Five people, including a toddler, were killed in a head-on collision between an articulated truck and a sedan on the N4 toll road between Machadodorp and Belfast on Sunday afternoon.

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union in the North West has called for immediate action against the province's acting police commissioner, claiming he humiliated and assaulted a junior officer.

SA Jews for a Free Palestine has condemned the arrest of the leader of the Palestinian Solidarity Organisation Cape Town, Uzair Mahomed.

Severe thunderstorms are expected to lash large parts of the Northern Cape, Free State, and North West on Monday, bringing with it the risk of flooding, damage to property, and potential danger to lives and livestock, according to the South African Weather Service.

A blaze that swept through the New Rest-Egoli informal settlement in Wellington has claimed the life of a woman, destroyed more than 200 homes, and left more than 800 people homeless.

Deputy President Paul Mashatile has made it clear the ANC will proceed with implementing the national Budget with or without the support of the DA.

Since 2017, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has maintained a commission of inquiry into the operations and finances of the opposition-run City of Harare, the country’s capital and largest city. 

For more than a decade, the Zanu-PF government has been locked in a power struggle with the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) over control of Harare. This political friction often results in the withholding of key financial support from the national fiscus and hinders collaboration on essential projects. In Zimbabwe, intergovernmental fiscal transfers remain relatively low at 4%.

Unlike Zambia, Angola and South Africa, where national and local governments generally cooperate, Zimbabwe’s political climate fosters antagonism between levels of government. Although legislation promotes the decentralisation of powers and functions to local government, Zanu-PF’s ideology has been centred on control of local government institutions using decentralisation as a façade.

As Bulawayo ward 5 councillor Dumisani Nkomo observes, no city in Zimbabwe operates with true devolution — local councils remain largely handheld by the ministry of local government.

Good Governance Africa has launched a project to profile African cities, beginning with those in the Southern African Development Community, to help develop an African city database and a City Development Index akin to the GGA’s Governance Performance Index in South Africa. 

Harare is among the cities included in the African cities profiling initiative, and its financial reality is particularly striking. Harare has been governed by the opposition (Movement for Democratic Change, now CCC) since 2008, while the central government has been run by Zanu-PF since 1980. 

Harare carries a high degree of service provision responsibility, with legislation devolving a wide range of key functions, including infrastructure-intensive services — water supply, sanitation, waste management, urban road infrastructure — and social services, notably healthcare and education. 

The city’s healthcare system, managed by its health department, includes clinics and hospitals providing maternal and child health services, immunisations, outpatient care, and treatment for common illnesses. The city also runs municipal schools, mainly primary, and manages staffing, infrastructure and resources.

Globally, these services are typically funded through a blend of national transfers and local revenue. Unlike cities in other Southern African countries that get more from their national governments, Harare relies almost entirely on its own limited financial base and borrowing to finance service delivery. According to the city’s 2025 budget speech, the local government is expected to finance these services primarily through local revenue sources, such as property taxes, business licenses, and service fees. 

But its revenue base has been weakened by the centralisation of some local revenue streams. For example, the national government has taken over the collection of vehicle licence fees through the Zimbabwe National Road Administration, limiting Harare’s ability to generate funds for road infrastructure projects. Further, Zimbabwe’s economic instability (high inflation and exchange rate volatility) often negatively affects the city’s financial capacity. 

Internally, the council is facing major difficulties and has been ineffective in collecting revenue. It collected only 40% of its targeted revenue from January to September 2024, severely affecting its ability to deliver essential services. The council blames its revenue collection problems on the lack of an effective enterprise resource planning system, a digital platform which automates customer data, billing, payments and credit control. This shortfall reportedly costs the city US$70  million annually.

Extraordinarily, Harare City has retained a sufficient credit rating with lenders and has been able to borrow to fund infrastructure projects. But this has been resisted by Harare residents who, earlier this year, expressed outrage over the council’s proposal to borrow more than US$21  million to improve service delivery. They insist that the council must plug financial leaks before assuming more debt.

Harare mayor Jacob Mafume, appearing before the Justice Cheda-led Commission of Inquiry, has admitted to serious financial mismanagement at the local authority, including the unexplained disappearance of council properties. 

The council continues to rely on outdated financial management systems, even storing financial records on memory sticks while top officials receive hefty salaries and perks at the expense of funding service delivery. The council is also facing crises because of its bloated workforce, which exceeds 10  000 and includes numerous duplicate jobs.

Harare’s constrained financial situation has often resulted in key service delivery issues both in formally established areas and informal settlements, which have proliferated on the city’s outskirts and where access to essential services is limited. 

