The 40,000 sq km Serengeti-Mara plain that straddles the border of Kenya and Tanzania is famous for its abundant and diverse wildlife. It is also home to one of the wonders of the world: the Serengeti-Mara wildebeest migration. Each year about two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelles migrate from Tanzania to Kenya’s Maasai Mara in […]

Six years ago a major development was announced in South Africa. Billed as a game changer, it was meant to alter the urban footprint of Johannesburg, Africa’s richest city, forever. The Modderfontein New City project was launched amid much fanfare, expectation and media hype. Zendai, a Chinese developer, bought a 1600-hectare site north-east of Johannesburg […]

JOHANNESBURG – South African tax revenues fell a whopping R15 billion short of the government’s target in the 2018/19 fiscal year, with revenue estimated at R1.287 trillion ($91 billion), the revenue service said on Monday. South Africa has seen revenue collections fall consistently since 2015 due to weak economic growth and administrative weakness, the latter […]

Sri Lanka’s test captain Dimuth Karunaratne – who led his team to a record-breaking win against South Africa last month – was arrested on Sunday for drink driving after an accident injured at least one person near the main hospital in capital Colombo, a police spokesman said. Sri Lanka won a two-test series against South […]

LONDON – The Rolling Stones have postponed a tour of the United States and Canada to give singer Mick Jagger time to receive medical treatment, the veteran rock band said on Saturday. “I’m devastated for having to postpone the tour but I will be working very hard to be back on stage as soon as […]

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Police Minister Bheki Cele will urgently meet on Monday with Heads of the Diplomatic Missions in South Africa following reports of attacks on foreign nationals. In a statement issued on Saturday, Sisulu expressed deep concern at the recent spate of violence and urged law enforcement officers to […]

JOHANNESBURG  – The retail price of petrol in South Africa will rise by nearly 9 percent from April 3, while the price of wholesale diesel will increase by close to 6 percent, the energy department said on Sunday. The price of petrol will rise by 131 cents to 16.13 rand  ($1.11) per litre in the […]

This post will serve as a reminder of how our lives were blighted by apartheid whose graffiti was everywhere. And I mean everywhere! Also every day! It was relentless… writes author Shadley Fataar. The pictures used to represent a small selection of the many signs we were exposed to on a daily basis. A picture is worth a thousand […]

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane has written to the Zondo Commission requesting President Ramaphosa be subpoenaed to testify before 8 May when South Africans vote. Maimane said in a statement on Wednesday: “The revelations emanating from testimony before the Zondo Commission into State Capture yesterday confirm that President Ramaphosa and his family are deeply […]

BEIRA, Mozambique – Cyclone Idai’s deadly hit has left some 1.85 million people in need of assistance in Mozambique in a catastrophe that United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday rang “yet another alarm bell” about climate change. Guterres described Idai, which flattened homes and caused massive flooding after slamming into Mozambique near the […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s gold and platinum mines will shed around 90,000 jobs in the next three years as above-inflation electricity price increases by power utility Eskom add to already soaring operating costs, an industry body said on Monday. “In total, as many as 90,222 jobs would be at risk solely as a result of […]

Rescue teams in Mozambique moved hundreds of people displaced by Cyclone Idai’s massive and deadly flooding to safer shelters on Monday, while the government made preparations for a cholera outbreak that it says is inevitable amid the devastation. In areas west of the port city of Beira, hundreds of people were trapped for more than […]

BEIRA, Mozambique – Mozambique reported scores more deaths on Saturday from a cyclone and floods around southern Africa that have killed at least 732 people and left thousands in desperate need of help, many on rooftops and trees. (Please see bottom of page if you would like to help.) Help is needed swiftly, as evidenced […]

Former South African Proteas captain Graeme Smith has tweeted that his parents have been successfully evacuated from the Viking Sky cruise liner off Norway’s west coast, after it was hit by a massive storm just after lunch. On Saturday afternoon, in a tweet that was published in newspapers around the world, Smith said: “My parents […]

“While filming interviews for our story on the installation of suburb surveillance cameras, our presenter and crew were held at gunpoint and robbed!” says an incredulous Carte Blanche. The Carte Blanche team was filming an insert about tech platform Vumacam’s installation of CCTV cameras across Johannesburg (see above) in the latest fight against crime in […]

At least 417 people have died in Mozambique after Cyclone Idai led to catastrophic flooding, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Saturday. And hundreds of thousands of children who survived need urgent help. (Updated from 293 deaths to 417.) “We’re going to have to wait until the flood waters […]

Sadly at least 2,000 Amur Falcons perished after a massive hail storm swept through Newcastle in South Africa on Thursday evening. BUT, thanks to the kindness of human intervention, almost 900 have survived. Rescuers rushed to the devastating scene of the Falcon roost – at the Farmer’s Hall in the middle of Newcastle – late […]

Over 1,000 falcon birds are reported to have been injured or died overnight after a massive hail storm swept suddenly into Newcastle in South Africa, wreaking havoc in the space of just 15 minutes (see photos below). Fortunately for the quick thinking of local caring residents, more of the birds – which have migrated to […]

Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth has been ruled out of the Stormers Super Rugby tussle with the Wellington Hurricanes in the New Zealand capital on Saturday after failing to pass concussion protocols. Etzebeth took a knock to the head in the 35-8 victory over the Jaguares last weekend, but was named in the team’s starting line-up […]

LUSAKA – Zambia banned an energy drink, which is also sold in South Africa, on Wednesday after it was shown to have been adulterated with the male sex booster Viagra, according to authorities in Ndola, the city of manufacture. The prohibition followed a complaint from Zambia’s medicine regulator in December suggesting that the drink – […]

Raw excrement, condoms and sanitary products regularly spill into homes and parks for many South Africans… who  are just some of about 4.5 billion people globally without safe sanitation, promised for all by 2030. Residents are lobbying for urgent rehabilitation of sewage works by South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation, widely criticised for lack […]

South Africa’s fabulous domestic goddess Suzelle DIY has the best tips for surviving load shedding! The do-it-yourself expert first posted this video in July 2015… and now, nearly four years later, it’s being shared wildly again as South Africans come to grips with handling load shedding as power cuts become a daily reality. Suzelle said: […]

BEIRA, Mozambique – Rescue workers plucked more survivors from trees and roofs to safety on Thursday, a week after a cyclone ripped through southern Africa and triggered devastating floods that have killed hundreds of people and displaced hundreds of thousands. A priority for Thursday was pushing into flooded areas that had not yet been surveyed, […]

Load Shedding is crap! But I must admit that I’ve not been affected by it whatsoever… writes South African music and entertainment entrepreneur, and former frontman of the band Cinema, Jarrod Aston Assenheim. I love having a few hours at this time of night to slow down, listen to the silence, listen to an audiobook and […]

As South African news reports “darker days ahead” and “no lights, no water”, it’s time to shed some light – and humour – on SA’s infamous “load shedding” (known to the rest of the world as power cuts). Today South Africans braced themselves for another round of rotational Stage 4 load shedding which will got […]