macs Page to prevent a third successive Scarlets try in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.

The Scarlets made 21 line breaks to the Stormers’ 15, and the tackle success of both teams was less than 70%.

Few could have foreseen how the second half would play out, with the Stormers so dominant and in such control in the first.

The Stormers scored eight tries to the Scarlets six, and it was SA under-20 flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed who provided the home support relief when he scored in the 75th minute. Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s sixth conversion gave the Stormers a 47-40 lead and Ahmed sealed the victory with a second try in the 79^th minute.

Crucially, the hosts scored the big points in the big moments, and the positive is that they scored eight tries and 52 points.

Stormers defence coach Norman Laker will hate a match of this nature and a 68% tackle success, which included 29 missed tackles.

More pragmatic approach

Ulster will be more stressful on the Stormers defence, so expect to see a different and more pragmatic approach when the two teams meet in Cape Town next weekend.

Stormers captain Paul de Villiers was the best of the forwards, and scrumhalf Pead, in his first start, was named the Player of the Match.

For the neutral, the 14 tries on a lovely Saturday afternoon in Cape Town were bliss, but for the Stormers coaching staff, there was more angst than awe when the scores were tied 40-all with 15 minutes to play.

At Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee scored a brace in a four-try bonus-point 34-26 win against Ulster.

The Bulls led 21-0 midway through the first half before a spirited fightback from Ulster brought them to within five points in the 80^th minute.

Handré Pollard kicked three conversions and a crucial second-half penalty, and replacement flyhalf Curwin Bosch kicked a penalty in the 82^nd minute to deny the visitors a losing bonus point. They did get a four-try bonus point.

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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.

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Steve Witkoff is a name that would not ordinarily be familiar to many people, not even to some keen political observers. Yet as Donald Trump’s so-called Special Envoy for Peace Missions — to give him his official title — he’s the man who for the past year has been criss-crossing world capitals in attempts to put out fires, some of which have been stoked by the president himself.

Come to think of it, the American magnate who, like his boss, made his money in real estate, has it at the back of his mind to bring home the other bacon — Trump is desperate for a Nobel Peace Prize. He doesn’t want it. He’s demanding it. Loudly. It’s his by rights, it seems.

As Trump’s pointsman on the war in Ukraine, Witkoff was in St Petersburg this week to accept Vladimir Putin’s reward to Trump in the form of an American teacher who’s been in a Russian prison for the past four years. Stephen Hubbard was jailed on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.

In thanking the diminutive monster Putin for his gesture, Witkoff got carried away. “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” he gushed. “You are a humanitarian also, sir.” Such words must have been music to Putin’s ears.

Putin is a war criminal, a fugitive from justice. To call him a humanitarian defies logic. Only a Nuremberg-type trial would adequately deal with his many egregious transgressions. His string of sins are so long and large it’s hard to keep track.

His unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the continued wanton killing of innocent civilians and the destruction of infrastructure — bridges, apartments, hospitals, churches — the cruelty is off the charts. Pure barbarism. He’s out to exterminate an entire society unless it submits to his whims. And it seems nobody will stop him.

And there’s the case of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014, with 298 passengers on board. They all perished. All evidence pointed to the Kremlin. Putin simply shrugged his shoulders. Nobody is even talking about that tragedy anymore.

His deal to buy Russian diesel was the icing on the cake. A deal with the devil, someone called it

Witkoff was almost beaten to the punch, though, and from an unexpected quarter. It turns out Melania Trump has been busy with her own peacemaking efforts on the side. The White House issued a statement this week that the first lady, a former model, had brokered a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky, where the elderly population was almost being starved to death with no food, medicines or electricity.

Melania wanted the world to know she prevented a dire situation. “It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid to the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible,” she said. Melania the messiah. Truly inspirational.

In genuflecting before Putin, Witkoff was only reflecting his boss’s sentiments. As far as Trump is concerned, Putin can do no wrong. It’s quite unprecedented that the so-called leader of the free world would so unashamedly prostrate himself before a Russian dictator. For some reason, Putin seems to have him by the short and curlies.

Trump has got Witkoff and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, running around as peace envoys, but they’re essentially doing Putin’s bidding. They’re on his side. Ukraine and its European backers are a bit wary of dealing with them because their starting point seems to be that Putin has to be given “something” — that is, Ukrainian territory he’s already conquered — for him to agree to a peace deal.

But the whole freaking idea of a peace process is a nonsense. Putin invaded Ukraine. He has to get out or be kicked out. But as Trump famously barked at Volodymyr Zelensky during that dust-up at the White House, Ukraine “does not have the cards”. And he was chased out of the White House like a stray dog. With the very survival of his country at stake, he had no alternative but to take the abuse.

This week things got even better for Putin. Trump escalated his attacks on Zelensky, describing him as an obstacle to peace and suggesting that maybe Ukraine should look for a new leader. And with an eye on the midterm elections in November, in which his Republican party is expected to lose its majority, Trump even blamed Zelensky for high petrol prices in the US. Why? Because Ukraine has been successfully targeting Russian oil installations. But everybody knows Trump’s own unprovoked war with Iran is responsible for skyrocketing fuel prices.

Trump has also delayed implementing new congressional sanctions on Moscow. But his deal to buy Russian diesel was the icing on the cake. A deal with the devil, someone called it. American consumers are now in effect bankrolling Putin’s destruction of Ukraine. Washington has lost its moorings.

And Trump is also toying with the idea of inviting Putin to his Group of 20 summit in Florida. South Africa, of course, won’t be there. As we all know, a genocide is raging here. And Trump won’t stand for that.

All this must be discomfiting for Ukraine’s backers. But they have themselves to blame. There was almost universal sympathy for the country after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Nations lined up to condemn the invaders. Then came Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which sucked the oxygen from Ukraine. People like Joe Biden, who had rallied world support for Ukraine, did an about-face. They not only supported Israel’s invasion of Gaza, they happily provided the weapons for the carnage that was to follow. Reasonable people were turned off and disgusted by such duplicity. And it undermined Ukraine.

After the 9/11 tragedy in 2001, George W Bush famously invoked the spectre of what he called “an axis of evil” — namely Iraq, Iran and North Korea. The US now seems to harbour pretensions of leading a new version of its own.

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Hiding behind isiXhosa can’t help him. In any language, Gwede Mantashe was rude, vulgar and despicably sexist. As a minister in a country where — despite its progressive constitution — misogyny and the abuse of public office to sexually exploit women are real problems, Mantashe should not be allowed to get away with being as foul-mouthed as he was this week. His cynical excuse that he is just a simpleton from the backwaters of Icala, in the old Transkei, won’t wash. Instead of apologising unreservedly for trivialising sexual extortion, this Mampara chose to paint himself as the victim of a linguistic misinterpretation. He is lucky most South Africans are not as vile, otherwise they’d be calling him a big D — and they would not be referring to his clan name, Dikela.

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The Sharks, a season ago, had all the big-name Springboks but very little to show in league standings in the United Rugby Championship (URC). Now the big names are less, but the identity is huge.

That is the change JP Pietersen is making at a club that spent too long being judged by the Springboks in its squad and not by the rugby it played.

The “Galacticos” tag was never a compliment. It said the Sharks had the stars, the money and the expectation, but not the performances to match.

Pietersen knows the difference. He was one of the most capped Sharks of his playing generation. He knows what the jersey asks of a player and what it means when a team plays with mongrel attitude and a collective sense of belonging.

