Nearly six years after the Lottery gave R13 million to establish a “Carnival Heritage Museum” intended to celebrate the colourful history of Cape Town’s minstrels, the museum still does not exist. The annual minstrel parade through the streets of Cape Town dates back to 1890, with South Africa’s minstrels inspired and influenced by American minstrel troupes who visited Cape Town […]

Dear Family and Friends, I am writing this letter to you on Robert Mugabe Youth Day (21 Feb), a recently proclaimed public holiday… writes author Cathy Buckle in her latest Letter from Zimbabwe. It’s a beautiful day under a hot sun and bright blue sky but it’s hard to see what our youth have got […]

Owing to unplanned breakdowns, Eskom will continue to implement rotational load shedding going into the weekend. In a statement on Friday, the power utility said unplanned breakdowns have increased the shortage in generation capacity. “Eskom will continue implementing Stage 2 rotational load shedding until Sunday at 6am owing to unplanned breakdowns that have increased the […]

Echoes of apartheid-style exploitation of workers have resurfaced in recent years in South Africa. Debates around these malpractices were given fresh impetus four years ago with the release of a documentary, Bitter Grapes. Produced by Danish journalist Tom Heinemann, it featured workers from South Africa’s winelands. Bitter Grapes cast light on wide-ranging exploitation. Hardships included […]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today warned against land expropriation without compensation in South Africa. Speaking during Wednesday morning’s session of the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Africa – which is being held in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia – Pompeo said expropriation without compensation would be catastrophic for South Africa’s economy and the country’s […]

An existing wind farm is crying foul after the government last month gave the conditional go-ahead for a massive new wind farm project on an adjoining property on the West Coast Peninsula near Vredenburg. The West Coast One wind farm, that has been operating since 2015, says the huge turbines of the recently approved Boulders Wind Energy […]

Helen Zille, Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance (DA), has announced that she is closing her Twitter account, after several racist and derogatory responses to a tweet she posted on Saturday evening (15 Feb 2020), which featured her grand-daughter. In the post, Zille’s granddaughter is seen preparing a chicken for dinner, during one of South Africa’s […]

Watch the live streaming below as Dudu Myeni’s son Thalente Myeni testifies at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry. Today allegations of corruption at Richards Bay’s Mhlathuze Water are under the spotlight. Earlier, despite confirming his company Premier Attraction 1016 was promised R2-million to complete a project with a certain timeframe, that involved client Optics and […]

Eskom announced on Sunday that it would stop rotational loadshedding at 21:00, but that sadly the “probability of loadshedding during the week remains”. Eskom said it was able to stop tonight’s Stage 2 loadshedding because the emergency generation reserves had adequately recovered. South Africa’s power utility said that the load shedding over the weekend had […]

Anti-drug trafficking groups say an increasing number of South Africans are getting arrested abroad for drugs smuggled through O.R. Tambo International Airport. This Sunday Carte Blanche investigates the status quo at the airport, as well as celebrating Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi, remembering Ladysmith Black Mambazo founder Joseph Shabalala and finding out why a popular Western […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says while it welcomes South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that municipalities will be allowed to purchase power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), it’s meaningless unless timelines are swiftly announced; and has urged Ramaphosa to stop the government fighting the City of Cape Town in court and allow the Mother City […]

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has demanded that the City of Cape Town take immediate action against the sewage pollution in Milnerton lagoon. OUTA announced on 11 February that it had sent a letter to the City to ask for a meeting. The objective of the meeting is to present residents’ solutions to the pollution […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa is being urged to announce on Thursday – when he delivers his State of the Nation Address (SONA) – that he will send the Copyright Amendment Bill back to Parliament for reconsideration. If nothing else, it would be an ideal opportunity to announce some good news “amidst the doom and the darkness”, […]

Up until 5 months ago, Llewellyn Barnes (59) was a homeless man, living on the streets of Pretoria, South Africa… but this March, against all odds, he will participate amongst professional players in the Senior Tour, a major golf tournament! A difficult childhood At an early age, Llewellyn faced many obstacles. He became like an […]

Actress Nandi Mbatha’s debut on the runway at SA Men’s Fashion Week was a show-stopper… as she stepped out in this very South African mini-dress, designed by QUITERIA. Mbatha was under the spotlight as she closed QUITERIA’s show at the V&A Waterfront event in Cape Town, South Africa. QUITERIA founder Quiteria Kekana – who was […]

One lucky person from Johannesburg has become a millionaire overnight by hitting the Powerball jackpot this Tuesday. It is still unknown who exactly this lucky resident is since the winnings have yet to be claimed. The winning ticket was bought at the Victor and Son Corner Café, Shop Number 6 Theos Court in Roodepoort, west […]

A coding project called TANKS – which originated at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa – will be flying the flag high for SA, sharing the global stage at UNESCO’s Mobile Learning Week in Paris early March. Of 250 submissions from across the world, it is the only project invited to a plenary session […]

With proceedings getting underway in Jacob Zuma’s long-awaited trial at the Pietermaritzburg High Court today (Tuesday), the state prosecutor said the NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) is seeking an arrest warrant… since the former South African president was a no-show with no proof that he is too ill to attend. Zuma is facing 18 charges of […]

The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) says South Africa’s trade relationship with the United Kingdom continues unchanged after the UK left the European Union (EU). “South Africa has been notified by the EU that in terms of the Withdrawal Agreement concluded and ratified between the EU and the UK, during the transitional period, the […]

The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) says it intends to lay criminal charges against freelance journalist Raymond Joseph and GroundUp over an ongoing investigation into alleged fraud and corruption involving multimillion-rand Lottery grants. The threats were made in two separate letters from the NLC’s lawyers, Malatji and Co, which were received by email on Thursday and […]

Archiebold Zolile Ndindwa moved to Van Riebeeck Park near Cape Town’s city centre after he could no longer afford to pay his rent in Langa. For many homeless people finding work is hard, even harder if they are without documents. But with help from Streetscapes, Ndindwa recently obtained his ID and can now receive a […]

Many South Africans who were kept in the dark over the weekend – while Eskom implemented Stage 2 rotational loadshedding – were hoping the week ahead looked brighter. But Eskom has announced on Sunday evening that the Stage 2 loadshedding will continue until Thursday! The only respite will be three hours each morning… but only […]

With violent incidents taking place across South Africa and crime stats resembling those of a war-torn country, in this week’s episode of Carte Blanche the team examines personal safety and questions whether the State should limit a citizen’s right to own firearms. Tonight’s episode (Sunday 2 February) is available on DStv Now if you’re in South […]

Parliament announced, on Thursday, that it has extended the deadline for public comment to 29 February on the land expropriation with compensation proposal, apparently bending to pressure after numerous submissions were blocked by parliamentary IT servers for “unacceptable content”. The extension comes after several people attempting to make submissions to the designated parliamentary email address […]

When Siphamandla Ntshewula was studying for matric in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, his family used to tell him the bright ceiling lights stopped them sleeping. So the young South African came up with the idea of making desk lamps from plastic bottles. Ntshewula, from T Section in Site B, matriculated in 2017. Now 21, he says […]