South African athlete Caster Semenya posted an adorable photo on Thursday afternoon that has everyone guessing: is her wife pregnant and are they expecting a baby? The photo shows what looks like Caster’s feet in takkies, with two little baby shoes in the middle being held by Caster’s hands. The South African double Olympic champion, […]

With lockdown leaving many families in South Africa destitute without the means to earn an income and provide for their families, South Africans all over the land have stepped up to find a way to create vegetable gardens, soup kitchens and other ways to help feed those who may otherwise starve. And for those who […]

Pleas for DIRCO to help South Africans stranded abroad, or stuck in SA with jobs abroad, have increased as many run out of money, medicine and hope. The DA today issued a call for Dirco to liaise better with embassies in helping get citizens home; and AfriForum this morning issued urgent court papers in an […]

South Africa’s government is proud that its response to Covid-19 relies on science. It might be prouder if it was also guided by knowledge of how society works. When South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown began on 27 March, opposition from some quarters was inevitable. What was not expected was that the most vehement resistance would be […]

“We want to love the police, but they don’t want to love or respect us”, “Black Lives Matter” and ”Refugee Lives Matter” read some of the placards laid on the ground outside Parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday. Small groups of people trickled past to place flowers and banners in a show of solidarity against […]

The number of confirmed COVID-19 in South Africa is 37 525, while the death toll has spiked to 792. Almost 80% are in the Western and Eastern Cape Out of the 37 recorded deaths on Wednesday, 29 are in the Western Cape, seven in the Eastern Cape and one in KwaZulu-Natal. On Tuesday, 50 people […]

Two communal vegetable gardens have made a big difference to life in Khenana informal settlement in Durban, where residents have used the money from sales of spinach and cabbage to buy masks, gloves and sanitisers for everyone during the Covid-19 pandemic. The first garden in the settlement in Cato Crest was started in June last […]

Two South African airlines, Airlink and FlySafair, will start flying again over the next two weeks, with Mango also possibly joining them. Airlink said it would launch a limited scheduled domestic air service from 8 June, with flights on the Johannesburg-Cape Town and Johannesburg-Durban trunk routes, using 98-seat Embraer E190 regional jets. According to the […]

The South African History Archive Trust has won an important victory for the constitutional right of access to information in the Supreme Court of Appeal. In a unanimous judgment, the court found that the Reserve Bank had unlawfully refused to provide SAHA with records in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). […]

The Zondo commission of enquiry into state capture will resume hearings later this month or early in July, according to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. The commission itself would resume work next week. During a virtual briefing today, after the commission suspended work during the lockdown, Zondo said, “With the cooperation of the executive there […]

The Democratic Alliance said today that the minister of tourism’s “see how things go” attitude could decimate the country’s tourism industry. The minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane has said that the sector would only reignite by December this year. “By that time most of the tourism, travel and hospitality industries will be decimated,” the DA said. “The […]

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has expressed confidence that the aviation industry and South Africa’s airports will adhere to COVID-19 regulations and directives, as the sector reopens. See below for the process passengers will now go through to travel by air. Speaking on Wednesday at the O.R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, where he was inspecting […]

20 organisations ask state capture commission to issue interim report… Dear Judge Zondo, We write to you as concerned members of the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture, which comprises more than 20 civil society organisations. In February 2020, we presented an Agenda for Action to the Commission, which is based on detailed submissions […]

The South African Government says it has taken note of the Johannesburg High Court ruling, which declared COVID-19 lockdown regulations in levels 3 and 4 unconstitutional and invalid. The court, however, suspended the declaration of invalidity for a period of 14 days. “This means that the Alert Level 3 regulations remain in operation for now,” […]

Six people have died and four more are in a critical condition at False Bay Hospital, Fish Hoek, in South Africa after being admitted for methanol poisoning on Monday evening, 1 June. Natalie Watlington, Western Cape Department of Health Principal Communications Officer for Southern Western Sub-structures, confirmed the cases with GroundUp. Watlington said, “Western Cape […]

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa have now reached 35 812 — an increase of 1 455 in the last 24 hours. According to Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, the Western Cape still has the majority number of cases with 23 583, followed by the Eastern Cape with 4 324, Gauteng with 4 276, and […]

The South African government says it has observed the protests in the USA following the tragic death of George Floyd, and calls on all in America – especially the security forces – to exercise maximum restraint in responding to the anger and frustration felt by many of its citizens, friends and international partners. DIRCO Minister […]

An execution in Cape Town, South Africa, at 10am on Saturday morning has made news headlines internationally after the incident was caught live on CCTV. The 30-second clip – which is being studied by police in South Africa – shows the gunning down of a gang member known as “Aggies”, who police say belonged to […]

Social media users are currently posting blank black images in solidarity with those protesting the death of George Floyd in the U.S. writes Tom Brown. But many of those well-wishers supporting the Blackout Tuesday movement are unintentionally obscuring vital information streams used by protesters… by including the #BlackLivesMatter and #BLM hashtag. The #BlackLivesMatter and #BLM […]

The regulations promulgated by the South African government relating to the lockdown Levels 3 and 4 under the Disaster Management Act have been declared unconstitutional and invalid, and the government has been given 14 days to rectify them. In the Gauteng High Court, Justice N Davis said the invalidity was suspended for 14 days, and […]

Comair is unlikely to start operating again before November this year, with a downsized fleet, despite the easing of restrictions on air travel as the airline requires a substantial cash injection, the company’s business rescue practitioners said today. Comair, which controls kulula and the local flights of British Airways, said it was in discussions with […]

The body of a man who apparently fell while climbing Table Mountain above Kirstenbosch on the first day of Level 3 of the lockdown has been found, according to a spokesman for Wilderness Search and Rescue. WSAR’s Johan Marais was quoted on News24 saying that WSAR had responded to a call on Monday from someone […]

In welcome news for stranded expats who need to head back to their homes or jobs in the UK, or from London to South Africa, two potential flights have been announced for next week. The target timing of the flights is 11 and 12 June, but a minimum number of 450 passengers (in- and outbound) […]

The Democratic Alliance says its lawyers have written to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, over the continuous ban on personal care services, such as hairdressers. In a press statement on Tuesday, Dean Macpherson – DA Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry, said: “The continued criminalisation of the personal […]

There were queues all over South Africa today, Monday 1 June, as residents lined up to purchase bottles of wine, beer and spirits after the nine-week ban on alcohol sales (due to Lockdown regulations). Tom Brown captured on film one of the longest queues in the country… at the liquor store at Macro in Cenurion. […]