Mahungela is facing serious charges including kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, and attempted rape. He has pleaded not guilty and continues to maintain his innocence.

Speaking to MDNtv, Mahungela’s father claimed police did not conduct a sufficiently broad investigation and instead focused too quickly on his son after he was allegedly seen entering the park where the incident took place.

According to him, investigators narrowed their focus prematurely rather than exploring all possible leads and potential suspects.

He alleges that his son is being used as a scapegoat in the case and claims that authorities may have overlooked other avenues of investigation. He further suggested that investigators may have had indications pointing elsewhere but failed to pursue those leads fully.

The allegations come as Mahungela continues to stand trial in connection with the death of Kluyts, whose murder shocked the nation and attracted widespread public attention.

Mahungela was reportedly arrested after CCTV footage allegedly placed him leaving the park area around the time of the killing. The state also alleges that he was seen wearing clothing linked to the victim.

Prosecutors are expected to rely on CCTV footage and other evidence as they continue to present their case before the court.

Mahungela has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is currently representing himself in court after indicating that his family had experienced difficulties securing private legal representation.

The state maintains that it has a strong case against the accused, while the defence continues to challenge the evidence presented.

The trial is expected to continue as the court hears further testimony and examines the evidence before it.

The allegations made by Mahungela’s father are his own and have not been tested in court. The accused remains innocent until proven guilty.

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The post BREAKING NEWS: Father of Bafana Mahungela Claims Son Is Being “Scapegoated” in Kirsten Kluyts Murder Case appeared first on MDNtv.

PRETORIA – KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner, General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, received the prestigious honour during a gala awards ceremony currently underway in Pretoria, cementing his place as one of South Africa’s most influential and closely watched public figures of the year.

The recognition follows months of intense national attention surrounding Mkhwanazi’s public statements, testimony, and interventions on matters relating to crime intelligence, organised crime, policing, corruption allegations, and accountability within South Africa’s law enforcement structures.

Photos from the event show Mkhwanazi among guests attending the ceremony, where journalists, editors, public officials, business leaders, and invited guests gathered to celebrate individuals who have significantly shaped South Africa’s news agenda during the past year.

The National Press Club’s Newsmaker of the Year award is regarded as one of the country’s most respected media honours. It is awarded annually to an individual whose actions, leadership, influence, or public impact have dominated headlines and driven important national conversations.

Mkhwanazi’s selection comes after a year in which his name became synonymous with some of the most significant developments in South African law enforcement. His public remarks on crime intelligence, organised criminal networks, and alleged wrongdoing within state institutions generated widespread public debate and extensive media coverage.

Throughout the year, his statements drew responses from political leaders, law enforcement agencies, civil society organisations, analysts, and ordinary South Africans, many of whom viewed his interventions as central to broader discussions about justice, public safety, and accountability.

His prominence in the national conversation reflected growing public concern over violent crime, corruption, and the effectiveness of institutions tasked with protecting citizens. These issues repeatedly placed him at the centre of headlines and public discourse, ultimately contributing to his selection as the National Press Club’s top newsmaker for 2025.

The award acknowledges not only the media attention surrounding Mkhwanazi but also the impact his actions and statements have had on national discussions about governance, policing, crime prevention, and institutional reform.

As the ceremony continues in Pretoria, attendees are expected to reflect on the major stories and personalities that shaped South Africa’s news cycle over the past year. For many observers, Mkhwanazi’s recognition serves as a reflection of the country’s ongoing focus on accountability, justice, and the fight against organised crime.

The honour marks another significant milestone in a year that has seen General Mkhwanazi emerge as one of the most influential figures in South African public life.

More updates from the National Press Club’s 2025 Newsmaker of the Year awards will follow.

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The post Mkhwanazi Honoured as National Press Club’s 2025 Newsmaker of the Year appeared first on MDNtv.

Mchunu, who is famously known as “Mlando”, has instructed his lawyers, Zuma Attorneys, to send a letter demanding a retraction and a public apology from Mkhaliphi.

Mchunu has given Mkhaliphi seven days to comply with his demands and apologise.

MDN News has seen the letter sent to Mkhaliphi.

“Please be advised that we act for and on behalf of Mr Ngizwe Mlando Mchunu, hereinafter referred to as ‘our client’. Our instructions are that, on or about the 19th of May 2026, you unlawfully and intentionally made a statement during a live interview on national television (SABC News).

During the said interview, you alleged that our Client is ‘being paid by white monopoly capitalists to disrupt the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)’.

“It is our instructions that you persisted with the said allegation, yet refused and/or failed to provide the news reporter with the names of the said funders. The aforesaid statements were disseminated publicly, published to a wide audience, and shared through social media platforms, or alternatively, were reasonably capable of publication,” the letter reads.

The letter further reads:

“We hold instructions that these allegations made against our client imply that he is dishonest, politically compromised, and acting as an agent of undisclosed interests. They imply he lacks integrity, is motivated by financial inducement from so-called ‘white monopoly capitalists’, and is allegedly involved in a coordinated plan to collapse the EFF.”
Mchunu is no stranger to controversy.

In April 2026, the former Ukhozi FM presenter publicly accused EFF leader Julius Malema of receiving an R60 million bribe from Nigerian drug dealers in exchange for political protection.

Malema challenged Mchunu to provide evidence, which Mchunu failed to produce. Malema subsequently slapped him with an R1 million defamation lawsuit.
In May 2026, the North Gauteng High Court finalised an interim interdict against Mchunu.

The court ordered him to stop defaming Malema, retract his remarks, issue an apology, and pay punitive legal costs. Despite the court order, Mchunu defiantly stated that he would not pay a single cent.

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The post PODCASTER NGIZWE MCHUNU’S LAWYERS DEMAND RETRACTION AND PUBLIC APOLOGY FROM EFF PARLIAMENT MEMBER HLENGIWE MKHALIPHI appeared first on MDNtv.

The accident involves a Hyundai H1 minibus and a tank truck. Reports indicate that there are injuries and an unconfirmed number of fatalities.

The N1 North is currently closed to traffic as emergency personnel attend to the scene.

The Emergency Medical Services (EMS), the South African Police Service (SAPS), and Traffic officials are on site managing the situation and ensuring the safety of road users.

Motorists are advised to use alternative routes:

• From Modimolle: Use the YPres off-ramp.
• From Mokopane: Use the Zebediela off-ramp.

Road users should expect delays and are urged to exercise patience and caution.

The Department continues to urge all motorists to remain vigilant while driving in order to safeguard lives. Drivers are encouraged to obey road traffic rules at all times.

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The post HEAD-ON COLLISION BETWEEN A TRUCK AND A MINIBUS CLAIM LIVES ON N1 appeared first on MDNtv.

The court also declared the accused unfit to possess a firearm in terms of Section 103 of the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges. The court heard how he abused his position of trust as a stepfather. Between 2018 and 2020, on two separate occasions, while the child’s mother was away from home, the accused called the victim into the house and raped her.

In aggravation of sentence, State Prosecutor Isaac Mahlangu presented pre-sentence and victim impact reports, which detailed the severe psychological and emotional trauma suffered by the minor victim.

The State emphasised the extreme seriousness of the offences, their prevalence in the country, and the fact that the accused betrayed his fundamental duty to protect the child.

The Director of Public Prosecutions for the division, Adv. Ivy Thenga welcomed the sentence, describing it as the result of thorough investigative work and dedicated prosecution.

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The post TZANEEN MAN SENTENCED TO TWO LIFE TERMS FOR REPEATEDLY RAPING 11-YEAR-OLD STEPDAUGHTER appeared first on MDNtv.

