Source: Government of Qatar
Doha, June 09, 2026
HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani met on Tuesday with HE Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council of the Arab Gulf States (GCC), Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, who is visiting the country.
During the meeting, they discussed prospects for strengthening the progress and achievements of the GCC, in addition to the latest developments and updates in the region.
Source: Government of South Africa
Kruger National Park land claim finalised through legal agreement
After more than a decade of intense negotiations, historically land-dispossessed communities living around the Kruger National Park can finally put a painful chapter behind them, following a landmark agreement that recognises their economic and heritage rights to the land.
This follows the government’s recent signing of the Beneficiation Scheme Framework Agreement with all claimant communities living around one of South Africa’s most iconic national treasures, the Kruger National Park.
Addressing members of Parliament on the agreement on Tuesday, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Willie Aucamp said at a time when the nation continues to grapple with poverty, inequality and unemployment, the agreement offers a powerful example of what can be achieved when government, communities and conservation institutions work together towards a common purpose.
“This agreement is far more than a legal document. It is far more than signatures on paper. It represents restoration. It represents empowerment.
“It advances transformation, promotes inclusion, strengthens participation, and opens pathways for meaningful economic opportunities.
“This agreement is not an endpoint; it is a foundation. A foundation upon which economic opportunities, skills development, enterprise participation, tourism benefits and long-term partnerships will grow,” he said.
Through the Beneficiation Scheme, South African National Parks (SANParks) is enabling structured access to commercial and non-commercial opportunities for qualifying previously land-dispossessed communities through investment, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.
These include shareholding and concessions, enterprise and supply development, a percentage of net revenue, a bursary fund, skills transfer, and long-term livelihood creation linked to the park economy.
The non-commercial opportunities include naming rights and access rights.
He emphasised that the true measure of success will not be found in the signing ceremony, but in the lives that are changed.
“It will be found in the opportunities created for young people. It will be found in stronger communities, and it will be found in a conservation model that delivers both ecological and social value.
“This agreement provides certainty. It confirms that claimant communities understand that the Kruger National Park will remain protected as a national conservation asset and that residential occupation within the park is not possible.
“At the same time, it formally establishes mechanisms through which communities can derive meaningful and lasting benefits from the park’s success,” Aucamp said.
The land claims associated with the Kruger National Park were lodged in the early 2000s.
By 2008, Cabinet had recognised the Kruger National Park as a strategic national asset and affirmed the need to balance the protection of this globally significant conservation area with the legitimate aspirations of claimant communities for redress and justice.
“Formal negotiations commenced in 2012, and today, 14 years later, we stand before this House proud to say that the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, together with SANParks, claimant communities and many dedicated stakeholders, have achieved a milestone that many once believed impossible.
“What matters is that we never abandoned the process. What matters is that all parties remained committed to dialogue. What matters is that we remained focused on finding common ground. And today, that commitment has borne fruit,” the Minister said.
He said the future of conservation in South Africa depends on communities seeing themselves not as spectators, but as partners and beneficiaries.
“As partners, they will also have the best interests of Kruger at heart. As one of the community leaders said to me, Minister, now that we will benefit from Kruger, our communities will go out of their way to protect Kruger,” Aucamp said. –SAnews.gov.za
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Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jeran Cloete, PhD Candidate in Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University
Conservationists analyse overwhelming volumes of ecological data in their work. For example, they might need to process decades of weather data or the movements of millions of insects. Up until now, these scientists and decision makers have had to manually find and sort information, then use statistical tools which often oversimplify the source information.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools now promise to help with all that. But can they deliver on the promise?
They are far from perfect. It’s been shown that they can confidently make up information and amplify hidden biases in their training data. And different AI tools have different uses, strengths and weaknesses. They need to be chosen carefully.
AI featured among the top 10 emerging issues in biodiversity conservation in South Africa in a recent horizon scan that we undertook. As part of a group of 14 experts in biodiversity conservation, we drew on discussions within our diverse professional networks, literature and news trends to identify issues likely to emerge and intensify over the next 5-10 years.
