The Weekend View

Each year in South Africa, when universities begin new academic calendars, the issue of student funding dominates the national debate as more challenges arise. Among the affected group of students facing financial 'exclusion' is the 'Missing Middle', whose families or guardians neither fall within the income threshold that qualifies for government funding nor can they afford to pay tuition fees. T...

Do not pay or negotiate with kidnappers. This is a plea from Western Cape safety officials who fear that paying ransoms interferes with their ability to investigate and return victims safely to their loved ones. South Africa is witnessing a spike in kidnappings with mostly foreign nationals and, or business people or their relatives being targeted for a quick buck. Western Cape officials say stati...

The ANC NEC meeting which got off to a false start on Friday and was then re-scheduled for today has again been cancelled and is now expected to take place tomorrow; Monday. The ANC now says the National Working Committee will instead be meeting Today (Sunday) to discuss the Phala Phala  report. The working committee will then pass on its recommendations to the NEC for deliberation in Nasrec on Mo...

The business end of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar starts TODAY as the tournament enters its knockout stages. Despite the uncertainty around a winter World Cup and quetions around the host nation and human rights and LGBTQ+ issues, it has been an entertaining one on the pitch thus far. The first teams to play in the round of 16 later TODAY are the Netherlands and USA who play at 5 pm SA time fol...

Friday's  ANC NEC meeting at NASREC, south of Johannesburg, that was discussing the future of party President Cyril Ramaphosa was adjourned soon after sitting.  The meeting was expected to discuss the report on Phala Phala saga. The meeting will re-convene tomorrow ( Sunday).  Our Senior political reporter Ntebo Mokobo, was at NASREC. We also spoke  Sizophila Mkhize; National Spokesperson for the...

The world has been on a significant interest rate hike cycle in the last year and it doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. South Africa has experienced six interest rate hikes in 2022 alone, with the last one hitting us by 75 basis points on the 24th of November. As a result, consumers view credit as the only option when it comes to purchasing  some big items, and this leaves them trap...

South African Crime Statistics released by Minister Bheki Cele this week, reveal a concerning spike in violent crimes. Cele says the figures showed that aggression and violence were at worrying levels in the country.  Some opposition parties have renewed the call for the return of the death penalty to deal with violent crimes.  The African Transformation Movement (ATM) is one political party askin...

On Thursday Eskom downgraded load shedding to stage 2 during the nights through this weekend courtesy of new diesel reserves making it to the power utility. Eskom received the major lifeline from PetroSA in the form of 50 million litres of diesel to keep its open-cycle gas turbines running. The turbines are meant to be run only during peak energy demand periods when the normal coal stations cannot...

Yesterday marked the beginning of 16 Days of Activism of Activism for no Violence Against Women and Children. The annual campaign puts the spotlight on issues of femicide and gender-based violence that affect both women and children. It runs from the 25th of November to 10th December 2022. Despite the noble intentions of the campaign, over the years, South Africa has witnessed ever increasing leve...

The Life Esidimeni Family Committee will today host a healing session in Johannesburg for all bereaved family members to support each other and remember their loved ones. Many of the families have not been able to meet during COVID, so this is the first gathering in years. The Life Esidimeni tragedy involved the deaths of 144 people at psychiatric facilities in  Gauteng from causes including starv...

Government this week put out a notice urging all dog owners who no longer wish to keep their animals to take them to their local SPCA, animal welfare shelter, or private veterinarian. This as the debate on whether pitbulls should be banned continues to gain momentum as more children are getting mauled to death by the dogs. In the most recent case, a one-year-old child was on Wednesday mauled to de...

It is important to keep close track of your finances during the festive season.  With the Black Friday shopping frenzy in full swing, a lot can go wrong in a short space of time during the festive season hype. It may lead to tougher months ahead. South Africans have been complaining about the rising cost of living, interest rates, fuel and food prices. Naledi Totana, Compliance Officer at National...

