Hi there 🙋🏾♀️
It’s been a packed week in Mzansi and abroad, and we’ve got the lowdown.
At home, the delayed Madlanga Commission has finally kicked off. Claims of a justice system “under siege”? High praise for a disbanded team? Yep, it’s all happening.
President Cyril Ramaphosa also raised eyebrows – and side-eyes – when he praised the opposition DA in front of ANC councillors this past week, while new rules are in place for Uber and Bolt. We break down what it all means for you.
Abroad, the assassination of US commentator Charlie Kirk has shaken an already divided America. We also cover a UN commission’s most serious findings yet on Israel, US President Donald Trump’s royal UK jaunt, and Mark Zuckerberg’s latest announcement.
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. 😄
Format:
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▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ BRIEFS
NATIONAL
1. SA’s police soap opera keeps dropping plot twists. 🍿 The Madlanga Commission finally kicked off yesterday. KZN top cop Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who blew the whistle back in July, was the first witness, and reiterated that SA’s justice system was “under siege” from sophisticated criminal syndicates. Meanwhile, one of the figures he fingered, Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, was suspended last Friday over claims he tried to meddle with KZN’s political killings task team, which Mkhwanazi praised for its success rate.
2. The Reserve Bank decided not to cut interest rates today, despite some expectations they would. They’ve kept the repo rate at 7%. That means borrowing costs stay the same, so no relief on your home loan repayments. Why? While inflation – the pace at which prices rise – eased to 3.3% in August (down from 3.5%) the bank is playing it safe. They want to ensure inflation doesn’t back, given experts predict price rises could hit 4.2% over the next five years. 💰
Check out our previous explainer on this topic here.
3. Ramaphosa dodged another bullet in the Phala Phala saga. The Gauteng High Court on Wednesday dismissed a case brought by a constitutional watchdog group, which tried to haul him to court over R10m in cash stolen from his Limpopo farm in 2020. Meanwhile, a separate trial related to the burglary began this week. Witnesses testified Ramaphosa was aware cash was hidden inside an infamous couch, which hasn’t been seen since the story first made headlines in 2022. His spokesperson says it’s being “reupholstered”. 🤷🏾♀️
4. Thuthukile Zuma is making headlines again — and this time, it’s not for a cushy government gig. 👀 The youngest of four daughters to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and former president Jacob Zuma, Thuthukile slammed her father’s MK Party this weekend as “shapeless” and without direction, pledging her loyalty to the ANC instead. Reminder: She nabbed a top government post back in 2014 when her father was president, named a ministerial chief of staff at just 25. Guess that paternal coziness hasn’t lasted!
5. South Africa is helping make the next moon landing happen! 🚀 The tiny town of Matjiesfontein in the Western Cape will host a new Lunar Exploration Ground Site, due in 2026, that will beam uninterrupted comms to NASA’s Artemis III 2027 mission — the first crewed moon landing attempt in over 50 years. It is one of three such sites globally and is funded by our government. This site will be used for future missions, including a potential one to Mars!
INTERNATIONAL
- The Royal Family rolled out the red carpet for Trump on Tuesday. The rare second state visit is part of diplomatic efforts to win him over on trade as well as Ukraine. It doesn’t mean everyone is on board, though. Kate Middleton offered possibly the world’s most socially-distant handshake as he told her she was “so beautiful”. 🤭 Our favourite part was protestors projecting that infamous pic of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein across Windsor Castle’s walls. Four protesters were swiftly arrested, but yeah, point made.
- Brazil’s Supreme Court handed ex-president Jair Bolsonaro 27 years behind bars for plotting a coup after his 2022 loss. The country has rejoiced in Friday’s ruling, with thousands taking to the streets this weekend in celebration. 🥳 But guess who’s not happy? Trump cried foul, calling it a “witch-hunt” against his fellow right-winger, slapping Brazil with tariffs and warning of more to come. But for many Brazilians, Bolsonaro’s downfall is proof that their democracy still has teeth.
