September 12, 2025.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Trent Roebeck.

Making headlines:

ActionSA wants IEC investigation into ANC over allegations of unlawful election tactics

Minister George thwarts permits for R6m rhino hunts

And, Trump administration plans push at UN to restrict global asylum rights

ActionSA says it is liaising with the Independent Electoral Commission to lodge a formal dispute against the African National Congress for alleged electoral irregularities.

ActionSA want the IEC to investigate allegations that the ANC had transported non-residents to vote in the Ward 130 by-election in Soweto, earlier this week, as well as claims that the party offered voters money for electoral support.

Now, the party says it is heading into the October 15 by-elections in wards 29 and 7, in Johannesburg and the North West, respectively, with “heightened vigilance”.

It assured that it was ready to head into the October by-election to challenge “failed” established political parties.

South Africa’s environment minister said he won’t immediately approve trophy hunting quotas for black rhinos, elephants and leopards, deepening a dispute with an industry that generates R44-billion rand in economic activity.

Minister Dion George said he will wait until a judge rules on a case filed by Wildlife Ranching South Africa demanding that the allocation be set. The organisation has said a five-year hiatus in the setting of quotas is hurting Africa’s biggest hunting industry and harming its reputation with foreign hunters, who are willing to pay as much as $350 000 (about R6-million) to shoot a rhino.

George’s office said once a judgment has been delivered, the Minister will consider the court’s ruling and decide on the way forward in line with South Africa’s conservation objectives.

The hold on quotas clashes with the policy endorsed by George and his predecessor, Barbara Creecy, of pushing for more sustainable use of South Africa’s biodiversity and natural assets. Still, the hunting of iconic species, such as endangered rhinos, is facing a backlash from animal-rights activists.

US President Donald Trump's administration plans to call for sharply narrowing the right to asylum at the United Nations later this month, documents show, as it seeks to undo the post-World War Two framework around humanitarian protection.

State Department officials sketched out plans for an event later this month on the sidelines of the UN's annual general assembly meeting that would call for reframing the global approach to asylum and immigration to reflect Trump's restrictive stance, according to two internal planning documents reviewed by Reuters and a State Department spokesperson.

Under the proposed framework, asylum seekers would be required to claim protection in the first country they enter, not a nation of their choosing, the spokesperson said. Asylum would be temporary and the host country would decide whether conditions in their home country had improved enough to return, a major shift from how asylum works in the US and elsewhere.

Trump's administration has already rewritten the US approach to immigration, prioritising white South Africans for entry and forcefully detaining those in the country illegally. With the UN event, Trump would be taking that restrictive vision global, urging its adoption by the world body that established the international legal framework for the right to seek asylum.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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