HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOUTH AFRICA TODAY

Wed 11 February 2026:

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

◼️ Ramaphosa’s broken, and ‘in-progress’, SONA promises: Effectively, SONA is meant to generate excitement, build buy-in, and instil confidence and hope in the government’s plans for the year ahead. But that’s not how reality works. Political and news events, among others, will reprioritise these SONA promises. And over the years, the broken, delayed and stalled promises feed into the public’s sense of “checking out”. This decline in importance for SONA seems to be the case ever since the heady heydays of “Ramaphoria” in 2018.
https://www.news24.com/opinions/analysis/remember-lanseria-smart-city-ramaphosas-broken-and-in-progress-sona-promises-20260211-0872

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◼️ SA’s R400bn water crisis: Water and sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina has called on mining companies to partner with government to help address South Africa’s deepening water crisis, saying some of the country’s biggest water users must step up to support struggling municipalities. Morero said a major recent disruption was triggered by a power outage on January 26, leaving some residents of Johannesburg and Tshwane without water for up to six days.
https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2026-02-11-majodina-calls-on-mining-houses-to-help-fix-sas-r400bn-water-crisis/

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◼️ You won’t lose your SA citizenship anymore: For decades, many South Africans living abroad lived with the burden of having their citizenship stripped away simply for taking up a second nationality. This is not the case anymore. The new system uses advanced biometric selfies and real-time document scanning. Users take a selfie and scan their Passport to remotely confirm their status.
https://www.citizen.co.za/news/you-wont-lose-your-sa-citizenship-anymore-after-moving-abroad/

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◼️ Data prices plummet in SA: “A decline in data prices over a 5-year period (2020-2025) is indicative of the impact of increased retail price competition and regulatory interventions to reduce communication costs,” Malatsi said. It shows that for 30-day prepaid data, the cost of 1GB had dropped from R100 in 2020 to R79 in 2025, while the price of 500MB has only dropped slightly from R69.60 in 2020 to R69 in 2025.
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadband/628760-data-prices-plummet-in-south-africa.html

◼️ Painful reality check: Flawed electricity pricing policy and tariff regulation are deepening South Africa’s municipal electricity crisis, with experts arguing that the current tariff methodology is fundamentally broken. So broken that it allows municipalities to recover the costs of non-payment from legitimate consumers who diligently pay their electricity bills, overcharging them to cover those who refuse to pay.
https://businesstech.co.za/news/business-opinion/850699/painful-reality-check-for-anyone-paying-for-electricity-in-south-africa/

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