The issues fell into three main groups: technological disruption; regulatory complexity; and infrastructure impacts.
Among them, AI featured as both an opportunity and a risk for future biodiversity conservation.
Our scan brought to the surface the power and pitfalls of AI in the kind of work we do.
One potential use of AI is in tracking. Tracking animals and insects at scale is essential for conservation decisions. Birds and whales migrate across the planet every year, and insect numbers change through the seasons in the billions. Image recognition AI can process camera trap data to help populate databases such as Wildlife Insights and provide information about animal behaviour to help predict the impacts of global processes like climate change and industrial development on biodiversity.
Mass monitoring also records people sharing those landscapes with animals. This surveillance can be used to detect illegal wildlife harvesting (poaching) or avoid human-animal conflict.
Land use is another area of conservation where AI offers opportunities. Using economic data together with landscape information, custom AI models can be trained to predict deforestation, allowing preventive action, or choose land with high conservation value for the best price.
Ecosystem complexity needs to be summarised and condensed into maps and categories to inform broad landscape-level decisions. Using AI increases the amount of data that can be summarised.
Chatbots are one kind of AI tool that can distil information from huge amounts of text. For example, they can be used to monitor product listings and detect illegal wildlife trade online the moment it occurs. They can read hundreds of scientific publications to help decide which species are at risk of extinction. They can draw on many different sources to create environmental impact assessments; the basis of land development decisions, offering a tempting shortcut around a time-consuming reporting task.
But we also identified downsides and risks.
Local communities living off the land might experience the mass surveillance as an intrusion. Alienation of local communities in this way could cause them to oppose conservation governance and sabotage technology in the field to protect their privacy.
Another challenge is that the technology itself has limitations. Using AI for tracking animals means specially training image and audio identification systems to work with each ecosystem and piece of hardware. An AI model is only as good as the effort that was put into teaching it. For example, training a model on recordings from a city might cause it to “hear” pigeons everywhere, producing a confident but incomplete list of birds from natural area data.
Another worry about AI is that replacing human involvement could lead to job losses. When used for animal identification, it could contribute to an ongoing decline in taxonomy knowledge which is more severe in biodiversity-rich, low-income countries in Africa. That knowledge is essential for improving and correcting AI systems.
Read more: Counting Uganda’s lions: we found that wildlife rangers do a better job than machines
We also found reasons for concern in land use applications.
The risk is that using AI tools for map making could disconnect the map from reality on the ground by replacing human judgment in the field and favouring data sources compatible with AI methods. A skilled ecologist surveying an ecosystem will notice unexpected things that were not specified during the planning stage. For example, speaking with local people may reveal planned farming expansion or harvesting wildlife activities. An AI system would miss this critical context because it can only read information that has been digitised.
AI can’t see animals that evade cameras or identify animals that were not expected to occur in that location (images that it was not trained on). It also can’t speak to humans to discover their intentions or uncover ecological wisdom passed down from their ancestors.
Read more: First fossil hyena tracks found in South Africa – how expert animal trackers helped
Chatbots too need to be used with caution. They can generate or embed fictional information. Even when drawing on real information, they often reflect bias in their training data, favouring research and perspectives from well-represented institutions in the global north, where publications have historically been dominated by men in high-income universities.
Uncritical use of chatbot-generated recommendations could lead to poor environmental decisions. For example, it might suggest planting trees without considering diverse ecosystems like Africa’s savannah grasslands.
Using chatbots as a shortcut to summarise knowledge and inform conservation decisions in Africa will reinforce colonial systems and marginalise indigenous communities and knowledge.
Strong regulation of the use of AI in environmental science is therefore a moral and legal imperative. The sector needs clear safeguards, standards and oversight mechanisms to prevent faulty or inappropriate AI outputs from influencing decisions. It needs:
validation protocols to catch fabricated information
limitations to prevent chatbots from overriding human knowledge and perspectives
mandatory disclosure of AI prompt histories
standards for describing training datasets so that appropriate models can be selected.
