December 31, 2025 – South Africa Headlines

Story gist: Alcohol confiscations in Cape Town more than doubled in one week. A special report titled ‘WYN BRING DIE PYN’ covered the issue.

Bias summary: Left-leaning outlets like Daily Voice use sensational Afrikaans title ‘WYN BRING DIE PYN’ to emphasize drama and pain from alcohol. Center outlets like Arrive Alive focus on neutral facts of doubled confiscations. Right-leaning coverage is absent, omitting potential emphasis on law enforcement successes or critiques of restrictions.

Story gist: In the COSAFA Cup tournament, South Africa advanced to the next stage. Angola awaits qualification confirmation, while Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Comoros were eliminated.

Bias summary: Left- and right-leaning outlets provided no coverage, omitting this regional soccer tournament result entirely and leaving those perspectives absent. Center outlets reported neutrally with a straightforward headline listing team statuses—advancement for South Africa, pending for Angola, eliminations for others—without tone variations, emphasis, or omissions.

Story gist: Remains were found in Komatipoort during the search for a missing South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldier.

Bias summary: No left- or right-leaning outlets covered the story, leaving those perspectives absent and unframed. Center outlet TimesLIVE provided neutral, factual reporting with a straightforward headline emphasizing the discovery in the search context. Lack of partisan coverage results in uniform, uncontroversial presentation without tone variations, emphasis differences, or omissions across lanes.

Story gist: Russia, China, Iran, and South Africa will conduct multinational naval exercises off South Africa’s coast in January.

Bias summary: Left-leaning outlets provide no coverage, leaving that perspective absent. Center outlets like defenceWeb report factually as a scheduled multinational exercise. Right-leaning sources like Politicsweb frame it critically, emphasizing how the drills with Iran and Russia undermine South Africa’s non-alignment policy, with a tone highlighting geopolitical risks and omissions of cooperative aspects.

Story gist: Eastern Cape police officers and prosecutors were among motorists arrested for drunk driving. The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport promoted public education through the Arrive Alive campaign.

Bias summary: Left- and right-leaning outlets omitted coverage, absenting progressive emphases on systemic policing issues or conservative focuses on law enforcement accountability. Center outlets framed the story around proactive public education by the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport via Arrive Alive, emphasizing prevention and road safety over the arrests of officials.