On screen, she looked composed. Familiar. Reassuring. To millions of viewers of Daystar Television Network, Lamb was not merely a broadcaster. She was a spiritual mother, a ministry figure and one of the most visible women in the world of Christian media.

But behind the polished studio lights and carefully maintained public image, a different story was unfolding.

Properties were being sold. Assets were being moved. A trust was created. A private jet linked to the ministry was offloaded. And when Lamb died on 7 May 2026 at the age of 65, a paper trail was already beginning to raise deeper questions about wealth, ministry, secrecy and the final financial decisions of a powerful religious media figure.

According to the Trinity Foundation, a watchdog organisation that has monitored religious fraud for more than 30 years, Lamb spent her final year “downsizing”. The organisation reported that she sold three homes and placed four properties in the Joni Lamb Trust, a move that would allow assets to be transferred after her death without going through probate.

The revelation is not just about real estate. It goes to the heart of a much bigger issue: how wealth is accumulated, protected and transferred inside religious empires that rely on public donations but often operate with limited financial transparency.

A final year marked by quiet financial moves

Lamb was the co-founder of Daystar Television Network, a global Christian broadcaster associated with the Prosperity Gospel, a theology that often links faith, giving and material blessing.

Her death immediately triggered grief among supporters. But the Trinity Foundation’s report has shifted attention from the emotion of her passing to the financial decisions made in the months before it.

The organisation reported that Lamb sold three homes during her final year and transferred four properties into a trust. A screenshot cited by the foundation showed a Bibb County, Georgia, eSearch record reflecting the transfer of a Macon, Georgia, home to the Joni Lamb Trust.

Trusts are commonly used in estate planning. They can simplify inheritance, avoid probate, protect privacy and ensure assets are distributed according to the wishes of the person who created the trust.

But in Lamb’s case, the timing and context have made the moves significant.

Daystar itself encouraged viewers to consider leaving assets to the network through estate planning. Its Legacy Stewardship page listed reasons for planning, including ensuring property is transferred to chosen persons, preventing certain people from receiving assets, making charitable contributions and maintaining privacy.

Those same reasons, according to Trinity Foundation, may have influenced Lamb’s own planning before her death.

That contrast is powerful. A ministry leader urging viewers to think about legacy giving was, in her own final chapter, reportedly arranging her personal property legacy.

Seven properties worth millions

In March 2025, journalist Julie Roys, with assistance from Trinity Foundation, reported that Lamb owned seven properties in four states worth approximately $11.7 million.

Three of those properties were reportedly purchased after the death of her first husband, Marcus Lamb, who co-founded Daystar with her. According to the Trinity Foundation report, those purchases may have been funded using money from Marcus Lamb’s life insurance policy.

Among the properties was a beach condo in Miramar Beach, Florida, reportedly costing $2.9 million.

For ordinary viewers who supported Daystar through offerings, donations and monthly giving, the scale of these holdings is likely to feel jarring. Religious broadcasting is often presented as mission work. Viewers are asked to give sacrificially, to support evangelism and to keep Christian programming on air.

Yet the financial footprint surrounding Lamb points to a level of personal wealth far removed from the lives of many who funded the ministry’s reach.

That is where the tension lies.

There is no automatic wrongdoing in owning property, selling homes or creating a trust. Wealthy individuals do this every day. But when the person involved is the head of a donor-supported religious network, those private decisions become matters of public interest.

The housing allowance question

One of the most striking details in the Trinity Foundation report concerns Lamb’s earlier residences.

According to the foundation, her prior homes were partly paid for by a clergy housing allowance that totalled $1,671,324 between 2002 and 2011. That information, the foundation said, was disclosed in financial documents that Daystar provided during litigation involving former employee Jeanette Hawkins.

Hawkins had been accused by Daystar of blackmail, an allegation described by the foundation as false. Trinity Foundation later sued as an intervenor and succeeded in getting financial records unsealed.

The significance of the housing allowance is not merely the number. It is the structure.