The Sharks looked like a collection of reputations last season. They look more like a team now.

They are unbeaten in two home URC matches, beating Ospreys and Leinster, and were well beaten by the Stormers in Cape Town. That defeat mattered. It tested the talk of a new Sharks DNA against the best set piece in the competition.

Better evidence

The Sharks failed that test, but they did not lose their nerve or their direction.

The past fortnight has offered better evidence. In Lyon, they won 40-33 in the Challenge Cup after conceding a late try that levelled the scores.

They could have settled for the draw. Instead, they went again. Zekhethelo Siyaya helped create the winning try for Litelihle Bester in the final seconds. Then came Cardiff, where the Sharks won 36-21, scoring six tries and taking five URC points. They led 17-7, fell behind 21-17 and finished with three unanswered tries.

They lost André Esterhuizen in the opening minute, Phatu Ganyane in the first half, Jurenzo Julius at the break and Jason Jenkins soon after the restart.

A season ago, that sort of night might have become an excuse. In Cardiff it became a measure of the group. Pietersen’s Sharks absorbed the blows, reshuffled and found a way to win.

The clearest sign of the shift is Nick Hatton. He is maturing into a proper No 8 and leader — not simply a young forward with promise. He captained in Lyon, scored there, and was singled out by Pietersen for his leadership in Cardiff when the Sharks were under pressure and playing into the wind.

Emile van Heerden helped lead them through that spell too.

This is how a team gets a sense of belonging: responsibility is shared. It is earned on the field, not handed out with a Springbok cap or a big-name signing.

Balancing act

The Sharks have also found a way to balance experience with youth. Hatton is 23. Matt Romao, a product of the Junior Springboks, scored twice in Cardiff. Siyaya was electric in Lyon and lively again against Cardiff.

Jurenzo Julius cut open the Welsh defence before injury ended his night. Ethan Hooker finished a sharp early move in Cardiff, while Lili Bester delivered the decisive score in France and Ethan Bester also scored in Wales.

That is individual brilliance within a team framework. The young players have room to play, while experienced campaigners bring calm when the game tightens.

Pietersen’s playing history gives him credibility, but that alone does not change a dressing room. The Sharks are changing because the standard is clearer: compete when the game gets ugly, stay connected when plans are disrupted, and back the player beside you.

The Cardiff result will count for five points. The manner of it counts for more. The Sharks have spent seasons being told they should be better because of the names on the team sheet.

Under Pietersen, they are beginning to look better because they play for one another.

They have attitude and mentality that is expressed as a collective in how they respond to challenges.

The very best Sharks team, historically, have always been about the collective and not the individual. For the past few seasons this was lost in Durban.

Pietersen, from the moment he took charge, insisted his squad would have an identity. They do.

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When we talk about style, what does it really mean?

Too often style has become shorthand for how you put together your wardrobe, but delve a little deeper and you realise it isn’t only about threads — it encapsulates how we express ourselves, how we create and how we are defined.

A little under a year ago, some 35 of us across the realm of media, the arts, business and entertainment were given the daunting task of nominating those rare individuals who we believe have made an indelible mark in their chosen fields. The debate was robust, followed up with much caucusing via e-mail and WhatsApp.

On Wednesday afternoon, the results for this year’s South African Style Awards were finally revealed as part of what was billed as a high tea commencement and winners announcement.

First stop: a meet and greet at Graham’s Contemporary Gallery in Hyde Park Corner, where the first to arrive was a young man who, in capturing township life, has found himself in the same pantheon of luminaries as Loxion Kulca, Stoned Cherrie and MaXhosa.

Vusumuzi Ndima, better known as Bob the Stylist, started out in 2011 documenting the essence of township panache, including sbhujwa, on a blog called Boys of Soweto (BOS), which in turn inspired the wares he first flogged at the then Main Street market in Maboneng. It struck a collective chord, and today BOS has become a cultural movement, worn by Beyonce and DJ Black Coffee and shifting the needle on how we see township culture.

While Bob arrived cool and collected in a relaxed caramel-coloured two-piece fit, Ayanda G Thabethe sashayed into the gallery wearing a floor-grazing baby blue gown, on the arm of her man in finance, Brent Pretorius.

The TV presenter and pageant girl strikes up a conversation with Emmanuel Tjiya, in a towering Crystal Birch headgear (think top hat of Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat proportions), about her busy international itinerary.

“If God wanted me in one place, he would have made me a tree,” I overhear Ayanda tell the editor-in-chief of our sister publication, the Sowetan’s cool, glossy S Mag.

All around are the well-dressed and good-looking, including two of last year’s winners, Makoma Mohale (the actress, who the day before celebrated turning the big three-oh) and fashion designer Mzukisi Mbane.

Striking in green are both Shannon Prestia, of Versus Paint, which is a sponsor of the awards for the second year, and environmental activist Catherine Constantinides.

We sip an assortment of local wines, including Nicky van der Walt’s Mirabelle Rose and Krone bubbly, before the party moves upstairs to the Luce, the plush Italian-style fine dining restaurant set in the Southern Sun Hyde Park hotel perched atop the shopping centre.

It’s a room with a view that takes in the treetops as far as the eye can see and the Sandton skyline. But there’s no time to drink it all in because, as this year’s presiding judge, event convenor Jillian Grogor invites me to announce the winners.

It’s a stellar group, including Li-Chi Pan, the photographer and architect recently returned from Paris for the launch of Chanel Beauty’s Coco Crush fragrance (she is recognised for Most Innovative Style, along with designer of the moment Nao Serati Mofammere); songbird Thabsie takes home Most Stylish Artist in Music, while actor Thabang Molaba, who last year joined the cast of Hollywood blockbuster Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, is named Most Stylish Performing Artist in Film/TV.

Ayanda takes home Next Big Thing, Bob is Most Stylish Designer in Fashion, Catherine is acknowledged as Changemaker for her work as an environmentalist and climate activist, while Brian Whitby, who has walked for Dolce & Gabbana, Versace and Balenciaga and shot for Burberry, is named Most Stylish Model.

Brian and Abigail Visagie (Most Stylish Media Personality in Broadcast) were both unable to make it due to work commitments, but a business titan in the wellness and beauty space, Rechelle Kloeck, the founder and CEO of Motherkind, was able to clear her schedule a little to grace us with her presence. Rechelle was recognised as Most Stylish Business Personality.

The category of Most Stylish Media Personality in Print is one close to my heart. It was such an honour to name Emmanuel for the award, shared with Nontando Mposo, the vivacious editor-in-chief of Glamour magazine, wearing a rust-coloured Gert-Johan Coetzee dress.

Closing it all off, recognising Thandiswa Mazwai as South African Style Awards 2026 Icon was a unanimous decision — here’s hoping that the musical powerhouse will be able to grace the occasion for the actual awards, which are set to be held early in the new year.

We couldn’t agree on one of the award’s big gongs, Most Stylish Couple, so we thought it would be fun for two close chums, Shashi Naidoo and her GBF Ryan Hignett, to stand in as placeholders, encouraging those present to be inspired to come up with options.

Southern Sun Hyde Park GM Bernie Hilario and her team always go all out for affairs like this, and it would be remiss of me not to tell you about the spread. Our high tea was laid across two long tables, where we tucked into savoury treats including mini butter-chicken pies, mushroom and mozzarella arancini balls (one of the best of the lot) and roast beef and caramelised onion pretzel rolls, while the sweet-toothed enjoyed scones with jam, mini carrot cakes, lemon curd tart and assorted macaroons.

