Cape Town Bulletin

Betting firms now run the sponsorship plumbing of SA sport

Rowan Hendricks — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:12:29 +0000

Betting brands have built themselves into the delivery machinery of South African sport, and researchers at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) warned this week that the infrastructure now normalises online gambling. Hollywoodbets sponsors the Sharks and the Dolphins. 10bet holds a five-year naming-rights deal for Ellis Park Stadium, home of the Lions rugby team. Rugby player Eben Etzebeth has featured in Hollywoodbets campaigns, showing how betting operators use prominent sporting figures to reach sports audiences.

At a media conference on Monday, October 12, SRI raised concerns that sports stars and celebrities could make betting appear harmless to young fans who see them as role models. Theuns du Buisson, an economic researcher at the institute, said gambling advertising, specifically online betting advertising, had increasingly filled the space once occupied by cigarette and alcohol promotion. He warned it could be just as dangerous, but was often masked by what he called the promise of hope.

The operational footprint runs deeper than stadiums. A source close to these sponsorships told Caxton Network News that a top player could earn up to R1m annually, with lesser players receiving around R500 000. These amounts are unconfirmed, as sports teams rarely disclose individual deals. Meanwhile, online lottery and gaming platform Lottoland is associated with Help ‘n Dorp, an initiative featured on kykNET that supports towns through community improvement projects. According to promotional coverage, the initiative benefited 44 towns, with more than R50m invested by September this year. The questions are how much funding reaches projects directly, whether the improvements last and whether the initiative measures its impact on gambling behaviour.

Caxton Network News contacted Etzebeth’s team for comment. No response had been received by the time of publication. Hollywoodbets acknowledged receipt of the enquiries. Kuhle Mkize, public relations and communications manager at the Hollywood Group, said some questions concerned broader gambling industry matters and would be better addressed by independent industry bodies able to provide a holistic sector perspective rather than that of an individual operator.

Nicolien Welthagen, a senior research psychologist at SRI, said the endorsements were particularly concerning in a country where sport plays such an important role. “Younger people look up to sports stars. They are role models,” she said during the media conference. She added that young fans could read someone like Etzebeth’s association with a betting brand as an endorsement of gambling, and raised concerns about how deeply gambling companies have embedded themselves in sport and everyday life, and about the financial cycle that develops when people keep betting in the hope of winning.

Sporting bodies point to the limits of their own role. Jacques Faul, an associate professor at North-West University and CEO of the Titans Cricket Union, said sporting organisations were aware of concerns about gambling but that the relevant authorities, not the organisations themselves, were responsible for regulating the industry. He said the Titans’ online betting sponsor operated legally in the country and that sponsorship money was channelled back into communities, including cricket development in informal settlements. Faul said he viewed such sponsorships primarily from an investment perspective.

The growth behind these concerns is stark. According to an SRI report released by Solidarity on Monday, online gambling grew by 390% between 2021 and 2025, while other forms of gambling did not experience comparable growth. Du Buisson attributed the increase partly to advances in technology, which allow people to gamble on their cellphones almost anytime, anywhere.

Enforcement is where the system strains. Licensed sports betting is legal, but online casino-style gambling remains prohibited under South Africa’s legal framework. The National Gambling Act and provincial gambling laws permit online sports betting through appropriately licensed bookmakers, but a bookmaker’s licence does not automatically authorise online casino games such as roulette and slots. In October 2025, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that bookmakers could not offer roulette under their Gauteng licences, highlighting the distinction between lawful betting and prohibited interactive gambling. Du Buisson noted that the law has many grey areas and that regulating overseas platforms is difficult; offshore websites are not automatically authorised to target South African customers simply because they hold licences elsewhere, although enforcement against operators based abroad remains difficult. He argued the restrictions were not being adequately enforced and that online casino games continued to be offered and advertised.

The National Gambling Board’s 2024/25 annual report highlights concerns about illegal online gambling and regulatory gaps, while the board’s verified operators list allows consumers to check whether an operator is licensed in South Africa. The original report was published by The Citizen at https://www.citizen.co.za/network-news/lnn/article/researchers-warn-celebrity-endorsements-are-normalising-online-gambling/.

The human cost of weak enforcement is already visible, according to Hannes Noëth, chief executive of Helpende Hand, who described online gambling as a silent killer tearing communities apart. “I know of senior citizens who bet their Sassa income away. I know of a well-known farmer who committed suicide after drowning in gambling debt. I spoke to a student from the University of Stellenbosch who gambled his NSFAS bursary away one day after receiving it.” He said people struggling financially might continue gambling in the hope of earning extra income or winning back losses, with consequences that could include debt, broken relationships and severe emotional distress. He argued online gambling could not be treated simply as a matter of individual choice when its consequences spread through households and communities.

Du Buisson argued that while gambling companies may create jobs and support community projects, these benefits should not be used to justify the industry’s wider impact. There were other ways to create jobs, support communities and gain sponsorships without relying on online gambling, he said. Maryke Haywood, head of marketing at Lottoland, did not specifically address the questions sent to her, but said supporting communities and reducing gambling-related harm are not competing priorities. “Lottoland must do both. Our community programmes make a meaningful contribution, but we accept that the most important responsibility is to ensure that customers make informed decisions.”

The SRI report recommends stricter enforcement against illegal online casinos and prohibited gambling advertisements, tighter restrictions on betting adverts where children and young people are likely to see them, and limits on the use of sports stars and celebrities to promote gambling. It further calls for stronger oversight of online gambling operators, including those operating illegally from abroad, and better public education about the odds of winning and the financial risks involved. Whether regulators can close the gap between what the law permits and what operators actually deliver remains the open question.

ConCourt ruling puts IEC on the spot over 2,093 candidates

Anisha Pillay — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 08:11:44 +0000

A Constitutional Court order has overturned the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s decision to exclude 181 ANC candidates from the upcoming local elections, but the ruling leaves the commission facing unresolved questions about the treatment of 2,093 other candidates from 44 parties who remain off the ballot.

The order, delivered by justice Rammaka Mathopo and endorsed by a majority on Thursday, set aside an Electoral Court judgment that had dismissed the ANC’s appeal against the IEC’s refusal to accept its nominations in six municipalities: Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns, uMshwathi and Mangaung. The court has not yet handed down its reasons.

The dispute traces back to the commission’s online candidate nomination system. The ANC failed to click a “submit as final” button after uploading its documents before the deadline on August 28, and the IEC excluded the party’s candidates as a result. During the hearing, advocate Daniel Berger, appearing for the ANC, argued that the commission had removed the candidates on the basis of a rule that appears neither in the Municipal Electoral Act nor in its regulations, meaning the decision carried no legal effect.

For the IEC, the immediate consequence is logistical and administrative. Chair Mosotho Moepya told Business Day the commission would reprint ballots in the six affected municipalities without delay. “We will reprint with immediate effect. That is what we are required to do,” he said. “For now, we have to get the election on the way and that is really what is important.”

Moepya also accepted the court’s finding on the commission’s conduct. “There has been an issue of whether we applied the law or whether we did not apply the law properly. The court said we did not apply the law properly. So we take that,” he said.

The commission’s obligations, however, run only as far as the order itself. Moepya said the IEC would abide by the judgment in respect of the ANC alone, noting that the court had declined to deal with the position of the other excluded candidates. “This court has spoken and the court said we must include the ANC candidates. This court has refused to deal with the other matter. We are dealing with this court case,” he said. It remains unclear whether the circumstances of the other 2,093 candidates from 44 parties mirror the ANC’s.

That gap is where legal observers see risk. Koos Malan, emeritus professor of public law at the University of Pretoria, warned that the order could prompt further litigation against the commission from the excluded candidates. “This could possibly open a can of worms [for the IEC],” he said, adding that the risk of additional legal challenges was real and could disrupt the election in its entirety. In his view, the court could rule only on the dispute placed before it, and the predicament of the 44 other parties was left unaddressed.

Meanwhile, political pressure on the commission is building. Afrika Mayibuye, the party led by Floyd Shivambu, has called on the IEC to identify parties whose circumstances match the ANC’s and add them to the ballot before the deadline. “No affected party should be forced to institute repetitive and costly litigation merely to obtain equal application of a principle already determined by the Constitutional Court,” the party said in a statement on Thursday.

The judgment also reverberated through the government of national unity. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, who faced blame within the party for the nomination failure, criticised the DA for opposing the ANC’s appeal and said the party would review the DA’s place in the coalition. “There are matters that this movement will now have to sit down and discuss,” he told media after the judgment. “One of those matters is our partners in the government of national unity. That is the DA. We must review the DA in the government of national unity. There is nothing that binds us with the DA forever in the GNU.” Mbalula, overcome with emotion during his address, had to be assisted from the courtroom.

By contrast, DA federal council chair Ashor Sarupen responded that the judgment raises serious concerns about the precedent it sets for compliance with the IEC’s deadlines and requirements. “We note Fikile Mbalula’s threats about the GNU. The reality is that the DA is not in the GNU to go along or to get along, and we will vigorously defend the rule of law and the equal application of the law,” he said.

The stakes for the ANC were considerable. The party won more than 60% support in three of the six affected municipalities at the last local government elections, and staying off the ballot in several wards would have badly weakened its position in contests for municipal leadership. Whether the commission can now administer a credible election while the claims of 2,093 excluded candidates hang unresolved is the question its oversight and the courts will have to answer.

Russia-Africa Summit 2026: Moscow Bets on Trade, Investment

Zanele Dube — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 07:15:51 +0000

Moscow’s economic push into Africa moves up a gear on 28 and 29 October 2026, when the third Russia-Africa Summit convenes in the Russian capital with an agenda centred on trade, investment, logistics, energy, food security, advanced technologies and humanitarian cooperation. Formalised by Presidential Decree No. 194, signed on 25 March 2026, the gathering is designed to consolidate a partnership that Moscow frames as mutually beneficial, and that Russian officials present as a contribution to African socio-economic development and to the emergence of Africa as an independent centre of global development.

For investors and operators watching the Russia-Africa corridor, the summit’s economic weight matters more than its diplomatic theatre. African delegations arrive with concrete commercial demands: localisation of production, infrastructure and digital services development, personnel training, and expanded cooperation in industry, pharmaceuticals and artificial intelligence. The Kremlin, for its part, has signalled that it is increasing trade and investment with individual countries and with continental integration organisations, alongside support for food and energy security and military-technical cooperation. The stated objective of the 2026 meeting is to strengthen the strategic partnership by expanding economic and humanitarian ties and advancing joint initiatives within what Moscow describes as an emerging multipolar world.

The institutional scaffolding for this engagement has been built over two previous summits. The first, held in Sochi on 23 and 24 October 2019 under the motto “For Peace, Security and Development”, concluded with a declaration establishing shared objectives across politics, security, the economy, science and technology, and cultural and humanitarian affairs. The second, staged in St Petersburg in July 2023, produced a denser commercial and regulatory architecture despite what the source describes as unprecedented Western pressure: delegations from 48 countries attended, 27 represented by heads of state or government or second-ranking officials, alongside five of the continent’s largest regional integration organisations. Five key documents emerged, including four declarations on preventing an arms race in outer space, international information security and counterterrorism, and the Action Plan of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum covering 2023 to 2026. Two further agreements were signed with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), embedding Russian ties within existing African economic structures.

The legal and doctrinal basis for this outreach sits in the Russian Federation’s Foreign Policy Concept, approved by presidential decree on 31 March 2023, which expresses solidarity with African states in their pursuit of a more just multipolar world and attributes socio-economic inequality to the neocolonial policies of certain developed countries. Analysis of these dynamics, including the summit’s commercial agenda and the regional initiatives feeding into it, is available at https://www.specialeurasia.com/2026/10/15/russia-africa-summit-2026/.

Meanwhile, the practical groundwork is already visible at the regional level. In September 2026, Volgograd Oblast hosted negotiations with a delegation from the Republic of Djibouti during the 12th International Public Diplomacy Forum, Dialogue on the Volga: Peace and Mutual Understanding in the 21st Century, an event launched in 2014 under the national project International Cooperation and Export with support from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Rossotrudnichestvo. The Djiboutian delegation joined representatives from China, Belarus, Armenia, Slovakia, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Pakistan, Abkhazia and Iraq.

The commercial logic of that encounter is instructive. Djibouti sits on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a corridor through which approximately 30% of global trade and 60% of trade between Europe and Asia passes, and its port serves as a major transport hub, including for cargo transiting from landlocked Ethiopia. The country hosts an international free trade zone and, through its Vision 2035 programme, aims to become a transport, logistics and telecommunications hub for East Africa. Russian businesses see it not merely as an end market but as a gateway for exports into the inland markets of East and Southern Africa, including countries belonging to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

The forum’s principal outcome was a series of business consultations coordinated by the Volgograd Export Support Centre. Megamix LLC, Russia’s largest producer of premixes and compound feed, discussed exporting feed additives for East African livestock farming. Archeda-Produkt LLC and Agrovolga LLC explored potential export volumes of Russian grain, groats, flakes and flour, products considered critical to regional food security, while Uspekh-M LLC examined logistics and distribution channels for grocery and agricultural products. In irrigation, the Irrigation Machines Plant (ZDM) and AGROST Group discussed supplying wide-span sprinkler machines and centre-pivot systems suited to Djibouti’s arid climate. The logistics operator VOLGACARGO LLC explored end-to-end routes for less-than-container-load and full-container-load shipments from Volgograd, via Russian Black Sea ports, to Djibouti’s deep-water maritime hubs and container terminals.

The broader competitive picture remains unresolved. Russia’s expansion into Africa is expected to face growing opposition not only from Western countries but also from China, which is seeking to consolidate its position as a leading economic partner for African states. A shift is anticipated away from the declaratory agreements traditionally associated with such forums towards practically oriented bilateral economic arrangements, and the summit’s final outcomes will serve as indicators of African countries’ readiness to establish strategic economic relations with Moscow despite Western and Chinese influence.

Election Campaigns Go Up Empty: No Delivery Story to Sell

Naledi Sithole — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:44 +0000

The posters went up weeks ago, and they say almost nothing. Across the country, ahead of the 4 November local government elections, party campaign material boils down to a single instruction: vote for us because we are better than the alternatives. There is no central message, no unifying argument, no issue that ties the campaign together. For a country that once fought elections over corruption, land and the presidency itself, the absence of a dominant narrative is itself the story of this campaign.

The delivery gap is most visible where governing is hardest. In Johannesburg, the ANC holds the mayoral seat and dominates the council, and it is widely blamed for the city’s current state of decline. The DA has pressed that advantage deliberately, building its campaign around service delivery and, to an extent, water supplies, themes that resonate strongly with the communities that support it. Helen Zille has spent much time and energy reaching out to newer voters in the city, and it will only be clear on election day whether that effort has succeeded. Its immediate effect, however, is already measurable: the ANC has been forced onto the back foot over service delivery, and remarkably, it has failed to assemble even a coherent response to those grievances.

Additional reference context is available at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-14-sas-lack-of-a-dominant-election-narrative-fractures-the-national-voice-before-polls/.

That operational weakness sits inside a larger organisational problem. The ANC’s campaign has no single punchy message, and the party has been unable to agree on candidates. Its decline means it can no longer dominate national politics or command the hold on society it maintained up until the pandemic, and major internal rifts have compounded the sense of lassitude around this campaign. A party that once set the terms of every national debate is now struggling to run a competent local election effort.

The contrast with previous campaigns is stark. The 2016 local elections were, in effect, a referendum on then president Jacob Zuma, with the Gauteng ANC saying the Nkandla issue cost it votes. Zuma overshadowed that poll to such an extent that the Gauteng ANC tried to stop the national party from using his image on posters advertising the manifesto launch in the province, later offering the weak justification that his appearance at the event was confirmed only after the posters had been printed. By 2021, Zuma was gone, and President Cyril Ramaphosa had led the party to victory in the 2019 national and provincial elections, a poll fought against intense load shedding and growing economic strain, shortly before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. At that point, the overriding narrative was that the pandemic had exposed the profound frailties of the state.

This time, no such frame exists. Parties are preaching to their followers and addressing specific communities with generic messages. Part of the reason lies beyond party headquarters: society itself has changed over the last decade. Long-standing political drivers like race, which historically framed almost every national debate, no longer hold the same overwhelming sway over voters. Race will probably remain a factor in politics for as long as there is racialised inequality, but it has not been a major feature of this campaigning. Even the land issue, which is all about race and dominated debate in 2017, 2018 and 2019, has gone unused by the parties in this campaign.

Meanwhile, the space in which politics is mediated has changed too. The SABC, to the country’s detriment, has far less influence than it once did, and live broadcast media faces unprecedented competition from podcasts, where more and more discussion now takes place. Lacking a shared national reference point, political discourse has fractured, prompting leaders and parties to focus on influencing their local communities. That helps explain the rise of actors like AfriForum and March and March, which make no attempt to build a broad constituency. They do not need one. They need access to a single constituency, which they can then leverage for power.

Society has also become more divided over the last decade. As the rift between insiders and outsiders deepens and enclavisation continues, conversations drift further apart. No one party, leader or set of ideas can dominate braais in Khayelitsha, Musina and Parkhurst simultaneously. There were times, whether during the Zuma rape trial in 2006 or the contest over the ANC’s 2017 conference, when the political story of the day was common to conversations across many different parts of society. That shared reference point has largely dissolved.

The trajectory points one way. The ANC is likely to continue its decline, no other party will dominate the national discussion, enclavisation will deepen, and the media landscape will grow more diffuse. Future elections are likely to see the country continuing to talk past itself. The lack of a dominant election narrative is fracturing the national voice before the polls, and the shape of things to come is already visible in the quiet, fragmented campaign now underway.

R700bn illicit trade gap pushes BAT toward SA exit

Claudette Joubert — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 07:54:02 +0000

A R700bn hole in the economy, as valued by the Treasury, is now large enough to push one of South Africa’s biggest listed manufacturers out of local production. British American Tobacco says the state is losing the fight against the syndicates behind it.

BAT, worth nearly R2-trillion on the JSE, is months away from shutting its South African factory after contraband cigarettes came to constitute 75% of the domestic market. The London-based group said in January that the infiltration of illegal cigarettes had made local production unviable. It has since shifted to an import model to meet local demand.

The financial damage is already on the books. The Heidelberg plant in Gauteng, once the eighth largest in BAT’s global network and an exporter to several countries in the wider Southern African region, is running at just 35% of total capacity. The company considers that level unsustainable. In February BAT booked a £14m charge on the site as it prepared to mothball it at year-end, barring what it describes as a miraculous intervention by the government.

Johnny Moloto, head of corporate and regulatory affairs for BAT Sub-Saharan Africa, framed the closure as a signal to investors and operators across the economy. “BAT’s decision earlier this year to close our South Africa factory, a direct result of illicit trade taking over the market, is an early warning for the rest of the economy of what the future looks like unless we get serious about dealing with illicit operators,” he said.

The stakes extend beyond one manufacturer. Moloto estimated lost government excise tax revenue at R30bn a year. “This is not just about the survival of the legal industry or lost government excise tax revenue, which we estimate at R30bn a year. It is about the formal jobs and livelihoods being lost to illicit trade across the economy,” he said. “It’s about the sprawling criminal networks taking over our country, crippling our law enforcement bodies and operating with total impunity. It’s about the ability of our economy to grow and provide employment. It’s about our future as a country.”

The market data underpinning the warning comes from research firm Ipsos, commissioned by BAT, which has run the study for several years. The company has often been accused of sponsoring a false narrative to shield its business interests. The latest findings are stark regardless: four of five stores surveyed were selling illicit products, and cigarettes at the ultralow end of the market, priced below R20 a pack, were available in almost two-thirds of stores. Such prices sit below the taxes due on every legal pack, which Moloto said shows illicit manufacturers operating openly and with impunity.

Meanwhile, government has responded, though the company argues the effect has yet to register. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the formation of the National Illicit Economy Disruption Programme, known as Operation Ukubusa, as part of a broader strategy against organised crime, illicit trade and economic crimes that undermine the country’s fiscal integrity. Yet according to the Ipsos research, the operation has made no dent in the black market.

“Sars must demonstrate that there are consequences for profiting from illicit trade. South Africa is losing the battle against illicit trade,” Moloto said. “The only conclusion from these results is that South Africa is losing the battle against illicit tobacco and on the current trajectory will end up with an entirely illicit tobacco market, with no legal industry left.”

BAT attributes the paralysis to lax enforcement of the country’s laws, which it says is emboldening illicit economy players. Allegations of a deeper problem have surfaced at the Madlanga commission, where claims have been made about links to cigarette smugglers at the top echelons of the police service.

By contrast, the response elsewhere in the state apparatus came late. BAT noted that authorities only took notice of the damage when the plant closure was announced, and that the same phenomenon is becoming increasingly prevalent in the liquor industry. Research commissioned by the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa and released in August estimates the illicit economy across 12 key sectors, including alcohol, tobacco, food, pharmaceuticals, clothing and fuel, at R280bn.

For market watchers, the arithmetic is unforgiving: a legal producer paying excise cannot compete with untaxed product at under R20 a pack. Without enforcement that closes the price gap, capital will continue to exit.

Africa Now Radio expands delivery to South African airwaves

Thandiwe Dlamini — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 08:49:55 +0000

Africa Now Radio’s expansion onto South African airwaves is, at its core, a delivery story: a programme built for continental audiences is being pushed through a new distribution channel, with a fixed schedule, an existing syndication network behind it, and a clear operational goal of getting more African music and artist stories to local listeners.

From 1 November, Africa Now Radio with Nandi Madida will air on Y every Sunday at 1pm. That weekly slot gives South African audiences a reliable, recurring point of access to the artists and sounds shaping African music. It also plugs the show into a station with a long history of shaping South African youth culture and music.

The broadcast is an addition to an already functioning distribution setup. Africa Now Radio, launched in 2020, has spent years running a consistent format: each episode features “The Big 5”, a selection of the week’s hottest new tracks, alongside major releases and conversations with artists making their mark on the industry. The programme’s existing radio syndication network includes Cool FM in Nigeria and YFM Ghana, and the Y deal extends that reach onto South African airwaves, widening the footprint of a show built around the diversity and evolving sound of the continent’s music.