Clergy housing allowances can be tax-exempt. And because Daystar’s parent organisation, Word of God Fellowship, has church status, it is not required to file a public Form 990. In ordinary nonprofit structures, such filings can reveal compensation and benefits paid to highly compensated employees.

Here, the public gets far less visibility.

That makes the Daystar story bigger than Joni Lamb alone. It speaks to a broader accountability gap in religious organisations that can receive public donations, enjoy tax benefits and still avoid the financial disclosures expected of many secular nonprofits.

The Texas mansion and the unknown sale price

In October 2025, Lamb sold her two-storey residence in Colleyville, Texas. The final sale price is not known.

According to the Trinity Foundation report, the General Warranty Deed with Vendor’s Lien showed the buyer acquired the property with a loan of $2.35 million, excluding any down payment.

Real estate site Redfin valued the Colleyville home at more than $3.36 million. The Tarrant County appraisal placed the property at approximately $5.78 million for 2024 through 2026.

That gap between the loan amount, the Redfin estimate, and the county appraisal leaves open questions about the true value transferred in the sale.

Lamb also reportedly sold a residence in Taylors, South Carolina, for $300,000. Another lake house in Granbury, Texas, had an unknown sale price, although Redfin estimated its value at more than $831,000.

One by one, the properties were being moved, sold, or placed beyond the ordinary public probate process.

Then came the jet

The downsizing was not limited to Lamb’s personal property.

According to Trinity Foundation, Word of God Fellowship, Daystar’s parent organisation, sold its Gulfstream G-V jet. The ministry had acquired the aircraft in 2020, shortly after receiving a $3,913,200 Paycheck Protection Program loan during the COVID period to retain 303 employees.

Daystar later repaid the PPP loan.

But the jet had already become controversial.

In November 2020, Inside Edition reporter Lisa Guerrero confronted Marcus Lamb in the parking lot of the Timarron Country Club in Southlake, Texas. She asked whether taxpayer money had been used to buy a private jet. Marcus Lamb denied it, saying the ministry had used its own money.

Years later, that same aircraft has resurfaced in the story, not because it was bought, but because it was sold during the final period of Joni Lamb’s leadership.

For critics of televangelist wealth, the symbolism is unavoidable: a donor-funded religious network, a multimillion-dollar aircraft, luxury properties and opaque financial structures.

Why this story matters

This is not simply a story about one woman’s estate.

It is a story about the uneasy relationship between faith and money. It is about the emotional trust viewers place in spiritual leaders. It is about what donors are told, what they are not told, and what church-status organisations are not required to disclose.

Supporters may see Lamb’s final-year decisions as responsible estate planning by a woman facing death. Critics may see them as part of a wider pattern in which religious leaders accumulate significant wealth while operating behind the protection of ministry structures.

Both realities can exist in tension.

Joni Lamb helped build one of the most recognisable Christian television networks in the world. But her final year now leaves behind more than memories and tributes. It leaves behind property records, unanswered questions, and a renewed debate over transparency in modern ministry.

As Daystar moves forward without one of its defining figures, the question is no longer only what Joni Lamb built.

It is what the paper trail may still reveal.

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The post Joni Lamb’s Final Year: Homes Sold, Properties Moved Into Trust and a Private Jet Quietly Offloaded appeared first on MDNtv.

As a result, a warrant of arrest was authorised and issued for immediate execution.

Mashaba, who hardly takes a picture alone, was previously friends with Xitsonga artist Benny Mayengani.

Mashaba faces the following charges:

• Two counts of fraud, Theft, three counts of money laundering, and Contraventions of Sections 4, 5, and 6 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA), including assisting another person to benefit from the proceeds of unlawful activities, as well as knowingly acquiring, possessing, or using such property.

