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Mail & Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
The global race for critical minerals is on. Where is South Africa?
The area around Hotazel in the Northern Cape contains much of the world's known deposits of manganese. Geopolitical tensions over critical minerals have become the focus of the global energy transition. The worldwide shift toward decarbonisation has transformed industrial strategy while reshaping worldwide power dynamics through control of strategic resources. The United States, together with the European Union and China, are racing to secure supply chains that power clean energy technologies, including electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. The US's Inflation Reduction Act supports domestic manufacturing through incentives that transform worldwide trade patterns. The EU implements the Critical Raw Materials Act because of similar emergency conditions while building alliances with African nations to diversify mineral supplies and reduce strategic dependencies. China moved first and strategically built up its mineral treatment and component assembly capabilities while leaving other nations to pursue substitute development and protection against excessive dependency. Other nations have taken strategic positions to secure critical mineral supply chain security along with these major powers. Canada and Greenland maintain active development of their critical mineral resources and Ukraine holds strategic lithium deposits, which will serve to reduce dependency on Chinese supply networks. The world witnesses a broader shift where countries establish mineral accessibility according to their geopolitical and security goals. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, a leading global supplier of cobalt for high-density batteries and coltan for capacitors for high-tech systems, entered negotiations for a strategic agreement with the US in March 2025 that seeks to grant the US exclusive rights to extract the country's critical minerals. This proposed partnership reflects a broader trend of resource-rich African nations leveraging their mineral resources to create powerful international partnerships which secure long-term industrial and geopolitical benefits. South Africa possesses platinum group metals together with manganese and vanadium, which makes it a prime candidate to lead the worldwide energy transition through renewable energy and electric vehicle batteries. The government allocated R1 billion in March 2025 to bring in R30 billion private investments which will establish electric vehicle manufacturing by 2035. During its G20 presidency South Africa is concentrating on developing local processing facilities for critical minerals to enable resource-rich nations to gain monetary benefits from their natural resources. To achieve its potential, South Africa needs to resolve fragmented institutional mandates along with infrastructural impediments and inconsistent regulatory frameworks. The EU dedicated R490 million to support South Africa's green hydrogen industry in 2024. The question remains whether foreign investments will establish industrial autonomy in South Africa or pander to external supply chain requirements. True strategic autonomy requires more than hosting production facilities; it demands control of technology at the local level combined with manufacturing value addition capabilities and stronger export negotiation power. To reduce overdependence and increase strategic influence means South Africa needs to expand global alliances outside the conventional Western and Eastern blocs. South Africa can create value chains that are more robust and focused on Africa by interacting with rising countries, regional allies, and international forums. Geopolitical hedging will enable South Africa to protect against external shocks while ensuring mineral benefits produce enduring industrial and economic value by increasing its strategic options. According to the 2025 US Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries report, the US has identified 50 minerals which serve both economic operations and clean energy transformation. South Africa ranks as a leading global producer of at least 15 of the critical minerals, which include rare earth elements along with platinum group metals, vanadium, manganese, and chromium. These critical minerals needed for clean energy and advanced industrial use face major supply issues. The USGS does not mention South Africa in its report yet its mineral reserves make it an essential player in the shifting global mineral landscape. South Africa needs to ensure its mineral engagements support a geopolitical hedging strategy that protects national sovereignty while creating regional processing facilities, developing domestic manufacturing, and enhancing Africa's position in clean energy value chains. A strategic and coordinated approach needs to be implemented by South Africa to achieve this potential. First, a sovereign beneficiation fund would serve as an effective risk management tool to protect investments made by private parties in mineral processing and