Botswana has reached an eleventh-hour deal with diamond giant De Beers after months of tense negotiations that saw the continent’s top producer threatening to cut ties with the storied company. ALSO READ: Botswana threatens to cut ties with diamond giant De Beers The Botswana government and Anglo-American, the majority owner of De Beers, have reached an “agreement in […]

Metrorail services in and around Cape Town have yet to fully recover from theft and vandalism that happened during the Covid lockdown period when trains stopped running. Already long before the pandemic, the service was crumbling. GroundUp had been documenting Metrorail’s steady demise since 2013. The Central Line, which was the busiest and served commuters from the […]

The Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, has appointed Yanga Mputa as the Tax Ombud effective from 1 July 2023 for a period of five years. Mputa is South Africa’s first female Tax Ombud. She takes over from Professor Thabo Legwaila, who has been acting in the role since October 2022, after the term of the […]

It has taken two years for an acting judge in the Cape Town Labour Court to come to the aid of a Cape wine farm worker, who was fired after she gave an interview to a Swedish journalist about her working conditions. Claudine van Wyk, a wine farm worker, was fired in October 2020 after […]

After a lengthy absence on the international scene, SA’s national carrier South African Airways (SAA) will soon be jetting off to another continent. SAA is rebuilding its international network. The carrier will relaunch its first intercontinental route since restarting operations as a smaller airline nearly 2 years ago. INTERNATIONAL ROUTE The airline’s first intercontinental scheduled […]

The Western Cape will finally have a direct connection to South America, with South African Airways (SAA) announcing a direct, non-stop flight connecting Cape Town International Airport with São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) in São Paulo, Brazil. Sao Paulo was identified as the biggest unserved market with the fastest growth for Cape Town and the […]

The Cape Town Labour Court has sent Claudine van Wyk’s case back to the CCMA. By Tania Broughton Claudine van Wyk, a wine farm worker, was fired in October 2020 after she gave an interview to a Swedish magazine. The Cape Town Labour Court has ruled that her dismissal was substantially and procedurally unfair and […]

Reuters: The South African rand gained on Tuesday as analysts speculated the weekend’s aborted mutiny in Russia may mean President Vladimir Putin could skip BRICS summit where South Africa would in theory be obliged to arrest him. SOUTH AFRICAN RAND GAINED The BRICS group of emerging economies, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, […]

It was hard to imagine a more obvious attempt at bullying than the “gagging” case brought by the Moti Group against amaBhungane, its counsel, Advocate Steven Budlender said on Tuesday. Arguments from the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism to overturn a “gagging” order against them reporting on the Moti Group were heard in court on […]

The Hout Bay harbour is set to get an upgrade and a “state of the art” fish processing and packaging facility, and long-awaited, 15-year fishing rights will be allocated in the Western Cape by October “at the latest” in time for the West Coast lobster season. This was announced at an intergovernmental community meeting in Hout Bay last […]

South Africa recorded 21 000 jobs lost in the first quarter of the 2023/2024 financial year, according to Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) released on Tuesday, 27 June. READ: Three more G4S employees arrested in Thabo Bester case TRADE AND BUSINESS SERVICES SUFFER SIGNIFICANT LOSSES, CONTRIBUTING TO SOUTH AFRICA’S OVERAL EMPLOYMENT DECLINE […]

The credit rating industry in Africa is dominated by the three international agencies: Moody’s, S&P and Fitch. Together they control an estimated 95% of the credit rating business globally. Credit rating agencies are institutions that assess a borrower’s creditworthiness in general terms, or with respect to a particular debt or financial obligation. A credit rating […]

The Department of Employment and Labour’s Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) branch is today conducting an advocacy seminar in the Eastern Cape to create awareness of compliance with labour laws. The four-day seminar, which will be held at Hotel Savoy in Mthatha aims to create awareness on compliance with labour laws as well as to […]

