Few cities in the world have a hike right on their doorsteps, literally. Cape Town is full of them. Lion’s Head is the obvious one, but right next-door is the much simpler Pipe Track, perfect for a Sunday morning stroll with the dog, even – obvious from these photographs taken on Sunday – in the middle of […]

If you’re a globetrotter into fine dining, consider making your next destination Cape Town and its outlying Winelands, where an innovative eight-course tasting menu paired with wines will cost you about $60 to $80 for lunch, and $85 to $105 for dinner. Thanks to the dollar’s strength in South Africa, Americans are in for a […]

Cape Town and Johannesburg are the cheapest cities in the world to buy cigarettes and beer, beaten only by Manilla in the Philippines, according to an annual Sin Index done by Deutsche Bank. According to the survey, the most expensive city is Melbourne, Australia, where five beers and a pack of smokes costs $65 (R1,016). Cape Town and […]

The European Space Agency has released a rare cloud-free image of Africa taken from space. The “African mosaic” is made up of 7,000 images captured by the Sentinel-2A satellite. The ESA said on Thursday that majority of the images used in the mosaic – the first mosaic of Africa generated through ESA’s Climate Change Initiative Land Cover project – were taken between […]

The American republic survived Richard Nixon. South Africa’s will survive Jacob Zuma. Of that John Campbell sounded confident when I spoke to him this week about his new book. He has called it Morning in South Africa. No “u”. If you’re looking for a Washington establishment view on South Africa, Campbell is a good place […]

U.S. health officials announced on Wednesday that an experimental AIDS vaccine that has worked better than anything else so far will undergo “largescale” testing in South Africa – “where HIV is more pervasive than anywhere else in the world” – from November, the first such test in seven years. In its statement, the National Institutes of Health, […]

Two of Julius Malema’s bodyguards allegedly managed to sneak into the national assembly with the parliamentary protection service members to remove the EFF Tuesday – in a scuffle that grew violent – according to the Democratic Alliance, who called it a “devious plot” showing the EFF could not be trusted to uphold the rule of law. DA chief whip […]

Four boutique hotels that often miss the headlines have been selected for top awards by TripAdvisor users in its 2016 Traveler’s Choice Awards, as has the increasingly famous Test Kitchen in Woodstock, Cape Town. TripAdvisor calls the awards announced this week “The Very Best of Travel Chosen by Millions of Travelers”. The Garden House in Franschhoek came […]

Earlier this month we republished a story about five Zimbabwean teachers and academics who had taken an “abandoned” piece of farmland outside Malmesbury and made a success of it, a story that reached many people, even ex-president Thabo Mbeki, who, in a widely viewed speech, praised it as an example of how more focussed on the […]

First called the South African Native College, it opened its doors in Alice, Eastern Cape, in 1916. Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo met at Fort Hare in 1939. In 1960 the government took control of Fort Hare. At its May 2016 graduation ceremony there were 2,845 new graduates, 39 of them PhDs. There were celebrations at the […]

Less than a year after Cecil the Lion was shot in Zimbabwe by a US dentist, causing an international uproar, the famous lion’s latest offspring made a great showing in Hwange National Park. The cubs, fathered by Cecil’s son Xanda, were filmed earlier in the month near Linkwasha Camp in Hwange National Park by Graham Simmonds of Wilderness […]

On the same day that President Jacob Zuma lashed out at the Democratic Alliance in parliament that he “never lied” about Nkandla (see video below), the DA posted a graphic of how much Zuma has cost the country during his term in office. The DA graphic on Tuesday shows that GDP growth from 2009 has […]

The world’s rarest kitten – a Lykoi or Werewolf Cat – has been rescued from The Company’s Garden in Cape Town by TEARS Animal Rescue Feral Cat Project staff and volunteers, the agency said on Tuesday. The cat, found under a bush, is the only natural-born Lykoi on record in South Africa and one of […]

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has said the reports of his “imminent arrest” by the Hawks, alleged by the Sunday Times this weekend, have left him and his family distressed, and he cannot believe he is being investigated and could possibly be charged for something he is innocent of. He said in a statement on Tuesday that for 45 […]

Six months after Jean Sinclair, Ruth Folley, Elizabeth McLaren, Tertia Pybus, Jean Bosazza and Helen Newton-Thompson launched the Women’s Defence of the Constitution League over tea on 19 May 1955, the organisation held a conference in Port Elizabeth. The minutes of that meeting provide some insight into the tactics the women used to highlight “undemocratic” […]

The Economic Freedom Fighters under leader Julius Malema were thrown out of Parliament on Tuesday, as they were the last time President Jacob Zuma was to address the house, although this time it was with much more force and with punches flying. The EFF has maintained, since the Constitutional Court hearing over Nkandla ruled that […]

A tragicomic movie about two terminally ill young men on the road in South Africa has been one of the top 10 movies in Germany for most of 2016. According to the write-up for “Der Geilste Tag” (The Most Beautiful Day), writer/director Florian David Fitz “co-stars alongside the hugely popular German star Matthias Schweighoefer and the duo play […]

Professor Jonathan Jansen, a well-known commentator on politics in South Africa who saw himself at the centre of protests earlier this year, is to leave his post as vice-chancellor and rector of the University of the Free State to take up a post at Stanford University in the United States. According to a statement on […]

The Hawks investigative unit of the South African Police has been in the news recently because of a so-called former rogue unit at the SA Revenue Service that the Hawks want to question Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan about. A report in the Sunday Times this weekend even suggested Gordhan faced imminent arrest over the allegations, […]

JOHANNESBURG – The vice chancellor of the University of Johannesburg said the arsonists who attacked the Auckland Park campus early on Monday, causing R100 million in damage, would be brought to book. At the same time the Economic Freedom Fighters student body president said its members were not responsible for the fire, according to news […]

In South Africa we love the diminutive and the shortened word as much as the next far-flung English-speaking country – arvie for afternoon, mozzie for mosquito, and so forth. A recent video by Australian friends Josh and Rhys explains “How to Speak Australian – Abbreviate Everything” (see video below) that strikes the same note. Many of the words […]

The same day that the Sunday Times has come out with a report that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan could be arrested very soon by the Hawks, the president’s office released a statement condemning the media for speculating that cabinet ministers are about to be fired. “Ministers serve at the pleasure of the President,” the statement […]

ShowMax, the entertainment streaming service owned by South Africa’s Naspers is now also available in 36 countries in Africa, the company said on Friday. ShowMax, a cheaper alternative to Netflix (R99 versus $7.99 or R123) – with arguably a better selection of content, since it offers popular US shows from the HBO channel such as “Game of Thrones”, […]

All but one of a group of trawlers suspected of fishing illegally in South African waters managed to evade the SA Navy patrol boat, after numerous concerned citizens had raised the alarm about the boats acting suspiciously offshore. A post on the Facebook page of Salt Fishing South Africa on Tuesday morning by Mark Hicks got shared […]