The Weekend View

A bill to sanction senior South African government and ANC officials who support  what they call their "adversaries" was introduced in the US Congress THIS WEEK. The US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025 mandates a comprehensive review to identify South African government officials and leaders of the ANC who may be subject to sanctions for their alleged support of American ad...

The latest report from Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform,  has revealed South Africa's continues to struggle with human trafficking. The report suggests that improvements have been observed as the country has been upgraded from its position on the tier two level watch list to level tier two in 2024. The country has been reported as a hub for human trafficking as it is...

The two day National Water and Sanitation Indaba held in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, ended on Friday with government committing to work closely with municipalities across the country to speed up water infrastructure development. The indaba was convened at a time when South Africa is battling a water crisis due to ageing infrastructure, vandalism and corruption. In order to turn around the wate...

From Tuesday, 1st April 2025, South Africans will see the implementation of the increased earnings threshold that will affect all employees earning more than R261,700 per year, which is around R21 800 per month. The earnings threshold impacts the application of provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Labour Relations Act and the Employment Equity Act. In terms of the new regulati...

Zimbabwe is bracing for what has been dubbed an 'uprising' as liberation war veterans are rallying ordinary Zimbabweans to join TOMORROW's protests in their push to oust President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The former freedom fighters, who are backing Mnagagwa's deputy, Constantino Chiwenga to take over, feel that the president has reneged on his promises and presided over a struggling economy characteri...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially signed the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, ushering in major reforms to South Africa's intelligence services. The new law dissolves the State Security Agency, replacing it with two entities: the Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS) and the Domestic Intelligence Agency (DIA). It also re-establishes the National Academy of Intelligence and tightens ov...

Relations between Pretoria and Washington have been under stress since Donald Trump entered the White House 2 months ago and indications are they could turn for the worse. On 7 February 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order specifically aimed at South Africa's domestic and international policies. The decision by the US government to declare South Africa's former ambassador Ebrahim Rasool...

Nedbank is the latest bank highlighting a growing trend of fraudsters pretending to be police officers to scam unsuspecting South Africans. The bank released a fraud alert to customers   that fraudsters use vishing calls to scam customers out of their money. Vishing is short for "voice phishing- a type of cybercrime where fraudsters use phone calls or voice messages to trick victims into reve...

Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum has criticised South African judges for ruling that the "Kill the Boer" chant is not hate speech, accusing them of being ideologically biased. This after the apex court THIS WEEK refused AfriForum's bid for leave to appeal the "Kill the boer" judgment, which found that the chant did not constitute Hate Speech and dismissed the application saying it bears no reasonab...

School violence manifests itself in many forms including discipline problems such as fighting among learners, bullying, utterances of crude and sexist remarks against fellow learners and teachers, racism, stabbings, shootings at schools and even murder. According to a study by the the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation - CSVR - racialised violence is also rearing its ugly head. It...

The murder of crime activist and whistleblower Pamela Mabini, who was shot and killed in the driveway of her home in Gqeberha, has rekindled calls to address the plight of whistle-blowers who dare to report crime as well as the insuffIciency of  measures to protect them. This has also brought the conversation on the Whistleblowers Protection Bill to the forefront once again. In 2021 , the mur...

It has often been argued that tackling corruption could have a positive effect on South Africa's economy and the country's ability to deliver basic and essential services to citizens. If the state could tackle some of the current costs of corruption, this could have substantial positive effects not only for citizens' socioeconomic rights but will also relieve the endless pressure on Treasury to se...

Former South Africa's ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool is expected on home soil TODAY after his expulsion from Washington.  He was declared persona non grata and was expelled just over a week ago for comments he made about Donald Trump. The decision further tanked the diplomatic tensions between SA and the Trump administration. Some political parties and organisations are expected to welc...

South Africans strongly believe in the universality of human rights and democracy, despite perceiving an increasingly dangerous future world. This is according to a study conducted by IPSOS,  one of the largest market research and polling companies globally.  The study, conducted as part of the Halifax Security Forum's annual survey across 30 countries, shows that 8 in 10 online South Af...

The elimination of pit toilets in public schools has been an ongoing battle in South Africa. Schools across rural South Africa are still subjected to these degrading pit latrines. Plain pit toilets were banned from South African schools by the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure in 2013 and had to be removed and replaced by 2016. However, more than a decade later,...

SASSA and Postbank are advising grant beneficiaries that they will receive their money even if they have not yet migrated to the new Postbank black cards. The deadline to migrate to the new cards expired YESTERDAY and the SASSA gold cards can no longer be used to access grants. However the replacement of SASSA gold cards with Postbank black cards will continue and beneficiaries with old cards will...

This coming Friday , the 21st of March 2025 ,  marks World Down Syndrome Day.  According to Down Syndrome South Africa (DSSA),  Down syndrome is one of the most common occurring genetic conditions. It is caused by a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21, known as trisomy 21 which alters the course of development both physically and cognitively. This year DSSA will mark the day...

The Electoral Commission has set out a six-month period for further inputs and consultations on the discussion documents on e-voting, that will eventually be sent to Parliament. The IEC concluded a three-day conference on WEDNESDAY that discussed the feasibility, sustainability, and policy implications of electronic voting. More than 200 local and international delegates from various countries con...

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola says it's regrettable that the US has expelled South African ambassador in the US Ebrahim Rasool. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement of X and called Rasool a race baiting politician who hates America and President Donald Trump. President Cyril Ramaphosa's office has also called for all relevant and impacted stakeho...

The embassy of Ivory Coast in South Africa is preparing to host the first ever International Francophonie Day. The cultural event is set to put under the spotlight Ivorian gastronomy with ATTIEKE a local dish that is served around the world and is on UNESCO's list of cultural heritage of humanity, in the limelight. To tell us more about this historic event, Bongiwe Zwane spoke to Pandora Mabai, Co...

Calls for the introduction of lasting or enduring powers of attorney (LPA or EPA) into South African legislation from several quarters over many years have been falling on deaf ears. According to the Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa this is an urgent matter. As things stand, the power of attorney extended to any other person lapses when the person who extended the power loses the legal capac...

While Russian president Vladimir Putin says he agrees with the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine, he has set out a number of tough conditions for peace. Responding to a plan for a 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine agreed to earlier this week following talks with the US, Putin suggested that Ukraine should neither re-arm nor mobilise and that western military aid to Kyiv be halted during the ceasefire....

The Independent Electoral Commission - IEC - YESTERDAY issued a notice to de-register the South African Communist Party - SACP - and a host of other inactive political parties. The affected political organisations have until the 24th of March to make submissions to the Electoral Commission detailing why they should not be de-registered. The IEC says the parties did not fulfill their obligations by...

The Southern African regional bloc has said it will conclude its troop deployment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo having decided on a phased withdrawal. Leaders from the 16-nation Southern African Development Community - SADC – that has lost more than a dozen soldiers in the eastern DRC since January – held a virtual summit on THURSDAY to discuss the ongoing conflict in an area...

In South Africa alone, one out of four people will be affected by cancer in their lifetime. The increase in the number of people diagnosed with cancer also leads to an increased number of people living with many kinds of consequences. Dineo Mokoka, is a 40-year-old single mother of three who was diagnosed with stage 4 breast and liver cancer in 2022, followed by a brain cancer diagnosis in 2024. D...