The Black Business Council (BBC) has thrown its weight behind the Legal Sector Code of Good Practice (LSC), which is at the centre of a legal challenge brought by several of South Africa’s largest corporate law firms. The dispute has reignited debate over how transformation in the legal profession should be implemented after the introduction of the revised LSC under the broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) Act in September 2024. The code introduces sector-specific transformation requirements for legal practitioners, including ownership targets, procurement obligations and revised scoring mechanisms aimed at reshaping the demographics of the legal profession.  The BBC said it fully supported the LSC and had aligned itself with organisations defending it in the matter under way in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, including the Black Lawyers Association, Black Conveyancers Association, National Association of Democratic Lawyers, Advocates for Transformation, African Legal Professionals Association, Basadi Ba Molao Education and Training Services, the General Council of the Bar of South Africa, the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa, the South African Women Lawyers Association and the Legal Practice Council, as well as the departments of trade, industry and competition and justice and constitutional development. The legal challenge involves Bowmans, Webber Wentzel and Werksmans, which have intervened in the legal proceedings initiated by Deneys, formerly Norton Rose Fulbright, to review the LSC. The firms say they support transformation in the legal sector but argue that aspects of the framework are impractical, structurally flawed and could undermine long-term empowerment objectives. The trade union, Solidarity, is also opposing the LSC in a separate case that is being heard at the same time. In a recent joint statement, Bowmans, Webber Wentzel and Werksmans, said a sector-specific code must be “workable and sustainable” and based on sound empirical evidence. They warned that certain provisions risked unintended consequences for both the legal profession and the broader economy. The firms argue that the code fails to sufficiently account for the operational realities of large corporate law firms, which function both as regulated professional partnerships and complex commercial businesses. One of their primary concerns relates to ownership targets. Under the LSC, large firms are expected to reach 50% black ownership within five years.  The firms argue that the timeline does not adequately reflect how law firm partnerships operate, noting that only practising lawyers may become equity partners and that the process typically takes a decade or more. They say equity partners often remain in firms until retirement and are personally liable for firm debt, making rapid ownership restructuring difficult even where firms are committed to transformation. The firms also object to procurement requirements obliging firms to allocate 60% of advocate spend to black advocates by year five. They argue that advocate fees are generally client-directed disbursements rather than procurement decisions controlled by firms themselves. Clients frequently decide which advocates should be briefed, while attorneys have ethical obligations to provide objective legal advice when recommending counsel. The firms argue that linking those decisions to B-BBEE scoring could create professional complications distinct from ordinary procurement decisions involving suppliers such as landlords or IT providers. The firms have also criticised the removal of socio-economic development from the scorecard, despite its inclusion under the generic B-BBEE framework. They argue that bursaries, pro bono legal work and community legal programmes have played a significant role in expanding access to the profession and advancing broad-based empowerment. Further concerns relate to the treatment of procurement from black-owned suppliers outside the legal profession. The firms say the code places insufficient emphasis on spending directed towards black-owned businesses in sectors such as technology, facilities management and legal services support. The firms additionally argue that the LSC focuses too narrowly on legal practitioners while excluding black professionals in fields such as finance, human resources, IT and marketing from management-control calculations, despite their role in firm leadership and operations. In defending their record on transformation, the firms pointed to existing B-BBEE credentials and internal demographic shifts achieved under the generic codes. Bowmans said it had maintained black ownership levels between 24.7% and 28.6% over the past decade, trained more than 356 black candidate attorneys in the past five years and awarded more than 20 bursaries to black students in 2024 alone. Webber Wentzel said black partners had increased from 25% in 2019 to 37% in 2025, while 55% of its lawyers were now black — an increase of 81% over the past decade. The firm said it had trained 178 black candidate attorneys over the past five years and spent more than R6.7 million on bursaries. Werksmans said black partner representation had risen from 20% in 2019 to 30.71% in 2025. The firm said it had spent more than R45m on black-owned suppliers and more than R17m on black professional development in 2024, while black junior lawyers now accounted for 75% of junior legal staff. They also warned that the revised framework could affect investor confidence by destabilising large commercial firms that serviced foreign direct investment and cross-border transactions. “These firms, aligned to the international corporate law firm model, create confidence for potential foreign investors who rely on independent, sophisticated local law firms of a scale and size which they are used to in their home jurisdictions,” the joint statement said. The BBC, however, rejected the firms’ arguments, saying the legal challenge risked weakening a framework specifically designed to expand access for black legal practitioners to high-value legal work and address historical imbalances in the profession.  In a strongly-worded statement, the organisation described the applicants as “anti-transformation white law firms” seeking to overturn a policy central to transformation in the legal sector. The firms, it said, “effectively oppose the right of black legal practitioners to equal treatment and want to continue monopolising lucrative legal work”. The organisation also argued that the LSC was intended to provide black lawyers with greater access to quality legal work and fulfil constitutional obligations aimed at addressing the legacy of exclusion in the profession. The BBC further welcomed the support Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau and Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi had shown for the continued implementation of the code.

