4 September 2025

/ The Wrap /

Hi there 🙋🏽‍♀️

Our lead story this week is straight out of a cop soapie. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia and National Commissioner Fannie Masemola were at each other’s throats over those 121 dockets linked to political killings in KZN… then they suddenly made up. 🙃 Their truce calms things at the top, but the real drama is still circling dodgy tender tycoon Cat Matlala, caught making secret prison phone calls like he’s auditioning for Prison Break: SA Edition.

Meanwhile, Aunty Pat (Patricia de Lille) is on the ropes in Parliament, Joburg finally reopened Lillian Ngoyi Street (kinda), and the Bok Women smashed their way into history. Abroad, Google’s been told to share the internet, US President Donald Trump is cosplaying an authoritarian strongman, and Cardi B turned a trial into comedy hour.
 

Now, let’s dive into these stories and more in this week’s wrap, brought to you by Verashni Pillay and the explain.co.za team. 😄

Format:

🔊 Voice note by Verashni

📰 Text: Keep scrolling

▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ Briefs

NATIONAL

1. Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille is under fire for axing the entire SA Tourism board – critics say it was to protect the dodgy CEO. De Lille claims it was because they appointed governance expert Lawson Naidoo as chair improperly – something the board disputes. Tuesday saw a fiery parliamentary showdown between Aunty Pat and MPs demanding accountability. She’s been defiant, failing to provide documents and daring detractors to go to the cops. Not great for a former anti-corruption crusader. 😒
    

2. Joburg’s Lilian Ngoyi Street (aka Bree) is back… kinda.  In 2023, a massive underground gas explosion tore through the CBD. The city dropped more than R200m fixing the 1.8km stretch, with the project dragging on for over two years — double the promised timeline — thanks to contractor disputes. Despite a grand opening of the newly bricked road (yep, not tar) by Mayor Dada Morero, it’s pedestrian-only for now. It’ll be ready for cars next Friday. We hope. 🙄
    

3. Gayton McKenzie’s tweets just aged like milk. 👀 The SA Human Rights Commission is dragging the Sports Minister to the Equality Court over old tweets where he used the “k-word.” The posts, from 2011–2017, recently resurfaced and sparked fresh outrage. The SAHRC says the language violates the Equality Act, while McKenzie claims his words were twisted and accuses the commission of bias. No court date’s been set yet — but when it lands, expect fireworks.
    

4. It’s official. Former underdog Shoprite is now SA’s top grocer. Checkers Sixty60 alone brought in nearly R19bn in their last financial year - nearly the entire market value of rivals Pick n Pay and SPAR (about R20bn each). 😳 The annual results, released on Tuesday, show their popular delivery service makes up 9% of Shoprite’s sales. Shoprite first overtook Pick n Pay in revenue last year, thanks to its lean operations and stable leadership, while Raymond Ackerman’s once-great company has floundered.
    

5. On Sunday, the Springbok Women smashed through history! 🎉 Their nail-biting 29–24 win over Italy sealed South Africa’s first-ever Women’s Rugby World Cup quarterfinal spot. It’s also the team’s maiden victory against Italy, built on a powerhouse scrum and sheer grit. Players like Aseza Hele and Libbie Janse van Rensburg shone. Their next group game is against France this Sunday. The loser is likely to face reigning champions, New Zealand’s Black Ferns, in the quarterfinals.

INTERNATIONAL 

1. On Tuesday, a US judge told Google to quit hogging the internet. 👀 Judge Amit Mehta ruled the tech giant must share parts of its search data with rivals to ease its monopoly grip. It’s not quite the harsher remedy government was after — like forcing Google to sell Chrome. Still, this chips away at Google’s 90% search dominance. The case is part of a broader crackdown on Big Tech, and gives nascent rivals hope as AI reshapes how we search.
    

2. An earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan on Sunday night, flattening villages. The death toll has surpassed 1,400, with over 3,000 injured, as rescue teams battle landslides and rough terrain. An aftershock on Tuesday worsened the destruction. Aid has been slow, routed through NGOs, as most governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Since the US’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal, the militant group has taken control, aid has dried up, and critics say the world has abandoned Afghans in crisis.
    

3. A viral video from the US Open shows a grown man snatching a signed cap out of a young fan’s hands. 🎾 The cap was a gift from Polish tennis player Kamil Majchrzak, but mid-handover, in swooped… Piotr Szczerek, Polish businessman and apparently part-time hat thief. After internet outrage served him a few backhands, Szczerek apologised and returned the cap. Majchrzak later met with the boy, gifting him a US Open goodie bag. Lesson? Behave, someone may be filming.
    