- An independent UN commission gave its harshest assessment yet on Israel’s actions in Gaza: Genocide. That’s a far stronger label than previous UN reports, and echoes other bodies increasingly coming to this conclusion. The three-person commission, including South African human rights star Navi Pillay, said four of five genocidal acts per international law have been ticked off: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy them, and preventing births. Israel, of course, rebuked the report.
- Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has unveiled a new range of AI-powered Smart Glasses. 👓 It’s a far more expensive upgrade on previous iterations, and some feature a companion neural wristband that allows texts with hand gestures. The company is still betting on Zuckerberg’s Metaverse project, Reality Labs, even though it lost $4.2bn in Q1 of 2025. Meanwhile, protesters are demanding better protections for kids, after whistleblowers told the US Senate the company discouraged research into dangers children face on its VR platforms.
- Actor Robert Redford died on Tuesday at 89 at his home in Utah. The Hollywood icon was best known for hits like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But Redford also used his fame to bring complex topics to the screen — from political corruption to grief. Off-screen, he was an early environmental activist, a defender of progressive causes, and the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, which gave independent filmmakers a platform to challenge the mainstream. What a legacy. RIP. 🕊️
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ BIG STORIES
1️⃣Ramaphosa calls out ANC’s service delivery flops – and praises the DA. Here’s why it matters
President Cyril Ramaphosa dropped a truth bomb at the ANC’s councillor roll call in Soweto on Monday, admitting that ANC-run municipalities are lagging behind – and, in a plot twist, suggested they take notes from DA-led ones like Cape Town and Stellenbosch. 😲
Yep, you read that right.
This rare nod to the opposition, delivered to over 4000 ANC councillors, highlighted the dire state of local governance, with Auditor General reports showing ANC-led municipalities spiralling into dysfunction over the years.
Ramaphosa admitted it “pains” him that DA-led municipalities often secure better audit outcomes and deliver services more effectively. “We need to ask what they’re doing better than us,” he said, pointing to Cape Town as a model. ANC chair Gwede Mantashe piled on, joking that ANC councillors are great at singing but lack “capacity dololo” (nothing). 😅
The DA’s Helen Zille gleefully welcomed the praise, saying it proves their focus on clean governance. But ANC councillors like Phelelani Sindani called it “sabotage,” arguing it undermines the party ahead of elections. Cosatu echoed this, blasting Ramaphosa for comparing ANC councils to the DA’s.
Mapetla ward 16 councillor Gift Mathe also pushed back, saying ANC councillors quietly deliver—securing water, food parcels, and burials—without the DA’s PR flair. Analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast warned that the DA model isn’t flawless, pointing to stark inequalities in Cape Town between the glossy CBD and struggling areas like Langa.
Still, Johannesburg is Exhibit A when it comes to the ANC’s failures. In decline for over a decade, the city is currently in the grip of a worsening water crisis, with some communities left dry for over a week. Residents in Westbury and Coronationville, hit by week-long outages, faced rubber bullets during protests last week.
Mayor Dada Morero has promised fixes – and insists the R4 billion that was mentioned as missing in a recent parliament session from Joburg Water’s accounts was just reallocated for citywide expenses like salaries and roads.
But critics aren’t convinced: projects are stalling, contractors remain unpaid, and residents’ taps are still dry. Activist group WaterCAN’s Ferrial Adam has demanded proof of where the money’s gone when infrastructure’s crumbling. 💦
Ramaphosa’s call for the ANC to learn from the DA is a rare moment of candour. Whether the ANC councillors in question actually listen (and if mayors like Morero can turn promises into working taps) will partially determine if the ANC lives to fight another term come next year’s local elections.
2️⃣Charlie Kirk’s assassination fuels America’s divide
A week on from the shocking assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the repercussions are rippling through American society, heightening political divisions and sparking heated debates over free speech and gun violence.