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Why was the water not chlorinated for three weeks?

The explanation we received from the officials is that we ran out of chlorine supplies.

How was this allowed to happen?

The service provider withheld what we had ordered in advance because of failure to negotiate a price escalation.

Does this justify exposing residents to toxic water in their taps?

There is no justification that a plant manager can run out of chlorine. The obvious decision that should have been made was to shut down the plant and then resolve the issue of getting chlorine, which we did.

Why did it take you so long?

I was not told by the officials, it was only escalated last week.

You didn’t know what was going on?

The accounting officer is the one who normally would alert me to say, ‘Listen, we have a problem here.’ I don’t even know whether the accounting officer was informed, or at what stage. So we need to strengthen our systems.

You admit that your systems are very weak?

They are. These are issues that were even raised by the auditor-general.

And now this is a big risk, isn’t it, particularly for young children who have become extremely ill as a result?

Yes.

Have you fired anybody?

I’ve given instructions for an internal investigation that will then lead to a disciplinary process.

Is it fair to say that failure to provide clean tap water benefits those with links to water tankers?

I could not confidently speak on that. Without evidence pointing to that, I’d just be speculating. The primary focus for us is that we need to provide people with short-term relief in terms of giving them clean and safe water to drink while we fix the plant, which is what we are doing. But this is not a new problem. The part that I truly feel sad about is the issue of chlorine, because we didn’t have to make the situation worse than it was.

There’s no excuse for that, is there?

Definitely not.

So are you going to resign?

I don’t see why I should. I am dealing with the situation, I am responding to this and we are managing it. Now my energies are needed to be with the people of Bronkhorstspruit to make sure we contain this crisis and provide a sustainable solution. Resignation is not something I can be part of.

Isn’t it about accountability, and that as mayor the buck stops with you?

Yes, and that buck stops with me to make sure that the issues are resolved, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Are you concerned that it may not be in the interests of everyone in your administration to fix the water contamination crisis?

I don’t think we must cast aspersions on people without evidence. What we know for sure is that the officials who should have chlorinated the water did not chlorinate the water.

And because of this, you’ve had to bring in more water tankers, haven’t you?

Yes, that’s an obvious thing to do if there’s an interruption of supplies.

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The YesPlay Pro20 Cup has proved beneficial to players and unions in Division 2, and while it’s added to the costs for Cricket SA (CSA), it’s generally felt that persevering with it is worthwhile.

The tournament enters its Super Eight phase after the last round of group fixtures this afternoon and, while the Division 1 teams have dominated, the Mpumalanga Rhinos, KZN-Inland Tuskers and South Western Districts Badgers, have made an impression — and all three remain in contention for a spot in the next round.

“The standard’s been pretty good. It’s not SA20 or IPL [Indian Premier League], but it’s not worse than some of the other leagues I’ve played in around the world, where a certain number of associate players have to participate,” said Rassie van der Dussen.

The veteran Lions batter is well placed to judge. Besides playing in 57 T20 Internationals, Van der Dussen has played at the IPL, the Pakistan Super League, the SA20, the Canadian T20 League and more recently the newly established European T20 Premier League.

“[The Pro20 Cup] is a great tournament overall because it gives the lower teams some exposure,” he said.

There is a lot of young talent in this country and that is really exciting for the future — Rory Kleinveldt

Getting exposure

That involves not only facing Proteas like Van der Dussen, Dewald Brevis or Reeza Hendricks, but also mundane elements like playing at night. “The Border guys were telling me that most of them had not played under lights. It’s great for them to experience that and get that exposure.”

Although a gulf in class has been noticeable, the fact that three second division teams remain in contention for the next phase, illustrates the quality of talent in the lower rung, and how they’ve gradually improved.

“There is a lot of young talent in this country and that is really exciting for the future,” said Western Province coach, Rory Kleinveldt.

“For us as coaches, our job is nurturing that talent and making sure these guys come through the system and go on to bigger and better things.”

But South Africa’s talent pool has never been a concern. Van der Dussen says expanding the tournament and creating more fixtures, not only helps the integrity of the competition, but through simply playing more, improvements will occur.

As opposed to seven league fixtures last season, by including all 15 provincial teams in one competition, and adding an SA Emerging side (which is made up of a mixture of junior players, and cricketers released by their unions for the duration of the tournament), the teams that qualify for the semifinal will play 12 matches.

More financial losses

More cricket also means more expense for Cricket SA. The organisation announced a R440m loss in the last financial year and is anticipating more losses next year.

Albertus Kennedy, the CEO of second division union SWD, believes the tournament, in its current format, needs to stay.

“There was a lot of doubt whether it would work. And I think the fact that an anchor sponsor was found so late, didn’t help with marketing. But in the future, hopefully that will be better. I’m sure CSA, along with everyone, will have a proper debrief afterward, and look into any problems, and also what can be improved.”

With the tournament being broadcast by SuperSport and streamed via CSA’s Youtube channel, unions like SWD have attracted new viewers. “It has improved opportunities for us on a commercial basis,” Kennedy said.

Crowd numbers for provincial matches have remained low, but Kennedy feels that through better scheduling that can improve. “If we can get a good Div 1 team on a Friday, or weekend, we’ll get a good crowd — that kind of favourable time slot would be beneficial.”

A stark difference

The differences between teams in division one, especially bigger unions like the Lions, Dolphins, WP, and the Titans, compared with most teams in Division 2, remains stark. “For some of the teams it’s been a bit eye-opening in terms of the standards and intensity of top level cricket. Maybe that’s a good perspective for them, so that they see how far it is that they still have to go,” said Van der Dussen.

“In Cape Town, we are lucky; we have a strong school system, and a strong club system to draw on, whereas Limpopo or Mpumalanga, are probably not as fortunate as us,” Kleinveldt said.

Any hidden gems, however, will be spotted sooner than was the case in previous years. “When you’re playing in Div 2, it’s almost a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’; whereas now, if you can put in a few good performances against big teams,

“I think teams will look at you a bit differently. When contracting comes up, there’ll be some names thrown around from Div 2, and we never used to see that,” said Van der Dussen.

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There is something rather reassuring about a government budget. The tables are orderly, the projections are carefully calculated, the debt is stabilising and the deficit is expected to narrow. For a moment, the country appears to be in capable hands.

Then one steps outside the Treasury presentation and back into South Africa — the jobless are still jobless; the cost of living remains unforgiving; communities continue to experience unreliable services; and young people are asked to remain hopeful in an economy that struggles to make room for them.

This is where my scepticism begins. Not because the numbers do not matter, but because we have become rather good at presenting fiscal management as if it were the same thing as national progress.

The medium-term budget policy statement, presented on October 21, offers some encouraging news. The government expects gross loan debt to decline from 78.4% of GDP in 2025/26 to 76.6% by 2029/30. The budget deficit is projected to narrow, while the primary surplus is expected to grow.

These are not trivial achievements. A country cannot indefinitely borrow its way out of trouble, and debt-service costs leave less money available for priorities. But there is a difference between stabilising the state’s finances and improving the lives of the people who sustain that state. Perhaps we should begin by asking a slightly impolite question: whose good news is this?

The same statement projects economic growth of just 1.2% for 2026. Unemployment, meanwhile, rose from 31.4% in the final quarter of 2025 to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026.

