At least 17 people, including three children, died near Johannesburg from a leak of toxic gas apparently used for scavenging gold at an abandoned mine, rescue services said on Thursday. HAVE YOUR SAY | POLL | The new ‘BLUE’ Springbok jersey: Like it or loathe it? Emergency teams received a call at around 20:00 on Wednesday about […]

Electric car giant Tesla is set to realise fully autonomous vehicles “later this year”, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday, in the billionaire’s latest forecast for the long-anticipated milestone. ALSO READ: WATCH: Some crazy soul built a turbodiesel Tesla Model S “In terms of where Tesla is at this stage, I think we are very close to achieving full […]

At least 16 people, including children, have died after a gas leakage at a South African slum near Johannesburg, emergency services said Thursday 6 July 2023, revising the death toll after some people were resuscitated. The Wednesday night disaster thought to be linked to illegal mining activities, occurred at the Angelo informal settlement east of […]

Formula 1 on Wednesday announced a 24-race-schedule for the 2024 season opening with two that will be raced on Saturdays. ALSO READ | Speeding: FIVE dangers of driving at high speed on South Africa’s roads The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races will be held on Saturdays to accommodate Ramadan. Formula One will hope for better luck next year as they had scheduled a record […]

Your country is one of the poorest in the world, battered by a bloody jihadist insurgency and last year underwent two military coups. So, if you are a citizen of Burkina Faso, what can you do? Well, instead of plunging into despair, you can turn to the safety valve of laughter — making light of […]

South Africa’s 2023 Women’s World Cup squad will on Wednesday travel to New Zealand after a dispute with the national association highlighting gender pay gaps in the country was resolved. ALSO READ | Polokwane club reneges on ex-Pirates star, shows him exit door The Motsepe Foundation, founded by Confederation of African Football (CAF) president and billionaire Patrice Motsepe and his wife Precious Motsepe, […]

South Sudan’s leader Salva Kiir on Tuesday 4 July 2023 pledged that delayed elections set for next year would go ahead as planned and that he would run for president. Kiir, a towering guerrilla commander, has been the nation’s only president since he led it to independence from Sudan in 2011. The world’s youngest nation […]

Zimbabwe’s government on Tuesday 4 July 2023 announced a sudden end of blackouts that have crippled businesses and left millions of households without electricity for up to 19 hours a day. The information ministry said a cabinet meeting had “noted with satisfaction” that the power utility “has announced the end to load-shedding as a result […]

Heavy fighting raged Tuesday 3 July 2023 across the Sudanese capital where witnesses reported a fighter jet being shot down and artillery and machine gun fire rocking several neighbourhoods. “We saw pilots jumping with parachutes as the plane plunged to the ground,” said a witness in northern Khartoum who, like others, asked not to be […]

Relief swept Senegal and its supporters on Tuesday 4 July 2023 after President Macky Sall declared he would not seek a contested third term in office, a move that defused fears of bloodshed. Reactions at home and abroad were almost universally positive after Sall, ending months of feverish speculation, said that after “long consideration” he […]

Wimbledon paid tribute to Roger Federer on Tuesday as the eight-time champion returned to the scene of his some of his greatest triumphs. ALSO READ | Wimbledon: Is this the coldest celebration in tennis history? The Centre Court crowd gave the Swiss great a prolonged standing ovation interspersed with cheers as he entered the royal box. A legend returns. The Centre […]

Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who backs the politically-split country’s eastern administration, has threatened military action unless oil revenues are divided fairly by the end of August 2023. The country sits on Africa’s biggest oil reserves but the wedge between the eastern government and a United Nations-recognised administration in Tripoli has hampered Libya’s efforts to […]

Elon Musk spent the weekend further alienating Twitter users with more drastic changes to the social media giant, and he is facing a new challenge as tech nemesis Mark Zuckerberg prepares to launch a rival app this week. ZUCKERBERG Zuckerberg’s Meta group, which owns Facebook, has listed a new app in stores as “Threads, an […]

