Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula denies allegations she took bribes over three years while defence minister

South African prosecutors said on Monday they intended to charge the parliamentary speaker with corruption, alleging she took $135,000 (£107,000) and a wig in bribes over a three-year period while she was defence minister.

Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the speaker of the National Assembly, has not been arrested or charged. The prosecutors spoke at a court hearing over her claims that authorities hadn’t properly informed her of allegations or followed correct procedure.

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Her song Water made the South African a global star, while her undulating dance moves inspired TikTok challenges. Now the 22 year old is ready to take her ‘popiano’ sound to the next level

Tyla may have 4.3 million followers on Instagram (called the Tygers), but she isn’t yet used to the equivalent real-world level of fame. For instance, she was recently approached by TikTok troll Harry Daniels . “There’s this guy that finds celebrities and sings to them,” she explains. “He sang Water” – her breakthrough single – “and poured water on his head.”

She laughs down the phone from Los Angeles, where she is promoting her self-titled debut album, which is out today. At 22, Tyla has already won a Grammy for Water (it netted best African music performance, a new category), and has performed it on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, while the song charted in more than 30 countries. This level of cut-through isn’t common for South African musicians, and Tyla knows that she is blazing a trail for the country’s music scene. “More people are starting to know about South Africa now,” she says. “They want to hear me say ‘Yoh!’ and they love the dancing.”

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More than 100 countries impose levies on sugar, but should tariffs increase to improve wellbeing and generate revenues to help tackle related illnesses?

Lying in the shadow of Table Mountain, a short drive from the sprawling vineyards that help generate so much of South Africa’s tourism revenue, is Langa. In the city of Cape Town, this is the oldest example of a township, settlements originally created to segregate the black African community from urban areas. Today, Langa is home to just under 90,000 people, many of whom live in wooden or corrugated iron shacks.

But while Langa and South Africa’s other townships have traditionally suffered from diseases of deprivation such as tuberculosis , an infection facilitated by crowded and poorly ventilated living conditions, lifestyle-related illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke and heart disease have become rife in recent decades.

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Ade Adepitan makes a brave attempt to understand South African racial separatists; GoT’s creators deliver a mind-blowing sci-fi epic; Kristen Wiig tries to infiltrate a Palm Beach elite; and vaping goes under the microscope

Whites Only: Ade’s Extremist Adventure Channel 4 | channel4.com
3 Body Problem Netflix
Palm Royale Apple TV+
Jordan North: The Truth About Vaping (BBC Three) | iPlayer

Where to start with the Channel 4 documentary Whites Only: Ade’s Extremist Adventure? It’s one of the tensest you are likely to see all year. British Paralympian Ade Adepitan is the first black person to stay (for a week) in the South African whites-only Afrikaner town of Orania . In a global climate of attacks on multiculturalism, Adepitan asks if “racial separatism can ever be justified”.

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A bill now in the Lords is intended to protect Israel from any criticism. It goes further than Thatcher ever did when she tried to stop us protesting to free Nelson Mandela

Historic change was brought about in my home country thanks in no small part to the anti-apartheid protests and campaigns around the world. By boycotting sports, and goods such as wine and oranges, the world put pressure on South Africa that led to the end of the brutal apartheid regime. Now, the UK government is trying to force through an authoritarian piece of legislation that would outlaw similar boycotts – actions that are a vital form of democratic protest. That is, unless my fellow peers stand with me in opposing this bill in the House of Lords.

The economic activity of public bodies (overseas matters) bill , better known as the “ anti-boycott bill ”, is attempting to pick up where Margaret Thatcher’s government left off : banning public bodies from boycotting goods and businesses they believe are conducting problematic activity overseas. The bill is explicit in its focus on Israel, but history shows us that it would also have far-reaching and dangerous consequences for free speech and for human rights too.

Lord Hain is a former UK Middle East minister and Northern Ireland secretary of state

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Ade Adepitan is a charming presenter, but his ‘chilled-out’ approach to entering a ‘whites-only’ South African town is utterly feeble. At points, his passivity is borderline offensive

Not every attempt at documenting real events ends up fulfilling its intended purpose. Capturing the Friedmans started as a sweet tale about clowns and ended up lamenting harrowing crimes. Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster was planned to be a couple of infomercials, not a nuanced portrait of the poisonous effects of fame. Tom Cruise went on Oprah to chat on the sofa and discuss his love for Katie Holmes in a totally normal way.

In the case of Whites Only: Ade’s Extremist Adventure, Ade Adepitan’s attempt to see if “racial separatism can ever be justified” becomes a cautionary tale for black people who think they can one-of-the-good-ones themselves out of white supremacy.

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Ran der Merwe’s documentary returns the director to the Northern Cape where he grew up, but glosses over trauma and injustice

Situated in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, Calvinia is a rural town blessed with a magnificently scenic landscape, where towering mountain ranges give way to far-reaching plains. It is also the birthplace of film-maker Rudivan der Merwe, whose documentary ode, with its triptych structure guided by childhood memories, is both a pilgrimage and farewell to his home town.

Van der Merwe first fixes his camera on his parents, who were livestock ranchers. In contrast to the supposed quaintness of farm life, the presence of violence is also emphasised; one scene, for instance, lingers on a goat being slaughtered. There are other forces of violence at play as well. Conversations with a lesbian couple reveal the homophobia that runs deep in the town.

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Cheri Nel cannot afford Vertex’s Trikafta medicine, so she is suing to end ‘patent abuse’ and allow a generic version

Cheri Nel has a blunt message for the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company Vertex: “Any person that dies from today – that’s on you.” Vertex makes a “miracle drug” called Trikafta that can transform the lives of people with cystic fibrosis.

The medication gives them a normal life expectancy, rather than facing the likelihood of dying as young adults, and lives that are no longer blighted by frequent lung infections and hospital admissions.

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Attack on juvenile is thought to be first known time a lone orca has hunted down a great white

It is a smash and grab that has stunned scientists: in less than two minutes, a killer whale attacked and consumed a great white shark before swimming off with the victim’s liver in its mouth.

Experts say the event off the coast of Mossel Bay in South Africa offers new insights into the predatory behaviour of orcas.

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