The explosion of AI presents a powerful opportunity for conservation if we use the right tools with care. If we replace human judgment with unchecked automation, we risk becoming tools of the very systems we built.
– AI in nature conservation: powerful tool or dangerous shortcut?
– https://theconversation.com/ai-in-nature-conservation-powerful-tool-or-dangerous-shortcut-283718
Source: Government of South Africa
Rationalisation of the courts a move to secure access for all
Government is moving to improve access to justice for all with the implementation of the rationalisation of the courts.
Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi briefed the media on Tuesday on the department’s plans to ensure that the courts better serve communities.
“An independent judiciary and a well-functioning court system that gives full effect to the right to justice for all is the cornerstone of our democracy.
“Though significant progress has been made, post 1994, in configuring the court system in a way that increases access to justice for all, the court system that existed in South Africa prior to the democratic transition was left largely intact.
“As a result, the legacy of colonialism and apartheid continues to plague South Africa with spatial injustices and to impede access to courts for communities that reside in the areas that formed part of the defunct homelands and self-governing territories, as well as remote rural villages,” the Minister said.
To remedy this, the Interim Rationalisation of Jurisdiction of the High Court’s Act of 2001 introduced minimum changes and in 2014, the department commenced with the implementation of the rationalisation of Magisterial Districts in the provinces.
Furthermore in 2021, then Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, established a Committee on The Rationalisation of the Areas under the Jurisdiction and Judicial Establishments of the Divisions of the High Court of South Africa chaired by retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke.
“In essence, the committee was established to identify key elements of the current structure of our high courts that need to be changed with a view to ‘establishing a judicial system suited to the requirements of the Constitution’.
“The Rationalisation Committee’s report was completed in two phases, each with own recommendations,” she explained.
Kubayi noted that Cabinet has now approved the committee’s report and implementation which will be done in two phases.
The first phase includes:
• Implementation of the immediate recommendations of the Rationalisation Committee, which entails, recommendations regarding the Magisterial Districts and Sub-Districts in respect of which the Main and Local Seats of the respective Divisions of the High Court shall exercise jurisdiction, with the view to enhance access to justice, recommended by the Rationalisation Committee.
• With regards to local seats, Phase 1 of the implementation will entail gazetting and the usage of courts where infrastructure is already available, this comes into effect by 1 July 2026.
“The review of the guidelines for the appointment of Acting Judges has been completed. The final draft of the guidelines have been signed off by the Chief Justice and they will be gazetted for implementation and also comes into effect from 1st July 2026.
“A process has been initiated with National Treasury and Office of the Chief Justice to effect the 20% increase of the judicial posts to deal with the capacity challenges across the Divisions of the High Court, as recommended by the Rationalisation Committee,” Kubayi said.
Phase two of the implementation includes:
• A phased-in approach for implementation of the recommendations of the Rationalisation Committee regarding the establishment of additional local seats which entails the establishment of additional local seats through the building of new courts or expansion of the existing magistrates’ courts.
The expansion will include the Gauteng Division at Palm Ridge, Free State Division at Welkom, North West Division at Rustenburg, Northern Cape Division at Upington and the Western Cape Division at Thembalethu.
“After consultations with the Gauteng Judge President, Judge [Aubrey] Ledwaba, and other relevant stakeholders, we have agreed and initiated steps to establish a court in Kempton Park, next to OR Tambo airport.
“Though this initiative is not part of the recommendations of the rationalisation committee, we believe that the circumstances especially regarding immigration demand that we act swiftly to create the necessary infrastructure and justice systems to attend to this important matter,” Kubayi added.
The recommendation to move the seat of the Eastern Cape Division from Makhanda to Bhisho is currently still under consultation with stakeholders.
“As we celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, we must intensify our efforts to achieve the constitutional imperative with regards to rationalisation of Magisterial Districts and Divisions of the High Court.
“As we move with consolidation of court administration and judicial governance, merging magistrates and judges into a single judiciary to enhance independence we must also ensure that Access to justice for all remains at the centre of our efforts,” Kubayi concluded. – SAnews.gov.za
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Source: Government of South Africa
SAPS suspends additional five senior police officers
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has confirmed the suspension of five additional senior officers in relation to matters arising from the Medicare 24 tender.
“Internal departmental processes are underway, and in the interest of preserving the integrity of these processes, the SAPS will not provide further comment at this stage,” SAPS said in a statement.
Earlier this month, SAPS suspended nine police officers, who served as members of the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) in relation to the Medicare24 tender process.
The affected members have been placed on suspension pending the finalisation of disciplinary and related investigations.
“SAPS remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency and ethical conduct in all its operations,” SAPS said at the time. – SAnews.gov.za
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Source: Government of South Africa
Aircraft maintenance academy opens aviation careers to underserved communities’ youth
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that skills development opportunities reach communities across South Africa, particularly in rural and historically disadvantaged areas, as part of efforts to tackle youth unemployment and expand access to specialised training.
Speaking at the launch of the WorldSkills South Africa (WSZA)-Elangeni Aircraft Maintenance Academy, held recently at Elangeni TVET College in Inanda Campus, north of Durban, Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube, said the Post-School Education and Training (PSET) sector remained committed to taking skills directly to communities often excluded from economic opportunities.
“The Ministry is committed to the efforts of the Post-School Education and Training sector to take skills to the people, especially in rural areas,” Dube-Ncube said.
She said government was determined to ensure that young people’s access to employment opportunities was not limited by their gender, social and economic background, and their environment.
“Our bias remains that we want to see improvement and skills transfer and acquisition happening in areas that are often considered peripheral to the agenda of the skills revolution,” Dube-Ncube said.
The academy, launched through a strategic public-private partnership between Elangeni TVET College, WorldSkills South Africa and Starlite Aviation, is the first academy within the public education sector to offer specialised aircraft maintenance training.
The initiative is expected to play a significant role in developing technical skills for South Africa’s aviation industry while opening career opportunities for young people from underserved communities.
Dube-Ncube described the academy as a tangible demonstration of government’s commitment to ensuring that education and skills development create viable pathways that open the doors to employment and subsequently create a future, where “development is not just an ideal but a realisation.”
“Our commitment to the skills revolution extends beyond the lecture room and classroom. It is a commitment that seeks to ensure that we reduce the harrowing percentage of youth unemployment,” the Deputy Minister said.
Dube-Ncube added that the academy remains a realisation of the work and hope for the youth of South Africa, who should never be limited by their backgrounds.
“The students of Inanda can be artisans, technicians, and belong to the aviation industry too,” she said.
She expressed hope that the academy will also inspire young people across the country, including those living in remote areas of Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga, to pursue careers in engineering and aircraft maintenance.
“The sky is not the limit. We are encouraged to shatter the glass ceiling [and] see young women and men dominating the skills industry, ” Dube-Ncube said.
The launch comes during Youth Month, a period in which South Africa commemorates the role of young people in the country’s history and reflects on the challenges facing today’s youth.
“This youth month, we say our revolution is present to the needs of the Youth of South Africa. We recognize fully that innovation, African advancement, designing of systems, technical expertise for industry access and improvement, lies solely in the hands of our youth!” Dube-Ncube said. – SAnews.gov.za
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Source: Government of South Africa
SIU granted freezing order on UIF-TERS obtained property
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) continues to claw back State funds obtained through fraudulent Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (UIF TERS) claims through a freezing order on a R2.7 million KwaZulu-Natal property.
The preservation order was granted by the Special Tribunal following an application by the corruption-busting unit.
