A veritable who’s who of South African politics were at The Gathering in Midrand on Friday, organised by Nando’s and the Daily Maverick. The focus was on the municipal elections, and speakers included everyone from three Joburg mayoral candidates to finance minister Pravin Gordhan to the EFF’s Julius Malema – who, going by the coverage he got, had […]

More than five months after KwaZulu-Natal realtor Penny Sparrow hit world headlines for posting a racist remark on Facebook about the black people on the beach over the festive season, she has been ordered to pay R150,000 to the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation. In her post Sparrow compared the beachgoers to monkeys, unleashing a […]

Working on Fire, the South African group whose team of 281 firefighters went to help fight wildfires in Canada, said on Friday it was “extremely disappointed” with the turn of events this week when its team refused to work for two days over a pay dispute, which then “escalated into an international incident”. “To have a […]

Refentse Morake, a Vereeniging youngster, didn’t find success overnight, but pretty close. Just over a year ago the high-school student was overheard singing by someone who recorded him on her cellphone, the clip quickly spread, and now, just over a year later, Refentse has a CD out and several professional tracks on YouTube. His latest video is a […]

The premier of the Canadian province of Alberta has stepped into the fray over how much 281 South African firefighters there are being paid to fight forest blazes, while the team’s South African managers are apparently on their way to demobilise the men and women who have refused to work for two days. The premier, Rachel […]

After almost 40 years, the days may be numbered for Cape Town’s highway to nowhere. Mayor Patricia de Lille reportedly told a press conference last week that plans are in motion to join the so-called Unfinished Bridge near the V&A Waterfront to the N1. De Lille said plans would be announced later in June. In the […]

As Johannesburg celebrates one of its big birthdays (that’s one of the questions), the city is showing off its stuff more and more. It was recently called one of the “coolest” cities in the world (that’s another question, by whom?) and travellers are spending more than just one night there. In honour of all that – and […]

One South African airline’s loss is another African airline’s very valuable gain, it seems. Mango, the low-cost sister airline to South African Airways, is losing its CEO Nico Bezuidenhout, who many credit with the airline’s success while SAA stumbles from crisis to crisis. He is moving to the six-year-old African low-cost carrier fastjet, where he will also be CEO. […]

A team from South Africa is heading to Canada to clear up the confusion over the wages of almost 300 SA firefighters who arrived in Canada a week ago but refused to go to work on Wednesday because of a dispute over wages. It was a very different scene in Alberta from the one in late May […]

A guide from the tour group Pelican Point Kayaking in the Walvis Bay area of Namibia came across a stranded baby dolphin during one of their tours, and although he thought it would not survive, he carried it back to the water, only to see it come to life suddenly and dart off into the waves. The […]

If you’ve ever wondered how much a member of parliament in South Africa makes a month, or which MPs work hardest for their money, a new breakdown of the figures sets it all out – in hundreds of thousands of rands, cents and hours. The lists, which were released Wednesday by Africa Check and are based […]

Following the decisions by ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s over the past weeks to not downgrade South Africa to junk status, the third important ratings agency Fitch today followed suit. The rand, which has rollercoastered over the last five months, reaching a low of almost R18 to the dollar in January, firmed even […]

The security cluster of the South African government met on Wednesday to discuss a warning by the United States that shopping malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town could be a target for Islamic militants during Ramadan. In a statement, the presidency said it had “noted the security alert that the United States government has issued to its […]

On Friday two cyclists wheeled into Cape Town after a 19,000-kilometre trip from London across Africa, while a South African filmmaker readied to finish his bike trip across the US to raise funds for his next feature film. The journey from the UK by Emily Conrad-Pickles and James Davis (pictured above), done under the name london2capetown, was in support […]

South Africa’s CSIR has unveiled the fastest computer in Africa, which has been named Lengau, the Setswana for cheetah, it was announced on Tuesday. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Centre for High Performance Computing showed off the petaflops (PFLOPs) machine in Cape Town. “This is a supercomputer with processing speed capable of a thousand-trillion […]

Two of South Africa’s best-known actors, Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo, who were seen around the world in the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy”, have teamed up again for a new thriller that is being released in July. The two, who have become sort of acting royalty, have been acting together for a long time, at […]

On a recent trip to Johannesburg, curiosity took me to the new Starbucks outlet in Rosebank, South Africa’s first. I know Starbucks from the United States, and even though I’m not a big fan of their brewed coffee – it’s not as bad as people say it is, but just not for me – I do like their beans. What […]

Former premier of Mpumalanga – and still an African National Congress member – Mathews Phosa has said in a wide-ranging interview that corruption is systemic in the ANC. “It’s become systemic in municipal government, provincial government, national government,” said Phosa, one of the few high-profile ANC members to repeatedly criticise the party in public. He was talking to […]

A group of tourists in a South African game park were on the edge of their seats – literally – when they spied a waterbuck crossing a waterway, seemingly oblivious that a crocodile was closing in. And fast! Watch what happened next.

The possibility of a direct air link between the United States and Cape Town seems to be hotting up after discussions between key players, according to news reports on Monday. The city in the US most mentioned in reports for a direct flight to Cape Town seems to be Miami, Florida, which is on the east coast […]

One of the most recent house designs put together by the innovative team at SAOTA is a spectacular property – in the sought-after Cape Town suburb of Clifton but also above it. Way above it! The site of the family home is on the ridge below Lion’s Head with 270-degree views of the Atlantic Ocean, Camps Bay and the […]

A new six-part mini-series based on the life of Nelson Mandela and starring an international and South African cast has started shooting in Johannesburg. The cast for the BET series “Madiba”, which includes American Laurence Fishburne (the “Matrix” series, “Contagion”, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”) as Mandela and Orlando Jones as Oliver Tambo, will also showcase […]

The great, sclerotic, overlarge creaking machinery that is the African National Congress ground its way into Soweto on Saturday afternoon, thrashing everything in its way – including meaning. It’s a thing to behold, the ANC, as its legions make their way off buses into the country’s signature football stadium: for a moment in the shimmering […]

South African Jonathan Shapiro, better known by the name he draws under, Zapiro, has been named one of the 10 best cartoonists in the world by an American publication, coming in near the top, at No. 2. The online publication Top Ten said, “Whether the cartoons (of the 10) are created for political commentary, advertising, entertainment or […]

It’s a random challenge that’s just gone viral for no particular reason, but the crews on four South African airlines – so far – seem to be having a lot of fun doing it and competing against one another in the process. The #RunningManChallenge, which was started by two American basketball players apparently, is to do a variation […]