PRETORIA – Employment has decreased by 48 000 jobs to 9.644 million in the formal non-agricultural sector in the first quarter of 2017, compared with the previous quarter of 9.692 million in December 2016. Releasing the Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) for the first quarter of 2017 in Pretoria on Tuesday, Statistician-General of South Africa, Dr Pali […]

PRETORIA – The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has confirmed a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N8 in a broiler breeder site in Mpumalanga. The department said the affected farm has been quarantined and culling of the affected animals has been completed. “The department is conducting forward and backward tracing to trace movement of all […]

PRETORIA – The Department of Correctional Services says 13 officials will be served with letters of contemplation of suspension, following the explicit entertainment at the Johannesburg Correctional Centre. (Please see Update 29 June, 2017, at bottom of page.) “At this stage, the preliminary findings indicate that at least 13 officials will be served with letters of […]

Yikes, this lioness got a little close to a safari guide in Sabi Sands… which forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park area in South Africa. The ranger told the video taker that this was the closest he had ever been to a lion in his entire life! In a video uploaded today by […]

Legendary Comrades runner, Bruce Fordyce, was attacked by armed robbers on Friday morning in Westcliff, Johannesburg, at around 05h30 during a 10km run. The attackers took off with his cheap plastic watch… a glove he was wearing, and his shoes! Bruce told local press that the thieves were welcome to his shoes since “they’d already […]

The notorious Ndlovo poaching gang are out again… this time on a paltry R5,000 ($384) bail. The previous release of the three men – who are prime suspects in 99 rhino poaching cases, dating back to 2009 – caused outrage last month when they were allow to walk, on just R15,000 bail. At the time, […]

Princess Charlene of Monaco is alive and well… despite malicious rumours to the contrary, claiming that the former South African Olympic swimmer died suddenly of a heart attack yesterday. The rumour appears to have been started on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, claiming the 39-year-old had suddenly collapsed at the palace earlier that morning. It was […]

Bishops College has paid a moving tribute on Wednesday in support of first XV Rugby Coach, Richard Smith, who has been hospitalised following a ‘home-invasion’ in Cape Town, South Africa. Bishops Rugby said on Tuesday: “On behalf of the Bishops Rugby community, we ask you to please keep our 1st XV Coach Richard Smith and […]

Pardon the pun, but it’s time to stick our necks out for giraffes. We have mistakenly taken the world’s tallest mammal for granted, fretting far more about other beloved animals such as rhinos, elephants and great apes. But now it seems that all is not well in giraffe-land, with reports emerging that they may be […]

The cowardice and greed of rhino poachers continues to fall to lower and lower levels… as the Natal Lion Park reveals that an orphaned rhino, hand raised at the Park, has been killed and dehorned by poachers. The Natal Lion Park reported the sad news in a post on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon: “We are […]

The City of Cape Town has warned all water users not to increase consumption as dam levels remain critically low and rainfall uncertainty high. According to the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services, Xanthea Limberg, the dam storage levels are at 23.1%. “With the last 10% of a dam’s water […]

An outraged South African road user, Rudi Viljoen, saw two trucks misbehaving on Sunday, 18 June… and captured their childish, stubborn and deadly antics on film, posting the video on Facebook within minutes of filming the incident at around 14h45… in the hope, he said, that the driver of the truck on the right would […]

PRETORIA – North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo has called on police to make a speedy arrest of the men who killed a 46-year-old man at Habernia Farm near Lichtenburg, Ditsobotla Local Municipality. “We must never allow these criminal acts to define how we should live in our province. We call on our police to hunt and […]

PORTUGAL – The full extent of the damage caused by a forest fire that ravaged parts of Portugal was clearly visible on Monday (June 19) as the Spanish airforce released video filmed from a firefighting plane that has been used to dump thousands of litres of water over the area. A drone video also shows the […]

UPDATE Monday 22h30: A Muslim neighbour of the driver of the van who ploughed into the group of worshippers near the London mosque during the early hours of Monday (19 June) described him as an “everyday guy.” Watch Video below. Khadijah and her Pakistani husband live right next door to the driver’s house in Cardiff, their […]

PRETORIA – A total of three men, in two different incidents, have been arrested at O.R Tambo International Airport in the past week, for being in possession of rhino horns. In a media statement, the South Africa Police Service’s Priority Crimes Investigation (HAWKS) said the first two were arrested on Sunday. HAWKS said it found six rhino […]

Sometimes when huge horrific things happen, it is the little things that lift us back up again. For Knysna resident ESTER BEUKES… it has been the tortoises that have been found, the faint sound of frogs croaking again, the sight of a new green shoot in the midst of the burnt-out land next to her home, and […]

President Jacob Zuma yesterday met with brave firefighter Ian Barnard, who is recovering from severe burn wounds… sustained during the horrific fires that swept through Plettenberg Bay last week, and took the life of his colleague and good friend Bradley Richards. Ian (39), a volunteer with the Plett South Fire Management Unit, was with Bradley […]

Concerned South African citizen Hannes van den Heever has filmed a video to show South Africa just how dire the drought situation is in the Namakwaland (Namaqualand) and Boesmanland district. Hannes, who is an Afrikaans country artist, says: “My family members and friends are farmers in the Namakwaland and Boesmanland district. I was on my way […]

PRETORIA – The Gauteng Department of Education advised parents to keep their children at home this Thursday as a safety precaution. Despite most learners writing their June examinations, the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, assured that no child will be penalised for not making it to school due to the taxi strike.  He said those […]

LONDON, Reuters – At least six people have been killed in a huge fire which engulfed a 27-story block of flats in central London on Wednesday (June 14), London Fire Brigade said. At least 70 people have been injured in the fire which engulfed all floors from the second to the top of the Grenfell Tower, […]

Over the past 48 hours the outpouring of support for Detective JP van Zyl-Roux is something that will go down in history, according to JAMIE JOSEPH, from Saving the Wild. “I know this to be true, because we are just getting started, and the chapters ahead will forever change the narrative of the poaching crisis,” […]

Angry commuters set a train on fire at Cape Town Train Station on Monday evening. The commuters were allegedly angry at delays, reportedly caused by service problems. According to Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service, the train which was torched was on platform 15. Several tweets claim the rampaging crowd has also been looting shops in […]

JOHANNESBURG – Moody’s Investors Service today downgraded the ratings of 10 South African regional and local governments (RLGs) and three government-related entities (GRIs) and changed the outlooks to negative. At the same time, Moody’s affirmed their national scale ratings. The rating actions conclude the review for downgrade that commenced on 4 April 2017, Moody’s said in a […]

Uber says it is devastated to confirm the brutal attack of a driver-partner this past weekend, whose car was set alight while he was in the vehicle. Uber stressed “this sort of violence is completely unacceptable, unlawful and needs to stop”, and called on Government and the South African Police Service (SAPS) to prevent these crimes and […]