Sunday Times
Scramble to bring generals to heel
● South African Navy chief Monde Lobese is expected to face repercussions at the Union Buildings over Iran’s participation in Exercise MOSI (Will for Peace), which began last Friday off the Western Cape coast near Simon’s Town. The Sunday Times has...
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OPEN WAR IN THE DA
Axed former environment minister Dion George has taken the unprecedented step of reporting party leader John Steenhuisen to the public protector as a bitter row in the DA escalated and burst into open war. In a lengthy and frequently emotional...
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Drunk-driver crisis rocks SA
A school principal, an attorney, a teacher and a police officer are among the thousands of people arrested for drunk driving this festive season, as traffic police clamp down. The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has recorded a 125% increase...
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RAF blows millions in dodgy call centre deal
● Senior Road Accident Fund (RAF) officials terminated an internally operated call centre that cost R25m a year to run and replaced it with an external service provider, Alteram Solutions, that cost the state-owned entity R199m over 13 months. The...
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‘They are coming for me’
● Marius “Vlam” van der Merwe knew he was living on borrowed time. The man South Africa knew only as witness D at the Madlanga commission had escaped two previous assassination attempts before he was shot dead in cold blood in his driveway in Brakpan...
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How to buy a judge
● As the arrest of high court judge Portia Phahlane rocked the country this week, claims have emerged that she received her first bribe seven months before she was even allocated the case in question — the legal battle over succession within the...
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IS SHE LEGAL?
All’s Fair is a sumptuous soap dealing with divorce and retribution, in which women lawyers swish around in fabulous fashion against amazing backdrops and men are forced to “eat crow”. It’s a new Ryan Murphy show, which should give you some idea of the...
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Prasa’s runaway tenders
Executives at the scandal-ridden Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) engaged in a chaotic procurement frenzy for almost a decade, awarding irregular contracts worth R2.8bn in blatant violation of tender rules, according to a report by the...
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CR’s secret GNU retreat
President Cyril Ramaphosa has convened a secret retreat with leaders of political parties in the GNU to hold talks on the state of the coalition government that could have implications for its future. The event begins today and will end tomorrow. The...
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Principal’s KFC feast as pupils eat samp
● The principal of an impoverished no-fee school in the Eastern Cape is alleged to have blown more than R1m meant for school meals, learning materials and maintenance on booze, fancy restaurants, fuel and other luxuries. Mihlali Makhalima has a...
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Letsoalo’s ‘top secret’ lie
● Former Road Accident Fund (RAF) boss Collins Letsoalo flew under the radar for five years at the beleaguered agency without any security vetting — despite his office insisting he had “top secret” clearance. As parliament’s standing committee on...
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Back off, Mchunu’s lawyers tell cops
● Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu has fired off a legal letter to the police investigating allegations of fraud, corruption and defeating the ends of justice, accusing them of intimidation. Mchunu’s missive came a day after police, seeking to...
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RUNNING ON EMPTY
Embattled uMngeni-uThukela Water in KwaZulu-Natal splurged almost R400,000 on trips to destinations such as Dubai and England, including one staff member flying first class to run in the New York City marathon. This is according to documents leaked to...
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New hope for SA-US trade deal
● South Africa is edging closer to clinching a historic trade deal with the US, after Washington this week finally sent through a detailed response to a trade proposal from Pretoria that was dispatched months ago. Though South African officials...
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We are ready!
● The private sector has committed to funding the estimated R2.1bn licensing fee if South Africa gets the green light to host Formula One (F1) Grands Prix from 2027. Bids closed on Monday and sport, arts & culture minister Gayton McKenzie told the...
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BAD BLOOD
● A high-flying businessman who was locked in a bitter dispute involving the top Johannesburg insolvency lawyer murdered at his offices on Friday insists there was “no bad blood” between them. Thabo Letopa, the director of NTC Global Trade Fund,...
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All aboard the gravy plane to New York
● A week into her new job, “South Africa’s top social worker” Sizakele Magangoe blew more than R1m on a trip to New York at taxpayers’ expense, staying at one of Manhattan’s priciest hotels for more than two weeks and spending almost R200,000 on her...
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Jonay speaks out over 'lies, dirty tricks'
● Mcebisi Jonas, MTN chair and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s special envoy to the US, has broken his silence, slamming what he has called a relentless campaign led by well-connected people in the country to render South Africa a pariah state. He spoke...
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High living in France for licence card deal
As almost 600,000 South Africans wait for their new driving-licence cards, it has emerged that a transport department delegation enjoyed a trip to France to examine a pricey smart-card machine owned by a company bidding for a tender — despite the...
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Cyril-Thabo clash rocks dialogue
● Simmering tensions between President Cyril Ramaphosa and former president Thabo Mbeki reached boiling point this week when they clashed over arrangements for the contentious national dialogue. As a result, Mbeki’s foundation and four others pulled...
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Enoch’s Jozi ultimatum
● Finance minister Enoch Godongwana has read the riot act to Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero over the city’s chaotic finances, threatening to partially withhold Treasury funding if he fails to take decisive remedial action. The letter this week came as...
