The National Association of Social Housing Organisations (NASHO) and SOHCO Property Investments have warned that the proposed Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land (PIE) Amendment Bill, 2026, fails to tackle what they describe as two of the biggest threats facing South Africa’s social housing sector: unlawful occupations and organised rent boycotts.

Unlawful occupation is crippling South Africa’s social housing sector says the National Association of Social Housing Organisation (NASHO) following the liquidation of Capital City Housing (NPC), the institution responsible for the Aloe Ridge social housing development in Pietermaritzburg.

The National Association of Social Housing Organisations (Nasho) has raised alarm over the liquidation of Capital City Housing NPC, the institution behind Pietermaritzburg’s Aloe Ridge social-housing project.

GEORGE NEWS - The National Association of Social Housing Organisations (Nasho) has praised George Municipality's decision to release municipal land for the proposed social housing project on the old crocodile farm's grounds.

The National Geographic Society has named South African dive instructor and conservationist Silindile Mbuyazi among the recipients of the 2026 Wayfinder Award presented by Kia, recognising her work in ocean conservation and storytelling.

The National Geographic Society has named South African dive instructor and conservationist Silindile Mbuyazi among the recipients of the 2026 Wayfinder Award presented by Kia, recognising her work in ocean conservation and storytelling.

South African dive instructor and marine teacher Silindile Mbuyazi has been named the 2026 Wayfinder Award recipient and is set to receive the award at the National Geographic Explorers Festival on 18 June in Washington, DC.

Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality has introduced a new electricity tariff structure for qualifying social housing developments.

In answer to the current call by Parliament for proposed Constitutional amendments, Free SA has launched a campaign calling for a firm constitutional limit on the size of South Africa’s Cabinet, arguing that the current Constitution grants the President excessive discretion to expand the executive at taxpayers’ expense.

The Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) proudly announces that the National Geographic Society has named Silindile Mbuyazi, a celebrated Dive Master and NEWF Dive Instructor, a recipient of the prestigious 2026 Wayfinder Award presented by Kia. This esteemed recognition celebrates individuals who are influential leaders, communicators, and innovators driving ground-breaking work in science, conservation, education, technology, and storytelling.

The Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) proudly announces that the National Geographic Society has named Silindile Mbuyazi, a celebrated Dive Master and NEWF Dive Instructor, a recipient of the prestigious 2026 Wayfinder Award presented by Kia. This esteemed recognition celebrates individuals who are influential leaders, communicators, and innovators driving ground-breaking work in science, conservation, education, technology, and storytelling.

Civil rights organisation Free SA has launched a campaign opposing the Draft Capital Flow Management Regulations, 2026, warning that the proposed regulations threaten investment, economic growth, innovation, and the financial freedom of South Africans.

South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for Q1 2026 paints a bleak picture of an economy that continues to fail millions of South Africans. While government officials will attempt to downplay the numbers, the reality is clear: fewer South Africans are working, more people are giving up hope of finding jobs, and economic growth remains far too weak to absorb the country’s expanding workforce.

The Walt Disney Company Africa, in collaboration with the National Geographic Society and local non-profit solar-powered media network Sunshine Cinema, announce the first-of-its-kind #SparkConversation screening program.

Aligned with National Geographic’s Earth Month Initiative “Step into Wonder”, #SparkConversation aims to harness the power of storytelling and exploration to inspire communities with a sense of wonder for our natural world.

Aligned with National Geographic’s Earth Month Initiative “Step into Wonder”, #SparkConversation aims to harness the power of storytelling and exploration to inspire communities with a sense of wonder for our natural world.

Free SA has formally raised strong objections to the Draft General Public Procurement Regulations, 2026, warning that the proposed rules risk undermining transparency, competition, and service delivery in South Africa’s public procurement system.

NEWF (Nature Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers) and E·CO / Encounter of Collectives are launching a new partnership to support 12 interdisciplinary collectives from Ibero-America and Africa with production grants of €5,000 each.

This Earth month, The Walt Disney Company Africa, in collaboration with the National Geographic Society and local non-profit solar-powered media network Sunshine Cinema, announce the first-of-its-kind #SparkConversation screening programme.

Why does the government think it can clamp down on a budding sector? This sector allows ordinary people to exchange ideas freely. We strongly condemn Parliament’s exploration of regulatory measures. These measures target South Africa’s rapidly growing podcasting sector. Such intervention poses a direct threat to freedom of expression and democratic discourse. In this context, concerns about a potential podcast crackdown continue to intensify.

CIVIL rights organisation Free SA strongly condemns Parliament’s exploration of regulatory measures targeting South Africa’s rapidly growing podcasting sector, warning that such intervention would pose a direct threat to freedom of expression and democratic discourse.

War on the economy – Sacci warns of global fallout. New broadband rollout policy raises alarm. And Ramaphosa’s R155bn property plan targets idle state assets.

Before she was a master of the reefs, Silindile “Mama Sli” Mbuyazi was a young girl terrified of the ocean, certain she would never enter the water. Her journey from profound fear to deep-seated love for the sea is the heartbeat of “Indoni Yamanzi”, a landmark film currently in post-production that captures her transformation from a grieving sister to a guardian of the deep.

As South Africa awaits the national budget, concerns are growing that a widening “student funding gap” is preventing thousands of qualified young people from accessing higher education, with potential long-term consequences for economic growth and social stability.

As Finance Minister prepares to table the 2026 national budget, some organisations have urged government to review the income thresholds that determine South Africa’s “missing-middle” students.

