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The axe has finally fallen on yet another disgraced national police commissioner. Who do we call when we can’t even trust the police? We unpack what happened and what’s next for the country. Staying with police drama, Julius Mkhwanazi had his day in court this week, together with Ekhuruleni city manager Kagiso Lerutla. They’re accused of a bizarre switcheroo back in 2019. Who needs a thriller when you’ve got Mzansi?
Internationally, that shaky ceasefire? It’s been thankfully extended, but it’s still unstable. Meanwhile, a former child star headlined Coachella… featuring YouTube Premium. Groundbreaking (not).
In tech news, Tim Cook is handing over the reins at Apple, and Anthropic’s new AI model is flying too close to the sun, causing alarm among cyber experts. Find out why.
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So, let’s dive into these stories and more in this week’s wrap, brought to you by the explain.co.za team. 😄
Format:
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █BRIEFS
NATIONAL
- The ANC is looking beyond its ranks for mayors. 🫣 The party has historically avoided announcing candidates, but the pressure is on as polls predict a further decline. Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula admitted at a Monday briefing that the ANC could not afford to run a campaign for as long as the DA, which launched its Joburg campaign six months ago. Still, public participation, extensive vetting, and possibly a more exciting candidate than the thin ANC pool can offer, could help the party’s campaign, which only kicks off in July.
- South Africa’s human-rights watchdog has been officially defanged. The Constitutional Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday that South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) directives are not legally binding. The ruling arises from a long-running dispute in Mpumalanga, where the Mosotho family has been denied access to borehole water since 2016 on a farm owned by Francois Boshoff. The SAHRC handles 10 000 complaints a year but has no budget to litigate noncompliance. Parliament may need to act. Until then, the commission’s bark just got a lot louder than its bite. 😬
- SA quietly updated its tax laws earlier this month, and SARS just got sharper teeth. New amendments mean the revenue service can move faster to collect disputed tax, including freezing bank accounts or garnishing salaries, before you’ve had a chance to argue your case. There is some relief: taxpayers can apply to pause payment while disputes are reviewed. But there’s a catch. The “honest mistake” defence has been narrowed, and penalty relief now hinges on full disclosure and proper tax advice. In short: fewer loopholes, more compliance pressure.
- Helen Zille has absolutely nothing more to say about Palestine. The DA’s Joburg mayoral candidate shut down questions on the issue this week, after a video of a Palestine solidarity activist confronting her at a residents’ meeting went viral. The activist challenged her previous comment that genocide was “a very big word” to describe the crisis in Gaza. Zille’s response: she’s running to fix Joburg, not weigh in on geopolitics. Increasingly more countries and organisations, including the UN, have said it’s genocide. Why can’t the DA? 🫤
- South Africa has lost our first Miss Black SA, Cynthia Shange, a pioneer of her time. The actress died on Monday in KwaZulu-Natal at age 76 after an illness. Shange won the Miss Black SA title in 1972, at the height of apartheid, and went on to place fifth at Miss World in London, representing a country that did not yet fully recognise her humanity. She later built a celebrated acting career in uDeliwe, Shaka Zulu, and Muvhango. A trailblazer, in the truest sense. 🕊️
INTERNATIONAL
- The US-Iran war ceasefire is holding… barely. US President Trump extended the truce this week with no end date, but both sides are still doing damage. The US has a naval blockade squeezing Iran’s economy, Iran has seized ships in the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation, and peace talks planned for Pakistan are going nowhere. To make things worse, Israel killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, despite a separate ceasefire with Lebanon that it has been violating daily. Seems nobody’s rushing to the table. 😬
- Israel risks losing its observer status at the Council of Europe over a death penalty law passed in late March. Separately, the European Union is split on whether to suspend its trade agreement with Israel over the same issue. The law mandates execution for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks, whereas Jewish Israelis convicted of such attacks face life imprisonment at most. The UN called it a war crime. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrated the new law by popping champagne in the Knesset, noose pin on lapel. Classy.
- Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple CEO. 😮 After nearly 15 years at the helm, Cook announced on Monday he will hand over to John Ternus, Apple’s head of hardware engineering, on 1 September. Cook will remain executive chairperson. Tributes for Cook poured in from Trump, Warren Buffett, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran who worked on just about every major product the company has released, inherits a company worth $4 trillion… but under pressure to get serious about AI. Big shoes. Bigger question mark.
- The world’s melting down over Justin Bieber’s Coachella performance… featuring a YouTube playlist. It was just one segment of a two-weekend slot at the California mega-festival this month, but still. Fans waited four years. Bieber got $10 million. And then… he sat on a stool with a MacBook, singing along to old clips of himself. 😭 Critics say a female artist would never get away with that level of disrespect. As Katy Perry, watching from the crowd, joked: “Thank God he has Premium. I don’t want to see no ads.”