component manufacturing operations. A public capital-based fund would help bring in private and development finance to effectively link resource extraction to industrial production. The fund would need to select projects which increase domestic value creation while allowing technology exchange and establishing local production facilities. High-value component localisation would need to be incentivised as a necessary second step. The following incentives are potential options to localise high-value components: export refunds for value-added commodities, preferred procurement of local components, and tax incentives for regional processing facility investments. Long-term research together with talent development and local supplier integration should receive support from these incentives to drive industrial growth. Third, improving interdepartmental interaction is essential. The government's economic cluster oversees economic matters but the critical minerals sector needs departments to work together to execute policy — mineral and petroleum resources to work together with trade, industry and competition; electricity and energy; science and technology; and the treasury. The establishment of an inter-ministerial council dedicated to critical minerals will enable South Africa to join global value chains through unified strategy development, process optimisation, and policy unification. The African Continental Free Trade Area offers regional cooperation opportunities to build processing centres and merge infrastructure while strengthening Africa's united bargaining power. Using complimentary abilities may promote cooperation rather than competition in Southern Africa. In April 2025, China enforced strict export controls on seven rare earth elements together with related magnets. These materials serve as fundamental components for creating advanced defence technologies along with wind turbines and electric vehicles. The trade measure has intensified worldwide market conflicts while revealing potential breakdowns in supply chains to industries around the world. The recent developments demonstrate why South Africa needs to develop local value chains and increase processing capabilities and reduce its exposure to external threats. The approval of South Africa's Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy and the gazetting of the Mineral Resources Development Bill of 2025 represent a major policy transformation that unlocks industrial capabilities. The minister of mineral and petroleum resources announced on 20 May that the strategy defined platinum along with manganese, iron ore, coal and chrome ore as high-critical minerals followed by vanadium, palladium, rhodium, gold and rare earth elements as moderate to high criticality. The strategy includes six strategic pillars which aim to establish resilient value chains and industrial ecosystems that link to clean energy technologies through exploration, local beneficiation, research and development investment, infrastructure development, financial support mechanisms and regulatory harmonisation. The strategy supports South African objectives to move past mining operations through the development of local talent and regional alliances for creating industrial inputs of high value. It provides an essential framework that enables mineral resource utilisation to achieve enduring economic stability and national strategic autonomy. The competition for critical minerals in the global market extends beyond resources to determine how economic relationships will be governed in the future. South Africa controls the necessary mineral resources while having defined appropriate policy directions. The main obstacle is to convert this potential into strategic influence and enduring economic resilience through purposeful coordinated actions. LebohangMafokosi is a public servant while pursuing her Master of Management in Energy Leadership degree at the University of the Witwatersrand.
News24
6 days ago
- Climate
- News24
Tuesday's weather: Sunny for most; rain, wind in coastal regions
The South African Weather Service has warned of strong coastal winds in the Northern Cape and Western Cape. Scattered rain and showers are expected in the eastern parts of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The weather in your province Gauteng: The day will be fine and cool. Pretoria: 5°C — 21°C Johannesburg: 4°C — 19°C Vereeniging: 1°C — 20°C Mpumalanga: Fine and cool to cold, but it will be warm on the Lowveld with partly cloudy conditions extending to the eastern Highveld. Dress in layers to accommodate changing temperatures. Mbombela: 9°C — 23°C Ermelo: 3°C — 17°C Emalahleni: 5°C — 19°C Standerton: 3°C — 19°C Skukuza: 11°C — 28°C Limpopo: Expect fine and cool to warm weather. Comfortable conditions throughout the day. Polokwane: 8°C — 21°C Phalaborwa: 12°C — 28°C Tzaneen: 11°C — 23°C Musina: 12°C — 27°C Lephalale: 7°C — 25°C Mokopane: 9°C — 23°C North West: A fine and cool day awaits. Klerksdorp: 3°C — 20°C Potchefstroom: 2°C — 19°C Mahikeng: 5°C — 20°C Rustenburg: 5°C — 21°C Vryburg: 3°C — 21°C Free State: The weather will be fine and cool. Bloemfontein: 1°C — 18°C Welkom: 