The Free State Province has an acting premier. For one week—from May 4 to May 11, 2026—Mr Jabu Mbalula will occupy the province’s highest political office, standing in for Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae, who is expected to be away on official or personal business. The appointment, formalized in a brief statement from the Office of the…
The blue lights of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) flickered across the wet asphalt of the M1 highway near the Crown Interchange. It was 2 a.m. on a Tuesday—the witching hour when the city’s nightclubs have released their last patrons and the bravest or most foolish drivers take to the roads. Officer Thabo Mthethwa…
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party has fired the latest salvo in South Africa’s heated debate over foreign-owned spaza shops, submitting a Private Member’s Bill to Parliament that would reserve ownership of these small food outlets strictly for South African citizens. The bill, tabled by MK Party Member of Parliament Thamsanqa Khumalo on Monday, seeks to…
The wind came first—a howling, relentless gale that stripped leaves from trees and sent rubbish bins tumbling down suburban streets. Then came the rain, not the gentle drizzle the city knows in spring, but a thick, sideways curtain of water that turned afternoon into twilight. By midday on Monday, Cape Town’s roads had become danger…
The heavy wooden doors of the High Court in Pretoria’s central district have swung open for many dramatic trials over the decades—political assassinations, state capture magnates, corruption scandals that shook the nation. But few have gripped South Africa’s collective heart like the murder trial of Senzo Meyiwa, the beloved Bafana Bafana captain whose death in…
The luxury estate in the quiet eastern suburbs of Pretoria is the kind of place where residents pay premium levies for high walls, biometric access gates, and 24-hour patrols. It is designed to keep danger out. But according to the Hawks, South Africa’s elite Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the danger that recently emerged from…
The low-level bridge across the Komati River near the Mozambican border is a humble structure of concrete and steel, designed for dry-season crossings when the water is a gentle murmur. But on the afternoon of April 27, 2026, after three days of relentless rain had swollen the river into a churning, brown beast, that bridge…
The luxury cruise had promised golden sunsets, champagne dinners, and the gentle swell of the Atlantic. For 69-year-old Geoffrey Thornton, a retired architect from Bath, England, it was to be the trip of a lifetime—a 21-day voyage from Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town, celebrating four decades of marriage to his wife, Margaret. Instead, Geoffrey…
The shot was not aimed at anyone in particular. That was the point. As Cape Times photographer Brenton Geach raised his camera to capture the aftermath of a gang-related shooting in Hanover Park last month, a single bullet cracked past his left ear and embedded itself in a concrete wall behind him. No warning. No…
The armored vehicles rolled through the darkened streets of Manenberg at 3 a.m., their green-and-khaki silhouettes a startling sight in a neighborhood more accustomed to the blue lights of police vans. Inside, young soldiers gripped R4 rifles, their eyes scanning the zinc-roofed shacks and gang-scarred walls. Operation “Phakama” — “Rise Up” — had begun. Days…