Egypt and Turkey said Tuesday 4 July 2023 they had appointed ambassadors to each other’s countries for the first time in a decade, in the latest sign of warming ties. Cairo and Ankara both issued statements announcing “the upgrading of diplomatic relations between them to the level of ambassadors”. The two foreign ministries said the […]

Explosions again rocked Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Monday 3 July 2023 as the army rallied civilians to take up arms against a renewed onslaught by its paramilitary foes. The sound of artillery fire shook the dawn in northwest Khartoum and progressed towards the centre and east of the city, witnesses told AFP. The fighting “began […]

The Zulu king, head of South Africa’s most influential traditional monarchy, said on Monday he was “fit and sound,” and denied rumours he had been poisoned. “I’m very well, I’m very fit and sound,” Misuzulu Zulu told AFP in a phone interview from the neighbouring country of Eswatini, where he is undergoing a medical check-up. ALSO READ: MultiChoice […]

A respected South African investigative journalism organisation on Monday 3 July 2023 won a legal battle against a powerful businessman in a case that tested the country’s media freedom. The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism had earlier been barred from using documents acquired from a source in its reporting on controversial businessman Zunaid Moti — […]

Kenyan President William Ruto announced Sunday 2nd July 2023 the lifting of a near six-year ban on logging, despite the concerns of environmental campaigners. Ruto said the move was “long overdue” and was aimed at creating jobs and opening up sectors of the economy that rely on forest products. “We can’t have mature trees rotting […]

The UK this year has seen its hottest June on record, both in terms of mean temperature and the average maximum temperature, the British Meteorological Office said on Monday. ALSO READ | SARS tax questions answered: What are the tax season deadlines? “The average mean temperature of 15.8 degrees Celsius for June 2023 in the UK is the highest […]

South Africa’s largest opposition party has teamed up with six small groups to build a coalition aimed at ousting the long-ruling ANC in next year’s elections, they announced Monday. ALSO READ: ANC ‘blames’ DA-led coalition for Hammanskraal cholera outbreak The Democratic Alliance, which has a fifth of the seats in parliament, is in the forefront of […]

Namibia’s annual sea hunt officially starts on Saturday 1 July 2023 and will see 86,000 Cape fur seals slaughtered despite a decrease in demand for pups and mounting opposition from conservationists. The seals are hunted for their prized fur for a once-thriving global trade. “The season opens on Saturday and those who have a quota […]

Wimbledon will celebrate Roger Federer’s achievements at the All England Club with a special ceremony on Centre Court on the second day of the championships on Tuesday. ALSO READ: Wimbledon champion: ‘Roger Federer is my favourite, but I don’t feel like calling him the GOAT’ The Swiss eight-time champion, who announced his retirement last September, will visit […]

The South Africa Women’s World Cup team, Banyana Banyana were called “mercenaries” and “traitors” on Sunday as they boycotted a warm-up against Botswana ahead of the global showpiece this month. ALSO READ | Best potential Kaizer Chiefs XI under Molefi Ntseki Banyana Banyana said the match venue in the Tsakane township, 50km southeast of Johannesburg, was unsuitable […]

Nick Kyrgios withdrew from Wimbledon on Sunday with a wrist injury, stripping the tournament of one its headline acts 12 months after the firebrand Australian finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic. “I’m really sad to say that I have to withdraw from Wimbledon this year,” the 28-year-old wrote on Instagram, explaining that he had hurt his wrist as […]

South Africa’s Zulu king, head of the country’s most influential traditional monarchy, has undergone “thorough” medical examinations following the sudden death of a close adviser, a spokesman said Sunday, amid suspicions he was poisoned. ALSO READ: King Misuzulu hospitalised in eSwatini amid fears of poisoning The king, who was visiting neighbouring Eswatini, “underwent precautionary and thorough medical […]