News24 Top Stories

The International Monetary Fund has slightly lowered its economic growth forecast for South Africa this year.

The collapse and prolonged closure of a key North Coast inland road is piling costs onto farmers, businesses and motorists, with residents’ organisations accusing KwaZulu-Natal authorities of ignoring warnings about the P104 for almost three years before it finally failed.

In this extract from Underdogs by Vusi Thembekwayo and Michael Hinton, the origins of Nando’s are traced back to a peri-peri chicken shop called Chickenland.

The threat of legal action derailed an attempt to remove the mayor of Theewaterskloof, in the latest contestation in the embattled Western Cape municipality.

A witness has told the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban how Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane crawled wounded from the spot where rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes lay bleeding after gunfire erupted on Durban’s Florida Road in February 2023, recounting the chaos that left both friends dead outside a restaurant nearby.

The Western Cape will introduce arithmetic lessons in isiXhosa to thousands of Grade 1 pupils from next year. Nearly 3 500 Grade 1 and Grade 2 teachers were trained in September and October to teach numeracy in children’s home languages.

Reality TV star Ratile Mabotja, formerly Mabitsela, has undergone a breast lift, a decision she says has made her feel 21 again and given her a fresh start after a difficult few years.

Self-proclaimed “blesser” Serge Cabonge implicated Sergeant Fannie Nkosi as the real middleman between Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala and former deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.

The DA has accused Tshwane’s leadership of wasting R777 million on water tanker services, with Cilliers Brink demanding answers from Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi over what the party calls the city’s “water tanker mafia”.

Residents of Cwaru village, near Middledrift in the Eastern Cape, told GroundUp they are still in the dark over how RDP houses were handed out, six years after a storm levelled roughly 100 homes in the community.

Xenophobia and Afrophobia are symptoms of a failing and collapsing working and middle-class economy, and addressing the root causes needs to be prioritised, says Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier and IFP provincial leader Thamsanqa Ntuli has defended his decision to request army deployment during violent protests in Durban over the weekend, hitting back at criticism from within his own party after 19 people were arrested in connection with the unrest.

Gwede Mantashe’s walkout from Cosatu’s congress over speaking order exposes an uncomfortable truth: the alliance partners put themselves first. Mbhazima Shilowa writes that Cosatu must choose its own unity and independence over being a pawn in their politics.

Rwanda will host a Formula One race from ‌the early 2030s ⁠in a 10-year deal, F1 ⁠said in a statement on Tuesday.

South Africa’s manufacturing sector has been in decline for more than three decades. Now, a deluge of cheap Chinese goods, intensified by US President Donald Trump’s tariff war, is putting what remains of its industrial base under renewed pressure.

Eleven sailors were ‌missing at sea on Tuesday from a ship sunk by a drone ⁠attack off the coast of Bulgaria, possibly the second deadly sinking of a cargo vessel in the area in ⁠a week, prompting Bulgaria to summon Russia’s ambassador.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has identified many of the critical components required for more growth in agriculture. But the real question is whether government can make those components work together, writes Johann Kotzé.

Across the Northern Cape, North West and Free State, collapsing sanitation infrastructure is reducing constitutional dignity to an empty promise, writes Henk Boshoff.

Ravi Naidoo argues that South Africa can put thousands of young people into first jobs without new borrowing – by modernising labour rules, cutting red tape for small businesses, and reprioritising existing education spend toward guaranteed work experience.

“It came down to what was more important, family or rugby?”