The city’s waste management system remains inadequate, with low fleet availability and rampant illegal waste dumping. In 2023, Mnangagwa declared a State of Disaster: Emergency Solid Waste Management, citing waste accumulation, rampant illegal disposal, littering and garbage being burnt. The city does not have funds to buy refuse compactors and trucks.

Road infrastructure has deteriorated significantly. In 2017, the late former president, Robert Mugabe, declared a state of disaster on Harare’s roads, and today, more than 87% of the city’s road network requires rehabilitation. The city aims to revamp 250km of roads annually over the next five years at an estimated cost of US$250  million a year, yet it struggles to secure funding.

Harare’s healthcare system fares no better. The city’s health facilities are overwhelmed by a growing population, with limited financial and human resources available to meet public health needs. 

These service delivery problems are also associated with “unfunded mandates”, where local authorities are tasked with providing essential services without sufficient financial support. The central government may see unfunded mandates as a way to offload its policy responsibilities without paying the costs, which threatens the fiscal sustainability of local authorities and their capacity to deliver infrastructure and services.

Zimbabwe’s government must revisit its approach to urban financing. Increasing infrastructure grants and allowing Harare and other local authorities access to alternative funding mechanisms could help bridge the financial gap. Further, reducing political interference in municipal governance would enable a more constructive relationship between the Harare City Council and the national government and foster long-term urban development.

Taken together, Harare’s status as a devolved city with minimal national financial support places it in a precarious position. If Zimbabwe is serious about improving its capital city, it must rethink its approach to municipal finance and governance. 

Nnaemeka Ohamadike is a senior data analyst and Ian Palmer is a senior research associate at Good Governance Africa.

Stripped down to his boxer shorts, Solomon Mabena* stood nearly knee-deep in the polluted Klip Riverr in Soweto and bathed as part of his weekly cleansing ritual.

The water ran a sickly grey-black, smelled of sulphur and sewage and was covered in thick curls of foam. But a resolute Mabena insisted the water met his spiritual needs.

“This is holy water,” he said. “I feel better now because I need pure water like this one to do my rituals. There’s many people who come here to bathe and to pray, like me.”

Standing nearby, Godfrey Makomene, of the Johannesburg Mining and Environmental Forum, shook his head in dismay. “See how black and terrible this river is? It’s a mix of sewer and mine water. It’s poisonous. And you have cattle drinking here and people doing their baptisms. It’s not right.” 

The Klip River winds through Soweto and Lenasia and is a critical water resource for surrounding residents and livestock. 

But beneath its surface is a hidden danger: cancer-causing organic pollutants accumulating at levels high enough to harm human health, animals and aquatic life.

This is the warning from a new study by scientists from the University of Johannesburg, who has found alarming levels of the cancer-causing chemicals in the Klip River. 

The researchers have exposed the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the river’s sediments. These organic chemicals are linked to organ damage, developmental disorders and cancer.

The World Health Organisation has identified and classified PAHs as a priority group of environmental pollutants because of their harmful effects on life — aquatic, animal and human. 

The research, published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, was led by Samuel Makobe, Mathapelo Seopela and Abayneh Ambushe, of the university’s department of chemical sciences. 

They analysed river sediments from nine sites along the Klip River, in wet and dry seasons in October 2021 and July 2022. Their findings were that the total concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in river sediments reached up to 7.41 milligrams per kilogramme, far exceeding environmental safety thresholds. 

The research also found that high-risk toxins peak in dry seasons when water levels are lower and increase the exposure risks because people rely more heavily on the river. 

Zebrafish embryos exposed to sediments suffered severe malformations, delayed hatching and an 80% mortality rate, signalling dire risks. 

Zebrafish testing is the gold standard for determining the toxicity of water, effluents and sediments. 

The study described the Klip River as one of the most economically important wetlands in South Africa, which serves as a local supply of water and has evolved as a purifier of pollutants from the Witwatersrand Basin’s diverse human-caused activities. 

It noted that the river, along with its tributaries, is “one of the most extensively contaminated rivers in the country”. 

The Klip River wetland ecosystem could be contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons stemming from a variety of sources, including acid mine runoff, industrial and municipal waste, untreated and treated sewage, vehicle emissions, the burning of garbage and of coal in industrial complexes near the river. 

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — notorious for their persistence and toxicity — primarily originate from oil spills, industrial runoff and leaking fuel tanks as well as from burning of coal, waste and biomass.  

