Andrea Johnson spent six days under intense scrutiny at the Madlanga Commission as allegations, recordings and Project Diversion claims placed her leadership of IDAC under pressure.

Navern Nandulal's wife dismissed claims that he was a drug kingpin, saying that “he only sold drugs on a small scale since his arrest in 2023".

The chairperson of the Noordvaal rugby organisation says they will investigate the ugly incident that played out at the Menlopark sports fields in Pretoria on Saturday when a brawl broke out between players, parents and supporters of Menlopark and EG Jansen. The fight allegedly started just after half-time during the match between the first XVs in the Noordvaal rugby competition. Both sides have blamed the other for instigating the brawl, which involved children as well as adults. It is believed the referee stopped the match after the incident, with Menlopark declared the winners, as they were leading 36-5. It is not known if there were any serious injuries. Watch it here: Watch video:A Rugby brawl broke out at a High School Rugby match. Players and spectators involved. Menlo vs EG Jansen 1 August 2026.Video supplied. pic.twitter.com/W97DxJL2az— SA REPORTS (@MARIUSBROODRYK) August 1, 2026 Meanwhile, Tinus Diedericks, the chairperson of Noordvaal, the organisers of the high schools rugby competition, said the following on social media on Saturday, after videos of the incident went viral: “I would like to ask everyone to refrain from any further comments regarding the incident. On behalf of the Noordvaal committee, I would like to assure everyone that we do not condone any such behaviour. “There will be an investigation – we have already asked for reports from both schools. “The necessary steps will be taken – if not by us but certainly by each of the schools.”

Woohoo, guess what we got! A whole new council! Why? Because how do we solve problems in this country? By setting up a WhatsApp group… obviously! Now what’s nice about that is that once you’ve set up the WhatsApp group, you can tell all the people who you are representing that you’ve set up the group. You don’t need to tell them there’s nobody but yourself in that WhatsApp group. Today’s WhatsApp group in question: the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide! This group was conceptualised by a bill in 2021, established by an Act in 2024 and remained silent with no participants until the last day of July 2026. You’d think that if you declared gender-based violence a national disaster on the basis that, among other things, over 10 000 women are being killed a year by an intimate partner, it wouldn’t take so long to put some people in the dormant WhatsApp group that was created to deal with it. When the Act was signed into law, there was all sorts of praise for it, with the ANC parliamentary caucus excited that it “brings hope that there will be more efforts with a legislative mandate to help fight GBVF”. It must be quite an awkward thing to tell the families of late victims and survivors themselves that your answer to their plight was a WhatsApp group that you conceptualised six years ago, put on paper five years ago, confirmed and set up two years ago and then lamented the absence of any effect by declaring GBV a national emergency eight months ago… oh and then only now, adding people to the group. Somehow, we’re supposed to cheer that? Take us seriously. Perhaps I am being rude by calling a whole national council a WhatsApp group but just reading about it gives that same feeling everybody gets when they’re added to another WhatsApp group: do we really need another WhatsApp group? Maybe they’ll do something to improve the GBV situation in South Africa. If one looks at the objects according to the Act though, one may have doubts. The council has three objects – coordination, set priorities and facilitate sharing of information. If the bureaucracy of six years to get to this point teaches us anything about coordination, it’s that adding another layer to the decision-making matrix is hardly a step in the right direction. The setting of the priorities is great and all but reading deeper, it must be aligned with the national strategy and the person setting that out took two years to put people in this WhatsApp group. The facilitating of sharing information part? Well what else is a WhatsApp group good for. So as condescending as it may be, until shown otherwise, the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide is no better than a WhatsApp group. Oh, but best believe they’ll be getting paid. To the Act’s credit, it does go into a bit of detail about what the expectations of the council are and number one is quite specific: “Develop an action plan, not later than six months after its establishment, for the implementation of the national strategy addressing gender-based violence and femicide.” Sadly, this strategy has been in publication since 2020 but we only just got the names of the people selected to execute it. Some disaster of a disaster this is – the kind where you can call it a disaster and then kick the can into an empty WhatsApp group that you’ll fill down the line. I hope that by 1 February 2027, I will be writing about how awesome the strategy to combat GBV is. It’s just that the way this process has gone so far, calling it urgent is more important than treating it as urgent and you can’t deal with an urgent disaster in a WhatsApp group. Somewhere, someone has to do something.