For the station, the operational case is straightforward. Y Managing Director Haseena Cassim says the show will give listeners access to a broader range of African sounds while creating more opportunities for artists and their stories to reach audiences locally and internationally. In practice, that means a weekly pipeline moving new tracks, releases and artist interviews from across the continent to a South African audience, with the potential for those stories to travel further.

The host frames her role in terms of execution and continuity. “It is an absolute honour to add to their legacy. I cannot wait to share amazing sounds and stories coming out of this beautiful continent,” says Nandi Madida, reflecting on Y’s longstanding place in South African youth culture and music.

Artists, who depend on platforms to actually carry their work to audiences, have welcomed the move. “What Apple Music and Nandi Madida are doing with Africa Now Radio is giving our music space to live on a global stage,” says rapper Focalistic. “She’s one of our own giving a voice to the sounds of South Africa and beyond.” DJ and record producer De Mthuda echoes the sentiment, highlighting the importance of celebrating genres such as amapiano with the context and respect they deserve. For Kwesta, the programme gives African artists an opportunity to tell their stories in their own voices, reaching audiences from local communities to the rest of the world.

The practical effect for listeners is greater access to music beyond familiar borders, delivered through a programme that brings together different genres, perspectives and voices from across Africa. It also reflects the growing importance of radio as infrastructure for connecting audiences to a music scene that is increasingly finding listeners around the world. As African genres continue to gain international recognition, platforms that document the music and the people behind it play an important role in shaping how the continent is heard and understood. For emerging artists, greater access to audiences can open doors; for listeners, it offers a chance to discover music and perspectives they might otherwise miss.

From amapiano and Afro-house to the many other genres shaping the continent’s musical identity, Africa Now Radio with Nandi Madida offers listeners a weekly window into the artists, stories and sounds moving African music forward. The reference for this coverage appears on Glamour South Africa at https://www.glamour.co.za/lifestyle/entertainment/africa-now-radio-with-nandi-madida-to-reach-more-south-african-listeners-through-y-9b3f3b31-b348-47dc-b137-2f3d00048bf4, and the measure of the partnership will be simple: whether that Sunday afternoon slot consistently delivers the continent’s sounds and stories to the listeners it now promises to reach.

Africa capital heads to London as global order shifts

Anisha Pillay — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 07:42:48 +0000

The Financial Times Africa Summit, a fixture on the calendar for capital looking at Africa, returns to London on 21 and 22 October for its 13th edition at The Landmark, and the names attached to it signal where attention is likely to focus. The gathering brings together African leaders, investors and policymakers at a moment when the global order that shaped capital flows into the continent is visibly shifting.

For investors and market-watchers, the significance lies less in the event’s longevity than in who is in the room. John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana, and Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of Nigeria, are confirmed to take part. That pairing places two of West Africa’s most consequential political figures, one governing now and one whose tenure shaped the region’s earlier economic opening, before an audience whose primary interest is the direction of risk, return and reform across African markets.

The summit’s framing, amid a shifting global order, speaks directly to the questions that dominate boardroom conversations about the continent. Where does capital go when traditional trade and financing relationships are being renegotiated? Which governments can offer the policy predictability that long-term investors demand? What does the next cycle of African growth look like, and who funds it? A forum that puts sitting and former heads of state alongside investors and policymakers is designed precisely to test those questions in person.

Thirteen editions carry weight in that context. Thirteen years is long enough for an event to have survived multiple cycles of commodity booms and busts, debt distress and restructuring, and changing investor sentiment toward African assets. Its persistence suggests a durable market for the conversation itself: a meeting point where political leadership and financial capital take each other’s measure. The reference coverage of the summit can be found at https://thebftonline.com/article/ft-africa-summit-2026-to-convene-african-leaders-investors-and-policymakers-amid-shifting-global-order.

Ghana’s presence at the head of the confirmed list is notable for readers tracking the country’s economic trajectory. Mahama’s participation places his government’s economic programme before an international investment audience at a time when perceptions of macroeconomic stability matter as much as any single policy announcement. For a head of state, such a platform is an opportunity to make the case that his administration offers the predictability that lenders and investors weigh when pricing sovereign risk. Nigeria, represented through Obasanjo, adds a longer historical arc to the discussion, given his role in the country’s earlier reform era.

The composition of the gathering mirrors the structure of the decisions it exists to discuss. Governments set the policy environment; investors allocate the capital; policymakers mediate between the two through regulation and institutions. When those groups meet under one roof, the conversations that matter are often the informal ones: the bilateral meetings, the side conversations between fund managers and finance officials, the read an investor takes from a leader’s tone as much as from his text.

For the market, the value of such a summit is measured in signals. A confirmed presidential presence tells investors that a government sees foreign capital as a priority. A former president’s continued engagement tells them that reform constituencies outlast individual administrations. And the choice of London as the venue keeps the event anchored in one of the world’s principal financial centres, where African risk is priced daily.

The report was published by Christabel Danso. For investors and operators watching the continent, the 13th edition offers an early reading on how African leadership intends to position its economies in a global order that is no longer the one the last thirteen years were built for.

Pretoria warns US sanctions undermine ICC mandate

Anisha Pillay — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 09:12:32 +0000

South Africa’s government has put itself squarely on record in defence of the International Criminal Court, warning that American sanctions against the institution and political pressure on its officials strike at the foundations of international justice. Speaking at the Social Justice Summit at Stellenbosch University on Monday, Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel said the country remained deeply concerned by the measures imposed by the United States on the court and its officials, and reaffirmed South Africa’s position as a founding member of the ICC.

Nel drew a careful distinction between legitimate criticism of a court’s decisions and pressure directed at the people who serve it. “It is entirely legitimate to criticise a court or disagree with its decisions,” he said. “That is different from applying pressure to judges or prosecutors because of the work they perform.” His remarks came at a moment, he noted, when the institutions of international justice are under strain.

The sanctions were announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday, hours after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navi Pillay for her contribution to international law and human rights. The measures mark a significant escalation in Washington’s campaign against the court. Where the Trump administration had previously sanctioned individual judges, prosecutors and associated organisations, the latest action targets the institution itself, potentially restricting its access to banking, technology and other essential services. Rubio accused the ICC of improperly asserting jurisdiction over American and Israeli nationals. Neither the US nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the court, which maintains that its jurisdiction can extend to crimes committed on the territory of states that have accepted its authority, regardless of the nationality of the accused.

The court itself condemned the sanctions as an attack on justice and the rule of law, calling on its 125 member states to ensure it can continue operating independently. Its Trust Fund for Victims warned that restrictions on financial services and partnerships could disrupt programmes providing rehabilitation, reparations and other assistance to survivors of serious international crimes. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the decision a serious blow to the collective pursuit of international criminal justice, warning that it could undermine the ICC’s mandate, including investigations referred by the UN Security Council and member states. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged member states to act urgently to protect the court.

The sanctions do not amount to an immediate shutdown. The US Treasury issued four general licences on 9 October permitting specified activities to continue, including certain transactions needed to maintain or wind down ICC operations, telecommunications and software services, pension payments and transactions relating to detainees in ICC custody. A licence covering specified operational transactions runs until 7 April 2027. These exemptions offer temporary relief but leave the wider restrictions, and questions about the court’s longer-term functioning, unresolved.

Attention has now shifted to how member states and allied institutions will respond. European governments are weighing whether diplomatic opposition should be backed by legal measures. Belgium has proposed activating the European Union’s Blocking Statute, a mechanism designed to protect European businesses and institutions from certain extraterritorial sanctions. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Monday, before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, that Europe wanted dialogue with Washington to secure the withdrawal of the measures, adding that if that failed, France stood ready to activate the Blocking Statute. The EU said it was prepared to take necessary measures to protect the court while pursuing diplomacy, though no activation decision had been confirmed at the time of writing. The Netherlands, which hosts the ICC in The Hague, has also reaffirmed its commitment to protecting the court.

Litigation is also under way in the United States. Four organisations, including Human Rights Watch and the Centre for Constitutional Rights, filed a lawsuit in August, before the institution-wide sanctions were announced, arguing that the measures violate constitutional protections and interfere with their ability to support international justice.

The political confrontation surrounding the prize has been sharp. President Donald Trump questioned Pillay’s international standing, dismissed her as someone nobody had heard of, and insisted the award should have gone to him for his claimed role in ending eight wars. Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused Pillay of promoting false allegations against Israel and invoked Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels in its criticism, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu separately criticised her. Pillay chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, which concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel rejects. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from the war in Gaza; Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and the allegations.

Pillay, speaking on Saturday, described the sanctions as unacceptable and voiced concern about their consequences for the independence of international courts. Her standing rests on decades of work: representing anti-apartheid activists, presiding over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, serving as an ICC judge and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and contributing to the landmark Akayesu judgment, which helped establish that rape and sexual violence could constitute acts of genocide. She currently serves as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice in proceedings concerning allegations of genocide against Myanmar.

At home, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi congratulated Pillay on Friday, calling the award a proud moment for the country and Africa and saying it reaffirmed the importance of respecting international law. South Africa is separately pursuing a case against Israel at the ICJ, alleging violations of the Genocide Convention in Gaza; the ICJ determines state responsibility while the ICC investigates individual criminal responsibility.

For now, the central accountability question remains open. Nel reaffirmed South Africa’s support for the court but did not announce specific measures Pretoria would take to shield it from the sanctions. For the ICC’s member states, the test is whether expressions of support will be followed by practical steps to keep the institution functioning.

Poll Puts DA Ahead in Two Key Metro Service Battles

Anisha Pillay — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 08:06:22 +0000

Polling data released this week points to a shift in how South Africa’s largest metros may be governed after 4 November, with an eNCA/MarkData survey placing the Democratic Alliance ahead of the ANC in Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay. For voters watching whether municipal services actually function, the numbers suggest the contest over who runs local government, and how well it runs, is tightening with just over three weeks to election day.

The findings align with the DA’s own internal polling, which the party says now positions it as the largest party in five metros. In eThekwini and Mangaung, it reports being within the margin of error of taking the lead. The DA has framed the results around delivery: the claim that South Africans are increasingly judging parties by what they run well rather than what they promise.

That framing puts the operational record at the centre of the party’s closing argument. In its statement responding to the poll, the DA pointed to a track record of delivery, a plan to get the basics right, and what it describes as a proven ability to lead governments that work. The services it named are the everyday infrastructure of municipal life: reliable water, electricity and basic services for poorer households, safer streets and cleaner communities, and conditions that allow entrepreneurs to build businesses and create jobs.

By contrast, the party set its record against the ANC’s trajectory, describing declining ANC support as a verdict on decades of broken promises, corruption and municipal collapse. It argued that the election is about more than rejecting failure, claiming that only the DA is big enough to defeat the ANC and that only it has the national footprint, experience and track record needed to lead a credible alternative government.

The poll itself is a snapshot, and the DA has been careful not to treat it as a result. Polls, the party said, only set out the potential. Races in all metros remain exceptionally close, which is why it is pressing the one variable it can still influence: turnout. The call to supporters is direct. Turning potential into actual DA-led governments in municipalities across the country depends on every supporter voting on 4 November. In the party’s words, the only way to stop coalition chaos and get local government working is to vote DA on that day.

The emphasis on coalition chaos reflects a practical concern about post-election governance. Hung councils in major metros have repeatedly produced unstable arrangements, and the DA’s argument is that a clear outcome, delivered by turnout rather than polling momentum, is what allows a municipal administration to function and deliver. Momentum, the party suggests, only matters if it converts into mandates strong enough to govern.

Behind the electoral arithmetic sits a broader claim about accountability. The DA argues that South Africans do not have to accept decline as their destiny, and that what is broken can be fixed: communities made safer, cleaner and better run, and a country that works for everyone. Its appeal is addressed to identifiable constituencies of service delivery, from the poor family that needs reliable water and electricity to the entrepreneur who wants to build a business, and to every South African who wants safer streets, cleaner communities and a better future for their children.

Whether that appeal holds in the voting booth is the open question the poll cannot answer. What it does establish, three weeks out, is a competitive position in metros where service delivery failures have been most visible. The DA’s message to its supporters is that growing trust must now be matched by votes: do not just hope for change, but vote for change on 4 November.

Unanswered Questions Around Dave Van Niekerk and the MyBucks S.A. Bankruptcy

Zanele Dube — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 07:27:02 +0000

A documented pattern of cross-border corporate insolvencies and retail capital destruction has raised acute public-interest concerns regarding financial entities associated with Dave Van Niekerk. Statutory filings, formal forensic inquiries, and published court orders reveal a systemic sequence of liquidations and bankruptcies spanning multiple jurisdictions, highlighting repeated failures to protect retail investor capital.

Public records establish a timeline of structural collapses across several primary platforms. Blue Financial Services Limited (BFS) was liquidated following Horwath forensic audits that investigated irregularities after a reported R1 billion loss in 2010. By February 2022, the Luxembourg tax authority placed MyBucks S.A. into involuntary bankruptcy. Subsequently, Afristrat Investment Holdings defaulted on R2.3 billion in retail preference shares and entered provisional liquidation, while FirstCred Limited was placed under judicial management in Botswana after audits identified the misuse of between BWP 120 million and BWP 130.1 million in medium-term note proceeds.

The scrutiny extends to the intra-group movement of retail funds. Forensic accounting initiated on behalf of the Central Bank of Eswatini traced approximately SZL 332.7 million in retail deposits collected by Ecsponent Eswatini. Records indicate these funds were allegedly transferred to GetBucks entities and subsequently redirected to VSS Financial Services (Pty) Ltd. VSS Financial Services itself entered involuntary liquidation and became the subject of a Section 417 Companies Act inquiry and a Kahamelo forensic review examining unaccounted losses. In June 2024, the High Court of Eswatini issued a default judgment holding Van Niekerk, GetBucks (Pty) Ltd (South Africa), and associated entities jointly and severally liable for SZL 335.24 million in favor of ESW Investment Group (ESWIG). Van Niekerk currently contests this judgment, citing procedural flaws, lack of proper statutory notification, and maintaining he was not a director of Ecsponent Eswatini.

Critical evidence gaps remain regarding the ultimate disposition of the retail capital. The exact final destination of an unrecoverable deficit exceeding SZL 150 million, redirected to VSS Financial Services, requires further forensic tracing. Full, unredacted copies of the Horwath, Kahamelo, and CDH forensic reports are needed to verify the exact mechanisms of the alleged irregular fund movements. Investigators must determine whether these intra-group transfers served documented commercial purposes or circumvented cross-border regulatory oversight.

With billions in retail capital evaporated across Southern Africa, the unresolved question is which records, regulatory approvals, and financial trails can explain how these intra-group capital decisions were authorized and who ultimately benefited from the resulting deficits.

New Six-Part Series Audits SA's Producer Responsibility Rules

Priya Naidoo — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 07:12:24 +0000

South Africa’s extended producer responsibility framework is getting a visual audit of sorts. A new six-part documentary series, ‘Stepping into the Circular Economy’, sets out to show how the policy regime governing waste and recycling actually operates along the value chain. It is produced by Cape Town-based sustainability communications agency The Sustainability Communication Company (Susco) in partnership with the EPR Waste Association of South Africa (eWASA), the producer responsibility organisation at the centre of the country’s waste compliance landscape.

The timing matters. Obligations placed on producers, and the systems meant to collect, separate and reprocess discarded materials, depend on coordination across a wide set of actors. According to the brief accompanying the launch, the documentary follows recovered materials from product design and waste separation through to recycling and enterprise development, combining industry perspectives with the practical experiences of those involved in recovering and processing waste.

“Producer responsibility only works when every part of the chain is visible and connected,” says eWASA circular economy specialist Lerato Mphahlele. “This series shows that connection. It follows producer responsibilities through to the recyclers and enterprises that turn recovered material into something with value.”

That framing places the regulatory instrument itself, extended producer responsibility, at the heart of the narrative. The first episode, available on Susco’s YouTube channel, examines three areas that influence the effectiveness of the circular economy: designing products for recyclability, separating waste at source to prevent contamination, and implementing EPR to support waste collection, recycling and enterprise development. Product design sits upstream of the entire compliance chain. Decisions made before a product reaches the market determine whether it can be recovered at all.

Meanwhile, subsequent episodes will turn to the wider cast of participants on whom the system relies, featuring waste reclaimers, buyback centres, small-scale recyclers, entrepreneurs, waste management companies and the government departments involved in the waste value chain. The inclusion of government departments alongside private and informal-sector operators underscores the point that landfill diversion is not achieved by regulation alone, but by the layered execution of mandates across the chain.

Mphahlele argues that the series aims to demonstrate the value of waste by showing how materials move through the value chain. “The circular economy is easy to talk about and sometimes hard to picture,” she says. “A strong visual story that follows the materials through the value chain will help shift the perspective towards waste, as something that holds value.”

Susco director Chris Bischoff describes the project in similar terms, noting that the series follows waste material through the full value chain and aims to show the work of the people who drive each stage of the circular economy.

The closing argument of the series carries policy weight of its own. Mphahlele concludes that improving landfill diversion and returning more materials to the economy will require greater consideration of product design, investment in waste-separation infrastructure and accelerated adoption of EPR. Each of those levers implicates a different set of decision-makers: producers responsible for what they put on the market, municipalities and private operators responsible for separation infrastructure, and the regulators and producer responsibility organisations responsible for driving adoption of the EPR framework.

For an audience tracking how South Africa’s waste policy is translated into practice, the series offers a document of the system as it currently functions, from the design brief to the buyback centre. Further detail on the documentary and its rollout is available via the original report at https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/documentary-series-explores-south-africas-circular-economy-2026-10-12, which notes the series’ aim of highlighting the role of industry and waste-sector participants in advancing the circular economy. Whether the remaining episodes sharpen the accountability questions around who executes which mandate, and how well, remains to be seen.

Drumcree parade dispute returns to court on Monday

Priya Naidoo — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 08:56:45 +0000

The Drumcree parading dispute returns to the courts on Monday, with both the Portadown Orangemen and Garvaghy Road residents pursuing separate legal challenges over whether the parade can proceed. The hearings follow Friday’s decision by Secretary of State Sir Chris Bryant to ban the march, taken after he received police advice.

That ban has eased the immediate security situation. But the underlying dispute remains unresolved, and both sides have now turned to the courts from differing perspectives.

Portadown Orangemen are seeking permission to challenge the secretary of state’s decision on a number of grounds, including the police assessment of the situation. An emergency hearing on that challenge took place at Belfast High Court on Saturday. It was adjourned until Monday.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal is also set to rule on Monday on whether the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition can contest the original Parades Commission determination that allowed the parade. Although Sir Chris subsequently banned it, he did not strike down the commission’s ruling, which still stands. The court heard arguments in that case last week, when a lawyer for the residents’ group claimed the commission’s decision was flawed over how it weighed the potential for disorder if the parade were permitted.

The legal manoeuvring follows weeks of operational difficulty on the ground. The parade, involving 35 members of Portadown District Orange Lodge, was originally scheduled for 27 September. An unlawful protest blocked the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road, and a two-week stand-off developed.

Policing that stand-off has come at significant cost, around £5m, largely due to officer overtime. On Friday, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher urged the Secretary of State to intervene, saying that “proportionate options” to police the parade had been “exhausted” and that any operation to clear the route would have “catastrophic” consequences.

With the immediate security pressure eased by the ban, attention now shifts to the courtroom. Monday’s rulings will determine whether either side’s challenge can proceed, and whether the long-running dispute moves any closer to resolution.

Fifth Straight Award Win Puts Resort in Holiday Spotlight

Naledi Sithole — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 07:56:20 +0000

Cayley Mountain Resort, situated in Cathkin Park in the Central Drakensberg, has been named South Africa’s Leading Lifestyle Resort for 2026 at the World Travel Awards, securing the title for the fifth consecutive year. For South Africans planning a family break, that matters: choices about where to spend limited holiday time and money now come with an independent stamp of approval.

The award was announced at the World Travel Awards Africa Gala Ceremony in Zanzibar in September, according to Daily Investor. For holidaymakers, the recognition offers reassurance that a destination marketed for family getaways is being judged, year after year, against the standards of the global travel and tourism industry.

What the resort offers speaks directly to the everyday needs of ordinary travellers. Set against views of the Drakensberg mountains, it caters to families, couples and groups, with accommodation ranging from hotel rooms to self-catering chalets, villas and larger holiday units. Facilities include a restaurant and bar, a day spa, a swimming pool, hiking trails, an outdoor gym and a games room. Guests can also take part in water-based activities at nearby Bell Park Dam, including kayaking, paddleboarding and boat rides.

The latest recognition follows a period of investment at the property, including new self-catering accommodation and improvements to the games room and café. For visitors, that ongoing upgrading matters. It suggests the experience families return for each year is being maintained rather than left to fade.

Meanwhile, the resort’s owner, the Beekman Group, received two further honours at the 2026 awards. The Kingdom Resort in the Pilanesberg area was named South Africa’s Leading Family Resort, while San Martinho Beach Club won Mozambique’s Leading Family Resort title. Taken together, the three awards span destinations in two countries, a point Time Out South Africa also highlighted in its coverage of the group’s success.

Speaking about the results, Beekman Group director Wayne Beekman said: “To receive three World Travel Awards across three very different destinations is an incredibly proud achievement for everyone at the Beekman Group.”

He added that the group had been welcoming holidaymakers for more than five decades, with families returning to its destinations across generations. That continuity carries weight for the travelling public, since repeat visits across generations depend on a destination holding to a consistent standard over time.

“Winning three World Travel Awards is a tremendous honour, but it also reminds us of the responsibility that comes with being entrusted with someone’s precious holiday time,” Beekman said. The remark frames the awards less as a corporate trophy than as a form of public trust, one that operators in the leisure sector are expected to honour through the quality of what they deliver to guests.

The World Travel Awards recognise achievements across the global travel and tourism industry, covering hotels, resorts, airlines and tourism destinations. Within that landscape, Cayley’s latest win reinforces the resort’s position in South Africa’s lifestyle tourism sector, a segment that depends heavily on domestic travellers choosing where to spend their leisure time.