“These toxins don’t just vanish,” said Ambushe. “They linger in sediments, enter the food chain and accumulate in humans and animals over time. This is a public health crisis in slow motion.”

Using percentage composition and diagnostic ratio analysis, the team traced more than 70% of PAHs to these sources. 

“The problem is systemic,” Seopela said. “Urbanisation, inadequate waste management and historical pollution have turned the Klip River into a chemical reservoir.”

The danger the river carries spreads. Seopela said the Klip River feeds into the Vaal River system, which is a critical water source for millions of people. 

“Contaminated sediments threaten communities using river water for drinking, laundry or irrigation; livestock graze along banks risking toxin transfer to meat and dairy; and biodiversity, with PAHs disrupting fish reproduction and amphibian survival.”

The toxicity study using the zebrafish embryo found that heart defects and spinal deformities occurred within days of exposure. 

Zebrafish share about 70% of their genetic and physiological characteristics with humans, so these findings strongly suggest that similar developmental and cardiovascular impairments could occur in humans exposed to PAH-contaminated environments, the researchers said. 

“If these toxins can devastate aquatic life so quickly, imagine their long-term impact on humans,” Makobe said.

The study also noted that the risk the contaminated sediment pose to zebrafish embryos suggest there are risks for biotic animals — animals, plants and microorganisms that interact in an ecosystem — livestock, agriculture and people who consume the water.

The study isn’t only exposing the Klip River’s pollution crisis — it is leading the charge for solutions, said Ambushe. 

“By integrating advanced chemical analysis with bioassays, the research team pinpoints seasonal pollution hotspots for targeted cleanup, advocating for stricter industrial regulations and empowering communities with data to demand safer water policies.”

Andrew Barker, the chairperson of the Klipriversberg Sustainability Association (KlipSA), was not surprised by the study’s findings. “We are getting E coli counts in the millions — two to three million — in the Klip River. 

“It’s from the wastewater treatment works, the infrastructure failures, the informal settlements who are just pouring sewage straight into the stream … This has been going on for decades.”

He worried about the lasting damage to nature and aquatic biodiversity. “You go to the river and it’s just pure black. It’s an open sewer,” he said.

The Water Community Action Network (WaterCAN) said decades of industrial waste and sewage spills had turned the Klip River into a health hazard.

It cited how, in March 2023, the Klip River was linked to cholera cases in Gauteng when a 10-year-old girl from Katlehong tested positive after being baptised in the river. 

By July 2023, WaterCAN had filed a criminal complaint against the City of Johannesburg, former acting municipal manager Bryne Maduka and then-municipal manager Floyd Brink for failing to address sewage pollution in the Klip River. 

“We believe that until individuals, whether in government or business, are charged and prosecuted, pollution will continue unchecked,” said Ferrial Adam, WaterCAN’s executive manager. “Yet, two years after our criminal complaints, no one has been held accountable.”

The university’s study exposes the decades of contamination, particularly from industrial sources. “Such pollution is criminal. It’s time to hold individuals accountable.”

Adam urged the public to see rivers not as distant problems or as “dead things”, but as something that affects their daily lives and health.

“This pollution is hurting you. The toxic chemicals in the Klip River can cause cancers, hormonal disruptions, respiratory illnesses and neurological damage,” she said.

“We cannot wait for studies to pile up while our rivers — and our people — get sicker. We need action, not more silence.”

The contamination of the Klip River runs deep, said Mariette Liefferink, the chief executive of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, who is a member of the Klip River Forum.

As she swept her eyes over the filthy river, she said: “The pollution here is not just sewage pollution; it is also historical mining activities — the historic tailings storage activities, which all contribute.

“In the Klip River catchment management forum meetings, the City of Johannesburg, City of Ekurhuleni, Midvaal Municipality, Rand Water and the department of water and sanitation found that in some of the tributaries of the Klip River, you have E coli counts of up to tens of millions.”

In the last quarter, there were counts of more than 14 million. “This shows that that in-stream water quality is totally unfit for any use because it cannot exceed 400 counts per 100ml [yet] the sulphate levels are about 2 700mg per litre and the in-stream resource water quality must be 600mg per litre.

“It’s a combination of microbiological contaminants and mine-influenced water.”

Her daughter, Simone Liefferink, added: “As an aquatic eco-toxicologist, it is very depressing when we come and monitor these rivers because we don’t find life in them. We, in fact, can’t sample them anymore because they’re too polluted.”

