Publications
Ramaphosa’s Mabuza poser
Deputy President David Mabuza’s decision to quit his position this week has created a conundrum for President Cyril Ramaphosa, who didn’t want to be rushed into implementing a Cabinet reshuffle.
‘Win or lose, I will die Zakes Bantwini, the Grammy-nominated artist’
With a week to go before arguably the biggest night of his music career, award-winning musician Zakhele Madida (aka Zakes Bantwini) cannot wait to jet off to the US, where he will rub shoulders with the who’s who in the industry at the Grammy Awards.
Top entrepreneurs lock horns over upmarket property
Two entrepreneurs are embroiled in a messy dispute involving a multimillion-rand property in the affluent Leloko Lifestyle Estate in Hartbeespoort in North West.
DA leadership: Phalatse joins the race
Mpho Phalatse is considering challenging John Steenhuisen for the leadership of the DA. According to multiple sources, Phalatse, who was ousted as executive mayor of the City of Joburg in a vote of no confidence on Thursday, is expected to announce her candidacy tomorrow.
Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and her erstwhile deputy Kevin Malunga believe that being summoned to the parliamentary inquiry into her successor’s fitness to hold office cannot be fully justified, as they have no way of explaining the mess that the chapter 9 institution is in.
Service provider guns for Sanral assets worth R36 million
A disgruntled service provider has served the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) with a notice to attach its assets worth R36 million.
Sanral and NZK Footprint Engineering, which was appointed to do a partial reconstruction of the R511 road between Brits to Beestekraal in North West, have been at loggerheads over unpaid claims from 2020, before the company went to court seeking an order to force the agency to settle its debt.
Tough, injured sea turtle swims 600km
A sea turtle swam 600km from South Africa to Mozambique in eight days, despite having a partially amputated flipper. The turtle, named Maia (the Maori word for “brave”), was released last month, two years after being found on a beach in the Isimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu-Natal with plastic tangled around one flipper.
Ex-SADF man trains Mswati’s ‘anti-terror’ force
Political tension in Eswatini is on a knife edge after the assassination of human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko last weekend. Questions are being raised about who King Mswati III’s “mercenaries” are, whom he is believed to have deployed to threaten opponents.
‘Arthur should step aside’ – music executives
Music boss Arthur Mafokate is still holding on to his board membership in key music organisations, despite being implicated in a multimillion-rand National Lottery funds scandal exposed by the Special Investigating Unit.
‘SuperSport is killing me,’ says Killer Mkhwanazi
Former Orlando Pirates striker James “Killer” Mkhwanazi says SuperSport is kicking him while he is down by failing to pay the R8 000 it owes him – three months after rendering his services to the sports channel.
As Showmax drama The Wife wraps up production in two weeks’ time, Thulane Shange admits that he will miss the set of the show that changed his life, but says that “the show must go on”.
The award-winning actor, who plays the character of trigger-happy inkabi (assassin) Mqoqi in the television rendition of Dudu Busani-Dube’s Hlomu the Wife books, explains that a significant outcome for him from doing the show is his co-stars, the men who play the Zulu brothers.
Outcry over varsity fee increases
Universities should not be profit-driven, but should simply break even and have enough to run their institutions, SA Union of Students president Yandisa Ndzoyiya told City Press on Friday.
Billions wasted on bus project
After spending almost R4 billion on the Rustenburg Rapid Transport initiative, the North West municipality has now spent another R2.6 billion to buy minibus taxis instead of rapid transit buses to ferry commuters.
Security, democracy wane in Africa
By 2021, much of Africa was less safe, secure and democratic than it had been a decade earlier. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Ibrahim Index of African Governance for last year indicated that the continent’s progress had been affected by concerning deteriorations in security, the rule of law, participation, rights and inclusion.
As load shedding bites, public clinics feel the squeeze
Clinics in Gauteng are buckling under the strain of load shedding, which has caused a crisis for medicine storage as back-up generators sometimes run out of diesel, leaving fridges without power.
The poor school that rose against all odds
From the outside, Willowmead Secondary School in Lenasia, in the south of Johannesburg, looks good, and walking into the reception area gives one a sense of hope, with pupils’ trophies proudly displayed in a cabinet. However, a tour of the school tells a different story, as ceilings are falling down and there is graffiti on the walls in some classrooms.
‘World-class’ African city falls apart
There is nothing “world-class” about a city that is falling apart. Whether you are driving in the City of Joburg’s lush suburbs or through the dilapidated CBD, one thing is common – there are barely any traffic lights.
Some have been knocked down by vehicles during accidents and not repaired, while others have been destroyed by copper thieves.
Somizi’s lawyer in ‘homophobic attack’
Stanley Hadebe, media personality Somizi Mhlongo’s lawyer, was allegedly assaulted by security guards at Lakeside Mall in Benoni after he used a toilet designated for people with disabilities. Hadebe said he had to pretend that he was suffering from an asthma attack to stop more than five security guards from attacking him while hurling homophobic slurs at him, including calling him “stabane” and “moffie”. The guards also allegedly stole R1 500 from his wallet.
Parliament to investigate Gordhan
Parliament’s legal services department has been asked to investigate Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s reluctance to provide details on the sale of SAA.
For 20 months, Gordhan has flatly refused to provide any information about the terms of the deal, according to which 51% of government’s interest in the airline was sold to the Takatso consortium in June 2021.
Yet another nail in Magashule’s coffin as Dukwana wins
The ANC’s conference in the Free State last weekend ushered in new leadership and also ended the many years of political domination and influence of former provincial chairperson and party secretary-general Ace Magashule. After an unsuccessful bid to dethrone Magashule in 2012, the newly elected chairperson, Mxolisi Dukwana, languished in the political wilderness for six years.
The multiparty coalition governments that have been running some of the big metros around the country are on the verge of collapse, following disagreements regarding deals that could have kept the DA in power in the City of Joburg.
