Alas, poor Twitter; we knew it well. Or, at least, we thought we did. Despite never occupying more than 10% of social media’s online presence, western audiences are very aware of the platform. That’s not least because of the way that the mass media echoes and amplifies the controversies and outrage born on Twitter. Well […]

In recent months, with colleagues from the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS), I have visited prisons in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Vryheid and Newcastle. In each, disturbing evidence of dilapidation confronted us. Leaks, floods, broken windows, unrepaired electric installations, stinking ablutions. It was dismal, the more so because all the degradation we saw could readily be […]

The netballing and sporting world’s attention is on Cape Town as the Mother City hosts Africa’s first-ever Netball World Cup at the CTICC. Friday’s centre pass set in motion what-promises-to-be an exciting tournament until 6 August 2023. Cape Town is currently in the grips of netball fever with exciting on court action and ‘gees’ in […]

The Netball World Cup was first held in 1963. It’s the largest women’s sporting event on the planet – and for the first time it’s being hosted in Africa. Four African teams have made the final 16 of the 2023 tournament, which takes place in Cape Town, South Africa from July 28 until 6 August. […]

Few artists have straddled the boundaries between acclaim, controversy and public affection as effectively as Sinéad O’Connor who died yesterday at the age of 56. Her status as a household name belied a comparatively brief commercial peak in the early 1990s, thanks to her mesmerising interpretation of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U. But she was […]

The Gautrain has announced the provision of a free bus service for ticket holders attending the Springboks Rugby Championship match against Argentina at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg on Saturday, 29 July 2023. Gautrain Management Agency Chief Operating Officer, Tshepo Kgobe, said the provision of free bus service to rugby fans this weekend, follows a […]

The latest attempt by a small mining company to get formal approval for a massive open cast tungsten mine in the West Coast region is again before the courts. Since 2004 a small mining company has been seeking approval for a massive opencast tungsten mine near Piketberg. Owners of protected land have blocked the mining […]

Jim Skea of the United Kingdom was elected chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Nairobi on Wednesday night. The IPCC is one of the most important bodies tackling climate change. Skea, who has nearly 40 years of experience in climate change, was elected by 90 votes to 69 in a run-off […]

“We are not supposed to be starving,” said Elizabeth Ruiters, deputy chairperson of activist organisation #PayTheGrants. The Institute for Economic Justice and #PayTheGrants campaign have launched an application in the Pretoria High Court. The application challenges regulations for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant which, they say, exclude eligible recipients. The applicants want the […]

The latest census is expected to be published before October, according to Census Project Director Calvin Molongoana. The last one, the 2011 census, was released more than a decade ago in 2012. The latest census is expected to be released between July and 30 September 2023. The census was last conducted more than a decade ago, […]

Six directors of a law firm under investigation for misappropriating more than R25-million from their clients have been suspended from practice for six months while the Legal Practice Council (LPC) investigates their role in the matter. The Supreme Court of Appeal has suspended six directors of law firm Chueu Incorporated Attorneys. The firm is under […]

At the Western Cape High Court, you sometimes meet civil servants who are astonishingly efficient. One of them stands out as an example to all. Young lawyers and candidate attorneys in Cape Town gain their High Court experience in a place called Room 1 – a large ground-floor room on the Queen Victoria Street side […]

For seven long years, drought reduced the life-teeming waters of Verlorenvlei on the West Coast to a handful of toxic puddles. Record rainfall has again filled Verlorenvlei on the West Coast after seven years of drought. But the future of this important biodiversity site depends on a crucial meeting this week. Scientists will present their […]

It’s all systems go for the Netball World Cup (NWC) tournament, which is being hosted in the City of Cape Town, with less than 24 hours left until the opening match on home soil. The tournament will run from 28 July to 6 August and will be the first to take place on the continent […]

Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee to Nominate a Person for Appointment as Public Protector has shortlisted eight candidates for the position with interviews expected to be held in August. The term of current incumbent, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, ends in October. She is currently suspended. The eight candidates vying for the position are: Current acting Public Protector, […]

Ten-year-old Andiswa Kwele has been hailed as an animal hero by the Mdzananda Animal Clinic staff in Khayelitsha. Andiswa Kwele was walking home from school when she saw a small puppy on the pavement. “Many people would walk right past,” said Marcelle du Plessis, Fundraising and Communications Manager, “but this young child picked the puppy […]

Certain foods or dietary patterns are linked with better control of your asthma. Others may make it worse. Depending on what you’ve eaten, you can see the effects in hours. Food can affect how well your lungs function, how often you have asthma attacks and how well your puffer works. Here’s what we know about […]

Travel is back in full swing this summer, and so is bad behaviour by tourists. Popular destinations have seen an uptick in incidents involving tourists in recent years. Reports of a man defacing the Colosseum in Rome show that behaviour has deteriorated even in places that rarely had problems in the past. What’s behind these […]

The first Netball World Cup on African soil is just three days away and the City of Cape Town is gearing up for the opening. To set the tone for the 10-day tournament, the City is hosting a concert to launch the Cape Town mega Fan Park outside the CTICC. Some of the country’s top […]

Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, announced on Tuesday that South Africa recorded another imported laboratory-confirmed case of cholera from a 24-year-old South African man with a travel history from Karachi, Pakistan. According to the statement released last night, the patient arrived in the country on 16 July from Pakistan, known to be cholera endemic, where […]

Mpumalanga resident, Robin Lewis, and his wife, Jolandie, will embark on a 10-year 64-country journey spanning three continents to spread global awareness around the importance of stem cell donation. The pair, who will start their Matches on the Map journey from their hometown Nelspruit in August, will be travelling an estimated 110 000 kilometres through […]

South Africa has persistently high rates of hunger and malnutrition among mothers and children. More than a quarter – 27% – of children under five are stunted and 61% of children are iron-deficient. Sixty-nine percent of women of reproductive age are overweight or obese, and 31% are iron-deficient. These figures paint a worrying picture. They […]

Tensions ran high at the University of Cape Town on Monday evening as supporters of gay rights confronted members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) ahead of a lecture by Kenyan professor Patrick Lumumba. Lumumba, who has been reported as supporting the repression of gay people in Uganda, was invited by the EFF for the […]

Former PRASA chairperson and member of parliament, Sfiso Buthelezi, is threatening to sue Zackie Achmat, director of commuter activist group #UniteBehind, for defamation. This after Achmat made statements during a radio interview in which he accused Buthelezi of corruption during his time at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). Zackie Achmat and #UniteBehind are refusing […]

On a cold Sunday afternoon in Diepkloof, a hall filled with proud parents, grandparents and friends applauded and cheered as young Sowetan musicians performed classical music by JS Bach and Joseph Bologne. Bologne, a black 18th-century musician from Guadeloupe, is widely acclaimed as a composer of classical music. The free concert by the Buskaid Soweto […]