She smiled as she remembered fly-fishing for yellowfish in the Magaliesberg. “They’re the most stunning fish, like bars of gold in the water, and they used to occur in this [Klip River] and it always blows my mind that we managed to take all of them out.”

On the use of zebrafish in the UJ study, she said: “The truth is if you were to expose them in situ, they wouldn’t survive even a few minutes because there are so many acutely toxic chemicals.”

*A pseudonym.

South African scientists have released the findings of the first HIV cure trial in Africa with promising results showing viral suppression in 20% of women who stopped taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) after 18 months.

The study involved 20 women who tested positive for HIV at the Females Rising through Education, Support and Health (Fresh) clinic in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, and started taking antiretroviral treatment a day after knowing their status.

The women aged between 23 and 32 and were living with HIV-1 subtype C, the most common HIV-1 strain in Southern African, which also represents 50% of infections worldwide.

They had been on antiretroviral therapy for at least six years before they joined the study, which involved stopping the therapy and started taking an “intervention” of three products.  The study was conducted from July 2022 to January 2024.

According to the research findings, 20% of participants (four women) were able to control viral load to undetectable for a median of 1.5 years after they stopped taking antiretrovirals (ARVs), while 80% did not control their viral load and had to restart them. Viral suppression is defined as having less than 200 copies of HIV per millilitre of blood, which helps keep the infected person healthy and prevents transmission.

The research and laboratory investigation was led by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Africa Health Research Institute director for basic and translational science Professor Thumbi Ndung’u.

He said the objective of the study was to assess the safety and efficacy of the product “intervention”, which included two broadly neutralising antibodies — VRC07-523LS and CAP256V2LS — that bind to HIV and stop it, as well as Vesatolimod, which binds to human immune cells and activates the immune response against HIV.

At the presentation of the findings on Friday, he said the hope was to test the immune response to develop an alternative treatment that people could take for two to three years rather than having to take ARV every day for the rest of their lives.

“We first confirmed in the laboratory whether the virus  could be inhibited with the two antibodies and the women’s CD4 count (the measure of a type of white blood cells crucial for fighting infections) had to be above 500. Safety was very important because it was the first time that the three drugs were being tested,” Ndung’u said.

“We then asked the participants under close medical observation to stop antiretroviral therapy, to see whether the virus will rebound. It was a small study, but what we found is that four out of 20 participants were able to control the virus without anti-retrovial therapy,” he said.

“This is not a cure for HIV, because we cannot give patients something that only worked in 20% of participants, but it is a step in the right direction. We hope we can improve on this approach and maybe next time do study where we can have 50%.

He said Africa was taking the lead in developing solutions and that while this product would not be tested further, “there might be other products coming out further along”.

Because the participants had started antiretroviral therapy within a day of being diagnosed with HIV, their bodies’ immune systems had had very little exposure to the virus.

“We wanted to see how long it takes for the viral load to rebound. If you stop taking ARV today, within two weeks the virus will rebound,” Ndung’u said. 

When the virus rebounded to a viral load of 1000 within 16 weeks for seven of the participants, they went back onto  antiretroviral therapy.

“So, we can say they did relatively well compared to someone who just stops treatment and then we had another group of seven that took between 16 weeks and 44 weeks for the virus to rebound which was when the study was meant to end. They went back onto ART and there was no problem with drug resistance,” he said.

None of the participant’s CD4 counts dropped below 350 before they were put back on  antiretroviral therapy, so their immune systems were still healthy. Six participants did not need to restart treatment after 44 weeks and of those, four finished an entire year without needing to start ARVs.

The four women chose to remain off ARVs under close clinical monitoring, visiting the clinic once a week, and 18 months later still showed no signs of the virus while one woman went on to reach 2.5 years without the virus rebounding.

According to United Nations Aids statistics, sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV worldwide, accounting for 67%, of which about 53% are women.

dung’u said most clinical HIV cure trials around the world, largely in the United States, have focused on Caucasian men, which is why it had been important to do a study with women.

“Women represent less than 20% of participants in HIV cure trials. So that means that the products being tested, if they don’t work in women, or if they cause some side effects in women we would not know, and that’s why it was very important for us to do this study to see whether we can induce ART free control of HIV in women, “ he said.

Professor Krista Dong, of Fresh, said the “complicated” trial was particularly important because of the dearth of HIV research involving women in Southern Africa.

“We have no idea really, whether an intervention that we put in Caucasian men in San Francisco is going to work in a 13-year-old girl in Umlazi,” she said.