Malaria is caused by a very complex organism (parasite) which was found in mosquitoes trapped in resin from 30 million years ago. The parasite that causes malaria has therefore been around for many years before our own species. Here, I will explore why the parasites that cause malaria are so difficult to beat. The disease we know as Malaria was thought to be caused by breathing “bad air” (mal aria) that emanates from swamps. This was not “fake news” but a lack of understanding and evidence at the time. As you probably know, swamps and stagnant water are excellent breeding sites for mosquitoes that transmit the Plasmodium parasites that cause the disease.  To nourish her developing offspring, the female mosquito needs to feed on blood as an essential rich source of protein and you and I are the local restaurant. Should she have Plasmodium parasites (sporozoites) in her salivary glands, these are injected into the person she is biting along with her saliva and proteins to stop the blood clotting when she sucks up her meal. The sporozoites she injects very rapidly (30 minutes to three hours) travel to, recognise and invade liver cells, where they are more difficult for the host’s immune system to detect and fight. Of the five species of Plasmodium that cause malaria in humans, Plasmodium falciparum is the deadliest. Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for 95% of the deaths caused by malaria and most of the deaths are in Africa and in young children between five months and five years of age. P. falciparum parasites take some five to seven days to divide and develop in the liver before emerging as thousands of “merozoites” that each recognise, attach to and enter red blood cells. Inside a red blood cell, the parasite is hidden from your immune system and again divides and develops to produce 16 to 48 “schizonts” every 48 hours.  As the parasite schizonts burst and break out of red blood cells releasing its waste products your body responds with a high temperature (fever). Only during the red blood cell stage of the parasite’s life do you have the symptoms and feel ill due to malaria. Some of the parasites in a red blood cell take a different direction, dividing into male and female gametocytes which can be taken up by a feeding mosquito, undergo fertilisation, survive the digestive enzymes in her stomach, find their way through the stomach wall and invade many organs, including her salivary glands. Being able to live and divide in all these different environments gives an idea of just how complex and adaptable this parasite is.  We can learn a lot by looking at some of the numbers involved. The World Health Organization’s 2025 report suggests that 3.2 billion people are at risk of getting malaria. Ninety-five percent of malaria cases are in Africa, where 1.58 billion people live. There were 292 million cases and 600 000 deaths reported, most of which are in young children living in Africa.  Here are some other numbers. The population of South Africa is around 63 000 000 people and the world has 8 300 000 000 people. The average child with malaria has some 1 000 000 000 000 malaria parasites in their blood (and yes that is 120 times more than the world population) and in two more days there will be 40 times more parasites. Your immune system or drugs will have to deal with and kill every one of those parasites. I think you will agree that this is a tough task. Amazingly and happily, many patients do survive malaria. Drugs have been a very effective way to prevent and treat the disease but the parasite has found a way to change and survive the drugs we have been using. The parasite has developed resistance to every drug we have tried: chloroquine, sulphadoxine-purimethamine, mefloquine, piperaquine, amodiaquine, primaquine, atavoquone, quinine, artemisinin and its