The Treasury notes that South Africa has 426,000 more people employed than before the Covid pandemic, but also 1.8-million more unemployed people. In other words, employment has grown, but not enough to absorb the expanding labour force.

These figures should unsettle any easy celebration of fiscal progress. An economy can improve its balance sheet without creating enough work. It can meet its targets while households experience economic insecurity.

Perhaps the problem lies partly in the way we speak about the budget. The presentation encourages us to admire the management of money. The public has every right to ask about the management of national possibility

Growth matters, but growth alone is not a development strategy. The real test is whether economic activity creates jobs, supports productive businesses and expands opportunities beyond those who are already economically secure.

A percentage point in a Treasury forecast may look modest on paper. For a young person who has been searching for work for years, the distance between a forecast and an actual job is enormous.

The government says social spending remains central to its priorities. The social wage accounts for about 60% of consolidated non-interest expenditure. There are also additional allocations for areas including health, education, local government and infrastructure. That’s important. But budgets tell us what government intends to spend; they do not, by themselves, tell us what citizens will receive.

An allocation for infrastructure is not a functioning water system. Money set aside for education is not proof that a child has access to a decent classroom. A municipal transfer is not evidence that rubbish will be collected or a broken pipe repaired. The Treasury itself acknowledges weaknesses in project preparation, procurement and contract management, and that infrastructure grants have not always translated into timely delivery.

This admission deserves more attention than another polished graph. If the government already knows that spending does not consistently translate into results, then the question is no longer simply how much money has been allocated. It is why the machinery responsible for turning that money into public value continues to disappoint.

The statement identifies R38.1bn in targeted savings through measures including tighter grant administration, reprioritisation in human settlements, efficiencies in national departments and the recovery of accumulated cash surpluses from public entities. Some of these measures may be sensible. Waste and duplication should not be protected merely because they occur inside government. Public money belongs to the public.

But savings are not automatically a public benefit. Their value depends on what is cut, what is protected and where the money ultimately goes. Reprioritising a housing grant, for instance, must not become an accounting success at the expense of people waiting for adequate shelter.

I am not arguing that the government should abandon fiscal discipline. Debt matters. Waste matters. So does the cost of borrowing. A state that cannot manage its finances will eventually undermine its ability to serve its people. But fiscal discipline should be a means to an end, not the end itself.

Perhaps the problem lies partly in the way we speak about the budget. The presentation encourages us to admire the management of money. The public has every right to ask about the management of national possibility. The government may call this a budget. Citizens should ask for a result. The numbers matter, but they must answer to lived experience. Otherwise we risk building an increasingly respectable fiscal story around an economy that remains deeply disappointing to millions.

Econometrics should function as conscience, not camouflage.

• Koka is a PhD candidate in econometrics, a researcher in the cultural industries and a social commentator

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On Thursday this week, an African man from elsewhere on the continent was beaten to death in central Durban. It’s said he was set upon by a mob of about 50 people.

In September, it was reported that the body of a 66-year-old Mozambican was found, tied with wires and burnt in the bush near Lulekani in Limpopo. In May and June, several Mozambicans were killed during anti-immigrant protests and shack-burning incidents in Mossel Bay.

In June 2008, Mozambican Ernesto Nhamuave was set alight and burnt to death. This year we have murdered 78 migrants; the man killed in Durban on Thursday was the 79th victim.

There is a lot of anger and frustration among many South Africans on account of the porous borders and a very high unemployment rate. Youth unemployment climbed to 47.4% in the second quarter of 2026.

Young people are a big part of the activism against Africans from other countries. We desperately need meaningful economic transformation, away from the historical exclusion of Africans, coloureds and Indians. An inclusive economy should provide access to economic opportunities and equitable participation. The apartheid regime built the opposite of this — an economy based on racial exclusion, exploitation and the indignity of poverty.

There is the widespread belief that African migrants take jobs away from South Africans and engage in gross criminality from drug trafficking and illegal mining to kidnapping and extortion. It should be said though, that studies indicate that most crimes are perpetrated by South Africans, and that South Africans make up about 85% of the prison population.

Does any of this, the historical pain of black South Africans and the public perceptions about migrants, explain the killer instinct in our midst, reserved exclusively for other Africans who come to our land and are hounded like animals?

There is another reality to note. The South African economy was not built by South Africans alone; it was built on the backs of cheap labour from neighbouring countries, creating perennial livelihood routes across the region. This is largely responsible for the economic migration that fuels anti-migrant tendencies in South Africa today. In his 1986 book, Johannesburg Centenary: So rich an inheritance, James Ambrose Brown writes that from 1886 (when gold was first mined) to 1899 (Anglo-Boer War) most mineworkers were Mozambican or Basotho. South Africans did not want to leave their rural homes for the hostels of the mines.

We need to move away from the scarcity mindset of seeking to preserve ‘our space’ as South Africans, with a limited pie, to an abundance mindset

Brown writes that by 1904 there was hardly a young man in the villages of southern Mozambique who had not been to Johannesburg. He says the Zambesi became a labour recruitment highway, with barges ferrying recruits from Zambia and Zimbabwe, and recruiting extended as far as Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The late Prof Francis Wilson of the Southern African Labour and Development Research Unit used to say that for generations, 60% of Lesotho’s able-bodied men came to South Africa, and that the development of Johannesburg went hand-in-hand with the underdevelopment of Maseru.

Our crude past can become our more civil and mutually beneficial future. To achieve that, we need to move away from the scarcity mindset of seeking to preserve “our space” as South Africans, with a limited pie, to an abundance mindset where creativity and smart strategic thinking can open opportunities for all. It is worth considering the potential impact of realigning regional interests and relationships to optimise our economic power and global comparative advantage.

Sadc comprises 16 countries with a total population of more than 363-million, which is forecast to rise to 618-million by 2043. As an economic region, it exhibits no clear regional economic consciousness or plan to speak of. Each country’s political and business elites seem to be internally focused, with hardly any evidence of a desire for a free-trade area, Sadc customs union, common market or monetary union as instruments to maximise value for the citizens of the region.

South Africa and Zimbabwe together hold more than 80% of the world’s platinum-group metal (PGM) reserves; Angola accounts for some 16.3% of Africa’s total oil output; and Mozambique’s gas reserves are estimated at 2.8-trillion cubic metres. We could go on about the collective wealth of Sadc, from the gold and chrome of Zimbabwe to the diamonds of Botswana and Namibia, the copper of Zambia and the limitless volumes of Congo minerals. Then there is the Orange Basin block of oil and gas prospects for Namibia and South Africa on the western seaboard.

Young people make up 50%-60% of the total population in the Sadc region. No borders will keep them from the perception of South African opportunities. Our mobs cannot kill them all. There must be a different way, a way of looking at the value of an integrated regional economy, and what opportunities could be created for all our young people by an expanded economic base that’s inclusive of all our regional economies.

The African Continental Free Trade Area has set the objective of removing tariffs on 90% of goods within 13 years and easing the movement of capital, investment and entrepreneurs. We are unlikely to arrive at that objective if we cannot take the first step towards meaningful regional economic integration.

This requires public awareness campaigns, including in schools, highlighting the positive effects of regional integration. A scarcity mindset is a hindrance to seeing the advantage of a broadened economic base.

• Bishop Mpumlwana is a former general secretary of the South African Council of Churches

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Electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has repeatedly stated that the growing unaffordability of electricity — particularly for low-income households — is “the most pressing energy challenge” for South Africa.

