The Pretoria Magistrates Court has denied suspended police officer Fannie Nkosi bail on Wednesday.
The court ruled that Nkosi failed to prove that his release is in the interest of justice.
Nkosi brought the application after his arrest earlier in April during a raid at his home.
He faces firearm-related charges after seven guns were found at his home, and he has been charged for possessing dockets that were allegedly found in his wendy house.
Nkosi will be remanded in custody until his next court appearance in May.
*This article was first published by IOL News
The ANC in the North West has recalled the Mayor of the Brits-based Madibeng Local Municipality, Douglas Maimane.
Spokesperson for the party in the province, Tumelo Maruping, says this decision was taken after an audio leak where Maimane allegedly colluded with opposition parties against the ANC.
“This follows a very controversial audio leak of a meeting where comrade Maimane participated with members of the opposition in an attempt to oust the party in the Madibeng Local Municipality. Over and above that, the ANC has also taken the decision to remove the Chief Whip of the same municipality, Comrade Phadi, back as an ordinary councillor. A replacement for the two councillors will be communicated within 48 hours.
Maimane earlier called for the authentication of the audio, stating that it was a character assassination designed to advance factional politics.
*This article was first published by SABC News
By: Matshidiso Selebeleng
With the online application system for school placement now open, the Northern Cape Department of Education is calling on parents across the province to act swiftly and apply for children who will be doing Grade R, Grade 1, and Grade 8 in the 2027 academic year.
This is to ensure that parents do not struggle to find placement for their children in January.
Spokesperson for Education, Geoffrey van der Merwe says this will give parents a better chance of finding a placement for their children at their preferred schools.
He says the online system method makes it easier for families who are far from the offices to be able to apply for their children from the comfort of their homes.
“The 2027 online learner admissions system for Grade R, Grade 1 and Grade 8 officially opened on Monday, at 09:00 and will close at midnight on Friday, 29 May 2026.
“Parents must complete the entire process through on www.ncdoeadmissions.org.
“Parents and guardians must apply during this time to avoid last-minute rushes and reduce the risk of learners being left without placement.
“Early applications will also ensure that children are able to be placed at schools that are near them and also give the department a chance to plan for a new academic year, Van der Merwe said.
The United States and Iran each warned they were ready for war as the clock ticked down Tuesday on a ceasefire, with uncertainty on talks that President Donald Trump had announced would resume in Pakistan.
The White House said Vice President JD Vance was ready to fly back to the Pakistani capital Islamabad, which was preparing for a second round of talks on ending the war that has engulfed the Middle East and shaken global markets.
But Tehran's cleric-run government declined to confirm that it would participate and accused the United States of violating the truce through its blockade of Iranian ports and seizure of a ship.
"By imposing a blockade and violating the ceasefire, Trump wants to turn this negotiating table into a surrender table or justify renewed hostilities, as he sees fit," said Iran's powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who headed the delegations to talks two weeks ago in Pakistan.
"We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the last two weeks we have been preparing to show new cards on the battlefield," he wrote on X.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned of targeting any vessel attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without permission.
Trump has similarly accused Tehran of violating the truce by harassing vessels in the key strait, the transit passage for about a fifth of the world's oil that Iran had all but shut in retaliation for the war launched February 28 by the United States and Israel.
The channel in peacetime sees around 120 daily transits, according to Lloyd's List, a shipping industry intelligence site.
On Tuesday, the site reported that more than 20 Iranian so-called "shadow vessels", had transited past the US blockade.
In one of a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump insisted that the blockade was "absolutely destroying" Iran and said it will not end "until there is a 'DEAL'," in which the United States is pressing for Iranian concessions on its contested nuclear programme.
'AGREED' TO ATTEND TALKS
Trump told PBS News that Iran was "supposed to be there" at the talks in Pakistan.
"We agreed to be there," he said, warning that if the ceasefire expired "then lots of bombs start going off".
He separately told Bloomberg News it was "highly unlikely" he would extend the two-week truce.