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Zondo blasts Ramaphosa
● Former chief justice Raymond Zondo has delivered a scathing rebuke to President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying it had pained him to swear in cabinet ministers who had serious state capture findings against them. “It was like the president was saying, ‘I...
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Seta millions splashed on a failed system
● More than R13m has allegedly been siphoned out of the embattled Construction Education & Training Authority (Ceta) through two contracts meant to provide and administer a biometric system designed to combat fraudulent learner enrolment in training...
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NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES
a headache for Ramaphosa. Party insiders said that if the two ministers left their posts, they would have to be replaced by other KwaZulu-Natal heavyweights, such as Jeff Radebe or former premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube. Radebe, a former minister, leads the...
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SOMIZI’S JULY’S HEADLINE ACT
Actor and choreographer Somizi Mhlongo made headlines at yesterday’s Durban July — literally — in a dress made from Sunday Times news clippings. The flamboyant celebrity said his inspiration was his love for the newspaper. ‘We live in a world now where...
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LETSOALO’S RING OF STEEL
Embattled Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo is alleged to have spent more than R10m in public funds on his security detail, including a R4m armoured BMW X5, over three years. It is also alleged that Letsoalo, who is suspended and this week...
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MINISTER’S SETA WOES DEEPEN
● President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing mounting pressure to dismiss higher education minister Nobuhle Nkabane amid the row over her apparent lies to parliament and new disclosures that she turned a blind eye to corruption at the construction sector...
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FLOODS OF TEARS
● When Eastern Cape granny Lumka Ndzendze left for work at 5am on Tuesday, she could not have known that within two hours she would lose everything — including her three grandchildren. As heavy winter rains persisted, the stream alongside her house...
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Trump and Musk have PTSD, says Elon’s dad
● Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are at each other’s throats now because they are the only combatants left in the ring after triumphing against the “opposition” in Washington, says Musk’s father, Errol. Musk snr, pictured below, told the Sunday...
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‘He’s not your type’
Just five days before she was murdered, Olorato Mongale was shopping with her mom in a Bloemfontein mall when a charming man named John approached her, struck up a conversation and told her she was beautiful. Both women laughed about it later, with...
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DEVIL’S RANSOM
● Kidnappers are increasingly using rape and sexual assault of victims — both men and women — as a way to secure quick ransom payouts. As kidnappings continue to soar in South Africa, criminals make videos of the assaults and send them to family...
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It’s showtime, folks!
President Cyril Ramaphosa is bracing for a possibly humiliating dressing-down when he meets US President Donald Trump this week, in what is expected to be a confrontation over race policies and the claim of “genocide” against white Afrikaners. In what...
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Take the money and run
As Daybreak staff went unpaid this week and thousands of chickens suffered and died in filthy cages, the chair of the taxpayer-funded company had one thing on her mind securing a final R625,000 pay cheque and quitting. Daybreak Farms in Delmas,...
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Caucus revolt rocks ANC
● ANC MPs have thrown down the gauntlet to the party’s leadership, demanding that the “misbehaving” DA be dumped from the government of national unity and that smaller parties be brought in to achieve a majority. Insiders told the Sunday Times that...
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VAT scrap goes to extra time
With just two working days before the contentious VAT hike was due to take effect this week, confusion reigns over whether it can lawfully be cancelled in time, unless the court intervenes. Late on Wednesday, finance minister Enoch Godongwana made the...
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CR’s Afrikaner trump card
In a dramatic twist in South Africa’s fraught relations with the US, President Cyril Ramaphosa is said to be considering a list of four white Afrikaners — one of them Roelf Meyer — as the new ambassador, though he is sticking with MTN chair Mcebisi...
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ANC poised to drop 0.5% VAT hike
The ANC is likely to drop its insistence on a VAT hike in this year’s budget, amid indications that none of the parties it held talks with this week would support it. The U-turn comes after the DA, the ANC’s main partner in the government of national...
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ANC, DA in push to save GNU
The ANC and the DA are scrambling to save the government of national unity (GNU) in its present form, with both sides admitting its collapse would be catastrophic for the economy and political stability. The Sunday Times has learnt from impeccable...
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Gayton’s sex-pest blunder
● Sport, arts & culture minister Gayton McKenzie has been forced to make an embarrassing U-turn after he appointed sex pest and corruption offender Jonas White to the council of the Market Theatre Foundation. White — who was convicted in 2017 of...
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Despair as child abuse cases stall in court
● Of the more than 5,000 cases of child abuse reported to the Teddy Bear Foundation in the past five years, just 4% — about one in 25 — have resulted in a conviction. The grim statistic underscores a growing concern over the way South Africa’s...
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Brazen R14m power bribe
● Bags of cash totalling R14m a year were allegedly handed over as bribes to Emfuleni municipal employees to help a company hook up an illegal electricity connection and tamper with meter readings. The illicit agreement is believed to have saved...
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Godongwana’s VAT gamble Half-percentage point rise mooted for this and next two years
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana is standing his ground on a tax increase, insisting he needs the extra revenue to fund the “Covid grant” and ruling out any other form of a tax hike when he presents his delayed budget on Wednesday. Government...