“We do know that there are differences, hormonal differences, and differences culturally, where say, someone in San Francisco will pop a pill for PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis, taken to prevent getting HIV from sex or injection drug use] every day, whereas women say no, that’s not for us, we prefer injection. You have to consider the local context.”

Real estate is an industry largely run on confidence. If people are confident about a country’s economy, its leaders and its politics, then they will invest in real estate. 

They will build new assets. If companies are employing enough people, then developers will create new office blocks.

South Africa’s government of national unity is nearly a year old and although its members haven’t always got along well, the GNU has held together. But the national budget has had a bumpy path. 

Several economists believe the economy will grow at close to 1% this year, while the treasury’s budget suggested we could see 1.9% growth in 2026. 

Against the backdrop of an economy showing minor confidence, we are also in a reporting season for numerous listed property funds. These landlords are mostly real estate investment trusts (Reits), which are mandated to pay a minimum of 75% of their distributable income as a dividend each financial year. Many South African Reits typically pay 90%, if not even 100%, of their distributable income as a dividend.

A number of these Reits have June financial year-ends and released interim results for the six months to the end of December in the past couple of weeks. I found that the sentiment among these companies, including the likes of Growthpoint Properties, SA Corporate Real Estate, Hyprop Investments and Attacq, was one of positivity and optimism.

Just look at Growthpoint Properties, South Africa’s largest landlord. The company, which also has investments in Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom and Australia, delivered stronger than expected results for its six-month interim period ending December 2024. Growthpoint reported distributable income per share (DIPS) of 74 cents a share, up 3.9% from the first half of 2024, while maintaining its distribution payout ratio at 82.5%. 

What was really pleasing is that the South African portfolio surprised on the upside.

In line with the first-half performance, Growthpoint has also upgraded its DIPS guidance for the financial year ending June 2025 from -2% to -5% negative growth to positive growth of 1% to 3%.

The company’s group chief executive, Norbert Sasse, said he expected to see continued improvement in the operational performance of South African assets, lower finance costs as interest rates fall and continued outperformance from the V&A Waterfront. 

Growthpoint owns half of the V&A, South Africa’s most valuable commercial real estate investment. The other half, valued at close to R20 billion, is owned by the Public Investment Corporation. The owners know it’s the jewel in their crown and, in last September, Sasse said about R4.5 billion would be invested in this property precinct over the next two years. 

I also recently wrote about the V&A Waterfront precinct’s ambitious expansion plans. They are in the process of submitting a rezoning application to the City of Cape Town to reclaim 440 000m2. 

Most of this will be allocated for construction in the Granger Bay precinct for mixed-use developments, including retail spaces, restaurants, hotels and residential apartments. There will be public and cultural facilities, which will involve re-establishing public access to the shoreline.

The Granger Bay precinct is in the northwest section of the V&A Waterfront.

I  also took a read of the V&A Waterfront’s latest report when it comes to their December festive season numbers roundup released on 3 February 2025. Last year they had a phenomenal December period with more than three million visitors and record retail sales of almost R1.4 billion. 

It is clear that the V&A Waterfront plays a significant role in Cape Town’s tourism economy. On New Year’s Eve alone, they welcomed about 200  000 people. In total, there were more 25 million visitors, and about R10 billion was spent throughout the precinct in 2024.

Growthpoint is also active in other cities. Late last year, it announced The Olympus, a skyscraper it is building with luxury residential developer Tricolt Group. The Olympus will be a residential tower supported by retail stores in the Sandton Summit precinct, which is anchored by the Discovery head office. 

The Tricolt Group was established in 2010 by Tim Kloeck, who was born in Nelspruit and has a Belgian background. The development company has completed more than 5  000 residences with an end value of about R16  billion. 

Tricolt is also known for its award-winning apartment development, Ellipse Waterfall, in the heart of Waterfall City, where the most expensive penthouse in Gauteng was sold for R95  million. 

It seems that well-established Reits in South Africa are primed to reward investors in the long run. 

Attacq also reported strong numbers and also pushed the positive South African narrative.

Attacq is the development partner of Waterfall City, one of the country’s quickest-growing nodes, which is located in Midrand. It released financial results for the six months to end December 2024. The company’s flagship asset is Mall of Africa, the largest mall built in one phase on the African continent, with 130  000m2 of retail space. Only Fourways Shopping Centre is larger, at 178  202m2. 

After Fourways Mall’s redevelopment in 2019, it struggled with a high level of vacancies. Recently, it has rebranded to increase foot traffic. So far, progress is optimistic. This is thanks to the mall’s newly appointed asset managers, Flanagan & Gerard Property Development Group, which took over management in February 2024.

