Daily Maverick

South Africa is going into an El Niño drought season with the largest maize harvest in its history: 17.6 million tonnes, against annual needs of about 12 million. In this Business Chat, business editor Lindsey speaks to Wandile Sihlobo, agriculture and land envoy and chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber, about what that means for farmers and consumers. He explains why foot-and-mout...

Five mature baobabs were dug up in Limpopo without permits, trucked 800km to Durban and left on their sides in a logistics car park for three months. Their destination: allegedly, Georgia, on the Black Sea. Environmental journalist Tony Carnie got an anonymous tip-off, photographed the trees through a fence and followed the trail to a private botanical park owned by former Georgian prime minister...

In this Daily Maverick Power Chat, recorded as votes from the 4 November local government elections were being counted, Ferial Haffajee and Mondli Makhanya discuss early projections and the US midterm results. Makhanya reports from the national results centre, where projections indicate the DA is positioned to govern the three Gauteng metros in coalition and ActionSA has gained ground. They examin...

In this Daily Maverick Power Chat, Peter Fabricius speaks to Judge Navi Pillay from her hometown of Durban. On 9 October 2026, Pillay was announced as the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. She is a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and is now an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice. Join the conversation in the comments below! Hosted by: Peter Fabricius Guest: Nobel la...

In this Daily Maverick Power Chat, part of a series marking 30 years of the Constitution, Ferial Haffajee speaks to Kallie Kriel of AfriForum about the preamble’s vision that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. They discuss the organisation’s lobbying in the United States, the Expropriation Act, the “Kill the Boer” court case, the risk of South Africa's exclusion from Agoa, and whether Afr...

In this Daily Maverick Power Chat, recorded a week before the 4 November local elections, Ferial Haffajee and Mondli Makhanya discuss the ANC’s campaign and its declining support in the metros. Haffajee reports from an ANC Johannesburg fundraiser that served as a soft launch for Reverend Frank Chikane’s mayoral campaign. They look at News24’s report on DA internal polls indicating the party may be...

In the first episode of Daily Maverick’s Beyond the Lead, Tamsin Metelerkamp and Lerato Mutsila speak to parliamentary journalist Marianne Merten about the Constitutional Court’s 15 October ruling in the ANC’s dispute with the IEC. The ruling returns 181 ANC candidates in six municipalities to the ballot for the 4 November local government elections, after the party did not complete the final subm...

In this Daily Maverick Power Chat, Ferial Haffajee and Mondli Makhanya assess four opinion polls ahead of the 4 November local government elections. All four point to a continued decline in ANC support, with the DA polling between 25% and 27% and the MK Party between 12% and 15%. They discuss President Cyril Ramaphosa’s focus on national reforms, the DA’s Johannesburg campaign under mayoral candid...

In this Daily Maverick Power Chat, Ferial Haffajee presses Ernst Roets of the think tank Lex Libertas about his group’s recent campaign in the United States. She asks why its Washington vigil of 3,000 crosses focused on farm-attack victims, why the group took its case abroad rather than to South African institutions, and whether it bears any responsibility if South Africa loses AGOA, as President...

In July 2026, South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled that asylum seekers cannot be turned away on procedural grounds before their claims are heard. When Home Affairs began implementing the ruling in October, posts about it on X rose from about 4,000 to 60,000 a day, many carrying false claims about citizenship, grants and voting. Drawing on Murmur Intelligence data and reporting, this video exp...

In this Daily Maverick Power Chat, Ferial Haffajee and Mondli Makhanya discuss March and March, the anti-migrant movement led by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, after last week’s mobilisation in KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg. Both journalists covered the “third force” of the early 1990s, and Makhanya argues the movement’s scale points to significant funding and organised backing. They examine News24’s repo...

At least 12 women have been reported murdered in Ekurhuleni since July 2026, prompting speculation that a serial killer may be operating in Gauteng. Police have set up a task team to investigate possible links between several cases but have not confirmed whether any are connected. Daily Maverick journalist Reitumetse Pilane sets out what is known: the similarities between the cases, the arrests an...

A confidential US Drug Enforcement Administration source bought a methamphetamine sample in a Johannesburg parking lot in December 2024, evidence now central to a federal case against former Afghan politician Abdul Zahir Qadeer. Qadeer, once a general in Afghanistan’s Border Force, was arrested in Kenya in April 2025 and extradited to the United States, where he faces charges of conspiring to traf...

