The African National Congress, the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party all retained their wards in the nine by-elections contested in five provinces on Wednesday, the Independent Electoral Commission said. The IEC said the voter turnout varied between 26.36 percent and 53.56 percent with an average of 38.93 percent. Two wards were uncontested. The ANC kept four seats in […]

Jesse Clegg, the pop singer son of Johnny Clegg, will be doing a 35-show tour of the United States early this year, as soon as he has released his new album. Clegg – who has just released a brilliant new single, “Souvenir” (see video above and below) – said in an radio interview on Friday […]

In a new series out of Wits University about how Africa is covered in Chinese newspapers, Barry van Wyk looks at three journalists writing in January 2015 about visiting South Africa. Their trips left them with “decidedly mixed impressions”. One shows (“with obscure statistics”) that South Africa is the third most dangerous country for Chinese people. The other stories look […]

President Jacob Zuma’s office on Thursday released an unusual statement reprimanding a South African business journalist for saying that Zuma was a no-show at an important World Economic Forum debate, and chose to have discussions with the Swedish premier instead. “Zuma has bailed on the Africa Panel – no Pravin either. Defeats the purpose of coming to […]

A total of 1,175 rhinos were poached in South Africa in 2015, down from 1,215 a year earlier – a drop of 40 in all – the Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa said on Thursday. This would be the first time that figures – though still staggeringly high – had fallen since 2007. Numbers escalated drastically especially since 2011, […]

The luxurious boutique hotel Ellerman House, overlooking Bantry Bay in Cape Town, has joined 49 illustrious other hotels around the world in the latest “50 Greatest Hotels” named by the British Telegraph newspaper. The three other hotels in sub-Saharan Africa that made the list were designed, owned or managed by South Africans. They are Wilderness Safaris’ North Island […]

JOHANNESBURG – The U.S. rapper Mos Def will stand trial in South Africa in March after being arrested for presenting a “world passport” when trying to fly out of the country, according to news reports on Wednesday. At the same time the hip hop artist posted a freestyle rap (see below) on singer Kanye West’s website, […]

It’s been a heady week for the block of flats at the top of Long Street in Cape Town, where a #ZumaMustFall banner went up on Friday, had its photograph taken by countless people over the next 24 hours, but was torn down by ANC members on Saturday. Now the building has been draped with a […]

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – A delegation of at least 55 people headed by President Jacob Zuma is busy making its way from South Africa to Switzerland to take part in the World Economic Forum, which starts on Wednesday and will reportedly be a tough one for Africa. The South African group at Davos will include government members, and business and […]

For anyone who hasn’t seen a South African theatre production recently, “Singin’ in the Rain” will astound you. The famous musical – which is actually seeing a revival on Broadway this year – gets nothing but praise, praise and more praise. After a wildly successful run in Cape Town – with audiences in the first three rows getting ponchos […]

If you are upset that South Africa’s Charlize Theron didn’t get nominated by the Academy Awards for her brilliant performance in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, that’s nothing compared to the racial furore that’s been caused by people of colour having been overlooked, with two well-known movie industry members saying they won’t attend the 2016 Oscar awards in […]

I think I speak for most Africans who grew up here that we have at one point in our lives wanted to go live somewhere else, far away. Preferably somewhere with snow and no power cuts. Somewhere with adequate water supply and quite possibly better job prospects. I was thinking of this a couple of […]

A senior member of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters will represent well-known radio personality Gareth Cliff in his lawsuit against M-Net claiming he was unfairly dismissed from Idols SA for a tweet he posted apparently did not showing empathy. Cliff will be represented by Dali Mpofu, according to news reports. Mpofu left the African National Congress to join the EFF in 2013, […]

South African Airways is in dire straits. According to an internal memorandum of 6 November 2015 made public by the media last month, SAA is technically insolvent and thus guilty of reckless trading. It is therefore legally obliged under the Companies Act to file for either liquidation or business rescue. On 24 December, Citigroup withdrew […]

Philani Dladla’s story is well known to those who know him as the Pavement Bookworm and have bought books from him on Empire Road in Johannesburg, South Africa. But now he has added author to his résumé, with his newly published book titled, of course, “The Pavement Bookworm”. Dladla – whom we wrote about in […]

President Jacob Zuma has officially said he made a mistake about Africa being the biggest continent in the world. It is, he admits, the second biggest in terms of population after Asia. In a statement released on Monday, the Presidency referred to a speech Zuma made on 9 December at a dinner in Sandton, where he said […]

The former Idols SA judge Gareth Cliff, who was one of several people publicly taken to task in past weeks for remarks they made on social media over the racial debate, has sued the TV channel M-Net for firing him, according to a news report. On Monday it was reported that the radio personality was suing […]

For the second day, a huge fire has spread across the Houwhoek Pass in South Africa, destroying thousands of hectares of bush and forest, and the smoke has spread as far as Cape Town, 70 kilometres away. The fire began on Saturday and quickly spread across the Overberg area. The smoke drifted over the Hottentot Hollands range […]

Three years ago this weekend, small-town Mpumulanga schoolgirl Pretty Yende made her debut at the world-famous Metropolitan Opera House in New York. More astonishing than her voice was that it had been only a decade since Yende had learned what the word “opera” meant. This weekend Yende posted a message on Instagram from Paris, where she is soon to […]

The six-storey banner saying #ZumaMustFall that went up on Friday at the top of Long Street in Cape Town – resulting in pictures of it being shared on social media over a million times in the first hour (according to the campaign’s facebook page) – has been torn down by African National Congress (ANC) supporters after the […]

Baleka Mbete, the speaker of Parliament, is to receive an award named after Martin Luther King – leader of the African-American civil rights movement – in the U.S. capital, Washington D.C., on Sunday. The Martin Luther King Legacy Award for International Service is bestowed annually by a Washington-based health organisation – the Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural & […]

JOHANNESBURG –  U.S. rapper Mos Def has been arrested at Cape Town International Airport, and his family have been given two weeks to leave the country, according to news reports. The Department of Home Affairs said on Friday that Mos Def, 42, was accused of contravening immigration laws. He has been living in the country […]

CAPE TOWN – Motorists driving up Long Street in the Cape Town city centre today have been distracted – and amused or annoyed – by a massive banner that has been draped down the side of a corner building declaring “Zuma Must Fall”. No one has taken responsibility for the huge, six-storey, black-and-white banner, but it […]

MIDRAND – At the kick-off for the highly anticipated 2016 municipal elections – which could see several major metropolitan areas change leadership – the Independent Electoral Commission of SA said on Thursday the first voter registration weekend will take place on March 5-6. The election date still has to be confirmed by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional […]

More than two-thirds of adult South Africans are confident that all population groups in the country should enjoy a happy future, according to a new survey released this week. The data was collected by the research company Ipsos among 3,617 randomly chosen adult South Africans who were interviewed face-to-face in their homes and home languages from mid-September […]