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Here’s your daily news update for Wednesday, 21 May 2025: An easy-to-read selection of our top stories.
Picture: iStock / The Citizen / Cheryl Kahla
In the news today, the meeting between US President Donald Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa started off with an extremely amicable discussion, but later descended into chaos.
Meanwhile, opposition parties are divided over Budget 3.0, with some welcoming key changes and others condemning it as anti-poor and lacking solutions to South Africa’s economic crisis.
Furthermore, two newborn babies who were snatched from Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay were reunited with their mothers on Wednesday afternoon, 21 May.
Weather tomorrow: 22 May 2025
The weather service has issued a warning for damaging waves on the coast, while inland provinces remain mostly fine and cool. Full weather forecast here.
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‘An infectious smile that brightened our world’: Tributes pour in for Cornal Hendricks
The meeting between US President Donald Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa started off with an extremely amicable discussion, but later descended into chaos and shifted to the topic of violence against white farmers and Afrikaners in South Africa.
Ramaphosa and Trump met at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
The meeting comes just days after the US welcomed a group of 49 Afrikaners as “refugees”. Trump falsely claimed they are being persecuted in South Africa due to their race and are facing a “genocide”.
Wednesday’s heated meeting marks the latest in a string of unusually tense Oval Office meetings between Trump and foreign leaders.
CONTINUE READING: WATCH: Donald Trump ambushes Cyril Ramaphosa in Oval Office
Budget 3.0: Opposition parties clash over impact on poor
Opposition parties are divided over Budget 3.0, with some welcoming key changes and others condemning it as anti-poor and lacking solutions to South Africa’s economic crisis.
The DA cautiously welcomed the proposals for revenue and expenditure in the budget, viewing them as a pathway to a national budget that the party can support when it is time to vote.
“It is a victory for all South Africans that the mooted VAT hike has now finally been removed from the minister’s revenue proposals after the DA court action in this regard,” said Dr Mark Burke, DA spokesperson on finance.
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party has criticised Budget 3.0 as an indictment of the poor, asserting that the increase in the fuel levy effectively acts as a hidden value-added tax (VAT) increase. From 4 June, the general fuel levy will increase by 16c per litre of petrol and by 15c per litre for diesel.
CONTINUE READING: Budget 3.0: Opposition parties clash over impact on poor
UPDATE: Two premature babies abducted from hospital found [Watch]
In a dramatic conclusion to a harrowing abduction ordeal, two newborn babies who were snatched from Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay, were reunited with their mothers on Wednesday afternoon, 21 May.
Their return comes just hours after the two premature baby boys were kidnapped on Tuesday evening from the public health facility’s neonatal ward.
At the time of their abduction, the infants were just four and two days old and still in incubators. According to reports, one of them was also being treated for a broken arm.
CONTINUE READING: UPDATE: Two premature babies abducted from hospital found [Watch]
Imagine if he took the Guptas’: Is Rupert’s place in US delegation double standards or good for business?
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to include controversial billionaire Johann Rupert on his negotiation team with the US government has been fiercely criticised by opposition parties and drawn questions from an expert.
Rupert has been seen as a controversial figure in local politics and has been criticised by leftist parties such as the EFF for gaining enormous wealth through racist policies that benefited white South Africans before 1994. He will enter the negotiations alongside South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
Ramaphosa will also be flanked by his core political team, which includes the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the International Relations Minister, Ronald Lamola, the Agriculture Minister, John Steenhuisen, and the Trade & Industry Minister, Parks Tau.
African Transformation Movement (ATM) spokesperson Zama Ntshona told The Citizen that the party is concerned with the inclusion of powerful “white figures” in Ramaphosa’s delegation.
CONTINUE READING: ‘Imagine if he took the Guptas’: Is Rupert’s place in US delegation double standards or good for business?
Abongwe Mseleku on dealing with the fame, learning how to cook and the power of social media
Like a handful of young people, life away from home at varsity forced Abongwe Mseleku to learn to cook. The film student said her forced interest in food started in 2023 during her first year.
“I spent the whole year eating wraps and some weird combos I’ve never seen, not because the food wasn’t there, but because I didn’t know what to do with the food. So from that, the teaching myself how to cook grew,” Abongwe shares with The Citizen.
She now shares her journey on her social media accounts whenever she prepares a meal.
“I also decided to take this journey to social media as a way of motivation to keep trying and also get advice from other people that hopefully know how to cook.”
CONTINUE READING: Abongwe Mseleku on dealing with the fame, learning how to cook and the power of social media
Here are five more stories of the day:
- Body found in pit toilet linked to 2023 missing persons case
- AfriForum challenges Expropriation Act in court, criticises Ramaphosa for ‘silently’ signing the law
- Alcohol, e-cigarettes and knives found during search at high school in Brakpan
- Another fire in Joburg: Jeppestown blaze erupts in basement shacks, 12 homes destroyed
- Budget 3.0: Alcohol and cigarette prices will increase — here’s by how much
Yesterday’s News recap
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