A four-seater plane built by twenty South African teens that left Cape Town six weeks ago has landed in Cairo, after successfully completing the 12,000-kilometre journey. Pilot Megan Werner, 17, founder of U Dream Global, which assembled the Sling 4 aircraft, said she was thrilled by the accomplishment, telling the BBC: “I’m so honoured to […]

A 21-year-old from Durban, South Africa, was the youngest out of 120 entrepreneurs named by Forbes Africa in its latest Top 30 Under 30 awards. Avthar Aniruth won in the business category. An innovative, self-taught 21-year-old, Aniruth is founder of Epic Motion Pictures and Audience Networks. “My obsession with making videos, prompted me to learn […]

The man whose name was synonymous with the success of Mango, the low-cost airline wholly owned by South African Airways, is to take over the CEO post again after leaving three years ago. Nico Bezuidenhout, who helped found Mango in 2006, led the upstart airline until 2016, during which time he also served two short […]

The South African government has said it learnt with “deep regret” about the tragic loss of life following an airstrike on a migrant detention centre in Tripoli, Libya, that killed at least 44 people, mainly migrants. Over 130 more were left wounded according to the UN (United Nations) mission to Libya. For migrants who are […]

LONDON – The body of a suspected stowaway from Africa fell hundreds of meters from a plane flying over southwest London, landing in the garden of a man’s home, just missing him – by only a metre! – as he sunbathed, according to neighbours. Police believe the man fell into the property in Clapham from […]

The people in Zimbabwe are hurting right now because we love this place so much and we can’t bear to see it like this… writes entrepreneur Anton Bhana. People are tempted to leave and some are leaving, but to be honest nobody really wants to leave. We love this place. Even those who have left […]

Scrapyard innovator to Netflix hero, William Kamkwamba inspired social trailblazers at a week-long innovation get-together that has just ended in Durban, and encouraged those who had moved abroad to come back to help Africa with their inventions. Kamkwamba has been inventing since he was a child in Malawi when he gained global attention for building […]

HARARE – On Monday Zimbabwe ended a decade of dollarisation, making its interim currency the country’s sole legal tender in a step towards relaunching the Zimbabwean dollar. The central bank also hiked its overnight lending rate to 50% from 15% as a part of a set of measures to protect the RTGS dollar introduced in […]

More than half a thousand vultures, almost all of them endangered species, died from feeding on the poisoned carcasses of three poached elephants in central Botswana, it was reported last week, in what was one of the biggest wildlife poisoning incidents of its kind since 2013. Among the 537 vultures found dead at the site […]

Five African commercial banks – including Standard Bank and Absa – have partnered in a $375 million financing deal to build a new diamond mining vessel for a subsidiary of Anglo American’s diamond unit De Beers. Nedbank Namibia, RMB Namibia, Standard Bank, ABSA and Bank Windhoek agreed to provide 80% of the funding for the […]

HARARE – Zimbabwe must have a new currency by the end of the year, according to President Emmerson Mnangagwa who argued on Friday that this would help stabilise prices and inflation, which is at a 10-year high. The southern African nation in February removed an unrealistic peg for its electronic dollars and surrogate bond notes […]

The new season of Survivor is the battle of the superfans! Here’s an awesome opportunity to watch a FULL episode, and get hooked on all the intrigue on the Island of Secrets. Survivor SA: Philippines was so outrageously good that our expectations are super high this season. If you live in South Africa, Kenya or […]

Wildlife near cities face many dangers. Some are easy to detect, such as when new developments destroy natural habitat. Others are less obvious. For example, rat poisons are a useful tool for controlling a common household problem. But many who use them don’t realise that they have dangerous side effects for wildlife. Rat poisons are […]

Zimbabwean cricket legend turned singer, Henry Olonga, walked onto The Blinds stage… and “smashed it out of the park” (in the words of The Voice Australia) with this rendition of Anthony Warlow’s  ‘This is the moment’. Watch the video below. The 42-year-old, who is married to an Australian, played 30 tests and 50 One Day […]

GABORNE – Former Botswana President Ian Khama quit the ruling party on Saturday as a policy feud with his hand-picked successor deepened, threatening to split the party that has ruled the country since independence in 1966. Khama handed power to his then-deputy Mokgweetsi Masisi last year after serving as president of the diamond-rich southern African […]

Algeria – the nation where malaria was discovered – is officially free of malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, making it the third African country to eliminate one of the world’s leading killer diseases. With no recorded cases of malaria in three consecutive years, Argentina was also declared malaria-free – the second […]

If you’ve always wanted to visit Mount Kilimanjaro, but just can’t be asked to actually get fit enough to climb it… you could be in luck! Tanzania wants to boost tourist numbers by putting a cable car on Africa’s tallest mountain, and is currently in talks about the project with a Chinese and a Western […]

HARARA – Zimbabwe has started rolling power cuts lasting up to eight hours that will also hit mines, a schedule from the state power utility showed on Monday, after reduced output at both the largest hydro plant and ageing coal-fired generators. The power cuts will add to mounting public anger against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government […]

Two French soldiers were killed in an overnight operation to rescue four hostages in the Sahel region of Africa, the French Élysée Palace said on Friday. According to a Reuters report, the hostages are now all safe. They include a US woman, a South Korean citizen and two Frenchmen. The French tourists had been kidnapped […]

Across the world, migratory animals like wildebeest – which rely on movement to find food, water and calving grounds – are under threat. This is mainly because their migration routes are being cut off by fences, settlements, farms, roads and other developments, and the areas where they roam are getting smaller. The animals also face […]

An unusual selfie taken by a ranger at Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo has helped the Park raise much needed awareness and funds to protect more animals. The photo, which included two orphaned gorillas – Ndakazi and Ndeze –  striking very human-like poses, was taken by ranger Mathieu Shamvu, an anti-poaching […]

PEMBA, Mozambique – Headmaster Ernesto Parivos, like thousands of people across his province in Mozambique, is watching for any signs that flood waters have eased as food supplies dwindle. Cyclone Kenneth barreled into the province of Cabo Delgado last week, knocking out power at Parivos’ School for Teachers of the Future, damaging 11 college buildings […]

Proud South Africans turned out in force yesterday for the famous London Marathon in the UK… and were not disappointed by the results, with the top three winning positions being hogged by athletes from the African continent in both the men’s and women’s categories. The race was won by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge who led from […]

PEMBA, Mozambique – Rains grounded aid flights in northern Mozambique for a second day on Monday, hampering efforts to reach survivors of Cyclone Kenneth as the death toll there jumped to 38. Rescuers managed to use a brief break in the downpours to send one helicopter packed with aid to the island of Ibo, where […]

The United Nations will grant Mozambique and the Comoros Islands $13 million in emergency funds to help provide food and water and repair damage to infrastructure, the organisation said late on Sunday, after the second cyclone in a month slammed into the region. Cyclone Kenneth crashed into the northern province of the southern African nation […]