We agree: the Public Affairs Research Institute (Pari) has shown that low-income households often sacrifice food expenditure to pay for electricity and that the cost of electricity undermines small and micro enterprises, notably the home-based livelihoods of women.

Socioeconomic development requires that these users consume more electricity — this is the pathway to reducing poverty and inequality. Affordability is the biggest obstacle to achieving this.

To date, the department of electricity and energy, has not taken any concrete action to tackle affordability, and current proposed policies are unlikely to effect change. The minister has been extremely enthusiastic about the new draft electricity pricing policy (EPP 2026) as a tool to deliver affordability.

In the media briefing held prior to the release of the EPP, he stated that more efficient operations and cost-reflective tariffs would result in lower prices, and also that the free basic electricity (FBE) allowance would be increased significantly. But is the EPP actually going to deliver these promised outcomes?

Although the policy contains several statements to the effect that consumer affordability is “essential”, the overarching theme of the EPP is that tariffs must be high enough to allow licensees (the largest and most important of which is Eskom) to recover all operating costs and maintain financial sustainability. Despite the supposed commitment to only allowing licensees to claim “efficient” costs, there is no indication that in future Eskom will no longer be allowed to claim costs such as the enormous historical cost overruns on the Medupi and Kusile builds (due in large part to corruption and mismanagement and estimated to be around R200bn), or its overpriced coal contracts, or that the department of electricity and energy (as shareholder) will closely monitor all of Eskom’s expenditure to ensure maximum efficiency.

South Africa is currently producing excess electricity: demand has fallen over the past 10 years as a result of rapidly increasing prices — which have resulted in consumers using less electricity or switching to cheaper embedded generation — and a stagnant economy

Eskom’s current profitability (celebrated by the department) has come at the expense of deepening household poverty through steep electricity price increases. This trend is unlikely to change under the EPP, which appears to place Eskom’s financial sustainability over all other outcomes.

This approach essentially guarantees that the 40% of households living below the lower-bound poverty line will never have access to affordable electricity without a separate subsidy scheme. The FBE subsidy is thus a crucial tool for achieving affordability. However, the current level is too low — only 50kWh per household per month — and well below what is required for a basic standard of living or to support modest livelihood strategies. Prior to the release of the EPP the minister stated clearly that the EPP would increase the FBE, perhaps up to 200kWh or 300kWh per month. However, the published EPP contains no such proposal at all, merely a vague reference that the state will “review” the subsidy at some unspecified future point.

In addition to the fact that the FBE allowance is too low, the implementation of the subsidy has been very poor: municipalities receive funding for the subsidy from national budget allocations, but only pass it on to around 30% of eligible beneficiaries. The department of electricity and energy has never taken any steps to improve this, despite the fact that it is the “owner” of this policy. Poor households have been deprived of tens of billions of rand of (already funded) benefits as a result.

South Africa is currently producing excess electricity: demand has fallen over the past 10 years as a result of rapidly increasing prices — which have resulted in consumers using less electricity or switching to cheaper embedded generation — and a stagnant economy. Eskom estimates that excess capacity is around 5,000MW to 7,000MW per day, but only during certain off-peak periods, and that more than 5TWh of electricity could be curtailed by 2028.

Curtailment comes at a cost that must be covered. The solution? Sell the excess power at deeply discounted rates. This could be an outstanding policy initiative to support the electricity users that need this support the most — low-income households and small businesses. The knock-on development impact could be considerable: improved household food security, an increase in small enterprise activity and supporting a wide range of livelihood strategies.

In Australia, excess generation by solar producers has resulted in a programme that allocates eligible households three hours of free electricity each day within the peak solar generation times around midday, up to a maximum of 720kWh per household per month.

But what has South Africa decided to do? To sell the excess power at a deep discount to cryptocurrency mining companies to encourage the growth of these businesses in South Africa. This is an industry that will generate very little new employment and that also requires large amounts of water, which South Africa cannot spare. The only beneficiaries of this policy will be the shareholders of these companies. How can the department of electricity and energy square its supposed commitment to more affordable energy for those who need it the most while proposing these kinds of “solutions”?

The minister has himself highlighted the contradiction between excess energy generation and millions of users who cannot afford electricity, while still supporting this cryptocurrency “solution” rather than embracing innovative solutions around how excess electricity could increase affordability for those in greatest need.

We need an energy sector that directly supports the national development agenda — the aspirations set out in the constitution and the national development plan — and does not erase these to support the interests of a small number of vested interests

Yet another potential policy supported by the minister is carbon capture technology, to reduce the emissions of coal-fired power stations so that they can operate longer. Apart from the obvious point that if we are anticipating an excess generation problem there is little reason to extend the life of ageing coal plants — particularly when considered against the backdrop of the enormous amount of cheaper renewable power available as an alternative — carbon capture greatly increases the cost of electricity generation.

It also increases the amount of water required: Eskom’s coal-fired power plants already consume 3% of South Africa’s total freshwater resources, and almost a third of allocated water in western Mpumalanga. Implementing carbon capture would result in more expensive electricity tariffs and less water available for the rest of South Africa.

The minister is correct in his repeated statements that affordability of electricity is essential to socioeconomic development and one of the priority issues to be tackled in energy market reform. But until this translates into concrete policy and action it is worthless for the millions of South African households and businesses that urgently need change.

What is needed is a “developmental” energy sector. Energy is the critical input that facilitates socioeconomic progress and equity. We need an energy sector that directly supports the national development agenda — the aspirations set out in the constitution and the national development plan — and does not erase these to support the interests of a small number of vested interests.

• Ledger is head of Just Transition, Public Affairs Research Institute.

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The decades-old US blockade of Cuba is so punitive and inhumane that it warrants key debates at the UN General Assembly. The 34th vote on a resolution to condemn the economic embargo takes place in New York on October 27-28, as Cuba’s very survival is in extreme danger.

Imposed in 1962 after the failed US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, the blockade has run alongside CIA-orchestrated terrorist attacks. It is a ruthless economic war of collective punishment, aimed at causing a humanitarian crisis and regime change short of invasion — though that possibility cannot be ruled out.

Cuba’s resolution calls for an end to the embargo. Though nonbinding, the vote carries great weight in solidarity and pressure.

Since 2000 around 180 countries have consistently voted in favour, with only the US and Israel against, despite Trump-era lobbying and outright bribery. Last year saw 165 in favour, seven against and 12 abstentions owing to US strong-arm persuasion. Having got his way in Greenland and Venezuela, Trump’s ambitions now turn to Cuba — once and for all.

Cuba estimates the blockade’s cost from March 2025 to February 2026 at a record $8.083bn (about R134bn), up 7%. This is a consequence of Trump’s administration adding an energy blockade, threatening sanctions on any tanker delivering oil, secondary sanctions on third-country companies trading with Cuba, and continued listing of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. Cuba survives on two to three hours of electricity a day, and more than 7,000 containers of medicine are stuck as shipping lines won’t dock.

US military aggression, threatened at extremely dangerous levels, would bring a humanitarian catastrophe and bloodbath

Cuba’s crime in US eyes is Fidel Castro’s 1960 revolution that overthrew tyranny, broke free of US domination and chose socialism and international solidarity — including assisting Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe against colonial racism — which the US calls terrorism.

