For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Shomolekae.

Making headlines: Mchunu rubbishes white genocide claim; Parliament calls for public input on Constitution in yearly review; And, South Africa plans legal workaround to smooth way for Starlink

Mchunu rubbishes white genocide claim

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said that reports that suggest there is a genocide in South Africa against whites are “totally unfounded and unsubstantiated”, cautioning the public about consuming and sharing information on social media platforms, where he says old or recycled news stories are often circulated to create panic.

Mchunu was speaking during a briefing on the release of the Fourth Quarter Crime Statistics, in Pretoria, where he said these “outdated reports” can give the “false impression” that crime is spiralling out of control, when in fact they do not reflect the current reality.

He pointed out that South Africa was a democratic State, with many NGOs, NPOs and free media, that would have run headlines locally and abroad if there was such a genocide in the country.

Mchunu welcomed and noted doubts expressed by media houses in the US, the UK and in South Africa, noting that images displayed by Trump, showing many crosses on both sides of a road in KwaZulu Natal, in protest against a farm murder in 2020, which has since resulted in prosecutions.

Parliament calls for public input on Constitution in yearly review

As South Africa undertakes its yearly review of the Constitution, Parliament is urging members of the public to exercise their democratic right and to make submissions on any part of the Constitution they believe should be reviewed, by the May 31 deadline.

Chairpersons of the Constitutional Review Committee Advocate Glynnis Breytenbach and Mtikeni Patrick Sibande have so far received over 200 submissions but are calling for more and are urging the public to submit their views on specific sections of the Constitution that they think should be amended.

Information service, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, explained that the review process that the Constitutional Review Committee will undertake, looks at whether any submissions have sufficient merit to warrant a possible amendment to the Constitution, based on the proposals.

And, South Africa plans legal workaround to smooth way for Starlink

South Africa’s government is proposing a workaround to Black ownership requirements that will pave the way for Starlink and other satellite services to operate in the country.

The government is proposing an equity equivalent regulatory change as a way around Black ownership rules designed to redress the inequities of apartheid, according to a government document seen by Bloomberg.

The change would let Elon Musk’s satellite service enter the country by instead investing in alternatives including infrastructure or in small-and-medium sized Black-owned businesses in the country, the document shows.

The government had been planning to offer Musk a workaround to the ownership rules ahead of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House this week.

Africa’s largest economy is dealing with an onslaught of criticism by Musk and President Donald Trump — who’ve spread the false conspiracy theory that there’s a genocide against White people in South Africa.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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