MIDRAND – The African National Congress has seen its membership fall by about one-quarter since 2012 – from 1,220,057 to 769,870 – President Jacob Zuma said today, addressing the party’s National General Council. Zuma said that party members were growing tired by the impression of a “lack of discipline”, infighting and divisions in the ANC. There was reportedly […]

In 1987, when Martin Pistorius was a 12-year-old in Johannesburg, something happened. His whole body shut down. For the next 12 years, he stayed that way, trapped inside himself. Until the shut-down, his mother Joan told an American radio interviewer earlier this year, Martin was a bright child who from the age of three had said […]

DAR ES SALAAM – A Chinese woman known as the ‘Queen of Ivory’ has been arrested in Tanzania, the most important ivory trafficker ever caught in the country, according to a statement released on Thursday. Yang Feng Glan, 66, has been followed by Tanzania’s National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit for over a year, and was […]

BLOEMFONTEIN – The South African Broadcasting Corporation chief Hlaudi Motsoeneng should be suspended while a disciplinary hearing is conducted into his alleged breaches – a huge salary increase and fake matric papers – according to a Supreme Court of Appeal Court ruling on Thursday. Motsoeneng‚ the SABC and the Communications Minister had challenged a lower court’s decision that, following a report by […]

The Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress have both been clamouring over the past week for the other party to take immediate action after news broke of serious problems within their ranks, namely the ANC’s possible involvement in a deal with Hitachi and a DA parliamentarian’s indiscrete tweet that has been called racist. On Thursday (today) […]

The ‘South Africa’s Got Talent’ audience was on its feet Sunday night when DJ Arch Junior, all of three years old, took to a digital music deck and handled the jog wheels and transport controls like a pro. Oratilwe Hlongwane from Alexandra township has reached the semifinals of the show’s national competition. He’s the youngest person to have ever been on the […]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – SABMiller, the world’s second largest brewer, has promptly rejected an improved offer from bigger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev, saying on Wednesday that its 68 billion-pound valuation was insufficient. Earlier Belgium-based AB InBev said it was willing to pay 42.15 pounds in cash per SABMiller share, having already made two prior offers at 38 […]

As African authors get more and more publicity and prizes – as well as readers – they are becoming must-haves on bookshelves worldwide. Some are already known as African by their subject matter as well as their names (Nigerians Chigozie Obioma, the youngest ever nominee for a Booker, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie). But here are a couple […]

In her latest DIY video, Suzelle explains how to make a vertical or hanging garden using a bunch of old plastic bottles. Her planting gets done so fast that she spends the rest of the time singing. Go, Suzelle! Watch the SuzelleDIY video ‘How to Make a Vertical Garden’

PRETORIA – A panel led by a judge has upheld a decision not to let athlete Oscar Pistorius be transferred to house arrest and have sent his case back to the parole board for review again, a move his family reportedly said “flies in the face” of justice.   Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail […]

PRETORIA – After a meeting with the leaders of some of South Africa’s universities on Tuesday, President Jacob Zuma said that while it was the right of all students to protest, they should do it responsibly. Zuma also said that Afrikaans was as African as South Africa’s other official languages, which immediately started a debate on […]

Charlie Simpson, the British singer who busted up his band Busted, is in the news for rejoining the band, but it’s his collaboration with a group of San Bushmen that has got us tapping our feet to the unforgettable beat. It’s great! The song ‘Walking with the San’ was played last week on the show ‘Singing in […]

People in Africa are healthier and the continent more democratic than 15 years ago, but progress in certain areas has stalled over the last four years, according to an important new governance survey released by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation on Monday. “It is wrong for people to buy elections.” Mo Ibrahim pic.twitter.com/91bNVNF2tU — Mo Ibrahim Fdn […]

Just two days ago it started as a campaign to get 12 likes on Facebook against a popular series of ads by Telkom, but already it has got a whole lot more than a dozen. The one-man (or is it the one-band?) campaign is against the well-known adverts that some see as cute, others as […]

Mention of the dung beetle might cause some to go ‘Ick’, but the industrious, single-minded gatherers of animal poop have become a favourite of a South African plant species, says a new study from the University of Cape Town that’s getting a lot of international media buzz. According to the paper published on Monday by Jeremy Midgley of the Department […]

Much of Africa’s most densely populate areas should have free access to broadband Internet by late 2016, all provided from a satellite, according to a plan announced by Facebook on Monday. In partnership with French satellite operator Eutelsat, news reports said, the two companies will use the AMOS-6 satellite to beam Internet connections to reach at least 14 countries in sub-Saharan […]

In the United States they have been doing it for years, taking a night off to ‘roast’ – basically make fun of (in the harshest possible way) – a famous person. Anyone who has seen Amy Schumer’s infamous roast of Charlie Sheen knows that to be roasted is pretty much to be gutted. In 2012 […]

OSLO – Three scientists who worked on cures for river blindness, which greatly affects Africa, and malaria will share the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. The Nobel Assembly said on Monday the prize would go to William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites, and the other half […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s South African unit said on Monday all its vehicles in Africa’s most advanced economy are compliant with environmental laws, following the emissions testing scandal, which has rocked the global car industry. The South African business said its vehicles comply with the published CO2 values and were technically safe and roadworthy. “There […]

PRETORIA – A parole board in South Africa is to meet on Monday to determine whether Oscar Pistorius should be released early from prison, according to news reports. Pistorius, who was found guilty last year of culpable homicide for the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, was due to leave prison in August to serve the […]

JOHANNESBURG – The much praised and often vilified French economist Thomas Piketty delivered the 13th Annual Nelson Mandela lecture at Johannesburg’s Soweto campus on Saturday, spending much of his well-applauded speech on inequality. Pointing out that up to 65 percent of all income earned in South Africa goes to the top 10 percent, he said the […]

JOHANNESBURG – A brouhaha seems to be building up again over a satirical artwork depicting President Jacob Zuma’s penis, and the government has already condemned the work. The cartoon by Anton Kannemeyer shows a giant black penis and scrotum hovering above a group of angry black demonstrators carrying a banner that demands, “Respect for the president’s […]

You never know what you’re going to find up one of the alleys in Kalk Bay, a gem on the False Bay side of Cape Town, and it just makes you want to explore. So says one of the locals interviewed by musician Arno Carstens in a recent video about the artist-town-meets-fishing-village. The video gives you a good […]

GENEVA – Rwandans have been fleeing their country since 1959 and through the horrific events of the 1990s, although that is likely coming to an end, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The agency said on Friday that after a meeting of ministers from Rwanda, 11 countries hosting the refugees (including South Africa), the African […]

If you missed the Thursday night episode of ‘The Daily Show’, the audience got a lesson in African presidents, thanks to new host Trevor Noah, who was comparing US presidential candidate Donald Trump to Jacob Zuma, Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin and Muammar Gaddafi, among others. With the subheading ‘Orange is the new Black’ – and […]