Based on its start time, the truce theoretically expires overnight Tuesday, Tehran time, although in his comments to Bloomberg, Trump said the end was a day later, on Wednesday evening Washington time.
Oil prices fell on Tuesday while most stocks rose on lingering hopes for a deal to end the US-Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even as Tehran said it had not decided whether to attend peace talks.
Despite some normalcy of life returning to Tehran during the ceasefire, city residents who spoke to Paris-based AFP journalists said the situation was far from rosy.
"Let's see what happens by Tuesday," one 30-year-old doctor said on condition of anonymity.
Saghar, 39, said there was little hope for Iranians squeezed by the government and the war's impact, adding that the "economy is horrible".
NEW ISRAEL-LEBANON TALKS
A separate ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon was announced on Friday and included Hezbollah, whose rocket fire in support of Iran drew Lebanon into the war.
Israel and Lebanon, which have no diplomatic relations, will hold a second round of talks on Thursday in Washington, a State Department official told AFP.
Sporadic violence continued and Israel's military warned civilians against returning to dozens of villages in southern Lebanon, claiming Hezbollah's activities were violating the truce.
The UN Security Council condemned on Monday the killing of a French peacekeeper in Lebanon, whose death France blamed on Hezbollah.
The Frenchman was killed and three others wounded when their unit was ambushed on Saturday as it headed to a UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) outpost cut off from the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told AFP that his group would work to break the "Yellow Line" that Israel has established in the south, even as he said it wanted "the ceasefire to continue".
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 2,387 people since the start of the war, a Lebanese government body said in its latest toll.
Another major issue in the US-Iran negotiations has been Tehran's stockpile of enriched uranium, which Trump said on Friday it had agreed to hand over.
But Iran's foreign ministry has said the stockpile, thought to be buried from US bombing in last June's 12-day war with Israel, was "not going to be transferred anywhere".
Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said handing over uranium was "never raised as an option" in talks with US negotiators.
*This article was first published by IOL News
Mid-month projections from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) continue to paint a grim picture for South African motorists, with another significant fuel price increase expected in May.
CEF data shows that the expected increase remains substantial.
Ongoing market volatility linked to the Middle East war is the key driver.
According to the latest projections, petrol prices are building an under-recovery of R2.63 for 95-octane and R2.29 for 93-octane per litre.
The wholesale price of diesel faces a staggering under-recovery of R8.05 per litre for 0.05% and R8.06 for 0.005%.
This will likely push the price of wholesale diesel to about R35 per litre.
Illuminating paraffin is projected to see another significant increase of R6.52.
*This article was first published by IOL News
The African National Congress (ANC) said it will be going on a roadshow to metro municipalities to showcase the work it has done to improve service delivery as it gears up for the local government election campaign.
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula has suggested service delivery failures, particularly in Johannesburg, began when the city started being governed by a coalition of parties.
Mbalula said the ANC’s campaign in the upcoming elections will focus on winning an outright majority and not to govern with other parties.
The ANC said it’s not its preference to govern with other parties, and the instability in Johannesburg, with six mayors since the 2021 elections, has led to the many service delivery problems.
Mbalula maintains that under the mayorships of Parks Tau and Amos Masondo, Johannesburg was well-governed.
He said the party is in favour of a legislative proposal to introduce a threshold for smaller parties to enter councils.
“We have made people in this country with one seat, mayors. Do we have a choice? We don’t, we have to sing along. Even if we know we have capabilities, but for us to govern, we need that person.”
The party said interventions it has introduced as part of its campaign to fix municipalities, including removing mayors, have already led to better outcomes.
It will now go on a road trip to highlight the impact.
“Everywhere where you are in charge, people judge you on the standards of what you have done and your good intentions through your manifesto of what you say you can do, and on the basis of that, people make up their mind.”
Mbalula said the ANC is unfussed by the Democratic Alliance (DA)’s Helen Zille drawing attention to service delivery failures in Johannesburg through quirky videos, saying he considers those to be a public relations stunt, rather than an electoral campaign.
*This article was first published by IOL News