2°C — 19°C Bethlehem: 1°C — 16°C Northern Cape: Windy and cool to warm with partly cloudy skies in the south. Coastal areas will experience moderate southerly to south-easterly winds, so take care if heading to the beach. Upington: 6°C — 24°C Kimberley: 2°C — 21°C De Aar: 7°C — 20°C Alexander Bay: 12°C — 22°C Springbok: 13°C — 23°C Calvinia: 7°C — 24°C Sutherland: 2°C — 21°C Western Cape: Morning clouds over the central and eastern parts will clear, leaving fine and cool to warm conditions, but the east will remain partly cloudy. Strong south-westerly and south-easterly winds will develop along the coast in the afternoon. Cape Town: 14°C — 22°C Vredendal: 10°C — 27°C Riversdale: 12°C — 21°C George: 11°C — 19°C Worcester: 8°C — 21°C Beaufort West: 10°C — 23°C Oudtshoorn: 8°C — 23°C Eastern Cape: Morning brings light rain in some places, except the north-east. Partly cloudy and cool to cold conditions persist, with cloudy skies expected along the coast. Coastal winds will shift from southerly to north-easterly in the afternoon, becoming moderate to fresh. Gqeberha: 13°C — 19°C Makhanda: 11°C — 16°C Cradock: 7°C — 20°C Graaff-Reinet: 8°C — 20°C East London: 15°C — 19°C Port St Johns: 14°C — 21°C Mthatha: 9°C — 18°C Komani: 7°C — 18°C Qonce: 12°C — 18°C KwaZulu-Natal: Partly cloudy and cool to cold with isolated showers and rain along the coast and nearby interior regions. Winds will begin as moderate to fresh southerly to south-westerly, shifting to easterly to south-easterly by the afternoon. Durban: 18°C — 21°C Richard's Bay: 15°C — 21°C Pietermaritzburg: 9°C — 18°C Ladysmith: 6°C — 18°C
News24
6 days ago
- Health
- News24
Are children living with HIV being left behind? What the stats tell us
Massive gains have been made in reducing new HIV infections and deaths in children. Yet, many of the statistics for children still look worse than those for adults. Spotlight asked experts why this is the case and what factors prevent children living with HIV from starting and staying on the treatment that can keep them healthy. Of the 157 000 children living with HIV in South Africa, around one in three are not getting the medicines they need to stay healthy. That is according to recent estimates from Thembisa, the leading mathematical model of HIV in South Africa. At first glance, the contrast with adults seems stark. While only 65% of children with HIV are on treatment, the figure for everyone in the country who is living with the virus stands 13 percentage points higher at 78%. For these numbers, children are defined as people younger than 15. The differences hold across much of the cascade of HIV care. While 95% of all people with HIV have been diagnosed, only 85.5% of kids with the virus have been diagnosed and while 81% of all diagnosed people are on treatment, only 76% of diagnosed kids are. And of all people on treatment, 92% have viral suppression, but only 77% of kids on treatment are virally suppressed. There is substantial variation in these figures across South Africa's provinces. For example, while over 70% of kids living with HIV in the Western Cape and Northern Cape are on treatment, fewer than 60% are on treatment in each of the other seven provinces. What to make of the numbers The reality is more nuanced than a cursory look at the above data would suggest. For one, there is some uncertainty about the exact numbers. Compared to the Thembisa estimates, two national surveys on HIV prevalence conducted in 2017 and 2022 found higher levels of HIV prevalence in children. In one recent analysis of the 2017 data, it is estimated that only 40% of children living with HIV had been diagnosed. 'The paediatric HIV data sources aren't as consistent with one another as the adult data sources are,' Dr Leigh Johnson, an expert in HIV and TB modelling from the University of Cape Town and key developer of the Thembisa model, tells Spotlight. '[T]here's more uncertainty around our estimates of HIV prevalence in children than there is in adults, which is important because the HIV prevalence estimate is the denominator in the ART (antiretroviral therapy) coverage estimate.' Apart from some uncertainty over the data, Johnson also cautions that while treatment coverage in children is lower than in adults at 65% compared to 78%, this doesn't necessarily mean the rates of treatment initiation and retention are poorer in children than in adults. As he explains: 'This is because coverage is a cross-sectional measure (measured at a point in time), whereas the rates we're talking about are measured over a period of time. Two groups can have the same rates of ART initiation and retention but have different levels of coverage (cross-sectionally) if they are followed for different average durations (longer duration of follow-up typically means higher coverage).' Put another way, a child of four who became infected at the age of one would only have had about three years to get diagnosed, while an adult aged 40 who became HIV positive at 20 would have had 20 years to get diagnosed. Because of this effect, you'd expect a higher proportion of 40-year-olds to have been diagnosed than 4-year-olds, even if everyone tested at the same rate. 