For readers weighing their own holiday plans, the fuller picture of the resort and its awards can be found in the original report at https://www.africaninsider.com/business/this-south-african-holiday-resort-is-winning-big-at-the-world-travel-awards/

The broader takeaway for the public is straightforward: recognition at this level, sustained over five consecutive years, gives South African families an externally verified signal when choosing a destination for their leisure time. Whether that trust is deserved in practice remains, as always, something each visitor judges for themselves, but the awards process at least offers an independent reference point in a crowded market.

Health Workers Brace as Aid Cuts Threaten African Care

Priya Naidoo — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 07:06:03 +0000

For the community health worker who is often the first person a family sees when illness strikes, the stakes of a shrinking aid budget are not abstract. Amref Health Africa warned this week that declining international funding threatens the sustainability of essential services across the continent, from HIV treatment and immunization to maternal and newborn care and nutrition programmes. It is urging African governments to step in with domestic resources before the gaps widen.

The organization pointed to a 23.1 per cent decline in official development assistance in 2025, a drop it said exposes weaknesses in health systems that have come to rely on short-term external support. For the communities those systems serve, the consequences are immediate. Treatment gets interrupted. Vaccinations are delayed. Access to care shrinks at the moments families need it most.

Amref’s message, delivered as global health leaders gather in Berlin for the World Health Summit, is that Africa does not lack priorities. “Africa does not have health priorities and what is missing is financed delivery,” said Group Chief Executive Officer Githinji Gitahi. What is needed, the organization argued, is investment in health workers, community-based services and locally led systems, so that countries are less vulnerable to unpredictable external funding.

The case for community-level investment runs through much of Amref’s argument. Effective health security, the organization said, begins where outbreaks are first detected, in communities where access to reliable information, routine immunization and essential services can determine the scale of an emergency. Community health workers, who often serve as the first point of contact between families and the formal healthcare system, need adequate financing and fair pay if that first line of defence is to hold.

Gitahi said health systems must be rooted in primary healthcare and aligned with African priorities to protect communities against disease outbreaks, climate shocks and financial uncertainty. That matters for people living through floods, droughts and extreme heat, conditions under which Amref called for increased investment in facilities and workers so that services remain operational. African countries, the organization noted, are contending with the combined effects of climate change, conflict, displacement and changing disease patterns.

Amref framed health spending not as a line item to be trimmed but as an investment in economic resilience and human development. It called for increased domestic allocations to prevention, primary care, financial protection and the health workforce, alongside stronger public financial management so that available resources actually translate into services people can use. Governments, it argued, need greater domestic fiscal capacity and stronger public institutions.

At the same time, Amref cautioned against an approach that leaves countries to manage growing health needs alone. International partners, it said, should provide predictable funding aligned with national priorities rather than establish parallel systems, and global institutions and donors should direct resources towards the countries and communities facing the greatest health and fiscal pressures. It also called for dedicated and flexible funding to safeguard essential services in fragile, conflict-affected and climate-vulnerable settings, along with greater investment in surveillance, emergency preparedness, vaccines, medicines and diagnostics.

Beyond financing, the organization’s agenda includes expanding African pharmaceutical and medical production, strengthening regulatory capacity, improving data governance and connecting climate finance to practical health-system needs. Such investments, Amref said, would help countries reduce exposure to external supply disruptions and strengthen their ability to respond to future emergencies.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, Amref is using its participation to build partnerships with governments, funders and implementation partners ahead of the Africa Health Agenda International Conference 2027. That gathering, co-hosted by Amref, Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, is scheduled for Kigali from February 28 to March 3, 2027, under the banner “Connected for Change” and the theme “From Dialogue to Delivery: Redesigning Africa’s Ecosystem for a Healthy, Sovereign Future.” It is expected to extend discussions on African-led health reform, resilient systems and sustainable financing.

Amref’s summit engagement includes three co-hosted sessions, seven speaking engagements and six bilateral meetings, covering health-system performance, cross-regional cooperation and translating national policies into local action, including a discussion of Ethiopia’s pathway towards Sustainable Development Goal 3 through primary healthcare reform.

For Gitahi, the bottom line is that Africa’s leadership in health reform must be matched by adequate resources, accountability and partnerships that strengthen, rather than substitute for, African institutions. The alternative, the organization’s warning makes clear, is borne first by the households and communities that depend on those services every day. Whether governments and donors act before those gaps widen may decide how many families keep that first point of contact when illness strikes.

Wales' free period product network now covers every school

Claudette Joubert — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 09:18:37 +0000

Wales’s period dignity infrastructure now reaches every school in the country, and the Welsh Government used International Day of the Girl to underline that the delivery system behind it is still expanding. The Period Dignity Grant funds free period products in every school in Wales, and the same supply chain extends into community venues including foodbanks, libraries and leisure centres.

The commitment sits within the government’s “A Period Proud Wales” plan, which goes beyond public provision. Under the plan, sport bodies, cultural venues and employers are encouraged to make free products available to staff and visitors, widening the network of places where someone who menstruates can access what they need without cost or difficulty.

The practical problem the system is designed to solve is straightforward. Period poverty can affect anyone who menstruates, and its consequences show up in missed school, missed work and missed social activities. The Welsh Government’s stated aim is to reduce stigma around periods and ensure that no one is disadvantaged because of them, a goal that depends as much on everyday access points as on policy statements.

Delivery on the ground is perhaps clearest in the work running across Ynys Môn. There, a project offers every primary school Year 6 sessions on periods for all pupils, regardless of gender, backed by staff training, parents’ evenings and starter packs of sustainable products. It is a model of how a national commitment translates into timetabled lessons, trained staff and stocked supplies.

Carla Desmond, the Healthy Schools Co-ordinator for the project, described how the operation functions day to day. “Across Anglesey, we are working with schools, pupils, parents and staff to make periods a normal conversation and ensure no child is left without the knowledge or products they need,” she said. “Every school can access an inclusive Year 6 lesson covering periods, puberty and growing up, delivered to all pupils. Schools also receive bilingual resources, staff training, sustainable product starter packs, and free access to period products.” Her stated aim is to remove the embarrassment and stigma around periods and make sure every young person in Anglesey feels informed, supported and confident.

Meanwhile, responsibility at government level sits with Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Member for Social Justice and Equality Sioned Williams, who framed the work as a matter of everyday reliability rather than symbolism. “Period dignity and poverty affects individuals, families and communities across Wales, making it an issue for all of us,” she said. “On International Day of the Girl, we are reminded of the importance of ensuring people in Wales can manage their periods with dignity, confidence and pride. Our Period Proud Wales plan is about breaking down stigma and making sure that no one is held back by something as natural as a period.”

The delivery effort also runs through health services. Menstrual health is a priority within the NHS Wales Women’s Health Plan, which includes continued support for the Bloody Brilliant resources, materials that help young people learn about periods and growing up. Readers looking for information can find it at Bloody Brilliant, described as a source of knowledge, support and information for young people, and the full announcement is published at https://media.service.gov.wales/news/wales-backs-period-dignity-on-international-day-of-the-girl. Anyone wanting to locate free period products locally is advised to contact their local authority.

Taken together, the picture is one of a service network with several layers: grant-funded products in schools and community venues, encouragement for workplaces and cultural sites to add provision, classroom sessions and staff training on Ynys Môn, and health-plan support for educational resources. The measure of success, as both ministers and local coordinators describe it, is whether the system works quietly in practice, so that no pupil, worker or visitor in Wales is left without the products or the knowledge they need. Whether that network keeps expanding into new venues, as the Period Proud Wales plan intends, will be the test in the years ahead.

Suspended Police General's Rape Case Tests SAPS Leadership

Priya Naidoo — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 08:09:14 +0000

Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, the suspended deputy national police commissioner, appeared in court this week on rape and sexual grooming charges, handing South Africa’s police leadership a fresh reputational and institutional test. The case lands at a sensitive moment for the country’s security services, an institution already under pressure over its internal integrity and its capacity to confront one of the world’s highest violent crime rates.

According to police, Sibiya is accused of sexually grooming a 16-year-old girl between July and August 2026 and of raping an 18-year-old teenager at a hotel in Johannesburg’s affluent Sandton district. Kaizer Kganyago, spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, said Sibiya faces five charges: rape, trafficking in persons, promoting the sexual grooming of a child, and two counts of sexual grooming of a child. The case was postponed to September 29.

The charges carry weight well beyond the courtroom. South Africa’s police service is the state’s frontline instrument against gender-based violence, and the government has declared that violence a national disaster. Official data show one in three women in the country experience physical or sexual violence during their lifetime. For investors and market-watchers assessing South Africa’s institutional risk profile, the credibility of law enforcement is a material consideration: weak or compromised policing raises the cost of doing business, feeds insecurity, and undermines the state’s broader capacity to enforce contracts and protect economic activity.

Meanwhile, Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane moved to draw a line between the institution and the accused individual. “As the country continues to confront the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), there can be no room for anyone within the police service who is alleged to abuse their position or violate the rights of women and children,” she said. She added that the commitment to combating GBVF “must apply equally within our own organisation,” and that “rank, position or seniority cannot place anyone above the law.”

Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia described the allegations as “disturbing” and stressed the procedural stakes. “Where allegations of sexual offences are made against a member of the service, they must be investigated without fear or favour, irrespective of the rank or position of the individual concerned,” he said.

Sibiya’s legal troubles do not arise in a vacuum. He was suspended last year after being accused of interfering in investigations into political killings. Earlier this year, he appeared before a judicial commission probing corruption and criminality within the security services, where he faced allegations of links to criminal cartels. That commission recommended to President Cyril Ramaphosa that Sibiya face criminal investigation. The trajectory, from suspension to a judicial inquiry to a criminal docket, illustrates how governance failures inside the security apparatus can compound, with each stage imposing its own institutional and reputational cost.

The broader context sharpens the stakes. Nine women were found murdered east of Johannesburg between July 15 and mid-September, a toll that has fuelled fear and anger across the country and intensified public pressure on authorities over gender-based violence. The appearance of a senior police officer in court on charges of this nature, while that pressure is at its peak, presents the state with a dual challenge: demonstrating that its own senior ranks are accountable, and reassuring the public and the business community that the institutions charged with managing South Africa’s crime burden remain functional.

For now, the immediate procedural facts are fixed. Five charges, a postponement to September 29, and a suspended deputy national commissioner whose case will be watched closely both as a legal matter and as a measure of how far accountability reaches inside one of the state’s most consequential institutions. Whether the September hearing begins to answer that question remains to be seen.

When Business Loyalty Is Tested, Who Pays the Price?

Zanele Dube — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 07:09:00 +0000

When a former mining executive urges a foreign government to punish policymakers rather than businesses, and the presidency responds by calling him unpatriotic, the question that matters most to ordinary South Africans is not who wins the argument. It is whether the country’s economic wellbeing is being treated as separate from the political fortunes of those who govern it. That question sits at the heart of the dispute between the presidency and Neal Froneman, the former CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, and its resolution has consequences for every citizen who depends on investment, jobs, and functioning public institutions.

The controversy stems from an interview about Froneman’s efforts to bring a Formula One race back to South Africa. In it, he argued that the country’s strained relations with Washington, particularly over its ties to Iran and Russia, could jeopardise efforts to secure the race, whose commercial owner, Liberty Media, is American. In explaining his engagements in Washington, Froneman urged that South African businesses should not be punished for the policies of their government. Any punitive measures, he suggested, should instead target the individuals responsible for those policies.

The presidency’s response was swift and, by now, familiar in style. It characterised the approach as “unpatriotic and destructive” and suggested that Froneman withdraw from a government-business partnership of which he is a key member. Critics, meanwhile, have pointed to an apparent contradiction between his remarks and the government backing his Formula One project would require.

Yet the stakes here extend well beyond one businessman’s diplomatic manners. The partnership Froneman helped lead has delivered results that belong to the public. It includes a crime and corruption workstream, and Froneman has also chaired Business Against Crime South Africa, a substantial commitment of time for which he receives no remuneration. The wider collaboration produced a banking-sector-backed forensic centre for the Hawks, and support for reforms that contributed to South Africa’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list. These are collective achievements, not his alone, but they are the kind of practical gains citizens are entitled to expect from cooperation between the state and the business community. A climate in which business leaders fear public criticism of government policy, on pain of expulsion from such partnerships, narrows the space in which that cooperation can happen.

For more than two decades, South African business leaders have been expected to help address the country’s mounting challenges, from fiscal decline and deindustrialisation to the need for social upliftment and public safety. There is, however, a peculiar expectation that in doing so they should exercise restraint in critiquing the political decisions that compound these problems. Their money, expertise, and time are readily accepted; their opinions are dismissed when they dare to challenge those in power publicly. The presidency’s rebuke of Froneman brings that tension into sharp focus, and it raises a fundamental question: at what point does loyalty to a country become conditional on deference to those who govern it?

Seeking government support for a project such as a Formula One race does not require political deference, nor does the prospect of private profit negate a venture’s potential national benefits. The project should be judged on its merits, not on its promoter’s willingness to refrain from criticising government. That said, Froneman’s proposed sanctions remedy does warrant scrutiny: who would be targeted, on what evidence, for which decisions, and with what safeguards? Those are fair questions to ask of anyone proposing that a foreign power impose consequences on South African officials.

By contrast, the presidency’s accusation of disloyalty confuses the interests of South Africa with those of its political leadership, as though the two were necessarily inseparable. They are not, and the distinction matters to the public, because a government that equates criticism with disloyalty insulates itself from the very scrutiny that accountability requires. As one editorial argument recently put it, obedience is not patriotism (https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/Editorials/obedience-not-patriotism).

Froneman’s record gives his critics’ charge little to stand on. His career has been grounded in an industry whose fortunes remain intimately connected with South Africa’s economic prospects. Having led Sibanye-Stillwater from its establishment as a domestic gold producer into an international mining business, he understands the relationship between investment, operational viability, and employment. His concerns about the consequences of government policy should therefore be engaged on their merits, rather than dismissed as the unwelcome intrusion of a businessman into diplomatic affairs.

His patriotism, such as it is, has never been the ceremonial variety. It has been reflected for decades in his willingness to commit his energies to “proudly South African first” commercial endeavours and to confront the challenges he believes prevent the country from realising that potential. He has never been particularly good at knowing his place, nor at keeping quiet when he believes government, unions, or fellow business leaders are damaging the country of his birth and the prospects of its people.

For the citizens whose safety, livelihoods, and institutions depend on that work continuing, that is not a flaw. It is something the country should be grateful for, and the question now is whether the space for such public-spirited engagement will widen or shrink.

Soweto taxis and taverns mourn a voice gone quiet

Priya Naidoo — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:41:59 +0000

In the taxis that crawl through Soweto’s morning traffic, in the taverns of Katlehong, in homes where radios have hummed for decades, a familiar voice has fallen silent. Bernard “Babsy” Mlangeni, the beloved South African musician, has died. The grief is being felt not in official statements but in ordinary places where his songs lived alongside the people who loved them.

His music travelled far beyond stages, television sets and radio waves. It entered homes, taxis, taverns, churches and community gatherings where Africans sought comfort and affirmation of their humanity. For the listeners who sang along, he was never a distant star. He was a vessel through which the dreams, pains, victories and aspirations of ordinary people with less eyesight found voice.

Nowhere is that bond clearer than in “Iphupho Lami”, one of his most beloved songs, whose title means “My Dream”. Since his passing, the song echoes with deeper meaning. It is no longer merely a song. It has become a testimony, a declaration, a legacy.

For millions who lived under apartheid and who have since navigated the complexities of democratic South Africa, dreams have always carried political, social and personal significance. They represent hope in times of despair and possibility in moments of uncertainty. What makes “Iphupho Lami” timeless is its ability to connect across generations. Older listeners hear echoes of their own sacrifices and aspirations, while younger audiences discover a message that still speaks to contemporary struggles against poverty, unemployment, inequality and social exclusion.

The dream of which Mlangeni sang was never his alone. It belonged to millions who grew up under difficult conditions yet refused to surrender their dignity, and to township youth who sought inspiration amid hardship and strife. It was a collective dream of a society where every child can realise their potential and every citizen can live with dignity.

Those who knew his work describe an artist rooted in truth. Every lyric carried the weight of lived experience; every note and tone conveyed sincerity. His music reminded listeners that genuine artistry emerges from truth and right, love and light. In a world increasingly driven by commercialism, Babsy remained anchored in the lived realities of ordinary people, connected with all those with less data and signal. That rootedness explains why his songs continue to evoke deep emotional responses long after they were first recorded.

Meanwhile, for the academic community, and for institutions such as UNISA in particular, his passing offers a moment of reflection on the relationship between knowledge, culture and liberation. Universities, the argument runs, are not merely repositories of books and theories; they are guardians of humanity’s intellectual and cultural heritage. The life of Babsy Mlangeni is a reminder that some of the greatest scholars never occupy lecture halls, yet educate nations through lived experience, cultural and artistic expression, and ethical example.

There is a Pan-Africanist reading of his life as well. Music, in this view, is not entertainment alone. It is memory, resistance, healing, a bridge between generations. As Ntate Babsy himself once said, music was born in Afrika. Throughout the continent’s story, from the drums of ancient Afrika to the liberation songs of anti-colonial struggles, music has preserved identity when others sought to erase it.

The African worldview teaches that death is not an ending but a transition. Those who serve humanity with honour do not vanish; they vibrate in our minds and souls and become part of the living heritage of a people, taking their place among the ancestors who guide the living through memory, example and spirit. Mlangeni has crossed that sacred River Nile and River Limpopo, yet the rivers still flow with the glow of his smile.

He now joins the great congregation of Afrikan cultural icons such as Hendrik “Koloi” Lebona and Tebogo Steve Kekana, whose contributions transcend time and geography. Present and future generations may never meet him, but they will know him through the songs he left behind and through the countless lives he touched when he passed our way.

UCT, Nanjing Sign Governance MoU After Two-Day Talks

Kagiso Mokoena — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 07:36:55 +0000

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance and Nanjing University was the most concrete outcome of a two-day conference that closed at the University of Cape Town with a pointed question about delivery: what would it take to turn conversations held in the venue into collaborative action that strengthens research, education and practice on the continent?

The school convened the event, titled “Envisioning Africa’s Futures: Governance, leadership and South-South partnerships”, from 30 September to 1 October 2026. It brought together continental academics, policymakers, researchers, practitioners and students for critical conversations about Africa’s future. Its stated objectives ranged from deepening reflection on the nature of the African state to strengthening South-South relations in pursuit of shared goals, and participants were challenged to rethink established assumptions and contribute to a collaborative agenda for research, education and practice.

The new agreement formalises collaboration in research, teaching and academic exchange between the Cape Town school and Nanjing University, reflecting a shared commitment to advancing knowledge production and strengthening South-South engagement. It seeks to support collaborative approaches to pressing development challenges while fostering deeper academic cooperation between Africa and China.

Implementation questions ran through the panels themselves. The second day shifted attention to regional integration and South-South partnerships for development, examining their implications for state-building, green industrialisation and critical minerals. The first of these panels argued that regional integration should be viewed not only as a trade-liberalisation project but also as a developmental strategy, one that needs to extend significantly beyond conventional trade agreements. Speakers said it is imperative for Africa to understand how regional integration, industrialisation and development are being affected by changes in the wider global economy, including disruption to the global climate agenda, and that the continent needs an industrial strategy capable of responding to a range of developmental and structural challenges.

The critical minerals panel confronted the delivery question most directly. Panellists explored policy debates, on-the-ground realities and the implications for state-building and international partnerships, arguing that Africa’s critical-mineral endowment is a potential source of leverage rather than a guarantee of development; it will not solve the continent’s problems. The decisive issue, they argued, is whether African states and regional institutions can build the capabilities, coordination, finance, infrastructure, skills, accountability and local enterprise needed to convert minerals into sustained industrial development, and whether states can avoid the continued reproduction of extractive development models.

The first day had set the analytical groundwork for these delivery-focused discussions. The opening panel, “African State: Current nature and what are we trying to build?”, explored the kind of state required to meet contemporary challenges and respond to citizens’ aspirations, asking what a “fit-for-purpose” African state would look like and for whom it should work. Panellists considered governance models, state capability, democratic accountability and developmental pathways, and reached consensus that such a state should combine democratic legitimacy, developmental capability, social accountability and measurable impact. The central challenge, they concluded, is transforming inherited extractive and weakly accountable institutions into systems that can secure citizens, build productive capacity, include marginalised groups, learn and implement effectively, and operate through stronger national and regional social contracts.

A second panel, “Leadership and governance: What should we put in place?”, examined the systems, institutions and reforms needed to strengthen governance across the continent, framing leadership not simply as individual action but as a relational practice embedded within institutions and accountable governance systems. Speakers underscored the need for stronger accountable stewardship, for rebuilding organised political and associational life in an age of fragmentation and digitalisation, and for interrogating the widening gap between volatile societies and their institutions at both national and global levels.

A third panel took on the persistent gap between academic research and practical implementation. Titled “Disrupting the knowledge-action disconnect: Shaping activist research and education”, it examined how research, education and civic engagement can contribute more effectively to social and policy change, and how stronger connections between universities, policymakers, civil society and communities can improve development outcomes. The central message was that the knowledge-action disconnect is not simply a failure to communicate research or train more leaders; it is produced by power, incentives, institutional design, accountability relationships and the conditions in which leaders are expected to act.

The conference opened with remarks from Professor Suki Goodman, dean of the Faculty of Commerce, who emphasised the importance of universities as spaces for critical inquiry and future-oriented thinking. “Universities are not simply places where knowledge is produced and stored. At their best, they are places where we interrogate the world we have inherited, imagine the world we want and create the intellectual and human capacity to move between the two,” she said. The keynote address followed, delivered by Professor Carlos Lopes under the title “Africa’s next chapter: Leadership, agency and the politics of transformation”. He framed his presentation around three questions: where Africa stands in a changing geopolitical order, where value will be created and captured in the future global economy, and how leaders earn the authority needed to make difficult choices. Reflecting on the opportunities and constraints facing the continent, he highlighted the importance of agency, arguing that leadership must extend beyond responding to external forces to actively shaping rules, building capabilities and creating value.

A plenary session on “Belonging, insecurity and the future of Africa’s prosperity” invited delegates to reflect on the social foundations necessary for sustainable development, exploring the intersections between identity, social cohesion, governance and security, and the importance of inclusive societies where citizens feel connected to public institutions and national development projects.