- The Michael Jackson biopic lands in local cinemas tomorrow – and it’s already dividing opinion. Michael is part of his estate’s attempts to sanitise his image and follows his rise from Jackson 5 child star to global superstar. It stars his nephew, Jaafar Jackson, in the lead, and covers his break from controlling father, Joe, and a showstopping moment from the 1988 Bad tour. What it doesn’t include: the child sexual-abuse allegations that dogged his later life. Jackson was never criminally convicted, but critics say leaving it out is a “whitewash”.
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ BIG STORIES
1️⃣Suspended police commissioner Fannie Masemola’s charges are precedent-setting
It was only a matter of time.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced at a briefing this afternoon that National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola has been placed on precautionary suspension, following his appearance in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
“In consideration of the seriousness of these charges and the critical role that the national commissioner of police plays in leading the fight against crime, I have agreed with Gen Masemola that he be on precautionary suspension pending the conclusion of the case to ensure stability and continuity in the South African police force,” Ramaphosa said in an address to the nation on Thursday afternoon.
In the briefing, the president said that SAPS Chief Financial Officer Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane would be acting national police commissioner.
There was a growing chorus of calls for Ramaphosa to suspend Masemola this week, from the DA, civil society groups, and even the ANC’s own parliamentary caucus, before a media briefing was announced on Thursday morning.
Masemola joins a long line of disgraced police commissioners from Jackie Selebi to Bheki Cele and Riah Phiyega.
But his suspension was no surprise, given the level of dysfunction and corruption laid bare over the past year when it comes to our police services – from the Madlanga Commission to parliament’s own inquiry.
The charges Masemola faces are extraordinary. You’re used to hearing about public officials being accused directly of corruption. This time, one is being charged for not stopping it as the accounting officer.
In this role, Masemola twice ignored warnings that a tender process was irregular. Instead of acting, he did nothing. The result? That tenderpreneur you keep hearing about, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, was paid R50 million before his company’s R360 million healthcare contract was finally cancelled. Must be nice.
Now Masemola faces four counts of contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The matter has been postponed to 13 May.
As political journalist Qaanitah Hunter puts it, this is possibly the first time an accounting officer will be successfully prosecuted under section 28 of the PFMA.
Prosecutors are now joining his case to that of Matlala and 15 others accused of corruption. Masemola has, of course, protested loudly, saying he didn’t commit the actual corruption. But this prosecution strategy – and Ramaphosa’s announcement today – sends a powerful signal: you’re as guilty as the people who stole the money if you stood by and let it happen.
2️⃣Julius Mkhwanazi in court as SAPS corruption cases mount
Staying with policing, the South African Police Service (SAPS) had a very busy week in court – and not in the way you’d hope from the people responsible for fighting crime.
A day before Masemola’s court date, Julius Mkhwanazi, the suspended deputy chief of the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD), had his own time in the dock. He appeared at the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday, after being arrested at his home on Saturday.
The arresting team? The SAPS Madlanga Commission Task Team, who nabbed Mkhwanazi on charges of fraud, corruption, and defeating the ends of justice. SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said that the arrests had nothing to do with any evidence led at the commission, including the Emmanuel Mbense killing or the blue-lights scandal. The Madlanga Task Team made the arrests simply because investigating EMPD corruption is now, essentially, their full-time job. 😆
He wasn’t the only person to be arrested. On Sunday, police confirmed the arrest of another senior Ekurhuleni municipal official, Kagiso Lerutla, the city manager, on identical charges.
The state alleges that in 2019, after Lerutla was arrested for speeding and was due to appear in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court, the pair allegedly recruited and paid a third party, known as “Mr X”, to impersonate him in court, while Lerutla himself went to a job interview. To be clear about what that means: someone else allegedly sat in the dock, answered to Lerutla’s name, and completed legal-diversion paperwork on his behalf, all so the now city manager could attend an interview in peace. 😵💫The impersonator apparently pulled it off until, years later, when a whistleblower exposed the two.
Oh, and when arresting officers arrived at Mkhwanazi’s home, they found a large quantity of live ammunition, even though he has been on full suspension since November 2025.
The whole catastrophe loops back to the Madlanga Commission, which has now clocked more than 90 days of hearings into allegations of the “Big Five” cartel’s capture of the police, metro police, prosecutors, and the judiciary.
Quick recap: The commission was established after last year’s explosive claims by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi (not to be confused with his namesake above). He accused then-police minister Senzo Mchunu of interfering in ongoing investigations, turning the provincial commissioner into something of a hero. Mkhwanazi – Nhlanhla, that is, has since renewed his contract for another five years and is now being discussed as a potential successor to Masemola, which is the kind of twist that keeps political analysts employed.
