News24 | News24’s Impact Report 2025: The stories that made headlines this year

Two years before armed gunmen walked into an office in Johannesburg and murdered insolvency lawyer Bouwer van Niekerk, he wrote an opinion piece for News24 in which he quoted WB Yeats’ poem The Second Coming. He drew on its apocalyptic imagery of collapse and failure to describe the “mafia state” South Africa had become.

Yeats’ and Van Niekerk’s words remain unsettlingly prescient as the country finds itself stuck in a widening maelstrom spinning faster as things fall apart, and as more anarchy, anxiety, corruption, ineptitude, and violence are further unleashed on the country.

This year, it became evident that the worst among us were gaining in their passionate intensity, their hubris giving way to sudden desperation. And it is always lives that are at stake – often the lives of those who pay the price for someone else’s power, greed, or fear.

The fallout from KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s bombshell press briefing on the rot within the force played out everywhere: in committees, commissions, assemblies and hospitals; in meetings and media briefings; in luxury boutiques and suburban driveways; and in jails, courtrooms and, inevitably, on every device. Readers recognised the cast of characters because News24 journalists had named them first.

This year also forced us, collectively, to contend with the will-they-won’t-they relationship between the ANC and the DA, three Budgets, the accelerating presence of AI, increasingly sophisticated disinformation, relentless crime, crumbling infrastructure, White House shenanigans, debates over genocide, tariffs and trade wars, real wars, and the real lives lived and lost at the sharp edge of it all.

Yet as exhausted as South Africans are by the state of things, we continue to find flashes of hope (or, at least, humour) to get us through. After three decades of bitterness and anger at being let down by our politicians, our protectors, and each other, we have reached a moment where it no longer feels naïve to invest emotionally in the Proteas or Bafana Bafana. That alone is worth noting.

Most of us have made it through this year relatively intact. The responsibility now lies with all of us to push the country toward a place where we can endure again – not armed with hope alone, but with real voices insisting we make it through together.

Surely, some… better… revelation is at hand?

It was an eventful year with countless stories to be told, and News24 could not have brought them to light without the people who support our work. Become a News24 subscriber to contribute to quality journalism that keeps the country clicking.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC have to stop treating law enforcement like a political football – and actually support the appointment of skilled and ethical police officers who want to keep South Africans safe, writes Karyn Maughan.

Karyn Maughan, Specialist legal journalist

The Cat with 9 lives: Matlala at centre of SA law enforcement’s Damascene moment

49-year-old tenderpreneur Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala is a colourful character: disarticulate but impeccably dressed in high-end fashion brands. News24 investigative journalist Jeff Wicks writes about the man at the heart of the implosion of the country’s criminal justice cluster.

Jeff Wicks, Investigative journalist

Year of the hitman: Mafole and Van Niekerk are only two of 2025's high-profile murders

The hits on municipal auditor Mpho Mafole and liquidation lawyer Bouwer van Niekerk were the latest high-profile murders in a series of violent deaths of investigators probing corruption and malfeasance involving public funds. Sikonathi Mantshantsha writes that both mirrored the hits on Babita Deokaran and Simnikiwe Mapini years earlier.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Investigative journalist

Unmasking the X-Boer, the ‘farmer’ who helped influence Trump’s view of South Africa

In April 2025, News24 revealed that Sebastiaan Jooste was behind @Twatterbaas – a conservative X account that had gained influence over Elon Musk and, thereby, Donald Trump’s view of South Africa. The true costs of this disinformation war will only be known in years to come, writes Kyle Cowan.

Kyle Cowan, Investigative journalist

Trump’s tariff tantrum: Bye-bye piece of American pie

The recent flare-up in tensions between the US and SA over the G20 probably doesn’t bode well for a future trade deal. In addition, as Helena Wasserman writes, new US legislation is currently under consideration that will exclude South Africa from AGOA in the future.

Helena Wasserman, Business Editor

After surviving a tumultuous year, will Godongwana keep his hat on for Budget 2026?

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana endured and survived three Budget speeches in 2025. Hanlie Nordejee looks back at the minister’s “Ides of March” moment, and how the GNU has apparently changed the way the government operates.

Hanlie Nordejee, Deputy Business Editor

No hope of detente: SA can expect more of the same bullying from Trump in 2026

In 2025, simmering tensions between South Africa and the United States exploded into an outright diplomatic war, redefining the dynamics of their already fraught relationship. During South Africa’s G20 presidency, trade disputes, political clashes, and conflicting geopolitical agendas escalated into dramatic confrontations, writes Amanda Khoza.

Amanda Khoza, Political journalist

SA's GNU survived 2025's uncharted waters, but could it still get lost at sea?

It was a stormy year for the government of national unity, but somehow it made it through intact, writes parliamentary journalist Jan Gerber.

Jan Gerber, Political journalist

Jozi jazzed up: A crumbling city of gold puts its best dress on for G20 visitors

Johannesburg’s hosting of the G20 Leaders’ Summit highlighted the city’s glaring cracks, from water shortages and crumbling infrastructure to political chaos and leadership gaps, writes Alex Patrick.

Alex Patrick, Journalist

The perfect year: Proteas men and women restore SA cricket to its former glory in 2025

In a stellar year for South African sport, the headline must be our cricketers, who reached heights that only recently seemed unattainable, writes Lloyd Burnard.

Lloyd Burnard, Sports Editor

Royal send-off: Miss SA manages to crown a year that didn't always go that beautifully

After leadership exits, postponed plans and months of silence that nearly derailed this year’s Miss South Africa pageant, Qhawe Mazaleni emerged victorious. Keitumetse Maako takes a look at the highs, lows, and in-betweens the organisation faced in the past year.

Keitumetse Maako, Entertainment journalist

The year illustrated

Click on the cartoons below to enlarge them, or click here to see the full offering from 2025.

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