The Weekend View

The South African National Defence Force - SANDF- has announced the names of the   soldiers killed in Eastern DRC during the recent battle with M23 rebels who had attacked their base in Sake. In a statement released LAST NIGHT, the number of soldiers who died has now risen from 13 to 14 after one more succumbed to injuries in hospital.

The rebel leader whose fighters have captured Goma, the biggest city in eastern DRC, has vowed to continue their offensive all the way to the capital, Kinshasa. Corneille Nangaa, who heads an alliance of rebel groups that includes the M23, has announced that their ultimate aim is to topple President Félix Tshisekedi's government. Both the UN and the southern African regional bloc SADC have...

Bus operator PUTCO expects to fully resume operations TOMORROW morning (MONDAY) following the torching of 51 of their buses in Mpumalanga last Monday. The arson threatened to disrupt the company's over 20 thousand commuters. The torched buses represent 10% of the nearly 500-strong fleet operating in the area. Police earlier this week announced the arrest of two suspects linked to the fiery attack....

North West police YESTERDAY announced the arrest of four police officers, believed to have aided the so-called Stilfontein illegal mining kingpin Neo Tshoaeli. Tshoaeli who is popularly known as Tiger, escaped after being retrieved from underground at shaft 11, during the government led retrieval operation. Bongiwe Zwane spoke to North West SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone 

81% of cyber breaches in 2022 were due to weak, reused, or stolen passwords. Experts say  78% of the world's most common passwords can be cracked in less than a second. Even more worrying is that the most common password in South Africa is 123456. To unpack how weak passwords leave South Africans vulnerable to cyberattacks, Bongiwe Zwane spoke to  Yaron Assabi, Founder and CEO of Digital...

Power utility Eskom has announced the start of stage three loadshedding. The rolling blackouts started on FRIDAY at five in the evening and will be implemented until Sunday at midnight. Eskom cites unexpected breakdowns due to boiler tube failures at some of its power stations. The power cuts follow 10- months of uninterrupted power supply. For the latest Bongiwe Zwane spoke to Daphne Mokwena, Esk...

The Southern African Development Community - SADC - has resolved to seek further dialogue with East African to deliberate on the way forward regarding the security situation in the DRC. This came at the end end of a one day SADC summit held in Harare, Zimbabwe YESTERDAY. The leaders of the region, including President Cyril Ramaphosa also called for the immediate dispatch of ministers of defence, C...

The Soul City Institute for Social Justice is deeply alarmed by the reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule and the pause of foreign aid funding under the new Trump administration. The decision by the world's single largest donor has sent shockwaves across the world.  The Gag Rule prohibits U.S. federal funding to foreign organisations that provide, promote, or even discuss abortion services as...

Gauteng residents have been complaining about experiencing too many flies in their homes, leaving many frustrated people searching for solutions. ..According to Pest control experts at Rentokil , flies such as fruit flies, drain flies and ever-present house flies can transmit a multitude of different pathogens.  They pose a health risk to humans, pets and livestock and can infest your homes a...

With just  a week before the 2025 academic year starts, the country's universities are at an advanced stage of preparedness following record applications that were, in some cases, reported to be 30 times higher than they can accommodate. Some reports say more than 100 000 recent matriculants cannot be placed at South Africa's public universities as the number of bachelor passes exceed the spa...

DA  leader John Steenhuisen says the party has invoked section 19-3 of the statement of intent of the Government of National Unity agreement that regulates the relations in the GNU amid differences over the Expropriation Act and other legislation. At a media briefing yesterday he added that the DA will not be reduced to being mere spectators and it will have to seriously consider their next s...

While some political parties have welcomed the enactment of the Expropriation Bill, some including those in the GNU, have voiced strong opposition with the DA threatening legal action against the government it is a part of. This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa's signing of the contentious Expropriation Bill into law on Thursday. The DA's very own Dean Macpherson will be responsible for enforcing...