Kirk was shot in the neck by a sniper’s rifle last Wednesday and died later that day. Within 33 hours, police had their man: 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, arrested after his own father tipped off investigators. Robinson allegedly confessed to the crime to his partner, according to released texts. The messages reveal he took issue with Kirk’s “hatred” and that he’d planned the attack for days. He’s now charged with aggravated murder and several other offences, with the state pushing for the death penalty.
Almost immediately, the incident was wielded as a political weapon.
🔹A now-defunct website appeared soon after Kirk’s killing, compiling lists of individuals celebrating Kirk’s death, encouraging doxxing and reports to employers. Backed by right-wing influencers and even Trump officials, it has led to over 30 firings or investigations, including MSNBC’s Matthew Dowd, university deans, pilots, teachers, and business owners. The website was shut down on Tuesday, but the damage was done.
🔹Trump officials began pushing for a crackdown on liberal nonprofits, framing them as complicit in violence. Guest-hosting Kirk’s own podcast on Monday, Deputy President JD Vance singled out George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation, saying both benefited from a “generous tax treatment”. Attempts to revoke their tax status will most certainly end in a constitutional court battle.
🔹The escalation reached mainstream media yesterday, with ABC suspending “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely following the host’s comments, saying “The Maga Gang [is] desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it”.
But where did the shooter stand ideologically? Conservatives insist Robinson was radicalised by the left, given references to anti-fascism in bullet engravings. But the FBI says there’s no proof he’s tied to any big “radical left” plot.
The irony is profound. Kirk, a free speech crusader, died at a debate he organised to promote it. Yet, those using their freedom of speech to comment on his death—often mocking his pro-gun stance and his quip that “some gun deaths are worth it”—are being silenced. Liberals have decried the rise of ‘cancel culture,’ which conservatives have complained about previously.
The fact is, political violence is an issue in the US across the political divide, with Republicans and Democrats coming under attack. Might the real enemy be that hoary old chestnut in American life… gun control?
3️⃣Uber, Bolt and the new e-hailing rules: what you need to know
Taxi turf wars plus tragic attacks on Uber and Bolt drivers and riders have long plagued South African roads. But a major shift just landed: the National Land Transport Amendment (NLTA) Act has officially been gazetted, dragging e-hailing out of the shadows and into the law.
After more than a decade of delays (largely thanks to minibus taxi resistance), government finally acted thanks to mounting violence and gender-based violence risks. Remember the Maponya Mall attack last month, where an e-hailing driver was gunned down?
So, what changes?
🔹 Licences: E-hailing is now its own official transport category. Every driver needs a dedicated e-hailing licence, issued by provincial regulators and often limited to specific zones (think Joburg CBD, not the whole city). Old taxi or charter permits won’t cut it anymore.
🔹 Branded cars: All Ubers and Bolts must be clearly marked. Great for spotting your ride quickly and stopping fake drivers — but it also raises safety worries for drivers in areas where taxi associations are hostile. Government’s bet? Visibility + rules will calm tensions long term.
🔹 Passenger safety: Big improvements here. Cars must now have panic buttons, drivers face criminal background checks, and app profiles must stay up to date. It’s a direct response to years of safety concerns, especially for women, with Uber’s own filings showing over 400,000 sexual misconduct reports between 2017 and 2022 in the US alone.
🔹 Penalties: No more loopholes. Companies face fines up to R100,000 or even jail if they let unlicensed drivers operate. Drivers who don’t comply risk losing their licences altogether.
This isn’t just bureaucracy. It’s an attempt to turn e-hailing from a dangerous free-for-all into a regulated part of SA’s transport network. The taxi industry still dominates, but government hopes these changes will reduce violent clashes and “protection fee” rackets.
Of course, laws on paper don’t erase risk overnight. For drivers, it means new hoops to jump through, but also legitimacy. For riders, it means safer trips — branded cars, vetted drivers, and a panic button if things go south.
The NLTA Act went live on Friday. Whether it ushers in a calmer, safer ride-hailing era — or just shifts the battles — is something we’ll all be watching closely. 👀
Read our full explainer here.
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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