South Africa

Double Olympic gold medallist cites ‘financial and practical challenges’ of swimming.

South Africa’s most decorated Olympic athlete, Tatjana Smith, is changing nations to compete for the Netherlands, a decision she acknowledges “may disappoint or break the hearts” of some supporters.

“I’ve decided to swim for the Netherlands,” two-time Olympic swimming champion Smith said in a tearful video message on Instagram on Tuesday.

“I know that not everyone will understand or agree with my decision,” she said, citing “financial and practical challenges” that can make a swimming career difficult to sustain.

Smith won the 100-metre breaststroke gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and, as Tatjana Schoenmaker, the 200-metre breaststroke at the Tokyo Games held in 2021.

She also took two silvers, in the 100-metre breaststroke at Tokyo and the 200-metre breaststroke in Paris, to become South Africa’s most successful Olympic athlete.

“To South Africa, when I was a little girl, my biggest dream was to represent my country at the Olympics,” Smith said.

“I got to live that dream, and it gave me more than I could have ever imagined.”

She holds dual citizenship with the Netherlands.

“Both countries are a part of who I am,” the 29-year-old Smith said. “But dreams can change as you grow.”

She retired from competitive swimming after Paris and announced a comeback two months ago, targeting the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics – now in Dutch orange instead of South African green and gold.

“This gives me the opportunity to explore another part of my identity and the heritage ⁠⁠that I’ve never experienced through sport.

“The opportunity ⁠⁠also offers greater high performance support and the potential to build a more sustainable career.”

Smith added that athletes need a system in which they can thrive and not just survive, suggesting she would have “greater high performance support” in future. She said she would continue training in South Africa.

Fellow South African swimmer Chad le Clos also has four medals although just one gold.

The ANC was on about 32 percent of the vote after almost half of the votes were counted in municipal elections.

South Africa’s early municipal election results have shown the African National Congress (ANC) with a sharply reduced vote share, weakening the long-dominant party’s control of key cities such as Johannesburg.

The ANC was on about 32 percent of the vote, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) in second place at 25 percent, after more than 60 percent of the votes had been counted in this week’s municipal elections, data from the election commission showed late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, former President Jacob Zuma’s breakaway opposition uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party was in third place with 8.5 percent, below levels suggested by opinion polls.

About 15.9 million of 29.2 million registered voters cast ballots, the electoral commission said, putting turnout at an estimated 54.5 percent, up from 46 percent in the pandemic-hit 2021 local elections.

The ANC, which has been South Africa’s largest party since it led the country out of apartheid in 1994, has tended to do worse in municipal elections than nationally and has acknowledged its failures in local governance.

From nearly 70 percent of the national vote in 2004, the ANC fell below 50 percent for the first time in the 2021 municipal elections, winning 46 percent.

At the 2024 national elections, it managed just more than 40 percent and was forced to accept a unity government with nine other parties, including the DA.

The party, now led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has borne the brunt of criticism about years of municipal mismanagement that have left South Africans grappling with failing water supplies, persistent power cuts and crumbling public services.

It has also faced corruption allegations, while splinter parties have eaten away at its support base.

The results of this week’s local ballot will offer a key measure of voters’ sentiment ahead of the 2029 general election.

Control of the country’s eight major metropolitan municipalities is up for grabs, alongside dozens of district and local councils.

The MK party had been tipped as one of the few parties capable of securing an outright majority in the eastern port city of Durban.

But projections by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a state-funded research body, put its support there at 32 percent.

The DA, meanwhile, was forecast to retain control of tourist magnet Cape Town with 56 percent of the vote, with its leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, already declaring victory.

The party was also leading with 34 percent in Johannesburg, the country’s financial capital, after running a spirited campaign spearheaded by its former leader, Helen Zille, 75, according to CSIR projections.

With outright majorities far from assured in several major cities, the results could usher in another round of complex coalition negotiations, with parties bargaining to assemble the alliances needed to govern.

Final results are expected on Sunday.

Polls suggest the governing party could fall below 40 percent as voters weigh failing services.

South Africans are voting in local elections widely seen as a verdict on the African National Congress (ANC), the party that led the country out of white minority rule in 1994 but has steadily lost support over the past decade.

Polls opened at 7am (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday and close at 9pm (19:00 GMT). A record 29.2 million people are registered to vote at 23,696 voting stations, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). More than 1.4 million special votes were cast on Monday and Tuesday.

Voters are electing councils for the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district councils and 205 local councils. Those councils then choose mayors.

The ANC fell below 50 percent in municipal polls for the first time in 2021. In the 2024 national election, it lost its parliamentary majority and was forced into a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and other parties. Polls suggest the ANC’s support could drop below 40 percent this time.

“Municipal failures have contributed to declining public trust and confidence in democratic governance,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter, “From the Desk of the President”.

Ramaphosa is due to vote at Hyde Park High School in Johannesburg, the presidency said.

Johannesburg is the biggest prize in this election. The country’s financial capital has had five mayors in four years.

The DA has fielded its 75-year-old former leader, Helen Zille, for the city’s top job. Her campaign stunts included snorkelling in a mud-filled trench that was flooded by a burst municipal water pipe.

A News24 poll put Zille at 36 percent, meaning she would need coalition partners, particularly the ANC, to govern. Zille told the Associated Press news agency that the ANC was “in free fall”.

This is the first local vote for former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is mounting a strong challenge in the coastal city of Durban.

