The Weekend View

The Gauteng Government has instituted lifestyle audits on driver's licence officials as it tries to clamp down on corruption. This is after reports of widespread bribery, collusion between examiners, fee dumping and eye-test corruption at Gauteng driver's license testing centres. The results of a 2021 investigation, commissioned by the premier's office, which was presented this week conclude that...

Members of the public can, from tomorrow (Monday) until Friday, visit any South African National Park of their choice for FREE! That's because this year's National Parks Week, running from 12th to 16th September, sees entry fees at just about every SANParks gate dropped. SANParks says the initiative aims to give the public an understanding of the role that SANParks plays as custodian of the countr...

The United Nations has again warned that a full-blown disaster is looming in Somalia with famine now unfolding in two areas of the country's south-central Bay region. The Horn of Africa is in the grips of its worst drought in four decades with experts predicting that the region is on track for a fifth consecutive failed rainy reason. The situation has been exacerbated by geo-political tensions tha...

South Africans are being encouraged to carefully consider the contents of the food they are eating and giving to their children, particularly processed, packaged foods. Unhealthy packaged food may be high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat - all of which have been directly linked to life-threatening conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. This is why the advocacy group, He...

A full bench of the Western Cape High Court set aside President Cyril Ramaphosa's suspension of the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. The justices said it was reasonable to perceive the suspension of the public protector was triggered by her probe into the 2020 Phala Phala farm burglary. The Constitutional Court is now set to consider the Court's ruling. Any court ruling that a decision of the...

700,000 people a year take their life around the world. In South Africa, there are 23 known cases of suicide every day and for every person that commits suicide, 10 have attempted it. Experts say the prevalence of suicides in our communities points to the mental health crisis we are facing as a society. It is against this backdrop that TODAY the World is observing Suicide Prevention Day. It is a d...

The South African government has extended the validity of the Zimbabwe exemption permits  by another 6 months. The extension is until June next year.  The Home Affairs department has cited the low number of applications received so far for the extension.   

Health Minister, Joe Phaahla, and Operation Dudula this week reached an agreement to stop picketing outside the Kalafong Tertiary Hospital in Atteridgeville. Phaahla says the protests at the hospital are unwarranted. The Minister visited the facility following the picket by Operation Dudula, which has been ongoing since the beginning of August. It's alleged patients suspected to be foreign nationa...

The tenth edition of the  COSAFA Women's Championship is underway in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape. The tournament is the biggest women soccer competition in the SADC features 12 international teams including the home side Banyana-Banyana. The tournament is being hosted for the 5th time in the Eastern Cape. We spoke to the MEC for Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture in the province, Nonceba Kontsi...

Today, the  4th September, is World Leukaemia Day. Leukaemia is a cancer affecting the blood, a cancer of the tissues where your blood is formed, such as the bone marrow and the lymphatic system, causing rapid growth of abnormal blood cells. One of the reasons Leukaemia was so feared is because it's the most common cancer in children under 18. Campaigning for Cancer CEO Lauren Pretorius says we ca...

The adversarial battles between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance in the the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality are back to the fore as the DA has announced plans to unseat the ANC from power in the metro. The opposition party says that under the ANC's leadership, service delivery is at an all-time low in the city. This comes as the ANC and other parties ousted Vasco da Gama as Johannesburg council...

The Competition Commission has warned that consumers could face opportunistic price increases of sunflower oil. In its latest Essential Food Pricing Monitoring Report, the commission red-flagged high and growing concentration along the sunflower oil value chain. The reasons for the price escalation are being investigated further by the Commission. The report further found that the price of some pr...

Environmental activists around the country are celebrating a huge victory after a full bench of judges at the Makhanda High Court on Thursday set aside the 2014 decision by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) to grant an exploration right to Shell to search for oil and gas off the ecologically sensitive Wild Coast. In December 2021, local communities and environmental justice org...

The Springboks will this morning continue their search for a desperately needed win against Australia, with eight new players named in the starting team earlier this week. The Boks head into the clash in Sydney after back-to-back defeats, a 35-23 loss to the All Blacks at home before crashing 25-17 against the Wallabies in Adelaide last week. The defeats have left the world champions bottom of the...

Kenyans head to the polls tomorrow morning in the country's hotly-contested presidential election. Over nine million registered citizens are set to elect the country's fifth president and successor to the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta. The country's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, IEBC has cleared only four candidates to run for the presidency. Elvis Presslin spoke to Africa Affairs An...

Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko has called on all women in Gauteng to march to the North Gauteng High Court and the Union Buildings on Women's Day to highlight the country's high rape statistics. Mazibuko was speaking at the launch of Women's Month in Gauteng in Mabopane, Pretoria. This is in the wake of the gang rape of eight women allegedly by illegal miners in Krugersdorp last week....

Former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng is believed to have shown his interest in contesting for the presidency in the next government elections. In a video that was shared on social media, Mogoeng was introduced as the new leader and president of the All African Alliance Movement which launched earlier this year. The movement, which intends on contesting the 2024 general elections, says the former C...

Mogale City had an eventful week- the local municipality was turned upside down when the South African Police Services (SAPS) had an operation to track down illegal miners in Randfontein and Krugersdorp, arresting 80 men. This is after eight women were gang raped and robbed allegedly by illegal miners in the area. On Wednesday, the African National Congress (ANC) staged a protest at the Krugersdor...

The Transport Department together with The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and other relevant stakeholders are launching the National Potholes Campaign. The mass/ national initiative aims to coordinate and enhance already existing pothole campaigns in other provinces and municipalities. Sebenzile Nkambule spoke to  Sanral's Spokesperson Vusi Mona... 

With the current economic climate South African consumers find themselves going store-to-store bargain shopping, guess what- you don't have to anymore as Outlier does that you. Every month end they compare in-store and online prices of the same basket of goods across four major retailers - Checkers, Pick n Pay, SPAR, and Woolworths to see which one is the cheapest. Sebenzile Nkambule spoke to the...

Black-owned advertising and marketing agencies have launched their own association, in order to establish an enabling and sustainable business environment for black communication professionals. The Chairperson of the Black Agencies Network Association (BANA), Groovin Nchabeleng says the industry needs to reflect the communities they operate in but at the moment the industry does not reflect that....

The Market Theatre Laboratory is looking for talented, determined young people who are passionate about the performing arts to become part of the next generation of artistic innovators, change-makers, and storytellers. Applications for the Theatre and Performance full-time course open from 1 August until 30 September 2022, for study in 2023. The Market Lab is a multi-award-winning arts incubator,...

TODAY is World Ranger Day. It's a day to commemorate Rangers killed or injured in the line of duty and to celebrate the work Rangers do to protect the planet's natural treasures and cultural heritage. Today's Rangers Day comes days after Anton Mzimba, the Head Ranger at Timbavati Private Reserve in Hoedspruit, Mpumalanga, was murdered in front of his family onTuesday night. The murder has been des...

Former ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe says there would have been no need for the step-aside resolution had the ruling party implemented its own constitution to deal with malfeasance and the lack of discipline. He was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Party's 6th National Policy Conference underway at Nasrec south of Johannesburg. Some party members have criticized the implement...

This week’s  highly contentious elective conference of metalworkers union, NUMSA, ended on Thursday with some union regions rejecting the outcome of the congress, maintaining that it should be declared null and void. This was after the Labour Court in Johannesburg had dismissed the union's application for leave to appeal against the court's decision which interdicted the congress from going ahead....