At the recent 17th Alternative Mining Indaba delegates were given food for thought when they heard about some faith-rooted community-led alternatives to extractive development.

After years of neglect, one of the Mother City's busiest transport hubs, the Golden Acre, is getting a much-needed facelift. The Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill Lewis, led a guided walkthrough of the Golden Acre Precinct, marking an important milestone in the ongoing redevelopment of one of the city’s most significant commuter and retail hubs.

The R1.2-billlion project to redevelop Cape Town’s well-known Golden Acre is gathering steam, with construction work in full swing to convert the 110-m-high, 24-storey office tower, located in the central business district (CBD), into rental accommodation.

Golden Acre is a shopping mall on the corner of Adderley and Strand Streets in the central business district of Cape Town, South Africa.[3] The building is set to be redeveloped into a mixed-use development, featuring affordable housing and retail space. Construction of the new building is scheduled for October 2025, and it is planned to open in 2027.[4]

Construction has officially started on the residential component of the R780 million Golden Acre redevelopment, which will convert the 24-storey tower into over 400 inner-city rental units.

The redeveloped Golden Acre will welcome its first tenants as early as October, a key project stakeholders said this week.

The residential development at the Golden Acre Precinct in the CBD is scheduled for completion on December 1, when tenants are expected to begin moving in.

Proceedings began with establishing that the City of Cape Town is the responsible owner of the Skybridge that leads from the Prasa station deck to the Golden Acre. (Photo: City of Cape Town)

Free SA has responded to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the fourth quarter of 2025, warning that the latest employment figures offer little relief to a labour market that remains structurally fragile and deeply concerning.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the 2026 State of the Nation Address, he moved beyond general acknowledgement of the housing crisis and outlined a series of more concrete interventions. These included accelerating the release of well-located public land, expanding social and affordable housing, unblocking stalled housing projects, reforming infrastructure financing, and strengthening coordination through the human settlements framework. These commitments signal an awareness that housing lies at the heart of South Africa’s inequality crisis. The question now is whether they will shift the structural conditions that continue to reproduce spatial exclusion.

AS South Africa awaits the State of the Nation Address (Sona) by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality (Free SA) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to move beyond rhetoric and present a bold, measurable plan to restore economic growth, rein in the unsustainable public wage bill, and rebuild South Africa’s credibility on the global stage.

ISFAP Welcomes Students as Universities Open, Reaffirming Support for the “Missing Middle” as Income Gaps Widen

As South Africans digest the latest matric results and look ahead to tomorrow’s state of the nation address (Sona) and the budget speech, a familiar concern resurfaces: how do we deploy our education spend to deliver real, internationally comparable outcomes?

Free SA has expressed serious concern over the content of and the approach taken by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in its proposed amendments to the Use of Official Languages Act, which entrench top-down, centralised control over language policy, at the expense of South Africa’s vibrant and diverse linguistic heritage.

Steenhuisen’s dip and the battle for the DA’s soul. Beyond the interest rate pause, 2026 marks a turning point for SA property. And alarm over hate speech legislation overreach.

Free SA, the Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality, has raised alarm over the draft regulations issued under the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, 2023, warning that the proposed implementation framework threatens to undermine certain core values embedded in South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

A R1.2 billion redevelopment of the iconic Golden Acre precinct in Cape Town’s CBD is set to bring 415 affordable rental housing units into the heart of the city, targeting young professionals who spend hours commuting each day.

Cape Town executive mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on Tuesday led a guided walkthrough of the Golden Acre Precinct in the CBD, marking a key milestone in the redevelopment of the city’s central commuter and retail hub, a project aimed at revitalising the inner city through improved safety, affordable housing and upgraded public spaces.

In a media statement, The Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality (Free SA) has launched a national campaign calling on South Africans to speak out against the draft regulations under the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, 2023.

The Foundation for Rights of Expression and Equality, Free SA, has issued a strong caution against the National Minimum Wage Commission’s proposed wage hike for 2026, calling it a “policy of exclusion” that risks deepening South Africa’s already catastrophic unemployment crisis. In its submission, authored by Free SA Director Paul Maritz, it argues that in a country with low productivity and fragile small businesses, raising the wage floor further is economically irresponsible and socially damaging.

MANZI Water is proud to announce a new brand partnership with Danél Louw, one of South Africa’s leading female HYROX athletes and a rising force on the global hybrid fitness stage.

The Give Back 100 campaign is a transformative bursary initiative by the institute that aims to remove the financial and practical barriers preventing South Africans from accessing higher education. The close of applications marks a key milestone in a nationwide effort to support 100 students with funded bursaries for the 2026 academic year.

Construction of the new residential tower in the Golden Acre Precinct has begun. The redevelopment of the Golden Acre Precinct, which sits at the centre of Cape Town's largest public transport interchange, has formally begun in recent weeks, marking a major step toward revitalising the heart of the city with the commercial office tower being converted to residential apartments housing, upgraded retail, and a safer, better-connected pedestrian environment.

Construction of the new residential tower in the Golden Acre Precinct has begun. The redevelopment of the Golden Acre Precinct, which sits at the centre of Cape Town's largest public transport interchange, has formally begun in recent weeks, marking a major step toward revitalising the heart of the city with the commercial office tower being converted to residential apartments housing, upgraded retail, and a safer, better-connected pedestrian environment.

Civil society organisation Free SA has submitted a formal submission in response to the Department of Basic Education opposing key aspects of the newly proposed BELA Regulations on school admissions and capacity.