THE THREAT OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND A PASSION FOR PERSONAL CARE LED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A VENTURE WITH AMBITIONS FOR GLOBAL RECOGNITION. Refusing to accept that unemployment was her fate when her contract expired in 2018, Kedibone Segole (28) resuscitated a life-long passion she one day hopes to grow into a global brand. ALSO READ: South […]

Eskom has indicated that it prepares to kick off its prepaid meter recode initiative to all its customers around the country. SUCCESSFUL PILOT PROJECT PROPELS ESKOM’S NATIONAL PROJECT This follows a successful rollout of a pilot project in Gauteng where Eskom was able to recode 5 800 meters. “The current TID code will expire on 24 November 2024 […]

Local low-cost airline FlySafair has denied that one if its planes had to do an emergency landing at the OR T ambo International Airport in Johannesburg. The alleged incident happened on Monday, 19 June on a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. PASSENGER FEARS FOR THEIR SAFETY AFTER EMERGENCY LANDING One of the passengers who […]

A MOTHER’S EXCITEMENT OVER THE ARRIVAL OF HER NEWBORN BABY GIRL IN 2018 INSPIRED HER TO TRANSFORM OLD CLOTHES INTO MATCHING OUTFITS FOR HERSELF AND HER DAUGHTER. That marked the beginning of Dineo Cheonyane’s thriving venture, Reitu Hand Crafts. Cheonyane (32) credits her daughter for the motivation to start her business, which derives its name […]

THE PRESIDENTIAL YOUTH EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVE (PYEI) HAS IDENTIFIED SEVERAL PRIORITY INTERVENTIONS TO ACCELERATE PATHWAYS INTO THE ECONOMY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. The PYEI was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2022 as a multi-sector action plan directed at addressing South Africa’s youth unemployment challenge. It aims to increase job creation for […]

According to Forbes, Johann Rupert is now Africa’s richest man and here is a look into his business empire. For a long time, Ruppert had been among Africa’s richest men but could not replace Alico Dangote at the top. ALSO READ: Johann Rupert’s Remgro to sell stake in TotalEnergies SA The South African Billionaire seemed to have been […]

FLYSAFAIR WINS YET AGAIN It’s another win for local airline, FlySafair, as they’ve been awarded their third consecutive ‘Best Low-Cost Airline in Africa’ award at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2023. The World Airline Awards, which occurs annually, are determined through a customer satisfaction survey conducted by Skytrax. Among the 80 major awards handed out […]

SMALL BUSINESSES MIGHT STRUGGLE TO MAKE SALES THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS IF THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO MARKET THEIR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SUCCESSFULLY. The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) recently held a webinar to address this challenge. ALSO READ: Small business owners listen up, Suzuki launches Eeco panel van for R199 900 The theme for […]

The City of Cape Town has secured €100 million in developmental finance towards its mega R43 billion medium-term infrastructure plans. Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis conducted the signing ceremony with the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) today, 21 June, following Council green-lighting the finance in April. Cape Town has passed a record infrastructure investment budget […]

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has confirmed that the start of the 2023 tax season will be Friday, 7 July at 20:00. The tax season will run until Monday, 23 October 2023 for individual taxpayers, and until Wednesday, 24 January 2024 for provisional taxpayers. As reported by The South African website, SARS will once again use its popular auto-assessments in 2023 which has proved successful in recent […]

Cape Town Mayor signed the dotted line for a €100 million (R2bn) loan from the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) on Wednesday, 21 June. The money will be used in the City’s R43 billion infrastructure budget over the medium term. CAPE TOWN SECURES LOAN FROM AGENCE FRANCAISE DE DEVELOPPEMENT FOR WATER, SANITATION, AND URBAN MOBILITY PROJECTS […]

South Africa-born Elon Musk has extended his lead over France’s LVMH chairperson Bernard Arnault in the world’s richest person list. Musk, 51, who was born in Pretoria in South Africa, has seen his fortune skyrocket this year by $106 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. ALSO READ | FAQ: SARS tax season – What must I do if I owe SARS money? […]