'The rates are difficult to measure directly, but our model suggests that the ratio of ART initiations to new infections (a crude proxy for the ART initiation rate) have been a bit lower in kids than in adults in recent years,' Johnson says. HIV often progresses faster in children While a crude proxy, it is a concerning trend if the rates of ART initiation in children are lower than in adults, as HIV tends to make children much sicker, and faster than adults. 'Young children have immature immune systems, so when HIV is acquired at a young age … children tend to have a more rapid HIV disease progression than adults. Children can progress to having advanced HIV disease within months, whereas in adults this process usually takes several years,' says Dr Kim Anderson, a clinical epidemiologist and doctor with expertise in treating children and adolescents living with HIV. However, she explains, it is estimated that up to 10% of all children living with HIV are 'slow-progressors' and don't get sick as quickly. As their immune systems are not fully developed, it is vital to diagnose children as early as possible, Dr Moherndran Archary, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases based at the KwaZulu-Natal health department and researcher at the Africa Health Research Institute, tells Spotlight. 'Ultimately, we do want to make sure, in children, we diagnose them early, start them on antiretroviral treatment … and keep them virologically suppressed throughout the treatment, especially in the childhood and adolescent phase,' he says. Delaying HIV treatment will likely lead to children developing high levels of viremia (virus in the blood), which can negatively affect the brain, kidneys, lungs and other organs. Progress has stabilised Overall, the data paints a picture of massive progress when it comes to HIV in children, which in recent years has slowed. 'Over time, there has been a general trend towards declining numbers of children acquiring HIV and declining AIDS deaths in children,' Johnson says. 'However, the proportion of children living with HIV who have been diagnosed has stabilised at around 85-86% in recent years. 'Also, levels of ART coverage in children have stabilised at relatively low levels in recent years (around 65%),' he adds. ART coverage here means the percentage of all children with HIV who are on treatment. This is not the same as the second 95 from the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, which looks only at the percentage of already diagnosed children who are on treatment. Johnson says the UNAIDS target indicators 'are not always a good reflection of progress in reducing HIV incidence and AIDS mortality, which are arguably more important'. Between the start of 2005 and start of 2024, says Johnson, there has been a 97% reduction in HIV/AIDS related deaths in children, compared to a 78% reduction in adults. In that same period, there's been an 87% reduction in children acquiring HIV, compared to 69% in adults. He credits the decline in children getting HIV to be 'largely a reflection of success in reducing adult HIV incidence rates and getting more women onto ART', as ART drastically reduced HIV transmissions from mothers to their children. This, in addition to earlier diagnosis of more infants with HIV and them starting treatment before they get really sick, are behind the decline in HIV-related deaths in children. Vertical transmission remains a concern While experts Spotlight spoke to agree that the rates of vertical transmission have gone down significantly, it remains a big driver of new HIV infections. If the mother's HIV is not under control - either because they don't know they have HIV, or the treatment hasn't had a chance to work yet - then the virus can be transmitted to their child during pregnancy, birth or while breastfeeding. 'In South Africa, we achieve good ART coverage among pregnant women and the number of new infections in children has declined as a result; infections in children make up around 5% of all new infections,' says Anderson. 'Although rates of vertical transmission in South Africa are relatively low (2-3%), maternal HIV prevalence is high, therefore the number of new infections in children each year, around 6 500, still remains a concern.' The reason for this, she says, are complex, ranging 'from children being missed because of limitations in routine testing, challenges in ART adherence, and a need for optimised treatment regimens'. Routine testing might be missing children Children living with HIV tend to be diagnosed through routine postnatal testing or when they visit a healthcare facility with symptoms suggestive of HIV. 