GENEVA – At least 1,500 foreigners in South Africa were forced to flee their homes during the recent xenophobic attacks in Gauteng and some 800 have chosen to return to their home countries, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which said it was deeply concerned about recurring violence against foreigners. The agency’s […]

After visiting 9 other countries in a four-week trip through East and Southern Africa, Bruce Marais was blown away by our next-door neighbour, Mozambique. So much so that we will be running more than one series of his photographs of the magical place. “The Portuguese who settled here in the 1500s brought along with them […]

HARARE – Foreign leaders, including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, supporters and ordinary citizens gathered at a national stadium on Saturday to bid farewell to Zimbabwe’s founder Robert Mugabe, after a week of disputes over his burial that have threatened to undermine President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe […]

Tanzania has seized ivory tusks equivalent to killing at least 117 elephants, its tourism minister said, part of its drive to stamp out organised criminal networks involved in years of industrial-scale poaching. The elephant population in Tanzania, famed for its wildlife reserves, shrank from 110,000 in 2009 to barely 43,000 in 2014, according to a 2015 census, […]

Arrest warrants have been issued by the National Prosecuting Authority for two Rwandan men suspected of involvement in the death of former Rwandan intelligence, Patrick Karegeya, in a Johannesburg hotel almost six years ago. The NPA was also in the process of asking Rwanda for the extradition of the two men, Ismael Garafanga and Alex […]

LONDON – Britain’s Prince Harry will make a poignant visit to Angola this month to visit the landmine clearance project that featured in some of the most famous photographs of his late mother Princess Diana. The pictures of Diana wearing protective gear as she walked among red skull-and-crossbone signs in 1997 won vital publicity for […]

KIRINDY FOREST, Madagascar – As a shocked world watches fires ravage the Amazon, slash-and-burn farmers are wreaking proportionally worse destruction half a world away in Madagascar, driving humanity’s smallest relative – the Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur – to extinction. Frustrated conservationists hope Friday’s arrival of the environmentally-conscious Pope Francis will spotlight the island that lost […]

Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was feted as an African liberation hero and champion of racial reconciliation when he first came to power in a nation divided by nearly a century of white colonial rule. Nearly four decades later, many at home and abroad denounced him as a power-obsessed autocrat willing to unleash death squads, rig elections […]

The man who led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 after a long and bloody civil war but then clung to power as his country slipped into economic decay under his command, Robert Mugabe has died at age 95 in Singapore. The announcement was made by the president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, early on Friday. Mnangagwa […]

The South African embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, remains temporarily closed after threats led to fears for staff safety, International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor told Reuters. The threats came after attacks this week on foreign-owned businesses in South Afria caused a diplomatic spat. She said South Africa was in constant contact with Nigerian authorities to try […]

Only days after the protests and looting of shops, many of them foreign-owned, began and spread across Johannesburg and Tshwane, celebrities, sports teams and politicians from other African countries including Malawi, Rwanda, Nigeria and Zambia, have pulled out of events in South Africa. At the same time, it was reported that South African businesses in […]

For Bruce Marais and his travel companions, Kampala was a colourful chaos, and his photographs vividly show it. In the second part of SAPeople’s series on Bruce’s 10-country journey, he focuses on the Ugandan capital. “Some good news from East Africa,” he writes from the road. “They have a growing economy, it’s a safe place […]

WINDHOEK – Namibia is considering withdrawing from the rules that govern the global trade in endangered species, after countries voted last week to reject proposals to relax restrictions on hunting and exporting its white rhinos. Namibia has the second largest population of white rhinos after South Africa. It wants to allow more trophy hunting of […]

Bruce Marais, a South African photographer, chef and creative who lives in Morocco, recently began a 10-country safari – through cities and along back roads and into game parks. SAPeople will carry a series of his brilliant photographs as he and his travel companions move from their starting point in Nairobi – a city, he […]

The first vote at the 18th meeting of the CITES Conference of the Parties has delivered a historic win for African elephants to end the cruel practice of removing live elephants from the wild for export to captive facilities. CITES is the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Iris Ho, senior wildlife specialist […]

A popular male lion, which had been photographed frequently by hundreds of visitors to Hwange National Park in west Zimbabwe, was shot dead by hunters this last weekend on World Lion Day (10 August). In a heartbreaking message on social media on Wednesday evening, Captured in Africa (CIA) Foundation founder Drew Abrahamson announced the devastating […]

DAR ES SALAAM – A fuel tanker exploded in eastern Tanzania on Saturday killing at least 60 people, authorities said, as flames ripped through a crowd that had gathered to siphon petrol from it. Video clips circulating on social media showed the charred remains of dozens of young men and burnt motorbikes. In footage from […]

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has ordered the sprawling Selous Game Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site, to be split in two to restrict the access of big game hunters. Covering 50,000 sq km (19,000 sq miles), the Selous reserve is one of the largest protected areas in Africa, and is famed for its elephants, lions, […]

SINGAPORE – Singapore said this week it had seized 8.8 tonnes of elephant ivory, a record haul by authorities in the city-state, which conservation groups say is a transit point for the illegal wildlife trade. The elephant ivory, estimated to be worth $12.9 million, came from nearly 300 African elephants, and was heading to Vietnam […]

The cigarette maker Philip Morris has opened a flagship store in Johannesburg, hoping to promote its heated tobacco product IQOS, according to the company. The store for IQOS, which stands for I Quit Ordinary Smoking, is in Sandton. South Africa, with an estimated 7 million smokers, is the only market in Africa where the company […]

The International Monetary Fund’s latest report on the World Economic Outlook has predicted that South Africa will continue to have a slower growth that much of sub-Saharan Africa, even slower than previously anticipated. In its report, “Still Sluggish Global Growth,” which was released today, the IMF predicted growth in South Africa of 0.7 percent in […]

I’m sorry. I wanted to love The Lion King. Especially since it’s set in Africa. I tried so hard. It features South Africa’s own John Kani as the voice of Rafaki. But the film was disappointing in so many respects… writes Cassie Jo. As most of South Africa knows by now, Walt Disney’s newly revamped […]

DAR ES SALAAM – Elephant and rhino populations in Tanzania have begun to rebound after a government crackdown dismantled organised criminal networks involved in industrial-scale poaching, the country’s presidency said this week. A prominent Chinese businesswoman dubbed the “Ivory Queen” was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Tanzanian court in February for smuggling […]

On July 16, one of the most luxurious trains in the world, the South African Rovos Rail, set off to make the first-ever passenger train trip from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. It is the second major journey across Africa that the private rail company has launched in its 30 years. The train journey […]

South Africa coach Stuart Baxter is keeping Nigeria guessing over the approach he will adopt in Bafana Bafana’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) quarter-final on Wednesday… after diverting from his usual style in SA’s brilliant 1-0 win over hosts Egypt. Under Baxter, South Africa normally play with a counter-attacking style but the team surprised Egypt on Saturday by diverting from that slightly […]