The Technolife Wise Foundation recently launched the "Active Digital Wellness" initiative in collaboration with the Roosevelt High School in Johannesburg. The goal of the programme is to encourage parents to say yes to wait till Grade 8 or the age of 14 before giving children access to the internet and social media via a smartphone.  Dr Marlena Kruger, digital wellness coach and founder of the Tec...

As heavy fighting between government forces and the M23 rebels escalated in Eastern DRC this week, attempts to restore peace will resume tomorrow in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the facilitator of the East African Community-led talks, visited Goma after talks in the Congolese  capital Kinshasa on Monday. He also spoke to Rwandan leader Paul Kagame on the...

The Sports for Social Change Network Africa (SSCNA) has officially launched the inaugural SSCN Africa Awards set to be held this Wednesday, 23rd November, here at the SABC in Johannesburg. The awards are aimed at celebrating the achievements of individuals and organisations who have made strides toward positive social impact throughout Africa. Under the theme 'Leading like Mandela', the awards cer...

The opening ceremony of the 2022 FIFA World Cup will take place in Doha today, ahead of the opening Group A match between hosts Qatar and Ecuador at 6pm SA time. The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 4pm SA time. Although South Africa failed to qualify for the tournament, local soccer fans will join millions others around the world for the month long football festival. The final will take...

The American space agency - NASA - this week launched its most powerful ever rocket when it blasted off on its test flight on Wednesday, bringing closer it's ambition of putting astronauts back on the surface of the moon for the first time in 50 years. The space agency is aiming to send four astronauts around the Moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025. The launch...

The Pretoria High Court has ordered cinema company, Nu Metro, to pay the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) R5 million plus interest for defaulting on its licence fees. Samro has been in court with Nu Metro since 2018, following a breached settlement with the organisation. The amount that the company will be paying to Samro spans over three license years. Samro says it's quest and...

A South African Police Service corruption 'whistle-blower' Patricia Morgan-Mashale says she fears for life and hasn't received any protection from government. This comes after she received death threats for  exposing  police corruption. The former Free State Saps administrative clerk, was reportedly dismissed from her job last year and has been in hiding since February. She says she survived two a...

Make sure you are really saving this Black Friday. This a message and warning to South Africans who will be looking to save and make some rands over this year's black Friday shopping spree scheduled for Friday the 25th November. Like many countries around the world, South Africa has adopted the concept of Black Friday, with the annual sale being one of the highlights of the year from a retail pers...

Stellenbosch University’s SRC weighs in on the Khampepe report Stellenbosch University management says the Khampepe report findings are a sobering moment for the university. Rector and vice-chancellor, Wim de Villers earlier THIS WEEK said that it is evident that black staff members and students do not feel welcome at the university despite deliberate transformation efforts to date, but they will...

Thousands of matriculants who are currently writing their final exams will need to be on the lookout for bogus and unregistered colleges. These fake colleges will soon be promising desperate and unsuspecting matriculants all kinds of things as they recruit them. The department of higher education and training is warning students to ensure that they do due diligence and research on their institutio...

A Commonwealth team has arrived  in Zimbabwe to assess the country's suitability for re-admission to the group of mainly former British colonies. The country voluntarily withdrew from the body in 2003 after being suspended for human rights abuses under former president Robert Mugabe. The Commonwealth visit comes as Zimbabwe's opposition groups say there is a renewed crackdown on their supporters. ...

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has lost yet another high profile case after the North Gauteng High Court declared another report involving the South African Revenue Service (Sars), unlawful and invalid. The Public Protector's report, released in April, had found that Sars had irregularly appointed a company to provide a 100 million rand  IT services contract. But the court on Friday set aside...

The forceful eviction of farm workers after they retire or when there is a change of farm ownership has always been an emotional subject. Many have been left destitute and homeless after they have been removed from places they used to call home for decades. It is against this backdrop that academics, Non profit Organisations and other stake holders met THIS WEEK to discuss how labour tenants can b...