'All babies born to mothers living with HIV will have an HIV test, a PCR test - which is a blood borne test - that is done at delivery and then at multiple time points in the first year of life,' Archary says. A PCR test is used for babies under the age of two instead of a rapid test because rapid tests look for viral antibodies, which could have been passed to an infant from their mother. The turnaround time for the PCR test is about 72 hours, which could pose a further challenge since the result can only be communicated to the caregivers if they come back to the healthcare facility. READ | Aids programmes grind to a halt as government drags its feet 'Our routine testing is geared towards picking up children much earlier and starting them on antiretroviral treatment - and I think that's completely an appropriate response. The problem is really if someone falls between the gaps of that initial net, then unless they present to a healthcare facility, there's very little opportunity for them to get picked up,' he adds. Johnson flags the same issue. 'My biggest concern is that HIV testing efforts have focused very heavily on testing infants/the first 18 months of life, and there hasn't been enough attention paid to testing in older kids. A large proportion of undiagnosed paediatric HIV is in older children… We need to focus on innovative testing strategies to reach older children living with HIV,' he says. Difficulties with achieving virologic suppression Anderson says once diagnosed, the rates of linkage to care - which is going from getting an HIV test to getting care from a healthcare facility - and receiving initial HIV treatment are good for children. The challenge is keeping those children on treatment since high levels of treatment adherence is needed to keep the virus under control. 'Prolonged gaps in care (over 6 months) are common among children starting ART, with up to a third experiencing interruptions within the first year, highlighting significant challenges with retaining children in care,' she says. Archary explains that another complication is that children rely on adults to give them their treatment. Some of these children move between different caregivers so they might not get their treatment regularly or from the same person. He adds that stigma also plays a role. Some mothers might be scared to tell other caregivers that their child is living with HIV, and this might result in the child not getting their treatment when they are not with their mother. ALSO READ | Motsoaledi urges unity, assures HIV/Aids programme stability amid US Pepfar funding pullout In the past, HIV treatment itself also posed challenges. Anderson says older, less suitable treatment regimens led to fewer children keeping the virus under control. These include regimens that were bitter tasting, or pills meant for adults that had to be crushed and were difficult to dose correctly, side-effects, and at times 'insufficient market incentives' for child-friendly formulations. Today, a child-friendly formulation that contains the drug dolutegravir is recommended as part of the preferred first line treatment for children from four weeks of age. Results from a recent Cape Town study, reported on by Spotlight, showed that two new formulations of dolutegravir was also safe to use in newborns. Anderson describes the introduction of cheap, child-friendly dolutegravir as a significant breakthrough that could transform paediatric outcomes. 'It is hoped that transitioning all children on ART to dolutegravir-based regimens may significantly improve paediatric viral suppression rates.' This is because dolutegravir-based regimens, she says, have several advantages, including better palatability and once-daily dosing and fewer side effects. 'We don't have much recent data yet to show if these expected improvements are being realised... but watch this space!' What needs to be done? Despite the progress, Archary says there is still a long way to go. One priority is providing better support for mothers or caregivers. A lot of the counselling he and his team provide to caregivers of children living with HIV is to help them get a strong support structure around themselves and the child. This, he says, serves as a type of safety net to ensure the child is always given their treatment no matter what happens. Anderson also weighed in on this. 'Family-centred approaches and better attention to broader social support for the most vulnerable mothers are needed for more successful HIV prevention and treatment,' she says. Family-centred approaches to her include 'structuring the healthcare services/visits so that mothers and children are seen together at the same visit, ideally by the same provider'. Anderson says this type of integrated services, which do exist in some healthcare facilities, will reduce the burden of having to do multiple clinic visits and helps to manage their healthcare in a more holistic way. She added: It would be ideal for mothers to have postnatal access to support from psychologists, social workers, counsellors and peer support groups. Such services are not always available, and if they are, they are overburdened. Another approach, says Anderson, is having community health workers provide home-based support. This could include checking that the child is getting their treatment, offering advice to caregivers, assessing food security, and assisting with social grant access if needed. 