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Ramaphosa to address nation on Ekurhuleni murders, GBVF

President Cyril Ramaphosa will this evening address the country on steps being taken by government to confront the country's gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) crisis.

The President's 19:00 address follows a horrifying wave of violence in and around the City of Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, where the bodies of 11 women were discovered dumped between July and September 2026.

Ramaphosa is expected to provide a detailed update on the ongoing law enforcement investigations into these murders.

The upcoming national address comes on the heels of a significant breakthrough by the South African Police Service (SAPS). Last week, members of the Gauteng Murder and Robbery Unit arrested one man and two women in connection with the murder of the ninth victim.

On Monday, Ramaphosa described the ongoing abuse, rape, and murder of women as a "stain on the national conscience".

He issued a stern warning against the public humiliation of women, noting that such actions are often dismissed as harmless but directly reinforce the dangerous attitudes that sustain discrimination and systemic violence.

The escalating crisis has triggered a sharp political response from the DA, which has launched targeted political and legislative interventions specifically focusing on the Ekurhuleni killings.

Earlier this month, the party announced an additional R500 000 financial reward for any verifiable information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of the individuals or network responsible for the murders.

Furthermore, the DA successfully secured an urgent debate in Parliament.

The DA has also launched a public petition fiercely rejecting recent statements from the SAPS that appeared to underplay their own culpability as law enforcement by advising women to take personal safety precautions.

The party criticised the police's stance, arguing that government must fulfil its constitutional mandate to protect citizens rather than shifting the burden of safety onto victims.

US Ambassador declares diplomacy 'useless' as relations with S Africa on edge

Relations between the US and South Africa have reached a critical low point following a scathing assessment by US Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III, who accused the South African government of actively rejecting a constructive relationship with Washington.

The diplomatic fallout follows the September 15 announcement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio introducing targeted visa restrictions against South African officials deemed responsible for enabling uncompensated land seizures, race-based discrimination, or the incitement of violence against minority groups.

In an op-ed, Bozell III revealed that Washington's patience wore thin after a nine-month period of "formal silence" from Pretoria regarding three core policy requests.

"It is safe to say my government was not just disappointed, it was shocked," Bozell III stated. "The message was clear: The South African government does not want a constructive relationship with the United States."

According to the Ambassador, the friction followed from a series of diplomatic objectives delivered to Pretoria in November 2025, known as the "Five Asks".

These objectives built on US President Donald Trump's February 2025 Executive Order 14204 (Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa), which formally outlined American anxieties regarding rural farm attacks, regulatory hurdles for US investors, and South Africa's geopolitical alignment with US adversaries.

While Bozell III acknowledged that the first two points had been broadly addressed or paused, negotiations collapsed over the remaining three.

He pointed out that Washington requested that Pretoria not interfere with the processing of Afrikaner refugees under the US Executive Order – an assurance granted in January 2026 and currently deemed resolved by the US.

Bozell III said the US also expressed deep concern over the 2024 Expropriation Act.

While the legislation is currently under judicial review, Bozell III criticised the South African government for signing the Act and "hiding behind a judicial process" rather than outright rejecting it. For now, the US is awaiting the court's final ruling.

Further, the US requested that President Cyril Ramaphosa and senior officials publicly condemn the singing of "Kill the Farmer! Kill the Boer!," which Bozell III characterised as an incitement to violence that leaves rural farmers living in fear.

Bozell III also revealed that the US urged Pretoria to formally designate rural crime as a priority and fully resource existing safety plans, even offering technical and financial support to assist local law enforcement – a proposal he said went unanswered.

The US also asked South Africa to allow foreign telecommunications and mining companies to use Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes as an alternative to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment ownership requirements.

The Ambassador emphasised that the implementation of the US's new visa policy against some South Africans is a calibrated initial response rather than a final measure.

He clarified that the US government's dispute is strictly with the State's "ideological posturing", not its citizens, highlighting the economic potential currently at risk.

