HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOUTH AFRICA TODAY

Sat 07 February 2026:

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

◼️ 230 000 arrests in festive season crackdown: These include 32 318 arrests of wanted suspects for serious crimes like murder, rape, robberies, car hijackings, and illegal firearms possession. For murder and attempted murder, 4 029 suspects were arrested, and for rape and attempted rape, 2 693 were arrested.
https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/crime/police-make-over-230-000-arrests-in-festive-season-crackdown/

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◼️ Traffic fine scam warning: In a post on X, the agency highlighted that the official Aarto website is aarto.gov.za. It urged residents not to make payments or provide personal details on any other site claiming to be Aarto. “Public Warning. Please be cautious of fraudulent websites pretending to be the official Aarto website,” it said. “These fake sites may be used to scam the public and steal personal or payment information.”
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/motoring/627973-traffic-fine-scam-warning.html

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◼️ SANDF accused of delaying probe into death of 14 soldiers in DRC: Over a year after 14 South African soldiers were killed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), analysts suspect that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is delaying a probe into the deaths because the mission was so poorly conceived by military leadership.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-02-05-a-year-later-theres-been-no-inquiry-into-the-death-of-14-sandf-members-in-drc/

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◼️ SA’s student accommodation crisis: For the 2026 academic year, the University of Johannesburg says it received close to 100,000 (99 472) student accommodation applications while its current on-campus bed capacity stands at 7 015 beds.
https://iol.co.za/business/property/2026-02-06-south-africas-student-accommodation-crisis-high-demand-meets-limited-beds/

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◼️ SA woman who built a salt empire from a garden shed: “About a year and a half later, after a highly unpleasant incident, I ended up leaving a note on the table and taking my three-year-old under my arm and escaping Denmark.” Skyring returned to South Africa, where her 20,000-drums project held its final workshop in Rustenburg. With the money she gathered from this, and from selling her house, she bought 34 tonnes of the Kalahari salt.
https://newsday.co.za/south-africa/16996/the-south-african-woman-who-built-a-salt-empire-from-a-garden-shed/

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