'Small financial incentives or support (like paying for transport or giving food vouchers) might help vulnerable families overcome economic barriers that lead to treatment interruptions,' she reckons. Important research derailed Long-acting HIV treatments for children could potentially help them stick to treatment better because caregivers wouldn't have to give medicine every day. However, some research efforts along these lines have been derailed by the funding cuts and new funding policies for research grants from the United States government. 'I am hopeful that long-acting injectables could be the game changer we've long awaited, both in further reducing vertical transmission, and in improving viral suppression rates among mothers and children,' Anderson says. READ | Cape Town study brings hope to newborns left behind in HIV treatment advances This is a reality for Archary. He was involved in a study set to look at the use of long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine injections for HIV treatment in adolescents, paired with peer support interventions. But this was halted because funding through a grant from the US National Institutes of Health, which is the largest public funder of biomedical research globally, was cancelled. 'I think it's a wakeup call for research in South Africa because we've been quite highly dependent on external funding… Much of the innovative research that's happened both in HIV, TB and other infectious diseases have happened from South Africa so we've got the intellectual capital, but we do need to now find the money in order to cover that gap,' he says.
News24
25-05-2025
- News24
Pupil crashes teacher's car after taking it for a joyride
Pupils were meant to wash the car as part of a fundraising event. The vehicle's radiator and gearbox were severely damaged. Police refused to open a case of theft but are pursuing other charges. The vehicle of a teacher from Jan Kempdorp in the Northern Cape was severely damaged after Grade 11 pupils, who were supposed to wash it, drove it through the town without her permission and ended up in a water canal. El-Zané du Plessis, a foundation phase teacher at a combined school in the town, said the pupils were meant to wash her Volkswagen T-Cross for a fundraising project at the school last week. Instead, the troublemakers took it for a drive around the town. She bought her car at the end of 2022. 'The school had a sports day, and various grades came up with plans to raise funds. For example, one grade sold cookies, while the Grade 11s decided to wash the teachers' cars.' I don't really like the idea as I'm afraid the kids might scratch your car or mess around with your things, but I eventually agreed after they pleaded with me. They were too busy on Thursday, so I let them wash my car on Friday. El-Zané du Plessis 'That morning, I unlocked my car for them and left the key with them because I was worried the car might lock automatically while they were cleaning it. After break, one of the children called me and I thought they were going to boast about how clean my car was.' When I got to where my car was supposed to be, a child was sitting there and told me he had gone to store buckets and rags, but drove into a canal because he had swerved to avoid a dog. El-Zané du Plessis Du Plessis and a colleague rushed to the scene of the crash, where a mother with her child told her the pupil had been driving at an 'incredible speed' and had almost hit her before landing in the canal. Supplied The vehicle's radiator, gearbox and chassis suffered severe damage, and a part of the engine also broke off. 'One would think the students wouldn't dare even start your car, let alone drive it around,' said Du Plessis. 'Initially, there were three kids in the car, but one became so terrified that he asked to get out. 'The boy driving had allegedly [the previous day] taken another teacher's car and driven through the town. Although she gave him a stern talking-to, he just went and did it again.' When confronting the boy, Du Plessis claimed he didn't even apologise. He told me both his parents are unemployed, so I could just sue him, and I would get R20 per month. He was unbelievably arrogant. El-Zané du Plessis Du Plessis said some people asked how she could have given her car keys to children. 'No sensible child would take a teacher's car and drive it around. They've lost their minds,' she said. She was also disappointed with her union, the SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu), which allegedly refused to support her in the matter, as well as with the police, who refused to open a case of theft. Police spokesperson Colonel Cherelle Ehlers said that the police were instead investigating a case under the National Road Traffic Act, which involves the use of a vehicle without the owner's consent. More charges may be added later. Paul Sauer, chief executive of Sadtu, stated that the union could take criminal action against children, but would support its member should she be dissatisfied with the employer's disciplinary process. 'The disciplining of schoolchildren will occur within the school's code of conduct,' he said. In the meantime, Du Plessis has obtained private legal representation. Geoffrey van der Merwe, spokesperson for the department of education in the Northern Cape, said the department was aware of the incident and it was being investigated.