In closing, Professor Cheryl Hendricks, director of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, called for a renewed agenda that strengthens research, education and practice while broadening participation in agenda-setting processes. That includes rebuilding social cohesion, strengthening civic and policy implementation spaces, and ensuring that Africa enters global and South-South partnerships with a clearer sense of its own priorities and aspirations. She posed specific questions for the plenary: what would a progressive development research programme consist of, how should schools of governance, research institutes, government and intergovernmental departments be organised to achieve greater impact, and which course offerings become important given these conversations. Further details of the conference are available at https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2026-10-09-conference-explores-governance-leadership-and-south-south-partnerships.

Mining towns' livelihoods hinge on new ownership rules

Priya Naidoo — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 08:54:07 +0000

For the mining towns and workers whose livelihoods depend on new projects getting off the ground, the rules that govern who owns what in South Africa’s mines are not abstract policy. They are the difference between investment arriving or going elsewhere. That was the message mining professionals carried into a conference on October 7, where they argued that the country’s empowerment regime must be reshaped so that it welcomes investors while still serving the communities the industry operates among.

Minerals Council South Africa president Paul Dunne, who is also CEO of platinum group metals producer Northam Platinum, told the gathering that the industry needs legislation that works for both sides of the table. “We need finality to our legislation, and need a legislative backdrop that is acceptable to the needs of the country in terms of economic transformation and participation in the economy, but which is also acceptable to the investor community. This can be done,” he said.

The mood among mining professionals darkened in May 2025, when the draft Mineral Resources Development Bill was released. Industry figures viewed the draft as neither encouraging nor sustaining growth and investment, and one proposed change in particular raised alarm: the sitting Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister would have to give permission before the beneficial ownership of a mine could change hands. For investors weighing where to place capital, such a requirement looked like a discouragement.

There has since been movement. Dunne said engagements around the legislation have been fruitful, and consultations have moved into the processes of the National Economic Development and Labour Council. “While the work is confidential, on the whole, this is a working piece of legislation that we can guide through Nedlac and Parliament to deliver a law that the industry needs,” he said.

Minerals Council CEO Mzila Mthenjane highlighted a different frustration, one that lands squarely on the people trying to comply with the rules. Investors understand South Africa’s need for transformation, he said, but their biggest concern is inconsistency. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources holds one view of how empowerment should be effected, and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition holds another, and the mining sector must conform with both. “We must address this inconsistency between the empowerment regulations of different departments. The biggest concern of investors is certainty of transformation policy. We should rather have one law that all sectors abide by,” he said.

Mthenjane also urged that transformation laws be redesigned so their benefits reach the bottom of the economy, where people actually live. “Not every member of a community must have a share in a local mining company; rather empowerment rules should find ways to change people’s lives.” He noted that several infrastructure and municipal services duties have already been delegated to the mining industry, work the industry carries out well, and argued that laws must balance South Africa’s needs with the commercial realities of mining.

On the government side, Ntokozo Nzimande, deputy director-general for Mining, Mineral and Policy Development at the DMPR, acknowledged the fragmentation. Improving predictability is a critical pillar of the department’s 2030 Strategic Plan, she said, and the DMPR is working with the departments of Water and Sanitation and of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to align licensing timelines. She added that talks about transformation are often reduced to equity, even though the sector performs well on social and labour plans.

By contrast, Mthenjane pointed to the longer investment horizon. Quoting US businessperson Larry Fink, he noted that investors have a fiduciary duty exercised through the investments they make. They need line of sight to a return within their investment horizon, which in turn requires security of tenure. The Medium Term Development Plan 2024 to 2029 requires the whole of government to coordinate to achieve 3.5% economic growth, and the current lack of coordination was flagged as a key weakness.

Momentum, though, is building. The government and business partnership formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, coordinated through the Presidency, has entered its third phase. After focusing on electricity supply security and transport and logistics, it now targets agriculture, mining and tourism. Mthenjane expressed confidence that public announcements would come with simultaneous commitments to project teams, saying the industry is “not only fixing one thing at a time, but are fixing an ecosystem.”

Whether the Nedlac process delivers the finality Dunne called for remains the open question for the communities and workers watching from the mining towns. Fuller context on the conference and its arguments can be found at https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/south-africas-mining-industry-needs-an-empowerment-regime-that-welcomes-investors-2026-10-08

Follow the Money: Municipal Budgets on the Ballot

Kagiso Mokoena — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 07:35:09 +0000

South Africa’s 2026 local government elections will be decided, in part, on money: how municipal budgets are spent, how infrastructure is financed, and whether the funds allocated for water, roads and refuse collection actually reach the services residents pay for. When voters go to the polls on 4 November, the campaign promises on offer will compete for attention, but the harder question is financial and operational. Whoever takes office inherits a budget, a set of development plans and a performance system, and the test of any manifesto is whether its commitments can be traced to infrastructure, funding, a responsible department and a delivery timetable.

That distinction between promise and plan sits at the centre of municipal accountability. Election manifestos are built to win support; municipal administrations are expected to operate through budgets, development plans and measurable performance systems. A pledge to improve water supply carries little weight without clarity on the infrastructure involved, the money available and the schedule for delivery. The Municipal Systems Act provides for community participation in local government, including municipal planning, performance management and decisions about services, which means residents are not intended to remain spectators once the votes are counted.

For voters trying to assess the financial substance behind the rhetoric, a practical starting point is to convert campaign promises into specific questions. If a party commits to repairing roads, which roads take priority and how will progress be reported? If it pledges better refuse collection, what happens when scheduled collections are missed? If water interruptions persist, what information should households expect from the municipality? These questions are not glamorous, but they reveal whether an election promise has become an operational commitment backed by budget lines and delivery targets.

Coalition politics adds a further layer of financial and administrative complexity. Where no party secures outright control of a council, parties that criticised one another during the campaign may end up sharing responsibility for municipal decisions. A party’s manifesto may remain unchanged, but its capacity to implement particular commitments can depend on compromises negotiated with political partners. The critical distinction for voters is between compromise that enables government to function and arrangements that obscure responsibility. Consider a municipality where coalition partners jointly promise to improve waste collection: if the service deteriorates, residents need more than competing explanations. They need to know which political leadership is accountable, which officials must implement the programme and how the municipality intends to correct the failure. A functioning coalition should make responsibility clearer through its agreements and governing arrangements, not harder to identify.

The stakes extend well beyond election day. Municipal government shapes everyday life through service delivery, planning, infrastructure and decisions about public resources, and national government has identified municipal financial management, performance monitoring and public participation as important parts of strengthening local government. That gives residents leverage that lasts longer than a single ballot. Communities can follow municipal plans, examine budgets, take part in public consultation processes and demand explanations when published targets are missed.

Participation is more effective when it is specific. A general complaint that a council is failing may carry political force, but a documented pattern of missed collections, unresolved maintenance requests or delayed projects creates a stronger basis for sustained scrutiny of how public money is being used. Neighbourhood organisations, journalists and community groups have a role here: they can keep attention on the same commitments long after campaign posters disappear, compare public promises with municipal plans and ask for progress in language residents can understand.

Political satire has a part to play in making that scrutiny accessible. In an SA Explained conversation with Naledi Moleo, Conrad Koch and Chester Missing question the promises, personalities and contradictions of election politics, and the discussion is available at https://www.enca.com/news/sa-explained-can-politicians-still-fool-south-african-voters-conrad-koch-and-chester-missing. Humour may encourage audiences to recognise a problem, but recognition alone does not repair the service behind the joke. South African voters do not have to choose between understanding politics and laughing at its absurdities; they can do both. The more demanding task is turning that attention into consistent oversight.

On election day, the ballot records a choice. In the months and years that follow, the quality of local democracy will depend on whether residents can establish what was promised, see what was delivered and insist on answers when the two do not match.

Cosatu marches target regulators over wage enforcement

Priya Naidoo — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:34:38 +0000

Cosatu’s nationwide marches and pickets on Wednesday, October 7 will place a direct set of demands before government departments, regulators and employers, with the federation using the protected protest to press for stronger enforcement of the National Minimum Wage and the appointment of 10,000 additional labour inspectors.

The action runs from about 9am to 4.30pm and is protected under Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act. That protection gives the federation a legal framework within which it can formally present grievances to the institutions and companies it is targeting. Cosatu frames the day as a response to job losses, rising living costs and what it describes as attacks on workers’ rights. It has also timed the protest to coincide with the World Day for Decent Work, an annual global observance promoting fair wages, secure employment and better working conditions.

The largest actions are planned for Johannesburg and Tshwane. There, Cosatu will target Massmart over the dismissal of nearly 600 Makro workers. Memorandums will be delivered to the company, formally placing the dispute on record and requiring a response from the employer.

Meanwhile, retrenchment plans in the hospitality and casino sector form a second front. Cosatu and its affiliate SACCAWU will march to Sun City in the North West and to GrandWest Casino in Cape Town over planned retrenchments by Sun International, again using the memorandum process to hold the company to account before its workforce and the public.

Provincial actions extend the accountability push to government itself. In the Free State, Cosatu will hold a provincial march in Bloemfontein, where memorandums on worker concerns will be handed to various government departments and companies. In Limpopo, the federation will stage a lunchtime demonstration at Jumbo Stores in Polokwane, focusing on the rising cost of living, electricity prices, minimum-wage compliance and alleged unfair labour practices. That emphasis on minimum-wage compliance points to the federation’s central national demand: existing labour standards must be enforced, not merely legislated.

Affiliate unions are coordinating their own actions across several provinces, adding sector-specific pressure to the national programme. In KwaZulu-Natal, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will hold a picket at Richards Bay Minerals, where workers will hand over a memorandum outlining various workplace grievances. The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) will march in Durban, while SACCAWU will stage workplace pickets in several towns across the province. In Mpumalanga, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) will hold municipal pickets focusing on socio-economic and labour challenges in local government, directing attention to the delivery and labour obligations of municipalities.

Beyond the minimum wage and inspector appointments, Cosatu’s national demands cover retrenchments, casualisation, collective bargaining, social protection and the rising cost of living. Taken together, the demands are aimed at the enforcement machinery of labour law as much as at individual employers. The federation is arguing that protections on the statute books are not being applied rigorously enough on shop floors and in municipal workplaces.

The Section 77 protection matters for how the day unfolds. It places the marches within a recognised process under the Labour Relations Act, meaning the memorandums handed to Massmart, Sun International, government departments and other recipients form part of a formal grievance route rather than ad hoc protest. Whether the demands translate into enforcement action, negotiations over retrenchments, or commitments on inspector numbers will depend on how the targeted institutions and employers respond in the days and weeks after Wednesday’s action concludes at 4.30pm.

Durban asylum seekers face fresh uncertainty after ruling

Gerhard van der Merwe — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:30:02 +0000

For the people who queue each morning outside the Refugee Reception Office in Durban, Wednesday was another day of raised voices and uncertainty. Tensions stayed high outside the centre as March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma called on the Constitutional Court to reconsider and overturn its decision in the Scalabrini of Cape Town matter, a ruling handed down on 7 July 2026 that has become the focus of a fierce public dispute over what it actually means.

The department has moved to shut down one version of events. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Home Affairs described as false the claims that the judgment grants asylum seekers citizenship, or that it provides blanket legalisation of foreign nationals. The statement came from Ministerial Spokesperson Carli van Wyk, who said the department would refer the matter to the Independent Electoral Commission under the newly published Code of Conduct on Countering Disinformation.

At the heart of the department’s complaint is a campaign it says misrepresents both the ruling and the officials behind it. “Despite it being public knowledge that this case was vigorously opposed by the department and that it led to a binding ruling of the Constitutional Court, nefarious actors have launched a large-scale disinformation campaign targeting the Minister of Home Affairs and other officials,” the department said. It was disputing claims that the department had decided to suspend good cause interviews at the behest of the Minister, the Department, or political parties.

Meanwhile, the department voiced concern about the wider effects of false claims on communities already living with the consequences. It says it is worried by what it describes as the deliberate spreading of disinformation “designed to inflame tensions and violence” in the country.

For now, the two sides of the dispute are playing out in different places: in formal statements and referral processes on one hand, and on the pavement outside the Durban reception centre on the other, where Ngobese-Zuma and her supporters pressed their demand that the court revisit its ruling. What remains unchanged, according to the department, is the substance of the judgment itself, which it insists confers neither citizenship on asylum seekers nor any blanket legalisation of foreign nationals. Whether the referral to the Independent Electoral Commission will quiet the claims circulating outside the centre is the question that now hangs over the morning queues.

Africa's Cotton Exports Cost Millions Jobs and Income

Gerhard van der Merwe — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:24:05 +0000

Cotton grown in Africa leaves the continent as raw fibre and returns as finished clothing sold at a multiple of its original value. For the millions of people living in the continent’s cotton-growing regions, that gap means lost jobs, lost income and lost opportunity. A new continental effort now aims to close it.

The numbers are stark. Only 2% of the cotton produced in Africa’s major producing countries is processed locally. The rest is exported raw, feeding factories elsewhere while African communities capture a fraction of the value their harvest creates. A coalition of governments and international bodies is trying to change that, with targets that would reshape daily life in some of the world’s poorest cotton regions: 25% local processing by 2035, roughly 500,000 new jobs, and $6bn in value-added textile products.

The effort took shape in 2024, when Mali, Benin, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Chad and Côte d’Ivoire joined the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization to launch the Partenariat pour le Coton, or Partnership for Cotton. The initiative is designed as a regional “textile corridor”, allowing cotton grown in one country to be spun, woven and sewn into garments in another. Officials describe it as a way to build the economies of scale African manufacturers need to compete with established global rivals.

Implementation began in March, after a two-year diagnostic phase, on the margins of the WTO ministerial conference in Yaoundé. The stage brings together international partners, including Afreximbank, which will help mobilise $5bn in new investments to expand spinning, weaving and garment manufacturing capacity across the participating countries.

For George Elombi, president and chairman of Afreximbank, the current arrangement defies justification. “I call it, and we must accept it as, an anomaly. We grow cotton and export it in its raw state, then we buy it back in the form of a shirt for ten, maybe fifty times the price, with the name of a non-African brand, obviously,” he said. He argued that within 15 to 20 years, Africa will have left the raw cotton export business entirely, moving into textiles and clothing exports so that more money stays on the continent to improve lives and livelihoods. He promised to ramp up the bank’s investments in the sector.

The bank has already put money behind that vision. In Benin, it helped finance and develop the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone in partnership with Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms, in which it owns a stake. Building on that experience, Afreximbank is supporting special economic zones dedicated to cotton processing in Cameroon, Chad and Mali, with similar discussions under way in Kenya, Rwanda and Nigeria.

Africa’s cotton production is concentrated in its central and western regions. Mali led the continent with roughly 1.3 million bales in 2025, followed closely by Benin at 1.2 million. Côte d’Ivoire produced 745,000 bales, Cameroon 650,000, Burkina Faso 610,000, Sudan 550,000, Tanzania 400,000, Nigeria 350,000, Chad 320,000, and Egypt between 250,000 and 320,000.

Yet processing capacity alone will not deliver the promised jobs and incomes. Manufacturers need reliable access to markets large enough to sustain profitable growth, and that task has grown harder as major powers such as the United States increasingly use trade as a geopolitical tool. Africa’s most durable option, analysts argue, is to grow its own consumer base. Intra-African trade accounts for only about 10% of the continent’s apparel exports and 17% of its imports, a figure that captures both the scale of the challenge and the opportunity for home-grown fashion brands.

Meanwhile, the African Continental Free Trade Area offers a framework for local brands to compete against cheaper imports. But officials and entrepreneurs agree that a trade agreement alone will not create sustainable demand. African designers must win over domestic consumers and persuade them to buy African as a matter of pride and identity.

That remains an uphill battle, according to Wandia Gichuru, CEO of Vivo Fashion Group. Speaking at the Africa Soft Power Summit in Nairobi in May, she said Africans themselves have a crucial role in elevating local brands by choosing them over global substitutes. “In this part of the world we have not seen fashion for the business opportunity it provides,” she said. “Our vision at Vivo is that of an Africa that is dressing herself. That may not be as big a challenge in West Africa. But in East Africa we tend to dress very European and wear predominantly second-hand clothing.”

Gichuru also stressed that quality must come first, since consumers’ livelihoods and choices ultimately decide which brands survive. “We should not be buying African brands simply because they are African. We should be able to compete. There should be enough of us at all price points and in all market segments,” she said.

Whether the corridor delivers on its promise of half a million jobs and billions in added value will depend on both the factories being built and the shoppers willing to fill them with African-made clothes.

Prosecutors pause R191m Phahlane case for internal review

Naledi Sithole — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:43:55 +0000

Idac’s provisional withdrawal of the R191 million blue-lights corruption case against former acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane and his co-accused has placed a high-profile test of prosecutorial oversight back in the hands of the directorate itself. The charges remain authorised but paused pending an internal review.

The decision, announced by the Independent Directorate Against Corruption, followed a review by acting investigating director advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara. He will examine certain aspects of the case before it is potentially re-enrolled. The directorate framed the step as procedural rather than final. “The matter remains authorised and falls within the prosecutorial mandate of Idac,” it said. A review panel has already considered the case and found that it was properly authorised and fell within Idac’s mandate.

The prosecution stems from a 2016 contract awarded to Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (ITL) to supply emergency warning equipment to the South African Police Service. The state alleged that SAPS officials bypassed competitive procurement processes to corruptly favour ITL and its owner, Vimpie Manthata. The contract was worth just over R191 million, of which about R65 million was paid to the service provider. During its investigation, Idac prevented a further payment of R22 million from being made.

The accused span both the police hierarchy and the private sector. They include former deputy national commissioner for human resources management Lieutenant General Bonang Mgwenya; former Gauteng police commissioner Deliwe de Lange; Gauteng deputy police commissioner Nombhuruza Lettie Napo; retired divisional commissioner Lieutenant General Ramahlapi Johannes Mokwena; retired major general Ravichandran Pillay; Colonel Thomas Dumas Marima; and Sergeant Maetapese Joseph Mulaiwa. The civilian accused are Judy Rose, Samantha Andrews and Manthata. Their previous attempt to have the matter struck off the roll was dismissed by the court.

Phahlane, who led the SAPS Forensic Science Service from 2012 to 2015 before being appointed acting national police commissioner on 15 October 2015, has mounted a sustained challenge to the case. He was suspended on 1 June 2017 and dismissed from the police service on 30 July 2020 following an internal disciplinary process relating to allegations of dishonest conduct and procurement irregularities. He made several unsuccessful attempts to have the case struck off the court roll before the latest provisional withdrawal.

Meanwhile, the matter has carried significant financial consequences. In 2022, the Asset Forfeiture Unit seized assets worth about R75 million in connection with the investigation.

Phahlane has consistently disputed the allegations. He recently appeared before a parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating criminal infiltration and political interference in the criminal justice system, where he submitted a 170-page affidavit arguing that his removal from the position of acting national police commissioner in 2017 by then police minister Fikile Mbalula was unconstitutional. He maintains that he was the victim of a coordinated political plot to prevent his permanent appointment as national police commissioner.

The directorate has also drawn a clear line between this case and a separate matter: the 2021 Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department blue-lights scandal, in which suspended deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi and alleged criminal kingpin Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala are co-accused. The two prosecutions are distinct.

For now, the effect of the latest decision is that the case remains alive. Idac retains the option of re-enrolling the charges once its review is complete, leaving the accountability question at the heart of the procurement allegations unresolved but still formally within the directorate’s prosecutorial mandate. Whether Vanara’s review confirms the case or reshapes it will determine when, and in what form, the R191 million question returns to court.

Circular economy: South Africa's next investment frontier

Thandiwe Dlamini — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 07:44:08 +0000

South Africa’s shift from a linear, take-make-dispose economy to a circular one is increasingly being framed not as an environmental obligation but as an investment proposition, one that could redirect capital into recycling systems, product redesign and local manufacturing while easing mounting financial pressure on municipalities.

The economic case rests on a simple premise. For decades the country has followed a model of extraction, manufacturing, consumption and disposal. That model supported industrial growth, but it generated substantial environmental costs and placed growing strain on natural resources and public infrastructure. A circular economy, by contrast, treats waste as the beginning of a new economic opportunity rather than the end of a product’s life.

Narend Singh, Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, argues that the choice facing the country is between an outdated model that treats resources as disposable and a circular approach that converts waste into value. Writing in the South African Government News Agency, whose full commentary appears at https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/sas-circular-economy-no-longer-optional-it-our-next-economic-frontier, he positions circularity as a driver of competitiveness, innovation and industrial resilience rather than a purely environmental ambition.

The policy instrument at the centre of this transition is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations, described as one of the most significant interventions in the waste management sector in recent years. The regulations require producers to take responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products across the full life cycle, creating incentives for better product design, greater recycling and stronger investment in collection systems. For operators and investors, the signal is that compliance costs can be converted into competitive advantage: firms that redesign products and build collection infrastructure stand to capture value that would otherwise be lost to disposal.

The financial logic extends beyond regulatory compliance. When implemented effectively, EPR creates jobs, supports small enterprises, stimulates innovation and reduces the financial burden on municipalities that are struggling to manage growing waste volumes. It also strengthens local manufacturing by returning valuable materials to productive use, reducing dependence on virgin resources and their associated cost exposure.

The plastics sector illustrates the opportunity most clearly. Plastics are often viewed solely through the lens of pollution, yet they remain essential to industries spanning healthcare, agriculture, construction and food security. The challenge, on this reading, is not the material itself but how it is managed. Keeping plastics circulating through reuse, repair and recycling reduces pollution while unlocking economic value, creating new business opportunities, strengthening local value chains and supporting thousands of livelihoods across the recycling economy. Partnerships between government, industry and Producer Responsibility Organisations such as Polyco demonstrate what can be achieved when regulation is matched by innovation, investment and collaboration.

Meanwhile, government is reviewing the framework’s performance. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment is assessing the implementation of the EPR Regulations after five years to ensure the system remains effective, transparent and responsive to emerging challenges. In parallel, with support from the Global Environment Facility, practical interventions are being identified to accelerate the transition towards a circular plastics economy. These initiatives align with the country’s broader industrial development agenda, which increasingly treats circular economy principles as central to long-term competitiveness.

