HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOUTH AFRICA TODAY

Mon 31 August 2026:

Here’s what’s happening in South Africa today:👇🏼

◼️ Metres from disaster? While news channels such as Fox News and Sky Sports suggested that the flyover was dangerously low and made headlines for the wrong reasons, there was some grudging admiration. Australia’s Channel 7 said: “As sporting stunts go, what you’re about to see will be hard to top.” South Africans responded in true South African spirit by making fun of the situation and flooding comment sections defending Airlink and the country’s honour.
Read more here:
https://www.citizen.co.za/news/metres-from-disaster-flyover-at-cape-town-stadium-sparks-safety-debate/

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◼️ 99.97% of all US refugees come from SA: Of these 10,258 refugees, 10,255 came from South Africa, and 3 came from Afghanistan. Since December 2025, only South African refugees have arrived. The data further revealed that the number of South African refugees who arrived in the United States has increased significantly this year. The data further revealed that the number of South African refugees who arrived in the United States has increased significantly this year.
Read more here:
https://newsday.co.za/south-africa/25994/99-97-of-all-united-states-refugees-come-from-south-africa/

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◼️ Six women killed every day: Police statistics for the first quarter of the financial year, released on Friday, showed 569 women were murdered in South Africa between April and June and another 1,052 survived attacks. Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia said crimes against women and children had gone up over the quarter even as murder, carjacking and house robbery came down. “Gender-based violence and femicide continues to demand urgent attention from every sector of society,” Cachalia said.
Read more here:
https://iol.co.za/news/2026-08-31-six-women-killed-every-day-sas-deadly-war-on-women-continues/

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◼️ Bitcoin and stablecoin spending increases by 176%: MoneyBadger said the data showed that crypto spending in South Africa was increasingly behaving like ordinary money. Customers were using the digital currency to buy small, everyday baskets, spread across the whole month, repeated quarter after quarter, at thousands of merchants, both in-store and online. “What began as Bitcoin at a supermarket till is becoming a mix of Bitcoin and stablecoins across the economy,” it said.
Read more here:
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cryptocurrency/664643-south-african-bitcoin-and-stablecoin-spending-increases-by-176.html

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◼️ Sardine mass-mortality sparks investigations: The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) says it is investigating widespread reports of sardines washing up along the Gqeberha coastline in the Eastern Cape. Isolated sightings of mass sardine mortality have also been reported this week along Cape Town’s coastline, including at Bakoven, as well as in Tsitsikamma in the Eastern Cape. This follows after thousands of sardines washed-up on the Cape’s West Coast two weeks ago, prompting officials to conduct testing.
Read more here:
https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/sardine-mass-mortality-sparks-investigations-amid-hpv-discovery/

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