After going unrecognised for more than a century, hundreds of South African servicemen, mostly black, who died during World War One, have been honoured with a new memorial unveiled in Cape Town THIS WEEK. The 1,772 men worked in dangerous non-combatant roles in East Africa but until now, they had no known grave or commemoration. Individually engraved timber posts now bear each serviceman's name at...

As South Africa continues to celebrate 2024's record-breaking matric results and starts the new school year, the Zero Dropout Campaign says the country still needs to interrogate the progress of the education system not just over the past year, but the past 30 years. Despite this improvement and South Africa's large investment in basic education, an estimated four in ten learners who enrol in Grad...

Mozambique's police chief Bernadino Rafael has been sacked, following allegations of brutality during October's disputed election and its aftermath. He has denied claims by prominent opposition figures that he had worked with criminal groups to kidnap and kill  close to 300 civilian protesters in recent months. The country's new President Daniel Chapo, who took office last week, announced Raf...

The Furore over the 30 percent matric pass mark continued THIS WEEK with Build One South Africa - BOSA - leader Mmusi Maimane announcing that his party had joined hands with some of those who are calling on government to scrap the system. Maimane says  a 30% pass mark does not prepare learners to be ready for employment after school. He says he has received a petition signed by some parents a...

A new year of lunar exploration kicked off THIS WEEK, when two robotic landers and a small rover began their journeys to the moon. A SpaceX rocket lifted off on Wednesday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, launching two separate, uncrewed missions to the lunar surface. One of the missions, Blue Ghost, was developed by a US -based company Firefly Aerospace while the other mission, Resilienc...

South Africa has been facing a severe unemployment crisis that affects millions, particularly the youth, for nearly a decade. And so it comes as no surprise that there is also a crippling shortage of medical professionals with experts in the field saying this is unacceptable.  The shortage results in a strained healthcare system. Dr Bulela Vava, Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in South Afri...

A ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is set to come into effect THIS MORNING with a hostage release to follow hours later, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended the Middle East. While the ceasefire deal has been welcomed around the globe,  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu LAST NIGHT threatened to resume the war against Hamas should talks for a s...

TOMORROW (January 20),  Donald Trump will assume the presidency of the United States of America for the second time. The world will be keenly watching the changing of the guard between the returning president and Joe Biden as he has already promised to "make heads spin" with the speed of his decision-making immediately after his inauguration. Many of Trump's initial orders are expected to foc...

With the resurgence of online shopping in South Africa, online shoppers  are being urged to remain vigilant as online scams are on the rise. Industry experts say fraudulent activity has increased across the country. With platforms like Temu and Shein, criminals have found new opportunities to exploit unsuspecting consumers. Bongiwe Zwane spoke to Garry Marshall, CEO of the South African Expre...

Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party THIS WEEK announced a plan to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa's term in office by two years until 2030. A Zanu PF parliamentarian on WEDNESDAY confirmed that efforts are being made by the ruling party and a faction of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) to amend the Zimbabwe Constitution in order to extend the term of office of the president. The...

Police ended their rescue operation at the abandoned Stilfontein mine in the North West THIS WEEK, bringing out all the survivors and retrieving all the bodies after hundreds of miners were trapped for months in the mine while working illegally. Police announced on Thursday that 246 survivors had been rescued and 78 miners were confirmed dead. The announcement brought a sudden end to a disaster th...

The announced closure of ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA), long steel production from the Newcastle blast furnace could significantly affect the South African automotive sector, a cornerstone of the country's economy. That is according to the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers. NAACAM says AMSA's short-notice announcement that the plant will close at the end of...

Spanish football giants, Real Madrid Foundation, in partnership with Generation Schools, is launching their world-renowned football academy in Imhoff, Cape Town. Enrolments for the 2025 academic year will open soon. The partnership marks a significant milestone in South African sports education, as the academy will be offering young athletes the opportunity to experience elite-level training guide...