“The property is linked to Ziqoqe Construction CC. It is connected to the alleged fraudulent abuse of [UIF TERS] during the COVID-19 pandemic. The SIU investigation revealed that Ndabezinhle Luthuli, the owner of Ziqoqe Construction, submitted TERS applications on behalf of alleged employees of the company for the ‘shutdown’ periods between 27 March 2020 and 15 August 2020.
“The investigation established that the UIF paid a total of R9,836,047.06 in TERS benefits to Ziqoqe Construction between 21 July 2020 and 30 September 2024. However, the SIU’s investigation found that Luthuli did not pay any of the alleged 673 employees and failed to refund UIF,” the SIU said.
Furthermore, a portion of the employees listed were found to be ghost employees and “several individuals contacted by investigators denied ever working for the company”.
“The SIU discovered that a property…was purchased in November 2023 through purported fraudulent transactions, suggesting that the profits from illegal activities were utilised to benefit Luthuli.
“As part of its ongoing investigation, the SIU conducted search-and-seizure operations on 12 December 2025 against associated individuals and entities.
“The Tribunal has since granted an order directing the deeds registry to restrict the immovable property registered in the name of Luthuli,” the unit added.
The property may not be sold, transferred, or encumbered without “written agreement between the parties or an order from the court or Tribunal”.
“The Tribunal further ordered that Luthuli and Ziqoqe Construction remain responsible for all financial obligations related to the property, including levies, insurance, and associated costs, while the matter is pending. The costs of the application were reserved for determination at a later stage.
“The SIU remains committed to recovering public funds lost through corruption and maladministration, and to ensuring accountability for those who sought to exploit relief measures intended to support businesses and workers during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the SIU concluded. – SAnews.gov.za
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Source: Government of South Africa
Mhlauli calls on youth to shape South Africa’s future through democracy
Deputy Minister in the Presidency Nonceba Mhlauli says the courage displayed by the June 16 generation, 50 years ago, transformed the country forever.
“Many of those young people were not much older than the participants gathered in this hall today. They did not possess wealth, political office or institutional power,” Mhlauli said.
Addressing the Mpumalanga Provincial Youth Parliament in Mpumalanga, Mhlauli said those young people understood a truth that continues to resonate across generations, that young people have the capacity to shape history when they organise, participate and refuse to be silent in the face of injustice.
“The true legacy of the youth of 1976 lies not only in what they protested against, but in what they stood for,” Mhlauli said.
Mhlauli said the 1976 youth stood for dignity. They stood for equality. They stood for access to education. They stood for opportunity. They stood for the belief that young people should have a voice in determining the future of their country.
“Today, the responsibility of our generation is different, but it is no less important. The youth of 1976 fought for freedom.
“The youth of 2026 must use that freedom to build prosperous communities, strengthen democratic institutions, hold leaders accountable and create opportunities for future generations.
“They fought to secure a democratic South Africa. We must now ensure that our democracy delivers on its promise for a better life for all,” the Deputy Minister said.
The Deputy Minister told the young people that the Youth Parliament exists because democracy cannot be reduced to voting every five years.
“A healthy democracy requires continuous engagement between citizens and the institutions that serve them. It requires citizens who ask questions. It requires leaders who provide answers. It requires transparency, accountability and active participation.
“The concept behind this Youth Parliament recognises that young people continue to face serious challenges, including unemployment, poverty, economic exclusion, unequal access to opportunities and social vulnerability,” she said.
Mhlauli said the Youth Parliament recognises that young people are not merely beneficiaries of government programmes.
“They are partners in development. They are stakeholders in governance. They are active participants in shaping public policy and monitoring implementation.
“For many years, Youth Parliament has provided an important platform through which young people have influenced public discourse and contributed to policy development,” Mhlauli said.
Mhlauli said the impact of youth activism and youth engagement can be seen in numerous initiatives that have transformed opportunities for young South Africans.
