October 09 2026.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines:

South African judge Navi Pillay wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize

Government blames disinformation as anti-migrant protests turn violent

And, Minister urges South Africans to work together in confronting high fuel price

South African judge Navanethem "Navi" Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday "for her efforts to promote peace and international law," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

"A common thread runs from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time," the committee said.

The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 12-million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2-million, is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

The United Nations human rights office on Friday welcomed the news of Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize win, acknowledging her longstanding advocacy for human rights.

Anti-migrant protests in Durban and Soweto turned violent yesterday, with the government blaming disinformation over a court ruling on asylum seekers.

In Durban, a Reuters reporter saw five torched cars in the urban centre, where foreign-owned shops were also looted.

The unrest followed a protest by a group demanding that a refugee centre stop processing asylum applications.

In Soweto, a Reuters reporter saw residents carrying groceries out of a shop that they said was owned by a person from Somalia, whom they chased away. The looters fled after police arrived and made them disperse.

Government spokesperson William Baloyi said the violence was triggered by people spreading deliberately false information about a constitutional court ruling in July.

The country's highest court ruled that asylum seekers cannot be denied access to South Africa's asylum system solely for procedural reasons such as having entered the country illegally.

It must be appreciated that the current high price of fuel is a function of the war in the Middle East and South Africans must work together in confronting the major impact that this high price is having on the South African economy, Mineral Resources and Petroleum Minister Gwede Mantashe urged during the final speech on the final day of this week’s Joburg Indaba.

Mantashe expressed the wish to address the high fuel price issue amid the South African government being blamed for something that the South African government had not brought about.

He said the price of fuel is a function of the war in the Middle East.

When appealing to the government to soften the fuel price blow, what also had to be appreciated was the impact of the price of oil on the rand-dollar exchange rate, he said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

Don’t forget to follow us on the X platform, at the handle @PolityZA