STOCKHOLM – South Africa’s Naspers is further extending its global reach after securing 30 million euros ($34 million) in a fundraising effort led by itself and EQT, both existing investors in the European startup Dott, to launch an electric bike-hiring business and roll out new generations of its electric scooters. Naspers, which describes itself as […]

ROME – A volcano on the Italian island of Stromboli erupted unexpectedly on Wednesday, releasing hot trapped magma in a powerful explosion, killing one person – believed to be a tourist – and enveloping the popular tourist destination in ash, witnesses and local officials said. (Watch video below.) The person, believed to be a tourist, […]

South African Reserve Bank (SARB) expects to sell its 50% stake in African Bank in a year or two, the central bank’s deputy governor said on Thursday. African Bank was placed under SARB control after nearly collapsing in 2014 due to the weight of bad loans. The bank was hived off from African Bank Investments Ltd (Abil) when […]

JOHANNESBURG – The South African government is weighing up additional options to support Eskom, including swapping the state power firm’s debt for government bonds and moving it to a special purpose vehicle, a senior official said. Discussions are at an early stage, and it is not yet clear which option will be chosen to help […]

LONDON – The body of a suspected stowaway from Africa fell hundreds of meters from a plane flying over southwest London, landing in the garden of a man’s home, just missing him – by only a metre! – as he sunbathed, according to neighbours. Police believe the man fell into the property in Clapham from […]

Bulls loose forward Marco van Staden was added to South Africa‘s training squad on Monday as doubts remain over the fitness of Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi ahead of the Rugby Championship. Kolisi injured his knee playing for the Stormers in Super Rugby and was initially ruled out for six weeks in late May, though it now seems […]

LONDON – Returning to the lush grasscourts of Wimbledon proved to be just the tonic Kevin Anderson needed on Monday as the 2018 runner-up buried memories of an injury-hit year by easing into the second round with a 6-3 6-4 6-2 win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert. The South African, who had played only three tour-level events […]

STANFORD, California (Reuters) – Olympic champion Caster Semenya said on Sunday she would not defend her world title in Doha in September if she could not run in the 800 metres because of new testosterone regulations imposed by the sport’s governing body. “If I am not running 800 metres, I’m not running in the world […]

Scrapyard innovator to Netflix hero, William Kamkwamba inspired social trailblazers at a week-long innovation get-together that has just ended in Durban, and encouraged those who had moved abroad to come back to help Africa with their inventions. Kamkwamba has been inventing since he was a child in Malawi when he gained global attention for building […]

South Africa’s Bongani Zungu scored with a header from a second-half corner to secure a 1-0 win over Namibia on Friday and SA’s first points in Group D of the Africa Cup of Nations. The 68th minute goal will have brought relief more than anything else to the regional giants against SA’s northern neighbours, whose […]

CHESTER-LE-STREET, England – A swarm of bees forced the players of South Africa and Sri Lanka to dive onto the ground during their Cricket World Cup clash at the Riverside Stadium on Friday — but for many on the pitch there was a sense of deja vu. Bees halting international cricket matches is not common, […]

Google on Friday announced a new subsea cable dubbed “Equiano” that will connect Africa with Europe – starting with South Africa and Portugal, as it boosts its cloud computing infrastructure. Equiano, fully funded by Alphabet Inc’s Google, is the company’s third private international cable. The search engine giant, which has invested $47 billion in improving […]

LONDON – Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan confirmed today they will head to southern Africa later this year for their first official overseas tour as a family since the birth of son Archie. The couple will visit South Africa, Angola and Malawi and also undertake a working visit to Botswana at the request […]

Daniel Mminele will retire as deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank at the end of the month after 10 years in the job, the Reserve Bank said on Thursday, making him the third member of its policy committee to quit the regulator recently. Mminele’s retirement follows the departure of fellow deputy governor Francois […]

GENEVA – Two South African sisters who were imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, initially without charge, described their ordeal on Tuesday in an effort to give a voice to the voiceless as they said they had brought a complaint to the United Nations. Yumna Desai, a former English teacher at the University of Ha’il in northern […]

JOHANNESBURG – Jacob Zuma – who was unseated as South African president last year over corruption allegations – will attend the Zondo judicial inquiry into government corruption that took place during his tenure… even though he believes it is prejudiced against him, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Zuma’s African National Congress (ANC) party forced him […]

HARARE – On Monday Zimbabwe ended a decade of dollarisation, making its interim currency the country’s sole legal tender in a step towards relaunching the Zimbabwean dollar. The central bank also hiked its overnight lending rate to 50% from 15% as a part of a set of measures to protect the RTGS dollar introduced in […]

South Africa will have no sides in the semi-finals of Super Rugby for only the second time in 16 years, but it could unfortunately be just the start of the country’s declining fortunes in the competition as teams are decimated by player departures. There have been mitigating circumstances to the failures in 2019 with the […]

African countries running up debt they won’t be able to pay back – including to China – should not expect to be bailed out by western-sponsored debt relief, the United States’ top Africa diplomat warned. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank began the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in 1996 to help the […]

South Africa’s cricket players expressed bitter disappointment and even embarrassment after their elimination from the World Cup was ensured by their loss to Pakistan at Lord’s on Sunday but they said they would learn lessons and return stronger. The Proteas’ chances of progressing in the tournament evaporated after they logged their fifth loss in seven […]

South Africa can take inspiration from Sri Lanka’s upset win over hosts England and string together victories to keep their slim World Cup hopes alive, batsman Aiden Markram said on the eve of Sunday’s clash with Pakistan. Sri Lanka’s 20-run victory over the favourites opened up the battle for the semi-final places, giving themselves as […]

ROME – The world is nowhere near to achieving a global goal to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030 because of a lack of accountability and responsibility by decision-makers, Nelson Mandela’s widow warned on Saturday. Graca Machel told ministers, ambassadors and representatives from 194 nations at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in […]

JOHANNESBURG – South African pay-television firm MultiChoice Group is planning to lay off more than 2,000 workers in South Africa in a shake-up of its customer care service, the company said on Friday. MultiChoice, which competes with Netflix in online streaming via Showmax, said in a statement it is launching a consultation process to cut […]

South Africa’s Reserve Bank will probably cut interest rates next month or in September to boost the country’s economy, a Reuters poll found on Friday. A median forecast from 24 economists, polled this week, suggests the economy will grow 0.6% this year, slower than last year’s 0.8% and weaker than the 1.1% predicted in a […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s rand weakened against the dollar in early trade on Friday, as markets digested President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address (SONA) which some analysts said lacked detail on how he plans to fix the ailing economy. At 0640 GMT, the rand traded at 14.3800 per dollar, 0.2% weaker than its […]