Morning all, hope the Tuesday cold snap isn’t giving you too much grief out there.
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
Trial for the July 2021 unrest accused hits another snag
The trial of 62 people accused over the July 2021 riots has stalled again, this time because their attorneys have withdrawn from the case. More than 350 people died across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in that unrest, and five years later we still haven’t seen real accountability play out in court. Honestly, it’s starting to feel like a pattern in SA, big traumatic events happen, commissions and trials get set up, and then they just drag on until everyone stops paying attention.
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The rand’s holding its own despite the chaos overseas
With tensions flaring up again in the Middle East, you’d expect the rand to take a proper hiding, and it did wobble for a bit. But it’s shrugged that off and is proving more resilient than most people expected. If you’ve got an overseas trip planned or you’re importing stock for a small business, this is worth keeping an eye on because every cent matters once you’re converting to dollars or euros.
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R326 million clawed back from a Tembisa tender tycoon
The Joburg High Court has granted a final order stripping a Tembisa businessman named Maumela of mansions, Lamborghinis and other assets bought with dodgy tender money, after Kubayi and Motsoaledi’s Asset Forfeiture Unit did the digging. This is exactly the kind of result people keep asking for when they complain about tender corruption. It won’t fix the system overnight, but seeing someone actually lose the loot, even years later, gives me a bit of hope that accountability isn’t completely dead here.
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New procurement rules might make things worse, not better
Government has rolled out new public procurement regulations meant to clean up state tenders, but critics reckon they’re more complicated, more expensive to comply with, and could actually open new doors for graft instead of closing the old ones. Considering the story above about the Tembisa tycoon, you’d think the goal would be simpler rules that are easier to police, not harder ones that just add red tape. I’m not holding my breath on this one.
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There’s also a proper argument brewing about SASSA grants at the moment, with some pensioners saying grants should match the minimum wage, and others clashing over who actually deserves support after decades of paying tax. Where do you land on that one, should pensions go up regardless, or does it depend on what someone’s put in over the years? Let me know below.
A quick note: I couldn’t verify the full detail on the passport/visa story (BusinessTech’s headline got cut off mid-sentence, naming an unspecified Asian country) since I wasn’t able to fetch the full article this time, so I left it out rather than guess. Happy to add it in if you can confirm the destination country, or I can take another crack at pulling the source next time.
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