Three South Africans have been charged with murder following the killing of an e-hailing taxi driver, the manner of whose death, captured on dashcam footage, has shocked many people.
A video shared widely on social media shows a man and a woman tussling with the driver, Isaac Satlat, who they appeared to be robbing. Satlat tries to fight back before one of the passengers appears to strangle him until he goes limp.
The trio, who were arrested over the weekend, were in court in Pretoria on Monday and have since abandoned their bail applications. They were not asked to comment on the charges.
A fourth suspect later handed himself over to police on Monday.
He will appear in court on Tuesday, police said in a brief update after Dikeledi Mphala, 24, Goitsione Machidi, 25 and McClaren Mushwana, 30 made a brief appearance. All four also face robbery charges.
Satlat, 22, was a Nigerian national but, in a country that has often been blighted by xenophobic violence, his family said the attack was not linked to his nationality.
According to prosecutors, the accused ordered a ride on e-hailing platform Bolt last Wednesday using a number not registered in any of their names.
When the car arrived, Mphala and the fourth suspect allegedly got into the car while Machidi and Mushwana followed them in a separate car, authorities added.
They then “forced the deceased to stop the vehicle, strangled him to death and robbed him of his cell phone and vehicle which was later recovered”, the prosecuting authority’s spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said.
There have been a growing number of reports of e-hailing drivers coming under attack in South Africa, with drivers calling for greater protection, as the country grapples with high crime levels and one of the highest murder rates in the world.
The e-hailing partners’ council condemned Satlat’s killing, adding that it was not an “isolated incident”.
The organisation praised the role that the dashcam footage and social media played in capturing his murder but reiterated calls for “preventative security measures” to better protect drivers.
It also called on e-hailing companies to “vet and verify passengers to prevent criminals masquerading as customers”.
Numerous political parties and e-hailing drivers gathered outside the court house on Monday to protest against Satlat’s murder.
One driver called for the government to set up a task team to deal with the attacks on them, according to local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.
He also called for the establishment of a system to compensate the families of drivers killed on the job. Spokesperson for the Satlat family Solomon Izang Ashoms said his relatives were left with unanswered questions.
“His dad is struggling, we’re very afraid for [him] because his blood pressure’s been shooting up [since the death],” Ashoms said.
The case against the three was postponed to next Monday.
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A community clinic just north of Johannesburg has become the frontline of a battle in South Africa over whether foreigners can access public health facilities.
What started as a small local action in one area in 2022 has spread, with activists from the avowedly anti-migrant group, Operation Dudula, picketing some hospitals and clinics in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. They check identity cards and stop anyone who is not South African from entering.
“Dudula” means to remove something by force in the Zulu language.
Despite some arrests, the authorities seem unable to prevent the pickets.
The site of their latest campaign is in Dieplsoot – a poor township of more than 200,000 people near the country’s commercial hub.
On a cool, spring Thursday morning, Sicelokuhle Moyo, dressed in a blue-and-beige skirt, thick windbreaker and a black headwrap, set out early for the clinic.
The Zimbabwean, who has lived in South Africa since 2006, was going there, as she often did, to collect her medication for a chronic condition.
But this time, when she reached the gate, things were different.
“I said that I had a passport. They said, they don’t take passports. They want IDs only””, Source: Sicelokuhle Moyo, Source description: , Image: A head and shoulders shot of a woman in a white jacket and black headwrap.
Two men wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Operation Dudula – Mass Deportation” were stationed at the entrance. They demanded that everyone produce their documents before being allowed inside.
“I said that I had a passport. They said, they don’t take passports. They want IDs only,” Ms Moyo said, hiding her frustration behind a polite smile.
Despite this being a potential flashpoint, there was a strange calmness and resignation as people knew that Operation Dudula activists had been violent in the past.
Anyone unable to produce a South African ID book was turned away.
Slowly walking from the entrance, Ms Moyo joined a group of women by the roadside, young children tied to their backs, waiting with uncertainty for what would happen next.
Tendai Musvava, a woman in her 40s, faced the same fate.
“I was standing in the queue and then they said, they [only] need some people with IDs. Me, I don’t have an ID. I have a passport, I am from Mozambique. So, I can’t get my medication because I don’t have an ID,” she said.
Ms Musvava, dressed in a bright orange winter jumper and a white hat, appeared despondent.
“I just feel like they do what they want because it’s their country. I don’t have a say. For now I have to follow whatever they say. I don’t have a choice.”
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South Africa is home to about 2.4 million migrants, just less than 4% of the population, according to official figures. Most come from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which have a history of providing migrant labour to their wealthy neighbour.
Xenophobia has long been an issue in South Africa which has been accompanied by occasional outbursts of deadly violence, and anti-migrant sentiment has become a key political talking-point.
Having started as a campaign, Operation Dudula, which has, at times, been accused of using force to make its point, is now a political party with ambitions to contest next year’s local government elections.
Party leader Zandile Dabula insists that what her organisation is doing at public clinics in Johannesburg and other parts of the country is justified.