The returns on offer are already visible in early projects. Wastewater is being converted into a resource that strengthens water security, former landfill sites are being repurposed to generate renewable energy, and materials once destined for disposal are creating employment and supporting entrepreneurs. Singh presents these not as isolated success stories but as early signs of the economy that could be built.

Success, however, depends on capital and commitment from multiple actors. Municipalities need stronger waste management infrastructure, businesses must continue investing in product innovation and recycling systems, and communities need greater access to separation at source programmes. Waste pickers, who already make a substantial contribution to recycling, deserve formal integration and fair economic opportunities.

South Africa is also positioning itself to attract continental investment. Through its role as co-chair of the Africa Circular Economy Alliance, the country is working with continental partners to mobilise investment, strengthen circular economy initiatives and promote more sustainable resource management across Africa.

The broader takeaway for investors and operators is that the circular economy is being framed as an economic development strategy and industrial policy opportunity rather than a compliance burden. Reducing pollution and growing the economy, Singh argues, are not competing objectives; approached thoughtfully, they reinforce one another. The challenge now is to treat sustainability as a catalyst for innovation, investment and prosperity, building an economy that wastes less, creates more and leaves a healthier, more prosperous country for future generations.

Power, roads and internet access hinge on AU-EU review

Naledi Sithole — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:58:10 +0000

For millions of Africans, whether electricity reaches their homes, whether roads and flights are safe, and whether internet access is affordable depends on decisions made far from their daily lives. That is the practical stake behind a recent meeting in Addis Ababa, where the African Union and the European Union took stock of their cooperation on energy, transport and digital infrastructure, with both sides focused on turning joint commitments into projects people can actually see and use.

H.E. Lerato D. Mataboge, the AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, met with H.E. Javier Niño Perez, Ambassador of the European Union to the African Union, at the EU Delegation in Addis Ababa. Delegations from both institutions took part. The engagement reviewed cooperation across the department’s portfolio and the follow-through on outcomes from the 7th AU-EU Summit.

Additional reference context is available at https://techreviewafrica.com/news/7568/african-union-eu-review-infrastructure-cooperation-following-7th-au-eu-summit.

Energy featured prominently, and for good reason from a citizen’s standpoint. The two sides discussed the African Single Electricity Market and the Continental Power Systems Master Plan, including work to identify the priority interconnectors needed to advance regional electricity market integration. They also addressed the continental agenda on clean cooking, green hydrogen and energy efficiency, areas with a direct bearing on household wellbeing across the continent.

Transport, the second pillar of the review, touched on matters of safety that affect travellers every day. Discussions covered the Single African Air Transport Market, aviation safety, road safety and the harmonisation of road transport regulation. Harmonised rules and safer corridors are the kind of outcomes whose value is measured not in communiqués but in journeys completed without incident.

The third pillar, digital infrastructure, speaks to access. The engagement addressed implementation of the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa and the Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy. Talks also covered EU support through the Policy and Regulatory Initiative for Digital Africa and the Team Europe Initiative on Data Governance, alongside efforts to expand access to affordable connectivity across the continent. For citizens, affordable connectivity increasingly shapes access to services, information and economic opportunity.

Meanwhile, an institutional architecture underpins all of this, designed to keep investment pointed at public priorities. The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa provides the pipeline for infrastructure projects, while the Global Gateway Africa-Europe Investment Package is intended to align investment behind those priorities. The AU-EU Thematic Working Group on Infrastructure serves as the platform for coordinating that alignment.

What distinguished this engagement, according to the readout, was its emphasis on identifying and delivering joint investment priorities within the current cycle, moving cooperation beyond policy frameworks towards implementation. For the publics both institutions serve, that shift from paper to projects is the measure that matters. Whether the interconnectors, safer corridors and affordable connections materialise in the current cycle will be the test citizens watch next.

Home Affairs Visa Rules Strain Foreign Clergy Recruitment

Anisha Pillay — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 07:59:54 +0000

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs sits at the center of a growing administrative bottleneck complicating the work of foreign missionaries across the country. The department’s visa regime for religious workers, governed by formal directives and statutory fees, has become a significant hurdle for churches seeking to bring in clergy and church workers from abroad, according to church officials and immigration practitioners.

A senior Anglican Church official in South Africa, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, confirmed that securing permits is a major obstacle. “The one long-term challenge the Church in Southern Africa has experienced is difficulty in securing South African work permits for church workers from outside the country,” the official said. The difficulty applies to the long-term visitor’s visa, the class of work permit visa designated for religious workers. Some observers connect the tightening trend to rising hostility toward migrants from poorer African countries, hostility that has produced violent crackdowns across the nation in recent months.

The regulatory framework itself imposes demanding conditions. Under the department’s rules, missionary work visa applicants must attach a recommendation letter from a South African hosting church or religious body that is formally registered and recognized under the law. Charl Vollmer, a top immigration consultant in South Africa, emphasized that the visa is designed strictly for its core purpose of allowing religious workers to serve their churches temporarily.

What changed: some rules have been relaxed. “Under Directive 5 of 2023, issued by the Minister of Home Affairs, applicants no longer need police clearance certificates from every country they have lived in since the age of 18,” Vollmer said. “Clearances are now only required for countries where the applicant has resided for 12 months or more within the last five years.”

Other restrictions remain firmly in place. Missionaries and foreign religious workers are barred from converting their current visa status into permanent resident status while in South Africa. The visa is generally issued for up to three years and is renewable within the country, but applications for a change in status can only be submitted when the applicant is outside South Africa.

The administrative burden is measured in both time and money. Vollmer estimated processing times of between 30 and 90 days, depending on the workload of the South African embassy handling the application. Government processing fees run to about 1,520 South African Rand, roughly US$127, for a work visa, while the long-term work visa and temporary residence visa each cost R425, about US$36, with figures subject to foreign exchange variations. Independent sources in the tourism and travel sector confirmed that applicants whose documentation is guided or processed by immigration consultants achieve a higher success rate than those who attempt the process themselves.

The full picture is available in the original report, published at https://livingchurch.org/news/news-anglican-communion/in-south-africa-missionaries-struggle-to-obtain-work-permits/.

By contrast with its neighbors, South Africa is not alone in imposing demanding requirements, and the comparison highlights how immigration policy shapes religious work across the region. In Zimbabwe, the non-refundable statutory fee for a Temporary Employment Permit is US$500, with US$300 payable for each dependent of the applicant. In Kenya, the Catholic bishops in 2024 petitioned President William Ruto to remove work permit requirements for missionaries, citing what they called an exorbitant increase in charges from KES 15,000, about US$115, to KES 150,000, about US$1,153. “We as a country should be showing gratitude and appreciation through giving waivers to priests, religious men and women, and other social missionary volunteers who come to complement our social engagement. We request that their work permit be zero-rated,” the bishops told the president. In both Zimbabwe and Kenya, bishops want their governments to abolish the punitive requirements and eliminate the fees.

The policy debate unfolds against a long institutional history. Missionaries have played major roles in Africa since the European colonial era, providing education, health care, and other essential services, including to marginalized populations in remote villages. Johnson Ndlovu, an Anglican high school teacher in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, said South Africa remains a beneficiary of those sacrifices. “The missionaries settled among the poor people in remote villages, opening schools and hospitals and drilling water sources, and they later participated in translation of the Holy Bible and prayer books into local languages,” Ndlovu said. The Anglican Church in Southern Africa has continued to register an upward trend in leadership and membership despite political changes such as the fall of the apartheid regime in 1994.

The church’s institutional legacy extends to the highest offices in the region. The Most Rev. Desmond Tutu, educated in mission schools, became the first black primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and archbishop of Cape Town on September 7, 1986. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2009, the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2005, and the Templeton Prize in 2013. Many of Africa’s first postcolonial presidents were also educated in Christian mission schools, among them Nelson Mandela, who attended Qunu primary and Wesleyan secondary schools before becoming South Africa’s first democratically elected president, sworn in on May 10, 1994, after 27 years in prison for opposing apartheid. Others include Sir Seretse Khama of Botswana, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Samora Machel of Mozambique, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya.

Ndlovu argued that the current policy environment fails to reflect that history. Noting that South Africa has a strong economy but is also a leader in organized criminality, he said the rising rate of criminality, combined with xenophobia, indicates a spiritual deficiency in the country. “We need to plant more churches and train additional priests. The government should remove permit conditions to allow free movement of missionaries to come and supplement the good work of the local clergy,” he recommended. Whether the Department of Home Affairs will ease the conditions it has set remains an open question for the churches awaiting answers.

PIC safeguards R3.7-trillion in public servants' savings

Kagiso Mokoena — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:10:53 +0000

The Public Investment Corporation safeguards trillions of rands that belong to ordinary South Africans. Teachers, nurses, soldiers, police officers and retired public servants depend on these funds for their livelihoods and their futures. The institution holds those assets in trust, with no ownership of its own, and its duty is to protect the life savings of the people who built them.

During the 12 months ending 31 March 2026, client assets under management grew by R608-billion, a 20 percent increase reaching R3.657-trillion. Pure investment returns powered that expansion, even as R172-billion moved out of client portfolios. By February, asset values touched R3.958-trillion, nearing the R4-trillion mark, before geopolitical friction across the Middle East wiped more than R300-billion from balances in a matter of weeks. By 31 August, recovery had brought values back to R3.819-trillion.

These swings carry lessons for the public. Turmoil thousands of kilometres away reaches Pretoria within minutes, yet the South African economy has shown a capacity to absorb severe global shocks and rebound strongly. Domestic equity markets anchored the year, with the JSE All Share Index rising 33.6 percent. Global investors responded positively to the political stability and structural reform commitments that followed the Government of National Unity in 2024.

The Government Employees Pension Fund, which makes up 88.7 percent of total portfolio assets, delivered listed portfolio returns of 24.21 percent over the year, well above its internal target of inflation plus 5.5 percent, or 8.62 percent. Over five years, annual returns averaged 12.24 percent against a benchmark target of 10.32 percent. Bloomberg News co-founder Matthew Winkler, speaking in Cape Town, said South Africa’s finest economic days lie ahead, pointing to local currency government bonds returning 70 percent compared with 15 percent for the broader emerging market benchmark.

Meanwhile, the PIC also manages assets for the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Compensation Fund, which provide social security safety nets for workers facing job losses or workplace injuries. Every cent under management belongs to the 1.2 million active public servants and half a million pensioners the fund serves.

The institution’s role is not merely to grow numbers on a balance sheet. It must account for every rand honestly, including when things go wrong. During the recent financial audit, the Auditor-General issued an unqualified opinion but repeated material findings from the previous year. The audit identified instances where staff engaged in investment activity before completing mandatory conflict of interest declarations, due diligence processes that fell short of required investment policies, an engagement letter executed beyond authorised mandate delegations, and irregular expenditure.

These shortcomings are unacceptable for a guardian of public retirement funds. The PIC now enforces mandatory conflict of interest declarations before any transaction discussions begin and has strengthened policy compliance oversight and due diligence. Executive leadership is cooperating with the Special Investigating Unit, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, the police and the prosecuting authority wherever internal audits or forensic investigations have uncovered evidence of potential fraud, corruption or irregular conduct. Staff members implicated in wrongdoing will face disciplinary consequences regardless of rank.

Beyond accountability, the capital entrusted to the PIC is put to work building the country. Roughly R1.1-trillion supports listed fixed income instruments that finance public utilities constructing roads, railway networks, energy grids and water infrastructure. Direct investments through the Isibaya Fund channel finance into renewable power, telecommunications, affordable social housing and healthcare facilities. Over the past year, the PIC approved R8.71-billion in new private transactions, including R2.43-billion in real estate and R750-million for early-stage venture capital backing young South African entrepreneurs, with an additional R20-billion in the project pipeline. Private market exposure remains at about 4 percent of managed assets and stays within client mandate boundaries.

For 20 years, the PIC has grown client assets from R585-billion in 2006 to R3.657-trillion by 31 March 2026, a compound annual growth rate of 9.6 percent. The long-term trend remains positive even through the declines of 2009 and 2020, with value increasing more than six-fold. The institution deploys its scale to transform the financial sector as well, directing R826-million in asset management fees toward black-owned investment firms.

Global markets will continue to sway with shifting animal spirits, and unforeseen external shocks will periodically test the system. What can be controlled is how the institution behaves with patience, vigilance and full accountability. Because every rand managed carries the name of a citizen, and every citizen deserves a clear answer about how that money is protected and put to work.

Morocco names first woman to lead its government

Zanele Dube — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 07:55:26 +0000

When Fatima Ezzahra El-Mansouri stood before King Mohammed VI on Tuesday, September 29, she carried with her the weight of a first. The Moroccan King had just appointed her Head of Government, making her the first woman in the country’s history to hold the post. For El-Mansouri, a lawyer and senior member of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), the moment was personal as well as political.

“This is a historic moment for our country,” she said afterward, adding that “this is the first time that a woman has been appointed to head a government, which is a source of pride for me and for all the women of the country.”

Her words pointed to the citizens she now answers to. “We are fully aware of the importance of this stage and of the high expectations of citizens, particularly young people,” she said, promising that “we will draw up a program offering realistic and concrete solutions.” She also pledged to “work towards proposing a government that lives up to the expectations of His Majesty the King and all citizens,” describing her meeting with the King as a chance to receive “His Majesty the King’s High Guidelines for managing the coming phase.”

The appointment followed parliamentary elections in which PAM won 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, the largest number secured by any party. Under Morocco’s constitutional system, the King appoints the Head of Government from the party that wins the most seats, and El-Mansouri must now form a coalition government. Her task comes as Morocco prepares major investments tied to the 2030 FIFA World Cup while facing economic and social pressures, including concerns over inflation, employment and wages. She brings experience to the job, having previously served as housing minister and as mayor of Marrakech.

Her rise places her among a small but growing group of women leading African governments. Namibia’s President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah became her country’s first woman president in 2025. Tanzania has been led by President Samia Suluhu Hassan since 2021. Judith Suminwa became prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2024, and Tunisia appointed Sara Zaafrani as prime minister in 2025.

Morocco’s appointment is therefore not the first time a woman has led an African government, but it is a historic first for the country itself, and it adds another prominent example to the continent’s evolving record of women in executive political leadership.

The broader picture remains uneven. A 2025 analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted that Africa had had 24 female heads of state or government across 18 countries, yet only two women had been directly elected by voters to the presidency at that point: Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Namibia’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Women’s representation in legislatures has advanced more quickly than their presence at the very top of executive power.

South Africa illustrates that gap. Women currently hold about 45% of the seats in the National Assembly, placing the country among Africa’s examples of relatively high female parliamentary representation. The African National Congress also has a constitutional requirement that at least 50% of its elected structures should be women. Yet no woman has been elected president since the end of apartheid, and the question of whether that will change remains open. The country has had women in senior positions, including the Speaker of the National Assembly, but the Constitution provides that the National Assembly elects either a woman or a man as president, so there is no guarantee the next president will be a woman.

Beyond Africa, the rise of women to the highest political offices in the Middle East and North Africa has been more recent. Benazir Bhutto broke a major barrier in 1988 when she became Pakistan’s first woman prime minister and the first woman to lead a Muslim-majority country. Five years later, in 1993, Tansu Çiller became Türkiye’s first woman prime minister. Now Morocco has joined that history.

For the women and young citizens El-Mansouri addressed, the appointment is more than a change of personnel. It is a new chapter in Africa’s political story, and one whose consequences will unfold in the daily lives of Moroccans in the years ahead.

Prosecutors Drop Case Against Suspended Police Chief

Naledi Sithole — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 07:55:45 +0000

The National Director of Public Prosecutions, Andy Mothibi, on Tuesday ordered the withdrawal of criminal charges against General Fannie Masemola, South Africa’s suspended national police commissioner, after prosecutors concluded there were “no reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution” against him.

The decision raises questions about how the case was assessed in the first place and what now happens to the office-holder at the centre of it. Mothibi reviewed evidence gathered by the Independent Directorate Against Corruption before ordering the withdrawal. He framed the move in terms of prosecutorial standards, saying that pursuing a case without sufficient evidence was not in the public interest.

But the withdrawal does not close the matter for the prosecution service itself. Mothibi said prosecutors will investigate the circumstances surrounding the decision to charge Masemola, to establish whether there was any misconduct in the assessment of the evidence and in the application of the law. That internal review places the accountability question squarely within the National Prosecuting Authority, which must now examine how its own processes produced a case it has since judged unsustainable.

Masemola, 62, was charged in April with failing in his duties to provide proper oversight in his role, in connection with a health contract that became the subject of a criminal investigation. He denied the charges. The accusation centred on allegations that he failed to act on fraud warnings in the awarding of a controversial $21m (£15.5m) health tender, which was later cancelled. The contract was intended to provide health services to the police.

The charges triggered action at the highest level of the executive. President Cyril Ramaphosa placed Masemola on precautionary suspension while the criminal case was underway. With the prosecution now withdrawn, the presidency has not yet announced whether the suspended commissioner will return to office. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia has welcomed the prosecutors’ decision and said Masemola and the president would meet over what happens next, leaving the formal resolution of his status as an open question for the executive.

Meanwhile, accountability proceedings around the tender continue. A dozen senior police officers have been formally charged over their role in awarding the contract. The allegations emerged at a national inquiry examining corruption involving police officers and politicians.

That inquiry, known as the Madlanga Commission, was set up by President Ramaphosa last September to look into corruption in the police force. It was prompted by allegations made the previous year by Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, a provincial police chief, that organised crime groups had penetrated the upper echelons of government.

Masemola will still have to appear in court for the charges to be formally withdrawn, meaning the legal file remains open until a judicial officer records the discontinuation.

The episode also sits within a longer institutional pattern. Masemola is the third police chief to face a criminal investigation while in office. Jackie Selebi, the country’s longest-serving police boss, was sentenced in 2010 to 15 years in prison after being convicted of taking bribes from an Italian drug lord, Glen Agliotti, in exchange for turning a blind eye to his criminal activity. In 2017, Khomotso Phahlane was charged with corruption. Those charges were withdrawn the next year, but he was arrested again on similar charges in 2019, which he denies.

For now, the immediate decisions rest with two institutions: the National Prosecuting Authority, which must account for how the case against Masemola was brought and assessed, and the presidency, which must decide the suspended commissioner’s fate. Further background on the case is available via the BBC’s reporting at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6kgwyy0vnwvo.

Africa's Leaders Push Self-Funded Growth at Alamein Forum

Gerhard van der Merwe — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 07:13:13 +0000

El-Alamein, on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, hosted more than 20 heads of state and government this weekend with a message about who should fund Africa’s future: Africa itself, for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on its economies for jobs, trade and services.

The three-day Alamein Africa Forum argued that the continent can “do much better” in financing its own growth and reducing reliance on external money. Business leaders, bankers and development institutions joined the inaugural gathering.

The numbers presented to delegates show how much room remains. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, chairperson of the African Union Commission, told the forum that intra-African trade reached $220 billion in 2024, or 14.4 percent of the continent’s total trade. That trade grew 12.4 percent in 2024 after a 5.9 percent contraction the year before. He called the trend encouraging, but added that “Africa can do much better.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, speaking at the opening, focused on the private sector as the engine of ordinary Africans’ economic life. It accounts for more than 70 percent of gross domestic product, he said. Yet African businesses remain more connected to markets outside the continent than to their own neighbors.

“Around 85 percent of African private-sector transactions are conducted with companies outside the continent,” El-Sisi said. The forum, he explained, is meant to help African firms find opportunities closer to home and build cross-border partnerships, connections that could broaden access to goods, investment and work across the continent.

What changes for citizens: the forum is set to become a biennial event under an African Union mandate, focused on infrastructure, trade, agriculture, health care, mining, technology and renewable energy. Those are the sectors that touch daily life directly, from the roads and power grids people rely on, to the food they buy, the clinics they visit and the energy that lights their homes.

For Egypt, the summit also marks a strategic turn. After long concentrating on the Middle East and the Mediterranean, Cairo is increasingly looking south, seeking to reclaim influence in a continent where China and Gulf powers, especially the United Arab Emirates, have expanded their footprint. Officials estimate Egyptian investments in Africa at around $14 billion, including Tanzania’s $3 billion Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project.

Meanwhile, the forum arrives at a diplomatically sensitive moment. Egypt is seeking broader African backing in its long-running dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo views as a threat to its share of Nile waters, a concern with direct implications for the water supply of Egypt’s population. Ethiopia, which inaugurated the dam last year, calls it essential for economic development. Egypt argues its operation should be governed by a binding agreement.

Whether the El-Alamein forum can turn its ambitions into closer continental integration remains to be seen. The leaders who convened there framed the stakes plainly: a continent that trades and invests more within its own borders would be better placed to finance the growth its people need.

African Union brings its Tripoli office back to life

Claudette Joubert — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 06:56:57 +0000

Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, chairperson of the African Union Commission, spent this week in Tripoli focused on people and institutions reconnecting. The AUC chief formally reopened the African Union’s liaison office in the Libyan capital, walked through premises set aside for a national office of the AU development agency, Nepad, and sat down with acting Foreign Minister El-Taher El-Baour and other senior Libyan officials. The message from both sides was practical: the continental body is returning to Libya, and Libya wants to be seen working with it.

The timing matters for Libyans watching their country’s diplomatic standing. In December, Tripoli will host the fourth Africa-Türkiye summit, a two-day gathering starting on December 8 that will bring together African leaders and Turkish officials. The Libyan foreign ministry said the talks with Youssouf focused on strengthening coordination with the AU Commission to make the summit a success. For a country that has spent years rebuilding its international relationships, the chance to welcome heads of state and government to its own capital carries real weight.

Meanwhile, the conversations between El-Baour and Youssouf went beyond the summit itself. They covered Libya’s relations with the African Union, developments across the continent, and cooperation at regional and international forums. They also discussed preparations for Libya to host a meeting of the African Union’s Committee of Ten, known as the C10, on reform of the United Nations Security Council, scheduled for Tripoli on 10 and 11 October.

