Congratulations to Athol Williams who has been awarded the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award for the second year running, becoming the first person to win it twice! It’s been an incredible week for Williams in which he not only won this award but also launched his autobiography – Pushing Boulders – AND was selected as one […]

JOHANNESBURG – Photos of a Catholic Priest in Braamfontein, with blood streaming down his face, went viral today on social media. He had been hit by a rubber bullet during #FeesMustFall protests. Police claimed it was a stray bullet. Hylton White, a Faculty Member at Wits University, was there just before it happened… White wrote on Monday […]

Social media users are calling on fellow South Africans to share the following letter, sent by an academic at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) – Dr Kelly Gillespie – to South Africa’s Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan at 6.40pm Monday night… Dear Mr Pravin Gordhan I wonder if you have any sense of what my […]

Here is the full statement from the Presidency: President Jacob Zuma has written to the Public Protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela, requesting her to allow him or his legal representative to question other witnesses, determined by the Public Protector, who have appeared before Public Protector. President Zuma was given two days before the meeting that took […]

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma – who has been criticised Monday for being silent while Braamfontein was brought to a standstill by student protests – has had his mind on other things. The #StateCapture probe. This evening, the Presidency announced that Zuma had written to the Public Protector asking her to provide him with witness names and the transcripts of […]

PRETORIA – Acting National Commissioner Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane said Monday that despite “intimidation” from protesting university students, police across the country will continue to do their duties wherever needed, and that South Africa was “far from a state of emergency” regardless of the rolling protests at universities, that have in recent days turned violent… including a […]

Academic studies resumed at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) this morning… but protesting students have continued to disrupt classes. In local reports, four students have so far been arrested Monday morning – see video below. Students are currently being arrested by Barratt lecture venue #UCKAR #FeesMustFall2016 pic.twitter.com/XnexYvTrtO — #ReActivated (@ActivateOnline) October 10, 2016 #Wits students moving […]

PRETORIA – South Africa has received an award in Washington for being named the best country for debt management and sovereign bond issuance in sub-Saharan Africa. “Emerging Markets Newspaper, an affiliate of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings, named South Africa the best country for debt management/sovereign bond Issuance in sub-Saharan Africa. This comes just after the World […]

KYLE ABBOTT and Tabraiz Shamsi routed Australia with the ball to set the Standard Bank Proteas up for a six-wicket victory over Australia at St. George’s Park today and a 4-0 lead in the five-match Momentum ODI Series. Abbott, Shamsi and Aaron Phangiso all came into the Proteas side for their first matches of the […]

Fezeka Kuzwayo, the woman who accused President Jacob Zuma of rape, sadly passed away in South Africa yesterday. Her family said in a statement Sunday: “It is with our deepest sorrow that the Kuzwayo family announces the passing of our daughter Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo. In our family she was lovingly known as Fezeka, and in […]

Citizens around the world have reacted with compassion to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s words, on his 85th birthday on Friday, that he is in support of assisted death and would like that option himself. The South African living icon said: “I hope that when the time comes I am treated with compassion, and allowed to pass […]

Springbok coach Allister Coetzee on Saturday said his team were outplayed in defeat by New Zealand in Durban on Saturday. The All Blacks recorded their biggest ever win against the Boks, breaking the 36-point margin in Pretoria back in 2003 with a 57-15 win today (that’s a margin of 42). Coetzee said he was embarrassed by the result as […]

We may not have won the rugby this evening, but Scott Bouverie from KwaZulu-Natal flew the flag for South Africa in Turkey today… where he secured third place in an intense three-day international Extreme Enduro ‘Sea to Sky’ race. Scott beat some of the best riders in the world in Kemer, Turkey, to clinch podium position […]

South African supermodel Candice Swanepoel has given birth to her first child, a baby boy named Anacã. The 27-year-old Victoria’s Secret model, and her Brazilian fiancé Hermann Nicoli, welcomed their son into the world on Friday. The happy news was revealed by her photographer friend Jerome Duran who posted a photo of a naked Candice […]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla./PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) – Hurricane Matthew’s winds diminished on Saturday as it headed towards the Carolinas after killing almost 900 people in Haiti and causing major flooding and widespread power outages in the southeastern United States.   As winds dropped to less than 85 miles per hour (135 kph), making it a Category 1 […]

COCOA VILLAGE, Fla. (Reuters) – Mike Ryan packed his wife, daughter, three grandchildren, two dogs and three cats into a minivan and waved as they drove off on Thursday, leaving him behind to spend the night in his coastal Florida pub. Ryan decided to stay put and guard his business despite warnings from officials from […]

(Reuters) – The coast-hugging path that forecasters expect Hurricane Matthew to take as it moves up the Atlantic seaboard on Friday and Saturday could make the storm one of the most devastating ever to hit the U.S. Southeast, according to experts. If Matthew skirts the coast of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina as experts expect, […]

ORLANDO, Fla./MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Matthew, carrying winds of 120 miles per hour (195 kph), lashed Florida on Friday and cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes as it hugged the state’s Atlantic coast on a northward track after killing hundreds of people in Haiti. Matthew, the first major hurricane to threaten a direct […]

According to an anonymous message on Facebook, there is currently a Russian boat docked in Walvis Bay, Namibia, with a Chinese owner and crew who are seeking permission to catch a ton of dolphins, orcas and endangered African penguins to take back to China for an aquarium. The boat is allegedly equipped with tanks and devices […]

PRETORIA – Outgoing Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela has reported that her meeting on Thursday with South African President Jacob Zuma, and his legal team, was “cordial”. The meeting in Pretoria formed part of her investigation into alleged involvement of the Gupta family in such matters as the hiring and firing of Cabinet Ministers, securing of state contracts and other improper and perhaps […]

The Presidency says it is seriously concerned about the public attacks on President Jacob Zuma by some leaders in the gold mining sector. “While the Presidency respects the rights of citizens and leaders to freedom of speech, the business sector has many avenues to raise whatever concerns and issues it has with government and/or its […]

Awesome two-time Olympian Chad le Clos swam his way into the history books yesterday as he led South Africa to third place on the medals table at the two-day FINA / airweave World Cup in Dubai. In winning the 100-metre butterfly with a time of 49.14 seconds, Le Clos claimed his 100th World Cup gold medal! […]

PRETORIA – The price of all grades of petrol and diesel increased in South Africa on 5 October 2016. The Department of Energy said, based on current local and international factors, the price of petrol (93 ULP and LRP) was increasing by 44 cents per litre; petrol (95 ULP and LRP) by 43 cents per litre while diesel […]

In a week in which Professor Jonathan Jansen described the current protests at campuses around South Africa as a “tragic movie [that] does not end well”, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has invited all students, staff and alumni to attend a General Assembly on Friday 7 October from 11:00 to 12:30. Wits said: “It is […]

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has, on the recommendation of the National Assembly, appointed Advocate Busisiwe Joyce Mkhwebane as the new Public Protector for a period of seven years, with effect from 15 October 2016. The President – who recently had to pay back some of the costs of his Nkandla homestead upgrades thanks to a […]