The old chamber of the National Assembly, with its high vaulted ceilings and the weight of a quarter-century of democracy pressing down from the public galleries, has seen its share of political theater. But on this particular Thursday afternoon, the atmosphere was different. There was no motion of no confidence. No impeachment proceedings. No scandal…
The numbers landed like a hammer on a hollow drum. R35 billion. Nearly 100 new schools. Thousands of learners still sitting in prefabricated classrooms that leak when it rains and bake when the sun is high. And a provincial government that, according to its own Finance MEC, is simply not spending enough to fix the…
The heavy wooden doors of the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court swung open on Wednesday morning to admit a procession that has become grimly familiar to court officials: eight accused persons, linked to a shocking insurance-related murder and fraud syndicate, filing into the dock under the watchful eyes of heavily armed police. The bail application, now in…
For three years, the numbers sat buried deep in spreadsheets, invisible to taxpayers, invisible to Parliament, invisible even to most of the officials who signed them off. But when the auditors finally pulled the thread, what unraveled was staggering: the Department of Correctional Services had been paying 25 times the market price for cooking oil…
The Good Hope Chamber of Parliament, with its high arched windows overlooking the manicured gardens of the Parliamentary precinct, has witnessed no shortage of tense exchanges over the years. But few have been as delicately choreographed—and as politically charged—as the moment Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia rose to address the Portfolio Committee on Police this…
The fluorescent lights of the community hall in Soweto buzzed faintly overhead, but the room was otherwise silent. For nearly two years, Zandile Dabula had stood at that same podium, her voice sharp enough to cut through the noise of South Africa’s most explosive debate: immigration. But on Thursday, she stepped to the microphone not…
The Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) has launched an internal investigation into allegations that officers accepted a bribe from undocumented immigrants arrested during an operation in Winternest, Mabopane. The allegations emerged after a video circulated on social media showing officers handling money inside a police vehicle following the arrest of six undocumented immigrants on 12…
In the polished corridors of Parliament, where the language of procedure often masks the raw currents of political survival, a new stage has been set. The 31-member impeachment committee—formally known as the Section 89 Independent Panel Review Committee—has been constituted to examine the Phala Phala matter involving President Cyril Ramaphosa. And even before its first…
The low hum of frustration has become a permanent background noise in Viljoenskroon these days. Farmers trying to move livestock to market take detours that add two hours to their journeys. Parents driving children to schools on the other side of the Sand River wake up before dawn to beat the makeshift traffic. Ambulances responding…
The rain had not stopped for 36 hours. What began as a steady winter drizzle over the Boland mountains had swollen into a relentless downpour, turning the Breede River Valley into a sprawling, waterlogged basin. By the time the first light struggled through the clouds on Tuesday morning, the landscape between Worcester and Rawsonville was…