“We have seen the establishment of institutions dedicated to youth development, including the National Youth Development Agency, Youth Directorates at Provincial and Municipal level, and other interventions aimed at expanding opportunities for young people.
“These achievements remind us that youth voices matter and that organised youth participation can influence the direction of public policy,” she said.
With regard to the coming Local Government elections, Mhlauli appealed the young people to register to vote, ensure that their names appears on the voters’ roll.
“Verify your details. Make use of the online platforms that have been created to make registration easier and more accessible.
“However, registration alone is not enough. Registration is only the first step. Once you have registered, you must also vote. A democracy cannot be strengthened by people who are registered but absent on Election Day.
“The true power of citizenship lies not only in having the right to vote, but in exercising that right,” Mhlauli said.
Mhlauli told the young people to confront the reality that there are many young South Africans who are uncertain about whether participate in elections still makes a difference.
“Many feel frustrated by the pace of change in their communities. Others question whether their vote has any real impact on the challenges they face every day.
“Some have become disillusioned by instances of poor service delivery, unemployment, inequality and unfulfilled promises. These feelings are real and they should not be dismissed. If we are serious about strengthening our democracy, we must acknowledge these frustrations honestly and engage with them directly,” she said.
Mhlauli said the greatest mistake that young people can make is to conclude that because change has been slower than expected, participation no longer matters.
“The truth is that democracy does not stop functioning when citizens choose not to participate. Decisions continue to be made. Budgets continue to be approved. Development priorities continue to be determined.
“Councillors continue to be elected. Municipal projects continue to move forward. The only difference is that those decisions are made without the input of the very people who are most affected by them,” the Deputy Minister said.
Government recently launched the national programme commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising.
The launch marked the start of a year-long government programme aimed at honouring the sacrifices of the 1976 student uprising, a defining moment in South Africa’s liberation struggle, while inspiring a new generation of young people. – SAnews.gov.za
Edwin
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alan Hirsch, Senior Research Fellow New South Institute, Emeritus Professor at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town
Threats and deadly conflict over migration are spreading fast in South Africa. This is hugely worrying and could result in widespread injury and killings, as it has in the past.
The region’s investment prospects could be dimmed too, due to perceptions of political instability.
The need for effective responses is real and urgent. The death toll, while disputed, is rising, and reports of marches, threats, sacking of dwellings and violence are widespread across South Africa.
Anti-foreigner hysteria is being driven by online campaigns which appear to be highly organised. They include the use of faked information and graphics.
It is also being driven by campaign leaders and by politicians who support campaigns to root out foreigners, either actively or simply by justifying the arguments used by the more dangerous activists. The UN secretary general, Amnesty International and several foreign governments, including those of Mozambique, Nigeria and Ghana, have berated South Africa for not responding appropriately to anti-migrant mobilisation.
Read more: South Africans are far less tolerant of migrants than before – hotspots, drivers and solutions
In a televised address on Sunday 7 May 2026, the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, outlined various initiatives to lessen the conflicts over migration. But was this a coherent response, or a missed opportunity to make real progress?
The core of the response was the five-point plan agreed to by a special cabinet committee meeting last week. The points included a law enforcement crackdown (including intensifying deportations), establishing dedicated immigration courts, rooting out employment of undocumented workers, securing borders, and tackling corruption (including a reform of identity systems.)
Ramaphosa admitted that economic conditions and the poor state of many public services explained why people were desperate and that grievances, including grievances about the influx of undocumented migrants, were “real”. Some have interpreted his stance as justifying the association of foreigners with the grievances that poor South Africans have.
Based on my work as a political economist in migration governance over the past decade, I know that virtually all the specific actions mentioned in the five parts of the plan had already been announced by the South African government, though not as a concerted platform to address the current crisis. Yet implementation has been painfully slow.
Read more: South Africa’s new immigration policy takes a digital direction – will it succeed?