derivatives. These drug-resistant parasites are found in different countries and they do not need passports to move to a new country, as mozzies, people and planes can do that for them. We need new drugs. The parasite has to have copper and my students are working on ways to prevent it from getting essential copper. There are some promising new drugs in various phases of development that are not yet available. We have a very good diagnostic test (which uses antibodies made in South Africa by the National Bioproducts Institute, Durban) which detects the parasite’s Histidine-rich protein II (HRPII) in a patient’s blood sample. Unfortunately, many of the parasites in different countries have learned about the test and so are no longer making the protein and the test does not detect them. To address this, my students have identified new proteins to diagnose P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. knowlesi and P. malariae malaria and there are promising diagnostic targets suggested by other laboratories. We can still diagnose malaria by staining a slide of the patient’s blood and identifying the parasite with a microscope; it just takes a lot longer and requires more training than the HRPII test, which looks for two lines on a test strip (you may have encountered a similar test for COVID-19).  A major breakthrough is that we have two new malaria vaccines RTS,S/AS01 and R21/Matrix-M which aim to prevent sporozoites from getting into the liver. Reports indicate that the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine reduced malaria deaths by 30% in clinical settings and R21/Matrix-M vaccine decreased the number of cases with symptoms by 75%. The WHO reports that 25 African countries have introduced the vaccines in children from five months to five years old, and the vaccines had 22% reduction in hospitalisations for severe malaria. These vaccines are very promising. There are other vaccines in the pipeline targeting the red blood cells stage and gametocytes. I have concentrated on targeting the Plasmodium parasite. If a mozzie does not bite you then you won’t get malaria. Insecticide treated bednets, new insecticides, fiddling with mozzie genetics, mozzie larvae eating fish and mozzie baiting are ways mozzies are being targeted. I remind you mozzies have been around much longer than we have … We saw a huge rise in malaria cases to 64 000 in South Africa after the rains in Limpopo, Mpumulanga, and KwaZulu-Natal in 2000. We had 4 639 cases in 2024. You will be very aware of the recent heavy rains and floods we had earlier this year in Mpumulanga and we hope that we do not see the increase in the number of malaria cases we saw in 2000. Retired Professor J.P. Dean Goldring has, for the last 40 years, worked on malaria vaccines and cerebral malaria and, more recently, identified novel malaria diagnostic targets for malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests that detect Plasmodium falciparum, vivax, knowlesi, and ovale parasites. He has given 6470 lectures and taught 7642 students during his career. Currently, Prof Goldring runs a weekly dissection of scientific journal articles, lab meetings, and workshops on Scaffolding Exegetic Academic Literacy. 

From skateboarding and biking to karate, Lego building and now growing beans at 2am, this heartfelt mommy diary explores the ever-changing interests of a curious seven-year-old boy. Through funny parenting moments, guilt over a shattered Lego masterpiece and sleepless nights spent checking on a sprouting bean plant, the piece captures the exhausting but beautiful reality of motherhood and watching a child discover the world one obsession at a time.

The introduction of the Legal Sector Code marks a significant shift in South Africa's legal profession, aiming to enhance black ownership and inclusion within law firms.

