South Sudan's information ministry sent a team to check out how South Africa handles government communication stuff. The visitors from Juba got to meet with Kenny Morolong, who runs communications for the presidency, and he walked them through how the whole system got built after 1994. The South Sudanese undersecretary said his country wants to learn from South Africa's experience since they share a lot of history and democratic values.
Morolong explained how the government set up GCIS back in 1998 to coordinate messaging across all departments. He also talked about how they support community radio stations through an agency called MDDA, which started in 2003. The whole visit was about sharing knowledge on media freedom and making sure...
Khoisan leader Crawford Fraser died at 51 after years of fighting for indigenous recognition and land rights across South Africa. The paramount chief of the Korana House spent decades pushing government bodies to acknowledge First Nations communities and helped organize protests against marginalization. His activism ranged from camping outside government buildings to testifying before official commissions about historical injustices.
Fraser got arrested during anti-gang violence demonstrations and traveled constantly between his Eastern Cape base and the capital to advocate for cultural preservation. Political figures remembered him for empowering young activists and working to revive suppressed languages and traditions. A memorial...
Deputy President Paul Mashatile called out broken local government systems for wrecking water infrastructure across the country while addressing parliament. The guy said two-thirds of municipal water setups are barely functioning and most systems are delivering worse quality than before because officials either suck at their jobs or are actively stealing money. Communities are dealing with dry taps and contaminated supplies while gangs deliberately sabotage pipes to keep tanker contracts rolling in cash.
The administration wants to fix things through partnerships with private companies and cracking down on corruption linked to emergency water deliveries. Mashatile pushed residents to snitch on criminal networks destroying...
Police across South Africa grabbed over 16,000 suspects during their festive season crackdown with nearly 2,000 wanted criminals getting caught for heavy stuff like murder and carjacking. The operation pulled in people facing charges from drug dealing to drunk driving while cops confiscated 150 illegal guns and recovered 61 stolen vehicles worth millions.
Western Cape led drug arrests with over 1,600 busts, while provinces like Gauteng saw major wins like recovering a hijacked truck loaded with medical supplies valued at R2.5 million. Officers also shut down kidnapping operations and stopped jewellery store robberies through shootouts that ended with suspects getting arrested and stolen goods being seized.
South African women's soccer team Banyana Banyana got back together for camp ahead of their friendly against Morocco after already locking down qualification for the next Africa Cup tournament. Coach Desiree Ellis assembled a 26-player mix of local and overseas talent but had to send defender Lebohang Ramalepe home because of medical issues. The squad started training sessions in Boksburg and will head to Morocco later this week to face the tournament hosts in Agadir.
Ellis is using the match to test different player combinations and see how everyone performs since there is no pressure from qualifiers. Two international players based in the USA and Iceland will link up with the team directly in Morocco. The friendly wraps up their...
South African police are sending their deputy minister and a bunch of senior cops to the big Interpol meeting happening in Morocco this week. Cassel Mathale is leading the crew that wants to talk about how transnational crime keeps messing up the country through dodgy border activity and smuggling operations. They are pushing for better coordination on stuff like stolen vehicles getting shipped across borders and drugs flooding in through ports.
The squad plans to chat with other countries about beefing up cyber defenses and possibly using new tools to track down money that criminals stash overseas. KwaZulu-Natal's top commissioner is tagging along to help advocate for intelligence sharing between nations. The delegation thinks these...
The women's minister told media companies and the entertainment industries that they need to use their influence to stop normalizing violence against women. Sindisiwe Chikunga spoke at the kickoff for a campaign against gender violence and said storytellers have more power than policymakers when it comes to shifting how people think about consent and accountability. She wants editors and producers to adopt content guidelines and run harm checks on anything that might promote toxic masculinity or abuse.
Research shows that a third of women have dealt with physical violence at some point and police reports track tens of thousands of sexual assault cases every year. The government rolled out care centers and cleared DNA backlogs but the...
The government disaster committee wants everyone to pitch in to tackle gender violence after the president officially classified it as a national emergency. Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa held a meeting where officials said society needs to stop relying solely on bureaucrats to fix the problem and actually get communities involved. The declaration came after massive protests and over a million people signing petitions demanding action on femicide rates.
Stats show the situation is completely cooked with nearly a thousand women murdered in just three months and tens of thousands of rape cases reported annually. Research found that a third of women have dealt with physical violence at some point and way too many men admitted to committing...
The Diski99 Championship is coming back to Welkom after skipping last year, with sixteen schools ready to compete at Zuka Baloyi Stadium. Free State officials locked down a fresh partnership deal with Net Nine Nine to keep grassroots football and netball programs running for young athletes across the province. The tournament is positioning itself as more than just games by pushing leadership skills and mentorship alongside the actual sports competitions.
Government brass and talent scouts are showing up to watch primary and secondary school teams go head-to-head in soccer and netball matches. The event ties into broader efforts by the sports department to rebuild school athletics infrastructure throughout Free State. Net Nine Nine has...