Clearly, there needs to be urgent and visible follow-through on these commitments. This should include the promise to clamp down on anti-foreigner agitators and those who have wounded or killed people they believed to be foreign. To my knowledge, very few agitators and attackers have been arrested, let alone charged. None of the leaders inciting dangerous actions have been arrested, or even called out by political leaders.
To help reduce the violence and the perception of risk, a number of additional steps need to be taken. Firstly, the forging of a collective political front of parties in the country against anti-foreigner activities. Secondly, the mobilisation of civic and religious institutions to fight against irresponsible politicking. Third, a renegotiation of colonial-era bilateral labour agreements with South Africa’s five neighbouring countries. And finally, addressing the country’s acute unemployment crisis.
Firstly, the head of state – or the head of his political party – should bring together the leaders of all the significant political parties in a forum which commits to agreeing not to incite anti-foreigner sentiment, and also, as a group, condemns such behaviour.
Secondly, leaders of civic and religious institution could be encouraged to do the same – to warn against irresponsible politicking. Further than that, religious and community groupings could be encouraged and even assisted by government to drive programmes to include foreigners into the mainstream of South African society in a constructive way.
There are examples of how to do this in other parts of the world in developed and developing countries. These include South America and other African countries.
National, provincial and local governments could also drive initiatives to include foreigners into the national community. These could be standalone programmes or in cooperation with civil society institutions.
Thirdly, there should be a renegotiation of bilateral labour agreements with five neighbouring countries. In a white paper released in 2025 the government committed to establishing employment quotas for South Africans in various sectors of industry. It also committed to the renegotiation of the bilateral deals. The existing agreements are colonial in origin and form. They withhold virtually all labour and social rights from migrant labourers. And they don’t accommodate long-term labour migration contracts, now common in other parts of the world.
Such reforms could create more manageable as well as fair and equitable systems of migrant labour. South Africa could address its labour needs in a workable way. And the temptation to bypass the system should be lower, with fewer undocumented migrant workers.
It’s not realistic yet to do away with regional labour migration, but it could be far better managed.
Finally, Ramaphosa said he’d be sending out envoys “to seek to find sustainable solutions to these challenges”. But this has already been done, more than 20 years ago. South Africa and some of its neighbours agreed to a protocol on the facilitation of the movement of persons in the southern African region. This initiative was negotiated in the Southern African Development Community.
But since the protocol was signed by several heads of state in the region in 2005, there has been no progress. South Africa, its partners and the Southern African Development Community itself are guilty of negligence and should accept that they could have and can do more to avoid crises such as the present one.
Poorer South Africans are vulnerable to anti-foreigner mobilisation because of their dire economic circumstances: 32.7% unemployment; 37.8% of people classified as very poor. And public services are often very bad.
More growth and more jobs must dampen the powder-keg that is so easily sparked.
But even before that is achieved, there is a great deal that could be done to eliminate the spark itself – tensions over migration.
– Anti-foreigner violence in South Africa is easily sparked: what hasn’t been done to deal with it
– https://theconversation.com/anti-foreigner-violence-in-south-africa-is-easily-sparked-what-hasnt-been-done-to-deal-with-it-284778
Source: President of South Africa –
It is with deep sadness that I mourn the passing away today, Tuesday, 9 June 2026, of His Majesty King Makhosonke II – Enock Makhosonke Mabhena – reigning King of the amaNdebele Nation.
His Majesty, the traditional leader of the amaNdebele akwaManala, has left us at the age of 65 after 40 years on the throne.
My thoughts and prayers – and I know those of the nation – go out today to the Royal Household, Her Majesty Queen Sekhothali, amaNdebele and the Basotho nation from whom Her Majesty is descended.
We will in due course pay tribute to the King as a pillar of national unity in diversity and as a champion of development, with education and land restitution as part of his vision.
Today we mourn his passing and we stand alongside amaNdebele in this painful hour.
We offer our deep condolences to the Royal Household once more.
Media enquiries: Vincent Magwenya, Spokesperson to the President – media@presidency.gov.za
Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria
