The headlines of the leading newspapers on 18 July 2025:
NATIONAL:
# Business Day:
Reports the G20 financial leaders are working to lower the cost of cross-border payments and increase access to the payment system in Africa. Migrants are burdened with high payment fees that are hindering the implementation of the continent’s free trade agreement.
# Mail & Guardian on Fridays:
Writes the allegations of fraud against Police minister Senzo Mchunu have cast a dark cloud over the integrity of the ANC’s leadership in KwaZulu-Natal.
# And the Netwerk24 website:
Reports the verdict in the case against Amber Lee Hughes for the murder of four-year-old Nada-Jane Challita has been postponed at the eleventh hour after Hughes changed her legal representation. Nada-Jane’s father Elie, says he sees it as just a delaying tactic.
Then the website writes about the suspected suicide of 21-year-old Jonathan Gouws, a law student at Northwest University. His body was found in a storage room at the Kom-en-Gaan residence.
And finally, the police are reported to have already received more than 920-thousand applications for five-thousand-500 student posts.
GAUTENG:
# The Star:
Writes economists and political analysts say one of the main reasons for Donald Trump’s tariffs is concern in the US that BRICS countries are developing a strategy to undermine the dollar.
# Sowetan:
Reports on a bridge project in Diepsloot that was started in 2021 after a learner drowned in the Jukskei River. Almost 67-million-rand has already been spent, and it now appears that a further 12-million-rand is needed to complete the project.
# And The Citizen:
Writes some of the most important routes in Johannesburg are under threat and could collapse due to illegal miners digging tunnels everywhere.
WESTERN CAPE:
# Die Burger:
Leads with the storm that erupted around the DA’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, Emma Powell. She revealed that South Africa’s special envoy, Mcebisi Jonas, was allegedly denied entry to the US. It has also been alleged that she is spreading so-called untruths about the country. The DA now officially wants to know from the ANC government whether Powell was spied on.
And secondly, the paper quotes education expert, Professor Mariëtte Reyneke of the University of the Free State, as saying that the impact of the Bela Act on Afrikaans schools should not be approached emotionally. She says the act does not mean a death sentence for Afrikaans schools.
EASTERN CAPE:
# Daily Despatch in East London:
Reports the violent protests over the removal of illegal power connections are continuing.
And writes that a student has allegedly been appointed to investigate the shooting at Walter Sisulu University.
KWAZULU-NATAL:
# The Witness in Pietermaritzburg:
Writes there are concerns about the delay in vaccinations.
And reports that Ballito is getting ready to receive the G20 ministers.
And finally from NAMIBIA:
# Republikein in Windhoek:
Reports Meatco paid millions of rand to feedlots that were inactive during the period from October 2024 to May this year.
Then the paper writes one of the accused in the Enercon-Namcor corruption case says that misconceptions being raised are putting his family at risk.
And finally, it is reported the Erongo region wants to have the majestic Brandberg declared an official UNESCO world heritage site.