Author: Malebogo Putu
Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, has issued an appeal for an immediate end to hostilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – urging conflicting parties to honour their pledges for peace. The Minister was delivering remarks at the Ad Hoc Summit of the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and region. “South Africa appeals to the conflicting parties in the DRC to demonstrate political will and selfless leadership that this occasion requires. The parties must fulfil their previous commitments to establish a permanent, effective and verifiable ceasefire; they must engage in…
Police in Brandfort, Free State, have arrested a 25 year old woman on charges of attempted murder after her two day old child was discovered abandoned near a hiking spot. According to Police, the Brandfort Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit traced and arrested the mother in Brandfort following the rescue of the newborn boy on Friday, 12 December 2025, near the hiking spot on the R30 road outside Theunissen. A man and his cousin, who were walking to the hiking spot, were informed by an unknown man about a baby underneath a tree in the vicinity. The…
Police in KwaZulu-Natal dismantled a drug syndicate on Friday, 12 December 2025 arresting Two Foreign Nationals, one from a West African country and another from a central African country, along with a local South African woman believed to be a girlfriend of the West African Foreign National, for possession and dealing in drugs. Authorities seized narcotics valued at an estimated R1.6 million. According to Police, the operation targeted suspects accused of supplying drugs to youth in Umzinto and surrounding areas. Officers intercepted the main suspect, the West African national, while he was driving. Crystal meth was found concealed under the…
Two men, aged 30 and 36, were arrested on charges of drug possession and contravention of immigration laws following a police roadblock in the Maokeng township near Kroonstad, in Free State. The operation took place on Friday, 12 December 2025 when members of the South African Police Service, in collaboration with traffic officials, the Community Police Forum and the youth desk, set up a roadblock in the Marabastad section of Maokeng. A taxi was stopped for routine checks, during which officers discovered an undocumented individual carrying a box containing packets of noodles concealing a black plastic bag with substances suspected…
Nearly 12,000 unlicensed venues shuttered in six months, yet mass shootings and deadly incidents claim dozens of lives South African authorities have shuttered 11,975 illegal liquor outlets nationwide between April and September this year, arresting more than 18,676 individuals for unlicensed alcohol sales, in a sweeping effort to curb crime hotspots. Yet the campaign has done little to stem a surge in deadly violence at both licensed and unlicensed drinking establishments, with the latest tragedy unfolding Saturday in an illegal Pretoria shebeen where gunmen killed 11 people, including three children, and wounded 14 others. The shutdowns, part of intensified police…
Fourteen others wounded as gunmen open fire in Saulsville hostel; manhunt underway for three suspects A mass shooting at an unlicensed liquor outlet in Saulsville, Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, claimed the lives of eleven people, including three children aged 3, 12, and 16 and left fourteen others wounded in the early hours of Saturday morning, authorities said. According to National Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, twenty-five people were shot in the attack, which occurred around 4:15 a.m. “Ten died on this particular scene, and one died in hospital. We’ve got 14 victims in hospital,” Mathe told reporters. She confirmed that…
The South African Police Service’s Provincial Organised Crime Unit in the North West has arrested five suspects in connection with an alleged jobs for sale scheme at the City of Matlosana Local Municipality in Klerksdorp. The arrests follow a complaint lodged with the municipality on Tuesday, 02 December 2025, by individuals who reported that they had been made to sign employment contracts on 17 November on condition that they each pay R10 000. Despite making the payments, no employment followed. Police said a preliminary investigation identified two municipal officials along with two additional suspects. The municipal officials were traced and…
Two Zimbabwean nationals have been remanded in custody after appearing before the Mkhondo Magistrate’s Court on charges of dealing in dagga and contravening immigration laws. According to police, the duo were arrested on 04 December 2025 at about 20:35 on the N2 near Mahamba in Mpumalanga during routine crime-prevention patrols. Officers stopped a truck with two men on board and conducted a search, during which they discovered six big bags of compressed dagga at the back of the truck. The suspects, identified as Tinashe Chitsamba, 40, and Oscar Mutsetemari, 45, allegedly told police that they had travelled from Empangeni and…
Police in Free State have arrested six suspects shortly after a violent house robbery at a farm near Warden on Friday, 05 December 2025. According to Police, the incident began at approximately 08:30 when a 74-year-old farm resident was confronted by a group of unknown males while travelling along a dirt road on his property after refilling a tractor with diesel. The victim reported seeing his own white Toyota Hilux bakkie, fitted with a white canopy, being driven away from the direction of his farmhouse. SAPS stated that “five suspects approached the complainant, opened his vehicle door, and forcibly took…
Police in Limpopo province have arrested a 31-year-old woman suspected of murdering and dismembering her 42-year-old boyfriend and burying his remains in a shallow grave behind his home in Morutji Village, Bolobedu South. The mutilated body of Isaiah Thomas Maphalle was discovered on Thursday wrapped in a maize-meal sack after local residents raised the alarm and alerted authorities. Officers responding to the scene unearthed the shallow grave at the rear of the victim’s residence in the rural community near Tzaneen. Following a rapid investigation, police took Mr Maphalle’s girlfriend into custody the same day. Provincial police spokespersons confirmed the arrest…