On January 8 Trump said: “I don’t think you can put much more pressure on them, except to go in and tear the place apart.” Secretary of state Marco Rubio, primarily responsible for this macabre assault, openly says the aim is to close off every way out for Cuba.

Trump’s executive order of January 29 imposed the energy blockade, authorising tariffs on any country supplying oil to Cuba, on the absurd pretext that Cuba is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security. A further order on May 1 imposed “secondary” sanctions on foreign entities in strategic sectors — energy, mining, finance, security and defence — launching a veritable witch-hunt against anyone doing business with Cuba. UN human rights bodies warn that health care and food and water systems, heavily reliant on imported fuel, are jeopardised.

The suffering is borne out by the statistics that include deaths from a lack of medicines Cuba once produced and supplied free or cheaply; more than 118,000 cancer patients, including 1,200 children, denied first-line treatments; and infant mortality up from four or five to 9.3 per 1,000 live births — 1,780 preventable newborn deaths.

Supporting Cuba today is an act of courage, justice and historical responsibility that upholds international law

US military aggression, threatened at extremely dangerous levels, would bring a humanitarian catastrophe and bloodbath. No foreign bases or troops operate against the US from Cuba; the only foreign base is Guantánamo, occupied by the US against the Cuban people’s will.

As President Miguel Díaz-Canel declared: “Cuba is a peaceful country. We have no desire for war, and we have demonstrated our solidarity with many peoples around the world. We are not a nation at war; we are not a colony; and we will not give up our sovereignty or our independence.”

Cuba’s feat in withstanding such a siege inspires admiration across the globe. Having survived the collapse of its Soviet ally, it is replacing oil-driven energy with solar power and new agricultural methods, largely with China’s assistance. Its people will prevail.

Supporting Cuba today is an act of courage, justice and historical responsibility that upholds international law.

South Africa’s “Cuba Solidarity Now” initiative funded solar systems for a clinic and an elderly-care home in Villa Clara province and delivered 20t of food to three hospitals; the National Union of Mineworkers contributed food; Friends of Cuba members delivered medicines; and the government has sought ways round the blockade.

At the UN General Assembly in September, minister of international relations & co-operation Ronald Lamola said South Africa was deeply concerned at “the wielding of economic weapons to coerce countries into abandoning their chosen development trajectories. The suffering of the Cuban people should command our deepest solidarity. We reiterate our call for an end to the blockade on the Cuban people.”

South Africa’s government and civil society must continue this principled solidarity, mobilising support in Africa and globally for a resounding rebuff of the blockade at the UN meeting on October 27-28.

Cuba stood with Africa when our freedom hung in the balance. Now Africa must stand with Cuba — end the blockade, hands off Cuba and let the island that taught the world solidarity live free.

• Struggle veteran and author Ronnie Kasrils is a former minister of intelligence services

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A private rail operator can insure every locomotive and wagon it owns, yet still suffer a serious loss without damage to a single one. All it takes is a critical route becoming unavailable.

Transnet moved 167.9Mt of freight by rail in the year to end-March, up 4.9% on the previous year. Its first 11 private operators have signed access agreements across five corridors, with train paths expected to add capacity for another 24Mt a year.

Applications for the next round of paths remain open until December 31. More trains should bring more freight onto rail. They will also bring more operators onto infrastructure they do not control.

We have seen how long a damaged line can be out of full service. Flooding closed part of the Cape main line between Worcester and De Doorns in July 2024. According to Transnet, it returned to full capacity only in September that year, after work that included stabilising embankments and rebuilding sections of track. An operator planning a service on a critical route must consider what a closure of that length would mean for its customers and revenue.

South Africa’s Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM) directs the restoration of services and may offer an alternative train path where possible. But another path may not suit the cargo or be available when several operators need it. One closed section can disrupt more than one timetable.

A mine may miss a shipping window. A manufacturer may be waiting for material needed on a production line

The effect does not end with the trains. A mine may miss a shipping window. A manufacturer may be waiting for material needed on a production line. Behind those schedules are people trying to keep orders, shifts and deliveries on track. The rolling stock can remain undamaged while the consequences travel much further.

A damaged track is not the only way a route can become unavailable. A signalling failure could also stop trains while the operator’s assets remain intact. Operators need to examine the sections of network their services depend on, and what alternatives they would have if one fails.

The published rail access agreement adds a contractual question. It limits claims between the infrastructure manager and an operator for economic losses, including lost turnover and profit.

Operators should establish which losses they may have to carry themselves, even when a failure occurs on infrastructure outside their control, and check the wording of their own signed agreements.

Insurance arrangements also need attention well before services start. Under the published agreement, operators must provide insurance certificates and policy documents three calendar months before their service commencement date. TRIM may assess whether the cover is adequate and require shortcomings to be addressed.

The assets themselves bring further questions. If several locomotives and wagons are stored together, a single fire or flood could damage them all. Where they are financed, the basis on which a policy values them should be checked against the lender’s requirements and the cost of replacing them.

There is good reason to welcome more freight on rail. But before an operator signs up to a route, it needs to understand what can stop that route working, what the contract leaves it responsible for and how it will meet the commitments made to the businesses and people waiting at the other end.

• Botha is senior corporate underwriting and reinsurance manager at Alpha

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This week, finance minister Enoch Godongwana delivered his medium-term budget policy statement, colloquially referred to as the mini budget. It came against the backdrop of a tough global economic environment, including the situation in the Middle East, a domestic economy that continues to underperform and the rising cost of living.

But addressing parliament on Wednesday, Godongwana tabled a surprising mini budget that struck the essential chords. He reported that public debt had stabilised at around 78% of GDP, with the National Treasury operating on a budget surplus over the past three years, largely thanks to a tax windfall from corporates and dividends tax paid by mining companies off the back of high commodity prices.

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has, since the beginning of this financial year in April, collected R17bn more than had been projected in the February budget, and Godongwana expects to rake in even more.

It was for this reason, among others, that he was able to add more money to public spending, allocating at least R20bn to provinces to cover the rising cost of health care and education, more than R500m to judicial commissions such as the Madlanga commission, and plugging the health budget hole with more than R500m.

He expects the economy to grow by a meagre 1.2%, hardly sufficient to reverse the unemployment tide

But crucially, he managed to find at least R10bn to provide temporary relief to hard-pressed consumers suffocated by the soaring fuel price, dropping the fuel levy by R3 and R1.50 for diesel and petrol, respectively, from next month. He has proposed further relief for December of R1.50 for diesel and R1 for petrol.

But Godongwana’s numbers and policy proposals disappointed where it mattered the most — economic growth. He did not present tangible measures to grow the economy to levels strong enough to create jobs. He expects the economy to grow by a meagre 1.2%, hardly sufficient to reverse the unemployment tide.

And so, without significantly faster economic growth, Godongwana will continue having to strike a balance between stabilising public debt, paying the social wage and repeatedly providing relief to hard-pressed consumers.

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Days after more than 400 residents of Bronkhorstspruit fell ill after drinking tap water, the authorities leapt into action in a show of concern no doubt influenced by the local government elections looming on November 4.

Ministers addressed media conferences, site visits were arranged and public and private sector experts roped in. Officials were summoned to parliament to account for the disaster that made so many people sick, including children.

The debacle provided insight, as if that were still necessary, into the lack of service delivery and the absence of concern for the common people that has become the hallmark of too many of our local governments.

This avoidable crisis suddenly concentrated the minds and energies of our politicians and officials, raising the question of where the expertise and hands-on approach were earlier.