With less than a month until South Africa’s 4 November local government elections, Daily Maverick’s Ferial Haffajee and Mondli Makhanya assess the state of the ANC’s campaign. They also talk about Johannesburg, where recent polling suggests the DA will not win an outright majority.  Hosted by: Ferial Haffajee and Mondli Makhanya Edited by: Joel Seboa Produced by: Emilie Gambade & Joel Seb...

In this Daily Maverick Power Chat, senior journalist Rebecca Davis and Business Maverick managing editor Lindsey Schutters debate the risks of artificial intelligence. Davis argues that recent reported incidents, including AI agents hacking systems, altering their own reasoning records and acting beyond their instructions, point to genuine safety concerns. Schutters explains that much of the exist...

Over thirteen months, Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Tribunal ruled on 1,328 land-use and development cases. Not one was recorded as an explicit departure from city planners’ recommendations. The pattern surfaced in a fight over two data centres proposed near Cape Town International Airport, where objectors warned of a 174-megawatt draw on the grid and 4.4 billion litres of water a year, in commun...

Swimming South Africa withheld prize money owed to Tatjana Smith for over a year after her historic gold and silver medals at the 2023 World Championships, and allegedly failed to pay interest accrued during that delay. The federation has now agreed to pay the outstanding interest in full, following a letter of demand from Smith's attorney. The dispute has also drawn scrutiny to the federation's k...

Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa boss Lucky Montana, along with his alleged corruptors and their enablers, could be facing charges for their alleged crimes. Daily Maverick’s investigative journalist for Scorpio Pieter-Louis Myburgh explains.  RIGHT OF REPLY Wagner strongly denied any impropriety. He remained adamant that Midtownbrace had made a legitimate investment in Montana’s t...

Daily Maverick’s Tamsin Metelerkamp visited Sassa offices across five provinces to look at the agency’s intensified grant review process, launched to detect fraud. The investigation found overburdened, understaffed offices, frequent system outages, and lawful beneficiaries facing suspended payments and repeated office visits to resolve them.  Reporting by: Tamsin Metelerkamp Filmed by: Joel S...

Minutes reveal former apartheid president FW De Klerk told his final Cabinet meeting that an agreement with Nelson Mandela and the ANC on indemnity for apartheid crimes was reached 48 hours before the 1994 election – igniting accountability questions. Daily Maverick’s Marianne Thamm explains. Reporting by: Marianne Thamm Filmed by: Joel Seboa Edited by: Anda Tolibadi Produced by: Emilie Gambade&nb...

While tertiary students across South Africa demand an increase in food allowances and an accommodation cap, the upper echelon of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) appears to be operating on a vastly different budget, including eyebrow-raising spending on hotels. Siyabonga Goni reports. Reporting by: Siyabonga Goni  Filmed by: Joel Seboa  Edited by: Anda Tolibadi  Pro...

A golf course became a R3-billion logistics hub. Now it’s set to house two of Cape Town’s biggest data centres. Daily Maverick’s Lindsey Schutters reports on a R100 land-swap, a data centre reclassified as a “warehouse”, and the environmental assessment that’s been pushed down the road. Reporting by: Lindsey Schutters  Filmed by: Joel Seboa  Edited by: Anda Tolibadi  Produced by: Emilie Gambade  C...

The DA has promised to get rid of corruption in municipalities, ring-fence revenue for electricity and water, and to bring in the private sector to boost many service areas. Let’s assess its manifesto. Hosted by: Lerato Mutsila and Ferial Haffajee Edited by: Joel Seboa Produced by: Emilie Gambade & Joel Seboa Original Theme Music & Design by: Bernard Kotze You can listen to the podcast everywhere,...

The EFF is consistent on municipalities having to focus on serving the people. Good intentions, all the right words, but what does its track record reveal?  Hosted by: Lerato Mutsila and Ferial Haffajee  Edited by: Joel Seboa  Produced by: Emilie Gambade & Joel Seboa  Original Theme Music & Design by: Bernard Kotze  You can listen to the podcast everywhere, including YouTube, Apple Podcast and Spo...

South Africa’s athletes are winning on the world stage, but they’re paying for it out of their own pockets. From R120,000 tournament fees to covering official staff costs, we look into why national teams are forced to crowdfund while big-budget spending happens elsewhere. Daily Maverick’s Annemieke Thomaidis explains. Reporting by: Annemieke Thomaidis  Filmed by: Malibongwe Tyilo  Edited by: Anda...