"Our disagreement is with the government that continues to put its ideology above its own people," Bozell III said, pointing to young entrepreneurs in Soweto, winemakers in Stellenbosch, and software engineers in Durban who he says are bearing the brunt of a stagnant economy.

While major US corporations already employ hundreds of thousands of South Africans, Bozell III warned that substantial capital targeting critical minerals, energy cooperation, and telecommunications is actively diverting away from the country owing to regulatory uncertainty and "burdensome race-based regulatory environments".

He made it clear that the US will no longer engage in open-ended talks that yield no legislative adjustments.

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Parties call for urgent action after weekend's mass shootings

South Africa is reeling from an unprecedented weekend of trauma as horrific mass shootings across the country have left at least 27 people dead and dozens more injured in targeted tavern attacks.

The staggering carnage has sparked fierce national social and political outrage, putting intense pressure on government and the South African Police Service (SAPS) to deploy maximum resources and halt the rising tide of township violence.

The deadliest assault occurred on Saturday night in Extension 3, in Wedela, near Carletonville on the West Rand when eight unidentified gunmen, reportedly armed with high-calibre AK-47 rifles and pistols, stormed a local tavern. The attackers opened fire on patrons inside and outside the establishment, set vehicles alight, and robbed survivors before fleeing.

The carnage resulted in the deaths of 17 people – 13 men and four women – while 15 others were left wounded. Police have since confirmed a manhunt is actively underway, though the motive remains entirely unknown and no arrests have been announced.

The ANC in Gauteng expressed "profound shock and sadness" over the massacre, labelling it a "heinous crime".

In a statement, the party stressed the urgent need to scale up intelligence-led policing, particularly in areas highly impacted by violent crime.

"The use of high-powered firearms in this attack highlights the grave danger posed by the proliferation of illegal firearms in our communities," the ANC Gauteng stated, calling for immediate operations to disrupt criminal supply networks and remove illegal weapons from the streets.

DA Merafong mayoral candidate Carlos Rebelo extended condolences to the affected families and questioned how such a heavily armed group could execute an attack of this magnitude without detection.

"Our responsibility cannot end with expressing condolences," Rebelo said, demanding transparency regarding the resources being deployed to bring the perpetrators before the law.

As the nation processed the shock of the Gauteng attack, a second attack unfolded in the early hours of Sunday morning in Lwandle, near Strand, in the Western Cape.

At about 01:46 AM, gunmen entered a local tavern and opened fire. Five victims died at the scene, and another five succumbed to their injuries at nearby medical facilities, bringing the death toll to 10, with 11 others wounded.

The Lwandle massacre occurred just hours after a separate shooting in Khayelitsha that claimed four lives, and barely five days after a mass shooting in KwaZulu-Natal's KwaMakhutha township left 11 people dead.

Condemning the Lwandle massacre, ActionSA Cape Town mayoral candidate Dereleen James emphasised that these mass shootings are not isolated incidents but symptoms of deeper crises ravaging communities, including gangsterism, drugs, and extortion rings.

James advocated for a multi-departmental approach that goes beyond policing.

She called for the integration of SAPS with Social Development, Education, and Community Safety to address the underlying socioeconomic conditions feeding violent crime.

"Criminals must know that the State will pursue them and that there will be consequences for taking innocent lives," James asserted.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) joined the political voices calling for a relentless State response.

Aligning the crisis with its local government election manifesto, the SACP urged the working class to organise alongside law enforcement to build safer public spaces.

The party emphasised that protecting vulnerable rural and township communities requires accountable policing, robust public services, and targeted youth development to structurally dismantle organised criminal syndicates.

White Cross Project turns to Union Buildings after Washington vigil

Following what it describes a success of its White Cross Project in the US, Afrikaner group Lex Libertas announced it aims to bring the same demonstration to South Africa in a set it up on the lawns of the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

The organisation is scheduled to meet with White House representatives on Monday to discuss the next steps of its international campaign.

