Assistant Editor: Investigations, News24 • Author, The Dark Prince, also The Stellenbosch Mafia and others (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Joined April 2009
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Paul Mashatile cut his teeth as a political activist in the tumult of 1980s Alex, he was detained without trial & after 1994 built a power base in Gauteng. He now wants to be president. But what does he stand for, to whom is he beholden, and how do his networks function?
Congratulations @wicks_jeff! Wonderful recognition for hard work and commitment to expose one of South Africa’s most cynical and expansive networks of corruption and theft. And also a monument to the slain Babita Deokoran.
The winner of the #AIJC2026 African Investigative Journalist of the Year Award is @wicks_jeff of @News24! His expansive series of investigations around South African tenderpreneur Vusi "Cat" Matlala "showed the heart of accountability journalism," said judges. Congrats, Jeff! 👏
Portraits of Johannesburg | A concrete trash bin arse first in a pothole on the corner of Oak and Harley Aves in Randburg, as water from a broken pipe floods the hole (the leak has been going for months). #joburgportraits @CityofJoburgZA l
A good speech by @CyrilRamaphosa, and speaking the same language as @geordinhl the other day: negotiate in good faith, put ratepayers first and don’t descend to the level of petty squabbles and settling of scores.
ActionSA leader and City of Johannesburg mayoral candidate says his party will never work with the DA because the party is “racist.”
#IECResults #SAvotes #IOLNews #LGE2026 #ActionSA
📸Simon Majadibodu/IOL
This is relentless. On any objective reading Action SA have no desire to cooperate wth the DA in any form. They also might be carrying on like this because they believe they already have a deal with the ANC, and therefore don’t need the DA at all.
The DA certainly deserves a round of applause for discovering Soweto just in time for elections and suddenly developing a passion for service delivery in black communities! We appreciate the seasonal enthusiasm and temporary generosity. Unfortunately for them, residents were not buying the last-minute election campaign. Ziyamaz’ umelusi! Soweto’s Wards 47 and 48 knew exactly who they wanted to lead them!
Congratulations to our newly elected councillors, Kabelo Moatshe and Kgadi Mogatusi! The people have spoken, and Soweto has delivered its verdict!
#UnfinishedBusiness #OperationFixJoburg
But the ANC didn’t care. Its leaders were complicit, indifferent and too weak to do anything about it. Zuma was replaced in 2018 by another faction, but the party’s jamboree of unbridled criminality just continued.
news24.com/opinions/columnis…
Here are the various coalition options being kicked about — some more viable then others, but all of them a possibility. news24.com/opinions/columnis…
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Herman Mashaba and Michael Beaumont willing to agree to Nasiphi Moya for Tshwane mayor if DA agrees to dump Zille as its mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. news24.com/politics/coalitio…
MAGA money apparently coming for Kallie’s crew as Ernst misses out on Trump largesse. news24.com/investigations/ma…
“Tomorrow is another country”: Carol Paton, Mpumelelo Mkhabela, Adriaan Basson and I discussing the shifts, wins and losses from the municipal election. youtu.be/nUWUvyorZnI
What Cat Matlala, Morgan Maumela cost the ANC: At the Tersia King Academy VD in Ward 89, Ekurhuleni, where Tembisa Hospital is situated, the ANC's share of the vote fell from 51,81% in 2021 to 19,35% this year. R2 billion was extracted. Cause and effect. Comment, @wicks_jeff ?
Three days and nights at the IEC’s national results centre brought political gossip, some aggro, strange bedfellows, grimaces and smiles, minor victories and large defeats, and a new political landscape. In the words of @MMkhabel: “South Africa will be fine.”
This is a smart statement by Hill-Lewis, setting out the DA’as terms and framework for negotiations: Anti-corruption, accountability and service delivery. But importantly, and with Action SA as the target audience, the DA will approach negotiations with “respect and humility.”
The ANC is staring another humiliating election result in the face, with its lowest national showing looming and its chances of governing a metro on its own gone.
news24.com/politics/election…
Freedom Front Plus mayoral candidate for Tshwane, Willie Spies, failed to win his ward in the city. The DA's Helen Alpino secured 8 509 votes in the ward, while Spies managed to win 1 531 votes. In his VD - St. Alban's - he received 214 votes, versus Alpino's 1 531.
Rands and cents: What Cat Matlala and Morgan Maumela are costing the ANC at the polls around Tembisa Hospital...and it's not looking good for them.
news24.com/politics/developi…
“But the scale of Tuesday night’s reckoning defies even his ability to lie, dissemble, and generally squirm his way out of it. It is really hard to steal an election when voters all across America reject you.”
newyorker.com/news/letter-fr…
AfriMAGA made a bet on Trump, prostrated themselves in front of him, and agitated for their separatist plans in the WH. They thought it wise to expose this country to the vagaries and impulses of an unstable president. And they must own the damage Trump did to SA.
"This is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump." My column on tonight's astonishing results.
ft.com/content/0a9d5d07-bc57…
