NOORDWESTER - LICHTENBURG - Many people in South Africa depend on their grants to buy food, pay for transport, and take care of their families.
As SASSA Gold Cards must now be replaced, millions of grant recipients must choose how they will get their grant money paid in future. SASSA has advised grant recipients to apply at the bank of their choice as Postbank black card issuing has been suspended.
According to Simphiwe Phakathihe, Executive Head at EasyPay Everywhere, the SASSA Gold Card was expected to stop working after 31 May.
Shanela continues to put more suspects behind bars
NOORDWESTER – LICHTENBURG - The Police in the North West Province working with other law enforcement agencies conducted the weekly high density intelligence led joint law enforcement operations throughout the province between Monday, 21 and Monday, 27 April.
The operations covered all the province’s districts and included the setting of roadblocks on all the national and provincial arterial roads, tracing of wanted suspects, stop and searches and compliance inspections at liquor selling outlets and closing of unlicensed liquor premises.
Volkswagen Golf 8.5 launched at Volkswagen Lichtenburg
NOORDWESTER – LICHTENBURG - Volkswagen has officially launched its updated Golf for the South African market.
The Volkswagen Golf 8.5 was launched in South Africa in early 2025. Saturday, 26 April, Volkswagen Lichtenburg launched the new Golf 8.5, a modern icon redefined. It is available in four trim levels: Life, Life Plus, R-Line, and R-Line Plus, all powered by a 1.4 TSI engine.
Goodbye Eskom – big electricity changes coming
NOORDWESTER – LICHTENBURG - South Africa is on the point of starting a traded electricity market that will give consumers a choice of power products along with a range of pricing options, according to a top investment bank.
Africa’s most industrialised economy has relied on state-owned Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd for the bulk of its electricity supply for more than a century.
Bad news for anyone with a South African passport
NOORDWESTER – LICHTENBURG - The South African passport is the 100th most powerful passport in the world – a middling placement that comes across as weaker, due to severely limited visa-free travel, poor global perception and limited personal freedom.
This is according to Nomad Capitalist, a tax and immigration consultancy, as per its Nomad Passport Index 2025. Unlike other passport ranking metrics, Nomad Capitalist analyses five important aspects of passport strength: