Part 2: The Voice in the World – He could have simply made beautiful music. He chose something far more dangerous — the truth. By Themba Khumalo The Voice That Became a Fireside Yet music was never his only canvas. For a decade beginning in 2016, Mbuso lent his voice and knowledge to Ukhozi FM — one of the world’s largest radio stations — not for payment, but out of pure devotion to preserving culture. On the mid-morning show Jabul’ujule, he led two landmark features: first Ijadu Le Afrika, then Ikhosomba leziNgcitha Buchopho — unpacking isiZulu, history, customs, and ancestral…
Author: nkosinathi
Some voices perform. And then some voices remember. Before the world heard Mbuso Khoza, the ancestors did. Part 1: The Making of a Voice By Themba Khumalo Step into the hush before dawn, when sunlight spills over KwaZulu-Natal’s hills like molten gold, and you may hear him before you see him: Mbuso Khoza, his voice a gentle river threading through memory, reaching the quiet corners of your soul that you had almost forgotten. It does not announce itself with thunder or demand your attention. It moves with the slow patience of morning mist, curling around every thought, lingering in spaces…
Key takeaways If you contributed to a retirement fund during any period of employment and were not paid out the benefits, they could be part of the many billions of rands of unpaid assets still invested in a retirement fund or an unclaimed benefit fund. You may also be due unclaimed benefits if you are a dependant or are related to someone who has since passed away who contributed to a pension or provident fund while employed, but never received the benefits. You may also be a beneficiary of unclaimed benefits if you are a former member of a fund…
She promised not to disappoint anyone. For a city that had been let down so many times, those were bold words. But Mayor Babalwa Lobishe is quietly making good — one repaired bridge, one secured substation, one sealed pipe at a time. By Lonwabo Mirha When Babalwa Lobishe stood before a jubilant council chamber in October 2024, newly elected and uncontested, she made a promise that few of her predecessors had dared to keep: “We promise not to disappoint anyone.” After nearly a dozen mayors in five years, a city haemorrhaging water, power and public trust, and factories quietly losing…
Traditional leadership remains one of South Africa’s most enduring governance systems, yet it has long operated at the margins of formal economic structures. A new initiative seeks to change that by introducing enforceable governance, professional oversight and investment readiness into a sector that serves millions but has historically lacked access to institutional capital. By Noko Mashilo A new governance framework seeks to connect South Africa’s traditional leadership institutions to investment, accountability and formal economic participation, bridging the longstanding divide between traditional governance and modern economic systems. The establishment of the Royal Authority for Commerce and Charters (RACC) represents the institutional…
Corruption in our country does not fear the law. It does not fear the state. In fact, it has learned to fear nothing at all — and one woman’s death, filmed and distributed like a warning, is the clearest evidence yet of how far that impunity has grown. By Themba Khumalo The killing of Martha Mani Rantsofu in Vanderbijlpark is not a mystery to be filed away or a tragedy to be mourned in isolation. It is a test — cold, precise, and consequential — of whether South Africa still has the institutional will to confront corruption when those who…
Loss convinces you there is no way back. Recovery, when you dare imagine it, feels like it should arrive all at once. This Wasn’t the Plan knows better — and shows you what the long, unglamorous work of rebuilding actually looks like. By Nkosinathi Mashobane Some books are read and then quietly set aside, filed away without ceremony, unremarkable. And then there are books that refuse to leave you alone — books that embed themselves in the corners of your thoughts, resurfacing days later in the most unexpected moments — in the middle of a mundane task, in the quiet…
For an institution long defined by endless struggles, the resignation of the Ithala board may prove to be the reset KwaZulu-Natal has been waiting for. By Staff Writer Ithala SOC Limited, a developmental finance institution established to serve the people of KwaZulu-Natal, has for years grappled with persistent governance failures, compliance shortfalls, and a prolonged loss of public trust. This backdrop has now prompted a significant development — the resignation of the institution’s board members, tendered at a recent Annual General Meeting. The development has drawn a swift response from the province’s Premier, Thamsanqa Ntuli, who welcomed the move, saying…
The IPID report does not prove presidential guilt. It does something more damaging: it makes innocence increasingly difficult to believe. It shifts the burden from proof to perception — and in politics, perception has a way of hardening into reality. The longer doubts linger unanswered, the more corrosive they become. By Themba Khumalo Some scandals flare and fade. Others refuse to die because the people responsible for burying them keep providing reasons to dig. The Phala Phala saga belongs firmly to the latter. What began as a burglary on a private game farm in Limpopo has become something more corrosive:…
Four migrants drowned, and 38 were rescued after being swept away by strong Channel currents near Boulogne-sur-Mer. A Sudanese man alleged to have piloted the boat has been charged under the UK’s new Border Security Act. By dw.com and news.sky.com A Sudanese man has been charged after four migrants drowned while attempting to cross the English Channel from France to the UK. Alnour Mohamed Ali, 27, was arrested by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and charged with endangering another during a journey by sea — an offence established under the UK’s new Border Security Act, which came into force…