HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOUTH AFRICA TODAY | SATURDAY

Sat 05 September 2026:

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

◼️SAFM apologises over Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma interview: The BCCSA has upheld a complaint over an interview with March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma. It ruled that the SABC failed to flag her statements as opinion or challenge them, even though a prior segment with GroundUp’s deputy editor had disputed the same claims. Ngobese-Zuma had made several “factual assertions” without any evidence. Ngobese-Zuma claimed that 60% of serious crimes in Gauteng were committed by foreign nationals; that foreign-funded organisations in South Africa were using their money to buy arms; that bombs and explosives were entering the country; that foreign military bases were operating in South Africa; and that foreign nationals escaped prosecution because they were paying the police.
Read more here:
https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/safm-apologises-over-jacinta-ngobese-zuma-interview-20260905-0390

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◼️ R420,000 job scam exposes ugly side of SA’s unemployment crisis: The Durban Metro Police recruitment scandal – in which an official took hundreds of thousands of rands from people by promising them jobs – illustrates how those in power can manipulate desperate job seekers while unemployment figures rise, and how maladministration in recruitment can result in labour disputes. There were also similar recruitment scam incidents in Cape Town, Gauteng, and the Eastern Cape.
Read more here:
https://iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/2026-09-05-r420000-job-scam-exposes-ugly-side-of-south-africas-unemployment-crisis/

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◼️ Municipality goes after homeowners disconnected from the grid: Thaba Chweu, located in Mpumalanga with Lydenburg as its seat, has 19,294 customers, 53.63% of whom are residential. Nersa’s recent decision approved a R582.64 levy on “networks that are available but not connected” as part of the municipality’s 2026 electricity tariff application. This means these households are being forced to pay for the provision of services they will never use, which the AfriForum said is unlawful, irrational, and unreasonable, and amounts to a “tax for using the sun”.:
Read more here:
https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/873950/new-r582-tax-for-solar-users-in-south-africa-under-fire/

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◼️ Most common crime in SA: Another common crime is housebreaking. In 2025/26, over 1.5 million incidences of housebreaking occurred, affecting 1.08 million households in South Africa. 48% of households that experienced housebreaking reported some or all incidents to the police. An interesting statistic was whether people felt safe walking in the street during the day or at night. 81% of those aged 16 years and older felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood during the day, while 37.9% felt safe walking alone when it was dark.
Read more here:
https://newsday.co.za/south-africa/26098/most-common-crime-in-south-africa/

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◼️Warning to people who have not replaced their green ID book: People have also argued that because the decision to shift to a new ID was beyond their control, they should receive their smart ID card free of charge. The department has continued urging citizens to replace their green ID book with a smart ID card to prioritise their security. This is because the green ID book is highly vulnerable to fraud. Smile ID’s 2024 and 2025 Digital Identity Fraud reports found that the South African green ID book was among the most targeted identity documents for fraud in Africa.
Read more here:
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/government/666127-warning-to-people-who-have-not-replaced-their-green-id-book-in-south-africa.html

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