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ANC’s EFF budget ace
The ANC has thrown down the gauntlet to its GNU partner the DA over the finance minister’s stalled budget, warning that it will approach the EFF for the required votes if the DA refuses to accept a smaller VAT increase. The warning follows a series of...
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Inside the budget fiasco ‘They just don’t see eye to eye’
● Finance minister Enoch Godongwana snubbed overtures from Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter to discuss proposals to improve tax collection on several occasions ahead of this week’s unprecedented postponement of the R2 trillion budget. This emerged...
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Will finance minister increase taxes?
● Will finance minister Enoch Godongwana increase taxes or will he not? That is the question on everyone’s lips as Godongwana is set to squeeze more out of taxpayers to fund a projected R300bn gap between revenue and spending.
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Thanks, but no thanks, Trump!
● Government, opposition parties and top business leaders are scrambling for a quick resolution to the breakdown in relations with Washington following a week of high drama. The Sunday Times understands that several proposals were made to the...
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Standoff in Parly over dome costs
● Parliament and the department of public works are in a standoff over the cost of installing fittings in the newly erected R30m dome meant to serve as the interim home of the national legislature for the next two years. As a result, it’s “highly...
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Treasury guns blazing at SIU
● The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has accused a former senior official at the National Treasury of colluding with American multinational computer technology giant Oracle over a financial management system that has cost South African taxpayers...
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Shock tactics in scandal probe as official files case against journo
● A top basic education department official named in an explosive Sunday Times report has taken the extraordinary step of opening a “harassment and defamation case” against senior investigative journalist Thanduxolo Jika — apparently for calling her to...
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Govt’s R12m Stilfontein rescue kicks into gear
The government has begun a long-awaited rescue operation at the Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein amid a flurry of urgent litigation. On Thursday the Pretoria high court heard there were 109 corpses in shafts 10 and 11 of the mine. The operation will...
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Sassa car-boot heist exposed
Fresh allegations have emerged that millions of rands in cash for social welfare grants was diverted to a senior official at Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), the company responsible for paying social grants in the late 2000s. The cash, allegedly...
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THE YEAR’S BEST BASHES
● It was a year of big international names, major milestones — and a royal visit with a green message. NYE with the rich and famous The year kicked off on a high note when I got to spend New Year’s Eve with a couple of Hollywood stars in a luxury...
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Cancer patients lose R250m
● The Gauteng health department has had to pay back R250m provided by the provincial treasury for potentially life-saving treatment for cancer patients — because it did not spend a cent of it. This startling admission is contained in the department’s...
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Axe hangs over DA’s Gwarube
● President Cyril Ramaphosa is under intense pressure from within the ANC to dismiss the basic education minister, Siviwe Gwarube of the DA, after weeks of tension over the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act. The Sunday Times understands that...
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For love or money
● A senior education department official and her husband, a former ANC chaplain-general, are being investigated by the Hawks for their involvement in a disastrous R500m school tablets contract. Dr Naledi Mbude-Mehana, a deputy director-general in the...
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ROTTEN
● Gauteng provincial government forked out R28m on 16 converted shipping containers to be used as fruit and vegetable stalls — at R1.75m each as part of an empowerment project that is now being scrapped. It cost R1.38m per each 6-metre container for...
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Madiba house feud turns ugly
● A row has broken out over Nelson Mandela’s family home in Houghton, Johannesburg, with at least three of his grandchildren preparing court papers to fight a possible sale of the property, which has fallen into disrepair. A furious Ndaba Mandela told...
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Transnet security chief in R30m row
● In a blow to efforts to revive South Africa’s battered rail network, a senior Transnet executive is in hot water after demanding that six security companies contracted to secure railway corridors cough up R30m to subcontract some of the work to a...
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Top cops clash at crime intelligence
● A bungled drugs bust involving a 715kg cocaine stash said to be worth R300m has rocked the crisis-ridden police crime intelligence unit, with startling claims being made against the division’s head, Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo. He has now taken the...
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ANC, DA gloves off in GNU dust-up
● The GNU has been rocked by its first cabinet showdown, with ANC and DA ministers clashing heatedly over proposed spending plans, including on the contentious National Health Insurance (NHI). Insiders said an extended cabinet meeting on Friday got...
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Parly medical tests shock
● Parliament has ordered its almost 1,000 support staff to undergo a bizarre range of intrusive medical tests, sparking union outrage and drawing criticism from a top labour lawyer who warned of “big privacy issues”. The instruction to undergo tests...
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Terror for teachers at school of horrors
● A gang of rogue pupils has turned a Pretoria high school into a den of crime, donning balaclavas at break time to rob other pupils of cellphones, running gambling rings, coming to school drunk, swearing at teachers, disrupting lessons and bringing...
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SA to push for African veto at top UN body
South Africa is mulling a US proposal for Africa to have two permanent seats on the UN Security Council — a move that marks a significant shift in the debate over Africa’s inclusion — but wants them to come with veto power. The US proposal does not...
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