Bitget Wallet, the everyday finance app, today announced the expansion of its crypto card in South Africa. The card lets users spend crypto directly from a self-custodial wallet at hundreds of millions of merchants worldwide, covering everyday purchases such as groceries, travel, and digital subscriptions using stablecoins converted at the point of sale. Designed for practical utility, the Dollar Card bridges the gap between digital asset custody and daily commerce. It streamlines personal transactions and cross-border remittances through seamless crypto-to-fiat conversion, transforming onchain holdings into immediate spending power. The card works in three steps. Users hold USDC in their self-custodial Bitget Wallet. At the point of purchase, the wallet converts the required amount to rand. The transaction settles with the merchant, accepted wherever major card networks are supported, with no separate exchange or third-party transfer needed. “Across many African markets, stablecoins are becoming a practical way to store and move value,” said Alvin Kan, Chief Operating Officer at Bitget Wallet. “Where cross-border payments are costly and currencies volatile, the ability to hold digital dollars and spend them seamlessly can make a real difference. The Bitget Wallet Card links self-custodied crypto to global payment rails, helping users move between onchain finance and everyday commerce.” Starting 6 May 2026, eligible users earn 8% cashback on qualifying grocery and dining purchases during the campaign period. Cashback applies to the first $200 (R3 264) of spending per calendar month. Qualifying merchants include Pick ‘n’ Pay, Shoprite, and Checkers for groceries, and Nando’s, Steers, and KFC for dining. New users who complete their first card transaction during the campaign period receive an additional $5 (R81) bonus. Rewards are distributed every Thursday for transactions made from the previous Wednesday through Tuesday. Eligible South African users can apply for the Bitget Wallet Dollar Card through the Bitget Wallet app, available on iOS and Android. Identity verification is required to qualify for the card and cashback rewards. Sub-Saharan Africa received more than $205 billion (R3.3 trillion) in onchain value between July 2024 and June 2025, a 52% year-on-year increase that placed the region among the world’s fastest-growing crypto markets. The South Africa launch is part of Bitget Wallet’s PayFi strategy, linking onchain assets to local financial infrastructure across key global markets. Previous expansions include Mexico, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. Bitget Wallet reserves the right of final interpretation for transaction eligibility. Only transactions identified by the Bitget Wallet system qualify for cashback. Full terms and conditions available at web3.bitget.com/card. Bitget Wallet is a non-custodial Web3 wallet supporting over 130 blockchains and more than 90 million users globally. Users hold their own keys, and a $300 million (R4.8 billion) protection fund backs the wallet. The Dollar Card is the company’s first self-custodial dollar card on the African continent, with Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya as the next markets for expansion.

One lucky player has bagged R100 644 721.10 from last night’s draw Lotto draw. Ithuba is still waiting for the winner to come forward and claim their millions. If you placed a bet for Wednesday’s draw, check your tickets. In case you missed it, here are the winning numbers: Lotto: 06, 08, 23, 40, 42, 44. Bonus ball: 10. Lotto Plus1: 11, 22, 26, 31, 49, 53. Bonus Ball: 20. Lotto Plus2: 05, 23, 24, 52, 55, 57. Bonus Ball: 28. While great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the results mentioned above, The Citizen does not take responsibility for any errors in the results. Players are advised to verify the numbers on the National Lottery website. What happens after winning? All winners receive an SMS from their bank containing a reference number and further instructions on the documents to bring when visiting the lottery operator, Ithuba. If a winner wins less than R250 000, the money will be deposited directly into their account if they used a banking app to play. Players who win more than R250 000 will be referred to Ithuba for a payout. Free financial and trauma counselling is offered to those who win more than R50 000. Winnings are tax-free. How to play Lotto You can play the Lotto / Lotto Plus 1 / Lotto Plus 2 games by choosing a Quick Pick option, where the lottery processing system randomly chooses six lucky numbers for you. Alternatively, a bet can be placed by a person choosing six numbers from 1 to 52 on any of the boards. There is no limit to the number of boards a person wants to play, and the system also allows a multi-draw option. This option allows you to play the same numbers over multiple draws.