4. China’s first military parade in six years rolled out hypersonic missiles, robotic dogs and plenty of pomp. More than 25 world leaders attended on Wednesday, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. 🇨🇳 The rare show of unity was a clear jab at the West, far eclipsing Trump’s poorly attended June parade. A rattled Trump fumed on Truth Social, branding it a conspiracy. But both Trump and Xi Jinping’s parades “reflect the insecurities of its leadership,” said The Economist.
    

5. Cardi B has been cleared in a fiery LA civil trial — and it only took the jury an hour. 🔥 Security guard Emani Ellis claimed the rapper spat on her and scratched her in 2018, demanding $24m. Cardi, pregnant at the time, said it was a verbal spat only. Cardi’s expressions and one-liners on the stand have since gone viral. During questioning, Ellis’s lawyer asked her to clarify a comment: “Did you call her fat?” Cardi shot back: “No. I was calling her a b*tch.” 🤣

   
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   Illustrative Image, from left to right: Scenes from an earthquake. Credit: Çağlar Oskay/ Unsplash; Gayton McKenzie. Credit: GovernmentZA/ Flickr; Kamil Majchrzak. Credit: Nikjavo via Wikimedia Commons; Patricia de Lille. Credit: The Democratic Alliance/ Flickr; South African rugby union player, Libbie Janse van Rensburg. Credit: SA Women's Rugby/ Facebook; Cardi B. Credit: Anthony Kane via Wikimedia Commons; North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. Credit: Cheongwadae/ Blue House via Wikimedia Commons; Joburg Mayor Dada Morero. Credit: GovernmentZA/ Flickr.

▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █  The Big Stories

Cachalia and Masemola make up after docket drama

It’s been a wild ride since KwaZulu-Natal’s top cop, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, dropped his bombshell press conference back in July, accusing senior police figures and political heavyweights of meddling in investigations into political killings. The fallout’s been massive, and now there’s a new development. 

To recap: Mkhwanazi alleged that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, his mate Brown Mogotsi, and tender tycoon Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala were tangled in a web shielding a criminal syndicate. He claimed Mchunu orchestrated the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team and yanked 121 case dockets to shield politicians and politically-connected suspects.

The accusations were so seismic that President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended Mchunu, tapped Firoz Cachalia to step in as Acting Minister, and set up a commission, led by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, to dig into the mess.

The latest drama has seen National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola and Cachalia get into a bit of a spat, then make up publicly after Ramaphosa, apparently, got pretty annoyed with both of them. (He’s also mad about the commission being delayed by IT procurement issues, poor Ramps.) 

Why the spat? Masemola announced last week Thursday that he’s sending those 121 dockets back to the KwaZulu-Natal task team – a move that bypassed both  Cachalia and the not‑yet‑started Madlanga Commission. Cachalia fired back on Friday, calling out the timing and process, insisting that any action should wait for the Commission. 

By Monday, they finally met and made up, issuing a joint statement on Tuesday promising to play nicely. Those highly contested 121 documents will be submitted to the Commission… as soon as they can get their laptops working. 🤭

But! That’s not all. 

Turns out those two dodgy businessmen, name-checked by Mkhwanazi back in July, were in touch on the day of his briefing – despite one of them being in prison. Court proceedings this week revealed Mogotsi tried ringing Matlala, facing charges for a 2023 attempted hit on his ex, Tebogo Thobejane, multiple times on a secret prison phone on the day. 

Matlala was caught with the phone inside Kgosi Mampuru prison, still paused on a video of the explosive briefing. The big question? How Mogotsi knew Matlala’s number while he was locked up, adding meat to Mkhwanazi’s syndicate claims. For now, Matlala’s bail hearing, set for 8 September, keeps the spotlight on this murky duo while the commission chugs along. We’ll just be over here, with popcorn.

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Professor Firoz Cachalia, MP, Acting Minister of Police Service, opening the 27th African Regional Conference in Cape Town. Credit: INTERPOL/Flickr

US election interference fears grow as Trump targets opponents

Meddling in elections to stay in power? Targeting political opponents? If this sounds like stuff out of a dictator’s playbook, you’re right. And it’s happening in a democracy where that was once unthinkable, the United States. 

There’s been a series of concerning developments ahead of the country’s midterms elections next year, where Trump’s Republican party risks losing control of the US House of Representatives. 