SASSA Child Support in August 2026 is finally nearing payment after a lengthy wait. The more-than-13-million recipients will have already diarised payment for Thursday 6 August 2026. As ever, the grant itself is unchanged, meaning it pays R580, even though this is up by R20 from R560 back in April 2026. Simultaneously, after a period of uncertainty, the Department of Social Development (DSD) could finally be righting itself. President Ramaphosa fired former minister Sisisi Tolashe and has now replaced her permanently with Dina Pule. Although, it’s still early days to see what impact this will have SASSA Child Support in August 2026, especially after her own scandal and firing 13 years ago … SASSA CHILD SUPPORT IN AUGUST 2026 Likewise, applicants shouldn’t forget the DSD has revised income eligibility requirements through the South African Social Security Agency. Previously, a single caregiver on Child Support could earn R5 100 per month and still qualify. Now that limit has increased to R5 800. While, for married couples looking after a minor, the figure increases from R10 200 to R11 600 per month. Tallied up annually, that is R69 600 (single person) and R139 200 (couple). Note that there is no asset portion to the means test, like with SASSA Old-Age Grants. On a positive note, the agency also claims new maximum wait times of 90 minutes at SASSA offices. Thanks to self-service kiosks with Wi-Fi, beneficiaries can complete eLife and biometric verification in double-quick time and for free. SAME-DAY SERVICE FOR CHILD SUPPORT Keeping a child healthy in the home is only getting more and more expensive in 2026. And yet the grants don’t increase. Image: File Speaking of waiting times, SASSA says Child Support Grants can now be approved on the same day. Previously, the waiting period used to be closer to three months, like all other grants. However, the key to getting this right is having all your documents in order on your first visit. Therefore, if you have a young child who needs financial support, and you are eligible with the above requirements, here’s what you need to bring to your application appointment: Valid identity documents (IDs) and birth certificates of you, your child and spouse (if married). Proof of marital status (marriage, birth or death certificate of your spouse). Proof of income (of both you and your spouse). Certified three-month bank statement, not older than three months. Proof of address (a utility statement with your name on it that’s not more the three-months old). If you don’t produce all the correct documents and copies, you may be sent away and asked to return. And if you are denied a SASSA grant, you have three months to lodge an appeal with the DSD HERE. You can contact SASSA through the following channels for more information: SASSA Toll-Free Call: 0800 60 10 11 SASSA Head Office: 012 400 2322 Email SASSA: grantenquiries@sassa.gov.za Visit the SASSA Service portal HERE Beyond SASSA Child Support in August 2026, the childcare remit also includes Foster Child and Care Dependency. The number of beneficiaries for these is only a few hundred thousand: SASSA Foster Child, for example, is for court-appointed homes that care for foster children only. This increased this year by R40 from R1 250 to R1 290 in 2026. And foster parents may only receive one grant per child. Meanwhile, SASSA Care Dependency is for mentally and/or physically disabled children under the age of 18. As such, this pays the same as adult Disability. It increased by R80 from R2 320 to R2 400 in 2026. Disability has to be determined by state-appointed doctor, officially acknowledged by SASSA. But what do you think? Are you inline for SASSA Child Support in August 2026? How have you found the agency’s service of late? Let us know in the comments section below …

Kaizer Chiefs still have distinctly weak areas in their playing squad. To go with that, they’ve also got a dilemma with a fan favourite. Kaizer Chiefs have two pressing issues to resolve Lack of left-back depth If you read the comment sections on social media, Kaizer Chiefs need to upgrade their existing left-back options of Bradley Cross, Nkanyiso Shinga and Paseka Mako. Who are their alternatives? Sentimentality has taken over with Ngcobo Nkosingiphile Ngcobo has been desperately unlucky with injuries in the past few campaigns. However, it seems as though the club is readying a deal for the talented 26-year-old. Does his track record warrant it? Msimango is a goner 29-year-old central defender Given Msimango looks set to leave the club. Despite initially being a key pillar of the side after signing in 2023, the ex-TS Galaxy man has become a fringe operator. Inacio Miguel and even the now-departed Aden McCarthy moved ahead of him in the pecking order. Injuries also haven’t helped. He only made 10 league outings last season, and made a mere eight Betway Premiership appearances the season before. In 2023-24 he made 26 appearances, so it shows how his importance has waned. Will Chiefs mount a credible title challenge this season? Let us know your thoughts by clicking the comments banner below 🙂

Nedbank has appointed Nikos Angelopoulos, formerly MTN Group's CIO, to the same role at the bank.

Eskom recorded a daily energy availability factor of 80.24% on 20 July, its best single day since 20 September 2017.