Advocate Andrea Johnson has resigned as head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), requesting an immediate release from office, saying sustained attacks against her had become a reputational risk to the anti-corruption unit and the NPA.

Johnson, a career prosecutor with three decades of service, made the request to be released from office, in a letter to the national director of public prosecutions, copied to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

You are 100 times more likely to be shot and killed by an illegal firearm than by a gun which is properly licensed, official statistics show. Authorities were fighting a losing battle against illegal firearms, with shocking statistics revealing that more than 28 people were killed in South Africa daily. Wouter Wessels, Freedom Front Plus (FF+) MP, national chair and chief police spokesperson, said parliamentary replies to questions from the FF+ regarding murders committed with legally licensed firearms versus illegal firearms over the past four years revealed that 41 297 murders were committed with illegal, unlicensed firearms in the past four financial years, from 2022-23 to 2025-26. “That is more than 28 murders per day,” he said. Wessels said the statistics provided by the Acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia, clearly show South Africa’s firearm crime problem stems from unlicensed firearms in the hands of criminals, as 99% of murders were committed with illegal firearms. “In contrast, only 393 people were killed with licensed firearms in the same period,” he said. “Many of these likely occurred in self-defence, which means the actual number of unlawful murders committed with legal weapons is even lower. “Over the same period, 38, 40, 24 and 40 people, respectively, were murdered with firearms that had previously belonged to the police.” ‘Owners not the problem’ Wessels said licensed firearm owners are not the problem; criminals with illegal firearms were. AfriForum’s community safety spokesperson Jacques Broodryk said the murder statistics confirm the government’s motives for stricter firearm control are ideologically driven. “Cachalia stated that 9 398 people were murdered with firearms during the 2025-26 financial year,” he said. “Only 75 of these murders – or 0.8% were committed by the legal owner of a lawfully licensed firearm, whereas illegal firearms were used in 9 323 (or 99.2%) of all firearm-related murders during the same period.” Despite this fact, legal firearm owners continue to be targeted through stricter legislation. Broodryk said the figures provided by Cachalia confirm that firearms originally belonging to the South African Police Service (Saps), the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the metro police were used in 46 murders during the 2025-26 financial year. “For the past 18 months, AfriForum has been warning that the government’s proposed amendments to the Firearms Control Act are aimed at disarming legal firearm owners and, in doing so, ignore the actual causes of firearm violence,” he said. Broodryk said disarming responsible citizens will not disarm criminals. “It will merely leave law-abiding citizens more vulnerable,” adds Broodryk. Gun trend ‘difficult to ignore’ South African Gun Association (Saga) chair Damian Enslin said the four-year trend was difficult to ignore. “Licensed firearm owners must comply with the law, and Saga has consistently urged them to do so. “Criminals, by definition, do not,” Enslin said. SANDF spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mpho Mathebula said SANDF and Saps continue to achieve breakthroughs in the fight against illegal mining, organised crime, and gang violence through Operation Prosper, which resulted in the arrest of 717 suspects for various offences, as well as the seizure of 24 illegal firearms and 1 928 rounds of ammunition so far. Mathebula said these operations yielded multiple arrests, including one for murder, 15 for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, eight for illegal possession of ammunition, six for illegal possession of firearms and 265 for contravention of the Immigration Act. – marizkac@citizen.co.za

