The headlines of the leading newspapers on 13 October 2026:
NATIONAL:
# Business Day:
Reports the embattled sugar producer, Tongaat Hulett, is set to delist from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange after 74 years. The paper writes this marks the end of an era for a company plagued by scandals.
# And the Netwerk24 website:
Reports it emerged in the Constitutional Court that the ANC may merely have been negligent regarding the submission of its Eastern Cape candidate lists. The party failed to press the submission button. The Electoral Commission says the ANC has followed this process for ten years, but this time, they realised their mistake too late.
GAUTENG:
# The Star:
Reports violent protests erupted at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville campus after the Student Representative Council election results were disputed. The ANC-affiliated South African Students Congress won the election. Supporters of the EFF Youth Command are challenging the outcome, alleging irregularities in the voting process.
# Sowetan:
Reports on how the police investigation into the murder of East Rand runner Elizabeth ‘Tsontso’ Moselakgomo led to the tracking of the sale of her Garmin timer, resulting in the arrest of two suspects and the shop owner who had tried to offload it for four-thousand-rand.
# And The Citizen:
Writes the government is strangling the country. In Mpumalanga, 6.78-billion-rand has been squandered over the past three years. The Auditor-General states that this can be attributed to poor control measures, corruption, and a lack of consequences for the offenders.
WESTERN CAPE:
# Die Burger:
Also reports on the ANC’s battle in the Constitutional Court to include its Eastern Cape candidates.
The paper writes about the 81 year old veteran actor Marius Weyers, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
And finally, there is news about South African television presenter and motivational speaker Michael Mol, who lost his Vespa keys, and how the Cape Town Metro Police assisted him.
EASTERN CAPE:
# The Herald in Gqeberha:
Reports on the sewage crisis in Helenvale, Gqeberha. Sewage runoff in the streets has become so severe that residents are digging channels to keep the sewage out of their living rooms.
And secondly, the paper writes Dawood Lagardien, owner of La Gardi in Gqeberha, must pay 200-thousand-rand and apologise after displaying a notice banning gay people from his packaging supply store.
KWAZULU-NATAL:
# The Witness in Pietermaritzburg:
Writes former president Jacob Zuma has reportedly shown a remarkable recovery, and reports on the heatwave in KwaZulu-Natal.
And finally, from NAMIBIA:
# Republikein in Windhoek:
Reports the southern regions, Hardap and Kharas, are heavily in debt to NamPower. Regional councils and local authorities owe the electricity supplier approximately 613-million-rand.
The paper writes the family of a Grade 12 boarding school learner from Kavango—who sustained severe head and spinal cord injuries in a diving accident—claims the boy and other boarders were left unsupervised.
And finally, there is news about an orphaned rhino calf from the Rhino Momma Project that urgently needs fat-free milk.