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

Making headlines: DA to lay criminal charges against Zuma-Sambudla; DA’s Zille says South Africa’s ruling alliance unlikely to last; And, Nigeria faces record hunger amid insurgent attacks, aid cuts

DA to lay criminal charges against Zuma-Sambudla

The Democratic Alliance wants the South African Police Service to investigate uMkhonto we Sizwe Party Member of Parliament Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s role in the stranding of 17 South Africans in the Donbas area of Ukraine, who were supposedly lured there by members of the MK Party.

Yesterday, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation confirmed that about 17 South Africans remain stranded in the Donbas area after allegedly being lured to fight under false pretences against Ukraine in Russia.

DA Spokesperson on Defence & Military Veterans Chris Hattingh and DA Spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation Ryan Smith will on Thursday lay criminal charges against Zuma-Sambudla, in Cape Town Central Police Station.

The party said new evidence and facts have come to light and it wants Zuma-Sambudla to be criminally investigated, and if found to have broken the law, to be prosecuted.

DA’s Zille says South Africa’s ruling alliance unlikely to last

South Africa’s ruling alliance is unlikely to see out its current five-year term, with internal party dynamics set to test its cohesion, DA’s federal council chairperson Helen Zille has warned.

The African National Congress teamed up with the Democratic Alliance, its biggest rival, and eight smaller parties last year after losing the parliamentary majority it had held for three decades. The government of national unity has weathered a series of crises, with its main members sparring over tax policy and the adoption of contentious land-expropriation, health insurance and education legislation.

Zille said she is not confident the GNU will last until 2029.

She said there must be a change of ANC leadership in 2027.

Incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa has struggled to turn the ANC’s fortunes around, although it remains the country’s largest political party.

The current frontrunners to replace Ramaphosa as ANC leader are his deputy Paul Mashatile and Fikile Mbalula, the party’s secretary-general. Neither have declared their candidacy — or specified whether they will remain committed to the GNU, which has prioritised growing the economy and creating jobs.

And, Nigeria faces record hunger amid insurgent attacks, aid cuts

A surge in militant attacks and instability in northern Nigeria is driving hunger to record levels, the UN World Food Programme said today, warning that nearly 35-million people could go hungry in 2026 as it runs out of resources in December.

The projection, based on the latest Cadre Harmonise - an analysis of acute food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel and West Africa region, is the highest number recorded in Nigeria since monitoring began, WFP said.

Violence has escalated in 2025, with attacks by insurgents including al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, which carried out its first strike in Nigeria last month, and Islamic State West Africa Province.

Recent incidents underscore the crisis: ISWAP fighters killed a brigadier-general in the northeast, while armed bandits abducted more than 300 Catholic school students in a mass kidnapping days after storming a public school, killing a deputy head teacher and seizing 25 schoolgirls.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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