The announcement follows a two-day event in Washington, where attendees gathered to witness a display of 3 000 white crosses, which Lex Libertas sys commemorates a victim of farm murders in South Africa.

The vigil served as the grand finale of the White Cross Project's US tour and drew campaign supporters, farm attack victims and their families, officials from the White House, the US Department of State, and other various government sectors.

The 3 000 crosses have already been dismantled, loaded onto trucks, and are currently being prepared for shipment to South Africa.

"Seeing all these people walking among the crosses, reading the names and listening to the stories of victims was an extraordinarily moving experience," said Lex Libertas executive director Dr Ernst Roets.

He said the campaign is driven by two primary goals: raising unignorable global awareness and securing actionable international support.

"We have made it clear from the beginning that our first objective is to make the harsh realities within South Africa impossible to ignore," Roets explained.

"The second, and most important objective, is to use the awareness and momentum that is created by this project, to garner support for short and long-term solutions for the peoples of South Africa."

The campaign report outlines twenty immediate steps the South African government could take to curb violence, farm attacks, racial exclusion, and threats to property rights.

Furthermore, the report diagnoses what Lex Libertas says are the systemic failures driving these issues, arguing that South Africa's "highly centralised political system has become entirely detached from reality and stripped of accountability".

As a long-term remedy, Lex Libertas urged US government officials, civil institutions, and international supporters to back initiatives promoting decentralisation and self-governance in South Africa.

However, in his weekly letter to the nation, Ramaphosa discouraged the campaign.

"At a time when unemployment is high and we need to grow our economy and attract investment, travelling to foreign capitals to spread the falsehood of a 'white genocide' and discourage investment in one's own country is neither responsible nor patriotic. We may be a diverse nation, but we are united by the constitutional values that make us South African," he said.

Ramaphosa challenges S Africans to defend national identity amid violence, division

President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a reminder to the nation on Monday that heritage is not only a cause for celebration but a critical battleground that citizens must actively defend, as he stressed that South Africans cannot allow gender-based violence, xenophobia and racial division to define the country's character.

Writing in his weekly newsletter, the President's message comes at a time of heightened security concerns, particularly following a grim series of crimes in the Gauteng province.

Addressing the crisis of gender-based violence (GBV), Ramaphosa described the ongoing abuse, rape, and murder of women as a "stain on the national conscience".

Between July and September 2026, the bodies of nine women were discovered dumped across the Ekurhuleni municipality, east of Johannesburg. Last week, the South African Police Service made a significant breakthrough when members of the Gauteng Murder and Robbery Unit arrested one man and two women in connection with the ninth victim's murder.

Ramaphosa warned that the public humiliation of women, often dismissed as harmless, directly reinforces the dangerous attitudes that sustain discrimination and violence.

Turning to regional relations and migration, the President recalled the support African nations provided during South Africa's liberation struggle.

He reaffirmed that democratic South Africa remains deeply committed to advancing African unity and integration, explicitly rejecting xenophobia and intolerance.

However, Ramaphosa balanced this commitment with a firm stance on immigration compliance.

He noted that the government has a fundamental responsibility to manage its borders effectively, emphasising that migration must occur within the parameters of the law and that everyone living in South Africa must respect its legal framework.

He labelled inflammatory statements about foreign nationals as dangerous and irresponsible, particularly during periods when undocumented migration fuels social friction.

Ramaphosa also defended the country's constitutional transformation policies, drawing a sharp line between democratic redress and past oppression.

"We are determined never to return to the racial division and oppression of our apartheid past," Ramaphosa wrote, urging citizens to continuously renew the choice made in 1994 to build a unified nation from diverse backgrounds.

In a final warning against political and social polarisation, the President reminded citizens that while the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, it demands equal responsibility.

He condemned inflammatory language that glorifies violence or stokes community tensions, and took aim at figures traveling abroad to sabotage the country's economic prospects.

"At a time when unemployment is high and we need to grow our economy and attract investment, travelling to foreign capitals to spread the falsehood of a 'white genocide' and discourage investment in one's own country is neither responsible nor patriotic," Ramaphosa said.

