Hi there 🙋🏾♀️
Welcome to this week’s edition of the wrap, unpacking the week that was.
We explain why the president’s decision to call a commission of inquiry into the police saga is necessary — and why we’re hoping it leads to real action. Also on the agenda: alarming coup claims from Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni. Should we be worried, or is she just being extra?
On the sports side, there have been wins and losses! The Proteas slipped a little while the Fifa Club Cup and Wimbledon wrapped up.
Internationally, the Epstein Files are back in the spotlight, Beyoncé is the victim of a crime, and Superman is apparently more antisemitic than Elon Musk’s Grok. 🤯.
Heads up: Tomorrow, 18 July, is Nelson Mandela Day. How will you be spending your 67 minutes? Let us know!
So, let’s dive into these stories and more in this week’s wrap, brought to you by Verashni Pillay and the explain.co.za team. 😄
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Format:
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▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ BRIEFS
NATIONAL
- The release of the National Security Strategy report on Tuesday was overshadowed by a puzzling mention of a potential coup. 😮 Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni’s comments were irresponsible, high-placed sources told News24, while others believe it was a veiled jab at top cop Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi following his explosive media briefing alleging corruption in the SAPS. The report covered national and international risks, referencing massive global geopolitical shifts under Trump, but said SA remains stable.
- Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’s team was in court yesterday over alleged intimidation – and taxpayers are footing the bill. 😬 An Edgemead resident wants a protection order after Hill-Lewis accused him of running an illegal car repair biz, following complaints from the mayor’s mother-in-law, sparking visits from authorities. The City says he was just doing his job as a councillor. The GOOD party says the law was applied selectively. Postponed court date? September. Awkward family dinner? TBD. 😆
- Joburg’s billing mess is now officially on the Public Protector’s radar. The government watchdog has launched a probe into the city’s debt collection tactics after years of dodgy bills and aggressive cut-offs. It’s part of a broader crisis that’s seen residents overcharged for over a decade. City Power is also under fire for fake qualifications and shady hiring. This is one of several recent accountability moves. Is Joburg’s slow climb out of dysfunction finally beginning?
- Ramaphosa’s surprise pick for acting Police Minister got SA talking. 👀 With Senzo Mchunu on leave pending a probe (more on this later), Gwede Mantashe was tapped as his temporary replacement on Tuesday, despite already being minerals minister. Cyril also made Gwede acting president when he and his deputy were away in May. At this rate, Mantashe might be acting in a whole Netflix series soon. 😂 Professor Firoz Cachalia is expected to bring a more measured hand in August.
- The Proteas lost their T20 Tri-Series match against New Zealand yesterday, bowled out for 152 in Harare. 😬 They started strong on Monday, beating Zimbabwe – yes, again. There’s been a flurry of SA-Zim games lately, but they’re not repeats: last month was a Test series (slow format), now it’s a fast-paced T20 Tri-Series with New Zealand added in. Each team plays four matches before the 26 July final. SA face Zimbabwe again this Sunday. Different format, same neighbours – and hopefully, fewer batting collapses. 🤞
INTERNATIONAL
- Trump’s done playing nice with Putin – or so he says. 😏 Previously insisting he could end the war in a day, Trump admits he may have been played. “My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night,” he said Monday, noting peace talks had collapsed four times. Trump has now announced a new plan to arm Ukraine, plus 100% tariffs and secondary sanctions if Russia doesn’t strike a peace deal in 50 days.
- Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari passed away in London on Sunday, age 82. 🕊️ Buhari led Nigeria twice – first as a military ruler in the ’80s, then as an elected president from 2015 to 2023. He’s remembered for fighting corruption and building infrastructure, but also faced criticism for economic woes, rising insecurity, and a shaky oil sector. Nigeria declared seven days of national mourning and a public holiday to honour Buhari’s complicated legacy.
- The sporting world saw some memorable wins this past week. 🏆 In the US, the newly reformatted Fifa Club Cup wrapped up with Chelsea defeating Paris Saint-Germain 3–0. Across the pond, Jannik Sinner won his first Wimbledon title on Sunday, defeating Carlos Alcaraz in four sets, while Iga Swiatek claimed her sixth Grand Slam with a historic 6-0, 6-0 victory over Amanda Anisimova—the most lopsided women’s final in over a century!
- In a delicious twist, the MAGA Epstein conspiracy is dividing the movement. Right-wingers once claimed the government was hiding the sex offenders’ secrets to protect elites. Now those people, like FBI head Kash Patel and his deputy, are in charge – and the justice department announced last week they found nothing. Their base has turned on the administration. Trump lashed out online yesterday, saying he doesn’t need their support and blamed Democrats instead. They came for the deep state – now they are the deep state. 😆
- Beyoncé’s vault has been breached — and no, this isn’t a new album drop. Last Tuesday, just days before her final Atlanta show, thieves broke into a rental car belonging to her choreographer Christopher Grant and dancer Diandre Blue. In the heist? Laptops, hard drives, and *gasp* unreleased Beyoncé music, along with set lists, footage plans, and more. The BeyHive is shaken. An arrest warrant’s out. We want names. And the tracks. 😅
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ BIG STORIES
1️⃣ The police corruption inquiry: Everything you need to know.
It’s been a busy 11 days since the explosive press briefing by KwaZulu-Natal top cop Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Recap: He alleged high-ranking officials interfered with investigations into political killings in KZN, and there was pressure to disband a unit investigating those killings, pointing fingers at Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Deputy Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.
The country has been borderline obsessed since, with public response also spilling into the streets. A march in Joburg and MK-organised marches in Soweto and Durban drew hundreds, demanding the reinstatement of the disbanded task team.
The growing calls for accountability led to President Cyril Ramaphosa calling a family meeting on Sunday night. As anticipated, he announced a judicial commission of inquiry into the allegations, a move that saw jaded South Africans do a collective eyeroll. Our president has a penchant for talkshops, but we think allegations this serious do deserve an independent inquiry. Mchunu and Sibiya have both been placed on special leave.
Ramaphosa has tapped Professor Firoz Cachalia, an academic and former politician, to serve as the acting police minister from August while the commission carries out its work.
Cachalia’s experience could come in handy; he is an anti-apartheid activist and respected law professor, plus he served as MEC for Community Safety until 2009, during a period of major crime-fighting reforms in Gauteng, IOL reports.
Back to the inquiry, it will be led by Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, who begins work once he formally retires later this month, date to be confirmed.
Ramaphosa has set three and six-month deadlines for interim reports from the commission, but we know from experience that these things tend to run late. (Looking at you, Zondo).
Reactions have been loud and varied. The DA cautiously welcomed Mchunu’s suspension but
warned against another “Zondo-style dead end.” The EFF called the inquiry a “smokescreen,” designed to shield Mchunu, and the MK Party labelled the decision to place Mchunu on leave “politically dodgy.”
Yesterday, while tabling the Presidency’s budget in Parliament, Ramaphosa defended his move to set up the commission, saying that while Mkhwanazi’s claims were serious, they were “untested.”
SA’s law enforcement saga is just getting started. Grab the popcorn.
2️⃣ US drops “barbaric” migrants next door
The US has deported five people it has described as “criminal illegal aliens” to our neighbours in the east, Eswatini. The five are from Vietnam, Laos, Jamaica, Cuba and Yemen. Their deportation to Africa’s last absolute monarchy is part of what the US calls “third country removals”, which were cleared by the US Supreme Court earlier this month.
The deportees landed in Eswatini on Tuesday, and their deportation was announced by the US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. McLaughlin said these deportees, who had been in prison for a range of serious crimes, were “so uniquely barbaric” that their own countries had refused to take them back. So why send them to Africa? It’s giving Australia 2.0.
Eswatini has, however, said that it would work with the US government and the International Organisation for Migration to repatriate the deportees, who are currently in a correctional facility, to their home countries.
In early July, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could deport eight migrants to South Sudan. Only one of the eight was actually from South Sudan. Their families allegedly haven’t heard from them since. McLaughlin called the South Sudan move “a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people.”🙄
It’s worth noting that the Eswatini monarchy has been accused of terrible human rights abuses. King Mswati III has been in power since 1986 and lives a lavish lifestyle with his eleven wives and forty-five children, while his citizens starve. The Eswatini government has shut down any form of unrest with violence and at times, media blackouts. Its authorities have declined to say what the US offered it in exchange. Here’s hoping that that’s the only plane that lands so close to us here in South Africa. 👀
3️⃣ Superman is labelled as antisemitic, while Musk’s Grok praises Hitler
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Apparently it’s… antisemitism? James Gunn’s new Superman film hit theatres last weekend, and the movie’s themes have triggered a particular crowd. Fox News pundits have denounced the film as “superwoke,” accusing it of lecturing audiences, pushing leftist ideology, and, bizarrely, being antisemitic. That last accusation is especially absurd considering Superman was created by two Jewish immigrants in the 1930s as a direct response to fascism, and the current Superman frontman, David Corenswet, is Jewish.
The film features Superman intervening in a conflict between a powerful, despot-led nation (Boravia) and a defenceless country called Jahranpur, and some viewers saw that as a metaphor for the Israel-Hamas war.
Over in the actual antisemitic department, Musk’s AI company xAI was forced to apologise last Saturday after its chatbot, Grok, praised Adolf Hitler. Yes, seriously.
It referred to itself as MechaHitler and made antisemitic comments in response to user queries. In some now-deleted posts, it referred to a person with a common Jewish surname as someone who was “celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids” in the Texas floods as “future fascists”.
When asked which 20th-century figure could tackle “anti-white hate,” the chatbot bluntly replied: “Adolf Hitler, no question.” And screenshots showed Grok doubling down on controversial takes, “If calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me ‘literally Hitler,’ then pass the mustache.”
Musk has, unsurprisingly, come to its defence: “Grok was too compliant to user prompts,” he wrote on X. “Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed.” But this is coming from the guy who did a (denied) Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, so take it with a pinch of salt.
It’s a telling contrast: a Jewish actor playing an immigrant superhero sparks outrage, while a chatbot spouting actual Nazi rhetoric barely makes waves. Meanwhile, American Jews are increasingly split over being invoked to justify some of Trump’s strong-arm tactics, from university crackdowns to activist arrests. Once again, real antisemitism takes a backseat to the culture wars, weaponised by those more interested in scoring points than protecting people.
4️⃣ Analysis: Is drama MK Party’s secret sauce?
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) burst into South Africa’s political scene like a late-night plot twist – dramatic, unexpected, and impossible to ignore. Despite being the new kid on the block, it became the third biggest party in the country after the May elections.
But since then? It’s been chaos. Leadership changes, internal power struggles, and whispers of autocratic behaviour have made headlines almost weekly.
We spoke to political analyst Tessa Dooms this week, who says that chaos may not just be a bug in the MKP system… it might be what keeps it alive.
The party, she explains, is still figuring out who it is and how it works. Before the election, the MKP barely existed as a structured organisation. Now, it’s scrambling to set up internal rules, define its leadership, and establish an identity. With no clear framework, members are jockeying for power.
Take, for example, the recent drama around Floyd Shivambu and disputes over Chief Whip Colleen Makhubele’s leadership style. These may be signs of dysfunction, but Dooms notes something surprising: the party’s still functioning. Despite the drama, the MKP continues to contest by-elections, engage voters, and make decisions.
So, what’s keeping this ship afloat? Dooms, also a founding member of the think tank Rivonia Circle (a precursor to political party Rise Mzansi), says it’s all about political opportunity. Jacob Zuma and his allies saw the ANC’s vulnerability, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, and pounced. The MKP is attractive not because it’s organised, but because it offers a platform for ambitious politicians to get elected.
The internal contestation could be part of what’s fuelling the MKP’s momentum. Dooms points to the ANC as a case study: its long history of internal conflicts and leadership battles hasn’t destroyed it – if anything, it’s kept it alive. By contrast, smaller parties like the African Transformation Movement or UDM often stagnate precisely because they lack that internal energy.
So yes, the MKP is messy. But in South African politics, mess isn’t always a liability. Sometimes, it’s the price of staying in the game. Whether the party can turn that energy into something more stable – or whether it burns out – remains to be seen. Read the full article here.
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That’s it from us at The Wrap, an award-winning product of explain.co.za – simple news summaries for busy people. 💁🏾♀
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