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KICKBOXING IS BACK!

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BOOM! Right on target! No hiding in Brits! These young warriors came to fight! By AFRICA KA MAHAMBA BRITS - The kicks were flying, the crowd was screaming, and the sport is alive again! Shihan Bafana Mayisela is on a mission to revive kickboxing in South Africa - and on Saturday, he proved he means business. Mayisela, the man from Block R in Soshanguve, hosted a massive kickboxing tournament at BMKA in Brits, under Madibeng Municipality in the North West on Saturday night. And what a show it was! A total of 21 fighters from Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and North West stepped into the ring to battle it out in front of more than 700 screaming fans from around the country. From small kids to seasoned veterans, everybody came to fight for glory. The fighters were grouped according to their belts or rank, weight and age, and they competed in different categories including kids, children, junior cadet, senior cadet and veterans. It was raw talent on display - and the future of South...
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SANEF to Meta: Don't Steal Our Journalism to Train Your AI

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By CITY REPORTER   THE SOUTH African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) has called on Meta to stop its plan to take South African journalism to train its artificial intelligence systems without permission and without payment. In a media statement issued on 5 November 2026, SANEF said it is joining journalists and news publishers around in the world in opposing Meta's new Commercial Terms. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, announced the new terms on 8 October 2026. The terms would have allowed Meta to crawl and collect content from the websites of any business that uses its platforms. SANEF says the revised wording still allows Meta to use that content to develop its business products, which include its generative AI services. The organisation is calling on Meta to withdraw the crawling provision for news publishers in South Africa, to write any protections it has promised into its Commercial Terms, and not to use South African journalism to develop or p...
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MAPAILA: NO AUTOMATIC SUPPORT — SACP NOW HOLDS THE KEY

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  By AFRICA KA MAHAMBA  THE SOUTH AFRICAN Communist Party (SACP) has shocked Mzansi. After winning 226 council seats with 2.39% of the vote, the party that many wrote off is now the party that everyone needs. SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila made it clear on Wednesday: there will be no automatic support for any party. "We will negotiate on our terms," Mapaila said. "We are not a rubber stamp. We are not here to just approve what others decide. If you want to work with the SACP, you must talk to us about jobs, services and a left agenda for the poor." That one sentence has changed politics in South Africa. For years, the SACP stood with the ANC. Now, Mapaila says that relationship must be earned, not assumed. The SACP contested elections on its own for the first time in years — and it worked. The party secured 226 council seats across the country. It got 2.39% of the national vote. That may sound small, but in local government, small numbers decide everything. So...
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AZWI SINGS HOPE INTO BROKEN HEARTS

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  Gospel singer Azwi Kokela arrives in a gospel whirlwind to heal the broken-hearted and save lost souls. By SIMON MAKGOGA Slowly but surely, Azwi Kokela is becoming a household name among gospel lovers - and her heavenly tunes have been soothing troubled hearts for over a decade. The singing bug bit her at a young age. She nurtured it in local choirs, and today she is belting out album after album, racking up awards along the way. Born and bred in Venda, Azwi settled in Zebediela, in Limpopo, where her music career took off, before moving to Vereeniging. Her debut album, Otshephehile  (2021), opened the floodgates. It was followed by hits like Jerusalem , Ingwe ya mabalabala  and Njalo  which won Song of the Year at the Tswina Music Awards. That success was a turning point, leading to more collaborations and bigger stages. In 2023, she dropped her second studio album, Imvula,  featuring Mukelani from Vumazion, and it has been cracking gospel stages ever since. ...
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POLLET BOTTLED CONFIDENCE

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Disclosure: This is an independent City Post community profile. No payment was received . By SIMON MAKGOGA Perfume is not the last thing you put on. For Pollet Lelaka, it is the first thing people remember. From a small workshop in her Block W home in Soshanguve, she hand-blends fragrance oils with perfumer's ethanol. Luxury-inspired. Pocket-friendly. Unforgettable. Her customers do not walk away with a bottle. They walk away with confidence. Scented Shades is now more than perfume. It is diffuser oils for reed diffusers, room diffusers and car scents. Every oil is chosen for strength, quality and staying power. "I saw an opportunity to give people luxury without the luxury price," Lelaka says. "Passion pushed me to build something of mine." And she built it. What started in February 2023 as a door-to-door hustle has grown into a brand built on trust, consistency and sheer grit. In Soshanguve, that matters. Soshanguve is one of the largest townships in th...
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DON'T POP THAT CHAMPAGNE YET! GAUTENG IS ON FIRE — AND NOBODY HAS WON ANYTHING!

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By AFRICA KA MAHAMBA I HAD AN hour-long telephonic conversation with a friend who is a member of ActionSA and he was bragging about the latest election results. I told him to relax. This is just a warm-up. You cannot celebrate results with 20 percent counted. He is not the only one who started popping champagne. I saw many posts on X and Facebook and I could not hold my laughter. At the same time, I see that this year's local government elections are like hell. This is not an election. This is a war. South Africans went to vote on Wednesday, 4 November 2026. By Thursday morning, 5 November, the whole country was staring at the IEC dashboard like it was a soccer scoreboard. And the scoreboard is shocking the ancestors. Let us start with the NATIONAL picture, because that is where the real earthquake is happening. As of 10:40am on Thursday, with 6,396 of 23,696 voting districts counted — that is 26% — the ANC was leading nationally with 32.9% of the ward ballot, followed by the DA on...
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Parliament Mourns Quiet Giant

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> TWO GIANTS, ONE HANDSHAKE! President Cyril Ramaphosa with the late Adv Phindela — the man who kept Parliament running. Mzansi mourns a true servant of democracy.Photo Supplied by Parliament  > By AFRICA KA MAHAMBA   The man who quietly kept Parliament running for more than a decade is gone. Advocate Modibedi Eric Phindela, the Secretary to the National Council of Provinces, passed away on Tuesday, 3 November 2026. The South African Local Government Association, SALGA, confirmed the sad news on Wednesday morning, 4 November 2026, saying it had learned of his passing with shock and profound sadness. Motaletale Modiba of SALGA said for many ordinary South Africans, the name NCOP may sound far and complicated. But the NCOP is the House in Parliament where all nine provinces meet to debate and pass laws that affect everyday life.  It is the House that deals with laws on water, electricity, roads, houses, municipal money, and service delivery. And Advocate Phindela was ...
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