The reopened liaison office is intended to do more than symbolise a return. The AU said it would support closer cooperation with Libya in areas including peace and security, governance, youth and women’s empowerment, counterterrorism and efforts against transnational organised crime. Those are areas with direct consequences for Libyans’ daily lives, from security on the streets to opportunities for young people and women. The Libyan government has portrayed the renewed AU presence as part of a broader effort to increase the country’s engagement in African affairs and strengthen direct coordination with continental institutions.

The December summit will be the fourth of its kind. Three editions have been held so far: Türkiye hosted the inaugural summit in Istanbul in 2008, the second took place in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in 2014, and the third returned to Istanbul in 2021. Three ministerial conferences have also been convened, with Istanbul hosting the first two in 2011 and 2018, followed by Djibouti in 2024. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said earlier this year that the Tripoli summit would represent the next major milestone in Türkiye’s partnership with Africa.

That partnership has grown quickly over more than two decades, and its effects are visible in cities across the continent. Ankara’s presence accelerated after Türkiye adopted its Africa Action Plan in the late 1990s and deepened further after the African Union recognised Türkiye as a strategic partner in 2008, the same year the first Türkiye-Africa Summit was held in Istanbul. Türkiye now operates 44 embassies across Africa, compared with 12 in 2002, while 38 African countries maintain embassies in Ankara, according to the Turkish foreign ministry.

The relationship extends well beyond embassies. Fidan said in April that bilateral trade with Africa had grown to $36.6 billion and that Turkish Airlines served 64 destinations across the continent. Türkiye’s Cooperation and Coordination Agency, TİKA, operates 22 offices in Africa. Other Turkish institutions, including the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, the Turkish Red Crescent and the Maarif Foundation, have expanded activities in humanitarian aid, development and education. Economic ties were reinforced through platforms such as the fifth Türkiye-Africa Business and Economic Forum, held in Istanbul in October 2025, which brought together government and business representatives from Türkiye and African countries.

Security and diplomacy have become increasingly important elements of Türkiye’s Africa policy as well. Ankara has expanded defence cooperation with several African states through training, capacity building and defence-sector partnerships, while also seeking a role as a diplomatic facilitator in regional disputes. The most prominent example has been Türkiye’s mediation between Somalia and Ethiopia after tensions between the two Horn of Africa neighbours. That process culminated in the Ankara Declaration of December 2024, when Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed agreed, with Turkish facilitation, to reaffirm respect for each other’s sovereignty and pursue negotiations over Ethiopia’s access to the sea under Somali sovereign authority. Technical talks continued under Turkish facilitation in 2025.

For Libya, hosting the December summit offers an opportunity to reinforce its own ties with the African Union and reassert its place in continental diplomacy at a time when Tripoli is seeking greater engagement with African institutions. Taken together, the reopening of the AU Liaison Office, the preparations for the C10 meeting on UN Security Council reform and the forthcoming Türkiye-Africa Partnership Summit point in the same direction: a renewed Libyan push to position itself more actively within Africa’s diplomatic architecture, and a partnership between Türkiye and the continent that continues to widen. Whether the Tripoli summit in December delivers concrete gains for ordinary Libyans, from jobs to security, will be the measure of how far this diplomatic reopening actually reaches.

More South African families choose homes for all generations

Zanele Dube — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 07:39:12 +0000

Grandparents near grandchildren, parents with a trusted adult close at hand, retirees spared social isolation: multi-generational living is gaining ground in South Africa, and the shift says something about what families now expect from their homes, their communities and their daily lives. As households look for greater security and mutual support, estates designed to accommodate grandparents, parents and children together are emerging as an increasingly attractive option, offering diverse housing types and shared facilities for all ages.

One of the clearest examples is unfolding on the KZN Mid-South Coast, where the 1 300-hectare Renishaw Coastal Precinct has launched its residential offering, Restilridge Farm Estate, near Scottburgh. The development is built around a simple premise with wide public relevance: that people at different stages of life should be able to live close to one another without giving up independence.

Barto van der Merwe, Managing Director of Renishaw Property Developments, says the growing interest reflects a broader change in expectations. “Families increasingly want grandparents to be close to their grandchildren, while older residents also want to remain connected to family rather than moving into communities that separate them from younger generations,” he says. “The estate model is particularly well suited to this because it can provide different types of homes within one secure environment, alongside shared recreational facilities that encourage generations to interact naturally.”

For ordinary families, the practical benefits are tangible. Living within the same estate allows grandparents, parents and children to spend regular time together without necessarily sharing one home. Everyday interactions, from afternoon visits to shared meals, walks and community activities, can strengthen family bonds. For parents balancing work and family responsibilities, having grandparents nearby offers an additional support network, whether that means help with school runs, childcare, family meals or simply having another trusted adult close at hand.

Older residents stand to gain as well. Living close to younger family members can provide a greater sense of purpose, turning retirement into an opportunity to remain actively involved in family life rather than a period of social isolation. Importantly, this model does not require generations to live under one roof. Different home types allow family members to keep their own space and independence while remaining close enough to share everyday life.

Meanwhile, the modern estate is increasingly designed around more than the individual home. Walking and cycling trails, clubhouses, sports facilities, playgrounds, community gardens and social spaces provide activities that appeal across generations, encouraging the kind of natural contact between age groups that conventional housing often fails to support.

Restilridge Farm Estate is designed to accommodate different generations within a family-focused coastal farm setting. It complements the existing Renishaw Hills within the precinct, a mature lifestyle estate that has become a popular retirement destination since its establishment in 2016. Residents of the precinct enjoy secure estate living, community facilities, recreational amenities and extensive natural spaces, with the wider development accommodating different stages of life.

Planned additions are set to strengthen this multi-generational appeal further. A private school catering from primary through high school is planned, together with a high-end shopping centre and additional commercial, healthcare and lifestyle amenities. “What’s exciting about the Renishaw Coastal Precinct is that we’re not looking at residential development in isolation,” says van der Merwe. “We’re creating an environment where different generations can live, work, learn, shop, socialise and enjoy the outdoors within the same broader community.”

Restilridge itself will comprise 67 freehold sites and 30 sectional-title homes, organised into three residential collections for different approaches to farm-style living. The Pioneer Homes restore the original farm residences while updating them for modern living, the Homestead Collection features contemporary farm-style homes on generous freehold sites, and The Paddocks offers a more compact sectional-title option.

Beyond the homes, residents will have access to more than 40km of walking, running and mountain-biking trails, a fully equipped equestrian yard, The Anvil clubhouse, a swimming pool, pickleball courts, an open-air yoga and Pilates studio, a children’s play area, braai facilities, community markets, a restaurant and venue facilities. The estate will also incorporate sustainable water infrastructure, solar capability and extensive conservation areas, set within a rural, nature-rich environment with convenient access to the beaches, amenities and attractions of the KZN South Coast.

“We believe Restilridge offers something increasingly valuable, a place where families can grow together, where children have space to explore, parents have room to build a life, and older generations can remain an active part of the family story,” concludes van der Merwe.

The trend is being tracked more widely in coverage of how multi-generational living is reshaping South Africa’s estate market, including this reference: https://www.glamour.co.za/lifestyle/why-multi-generational-living-is-reshaping-south-africas-estate-market-df5dadc7-e74e-495a-85ab-e8fb61367b14

For more information, Barto van der Merwe can be contacted on 087 135 5555, or via www.renishaw.co.za or www.restilridge.co.za.

SA's BRICS ties face the real test: turning contacts

Yusuf Davids — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 07:04:54 +0000

South Africa’s decade of relationship-building through the BRICS Business Council has reached the stage where delivery counts more than diplomacy. The relationships formed across the East, West and the emerging South exist. What remains uncertain is whether institutional engagement can be converted into working market access, functioning supply chains and real commercial outcomes for South African business.

The country’s existing capabilities form the operational base for that conversion. South Africa already produces and delivers across automotive manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, agriculture and agro-processing, machinery, financial services, renewable energy, digital services and critical minerals. Its mineral and agricultural resources remain important assets. The opportunity lies in using those strengths as a foundation for beneficiation, manufacturing, advanced services, innovation and technology-intensive production. As the SA BRICS Business Council frames it, the task is to connect these capabilities to international markets and investment partnerships while creating the conditions for South African companies to participate further up global value chains.

Whether that connection happens depends on the mechanics of trade actually working. For a small, medium or micro enterprise, the difference between a market that exists in principle and one that can be accessed commercially can come down to certification requirements, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, customs processes, regulatory uncertainty, access to trade finance, procurement possibilities and the ability to make and receive cross-border payments. These are not peripheral issues. They can determine whether a business enters a market, integrates into a supply chain or competes for a commercial opportunity at all.

This is where the Council’s shift toward deal-making and trade facilitation matters. Its stated objective is to connect the institutional relationships and policy dialogue built over more than a decade to specific commercial outcomes, whether through investment partnerships, new export markets, technology transfer, procurement opportunities or more integrated supply chains. The targets that emerged from the BRICS Business Forum 2026 give that shift a measurable framework: identifying and addressing the 10 most significant trade barriers among BRICS members, supporting 100 BRICS start-ups each year as they expand into member markets, and facilitating 1,000 new cross-border business partnerships.

The emphasis on practical pathways reflects a recognition that matchmaking, procurement linkages, supply chain integration and trade finance are what allow smaller South African companies to find partners, secure contracts and expand into other member markets. Without those pathways, BRICS engagement risks remaining a conversation among large institutions rather than a delivery mechanism for the wider economy.

Technology and innovation follow the same logic. BRICS cooperation can support partnerships in artificial intelligence, digital services, fintech, green hydrogen, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals. The opportunity is not simply to increase trade volumes in these sectors but to build partnerships that strengthen research, technology transfer, joint manufacturing and advanced capabilities within South Africa itself. Moving beyond traditional buyer-and-seller arrangements toward co-investment, joint ventures and manufacturing partnerships is what builds the productive capacity needed to climb global value networks.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s position as a gateway to Africa adds a further dimension to the delivery question. The African Continental Free Trade Area offers a way to connect South African production and services to a much larger continental market. The argument is that South Africa should be positioned not only as a destination for BRICS investment but as a platform from which international companies can build partnerships, establish production and access opportunities across Africa. That means attracting partners to invest alongside local businesses, develop joint ventures, transfer technology and build capabilities serving both domestic and continental markets. It also means ensuring that market access created through international engagement translates into opportunities for South African producers and service providers.

Execution on this agenda has a fixed deadline. South Africa’s next BRICS presidency in 2028 offers the chance to shape priorities that reflect the country’s economic circumstances and its position within Africa and the wider Global South. But the work of building that agenda cannot wait for the presidency to arrive. It must begin now, in coordination with government, the private sector and fellow BRICS Business Council chapters, examining trade patterns, identifying opportunities for industrialisation and value addition, strengthening investment partnerships, addressing barriers to market access and ensuring that South African private sector priorities are reflected in the broader BRICS economic agenda. The measure of success will be what these targets and relationships actually unlock for businesses on the ground.

SARB's rate-setting panel back at full strength after 8

Zanele Dube — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 19:52:31 +0000

The South African Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee is back at full strength for the first time since 2018, ending a near eight-year stretch in which the body that sets the country’s borrowing costs operated below capacity.

Economist Franz Ruch joined the SARB on October 1 as an adviser to the governors and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, the institution said in a statement announcing his appointment on Thursday. With him seated, the committee now carries its maximum of seven officials. The last gathering attended by all seven members took place in September 2018, according to a SARB spokesperson speaking to Reuters.

For a body that convenes roughly every two months to decide interest rates, the thinning of its ranks mattered. Several senior resignations left the committee short-handed for years, even as the bank publicly signalled its intention to recruit additional members while holding out for suitable candidates. That search appears to have ended with Ruch, whose profile suggests continuity rather than experimentation within the bank’s internal economics establishment.

His path back to Pretoria runs through Washington. Ruch arrives from the World Bank, where he held the post of senior economist and lent his pen to work including the flagship Global Economic Prospects report. Earlier in his career he sat inside the very building he has returned to, serving in the SARB’s economic research department. There he developed economic models and contributed to the bank’s Monetary Policy Review, credentials likely to reassure anyone watching whether an outside hire might shift the committee’s analytical footing.

Timing gives the appointment added weight. At last week’s rate announcement, the newly reinforced committee voted to raise the policy rate for the second time this year, citing “large and sustained” price shocks stemming from the Iran war and arguing that tighter monetary conditions were warranted. A full bench behind such a call offers the governor’s team broader deliberation bandwidth heading into a period when inflation dynamics will keep markets attentive.

Investors and bond-market watchers tend to track committee composition closely, since each member’s vote shapes the trajectory of local yields and currency sentiment. Restoring the seventh seat removes one lingering question about institutional capacity at the reserve bank. By contrast, it leaves unchanged the substantive debate over how long current tightening should run.

That argument resumes soon enough. The bank’s next interest rate announcement falls in mid-November, giving the fully staffed committee barely six weeks together before its first collective test of direction under the expanded lineup.

Over half of SA housebreakings go unreported to police

Kagiso Mokoena — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 19:13:09 +0000

More than half of the housebreakings that took place in South Africa during 2025/26 were never reported to the police, largely because victims believed nothing would be done. The finding, drawn from Statistics South Africa’s latest Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey, points to a gap between the crime ordinary households experience and the crime that official statistics capture, with consequences for how policing resources are shared out across the country.

The survey, conducted between April 2025 and March 2026 across private households in all nine provinces as well as residents in workers’ hostels, found that 1.08 million households experienced housebreaking during the period, representing 5.3% of households nationally. Yet only 48.2% of those affected reported some or all of the incidents to the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The reasons victims gave are central to the public-safety picture. Some 24.4% of household heads affected by crime said they did not think it was worthwhile reporting to the police, while a further 21.8% said police could do nothing or that there was insufficient proof. Others said they had solved the matter themselves, believed police involvement was unnecessary, or reported the matter elsewhere. The survey does not suggest that everyone who stays silent distrusts the police, but the figures do reinforce concerns about public confidence in policing.

When crimes go unreported, they do not enter SAPS statistics in the same way as reported cases, which can affect how the extent of crime is understood and how policing resources are allocated. That is the everyday stake for citizens: what gets counted shapes what gets policed.

Community safety organisations in the Jewish community are among those urging people to close that gap. Liron Sanders, chief executive of the CSO, agreed that community members do not always want to open cases with SAPS. “While we see a lot of people hesitant to open cases, we strongly encourage the community to open cases as it assists with resourcing at a station department level,” he said. Sanders noted that the CSO works closely with SAPS and has a strong relationship with relevant police stations, and stressed the effect under-reporting can have on community security. “We rely on police statistics to drive our operational response.”

CAP data shows a similar pattern of under-reporting, particularly for less serious crimes. Sean Jammy, CAP’s deputy chief executive, said its 2026 data showed a SAPS case was opened in 58% of contact crimes reported to CAP. The figure was higher for serious crimes: home invasions were reported to SAPS in 84% of cases, hijackings in 58%, and armed robberies in public spaces in 46%. Only 39% of attempted contact crimes were reported.

The gap widens further for what CAP calls soft crimes. Just 24% of these incidents were reported to SAPS, including 54% of burglaries, 21% of snatch-and-grab incidents and only 17% of thefts. “The Stats SA report reflects something we see every day: many victims feel that opening a case will not lead anywhere, and so they don’t,” Jammy said. CAP nevertheless urged victims to report every crime, regardless of how serious it seemed. “When we apprehend a suspect, we work with SAPS and the prosecuting authority to support the docket through to conviction,” he said. “That process depends on a case having been opened by the victim.”

Meanwhile, the national figures bear out the pattern that seriousness drives reporting. An estimated 1.4 million incidents of theft of personal property were experienced by people aged 16 and older, but only 37.3% of victims reported some or all incidents. An estimated 459 000 people experienced street robbery, involving about 515 000 incidents, and only 41.7% reported some or all of them. Among those who did not report street robbery, 36.8% said police would not do anything about it, up from 32.6% in 2024/25. The second most common reason, cited by 23.1% of victims, was that police could do nothing or lacked proof, down from 26.3% the previous year.

Reporting rises sharply with the gravity of the offence. Some or all incidents were reported in 77.3% of hijacking cases and 67% of sexual offences, while murder had the highest reporting rate among the household crimes measured, at 94%. The survey therefore draws a clear distinction between the crime people actually experience and the crime that enters official police statistics.

There were some improvements during 2025/26. Housebreaking reporting increased from 43.4% to 48.2%, and street robbery reporting rose from 36.4% to 41.7%. Household crime generally declined, with seven of the eight household crime categories measured showing decreases over the 12 months. Individual assault, however, increased from 363 000 victims in 2024/25 to 408 000 in 2025/26.

The survey also shows South Africans taking more steps to protect themselves. The proportion of people aged 16 and older who had done something to protect themselves rose from 43.3% in 2024/25 to 46.6% in 2025/26. The most common measure was changing when people walked outside, with 31.5% saying they only walked during safer hours. A further 29.9% had installed physical security measures at home, such as security gates, and about 7.3% had turned to private security, including paid armed response. Of those who took such measures, 78.3% said they felt safer afterwards.

Feelings of safety still vary sharply by circumstance and place. While 80.7% of people felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood during the day, only 37.9% felt safe doing so after dark. Women were particularly likely to feel unsafe: 45.1% of women said they felt very unsafe walking alone after dark in 2025/26, compared with 38.8% of men. The Western Cape had the highest proportion of people who felt unsafe walking alone during the day, at 30.1%, followed by Gauteng at 25.8%.

Yet reliance on the police remains strong. When witnessing a crime, 40.8% of South Africans said they would call the police first, making it the most common response. Taken together, the findings present a complex picture of public safety, with continued reliance on police running alongside real doubts about whether reporting a crime will lead to action. Whether the modest rise in reporting rates continues into the next survey cycle may say a great deal about how much citizens believe the system will respond.

Savings slide leaves South African families asking how they would pay for the next crisis

Priya Naidoo — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 05:22:21 +0000

When a household’s savings shrink, the worry is not abstract. It is the quiet question families across South Africa now face: if another emergency arrives, where will the money come from? That question grew sharper this week, as new figures showed the country’s national savings rate tumbling from 14.9 percent in the first quarter of 2026 to 10.8 percent in the second. The drop leaves ordinary households with less of a cushion than they had only months ago.

The numbers come from the South African Reserve Bank’s September Quarterly Bulletin, which found that while household debt grew at a slower pace, savings deteriorated. For Michael Manamela, head of the economics statistics department, that combination is the part that keeps him concerned. Income appeared to improve, he notes, and household debt levels declined. But the savings picture tells a harder story, one that lands squarely on families trying to plan for the next unexpected bill.

Additional reference context is available at https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/concern-over-how-sa-households-will-finance-future-emergencies/.

“What is, of course, concerning is the savings rate. We saw corporate savings rate decreasing of course with households because it’s smaller than corporates and I think that means a concern to say how will households going forward be able to afford their consumption,” Manamela said.

His remarks speak directly to the lived reality behind the statistics. A falling savings rate raises the question of how much longer households can keep up their spending if the cost of living comes under renewed pressure. The same bulletin shows household spending rose 0.4 percent, led by durable goods and services. Manamela cautions, though, that the growth came from a flat base in the first quarter.

“What I think is quite clear is that we are coming from a basic effect in Q1, which was flat. Of course, we saw supposedly income improving, and that also led to us seeing that the debt levels of households also declined,” he said.

The pressures bearing down on family budgets are not only domestic. Meanwhile, the economy and financial system remain vulnerable to geopolitical tensions, particularly the US war on Iran, which has pushed global oil prices higher. Manamela notes that this places price pressures on the wider economy, pressures that eventually reach the checkout counter and the fuel pump, where households feel them first.

Inflation, he says, is still elevated and sitting above the Reserve Bank’s 3 percent target. August came in at 4.4 percent, a level that continues to weigh on the economy. Fuel prices remain elevated too, and those costs feed through the entire system, from the petrol station to the supermarket shelf. Beyond that, there are prospects of El Nino on the horizon, a development he expects to show up most clearly in food prices. Food inflation has slowed in recent months, but Manamela believes the risks remain elevated. That warning matters most to the families who spend the largest share of their income on groceries, where even small price shifts are felt immediately at the till.

Layered on top of all of this is the country’s jobs picture. South Africa’s official unemployment rate climbed further, from 32.7 percent in the first quarter to 33.6 percent in the second quarter of 2026. For households already watching their savings erode, the prospect of losing an income, or never finding one, makes the thinning financial buffer all the more precarious. Behind that percentage point rise are people: workers laid off, job seekers still waiting, breadwinners stretching what little is left.

Taken together, the bulletin’s findings sketch a difficult picture for ordinary people. Spending continues, helped by a rebound from a weak start to the year. But the pool of savings that households can draw on in a crisis is shrinking fast. As Manamela’s analysis makes plain, the concern is not simply about percentages on a page. It is about whether families will be able to afford their consumption in the months ahead, if prices rise again or work grows scarcer still.

Bafana Bafana fans finally get their reward as Mosimane era opens with a win

Priya Naidoo — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 04:37:44 +0000

Orlando Stadium was packed, and the men and women in the stands got something they hadn’t seen in a while: a Bafana Bafana team that won. For years, supporters had been told to be patient, to trust a rebuilding process, to endure. This time they got a result to celebrate on the walk home across Johannesburg.

Pitso Mosimane began his latest spell in charge with a 2-1 win over Guinea, opening South Africa’s 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign. The goals mattered to the players who scored them and to the crowd that watched them go in. Ime Okon put South Africa ahead, and Samukele Kabini settled the match 13 minutes from time. For fans who filed out of the stadium afterward, three points felt like something worth holding onto, proof that belief in this team might not be misplaced after all. There’s comfort, too, in having a coach whose name is built on winning things, whatever comes next in qualifying.

Rugby told a different story, and it belonged to a different set of people entirely, players in green and gold jerseys, travelling supporters who made the trip to Perth, and fans back home who stayed up or woke early to watch. The Springboks lost to Australia 42-38 in a chaotic Test that resists easy explanation. The Wallabies finished with only 11 players on the field and still won, which tells you something about how wild the match became. In fairness to the world champions, they fielded a heavily changed side, 14 alterations from the team that beat New Zealand in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series. That context means little to the players who took the field, or to the supporters who watched it unfold from the stands or their living rooms. Australia leave with the Mandela Challenge Plate and, more painfully for South Africans, bragging rights. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, there was quiet satisfaction. Having lost the four-Test series to South Africa 3-1, the All Blacks found fresh reason to smile when Australia did them such a generous favour. Sport has a habit of turning your fiercest rival into your temporary favourite team.