“We are going to start by taking back our country here,” Zuma told supporters in the city on Sunday, the AFP news agency reported. Durban has become a centre of anti-migrant sentiment, a prominent theme in the campaign.

Turnout may be a concern. Only 46 percent of registered voters took part in the 2021 municipal elections.

Coalition government is already widespread: 74 of the country’s 257 municipalities were run by coalitions or minority administrations as of February, according to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection.

Security has also been tightened. Police said 21 election-related cases have been recorded since Sunday. KwaZulu-Natal has 165 voting stations classed as high risk, the most of any province.

Final results are expected on Sunday. They are expected to shape the race to succeed Ramaphosa as ANC leader at the party’s conference in December 2027.

Simon Harmer picked a career-best 6-16 as South Africa beat Australia by 176 runs to clinch Test series 2-1.

Australia ‌captain Pat Cummins said it was fair to ask questions about his side after they ⁠slipped to two heavy ⁠defeats in a row against hosts South Africa to lose the three-match series 2-1 at Newlands on Saturday.

Set 288 for victory, Australia were rocked early on and could ⁠manage only 111 to lose the third Test by 176 runs, following their defeat by an innings and 31 runs in the second match in the series.

Australia next host New Zealand, and Cummins ⁠said the series loss meant questions were inevitable as South Africa took over from them as the number one side in the Test world rankings.

“We lost two games in a row. I think it’s fair to be asking questions and we’ll be asking them internally as well,” Cummins told reporters. “We are a very good ‌side, but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one [in the world].

“Maybe that’s a change of style, maybe it’s a change of personnel in some instances. We’ll work it out.”

Cummins made the surprise decision to bowl first after winning the toss on the first morning, something that had been done only 11 times before in Tests at Newlands since 1889.

As it proved, batting last was difficult on a wearing ⁠surface, and Australia fell to the spin of Simon Harmer, who took ⁠career-best figures of 10-120 in the match.

“We knew it was going to be a high-scoring game,” Cummins said. “We probably thought it was going to do a little bit more on day one than it did.

“You don’t win the toss and think you’re ⁠going to bowl the opposition out for 100 or 200, but we thought we could get 10 wickets on day one and that would ⁠put us right ahead of the game.”

Cummins said poor decisions cost ⁠his batters and that their chase was as good as over in the first half-hour of the day.

“Chasing 280-odd was never going to be easy, but we all turned up today and saw a pretty clear path forward. I thought it was ‌achievable, but we never really gave ourselves a chance,” he said.

“There were a few really poor decisions. I know it’s a day-five wicket, but I don’t think it was drastic. There were runs to ‌be ‌scored out there; there were lots of balls to face.

“I think there are a few decisions the boys would like back. We have to get better. It’s happened a few times now.”

South Africa storm back to crush Australia by an innings in the second Test and level the series 1-1 with one to play.

⁠South Africa bowled out Australia for 295 to win by an innings and 31 runs in the last session of the second Test at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Thursday to level the three-match ⁠series, winning a race against looming bad weather.

The hosts’ pace trio of Wiaan Mulder, Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen took the last four wickets required as Australia’s resistance crumbled after a century from Travis Head and a doggedly defiant Test high 40 by ⁠nightwatchman Scott Boland.

Mulder, who earlier dismissed Head, then bowled Boland and castled Australia captain Pat Cummins to forge a breakthrough, with Rabada dismissing Mitchell Starc and Jansen finishing off the innings with Josh Hazlewood caught in the slips.

A result in the Test seemed far-fetched when most of the first two days’ play was washed out and South Africa, who were 110-6 when the sun came out on the ‌morning of the third day, looked in early trouble as Australia aimed to capitalise on their success in the first Test.

But a brilliant 179 runs from skipper Temba Bavuma led a fightback that saw South Africa declare on 425-9 and then turn the Test on its head by bowling Australia out for 99 and putting them in to bat again.

Head and Boland had resumed on 156-4 in the second innings after rain returned and wiped out the morning session and Head, who was 87 overnight, went on to score 121 before chopping onto his stumps a rising delivery from Mulder.

It was Head’s 13th Test century but only his second outside Australia, and his departure offered the home bowlers hope ⁠again after almost 90 minutes of frustrating attack without success at the start of the day’s action.

“We were scrambling a bit, not sure about the weather and Australia made us work hard for those last six wickets,” said Bavuma.

Steve Smith, who battled with a neck problem in the first innings on Wednesday, ⁠made three as he came in at number seven.

The former captain was tempted into pulling a delivery from Rabada, bowling with the second new ball, but only got a top edge to ⁠Matthew Breetzke, who juggled it at mid-wicket before holding the catch.

Boland, who batted for ⁠166 balls as he put a high price on his wicket, went soon after tea, when he was bowled through the gate. Then Cummins (4) played down the wrong line and was also clean bowled in Mulder’s next over.

When Rabada came back for a fresh spell as dark clouds loomed ominously overhead, he immediately ‌bowled Starc (11), leaving one wicket to get, which Jansen snagged as Hazlewood showed no sign of sticking around and nicked behind the first ball.

Alex Carey, who lasted only two balls in Australia’s first innings, was 37 not out, with Rabada taking 4-77 on his ‌return ‌after a lengthy injury layoff, and Mulder 3-64.

“I thought we showed some good fight, but it wasn’t quite enough. We were a long way from our best,” said Cummins.

The last Test at Newlands in Cape Town starts on Tuesday.