News24
22-05-2025
- Climate
- News24
Friday's weather: Cool day ahead, with strong winds in parts of Northern Cape
Windy conditions are expected over the north-western interior of the Northern Cape, according to the South African Weather Service. It will be fine across the country, with cool to cold conditions throughout the day. Gauteng: Expect morning fog in some areas. The day will otherwise be fine and cool. Pretoria: 4°C — 21°C Johannesburg: 0°C — 20°C Vereeniging: 0°C — 19°C Mpumalanga: Morning fog is predicted over the Highveld, clearing to fine and cool weather. Lowveld areas may experience warmer temperatures. Mbombela: 8°C — 22°C Ermelo: 2°C — 19°C Emalahleni: 4°C — 19°C Standerton: 2°C — 20°C Skukuza: 11°C — 24°C Limpopo: Morning fog in the south; otherwise fine and cool to warm. Partly cloudy conditions in the extreme north-east. Polokwane: 8°C — 19°C Phalaborwa: 13°C — 24°C Tzaneen: 8°C — 20°C Musina: 12°C — 23°C Lephalale: 8°C — 23°C Mokopane: 7°C — 20°C North West: A fine and cool day across the province. Klerksdorp: -1°C — 19°C Potchefstroom: 0°C — 19°C Mahikeng: 4°C — 20°C Rustenburg: 3°C — 20°C Vryburg: 2°C — 19°C Free State: Cloudy conditions in the east during the morning will give way to fine and cool weather. Bloemfontein: 0°C — 19°C Welkom: 0°C — 19°C Bethlehem: 0°C — 18°C Northern Cape: Fine and cool to warm conditions are expected. Windy conditions will affect the north-western interior. Moderate to fresh south-easterly to easterly. Upington: 0°C — 23°C Kimberley: -1°C — 20°C De Aar: 2°C — 19°C Alexander Bay: 13°C — 31°C Springbok: 12°C — 20°C Calvinia: 6°C — 20°C Sutherland: 3°C — 18°C Western Cape: Morning fog over southern and south-western regions will clear for fine and cool to warm weather. Moderate to fresh easterly to south-easterly, especially along the south-west coast. Cape Town: 13°C — 23°C Vredendal: 10°C — 27°C Riversdale: 10°C — 25°C George: 11°C — 19°C Worcester: 8°C — 22°C Beaufort West: 8°C — 23°C Oudtshoorn: 8°C — 22°C Eastern Cape: Morning fog in the north will be followed by fine and cold to cool conditions. Expect light north-westerly wind in the morning, becoming south-easterly, and transitioning to north-easterly in the evening. Gqeberha: 11°C — 20°C Makhanda: 9°C — 19°C Cradock: 5°C — 20°C Graaff-Reinet: 5°C — 21°C East London: 14°C — 20°C Port St Johns: 13°C — 21°C Mthatha: 7°C — 20°C Komani: 4°C — 20°C Qonce: 8°C — 20°C KwaZulu-Natal: Morning fog in central and western interior regions; otherwise expect fine and cool to cold conditions. Light to moderate westerly to north-westerly wind south of Richards Bay, changing to south-westerly and then shifting to light easterly to north-easterly in the afternoon. Durban: 13°C — 22°C Richards Bay: 15°C — 24°C Pietermaritzburg: 7°C — 21°C Ladysmith: 4°C — 21°C