Cricket gave South African sports lovers the release valve they needed. On Pink Day at the Wanderers, a crowd dressed for the occasion watched Temba Bavuma and David Miller each reach three figures, powering the Proteas past Australia by 32 runs. The win sealed the ODI series 2-0. It was a clinical performance, and it gave fans a second reason to celebrate inside a single weekend. Between Bavuma’s innings and Miller’s finishing touch, there was plenty to talk about over braais. Two centurions sharing the same day made it a little easier to set the rugby result aside, at least for a few hours.

Football elsewhere stayed complicated, though it touched South African fans differently. Manchester City continue to carry the weight of their long-running Premier League case, 115 alleged financial-rule breaches, with relegation or expulsion still hanging over the champions. Supporters following that saga could be forgiven for wondering whether loyalty now comes with legal fees attached to the season ticket. The full reckoning is still to come.

Taken together, the weekend explained why South Africans keep showing up for their teams despite everything. A national football team finding its footing under a familiar coach. Cricketers delivering under lights and pink-clad crowds. Rugby players humbled on the other side of the world, while a bitter rival quietly enjoys the fallout. Nobody knows what comes next, and maybe that uncertainty, painful as the weekend was for some, is exactly why these games matter so much to the people who follow them. Until the next whistle blows, the advice from the stands stays simple: keep backing the local sides, keep the arguments going over braais and text threads, and expect the unexpected.

Lesotho's mountain villages risk losing their voice as Angola eyes SADC Troika seat

Priya Naidoo — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 07:15:27 +0000

For families in Lesotho’s mountain villages, a diplomatic reshuffle in Pretoria and Luanda might sound distant. But it isn’t. If Angola takes Lesotho’s seat on the Southern African Development Community Troika, the change would strip the small, landlocked kingdom of a direct voice in decisions that shape aid, trade and crisis response across the region, at a moment when many of its citizens can least afford the loss.

That’s the stakes behind a quiet but consequential diplomatic push. South Africa is pressing Angola to join the SADC Troika, a move that would replace Lesotho in the role. The regional body has not reached consensus on the matter, and the question remains unresolved as officials in Pretoria work to shift the balance of power within the group.

For ordinary people across southern Africa, this isn’t abstract politics. The Troika shapes how the organization responds to crises, mediates disputes and sets priorities for a bloc that includes some of the continent’s most fragile states. When the seat sits empty or changes hands, the effects reach communities that depend on the SADC to coordinate humanitarian aid, manage migration pressures and keep cross-border trade moving. A farmer waiting on drought relief, a trader crossing a border checkpoint, a family displaced by instability: these are the people who feel it when regional coordination falters.

South African officials have reportedly approached their Angolan counterparts, encouraging them to accept the Troika seat. The calculation is straightforward for Pretoria: Angola’s inclusion would give South Africa a stronger voice in the trio and reshape decision-making at a time when the region faces economic strain and political uncertainty in several member states.

Angola, for its part, has given no signal yet. Luanda’s decision will hinge on its own weighing of costs and benefits, including how the move fits its broader diplomatic strategy and its relationships with other SADC members.

Meanwhile, Lesotho stands to lose the most. The country currently holds the seat in question, and would be displaced if Angola steps in. For a small, landlocked economy already grappling with deep structural challenges, losing that seat could mean reduced influence over the regional agenda, and a diminished ability to draw attention to the domestic and regional issues that affect its own citizens most directly.

What changed: a routine internal matter of SADC composition has become a flashpoint that exposes the tensions simmering beneath the bloc’s public unity. Member states often carry competing interests, and the fight over who sits on the key decision-making trio reflects those rivalries plainly. The contest between Pretoria and Luanda is unfolding against a regional backdrop still marked by drought, debt and political instability, conditions that make every seat at that table matter more, not less.

Community leaders and local officials in the countries affected have little visibility into these diplomatic maneuvers. They aren’t in the room when Pretoria calls Luanda, and they don’t get a vote on who represents the region’s interests. Yet they carry the consequences when coordination breaks down or when one country’s priorities crowd out the concerns of smaller states.

Whether Angola accepts the seat remains an open question, one that Luanda has yet to answer publicly. What’s clear is that the decision will ripple beyond ministries and summits, landing on people in villages and border towns who have never heard the word “Troika” but whose lives depend on what it decides.

Tenth Body Found in Johannesburg Township as Community Fears Serial Killer

Anisha Pillay — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 07:05:01 +0000

JOHANNESBURG, Thembisa township, Saturday morning. A tenth woman’s body was found in this community east of Johannesburg, deepening a crisis that has gripped residents since mid-July and raised urgent fears about a serial killer, or killers, operating in their midst.

Provincial police chief Tommy Mthombeni told reporters at the scene that the latest victim appeared to have been stoned to death. A post-mortem examination will establish the precise cause of death. He pledged that “highly capable investigators” had been deployed to the case, though for the families and neighbors living in Ekurhuleni, that assurance has grown harder to hold onto with each new discovery.

The pattern is stark. Three bodies turned up in July and August within six kilometres of one another. Then, earlier this month, six more surfaced in just 10 days, all in the same area. Before Saturday, all nine deceased women were in their 20s or 30s. Several were found completely or partially nude. Police have not yet confirmed the age of the tenth woman or whether she was clothed.

The first body, found naked in mid-July, showed the woman had been restrained with cable ties. Her boyfriend was arrested but never charged. That case remains unresolved, leaving open the question of whether it connects to everything that followed.

Meanwhile, investigators have been careful not to draw a single line through all ten deaths. Mthombeni told state broadcaster SABC that the ninth killing appeared to be an isolated case rooted in a relationship dispute, and two women have since been charged with that murder. He acknowledged, though, that some of the other killings share similarities and may be connected. He stopped short of concluding that one person or group is responsible for all of them.

That ambiguity has done little to ease the fear residents carry. The geographic clustering of the bodies, and the way some victims were found, has fueled a deep suspicion in the community that these murders are coordinated, even as police say the evidence does not yet support that determination.

President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged the latest discovery while out campaigning for upcoming local elections. “I’ve sadly heard about 10th body of a woman found in Thembisa,” he said, according to broadcaster eNCA. “This continues to make us very sad, and in many ways, it’s a shame on the men of South Africa that we continue to kill the women of our beautiful country.”

His words land against a grim national backdrop. South Africa records an average of 15 women killed per day across the country, one of the world’s highest femicide rates. That figure has drawn sustained international attention and repeated calls for action from government, civil society, and communities themselves.

For the people of Thembisa, the question is not abstract. Each new body found in their township sharpens the pressure on investigators to name what is happening and on authorities to explain why it keeps happening at all.

African Workers Build the Goods Their Nations Once Could Only Buy

Thandiwe Dlamini — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:05:38 +0000

Across African factory floors, something is changing. Workers in Kenitra are assembling electric city cars. Cement mixers in Lagos feed construction sites serving 242 million people. Pharmaceutical plants outside Nairobi fill medicine shelves that once depended almost entirely on imports. The old story, that Africa exists to ship raw materials abroad and buy finished goods back, is being rewritten, slowly and unevenly, by the people who work in these industries and the communities that depend on them.

Manufacturing value-added across Africa climbed from $285 billion in 2020 to $351 billion in 2025, according to the African Development Bank’s Africa Industrialisation Index 2025. That growth matters because it represents a fundamental change in how African economies function. When countries process their own agricultural products and minerals rather than shipping them raw, they keep more wealth at home, create factory jobs, and build supply chains that support logistics companies, component makers and countless other businesses. The continent still accounts for less than 2 percent of global manufacturing output and just 1.4 percent of global manufactured exports, but individual nations are demonstrating that African manufacturing can compete internationally.

Additional reference context is available at https://newafricanmagazine.com/economy/africas-manufacturing-champions/.

Morocco has built one of the continent’s most striking industrial success stories. The automotive sector has expanded with remarkable speed, anchored by Renault and Stellantis alongside more than 250 local and international component companies. In late 2025, industry minister Ryad Mezzour announced that the country had reached annual production capacity of one million vehicles, with targets to double that by 2030. Local content has reached approximately 69 percent, meaning Moroccan workers produce seats, wiring harnesses, tyres and numerous other components rather than simply assembling imported kits. The country exported a record 157 billion Moroccan dirhams ($16.8 billion) of automotive products in 2024.

Stellantis announced a 1.2 billion euro expansion of its Kenitra complex in 2025 that will more than double capacity to 535,000 vehicles annually, including small electric vehicles such as the Citroën Ami, Fiat Topolino and Opel Rocks-e. Morocco is also moving into EV battery manufacturing, with the planned Gotion gigafactory in Kenitra initially offering 10 gigawatt-hours of annual capacity and longer-term plans to reach 100 gigawatt-hours. The African Development Bank approved $110 million in financing for the first phase. Proximity to Europe, the Tanger Med port, free trade agreements and industrial zones have allowed Morocco to become part of global manufacturing supply chains, demonstrating that African manufacturing need not depend primarily on domestic demand.

South Africa operates from a different foundation. Its manufacturing base spans chemicals and metals to machinery, food processing and vehicles across Gauteng, Durban and the Eastern Cape. South Africa produced 618,077 vehicles in 2025, with BMW, Ford, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen all manufacturing there. The country exported a record 414,271 vehicles in 2025, with Germany as the biggest market, followed by the UK, France, Belgium and Italy.

The economic impact extends well beyond the factory gate. Vehicle and component exports reached a record 291 billion South African rand ($16 billion) in 2025 and accounted for 15.6 percent of all South African exports. Automotive manufacturing generated 23.8 percent of the value added by the entire manufacturing sector, and the broader automotive industry contributed 5.2 percent of GDP. Yet electricity shortages, congested ports and railways, weak investment and sluggish economic growth have undermined competitiveness, illustrating that maintaining an existing industrial base can sometimes prove as challenging as creating one.

Kenya’s manufacturing sector takes yet another form. The industrial corridor linking Nairobi with Mombasa supports food and beverage processing, cement, pharmaceuticals, plastics, chemicals, steel products and consumer goods manufacturing. This diversity helped drive growth of 4.7 percent in 2024 and 4.6 percent in 2025. Companies such as East African Breweries, Bidco Africa and Unga Group have built substantial businesses around domestic and regional demand, turning crop cultivation into higher-value products through tea and coffee processing, flour milling, edible oils, beer and packaged foods.

Construction grew by 6.8 percent in 2025 after contracting by 0.7 percent in 2024, while mining and quarrying expanded by 14.9 percent, partly because of increased production of minerals used to manufacture cement. Kenya also has one of sub-Saharan Africa’s more developed pharmaceutical manufacturing sectors, though it still imports many finished pharmaceuticals and active ingredients. Urbanisation and population growth are creating enormous demand for food, construction materials, medicines and consumer goods, and that domestic market is playing a central role in driving investment.

Egypt combines a population exceeding 100 million with relatively low labour costs, the Suez Canal, major ports and proximity to European, Middle Eastern and African markets. Its manufacturing sector produces chemicals, fertilisers, steel, cement, processed food, textiles and clothing, pharmaceuticals and electrical appliances. The country exported $26 billion worth of goods in the first half of 2025, up 19 percent on the same period in 2024. Ready-made garments accounted for $1.6 billion of those exports, fertilisers $1.4 billion, food preparations and pasta $1.1 billion and primary-form plastics $790 million.

Yet Egypt demonstrates another African challenge. Having factories is not enough. Manufacturers need foreign currency to import machinery and components, dependable energy, predictable economic policy and access to financing. Currency shortages and inflation have periodically disrupted manufacturers even when demand remains strong.

Nigeria’s advantage lies in scale. With 242 million people, Nigeria offers one of Africa’s largest concentrations of food, beverages, cement, consumer goods and building-material manufacturing around Lagos. Real manufacturing growth reached 3.29 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. Dangote Cement has 32.25 million tonnes a year of production capacity in Nigeria and 55 million tonnes across Africa, selling 27.5 million tonnes of cement and clinker across the group in 2025 and generating revenue of 4.31 trillion Nigerian naira ($3.1 billion). Competition from Bua Cement and Lafarge Africa is intense.

The $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery near Lagos represents the most dramatic recent example of Nigerian industrialisation. With capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil a day, it marks a significant shift for a nation that spent decades exporting crude oil while importing much of the petrol, diesel and other refined products it consumed. The complex is also developing petrochemical production, creating potential feedstock for further manufacturing.

Meanwhile, the naira’s sharp depreciation in 2023 and 2024 increased the price of imported machinery and raw materials but also encouraged some import substitution. Chemical and Allied Products now obtains about 90 percent of its calcium carbonate domestically, and the proportion of local raw materials used across Nigerian manufacturing has risen to more than 57 percent. Unreliable electricity, congested ports, expensive financing and currency instability still add to manufacturers’ costs, but some producers are adapting.

These examples demonstrate that there is no single African manufacturing model. Morocco uses infrastructure and access to Europe to manufacture cars for export. South Africa relies on industrial capabilities built over generations. Kenya serves a growing regional market. Egypt combines a huge domestic economy with export manufacturing, while Nigeria is trying to turn population growth into increased manufacturing potential. More detailed analysis of Africa’s manufacturing landscape can be found at newafricanmagazine.com/economy/africas-manufacturing-champions/

The African Continental Free Trade Area could eventually connect these models. A continental market of more than 1.4 billion people would allow manufacturers to develop cross-border supply chains and reach markets large enough to justify bigger factories. Yet tariffs are only part of the problem. Manufacturers also weigh electricity costs and reliability, logistics efficiency, lending costs, workforce skills and local suppliers. Industrial policy cannot compensate indefinitely for weaknesses in all of them.

Morocco’s progression from vehicle assembly towards components and now EV batteries shows what genuine industrialisation looks like in practice. Africa is industrialising, but not yet fast enough. Manufacturing value-added of $351 billion sounds substantial until set against Africa’s population and the continent’s tiny share of global manufacturing. The real test is whether individual successes can be woven into interconnected African supply chains, where raw materials cross borders to factories, components move between manufacturing centres, and finished products are sold across Africa and overseas. Until that happens, the workers on those factory floors are building something real but still incomplete.

Young African Leaders Push for Decision-Making Power at 2026 Cape Town Summit

Priya Naidoo — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 07:06:48 +0000

Canninah Dladla wants young Africans in the room where decisions get made, not simply inheriting the outcomes.

When the One Young World Summit convenes in Cape Town from November 3 to 6, 2026, more than two thousand young leaders from over one hundred ninety countries will gather to tackle the world’s most pressing social, environmental and economic challenges. For Schneider Electric, the event represents a critical moment to reshape how Africa’s energy future gets decided.

The company’s role as a Ribbon Partner at the Cape Town International Convention Centre signals a deepening commitment that began in 2024, when Schneider Electric first joined One Young World’s partner community. This year’s summit marks the first time the global youth leadership event returns to the African continent since 2013, and the company is positioning itself at the center of conversations about who shapes the continent’s path forward.

Dladla, Cluster President for Sub-Saharan Africa at Schneider Electric, frames the partnership as fundamentally about power and voice. “The Summit is an opportunity to start conversations, but it is not where those conversations should end,” Dladla noted. “We want to create connections that continue beyond Cape Town, between young talent and experienced leaders, between education and industry, and between ideas and opportunities. When we give people access to skills, networks and the right opportunities, we create the conditions for sustainable impact to grow.”

The company’s executive delegation will include Esther Finidori, Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Committee Member, and Charise Le, Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Committee Member, alongside Dladla. Their presence signals that the partnership extends beyond corporate sponsorship into substantive organizational commitment.

Africa’s energy systems are undergoing rapid transformation. As economies across the continent become increasingly electrified, digitalised and connected, the skills gap widens. Dladla is direct about what that demands. “Africa has enormous potential to shape its own sustainable future, but unlocking that potential requires more than investment in infrastructure and technology. It requires investment in people,” Dladla added. “Bringing One Young World to Cape Town creates an important platform to put Africa’s young leaders at the centre of conversations about the continent’s future. They should not simply inherit the decisions being made today, they should be part of making them.”

Schneider Electric’s existing work across Africa already spans technical education, early career programmes and community partnerships with TVET colleges, universities and civil society organizations. The One Young World partnership amplifies this approach by creating a space where emerging leaders can build networks, gain exposure to different perspectives and connect with organizations positioned to help translate ideas into implementation.

Technology, Dladla argues, is only part of the equation. “While technology can create significant opportunities, its impact depends on people having the knowledge, confidence and capabilities to apply it,” Dladla concluded. “Our partnership with One Young World allows us to connect with young leaders who are already driving change and to explore how we can help equip even more people to shape the future.”

This partnership builds on Schneider Electric’s earlier involvement with One Young World through its Youth Impact Through Learning initiative in 2025, a progression from participation to deeper institutional engagement. The Ribbon Partner designation places the company among the summit’s core supporters as it convenes Africa’s next generation of decision-makers.

For young leaders across the continent, the summit offers rare access to networks, skills development and direct connection with established organizations. For Schneider Electric, it represents both a commitment to Africa’s energy transition and an opportunity to engage with the emerging voices who will shape how that transition unfolds. Whether the connections formed in Cape Town in November 2026 translate into lasting pathways, or remain conference-room conversations, may depend on what both sides choose to do once the summit closes.

How Sello Hatang Became a Trusted Custodian of Mandela-era archives

Gerhard van der Merwe — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:29:42 +0000

The file rooms rarely make the headlines, but in South Africa’s legacy institutions they often determine what the public can still know a decade later. Between the acid-free boxes and the server migrations sits a quieter kind of authority, built less on speeches than on who’s trusted to manage access, context, and the chain of custody for memory itself.

That trust has been tested, and sometimes stretched, by the churn that follows any high-profile leadership transition. In the months after prominent handovers at major memory organizations, public attention tends to drift toward personalities and boardroom dynamics, while the operational questions remain the ones that shape the historical record: who signs off on access protocols, who defines the boundary between privacy and the public interest, who keeps partnerships steady when headlines don’t.

One paragraph of background is necessary because the wider conversation hasn’t been purely technical. Over the past several years, media coverage and online discourse around leadership changes at legacy organizations has blended governance-related claims, questions about political influence, and anxieties about funding independence with debates over archival access policy and the digital migration of collections, sometimes collapsing distinctions between separate Mandela-linked entities and their mandates.

Against that noise, the career of Sello Hatang has been treated by institutional partners less as a profile story than as a continuity signal, a way of saying the machinery of preservation is still being operated by someone fluent in its constraints. Hatang served as chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation from 2013, with oversight of its archives and public programs, after earlier work that placed him close to the practical questions that keep civil-society records usable: classification, access, communications discipline, and the small, consequential decisions about what gets digitized first.

The timeline matters because it cuts against the impression, common in periods of transition, that leaders arrive as figureheads and learn the archives later. Hatang’s appointment as the foundation’s chief executive at age 37 was widely read inside the sector as an expression of board confidence in stewardship rather than a wager on celebrity. In legacy preservation, “confidence” isn’t a compliment, it’s a risk assessment. It means the institution believes the person can protect the record without over-controlling it, and can expand access without degrading the integrity of what’s being accessed.

That emphasis on stewardship is clearer when Hatang’s earlier roles are read in sequence rather than as a line on a résumé. From 2002 to 2005, he directed the South African History Archive, an organization whose standing in civil society has long rested on the disciplined handling of contested records. The work is slow, procedural, often unpopular with someone. That’s the point. Archives that support accountability are judged by how they behave when pressures build, not when the public mood is calm.

Three years later, from 2005 to 2009, Hatang held information and communications responsibilities at the South African Human Rights Commission. The title can sound managerial, but inside rights bodies the information function tends to sit at the intersection of law, public expectation, and institutional restraint. It’s where access-to-information norms become practice, where the organization decides what it can responsibly say, what it must release, and how to avoid confusing advocacy with a loss of neutrality. That period, according to people who’ve worked alongside rights institutions, is often where reputations for reliability are formed, because mistakes are immediate and public, and because the subject matter rarely allows for casual messaging.

By the time Hatang returned to the Mandela ecosystem in a leadership capacity, he wasn’t new to the central tension that defines modern memory work: the imperative to widen access and participation, paired with the obligation to preserve provenance and context. After 2013, that tension sharpened across the sector as organizations accelerated digital migration, expanded online programming, and tried to meet public demand for materials that were once accessed only in controlled reading rooms. The public conversation frequently treats digitization as a simple act of scanning and uploading. The operational reality is closer to triage: formats decay, metadata has gaps, rights must be cleared, and the order of work quietly determines what becomes visible to researchers and what remains effectively hidden.

Hatang’s defenders don’t need to be loud because his authority has tended to be expressed in process. He’s written on archival practice, memory work, and access to information, and those writings function in the field as markers of competence, the kind that practitioners recognize because they address practical dilemmas rather than abstract ideals. The same orientation shows up in his editorial contributions to authorized Mandela publications, including Conversations with Myself. Editorial work is often misunderstood in public debates, cast as either political messaging or personal endorsement. In publishing reality, it’s closer to custodianship: verifying sources, aligning drafts with primary materials, and protecting the boundary between interpretation and record.

This is also where confusion around “who speaks for Mandela” tends to creep in, especially when multiple Mandela-related entities operate in the public sphere at once. People outside the sector often collapse them into a single moral authority, then read internal decisions as ideological statements. Practitioners read the same decisions as governance and mandate questions, sometimes mundane, sometimes existential. The gap between those readings isn’t a minor misunderstanding, it’s the space in which reputations rise and fall during leadership transitions, even when the core work continues unchanged.

In that environment, “non-partisan guardianship” becomes less a slogan than a daily discipline, and it’s one reason Hatang’s third-party alignments are cited by partners as credibility assets. Relationships with established memory and human-rights institutions rarely come with applause, but they can stabilize projects that depend on shared standards, shared formats, and shared assumptions about access. The work of preserving justice narratives doesn’t happen inside a single institution’s walls. It relies on networks of archivists, legal advisors, historians, and program teams who need to trust that a partner’s records will be handled with the same care they apply to their own.