After all the verbal gymnastics, buck-passing and blame, is the public any closer to knowing who is responsible for the outrage?

Instead, as is customary, the political behemoth that passes for oversight over our stricken municipalities lumbered through the motions. This provides a veneer of institutional accountability, but we must not overlook the role of individuals tasked with protecting public welfare.

How galling to see politicians drinking expensive bottled water while residents are forced to endure the murky liquid that comes from taps in too many locations

Questions remain: who will be held responsible for the treatment plant pumping unchlorinated, sewage-contaminated water to residents’ taps between September 24 and October 14? Why were residents only officially told on October 20 — after a whistleblower alert and opposition pressure — that the water was unsafe?

We are told there was a dispute over the price of chlorine for the plant. This was not communicated to metro authorities, who claimed ignorance, even though the chlorine-pricing matter arose a year earlier. Someone in authority should have had the good sense to keep an eye on the issue.

Heads must roll. But will they? Tshwane has been here before.

In 2023, a deadly outbreak of cholera arising from the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant claimed the lives of up to 47 people. Investigations were launched, and five top officials had a month’s salary docked. To its credit, though, and after a Special Investigating Unit probe, the metro has undertaken to seek harsher and more appropriate sanctions against those involved after their slap on the wrist.

In the background, the Tshwane “water mafia”, which has been paid upwards of R700m in recent years, benefits handsomely from residents’ pain and inconvenience and the metro’s inability to provide this most basic of services. Ordinary South Africans perceive a clear link between water tankers and broken water plants. Who can blame them?

Tshwane and other municipalities must wake up to the fact that ordinary residents have no option but to use the water they are supplied. How galling to see politicians drinking expensive bottled water while residents are forced to endure the murky liquid that comes from taps in too many locations.

Where is the care, the ubuntu, that we pride ourselves on?

The failure to purchase chlorine; to attend to long-standing systemic risks and warn residents of the danger is a clear offence to the public good. With the electricity crisis now partly resolved, the water crisis looms larger, demanding expertise, considerable investment and urgent action to restore or replace ageing infrastructure.

The Water Institute of Southern Africa warns that our wastewater treatment plants are in a state of crisis, with nearly half of assessed facilities failing regulatory standards.

Fewer than 3% of roughly 850 wastewater treatment plants have achieved Green Drop excellence status, with about 39% of plants operating in a critical condition, 24% in poor condition, 22% average, and 11% good. National microbiological compliance sits at about 35%, meaning treated effluent frequently discharges high levels of faecal bacteria into local rivers and water sources.

What has happened in Tshwane should serve as a warning that we are on the cusp of a human catastrophe.

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Enzo Maresca was left to lament his Manchester City side’s wastefulness and the two ‌avoidable goals ⁠that saw their perfect start to the Premier League season abruptly ended by Aston Villa yesterday.

City suffered a 2-1 defeat despite ​them dominating large stretches of the contest, with Nicolas Jackson scoring both goals for the home team, while Erling Haaland headed home from Iliman Ndiaye’s cross for City’s lone goal.

“The performance overall was good, with the amount of chances we created. Absolutely, both [goals were avoidable],” Maresca said.

“Sometimes you have to be a bit more lucky because we only conceded those two chances. We played most of the game in their box but you have to be clinical and avoid ​mistakes like the two ​goals we conceded.”

Today was ​a really good ⁠test; I was so excited for this test. Today is one step forward

Unai Emery, Aston Villa coach

City arrived in Birmingham having won all seven of ‌their league matches, but a pair of defensive blunders gave Aston Villa their chances, and they took both.

The result was particularly frustrating for City given the balance ​of play. They registered seven shots on target to Villa’s two and repeatedly forced ⁠Zion Suzuki into action, but the Japan goalkeeper produced a string of excellent saves to preserve the hosts’ ​lead.

Villa’s good test

For Villa, after ⁠a turbulent summer of arrivals and departures — including goalkeeper Emi Martinez, who went to Chelsea — there were finally signs that Unai Emery’s rebuilt side were beginning to settle after ​a poor league start of three losses from their first four games.

“Today was ​a really good ⁠test; I was so excited for this test. Today is one step forward,” Emery said.

Defending champions Arsenal went level on 21 points with City at the top of the table, thanks to a clinical 2-0 win against Everton at the Emirates Stadium in London.

The Gunners’ goals came from their centre-backs, Ezri Konsa and Gabriel Magalhães. For Konsa, it was his first since joining the club at the start of the season.

It was also Arsenal’s first goal from a set piece in the league this season, while Gabriel’s 68th header, via a brilliant cross from Ben White, came on the occasion of his 200th appearance for the club.

Fulham earned a second consecutive win to ease the pressure on manager Álvaro Arbeloa, with a 1-0 victory at Coventry City.

Norwegian winger Oscar Bobb produced a lovely piece of skill to deceive the Coventry defence before thumping a left-footed shot in the corner of the goal.

Fulham, who were bottom of the table before last week’s 1-0 win over another promoted side, Hull City, moved to 12th place with yesterday’s result.

Reuters

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Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso is under intense scrutiny following the defending champions’ embarrassing exit from the Caf Champions League at the preliminary stage.

Cardoso’s situation is dicey for Sundowns bosses because he recently delivered this tournament, the Fifa African-Asian-Pacific Cup and MTN8.

These recent successes may be enough to buy him time, and they have more to chew on with the Carling Knockout Cup, Caf Super Cup, Fifa Challenger Cup and Nedbank Cup on the menu.

Cardoso said the away-goals rule (1-1) loss to Wiliete SC of Angola hurts because they wanted to defend the continental trophy. Their exit may be a blessing in disguise, as they can turn their attention to reclaiming the Betway Premiership from Orlando Pirates.

Great empires come from the ashes; it was like that after the First and Second World Wars — Miguel Cardoso, Mamelodi Sundowns coach

The Buccaneers will have more matches on their schedule after comfortably qualifying for the Group Stages with a 5-0 aggregate thrashing of the Namibian minnows, African Stars, at Orlando Stadium.

As he surveyed the wreckage of their exit, Cardoso called for collective responsibility and vowed they will bounce back stronger because of what is at stake for the remainder of the season. “For the remainder of the season, we have to focus more on the competitions that we have to play.

“We have a match in the Carling Knockout Cup in three days. After that, we have the league, and later is the final of the Super Cup.”

'It's a failure,' - Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso after they were knocked out of the Champions League.

WATCH press conference on #PrimeSportsWithMahlatseTV ➡️➡️➡️https://t.co/pQ2PhkjW22 pic.twitter.com/Z1DgwEF4pl

— Mahlatse Mphahlele (@BraMahlatse) October 23, 2026

Important lessons learned

Cardoso, who has been to the last three Champions League finals, added that important lessons were learned from this experience. “There are still a lot of trophies to play for this season, but we must not forget what it means to be out of the Champions League.

“It is hard for the club, coaches... and you can imagine myself after making it to the final for three years in a row. It is very hard for the club that is supposed to have made it to the group stages for another season.

“Great empires come from the ashes; it was like that after the First and Second World Wars. That is what we need to take to the locker room and focus [on].

“It’s failure from everybody, and we should embrace it from the coaches and everybody. I want to state how it is a failure because I don’t want to give you the opportunity just to say that. We controlled the match but we just failed to score.

“If you count all the opportunities that we had inside the box, we should have converted to influence the result. When you don’t finish the situations that you have, you stay exposed to anything.”

