News24 South Africa

Six men aged between 28 and 46 have been arrested following a swift rescue operation that saved a kidnapping victim who was found tied up in a garage in Welkom, Free State.

The KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) has arrested a popular traditional healer from KwaMashu for allegedly orchestrating the murders of three people, including two eThekwini metro police officers.

The trial of former St John’s Preparatory School teacher Brett Nicholson continued on Friday at the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, with defence counsel Sita Kolbe suggesting the testimony of the second State witness “varies from day to day”.

Cold conditions are expected in the Western Cape, while rain is forecast in parts of KwaZulu-Natal, but it will be fine and cool in most of the country, according to the South African Weather Service.

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Nicole Johnson, the wife of alleged gang boss Ralph Stanfield, was granted R100 000 bail by the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town on Friday.

In an attempt to deal with “infiltrators and sleepers” ahead of the November local government elections, the ANC in the eThekwini region has expelled a ward councillor who was double-dipping between the ANC and the DA.

The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban has heard evidence this week that reads like a crime thriller: a powerful security company boss, an alleged love triangle, recorded death threats, and a fatal shooting in one of KwaZulu-Natal’s wealthiest suburbs.

The trial of alleged criminal kingpin Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala on Friday entered into a trial-within-a-trial after the defence for one of his co-accused, Musa Kekana, opposed the admissibility of evidence the State intended to use.

A Buffalo City NPO has hauled Eastern Cape Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture MEC Sibulele Ngongo to court to compel her to provide reasons for the decision to rename East London.

A report by the Institute for Security Studies and the University of Johannesburg, which refutes several widespread anti-immigrant claims, says the real causes of social ills in South Africa are poor governance and corruption, not immigration.

Impeachment hearings into President Cyril Ramaphosa, and the notorious dollars in his couch, are on hold for now.

A former military contractor has told the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that former defence minister and ex-National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula demanded R250 000 for “padkos” money for a trip to Gqeberha.

There was no “silver bullet” to solve the water crisis in municipalities, but the actions contained in the National Water Action Plan “will secure our water supply for years and decades to come”, President Cyril Ramaphosa said as he released the plan on Thursday.

The City of Ekurhuleni had some of its furniture attached this week over a dispute with the sheriff of the court.

The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban has ordered a Nigerian woman’s legal team to forfeit their fees in full and repay any money she had already paid them.

The Government Employees Pension Fund has reassured members that the events at the Public Investment Corporation will not affect pension payments.

A quiet farming town north of Cape Town has been the latest battleground for gangs, with bullets flying over what experts say could be the lucrative drug trade.

Music festival Rocking the Daisies has cancelled its 2026 edition, organisers announced in a statement on Friday.

MK Party president Jacob Zuma has appointed himself as the party’s “accounting officer” and frozen all bank accounts as a “temporary measure”, according to an internal letter that was shared with all structures.