🔹The Justice Department has launched an investigation into ActBlue, the big Democratic fundraising platform, while leaving the GOP's WinRed untouched. 
🔹Trump has urged red states like Texas to redraw maps outside of the usual ten-year timeframe to create more Republican-friendly House seats. 
🔹 His administration is demanding detailed voter files from at least 19 states – more than half of which are democratic or bipartisan-controlled. They claim it’s to root out ineligible voters, but the Associated Press notes, it is a “direct use of official presidential power in ways that have no modern precedent”.

Donald Trump is also doubling down on his plans to deploy the National Guard to opposition strongholds like Chicago, and it's got local leaders and legal experts worried over escalating authoritarianism. 

Quick explainer: The National Guard is a unique branch of the US military that acts as a reserve force. These soldiers, mostly civilians serving part-time, typically support disaster relief, national emergencies, or state-level law enforcement. Trump’s push to deploy it in Democratic cities without state consent has raised alarms that he’s weaponising it as a personal paramilitary force, bypassing legal checks to intimidate political rivals.

Trump has used crime to justify the use of the guard, even when the stats don’t back it up. He painted Chicago as a crime-riddled "hellhole", despite it not ranking in the top 50 US cities for violent crime. He's extended similar barbs to places like Baltimore and bits of Los Angeles. And he called his controversial recent troop rollout in the country’s capital, DC, a "template" for other cities.

The trend started earlier this year. A federal judge in California slapped down Trump's earlier move in June to send 2,000 National Guard troops and Marines into Los Angeles amid immigration and ICE protests, ruling it flat-out illegal.

Trump's camp shrugged it off as judicial meddling and promised an appeal, while hinting at pushing ahead in spots like New York and San Francisco.

Ian Bassin, executive director of Protect Democracy, warns “those are actions you see in authoritarian states,” adding that Trump will "use every measure and try every tactic to stay in power, regardless of the outcome of an election." Yikes.

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Donald Trump speaking to supporters at an immigration policy speech at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Send in the Hawks… because someone made a TikTok?

South Africans are used to laughing at politics – sometimes it’s the only way to survive it. But the Hawks, and now suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, clearly didn’t get the joke.

Last week, News24 reported the elite crime-fighting unit had raided the Cape Town home of TikTok satirist Anton Taylor back in June. The raid was in response to charges laid by Mchunu over a video published in March that poked fun at the minister.

Yes, you read that right: one of the country’s top crime-fighting units – meant to chase down drug lords, gang bosses and corrupt politicians – was dispatched to track down a comedian. Taylor’s phone was reportedly triangulated, a method usually reserved for serious crimes like organised syndicates. 

The outrage was swift, and action fast. The National Prosecuting Authority shut down the case, refusing to prosecute and calling the investigation a waste of time.

Adding to the irony? Mchunu himself was suspended from his role a few months later. 

Here’s the bigger picture: South Africa’s Constitution protects freedom of expression under Section 16 of the Bill of Rights. That protection explicitly covers things like satire and artistic creativity. There are limits – expression that incites violence, spreads war propaganda or amounts to hate speech is not protected. Courts use a “proportionality test” to make sure restrictions aren’t heavy-handed. But satire about a politician’s ego? That doesn’t even come close.

To understand the difference, look at another case we told you about last week: Julius Malema was found guilty of hate speech by the Equality Court. At a 2022 rally, he told supporters, “You must never be scared to kill” – words the court ruled were a clear incitement to harm. That’s the kind of dangerous rhetoric the law was designed to curb.

Taylor’s skits, by contrast, might bruise a politician’s ego, but they don’t call for violence or hatred. Thankfully, the principles of our Constitution held firm.

And that’s something worth celebrating. In many countries, mocking a leader is a jailable offence. Here in South Africa? We call our president Cupcake — a nickname born from a scandal, sure, but now worn with an almost affectionate national shrug.

South Africans have always used humour to process pain, to call out injustice, and to hold power to account. It's more than just comic relief — it's democracy in action. Long may it be protected. ✊🏾

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Senzo Mchunu. Credit: GovernmentZA/Flickr

That’s it from us at The Wrap, a product of explain.co.za – simple news summaries for busy people.

The Wrap is sponsored by explain’s agency division. We specialise in content marketing for purpose-driven organisations, often with a pan-African reach. Mail info@explain.co.za for a quote. 

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Till next time, goodbye from the team. ✌️