The headlines of the leading newspapers on 21 May 2026:
NATIONAL:
# Business Day:
Reports the City of Johannesburg will investigate its finances amid the 5.3-billion-rand Eskom debt crisis. The mayor, Dada Morero, has pledged to work with the national government to solve the electricity crisis.
# And the Netwerk24 website:
Firstly also reports on Morero’s state of the city speech for Johannesburg. He says the ANC has taken over a broken city with an infrastructure backlog of 220-billion-rand from the DA.
And secondly, the website writes according to a report by Freedom Under the Law, the Constitutional Court is coming under increasing pressure to complete its work.
GAUTENG:
# The Star:
Writes the manager of a Durban hotel says the sewage crisis in the city is having a negative impact on tourism. He says his guests are greeted with a giant sinkhole full of sewage. This follows the problems the Mahatma Gandhi pumping station in the Point area is experiencing. He says he is dissatisfied with the response of the eThekwini Municipality.
# Sowetan:
Reports the deputy mayor of Tshwane and regional chairperson of the ANC, Eugene Modise, has withdrawn from the mayoral race. He says he is being slandered in the ANC.
# And The Citizen:
Also writes that Dada Morero conveniently placed the blame for Johannesburg’s collapse at the door of the DA, from whom the ANC took over.
WESTERN CAPE:
# Die Burger:
Reports the army’s deployment against gangs in the Western Cape is not producing results. The members are living in appalling conditions. The roof of their dormitory is leaking, there is no hot water, the food portions are too small and there are only three toilets and no toilet paper.
And secondly, the paper writes president Cyril Ramaphosa’s legal team has begun the process of a review application against the Section 89 panel report. The legal team has requested permission from Chief Justice Mandisa Maya to serve documents on two former senior judges who compiled the Phala Phala report.
EASTERN CAPE:
# The Herald in Gqeberha:
Reports about employees of a car parts company striking over the retrenchment of their colleagues,
and writes there are concerns about the outbreak of swine flu in Gqeberha.
KWAZULU-NATAL:
# The Witness in Pietermaritzburg:
Writes more white South Africans could be heading to the US after the Trump administration proposed plans to admit an additional 10-thousand Afrikaner asylum seekers from South Africa, raising the refugee ceiling for this group to 17-thousand-500.
And finally from NAMIBIA:
# Republikein in Windhoek:
Reports motorists involved in accidents could end up paying thousands of Namibian dollars in towing and storage fees. This follows a dispute between towing operators and insurance companies over who should bear the costs.
And secondly, the paper writes the Namibian navy has impounded a foreign fishing vessel that was allegedly involved in illegal fishing activities in Namibian territorial waters near the Angolan border.