Why ActionSA leaders despise DA; SSA had no say in Smith exit: Today’s top 7 stories - News24

News24 brings you the top stories of the day, summarised into neat little packages. Read through quickly or listen to the articles via our customised text-to-speech feature.

- Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu is challenging in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg a September 2026 search warrant, calling the replacement-device allegation dishonest.

- Lead investigator Brigadier William Kunene obtained the warrant after service-provider records showed IMEI numbers not matching any device seized in 2025, suggesting handsets remain outstanding.

- Mchunu denies surrendering replacement devices, saying the failed search of his phones seized in 2025 confirms he has no case to answer for corruption.

- ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu has signalled a municipality-by-municipality approach to coalition talks, contradicting the party’s announcement this week that it would centralise negotiations.

- The ANC’s NEC met at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg to debate coalition formations and potentially rework the framework it adopted in 2023.

- The ANC’s 2023 coalition framework bars local structures from finalising deals alone, requiring all agreements to be approved by the NEC before taking effect.

- Registrar’s clerk Thozamile Semekazi denied under oath calling Eastern Cape High Court judge Belinda Hartle’s journalist husband, admitting the call only after hearing recordings.

- Retired Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Boissie Mbha, the tribunal president, ruled the recordings could not be played, finding Semekazi had acted as a whistleblower.

- Semekazi was accused of soliciting bribes to file court documents in a corruption investigation published less than two weeks before the alleged racial slur incident.

- Former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba and two other ActionSA leaders’ personal grievances toward the DA are overriding coalition arithmetic that could exclude the ANC from Gauteng metros.

- All three left the DA after 2019 carrying personal resentment from leadership battles and unresolved conflicts with DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille.

- ActionSA holds almost 17% of Gauteng voters, including 22% in Tshwane, making it a valuable coalition partner for both the DA and the ANC.

- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned immediately following a board investigation into reports of affairs, including one allegedly involving a Chinese spy.

- The bigger market fear is that Nvidia, under new leadership, could withdraw credit support for AI data-centre projects, threatening the momentum of the broader AI boom.

- Nvidia CFO Colette Kress was appointed interim CEO following Huang’s departure, with the board beginning a search for a permanent replacement from internal and external candidates.

- SSA acting CEO Zikie Molusi says the federation had no opportunity to dissuade four-time Olympic medallist Tatjana Smith from switching allegiance to the Netherlands.

- Smith announced on Tuesday she would represent the Netherlands at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, days after SSA was told to keep the decision confidential.

- SSA is in leadership crisis after CEO Shaun Adriaanse and President Alan Fritz were suspended by World Aquatics for alleged abuse of power and providing fake documents.

- Cape Winelands baker Ricardo Slawers, 42, has become the first African person certified as a bread sommelier by Germany’s National Bakers Academy in Weinheim.

- Slawers admits he googled how to make croissants the month before starting at La Motte Wine Estate in Franschhoek, learning to bake almost entirely on the job.

- For his certification thesis, Slawers chose mosbolletjies, sweet Cape Winelands buns made with grape must that French Huguenots introduced to Franschhoek in 1688.

These summaries were written with the support of Toqan AI.

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