“We want prioritisation of South Africans. Emergency care – we understand that you must be treated – but if you are illegal you must be handed over to the law enforcers,” she told the BBC.
“Health cannot be a freebie for everyone. We cannot cater for the whole globe. We don’t have enough””, Source: Zandile Dabula , Source description: Leader, Operation Dudula, Image: A head and shoulders shot of the leader of Operation Dudula
When challenged with the fact that many migrants are in the country legally, she pivots to the argument that South Africans need to be prioritised because there are minimal resources.
“Life comes first, we don’t deny that, but it cannot be a freebie for everyone. We cannot cater for the whole globe. We don’t have enough.”
The constitution guarantees the right to access healthcare for everyone in the country, regardless of nationality or immigration status.
But Ms Dabula says the public health system, which caters for almost 85% of the population, is overburdened.
She says that some people have to wake up at 04:00 to join long queues at their local clinic because they know that if they don’t get there on time, there will be no medication left.
South Africa is a profoundly unequal society, with much of the country’s wealth held in only a few hands. Unemployment and poverty levels are high and migrants, who often live in poor communities, are blamed by some for the problems people find themselves in.
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Operation Dudula’s methods have found a sympathetic hearing among some Diepsloot residents.
One of them, South African Sipho Mohale, described Operation Dudula’s campaign as “a positive change”.
“The previous time when I was here, the queue was very long. But this time around, it only took me a couple of minutes to get my stuff and get out,” he said.
Another resident, Jennifer Shingange, also welcomed the activists’ presence in Diepsloot.
“As South Africans, we would come to the clinic, only to find that the medication we need is not available. But since foreign nationals stopped using the clinic, there has been a difference,” she said.
Ironically, some South Africans have not been spared from the anti-migrant campaign.
They too have been turned away from public health facilities because they could not produce an ID book – more than 10% of South Africans are thought not to have proper documents proving their nationality.
But it is the flouting of the constitution in Operation Dudula’s actions that angers activists on the other side of the argument.
“To have a group that is not sanctioned by the state to make decisions about who gets in and who gets out is deeply problematic,” said Fatima Hassan, a human rights lawyer from the organisation Health Justice Initiative.
“Unless government gets a handle on this situation quite soon, it’s going to lose the ability to do law and order itself.”
“Health is a human right… you don’t organise it through bullying kind of methods””, Source: Dr Joe Phaahla, Source description: Deputy Health Minister, Image: A head and shoulders shot of Dr Joe Phaahla.
Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla told the BBC that his government was against the targeting of foreign nationals or anyone else trying to use local clinics and hospitals.
“We don’t agree with that approach because health is a human right. As much as we understand the fact that the provision of services must be properly organised, you don’t organise it through bullying kind of methods,” he told the BBC.
Several major political parties, including the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance, have also condemned Operation Dudula.
But a recent attempt to take it to court by the South African Human Rights Commission failed on a technicality, effectively allowing the group to continue its campaign.
Several Operation Dudula members have been arrested in recent weeks for blocking the entrances of public health facilities. They were later released with a warning. The police’s action, however, does not appear to have deterred the group.
Ms Hassan believes that stronger action is required saying that “the police and the military should have been there on day one to prevent [the picketing] because that is simply lawlessness”.
Dr Phaahla said this measure was being explored but the police have said resources are “stretched in terms of being able to monitor and intervene timeously when such incidents occur”.
While the state hesitates over what to do, Operation Dudula appears emboldened and is turning its attention to public schools, saying that it is part of a campaign to fight illegal immigration.
But in Diepsloot, the group’s action leaves people without the medical help they need.
Ms Musvava, who was turned away, is now looking for alternatives. Despite her meagre resources, she is considering going to the private sector.
“I think I’ll have to go to the doctor. I will pay the money. I will have to sacrifice to get it,” she said.
She had no idea how much it would cost her.
“I don’t have money, but I will have to make a plan.”
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South Africa’s world-famous Kruger National Park could become known by a new name if some local politicians have their way.
The vast wildlife sanctuary, called the Sabi Game Reserve at the time, was re-christened in 1926 to honour Paul Kruger. He was president in the late 19th Century of what was known as the South African Republic, which forms part of what is now the east of South Africa.
For Afrikaners, descendants of 17th Century European settlers, Kruger is revered as a hero who led the resistance against British colonialism.
But for the majority of South Africans, he is viewed as a relic of the country’s racist past, as he was one of those responsible for driving black Africans off their land and excluding them from having a say in running the republic.
Many South African cities, towns, roads and other major infrastructure have been given new names since the end of the legalised system of racial discrimination, known as apartheid, and the beginning of the democratic era in 1994. Though sometimes controversial, the decisions have been justified as a way to break with what went before – both the apartheid and colonial era.
But the proposed Kruger name-change does not just touch on history, it also could have a bearing on the country’s fragile economy.