To liberals, gun control has always seemed eminently sensible. There is logic in the argument that the fewer guns we have, the less gun violence will occur and the fewer people will end up in coffins, thanks to bullets. South Africa, despite its frontier-type history, tends to lean more towards the British and European attitude of firearms in private hands than it does to the American one. In the Land of the Free, the Second Amendment to the US constitution guarantees the right of citizens to “bear arms”. The country has changed dramatically since the days of rebellion against the British Crown, when the constitution’s founding fathers first refined their ideas of freedom. Today, that right to bear arms means access to deadly weapons like military-grade assault rifles is easy – and reports of mass killings, especially at schools, are the highest in the world. South Africa, as a former British colony, seems to take the view that fewer weapons in private hands is preferable… and that these should be licensed, whether for sport or self-defence use. In recent years, however, successive ANC governments have been accused of wanting to disarm private gun owners through making licensing more difficult. The gun lobby has argued that, in our age of rampant and violent crime, guns can save lives… and that much of the violence wrought by firearms is by the unlicensed ones. Now, official figures have confirmed that view… dramatically. You are 100 times more likely to be shot and killed by an illegal firearm than by a gun which is properly licensed, official statistics show. In the past four years, more than 41 000 people were killed by illegal guns, while just 393 died from licensed guns in the same period. Those numbers say more than any gun lobbyist could. That cannot be ignored or explained away

British actor David Jonsson has been handed the baton of the Black Panther for the third instalment of the Marvel series. The announcement was made by the film’s creator and director, Ryan Coogler, alongside actors Letitia Wright and Winston Duke, and the President of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, at Marvel Studios’ Comic-Con International. Jonsson will play the adult Prince T’Challa, the son of King T’Challa, in this coming-of-age story. His mother is Nakia, the love of King T’Challa’s life. The character was introduced in the second film by young actor Divine Love Konadu-Sun. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TheBlackManCan, Inc. (@theblackmancan) Jonsson takes over from Chadwick Boseman, who brought the character to life in the original film, which was released in 2018. The film was one of the highest grossing films of the year at the time, making $1.35 billion (R22,500,112,500) worldwide, and its sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) grossed $859 million (R14,316,738,250). Boseman died at 43 in August 2020 after a long battle with prostate cancer. A London native, Jonsson (32) is no stranger to the screen, having worked on projects such as the British detective drama Endeavour in 2018. He then played Augustus “Gus” Sackey in Industry. He was in The Long Walk in 2025 and won the Bafta rising star award the same year, according to The Guardian. David Jonsson is the new Black Panther and clips of him are already going viral. Straw Hat Goofy sat with him a year ago talking about Black Panther’s impact : it got emotional.David has that thing you can’t explain. The same thing Chad had. 🖤Ryan coogler picked well .🖤 pic.twitter.com/T5d6IZm9dp— Yawovi1986 (@YawoElvn) July 26, 2026 Black Panther III is scheduled to be released in December 2028.

The last nine months have presented a number of a significant challenges for Eben Etzebeth, who received a straight red card for an eye gouge offence in the final Springbok Test of 2025, and subsequently had to serve a 12-match suspension. Just as he returned to play, Etzebeth then suffered an injury, while there have been growing concerns about his history of concussions, which was the latest setback that ruled him out of the July internationals. It still remains to be seen when the 34-year-old will be given the all clear to return to Test action this year, although it’s expected that he will be available before the start of the All Blacks series in August. Will Eben Etzebeth walk straight back into Springbok team? Interestingly, former Springbok coach Nick Mallett has raised the question over his match readiness. “A guy like Eben Etzebeth has taken such a long time to get back into the mix,” Mallett on the Talking Boks podcast. “So you’ve got to have a question mark as to whether one game against Argentina and some really intense alignment camps are going to be enough for him to go straight into an All Blacks Test. “You can only live on reputation for so long. You’ve actually got to perform,” Mallett added. “The players who’ve played over the last three weekends have all performed well. “So the guys coming back from injury know this Argentina game is a very, very important one for them.” What other options are there? The fact of the matter is that the Springboks are a bit short on depth at No 4 lock, although Pieter-Steph du Toit can fill in there, while Cobus Wiese has impressed in an enforcer role of sorts. South Africa are next in action against Argentina on 8 August.

Vodacom has cut its dividend payout policy to at least 65% of headline earnings, from at least 75% previously.

Local lenders have gone from building everything in-house to buying the start-ups that outran them.