Parliament descended into chaos for a few minutes on Wednesday as the Economic Freedom Fighters tried to prevent President Jacob Zuma from addressing the assembly, despite warnings from the Speaker Baleka Mbete, who finally told the EFF to leave the chamber. It was reportedly the first time Zuma had appeared in the assembly since two […]

A story doing the rounds on social media has it that President Jacob Zuma will get a luxury jet, the most expensively kitted-out one in the world, a Boeing 747-8 with all the trimmings. It’s a good story but totally fabricated. On 22 April, in fact, Armscor, the acquisition arm of the SA Defense Force, […]

At Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, where Christopher Panayiotou, 28, stands accused of murdering his wife, Jayde, two groups of women picketed against each other. Outside, holding placards with ‘Justice for Jayde’ written on them, the Democratic Alliance Women’s Network (DAWN) stood silently at the main entrance to the court. “This is to raise awareness […]

The Union Buildings might seem the obvious place to put Parliament if it were to move from Cape Town, but it appears the mayor of Pretoria/Tshwane has other ideas. He is talking about the old Boer War fort at Klapperkop. During this year’s state of the nation address by President Jacob Zuma it was suggested that […]

AfriForum will meet with the South African chief of police on Wednesday to discuss a strategy to deal with farm murders in South Africa, according to the civil rights organisation. AfriForum said it would meet with Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane, the acting national police commissioner, to discuss the manner in which farm murders can be prioritised […]

As the increasingly popular festival in the desert AfrikaBurn drew to a close for its tenth annual rave, the organisers said that a 52-year-old woman had died after an accident at the event. “It is with a heavy heart that we report that on Saturday (30th) April 52 year old Dana Lawless passed away after being airlifted […]

The mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille has condemned the “despicable” racist words of a 26-year-old Capetonian whose tweet full of foul language about the government went viral, and said she is referring it to the South African Human Rights Commission. “I condemn these comments as there is no place for racism in our society. We are […]

A waitress in Cape Town is due to receive a tip this week of R44,777.70… thanks to the kindness of strangers who were shocked, and moved to action, after a #RhodesMustFall activist from Oxford University, Ntokozo Qwabe, bragged online about having brought her to tears with a comment on his table’s bill. After Qwabe’s rather lengthy explanation online […]

The absolute joy of a former circus lion touching down on African soil has been captured in a photo at Emoya Big Cats sanctuary in South Africa. A photograph of the first lion to be released, ‘Iron’, was published on social media by Animal Defenders International (ADI) Sunday, with the following message: “Iron enjoys what is clearly a […]

The North Gauteng (Pretoria) High Court has Friday found that the NPA’s decision to drop 783 charges of corruption against President Jacob Zuma was irrational, and have added that the South African president should face his charges. A full bench of judges – led by Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba – gave the go-ahead for […]

A 240-bed safari lodge to be built near Malelane Gate in the Kruger National Park has been approved, the SA National Parks said this week. SANP said the Department of Environmental Affairs had given the green light to the Malelane Safari Lodge, whose impact would “definitely be far less than the sprawling towns of Skukuza and Satara”. […]

South African Post Office (SAPO) CEO Mark Barnes has responded to the threat of a PO strike next week. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced a planned strike on Thursday and Friday, before they begin an indefinite strike, over the lack of salary increases in the past two years. The decision to strike was […]

The much-hyped Mall of Africa opened its doors on Thursday, and the traffic began before the crowds started flooding in – and neither had not eased off by midday. “It’s 12:48pm and they decided to close the entrance to the mall. They are making a KILLING today! #MallOfAfrica,” @zowie_jean tweeted. The 300-store mall in the new Waterfall development, […]

Almost three dozen lions that were rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia since 2014 are finally going to make the last stage of their journey back to a better place, and will fly to South Africa on Friday. The organisation of the massive airlift by Animal Defenders International is going through its final phases before the aptly named […]

Thirty years ago today, 26 April 1986, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in the then Soviet Union. A South African who recently visited and took these pictures says the site, now in the Ukraine, is one of the eeriest places he has ever visited. “After the explosion, the Soviets kept it quite […]

If it hadn’t been for a grandmother who was left sobbing on the floor of a Pick ‘n Pay supermarket, it should have been a good day on Tuesday for the supermarket chain, after it said it had its strongest annual growth since 2010. But the incident with grandmother Iris Beukes got all the publicity, unfortunately […]

The Presidency announced Friday morning that the National Day of Prayer that was to take place today, at Absa Stadium in Durban, has been postponed. No reasons were given. The Day of Prayer and launch of Africa Month was to be addressed by President Jacob Zuma with religious leaders officiating as well in leading prayers […]

Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula announced Monday that he has revoked the right of Athletics South Africa (ASA), Cricket SA (CSA), Netball SA (NSA) and SA Rugby Union (SARU) to host international tournaments because of their failure to reach the agreed transformation targets. He said the measures are to speed up transformation which is vital morally and […]

Watch the full versions of Al Jazeera’s interviews with South African opposition leaders Julius Malema (EFF) and Mmusi Maimane (Democratic Alliance) which have been making headlines in the press over the past few days. In his interview with ‘Talk to Al Jazeera’, Malema talks about being ready to remove the Zuma ANC government by force if necessary, going as […]

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane was joined by Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and other party leaders in the Rand Stadium in Johannesburg as they launched the party’s election manifesto on Saturday. In his speech to a crowd of between 20,000 and 25,000, Maimane focused on the party’s six-pronged election platform of “opportunity, responsive government, service delivery, […]

Twenty-year-old Brad Binder has become the first South African to win a Moto 3 GP race in 36 years in an incredible performance that saw him take the lead at the 2016 Spanish Moto3 Grand Prix, after starting stone last. “Take a bow, Brad Binder,” said one British commentator who claimed it was the most incredible […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has revealed that the directors of VFS, the company which processes – and profits – from foreigners’ visa applications to visit South Africa, are allegedly President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane Zuma and Rajesh Gupta (one of the Gupta brothers). The Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Haniff Hoosen, exposed the directors’ names in parliament yesterday. […]

PRETORIA – The office of President Jacob Zuma said on Friday that letters of reprimand had been sent to one cabinet minister and two former ministers, following the Constitutional Court ruling over the contested security upgrades at Nkandla. The presidency said that the court on 31 March ordered Zuma to comply with the remedial action taken against him by […]

CAPE TOWN – Dene Smuts, the well-known former editor of Fair Lady magazine and a member of parliament for the Democratic Party, has died suddenly. The Democratic Alliance said it was with sadness that it noted the passing of Smuts, who served in parliament for 25 years, from 1989 to 2014, where she made history […]

JOHANNESBURG – Steinhoff has increased its stake in Darty to 20.4 percent, it said on Friday, a day after a frantic bidding war with French rival Fnac for Europe’s third-largest electric goods retailer. Five new offers in less than 24 hours lifted Darty shares by more than 23 percent on Thursday to their highest since […]