He urged all South Africans to remain vigilant against "divisive forces", protect the country's social fabric, and guard against actions that threaten to reopen the wounds of the past.

South Africa's Transnet begins process to expand manganese export capacity

South Africa's State-owned logistics operator Transnet said on Friday it has started the process of picking a private sector partner to develop and operate a new manganese export terminal for 25 years, as it seeks to expand the mineral's export capacity by 20%.

South Africa is the world's top manganese exporter, having shipped about 26-million metric tons in 2025, according to the Minerals Council.

Manganese is mostly used in steel manufacturing, but increasingly in battery technologies, which are vital for renewable energy.

Transnet, which currently handles about 16-million tons of South Africa's manganese exports annually through its freight rail system, is seeking a private sector partner to fund, develop, operate and maintain a new export corridor from mines in the Northern Cape to a new terminal at Ngqura, in the Eastern Cape.

The freight rail, ports and pipeline operator said in a statement it had issued a Request for Qualification to begin the process of selecting a strategic partner.

The new export terminal is expected to reduce the roughly 10-million tons of manganese exports a year which are hauled to ports by road.

Ngqura is about 20 km north-east of Port Elizabeth, which currently accounts for 65% of South Africa's manganese export capacity.

Transnet is increasingly relying on private sector participation after being constrained by years of underinvestment and insufficient government funding.

Approximately 95% of South Africa's manganese export volumes go to Asia, with China accounting for nearly 68% of all shipments, followed by India (16%), Singapore (3%), Malaysia (3%) and Japan (2%).

GOOD challenges Zille's Joburg Mayoral bid and DA's electoral court action

Ahead of the November 4 local government election, and after filing an answering affidavit opposing the DA's application in the Electoral Court to declare its candidate list unlawful, the GOOD party is also questioning Helen Zille's residency in Johannesburg as she plans to contest the mayoralship for the DA in the city.

The DA has launched an urgent application in the Electoral Court against ActionSA, the EFF, the MKP, and the GOOD party, accusing them of undermining electoral laws ahead of the upcoming local government election.

The legal challenge centres on allegations that these parties are deliberately concealing their proportional representation (PR) candidates from the public by submitting lists containing just a single name.

GOOD said on Friday that its PR list, with one name in each of the 25 municipalities it is contesting, complied with the law and was certified by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

"The DA's application, seeking the exclusion of GOOD, ActionSA, the EFF and MK from the PR ballot, or to restrict the number of seats they may fill, reflects bad faith desperation to manufacture legal technicalities and voter confusion, and subvert voters' choices. Neither the Municipal Electoral Act nor the Municipal Structures Act prescribes a minimum number of names on a party list," GOOD countered.

It further stated that it had confirmed with the IEC whether single-candidate lists were allowed, before submitting its lists.

"GOOD will defend its lists in court; they comply with the law as Parliament wrote it, not as the DA would prefer it to have been written," it stated.

However, the party was not done. It is further taking legal advice on whether Zille's registration in Johannesburg as the DA's mayoral candidate is lawful.

"Re-scrutinising the relevant legislation in preparing GOOD's answering affidavit raised questions about the lawfulness of the registration in Johannesburg of the DA's mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Helen Zille. GOOD has asked its legal team to advise whether Zille's registration in Johannesburg complies with sections 7(3) and 8(3) of the Electoral Act and, if not, what remedies are available," it explained.

GOOD argues that Zille's residence, by her own account, is in Cape Town, further stating that if it is advised that Zille's candidacy is unlawful, it will take legal action.

Eskom board chair reappointed after turnaround in power supply

South Africa's government has reappointed State utility Eskom's board chairperson Mteto Nyati, for another three years after a sharp improvement in power availability under his tenure, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Friday.

Nyati was appointed chair in 2023, when Eskom was implementing near-daily power outages that were holding back economic growth and a major source of public anger.