At this point, the courts are doing more active policing than the police.
3️⃣Emmarentia shooting throws the spotlight on firearms for self-defence
A road-rage shooting in Johannesburg has left a man dead, his wife injured, and two children traumatised. And the man who pulled the trigger? He’s not being charged. Meanwhile, Parliament wants to take away the very reason most South Africans can legally own a gun in the first place.
Here’s what happened. On Sunday, 19 April, Faisal Ul Rehman was driving through Emmarentia with his family when his car bumped another vehicle. Minutes later, he was shot and killed. His wife was wounded. His kids witnessed the whole thing. A 58-year-old man was arrested, but by 21 April, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) decided not to prosecute – at least for now – saying the case likely wouldn’t hold up in court.
That decision matters because of one key word: self-defence.
Right now, most of South Africa’s roughly 2.8 million licensed firearms are owned in terms of section 13 of the Firearms Control Act, which basically says you can have a gun to protect yourself. But a new Firearms Control Amendment Bill, introduced in November 2025, wants to scrap that entirely. No more self-defence as a legal reason to own a gun.
If it passes, people would need a different justification, like sport shooting or hunting, to keep their firearms. That would eventually push millions of licensed firearms out of legal ownership.
Supporters of the change, like Gun Free South Africa, argue that guns meant for protection often end up harming family members or escalating everyday conflicts, exactly the kind of situation seen in Emmarentia. On the other side, gun-owner groups say this punishes law-abiding citizens, while criminals, who mostly use illegal guns anyway, carry on unaffected.
So, where does this leave us? In a slightly surreal spot. The same legal principle that may have kept the Emmarentia shooter out of court – that is, self-defence – is the one lawmakers are now trying to remove.
This tragic incident is about how South Africa balances safety, fear, and trust in the state. If self-defence laws are scrapped, millions of gun owners will be affected, and the country will be forced to answer a tough question: Do guns actually make us safer or just make us feel safer?
Either way, the rules of the game might be about to change.
4️⃣Mzansi’s cyber mess meets a new AI reality
You probably don’t think about data security all that much. Fair enough. But thanks to AI, it’s about to become everyone’s problem.
Earlier this month, US-based AI company Anthropic claimed it had built a model so powerful… it couldn’t release it. The model, called Mythos, forms part of its broader AI system Claude – think along the lines of ChatGPT or Google Gemini.
So what’s the issue? During testing, Anthropic found Mythos was extremely good at hacking. Like, better-than-humans good. It could dig up long-forgotten bugs buried in decades-old code and exploit them with ease. The company says it’s already identified thousands of serious vulnerabilities across major systems.
You can see why that makes people nervous – especially finance ministers. Imagine that level of skill pointed at, say, global banking systems.
Instead of releasing Mythos publicly, Anthropic launched a controlled roll-out called Project Glasswing, granting limited access to big players like Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple. Even then, things got messy: reports suggest unauthorised users accessed the model almost immediately. This week, Bloomberg reported that users in a private forum managed to access the model without the usual permissions, prompting Anthropic to issue a statement saying it was investigating the unauthorised access. Not ideal for something you’re trying to keep contained.
But how much of this is hype and how much is cause for real concern?
As the BBC notes, it is in Anthropic’s interests to suggest its tool has never-seen-before capabilities, meaning – as ever with AI – the job of distinguishing between justified claims and hype can be tricky. Ciaran Martin, former head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, told the broadcaster: “For some this is an apocalyptic event; for others it seems to be a lot of hype.”
South Africa, though, should probably be paying attention.
We’re already a prime target. South Africa is the most targeted country in Africa for cybercrime, according to a 2025 report by cybersecurity company Eset. Recent events back that up. In March, Statistics SA was hit by ransomware, with hackers claiming they stole 154GB of sensitive data and demanding a ransom of R1.7 million. The same group also targeted the Gauteng government, allegedly grabbing 3.8TB of data. Before that, South African Airways and Cell C were both hit in 2025.
The bigger problem? Most attacks are still embarrassingly basic. Phishing emails, weak passwords, good old human error. Meanwhile, there’s a shortage of cybersecurity skills, and enforcement of laws like Popia isn’t exactly watertight.
Now add AI tools that can automate and scale hacking.
There’s no sign Mythos itself is going public any time soon. But it points to where things are heading. For a country already struggling to keep up, that future is arriving a bit too fast.
That’s it from us at The Wrap, an award-winning product of explain.co.za – simple news summaries for busy people. 💁🏾♀
The Wrap is sponsored by explain’s agency division. We specialise in content marketing for purpose-driven organisations, often with a pan-African reach. Mail info@explain.co.za for a quote.
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