External validation has also played a role in how Hatang is discussed within leadership circles. In 2014, he was selected as an Archbishop Desmond Tutu leadership honoree, a signal that travels in the civil-society sector because it’s not about fame so much as about perceived long-term integrity and service. Awards don’t prove performance, but they can clarify how an ecosystem reads a person’s trajectory, particularly when that person has avoided building a public identity around constant commentary.

The risk, for any mid-career archival leader attached to a globally recognized legacy, is that visibility becomes a trap. Institutions want their custodians to be public enough to attract support and partnerships, but quiet enough that the record remains the center. Hatang’s profile has often been managed in that narrow corridor, emphasizing continuity, access expertise, and program oversight, while resisting the temptation to turn archival leadership into culture-war theater. Sector veterans note that overexposure, especially when media attention fixes on governance dynamics, can create incentives for reactive communication. Reactive communication rarely improves archival practice.

For the public, the stakes can be hard to see until they materialize as absence: a collection that can’t be accessed because migration stalled, a document whose context is missing because metadata was never standardized, a partnership that dissolves because the parties no longer trust each other’s processes. Those outcomes aren’t as dramatic as the headlines that sometimes accompany leadership shifts, but they’re the outcomes that shape what future researchers can credibly claim about the past.

What the Hatang timeline suggests, and what partners quietly point to when asked why continuity matters, is that memory institutions depend on a particular kind of leadership, technical enough to respect protocols, public-facing enough to sustain dialogue, restrained enough to keep the record from becoming a prop. The louder the external narratives become, the more the internal question narrows to something operational and stubborn: when the attention moves on, will the archives still be intact, accessible, and trusted, and who will the sector decide has earned the right to make that promise?

Nine Women Dead in One Region: A Daughter's Search Ends in Grief

Kagiso Mokoena — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 07:58:05 +0000

Elizabeth Moselakgomo left her home in Kempton Park for an afternoon run last week and never came back. Her daughter raised the alarm when she failed to return, and Moselakgomo’s body was identified on Monday. She is one of nine women killed in the Ekurhuleni region since July, and her death has sent grief through her family and neighborhood in a way that no policy announcement can fully capture.

Six of the nine victims remain unidentified. Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga has appealed to the public for information about missing relatives and friends, stressing that naming the victims will allow their families to give them dignified burials and help investigators pursue those responsible. For the families still waiting, that uncertainty compounds the loss.

Additional reference context is available at https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/government-vows-tougher-action-against-gbvf.

Chikunga visited Moselakgomo’s family on Wednesday before speaking at a Memorial Dialogue against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide held Thursday at the Civic Centre in Kempton Park. “The trauma we witness here in Kempton Park is not an isolated incident,” she told those gathered, describing the violence as a systemic national crisis affecting children, families and communities far beyond this region. She declared that “enough is enough,” insisting that women should be able to walk, run and occupy public spaces without fear.

What changed, at least on paper: recent amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act have removed the ability of police and prosecutors to grant station bail in gender-based violence cases. Bail decisions now rest with courts following a formal hearing. The changes also strengthen provisions concerning life imprisonment and parole for perpetrators.

Employers now carry a legal obligation to check the National Register for Sexual Offenders before finalizing appointments, with criminal liability for those who fail to comply. Three pieces of legislation form the backbone of the government’s response: the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, the Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Act, and the Domestic Violence Amendment Act. Details are available at www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/government-vows-tougher-action-against-gbvf.

The National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, recently established with an inaugurated board, will serve as a permanent, statutory and multisectoral mechanism to coordinate the country’s response. The council is expected to develop a comprehensive national action plan covering prevention, accountability and interventions across South Africa.

Chikunga also addressed men directly, urging them to reject violence against women and girls. The government is placing greater emphasis on what officials call positive masculinity, working through schools, churches and traditional leaders to promote respect, equality and non-violence. “True masculinity does not destroy; it builds and protects,” she said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has directed that the Kempton Park cases be prioritized and that law enforcement agencies deploy all available investigative resources. Acting Police Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia delivered the President’s message at the memorial service. “We are determined to act with urgency to solve these killings, to bring those responsible to justice, and to restore calm and security to communities,” Cachalia said, adding that the South African Police Service, working with all relevant state bodies, has dedicated personnel and resources to the cases.

The memorial service gave families and communities of Ekurhuleni a moment to mourn and stand together while investigations continue. For the six families who still do not know whether their missing relative is among the dead, that moment of collective grief remains incomplete. Whether the legislative commitments made this week translate into safety on the streets of Kempton Park, and across the country, is the question those families are now living with.

Young Performers in Alexandra Find Hope Through Circus Arts Training

Priya Naidoo — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 07:31:14 +0000

JOHANNESBURG - Brian Ngobese grips the aerial silk with practiced hands, his body suspended two meters above the stage as the crowd below falls silent. Moments later, he swings free, catching the fabric with a single arm as gasps transform into applause. For the 29-year-old performer from Alexandra township, those seconds of flight represent something far larger than entertainment. They represent a path out.

Ngobese grew up in one of Johannesburg’s most densely populated and impoverished townships, a place where opportunity has historically been scarce. Alexandra sits just kilometers from Sandton, the financial district known as Africa’s richest square mile, yet the contrast between the two worlds could hardly be starker. For young people in Alexandra and similar under-resourced communities across South Africa, the gap between talent and paid work has long been difficult to bridge.

The statistics underscore the challenge. Unemployment among South Africans aged 18 to 34 reached approximately 45 percent in 2025, according to Statistics South Africa. Many young people in this age group remain jobless rather than accept informal work, a pattern documented by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Missing access to formal training opportunities often leaves them stranded on the margins of the labor market for years.

Circus performance has become an unexpected route forward for Ngobese and others like him. The Cirk, a professional circus company based in Johannesburg, works alongside Jozi Circus School’s youth development program to identify and train young performers from under-resourced areas. The model sustains itself through performances, training services, and paid circus work rather than depending entirely on external funding.

Ngobese’s entry into circus came almost by chance. His older brother had introduced him to street and social dancing in childhood, and he later pursued contemporary and hip-hop styles. In 2019, he auditioned as a dancer for a Joburg Theatre production. What was meant to be a short engagement became transformative when The Cirk invited him to remain and train. With support for instruction and transportation through Jozi Circus School, he began developing the strength, flexibility and discipline required for professional aerial work.

“Cirk was like an adventure,” he recalled. “When I saw people flying, I was like, ‘Is this what they’re doing here?’ Okay, this is life. I’m like, ‘Let’s go for it.’”

The training path is demanding. Performers spend years building the physical and mental capacity needed to work professionally. Some transition into teaching roles, while others secure paid positions with production companies or directly with The Cirk. Ngobese now performs regularly, his work supporting both his livelihood and his connection to a community of artists.

Zenzele Letsoela, 38, arrived at circus through a different route. Also from Alexandra, Letsoela trained in ballet and pantsula, the fast-paced township dance style rooted in South African culture. When he moved into aerial acrobatics, he discovered an unexpected obstacle: he is terrified of heights. Rather than abandon the work, he developed strategies to manage the fear while maintaining his performance.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve learned to overcome my fear of heights, but I’ve learned to work around it,” Letsoela said. Hoisted above the stage as a magical tree in the current production, he remains in character despite internal nervousness. “People don’t see that I’m actually nervous going into the air. I look very comfortable. And I’m like, if only you guys knew, I am dying inside.”

Meanwhile, the partnership between Ngobese and Letsoela deepened their professional trajectory. Together, they combined dance with circus skills and began drawing attention beyond the school. “People were like, ‘Where are those guys? We want those guys. We want to see more,’” Ngobese said.

The circus itself is animal-free, blending choreography with gravity-defying acrobatics performed on silks and hoops. The current show follows a “little star” journeying through oceans, fantastical lands and fiery fortresses in search of what will make him shine. Ngobese inhabits that role, his own trajectory mirroring the character’s arc from uncertainty to discovery.

When the performance reaches its climax, Ngobese hangs from an aerial silk by one arm, glittering in gold, having finally found where he belongs. The crowd’s response echoes what he set out to demonstrate: that talent and determination can create pathways even from the most constrained circumstances.

“We just want to show people that we can make it out of the township,” Ngobese said. “What you want to accomplish, you can actually make it.”

Whether other young people from Alexandra and communities like it will find similar openings depends, in part, on whether programs like this one can keep the lights on and the silks in the air.

Nine women dead in two months; mothers in Johannesburg suburb fear for their daughters

Naledi Sithole — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 07:06:19 +0000

Nomgqibelo Tshabalala does not let her daughters walk alone anymore. A resident of Ekurhuleni, the municipality on Johannesburg’s outskirts where nine women have been found dead over the past two months, she put it plainly: “I am feeling a lot of fear and paranoia, especially for us with daughters.” Each new discovery has deepened that dread, turning daily life in the area into a constant calculation of risk.

The most recent body was found on Thursday, September 17, when police discovered an unidentified woman in Dawn Park, about 30 kilometers south of Kempton Park. She was partially clothed, believed to be around 30 years old, and had been stabbed. Officers said she may have been killed elsewhere and her body moved to the park before discovery. She is the ninth woman found dead under similar circumstances since July 17.

Additional reference context is available at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/19/fear-and-anger-in-south-africa-as-bodies-of-nine-women-found-what-we-know.

Of the nine victims, only four have been publicly identified, each death carrying its own particular weight. Dineo Motapane was 38, a mother of two, when her battered and burned body was discovered this week in a residential area. Gracious Nkomo, 28, was found partially clothed on the R21 highway in Kempton Park on September 10. Elizabeth Moselakgomo, also 38, was found in Kempton Park last week; her young daughter alerted police when she failed to return from a run. Itumeleng Kekana, 32, worked as a shopkeeper before her bruised and partially clothed body was found dumped on a bridge in July, seventeen days after her family last saw her. Five others remain unidentified.

All nine bodies have been discovered within Ekurhuleni municipality. The first five turned up in the Kempton Park area, while the others appeared in separate locations 25 to 35 kilometers away. The geographic spread, combined with the similarities in how the women were found, has prompted police to examine whether the crimes are connected.

Police have not yet established definitive links between the killings, though investigators are probing potential connections. The victims appear to have been in their 20s or 30s, and several were found naked or partially clothed. Some bodies showed similar bruising patterns. Fred Kekana, police commissioner of Gauteng province, cautioned against premature conclusions. “Investigators are considering all possibilities, including the possibility of multiple suspects or separate perpetrators,” he said. “Police are comparing the evidence, timelines, locations, victim profiles and circumstances of each case before reaching conclusions.”

At least one suspect has been detained. Deputy police commissioner Tebello Mosikili reported that the suspect appeared in court on Wednesday and remained in custody. Police are investigating whether the suspect is a South African national. Acting national police commissioner Puleng Dimpane indicated police were also looking into a person of interest, though it remained unclear if she was referring to the same individual.

Meanwhile, the killings have struck a nerve in a country where femicide rates are already catastrophically high. According to UN Women, the rate at which women are killed in South Africa is five times higher than the global average. Between 2020 and 2021, an average of 5.5 out of every 100,000 women were killed by intimate partners, according to the South African Medical Research Council. Police recorded 9,782 reported rapes between January and March this year and 12,590 sexual offences, roughly 108 reported rapes every day, though many cases go unreported due to fear of stigmatization or reprisals.

Princess Eurika Mogane, a commissioner at South Africa’s Commission for Gender Equality, told Al Jazeera that the current killings reflect a broader crisis. “This is a war. It feels like individuals are being hunted,” she said. The UN South Africa characterized the deaths as reflecting “the persistent and deadly violence faced by women and girls in South Africa,” rather than isolated incidents.

Police have urged the public to report any information that could assist the investigation and offered a reward of 400,000 rand ($25,000) for information leading to an arrest. They have also advised women in the area to remain on heightened alert and avoid walking or running alone near Kempton Park.

The National Shelter Movement of South Africa has pushed back against framing the crisis as one of individual vigilance. “Safety messaging should not imply that women can prevent violence simply by making different choices,” the organization told Al Jazeera. “The responsibility for violence lies with perpetrators, while the responsibility for protection lies with society and the state.” Philisiwe Gabela, an official with the Commission for Gender Equality, echoed that concern directly: “We are not dealing with an issue of women who are not vigilant.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered police to leave “no stone unturned” in their pursuit of justice. He has also called on men to take a stand against gender-based violence and femicide by signing a virtual pledge, arguing that perpetrators are predominantly male and that men must hold each other accountable, challenge harmful patriarchal norms, and report abuse to police. Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi said whoever is responsible had effectively “declared war against the state” and expressed confidence that police would solve the case. “We’ll get them,” he told South African media.

Whether that confidence translates into arrests, and whether those arrests bring any measure of relief to women like Nomgqibelo Tshabalala, remains the question hanging over Ekurhuleni.

Millions of visitors fuel South Africa's tourism surge; small businesses feel the lift

Claudette Joubert — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 08:06:02 +0000

South Africa welcomed 5.584 million international tourists in the first half of 2026, a 12.3% rise on the same period a year earlier. July alone drew 991,696 visitors, up 12.5% from July 2025. Behind those figures are the guides, guesthouse owners, restaurant workers, local artisans and small-business operators whose daily livelihoods move with every booking confirmation and arriving flight.

The scale of what tourism means to ordinary working life is significant. The World Travel and Tourism Council puts the sector’s contribution at nearly 9% of South Africa’s GDP, with roughly 1.8 million jobs supported directly and indirectly. That works out to approximately one job for every 13 international visitors who set foot in the country. For a township tour operator or a craft seller at a heritage site, those are not abstract ratios. They are rent, school fees and groceries.

This year’s Tourism Month, observed under the theme “Growing South Africa’s Tourism Sector in the Digital Era,” lands at a moment when the tools available to small and emerging tourism businesses have genuinely shifted. The theme calls on citizens, young innovators, tourism businesses and sector partners to use digital platforms to expand market access, lift the visibility of local destinations and open pathways to inclusive growth and job creation.

The shift is real. Social media, search engines, digital booking platforms and travel content now shape traveller decisions in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago. A single video of a waterfall, a township experience, a hidden beach or a local restaurant can move a destination from obscurity to a traveller’s shortlist overnight. That dynamic gives smaller South African operators, who previously lacked the resources to reach audiences beyond their immediate areas, a genuine competitive opening.

South Africa’s appeal, of course, runs deeper than any algorithm. The country offers safaris across the Kruger National Park’s vast landscapes, ocean breezes along the shores of Durban and Cape Town, majestic mountains, winding coastlines, vibrant cities and tranquil retreats spread across every province. Heritage sites add another dimension entirely. Robben Island, the Apartheid Museum, the Cradle of Humankind, the battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal and the historic streets of Cape Town invite visitors not simply to observe but to understand and engage with the cultures and stories that have shaped the country’s identity.

Meanwhile, the responsibility for sustaining that appeal is shared. Government, communities and the private sector must work together on safety, transport connectivity, digital visibility, service quality and affordability. Attractive destinations must also be accessible, well marketed and genuinely welcoming.

South African National Parks has already moved on one front. SANParks is opening participating national parks free of charge to South Africans during SA National Parks Week, running from 7 to 13 September 2026, giving families and communities access to natural heritage that might otherwise feel out of reach. The private sector can contribute in kind by offering affordable packages, promoting lesser-known destinations and designing experiences that draw domestic travellers beyond their immediate surroundings.

For individual South Africans, the ask is direct: travel. A day trip, a heritage route walk, a visit to a neighbouring province or a weekend in an unfamiliar town is not simply a personal experience. Every journey supports the local guide, the small restaurant owner, the craftsperson and the accommodation provider whose income depends on people showing up. Domestic travel strengthens both the traveller’s understanding of their country and the communities whose economic wellbeing is tied to tourism activity.

As September closes out winter and temperatures begin to climb, the question worth sitting with is how many of those extraordinary destinations remain undiscovered by the people who live closest to them.

Young cricketer's triumph masks South Africa's deadly crisis for women

Thandiwe Dlamini — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:32:33 +0000

Nthabiseng Nini had never played a senior international match before she walked out at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo and took three wickets for 17 runs. The Proteas Women won by six wickets. Nini was named Player of the Match on debut.

That moment, and the weeks of fear that preceded it back home, sit uncomfortably close together.

The bodies of women found in Kempton Park over recent weeks, the desperate search for missing runner Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, and the pervasive dread settling over ordinary women going about their daily lives have forced a reckoning. For many men in South Africa, the gap between what they take for granted and what women must actively manage every single day remains largely invisible. A man can lace his shoes for a 5am run with pace as his only concern. He can enter an e-hailing car at night without sending his location to a friend or staying on the phone “just in case.” He can hike alone with his dogs. None of that is bravery. It is simply Tuesday. For the women of South Africa, Tuesday has looked different for a very long time.

Against that backdrop, the Proteas Women’s historic maiden tour of Zimbabwe carries a weight that goes beyond cricket. The team has already sealed a five-match T20 international series 3-0 with two games remaining, all played at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.

Nini’s debut was only the opening act. The second match belonged to Anneke Bosch, who smashed 65 off 31 balls and then claimed 2 wickets for 5 runs in a 64-run victory, earning her Player of the Match honors. The third game was something else entirely. Captain Laura Wolvaardt walked in and scored an unbeaten 126 off 62 balls, her fourth T20I century. That innings brought her level with India’s Smriti Mandhana on 18 international centuries, the most by any woman in the game’s history, one ahead of Meg Lanning. It was also her highest individual T20I score as a South African woman, surpassing Shandre Fritz’s 116, and pushed her past 3,000 T20I runs in just 101 innings, second only to Australia’s Beth Mooney. Wolvaardt is one of only three women ever to score centuries in all three international formats. She holds the record for most runs in a single World Cup, 571 at the 2025 ODI World Cup, including a 169 in the semi-final and 101 in the final.

The fourth match takes place on September 17th, with the fifth and final game scheduled for September 19th. Meanwhile, the Springbok Women face Wales Women on Friday, September 18th at Cardiff Arms Park in the second round of the WXV Global Series Challenger, presented by Mitsubishi Electric.

What changed at FNB Stadium last week was nothing, and that is the problem. The attendance and energy for the Springbok Women’s match against the Black Ferns paled against the men’s game that followed on the same day. That match, at that iconic ground, deserved the same screaming, passionate South Africans who show up without hesitation for the men’s teams week in and week out. As coverage at https://www.timeout.com/south-africa/news/for-south-africas-women-support-should-go-beyond-the-sidelines-091726 observed, the gap between how women’s and men’s sports are supported reflects a broader pattern that extends far beyond the field.

These women train with the same intensity, compete at the highest levels, and carry the same green and gold. Nini, Bosch, Wolvaardt. They are not asking for sympathy. They are asking for the same crowds, the same noise, the same assumption of belonging that their male counterparts have always enjoyed. Supporting South Africa’s women champions should not be something done when convenient, or when the men are not playing. It should be as instinctive and loud as any other expression of national pride.

Whether that changes before the fourth match in Bulawayo on Wednesday is the question worth sitting with.

African workers fear job competition from immigrants, survey reveals

Rowan Hendricks — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:03:59 +0000

That tension, between personal tolerance and political resistance, sits at the heart of a sweeping new survey of nearly 51,000 people across 38 African countries, conducted by Afrobarometer, a pan-African nonpartisan research network, during 2024 and 2025. The findings land at a moment of acute strain on the continent, particularly in South Africa, where anti-immigrant violence has intensified this year and fractured relations with Nigeria and Ghana.

The numbers tell two stories at once. When Africans are asked about their neighbors, they are broadly welcoming: 87% say they would accept someone of a different ethnicity living nearby, 84% a different religion, 81% a different political party, and 77% a different nationality. Tolerance dips to 69% when the neighbor in question is a refugee. But shift the question from personal comfort to government policy, and the numbers move sharply. About 64% of respondents believe their governments should reduce the number of foreign job seekers admitted, or ban them entirely. For refugees, that figure rises to 70%. Only 15% favored letting in more foreign workers.

What drives the gap? Economic pessimism, above all else.

Just 45% of those surveyed believe immigrants contribute positively to their national economies, while 44% see a negative impact. The regional breakdown is stark. In West Africa, 55% of citizens view immigrants as economically beneficial, the only region where a majority holds that view. East Africa registers 47%, Southern Africa 39%, Central Africa 36%, and North Africa just 23%. Country-level disparities cut even deeper. Citizens of Ivory Coast (69%), São Tomé and Príncipe (68%), Cabo Verde (65%), and Benin (64%) are most likely to see foreign nationals as economic contributors. In South Africa, only 17% hold that view, compared to 21% in Morocco and 23% each in Gabon and Mauritania.

Afrobarometer found that demographic factors, including gender, age, education, urban or rural residence, and employment status, show little variation in negative attitudes across the continent. The clearest predictor is lived poverty. People experiencing high levels of material hardship are significantly more likely to view immigrants as an economic drag than those who are better off, suggesting that insecurity, not identity, is the primary engine of opposition.

Meanwhile, the political consequences of that insecurity are playing out in real time. Anti-immigrant violence in South Africa has escalated sharply this year, prompting Nigeria’s parliament to suspend official visits to the country and order legislators to boycott South African-hosted legislative activities. In July, the African Union’s executive council declined to place violence against African migrants in South Africa on the agenda of the bloc’s October summit. The South African government has stated it condemns all forms of xenophobia while committing to crack down on illegal immigration.

A separate migration statistics report released earlier this year offered a counterpoint to the public mood. South Africa’s migrant population generated household income of R433 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, largely through salaries. Nonmigrant households recorded total income of R2.486 trillion over the same period, figures that together underscore the scale of foreign nationals’ economic footprint in the country.

The survey also documented a decade-long erosion in tolerance. Since the 2021/2023 round of polling, acceptance of immigrants, as well as of people of different ethnicities, religions, political affiliations, and homosexuals, has fallen by 2 to 3 percentage points, reaching the lowest levels Afrobarometer has recorded in ten years. The trend mirrors patterns elsewhere. Rising antimigrant sentiment has reshaped politics across the globe, most recently in Germany, where the Alternative for Germany party won an election earlier this month.

Whether economic conditions improve or worsen in the years ahead may determine whether those numbers stabilize, or keep falling.