Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

ANC member Suleiman Carrim linked to R1.5m SAPS contract payout

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 15h

🔒ANC member Suleiman Carrim linked to R1.5m SAPS contract payout www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/...

Secret witness tells Madlanga commission Carrim received money from attempted murder accused Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala

Mkhwanazi sent friends Tupac song about ‘killing enemies’ after Khumalo’s arrest – Sibiya | News24

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 15h

🔒 Mkhwanazi sent friends Tupac song about killing his enemies at night after Khumalo’s arrest – Sibiya www.news24.com/politics/mkh...

KwaZulu-Natal top cop Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi was so frustrated by the axing of Crime Intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo that he sent colleagues a song by the late American rapper Tupac,...

In an era when AI delivers the answer before the question is even asked, the sanctity of wonder is slipping away, and soon the act of asking might vanish entirely.

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 1d

The demise of curiosity: In an era when AI delivers the answer before the question is even asked, the sanctity of wonder is slipping away, and soon the act of asking might vanish entirely. africasacountry.com/2025/09/the-...

The demise of curiosity

africasacountry.com

Andries Bezuidenhout | Fort Hare’s fight against institutional capture sparked violence | News24

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 1d

🔒Andries Bezuidenhout | Fort Hare’s fight against institutional capture sparked violence www.news24.com/opinions/col...

Protest at a university is good, but arson and intimidation are not, writes Andries Bezuidenhout.

How Lucky Montana piled up a R55m tax debt

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Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 1d

🔒How Lucky Montana piled up a R55m tax debt. FHe failed to declare R36m income over 10 years to the SA Revenue Service (Sars) and more than R2m in capital gains, records from the revenue authority show. www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/...

Former Prasa CEO says he does not owe a cent, as Sars seeks sequestration

SA’s great queer memoricide is a choice, but so is remembrance

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 1d

South Africa’s great queer memoricide is a choice, but so is remembrance. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

It seems SA’s queer history is being bulldozed into oblivion, erased before it can scream. As we commemorate Africa’s first Pride march, does today’s queer community even care about that day, when it ...

James Meek · Computers that want things

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Reposted by Pierre de Vos

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 2d

‘The most devastating shortcoming of LLMs is that however many things they appear to know about the world, and however smoothly they express these things, they don’t actually know that there is a world.’

@jamesmeek.bsky.social on Artificial General Intelligence: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

For all the fluency and synthetic friendliness of public-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, it seems important to remember...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 2d

🔒Jean Redpath | Political Killings Task Team burned millions while KZN murder rate exploded. Each R4.4 million spent yielded a single conviction in three years. www.news24.com/opinions/ana...

Jean Redpath | Political Killings Task Team burned millions while KZN murder rate exploded | News24

Annexures tabled at the Madlanga Commission reveal KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team spent R235 million over three years yet achieving a mere 17% conviction rate, writes Jean Redpath.

Police inquiries — we, the people, are the grass being trampled

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 2d

Police inquiries — we, the people, are the grass being trampled. "There are no angels in the testimony being led at both the commission and the parliamentary inquiry." www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

The two inquiries now under way are about recognising that the country is transforming from being captured to being criminalised, and taking the opportunity to stop that trajectory.

Legal bid to protect migrants dismissed amid Operation Dudula’s campaign

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Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 2d

Legal bid to protect migrants dismissed while vigilante group Operation Dudula’s campaign intensifies www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

The South African Human Rights Commission’s legal bid to protect the healthcare rights of migrants has failed, as Operation Dudula has expanded the reach of its anti-migrant campaign, now targeting th...

Violent protests at Fort Hare were politically orchestrated, says VC

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 2d

‘This thing was sponsored’ — violent protests at Fort Hare were politically orchestrated, probably linked to the imminent release of a SIU report naming 33 high-ranking politicians implicated in academic fraud, says vice-chancellor www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

The University of Fort Hare’s vice-chancellor, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, believes last week's violent protests at the university were linked to the imminent release of a Special Investigating Unit (...

ANC slate politics — how SAPS Crime Intelligence always showed up

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 2d

ANC slate politics — from Mangaung to Polokwane and Nasrec, SAPS Crime Intelligence always showed up. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

The fetid boil of police corruption that has been lanced in the wake of General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s bombshells-that-have-been-public-for-years is nearing the source of its cause.