The offences were allegedly committed against the National Government and the Limpopo Department of Public Works, Roads, and Infrastructure. It is alleged that fraudulent deeds of sale were concluded between the late Fourie Willem Jakobus, Howard Alex Mashaba, and/or Magezi Ben Mashaba (Mashaba Senior), through a company known as Mbangwa Trading and Projects. The purported transactions involved properties situated on Erf 2B, Erf 58B, Erf 64B, and Erf 227B, for amounts ranging between R290 000 and R450 000. Payments were allegedly made directly into Jakobus’s personal bank account.

Despite the purported sales, the properties were never transferred and remain registered in the name of the National Government and/or the Limpopo Department of Public Works, Roads, and Infrastructure. Notably, the department’s building that previously stood on Erf 58B was demolished, and a hotel has since been erected on the property.

The matter has been postponed to 29 June 2026. Mashaba is expected to appear alongside his three co-accused.

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The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed that only 10 of the nearly 300 Ghanaian nationals who were processed for voluntary repatriation had legal immigration status in South Africa.

The first group of Ghanaian nationals left South Africa on Wednesday as part of a voluntary repatriation process coordinated between South African authorities and the Ghanaian government.

According to Home Affairs officials, the majority of those screened were either undocumented, had overstayed, or were not compliant with South Africa’s immigration laws. Around 30 of the returnees were reportedly from the Lindela Repatriation Centre.

More than 800 Ghanaian nationals have registered for evacuation from South Africa amid rising tensions linked to anti-illegal immigration protests and safety concerns affecting foreign nationals.

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BMA Commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato said the group was processed as part of a repatriation operation facilitated by the Ghanaian government through its High Commission in Pretoria.

According to the BMA, 25 of the Ghanaian nationals came from the Lindela holding facility and were brought by the Immigration Inspectorate of the Department of Home Affairs. The remaining 275 were brought by the Ghanaian High Commissioner.

During the check-in and immigration process, the BMA said about 90% of the travellers were found to be undocumented. The Ghanaian Embassy then issued Emergency Travel Certificates to affected travellers. These are one-way documents that allow travellers to return to their country of origin.

The BMA further stated that most of the travellers had overstayed in South Africa by more than 30 days, while some had overstayed by a year or more. As a result, they were declared undesirable in terms of Section 30 of the Immigration Act, read with Regulation 27(3)(c) of the Immigration Regulations.

At the end of the processing, 295 passengers were found eligible to depart. They boarded a chartered flight arranged by the Ghanaian government through its High Commission in Pretoria and departed for Ghana.

However, five travellers were refused departure.

According to the BMA, one passenger had a valid asylum seeker permit and could not be allowed to depart without cancelling his application for protection in South Africa. The BMA said allowing him to leave without cancelling the application would have been tantamount to refoulement.

Another passenger was denied departure because he did not have a valid travel document. The BMA said he was in possession of an expired passport and had not been issued an Emergency Travel Certificate by the Embassy.

A woman was also stopped from leaving the country with two minor children who are understood to belong to her sister. According to the BMA, she did not have documents proving her relationship to the children, nor the required consent documentation from the alleged parent.

The travellers who were denied departure were handed back to the Ghanaian High Commissioner for future repatriation once they meet the relevant immigration requirements.

Commissioner Masiapato said the operation demonstrated the BMA’s commitment to enforcing South Africa’s immigration laws while facilitating the legitimate movement of people and goods.

“This decisive action underscores the BMA’s uncompromising implementation of the South African legislative framework in its facilitation and management of people and goods movement in and out of the country,” Masiapato said.

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Political leaders, government officials, family members, friends, and community members gather to pay their final respects to the late former Premier, remembered for his contribution to public service and leadership in the province.

MDNtv brings you full coverage of the funeral proceedings, tributes, and speeches as the province bids farewell to one of its former leaders.

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FUNERAL SERVICE OF FORMER NORTH WEST PREMIER BUSHY MAAPE | SPECIAL PROVINCIAL OFFICIAL FUNERAL

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