It’s said that behind every powerful language is an army and money. Consider the case of English. In South Africa, as in its other colonies, the British arrived with the Bible in one hand and the breech-loader in the other. Behind them was the English language, military might and money. British missionaries wanted to convert […]

It used to be a rare event when a high-ranking member of the African National Congress said something critical of the party or dissented, or pointed at cracks in the political firmament, but recently it has become more frequent. Add to the growing list of voices being raised Ben Turok (talking about the strictures of the ANC […]

Andrew Smith certainly thinks so, but he would. He is the founder of a South African solar company NVmyPower. But listen to what he says to a class and then judge for yourself. “Some people say buy a Ferrari,” Smith says. “Some people buy exclusive whiskey or a collectors item. This (solar) way, you’re not only saving […]

The horror novel ‘Day Four’ by South African Sarah Lotz has reached the semifinals of the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards, which brands itself as the only major book awards chosen by readers. A book about South African Elon Musk has also been nominated, in a non-fiction category. Goodreads, which started in 2007 and has apparently got 40 […]

PRETORIA – Eight policemen each received a 15-year jail sentence on Wednesday for the murder of a Mozambican taxi driver who was dragged behind a police van, according to news reports. The death of Mido Macia in February 2013 was caught on a mobile phone camera which showed him being manhandled, handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged […]

JOHANNESBURG – The remains of a dinosaur 50 percent larger than a T-Rex, found near Clarens in the Free State, are being pieced together by the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, it was announced on Tuesday. The plant-eating dinosaur, still to be named but which goes by the nickname ‘Highland Giant’, would have weighed about […]

AMMAN – The South African contractor who was one of at least five people who died after a local police officer opened fire at a police training centre in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday has been identified as Conrad Whitehorn, it was reported on Tuesday. Whitehorn, 37, was from Johannesburg, the reports added. A news report […]

Yes, the rand is plunging, unemployment is rocketing and the country’s debt is increasing, but South Africa remains one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa that has been growing faster than other countries around the world, according to a new report. The report by financial news agency Bloomberg on Tuesday, compiled from various data since 2005, said that South Africa’s Gross […]

As weather predictions mount of a serious drought hitting numerous parts of South Africa, people are starting to ask whether a massive international water slide event scheduled to take place in a number of cities should go ahead. The event organisers, Slide the City, have given assurances that they take water conservation seriously, and a website in […]

AMMAN – A South African in Jordan was among at least five people killed on Monday when a Jordanian captain opened fire on instructors at an international police training center in the capital, before he was shot dead by security forces, news reports said. The South African was a 37-year-old from Gauteng who worked for an […]

The already well-known three-year-old DJ Arch Junior has won the ‘South Africa’s Got Talent’ competition, and picked up a half a million rand in prize money in the process. The tiny DJ, Oratilwe Hlongwane from Alexandra, Johannesburg, who was clearly a favourite with the judges even in the semifinals, was one of six acts who reached the final, […]

Anyone sitting in London or Ottawa, Canada, or Scandiinavia – well, anywhere with a colder climate right now – might be thinking of sunnier climes. With the rand  hitting its lowest level ever against the US dollar, consider what these properties on offer in Johannesburg and Cape Town this weekend could be bought for in foreign currency. […]

Watch a foreign movie when you know it’s made in South Africa – but is meant to be somewhere else – and you can’t help looking for those telltale signs, places you recognise. It’s supposed to be Los Angeles or somewhere in the middle of America, but you know it’s the Atlantic Seaboard in Cape Town […]

JOHANNESBURG – MTN CEO Sifiso Dabengwa has resigned with immediate effect, the company said on Monday, it was reported. This comes two weeks after the telecommunications giant’s Nigerian division was fined $5.2 billion by that country’s communications agency for failing to disconnect users with unregistered SIM cards. MTN shares initially reacted badly to the news, and the JSE temporarily suspended […]

Anyone visiting Johannesburg – especially Jeppestown – might notice some new art decorating its walls, garage doors and basically any space flat and vertical worth a spray can. That’s because the fifth annual City of Gold Urban Art festival took place at the end of October. Graffiti artists from South Africa and abroad took part in painting up the place, […]

JOHANNESBURG – The South African rand fell to its lowest level ever against the dollar on Friday, to 14.17, on news of strong job statistics in the United States, suggesting the US Federal Reserve will increase interest rates before the end of 2015. One news report said that the rand has depreciated 20 percent in […]

A video of Sihle the Drummer (his surname is not given on Facebook) playing drums on an assortment of stand-in objects was first posted on his Facebook page in August and was viewed at least 410,000 times. That seems to have gotten him a real set, which he now plays in a new video. Watch Sihle’s first […]

On the same day the South African Police arrested four Krugersdorp policemen who were caught on camera fatally shooting a suspect at point-blank range, Trevor Noah talked about the effects of “brutally” filming cops and whether it deters them from doing their jobs properly. According to a SA Police statement on Tuesday, on 19 October two policemen were attending to […]

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK – As Kruger National Park deals with its worst elephant poaching in a decade, it announced on Tuesday that it has appointed a new top ranger to lead its anti-poaching efforts. Xolani Nicholus Funda, a former ranger who has been lecturing in nature conservation, took over the park’s anti-poaching operations from the beginning of […]

Just in time for its 80th anniversary as a board game, Monopoly will now have a Cape Town version and will include the city on its world game board. “Monopoly fans around the world will be able to visit the big 7 Capetonian attractions, play beach bats on some of our top beaches, play sport, go to […]

South Africa plays a feature role – and it’s a good one – in the new James Bond movie, ‘Spectre’, even though South Africa will be one of the last countries in the world that actually sees a major launch of the spy extravaganza. While the movie itself – which is brilliant – flits from Mexico […]

JOHANNESBURG – Former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe was highly critical of the African National Congress and many of its leaders in an interview published on Monday in the Business Day, and said the party was impaired. The ANC responded that it respected Motlanthe’s “forthrightness”. Motlanthe lashed out at the ANC, saying it was made up mostly of […]

If South Africa has long been known as the World in One Country, this week it could have also been called Weather in One Country. Storms, terrible winds, blistering heat as well as snow have all hit various parts of the country. In KwaZulu Natal, powerful winds were having a strange effect on the land. Said one news […]

One month into his stint as a talk show host, Trevor Noah spoke to his wildly popular competitor Jimmy Kimmel about how he  gave up his life in South Africa, where he was becoming more successful, to come to try his luck in America. “South Africa is small,” Noah said. “And when you’re from a […]

CAPE TOWN – What started as a great day for the 21st annual Cape Town International Kite Festival on the weekend was blown away by the weather on its second day, and has put a worthy cause in debt, according to news reports. The two-day festival at Muizenberg, in aid of Cape Mental Health and upliftment […]