Attacq reported that its distributable income per share increased 49.1% to 55.0 cents and declared a 46.7% higher interim dividend of 44.0 cents, which is the market’s best in this reporting period.

Attacq benefits from strong partnerships, especially in Waterfall, with the likes of Sanlam, as well as the Government Employees’ Pension Fund, which recently invested more than R2 billion into the group.

“The period saw us continuing to execute against our Horizon 2030 strategy. Our efforts are reflected in our increased gross revenue and rental income achieved, improved cost-to-income ratio from 25.4% to 22.4%, and the new blue-chip clients attracted to our precincts,” said Van Niekerk.

Attacq’s chief financial officer, Raj Nana, also said the company was in a healthy place financially.

“Our strategic growth trajectory will continue into the second half, backed by our robust balance sheet, which was supported by a successful initial public auction under our domestic medium-term note programme and strategic debt refinancing undertaken during the period,” he said.

Blue-chip retail landlord Hyprop Investments, which is listed on the JSE and the secondary A2X exchange, published strong half-year results for the period ending December. It reported double-digit growth in distributable income of 14.5% to R765  million and a 14.4% increase in distributable income per share to 201.4 cents. Hyprop Investments owns top malls such as Rosebank Mall, Hyde Park Corner, Canal Walk, Cape Gate, Somerset Mall, Table Bay Mall and Clearwater Mall.

In a statement, the group declared an interim dividend of 113.43 cents a share, which equates to 95% of the distributable income from the South African portfolio for the 2025 financial half-year results.

The company is aiming to sell some Gauteng assets and invest more in Cape Town. I’m told Hyde Park Corner and The Glen are up for sale.

SA Corporate Real Estate, a diversified fund, increased its distribution to 24.37 cents a share for the year ending 31  December, up from 23.18 cents a share the previous year. Its distributable income increased 5.1% to R680.9  million, or 27.08 cents a share. Total net property income (NPI) was R1.5  billion, up from R1.3  billion the previous year. Total like-for-like NPI increased 6.7% to R1.1  billion. These are all strong numbers. 

Through its holding in AFHCO, the company owns numerous residential, neighbourhood retail and industrial assets. It recently acquired the formerly listed Indluplace Properties, a residential landlord. According to the AFHCO website, it is the leading property company of affordable apartments and retail spaces in Johannesburg and intends to spread throughout the greater Johannesburg area.

SA Corporate Real Estate’s chief executive, Rory Mackey, expressed positive sentiment last week.

Hopefully the banks will note these positive results and fund more projects as our economy (slowly but surely) gets going.

Ask Ash examines South Africa’s property, architecture and living spaces. Continue the conversation with her on email (ash@askash.co.za) and X (@askashbroker).

Let us not be like the 1980s song Little Lies by super group Fleetwood Mac. I can just about hear Christine McVie belting out on vocals, “Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.” South Africans may joke a lot but we prefer the cold, hard truth to sweet, convenient lies.

In the next few months the focus will be on the G20. We must expect sweet lies from Europe, especially the European Commission, promising us all sorts of help as US President Donald Trump ratchets up his disdain for South Africa. Others opposed to the West will also be telling us to join ourselves at the hip with China and Russia. 

We need to be smarter than this. None of them — the Europeans, China, Russia or even if we capitulate to Trump, the US, will actually help us. Steve Biko’s statement, “Black man, you are on your own,” is so apt. Their help will come at the cost of us losing more of our very little self-reliance and, in many ways, our dignity.

I fear though, because many of us feel so lost and lack confidence, we may be guilty of grasping at straws and sweet little lies to soothe our broken hearts.

As we know there was no outright winner in the 2024 elections. A faux “government of national unity” was established. I refer to it as a faux, or false, GNU because it is, in reality, a coalition. Labelling the coalition a government of national unity is a trick to pull on our heartstrings and remind us of 1994 and the fanfare of the first democratic elections and the GNU established by Nelson Mandela. 

Since the GNU we have no centre and confidence that there is genuine unity of purpose. It’s like an uneasy truce, while political parties catch their breath and reload weapons. 

In the first six months of the GNU the political discourse was dominated by those commentators attacking the GNU as a sell-out and others defending as if it is a political miracle. 

We also witnessed some of those new in government quick to latch on to inherited programmes and not only claim them as their own, but celebrate the programmes as testimony to how much better they are at governing. 

Other newbie ministers have been zealously shutting down programmes, as their commitment to change the status quo. 