Eskom has now gone more than 490 days without power cuts.

"If it ain't broken, why fix it?," ... The cabinet has taken a decision that Dr. Mteto Nyati is best suited to continue, ... so his term is renewed from the 1st of November," Ramokgopa told a press conference.

Nyati had been due to step down at the end of October when his current three-year term expires.

The former state monopoly, which has required repeated government bailouts that have strained public finances, made a second consecutive profit in the 2026 financial year.

Ramokgopa said on Friday there would be no more bailouts and Eskom would not get double-digit electricity tariff increases.

"We have come out of a period of darkness, we have reached a point of inflection, and we're entering a new terrain," he said, adding Eskom should create the conditions for investment, industrial growth and new entrants into the electricity market.

MVC asks parties to make coalition plans public before elections

Political parties have until 17:00 on October 5 to respond to nongovernmental organisation My Vote Counts (MVC) and outline their plans for coalition negotiations before the local government elections on November 4.

MVC argues that voters should have this information before casting their ballot, citing Section 19 of the Constitution, which protects the political rights of citizens.

MVC has written to 20 political parties to gauge the principles they will use to determine coalition partners, non-negotiable manifesto commitments in coalition agreements, parties they have ruled out from coalitions after the elections and whether parties will publish all coalition agreements.

"We are not asking parties to predict the electoral arithmetic or bind themselves to negotiations that have not happened. We are asking them to disclose the principles, red lines and exclusions that will shape those negotiations. That information belongs to voters before they cast their ballots," said MVC advocacy leader Noxolo Mfocwa.

He argued the need for transparency, and said by publishing coalition agreements, residents, civil society organisations, journalists and opposition parties can better hold coalition partners accountable for their commitments.

MVC has promised to publish the answers received from any political parties, as well as to make public the ones that failed to respond.

MVC Project Lead: Money in Politics Joel Bregman pointed to unstable government and interrupted essential services when agreements are negotiated in secret.

"The standard should be straightforward: parties do not have to reveal the outcome of negotiations that have not yet happened, but they should reveal the principles and limits that will govern those negotiations. Once an agreement is reached, the public should be able to read it," Bregman said.

IEC demands parties restore public trust at 2026 electoral code signing

In what is being described as the most challenging political environment in South Africa's democratic history, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Mosotho Moepya declared on Wednesday that the signing of the electoral code of conduct is a "sacrosanct ingredient" to ensuring the integrity of the upcoming 2026 local government elections.

Speaking at the official Code of Conduct signing ceremony and ballot draw in Midrand, Moepya framed the signing as a "solemn, binding contract" signed directly with South Africans at a critical historical crossroads.

Moepya said recent findings from a voter participation survey conducted with the Human Sciences Research Council painted a stark picture of the national mood, revealing a significant decline in democratic trust, widespread institutional disillusionment, and growing public scepticisms.

"We stand at a profound historical crossroads, navigating what researchers describe as the most challenging pre-electoral climate ever observed in South Africa over the last 30 years," Moepya stated.

Rather than viewing this as casual disengagement, Moepya described it as structural disillusionment.

"Our citizens are saying democracy must work, and work for them," he noted, calling on political parties to use the elections scheduled for November to restore institutional integrity and prove that the democratic process can be responsive, clean, and accountable.

The Code of Conduct substantively protects all 136 790 candidates contesting the municipal elections, ensuring equal opportunities to campaign without fear of violence, intimidation, or unfair distortion.

By stepping forward to publicly pledge their allegiance to the code, political party leaders and candidates commit to condemning political violence, maintaining clean, fair campaigns and elevating the standard of political discourse.

Moepya issued a warning against digital harassment, stating that political parties must also actively protect journalists. He noted that no personal details or private information of media workers—including home addresses, personal contacts, or details regarding their loved ones—may be posted online.

As the country heads toward the November polls, the IEC views compliance with this code as the primary mechanism to safeguard constitutional equality and address the potentially distorted playing field.