A gift for fans

Meanwhile, Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou dedicated his team’s progression to their supporters, saying their plan was to go all the way.

“It is a gift for our fans, but now we have to be ambitious and try to go far in the competition because anything is possible. I have said it many times that you have to dream big if you want to achieve something.”

Ouaddou is excited about the challenge that he and his players will face in Africa’s most prestigious club competition. “It’s the first time for me coaching in the group stages of the Champions League; it’s a big challenge for me and the players.

“I failed last season to go through to the group stages, and I took responsibility for that as the head coach.”

Ouaddou added that their away goal was vital. “We were really prepared well for this second leg. The boys did well in the first leg in Botswana, where we scored the important away goal.

More goals

“But at the same time, I told the boys that we are not going to protect that away goal. I told them we must score more goals in order to control the game, and that’s what they did.”

Qualification for the group stages is important because Nkosinathi Sibisi, Lebone Seema, Oswin Appollis, Thalente Mbatha, Tshepang Moremi, Yanela Mbuthuma, Boitumelo Radiopane and Evidence Makgopa are going to earn valuable continental experience for Bafana Bafana.

Kaizer Chiefs were eliminated from the Confederation Cup after they lost 3-2 to Zambian side Red Arrows on penalties at Moses Mabhida Stadium.

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Despite Temba Bavuma’s heroics in Gqeberha, concerns remain about South Africa’s batting ahead of the series decider against Australia on Tuesday at Newlands.

If the Proteas are going to prevail, it will take more than just Bavuma and Aiden Markram — their two best batters in the last three years — to score runs.

While it’s Australia’s vulnerable batting line-up that has been in the spotlight after Gqeberha, South Africa’s batters are certainly not out of the woods.

It’s unlikely there’ll be any change to the top six for Cape Town. Bavuma’s defining 179 in the second Test will have bought time for the likes of David Bedingham, Marques Ackerman and Matthew Breetzke.

Wiaan Mulder has not lit up the series with the bat either, but his value with the ball gives him grace.

We’ve been heavily reliant on Temba and Aiden, and then lower-order runs — Shukri Conrad, Proteas coach

Bavuma and coach Shukri Conrad are desperate to create a semblance of stability with the batting, having chopped and changed often in South Africa’s last six Tests. Tristan Stubbs batted in three different positions in those matches; Mulder has batted at No 3 and at 6, Tony de Zorzi has played at 4 and 5 and Dewald Brevis at 5 and 6 in Pakistan.

Semblance of stability

Notwithstanding decisions made for different conditions, that is asking a lot of the players, especially inexperienced ones like Stubbs and Brevis.

Besides Markram, the only semblance of stability in the batting has been Bavuma at No 4 and, weirdly, Senuran Muthusamy, who batted at No 7 three times in Pakistan and India.

Markram has been getting to know a fourth new opening partner in the last three years in Ackerman, while Bedingham is the sixth different occupant of the No 3 spot in the same period.

“We’ve been heavily reliant on Temba and Aiden, and then lower-order runs,” Conrad presciently remarked after defeat in the first Test.

The astonishing turnaround in Gqeberha resulted from exactly those two areas. Bavuma’s career-best innings was ably supported by No 8 Marco Jansen’s fearless 85 and No 9 Simon Harmer’s sturdy 82.

Red flags

But the position the Proteas found themselves in at 110/6, which followed two poor batting displays in Durban, means red flags are still fluttering.

Bedingham’s knocks of 49 and 46, along with his good form this year for both Durham and Western Province, should make persevering with him at No 3 a no-brainer, even beyond the Cape Town Test. Others in the top seven have not inspired confidence so far. In a combined 11 innings in the current series, Stubbs, Verreynne, Ackermann, Breetzke, Rickleton and Mulder have scored 162 runs.

“You definitely have many conversations, I think, obviously. When you front up to the media, you try to keep a steely face, but when you’re there alone in your room, you know you can’t kind of lie to yourself,” Bavuma said of his approach after the defeat in Durban.

A similar attitude will have to be adopted leading up to Tuesday’s start. “The strengthening of our belief — we will definitely take that [into the third Test,” the skipper added.

The Proteas will make one change to the team for Cape Town after confirming yesterday that Anrich Nortje had picked up a mild groin injury in Gqeberha. The obvious choice is between Corbin Bosch and Gerald Coetzee. Bosch offers some prowess with the bat in addition to being able to bowl at 140km/h, while Coetzee is marginally quicker but possesses a more fiery temperament.

What has so far been a relatively quiet series may turn more raucous at Newlands, given what’s at stake for both teams. Australia is returning to the scene of the crime and will be confronted with the Sandpaper saga in a more visceral manner than at any point previously on the tour.

A little argy-bargy

There were signs in Gqeberha of a more competitive edge between the players, highlighted by Jansen and Marnus Labuschagne exchanging words.

“There’s obviously certain individuals within the team who enjoy a little argy-bargy and you allow those guys to go about doing that within the rules, obviously. From the Australians, yeah, I guess there was a little bit more verbal chatter,” said Bavuma.

The defeat at St George’s Park has raised the volume even more for changes to Australia’s batting order, creating a level of pressure with which their cool captain Pat Cummins has rarely dealt.

England certainly didn’t do so last summer, and even the shocking loss to Bangladesh on home soil in August could be explained away as rustiness.

Labuschagne, one of the batters under the most scrutiny, following three scores in the 30s in the series, earned subtle backing from his captain after the poor shot that led to his dismissal in the second innings in Gqeberha.

“He’s actually doing the hard bit — he’s getting to the 30s. He’s got to find a way to turn those into bigger scores. Thirties aren’t going to win you too many matches,” said Cummins.

Hatton joined LIV ​in 2024 and had one tournament win — LIV Nashville — that same year. He was part of captain Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII, winner of the 2025 season championship. “I wanted to confirm that I will not be a part of LIV 2.0,” he posted on Instagram on Friday.

“A big thank you to everyone for continued support. I am excited for what the next chapter of my career holds.”

On the same day, Poulter confirmed he also would not play in the competition in the future.

“Ultimately, the opportunity to spend more time at home with my family, reduce international travel, focus on senior golf and have the opportunity to pursue other interests was something that I felt was right for me at this stage of my life and career,” he said in an Instagram post.

Poulter was among the first players to sign with LIV Golf at its inception in 2022. He and countryman Lee Westwood have been two of ​the most outspoken supporters of the Saudi-backed league, which has been accused by many critics of dividing the professional golf world.

More changes ahead

“Change is never easy, and it’s fair to say professional golf has experienced plenty of it over the last few years. But I’ve always believed that change can create opportunity and ultimately lead to positive outcomes,” Poulter wrote.

“There will undoubtedly be more changes ahead, but I am confident the game will continue to grow, evolve, and deliver the very best for golf fans around the world.”

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced earlier this year that it would end its financial support of LIV Golf.

CEO Scott O’Neil has lined up funding for LIV 2.0 as the league goes through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, with plans to play a 10-event schedule in 2027 that includes five events in the US and five internationally.

However, Hatton, Poulter and Tom McKibbin join a ​growing list of players who will not return that includes Rahm, Sergio Garcia and David Puig of Spain.

South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Brendan Grace have also stated they’d no longer be part of the tour. Other marquee names, ​including Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann, have not declared yet what they intend to do ahead of today’s deadline. - Reuters