The chattering classes have had a field day; every debate between those parties in the GNU has signalled an imminent collapse of government. 

Those parties outside of the GNU have had the opportunity to present themselves as revolutionaries rather than this lukewarm coalition of convenience — and, of course, are ready to step into the breach if the coalition falls apart. 

Indeed, the largest party, the ANC, celebrates the unity government as testimony to its magnanimity and putting South Africa first. Ironically, the largest of the smaller parties in the coalition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), also claims to be compromising on its principles and joining the GNU so that it can save South Africa from an ANC coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters and the uMkhonto weSizwe party. 

We could have a rich discussion on the supremacist attitudes of the DA, in believing that they must stop the domination of a left-wing black coalition. But that would ignore that almost 20 million people who chose not to vote — and those who did, could not choose a single party as the majority one. This is the clearest indication that South Africans may have passed a vote of no confidence in the current political parties and their leadership. 

But you would not believe this the way South African leaders strut about in the public arena. 

Mind you, the South African population also knows how to play the game. They fete and ululate the leaders as if they are the second coming. It looks as if the real issues are being dealt with, when most seem to be biding their time so that they get their individual opportunity. 

The problem is not just South Africa’s alone but a global one. 

Western democracy ceased to exist a long time ago. It was replaced by neoliberal democracy, where institutions are established for the appearance of democracy, whereas they serve the elite and wealthy. 

Even wealthy countries with middle-class populations have little confidence in democratic institutions. People are either not voting or significant support is moving towards those that are populist and right-wing. 

In Europe and the US, these populist parties led by people like Donald Trump or Italy’s Giorgia Meloni present themselves as the protectors of not only Western democratic values, but specifically white Christian values. 

Trump has already won his election, so no need to focus on him. In Europe, the response to this Christian fundamentalism is to recreate the Cold War. So they make Russia and Vladimir Putin a new Hitler who wants to invade and take over Europe. 

They do not ask why people are not voting, why public institutions are not doing what they were established to do, why people feel so helpless, why enmity and hatred between racial, gender and political groups seems to be growing. 

Increasingly we witness people, young and old, grabbing onto anyone who seems angry enough or that opposes those in power and calling them the people’s heroes. On all sides of the political spectrum, we act as if these political battles are generation defining. 

These matters of gender pronouns, supporting Ukraine or Russia, who stands up for Palestinians, racism and hatred and so forth may be quite vexing, but they are not the chief concerns.

Do you feel as if you are losing a sense of community? 

Late 19th and early 20th century French sociologist Emile Durkheim called this phenomenon “anomie”. It is a feeling of loneliness and detachment from society, especially its norms. 

Durkheim may have conceived the concept more than a century ago, but it captures how many people in South Africa and around the world are feeling.

The political party merry-go-round continues, acting as if they will tackle this despair. 

We should not only focus on that political jamboree called the G20 Summit. Rather our focus should be the oft-talked-about national social dialogue.

Since Madiba’s time as president, we have been trying to establish a social compact between those who benefited from apartheid and those who were oppressed by it. We have failed at every attempt, and there have been many: the 1998 Presidential Jobs Summit, the 2003 Growth and Development Summit and various other interpretations, including the National Development Plan. 

The National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) is the common denominator whenever the government talks about a social compact. It should have been realised a while back that Nedlac cannot produce a social compact which all sectors of society will buy into. 

It can participate in the discussions, but the institution should not be tasked with getting us there, after failing numerous times. 

The presidency should take direct responsibility for this. But it should be more about listening to the people than bringing elites together. The government must convene small public meetings, even if it has to be ward-based, where the people are given the opportunity to say what they are experiencing, both hardship and positive outcomes, and what they think should be done. These must be face-to-face and not virtual meetings, and in those areas, everyone must get the day off from work and school to attend the meeting.

From these meetings, a regional compact must be created, and those regional compacts must be knitted together to provide us with a provincial compact, and finally, there can be a national one. Space can be created for genius ideas that may not have come from the masses of our people and the president can be given a casting vote, so as to create these as special presidential projects. 

It is time for the people to really govern, and we have to liberate ourselves from self-serving liberal democracy political processes and our unimaginative political party leaders.

Donovan E Williams is a social commentator. @TheSherpaZA on X. 

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you received visions of the future?

Now, I need to be clear here. I’m not talking about a situation where you could willingly peer forward through the veils of time and see exactly what you wanted to see. 