Masemola admits he didn’t read directive disbanding SAPS task team until media reports surfaced

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 2d

🔒Masemola admits he didn’t read directive disbanding SAPS task team until media reports surfaced www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/...

Police commissioner’s testimony on day four of ad hoc committee hearings raises fresh questions about executive oversight, operational control and SAPS accountability

CHRIS ROPER: Our beleaguered, very special investigators

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 5d

🔒CHRIS ROPER: Our beleaguered, very special investigators. Journalists Micah Reddy and Pauli van Wyk, with their definitive book about Malema, demonstrate the importance of the fourth estate in revealing the truth about politicians in South Africa. www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/...

Journalists Micah Reddy and Pauli van Wyk, with their definitive book about Malema, demonstrate the importance of the fourth estate in revealing the truth about politicians in South Africa

The Mogotsi-Maumela connection: Another R1bn health tender reveals bedfellows with benefits | News24

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 5d

🔒The Mogotsi-Maumela connection: Another R1bn health tender reveals bedfellows with benefits www.news24.com/investigatio...

Political influence peddler Brown Mogotsi launched court action to overturn a R1-billion North West health department catering tender award, claiming to act in the public interest and on behalf of los...

Homes of Hangwani Maumela and Shadrack SibIya are raided

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 5d

Good thing for Maumela that lack of taste is not a crime... Law enforcement raids homes of tender tycoon Hangwani Maumela and suspended police officer Shadrack Sibiya. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

Social Development’s R3m NYC trip was ‘actually modest’, Parliament hears

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Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 5d

Tolashe’s explanation on the appointment of 22-year-old Lesedi Mabiletja as her chief of staff shattered credulity, claiming her former chief of staff, Zanele Simmons, had betrayed her trust by falsifying Mabiletja’s CV to smuggle her into the department. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

Appearing before Parliament to answer multiple allegations of wrongdoing, Department of Social Development officials failed to reassure opposition MPs — and repeatedly fudged the facts.

SA’s policing scandal – ‘Under siege’ Sibiya and Mchunu’s chief staffer raided

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 5d

SA’s policing scandal explodes – ‘Under siege’ Sibiya and Mchunu’s chief staffer raided www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

The gloves have come off in South Africa’s policing scandal. Suspended top cop Shadrack Sibiya’s home was raided, while sidelined Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s chief of staff told journalists that po...

ANTHONY BUTLER: Ashor Sarupen a likely, and good, successor to Zille in DA council

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Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 5d

🔒ANTHONY BUTLER: Ashor Sarupen a likely, and good, successor to Zille in DA council www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/c...

Although strongly associated with Helen Zille, Sarupen cannot easily be painted as her puppet or proxy

László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 6d

László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025. The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm

www.theguardian.com

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 6d

🔒Indecisive JSC doesn’t fill SCA vacancy – as two strong female candidates split votes www.news24.com/southafrica/...

Indecisive JSC doesn’t fill SCA vacancy – as two strong female candidates split votes | News24

The Judicial Service Commission was split over whho of six judicial nominees should be appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeal, so neither Judge Leonie Windell nor Judge Thandi Norman was recommended...

EDITORIAL | Mkhwanazi’s threat against journalists is a threat against democracy | News24

Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 6d

🔒EDITORIAL | Mkhwanazi’s threat against journalists is a threat against democracy. KwaZulu-Natal police boss Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi must decide if he wants to be a corruption buster or a tin-pot dictator in police uniform. www.news24.com/opinions/edi...

The KwaZulu-Natal police boss must be rebuked for threatening media freedom and undermining democracy, write News24’s editors.

‘Scrape until we find gold’: Mkhwanazi probes Mchunu trust, reveals Matlala-Cele money ties | News24

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Pierre de Vos @pierredevos.bsky.social · 6d

🔒"Cele sends Vusi Matlala account details. Matlala deposits money into a private account, and not Cele's account, someone else's account. He puts money into that account and sends proof to Cele. Cele acknowledged, and there is no further communication." www.news24.com/politics/scr...

Investigators are deep diving into a trust fund in the name of suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu in a bid to track down dubious payments.