Tourists go to the park in their hundreds of thousands every year to view the wildlife on offer [AFP via Getty Images]
The national park, home to elephants, lions, hippos, leopards and many other animals, attracts almost a million visitors a year, and is a jewel in the crown of South Africa’s tourism industry.
Some argue that changing Kruger’s name could threaten that.
Part of the park is in Mpumalanga province and in September, as the country celebrated Heritage Month, representatives from the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) put forward a proposal in the region’s legislature to change Kruger’s name.
“How do we celebrate our heritage as South Africans when we still have our beautiful national parks named after the architect of apartheid Paul Kruger,” EFF representative Rhulani Qhibi was quoted as saying in a stirring speech. While not historically accurate, as apartheid in its legal form was introduced decades after Kruger’s death, the rhetoric reflects the way he is viewed by some.
The EFF also proposed the renaming of other key landmarks in the province, including the Kruger Mpumalanga International airport.
But in their haste to remove Kruger’s association with the park, the EFF, whose national leader is the firebrand MP Julius Malema, put forward another problematic name: Skukuza.
Skukuza, which means “he who sweeps clean” in the Tsonga language, was the nickname given to the park’s first warden, James Stevenson-Hamilton, who was known for driving out poachers and black communities that lived in the park in its early days, among other things.
The EFF leader in Mpumalanga, Collen Sedibe, was quoted in South African publication Sunday World as admitting the party’s blunder.
“We are still engaging with the land claimants at Kruger National Park and the people who were staying there because they said Skukuza is not the right name. He was the man who kicked them out of the park,” Sedibe said.
The Paul Kruger statue in Pretoria has sometimes attracted the ire of protesters – it was daubed with red paint in 2020 [Gallo Images via Getty Images]
Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum condemned the EFF’s proposal as “cheap politics and proof that political power-hunger in the province outweighs informed or responsible decision-making”.
The group vowed to mount legal challenges to any attempts to rename the park without due process and blasted the EFF for criticising its namesake.
“The Kruger National Park was created thanks to Kruger’s vision [and] to ignore Kruger’s contribution to the establishment of the country’s most important national park… is opportunistic and blatantly spreading lies,” AfriForum’s Marais de Vaal said in reaction to the news.
The motion to change the name was adopted by the provincial legislature after receiving support from its largest parties, the African National Congress (ANC), which is in power nationally, and uMkhonto weSizwe.
Despite it not being legally binding, as there is a national process that any name change needs to go through, detractors have warned that if approved it could damage the tourism sector, which contributes almost 9% to the country’s economy.
It could have “severe consequences… it might even dilute the international recognition of this park and South Africa as a tourism destination that we’ve built over so many years”, tourism expert Prof Elmarie Slabbert told the BBC.
There would also be the cost of having to rebrand the park.
The academic, a research director at the North West University’s school of tourism management, did acknowledge “that we need to honour indigenous heritage”.
“But the effect on the economy is going to be so significant that we need to decide where do we spend our money. We’ve got such a high unemployment rate at this point in time that I believe that is where the money should go.”
More than 30% of the working-age population are unemployed – ranked by the World Bank as one of the worst jobless rates of any nation – and youth unemployment is even higher.
But economics is not the only basis on which name-change decisions have been made.
The need to address the inequities of the country’s past has been seen as vital.
The Indian Ocean city of Gqeberha was known as Port Elizabeth until 2021 [Getty Images]
For instance, the name of former Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, a key figure in implementing apartheid, has been removed from many places.
Other changes include the city of Port Elizabeth. Named after the wife of a 19th Century British official, it is now called Gqeberha, the Xhosa word for the river that runs through it. King William’s Town, after William IV, is now Qonce, also referring to a river.
Johannesburg’s international airport, once known as Jan Smuts – honouring a former prime minister – is now called OR Tambo, after the anti-apartheid leader and former president of the ANC.
Some cities, like the capital, Pretoria, have kept their monikers but the local government areas under which they come have been renamed.
Plenty of other renaming ideas have been floated, including changing the name of the Eastern Cape seaside town of Port Alfred, which commemorates Queen Victoria’s second son. Some have even suggested changing the country’s name to Azania.
Many of these proposals have divided public opinion, and to ensure that changes are not just made on a whim there is an extensive legal process that needs to be completed.
It is managed by the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC) and begins with an application either by individuals, communities or institutions to the body’s provincial branch.
The proposal is discussed and could lead to a public consultation. Once this has been concluded, the name-change plan is sent to the national office.
If it is thought to satisfy “all the requirements”, a recommendation will then be made to the sports, arts and culture minister for a final decision, SAGNC chairperson Dr Nkadimeng Mahosi told the BBC.
“What is happening here [in Mpumalanga’s legislature], does not go according to what the national act says… [and] is political point-scoring,” he said.
As a national landmark, and the fact that different government departments will need to have a say, Kruger is a unique case, Dr Mahosi added.
There are then several bureaucratic hurdles that need to be negotiated before the name Kruger ever disappears from tourism brochures.
But the debate has revealed the sensitivities that continue to exist around how to deal with the country’s past and the legacy of those who used to govern it.
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