Change is coming for the Springboks. That much is inevitable considering that several players who have formed part of the recent golden era are now coming towards the end of their international careers. A number of stars will play at their last World Cup next year before the Springboks begin to start a new phase of rebuilding under Rassie Erasmus, who remains contracted until 2031. Handre Pollard will be approaching his 34th birthday after the next World Cup, while Manie Libbok will be 30. That’s not to say this World Cup-winning duo can’t play for a few more years, but the Springboks will need to start considering their succession planning at flyhalf. Who are the future stars at flyhalf for the Springboks? Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu: Of course, there is an easy answer here as SFM is the current ‘poster boy’ for the next generation. He has already cemented himself as a match-winner for the Boks, recently breaking records for points in a single game and being named in the 2025 World Rugby Dream Team. His versatility and composure under pressure make him the primary successor to the No 10 jersey, but the 24-year-old is not the only young star the Springboks coaches will have an eye on. Vusi Moyo: The Junior Springbok star was central to the team’s success in the U20 World Championship last year, emerging as the leading points-scorer. The 19-year-old is still making his way into senior rugby, but he has already been touted by former Springboks such as Jean de Villiers as an exciting long-term prospect. Jordan Hendrikse: The next couple of years will be a crucial period for the 24-year-old, who has struggled with fitness and form at times over the last year or two. However, he boasts all the attributes to keep adding to his two Test caps, with his physicality, appetite for defence and strong kicking game ensuring he remains firmly on the Springboks’ long-term radar. Rassie recently revealed flyhalf depth chart When speaking to media earlier this year, Erasmus painted a clear picture about the planning at 10, as well as how much better the depth seems to be after heading to the last World Cup with only Libbok as a specialist flyhalf. “Having six flyhalves might sometimes not be enough, but at 10 we have Handre Pollard, Manie Libbok, and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. “Then with Damian Willemse and Jordan Hendrikse, you feel safe in the No.10 channel. “However, if three flyhalves suffer injuries in two weeks, you are left with Damian as your starting flyhalf, and Jordan is the back-up and has to play a big match.” The Springboks will kick off their 2026 season against England at Ellis Park.

Airlink has announced that it is working with South African health authorities after a passenger linked to a rare Hantavirus case died shortly after arriving in Johannesburg on board one of its flights. The passenger had travelled on Airlink flight 4Z 132 from St Helena Island to Johannesburg on 25 April after leaving the cruise ship MV Hondius, which had been sailing from Argentina to the Canary Islands via Cape Verde. There were 82 passengers and six crew members onboard the flight. Airlink passenger later died in South Africa According to a statement from Airlink, the airline was only informed on 3 May that the passenger had died after arriving in Johannesburg and that her death was believed to be linked to Hantavirus. The woman had reportedly not appeared visibly ill before boarding in St Helena, and no alert had been issued to the airline ahead of the flight. Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi later told Parliament that the passenger passed through routine temperature screening at OR Tambo International Airport without triggering concern. “It cannot be said that South Africa’s safety mechanisms were so lax that they just allowed people in without screening,” Motsoaledi said, explaining that not all infected individuals present with a fever. Contact tracing underway Following notification from health authorities, Airlink provided passenger names, seating allocations and contact details to assist with tracing efforts. The airline is also directly contacting passengers from the flight and advising them to get in touch with the Department of Health. Motsoaledi said authorities have so far identified 62 people who may have come into contact with the affected passengers, with 42 already traced and placed under observation. The tracing process includes airport contacts, healthcare workers in Kempton Park who treated the woman after she collapsed, and medical staff involved in treating another infected passenger currently hospitalised in Sandton. Rare strain identified The cases have been linked to the Andes strain of Hantavirus, a rare strain associated with South America. Motsoaledi said it is one of the few strains known to allow limited human-to-human transmission, although this remains extremely uncommon and generally requires very close contact. The first two people who died were husband and wife, both passengers on the cruise ship. Experts from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the World Health Organization (WHO) are continuing to coordinate the response. NICD infectious diseases expert Professor Lucille Blumberg told Parliament that South African authorities identified the virus within 24 hours of receiving an international alert connected to the cruise ship. She described the response as unusually fast, given the rarity of the virus and the complexity of the case. Airlink said it continues to follow all public health and aviation regulations and noted that its Embraer aircraft use HEPA filtration systems that continuously clean and refresh cabin air during flights.