Because, in that situation, I feel 99 out of 100 people would say something like: “Why, I’d get some winning lottery numbers or be like Biff Tannen in Back To The Future 2 and place massive winning bets on every sporting event ever. And then I’d tell everyone at my place of employment to kiss my ass until their lips fell off.” 

And that slightly pithy, wonderfully greedy response is perfectly human and perfectly understandable. It’s the other 1 out of 100 people, who would say something like: “I’d find out if my beloved Arsenal ever wins the cup,” that we really need to worry about.

But let’s talk about another sort of vision. The kind that comes unbidden and shows you things that are either terrifying, sad or confusing. The kind which makes The Oracle wish that she wasn’t one.

I think it’s reasonable to state that it would take a special person to handle frequent, unwanted visions of such a nature. And, occasionally, that person may get bent and broken by such visions. 

Or would have been bent and broken to begin with.

History and folklore are positively littered with examples of this. Many, many stories contain The Seer —those who can part the mists of the unknown and get access to knowledge and vision that should not belong to them. This person, usually a woman — and often of some sort of exotic ancestry, when portrayed in books written by white male authors — is often a figure that inspires fear and respect in equal measure. 

And it is often implied that said person is special and potentially unwell in equal measure.

It is these women, these all-seeing, powerful, mysterious, frightening, potentially not-all-there women, upon whom Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s impactful new piece of African Gothic literature casts a spotlight.

The Creation of Half-Broken People is told from the perspective of four such women. We receive three novellas of appreciable length, presented in reverse chronological order, each about a specific and special woman — Patient 925N, the Misremembered Woman; Beloved Daughter of a Pioneer, the Misbegotten Woman and Settie Muhambie, the Forgotten Woman. They are brought together by the narration of the Anonymous Woman, who lives in a world about to be sent mad by Covid-19.

And, as our literally nameless narrator teases out the threads of the stories of the other three, we discover their fates are intertwined by the colonisation of Zimbabwe and the founding of the city of Bulawayo.

There is a deeper connection, brighter and more profound, between the four women, but I will leave that for you to discover, Dear Reader.

Each novella is well told and fleshed out with an almost overwhelming cast of supporting characters. But it never feels as if  a frivolous character or viewpoint is presented.

What Ndlovu has done in this book, besides providing us with robust stories about robust, interesting, simultaneously complicated yet simple women, is give us a new spin on an old genre.

Many Victorian-era English authors gave us exciting, exotic tales about England’s colonisation of Africa, often portraying what was a bloody and rapacious time in British history as noble and downright necessary. 

Invariably, these tales were patronising, dismissive of — and downright dehumanising towards — the native people of the lands that were being brought to Her Majesty’s territories. And it is here that Ndlovu sets out to right some wrongs.

The writer addresses the colonisation of what was then called Rhodesia by the British from the point of view of the colonised. 

An adventure story about noble men bringing darkest Africa to the light becomes a horror story of oppression and fear at the hands of these New Men. Men who would take everything that makes a nation wealthy and give it to their ephemeral queen who resided across the sea, and reciprocate with vaporous gifts like “religion” and “civilisation”, both of which were present before their arrival.

Ndlovu’s starting point is H Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines, the book which gave us Allan Quatermain, who was then Americanised into Indiana Jones by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

Full disclosure — I have never read King Solomon’s Mines, nor do I ever intend to. I have tried reading works by Haggard and Robert Ruark and the like but I simply could not venture that far into them. The jingoistic and almost vulgarly masculine viewpoints presented by these books make no sense to me, the old guy in love with Star Wars.

Haggard’s book also gave us the almost comically offensively named Gagool, a wise and ancient witch doctor of the native tribe inhabiting the area surrounding the titular mines. 

Gagool is Ndlovu’s muse  and her desire to set the record straight with regard to the perceptions of native people in older works, particularly those with a gift of some sort, is ample fuel for this profound story.

What Ndlovu also does so well is explore the gifts that the four women possess. She paints a picture equally coloured by science, mental illness and magic, and always leads us to a point juuuuuust deliciously shy of the whole truth, until the very end of the book. 

The story is billed as African Gothic, but it is never uncomfortably sinister. Our narrator is perhaps the darkest character, but the book moves progressively into the sunlight as we move backwards through time and perceive the entire picture.

And the whole story is tied together with one fundamental principle — people placed under immense pressure often break. And there can be no greater pressure than an entire nation of men crossing the ocean to destroy everything you know and hold sacred. 

But some people display resilience enough to resist the pressure and might only become half-broken.

And these are the people with the most fascinating stories.

The Creation of Half-Broken People is published by Picador Africa.