The new head of the SA Post Office, former businessman Mark Barnes, has asked the government for up to R3.5 billion to help turn around the state-owned enterprise, which has been driven into the ground by years of poor management and service, fraud and skyrocketing debt.   Barnes, the former chairman of financial services company Purple Capital, […]

PRETORIA – Almost as if he was trying to reignite a terrible fire, President Jacob Zuma told a room of journalists on Monday that Des van Rooyen, his short-lived choice for finance minister after he had inexplicably fired Nhlanhla Nene last year, was the best man for the job. The statement could not have been worse […]

Clearly the US ambassador in South Africa has a sense of humour, if his tweets over the past few days are anything to go by, as he has been faced with accusations by the African National Congress that the United States is fomenting regime change in South Africa. Along with a picture of Oprah Winfrey in one of her […]

President Jacob Zuma and the Commander-in-Chief of the South African Armed Forces hosted the fourth annual Armed Forces Day in Port Elizabeth this morning to celebrate and honour members of the South African Defence Force (SANDF) under the theme “A professional and capable defence force for the people of South Africa”. The president said this annual […]

News of Tesla Motors’ entry to South Africa is coming out in dribs and drabs. This week it was announced that the company owned by South African-born billionaire Elon Musk would open its first office in Africa in Cape Town, while five new jobs were  posted on the company’s website. The entry of Tesla to South Africa was […]

The National Department of Health (South Africa) says although South Africa has recorded its first case of someone infected with the Zika virus, there is no cause for panic. The patient – a businessman from Colombia – is a tourist in Johannesburg, South Africa who contracted the mosquito-borne virus back home in South America, said Health Minister […]

Ninety-two year old Myrtle Cothill has been given a reprieve and will not be deported from the UK back to her birth-country South Africa on Tuesday, as was originally ordered by the Home Office. According to UK news reports late Friday, the British Home Office has cancelled the removal direction in order to consider more […]

Harper Lee – who penned one of the world’s favourite and most studied novels, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ – has passed away, in her sleep, at the age of 89. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was published in 1960 but its story of race and justice has stood the test of time, and it’s still popular […]

The cut-price African airline fastjet has just turned three years old, but already it is multiplying routes and flights, the latest being the doubling of its service between Harare and Johannesburg to 26 flights less than a month after the route’s inauguration. The new flights will start on 26 February, and will add about 1,700 seats a […]

The Mail & Guardian newspaper issued an apology on Friday over a controversial story in January saying Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane was receiving leadership classes from former president FW de Klerk, adding that the main reporter had left the DA under “acrimonious circumstances”.   The letter by editor in chief Verashni Pillay was titled “Mea Culpa. We should have known better”. […]

The National Council of SPCAs has hailed a decision by the High Court in Pretoria that protects the identity of people who provide it with information – or “tip-offs” – about animal cruelty. “The outcome is hailed as a victory for issues of principle and integrity,” the NSPCA said in a statement on Friday. “The National Council of SPCAs […]

South Africa’s sole Winter Youth Olympics entrant, Elizabeth Olivier, wrapped up her Olympic campaign in Lillehammer, Norway today, Thursday. After ending 36th in the giant slalom on Tuesday, the Eastern Cape teenager competed in the women’s slalom this morning, and was due to do her second and final run this afternoon. We don’t yet have the results but we […]

In a conciliatory and subdued speech before Parliament on Thursday, President Jacob Zuma said to put South Africa first and then spent most of his speech addressing the problems in the economy, education, the drought and crime. On the same day, a no-confidence debate in Zuma was scheduled for March 1. In a very quiet chamber, with few interjections – in […]

The year ahead is looking pretty fabulous for Pretty Yende, South Africa’s incredible opera singer who has both New York and Paris clamouring for more. Both the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and the National Opera de Paris have announced Yende’s return to their stages in their 2016/17 line-ups. According to Yende’s Facebook page, “it is with […]

There’s a new restaurant in town (Cape Town that is) that’s causing quite a buzz in South Africa. Brownies & Downies. As its name suggests – the restaurant, which was first created in the Netherlands in 2010 – sells brownies. And its patrons are served by a wonderfully friendly team of children with special needs from […]

CAPE TOWN – Parliament descended into minor chaos Wednesday afternoon after the chief whip of the Democratic Alliance John Steenhuisen told the presiding officer that he could not tell COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota to withdraw the word “faction” when referring to the ANC. Steenhuisen said that by telling the Congress of People’s leader Lekota that labeling […]

President Jacob Zuma has conveyed his condolences on the sad passing of the former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who passed away on Tuesday, 16 February 2016 in hospital in Cairo, Egypt. Boutros-Ghali was the first African to hold the position of Secretary- General of the United Nations, served from January 1992 to December […]

In a bid to make up for falling profits in a  bad commodities market, the once-mighty Anglo American of South Africa will sell off some of its major assets and focus only on its copper, diamond and platinum businesses, according to news reports on Tuesday. The 99-year-old mining group recently announced a record pre-tax loss of […]

After two days of protesting at the University of Cape Town over a lack of accommodation for some students, people arrived back on campus on Wednesday faced with the damage that had been caused by protesters, who even burnt paintings owned by the university. The university also said that it was going to lay charges against […]

CAPE TOWN – In his response to President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address last week, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane hit out at the ANC leader on Tuesday, saying Zuma lived on a planet far far away from the rest of South Africa – Planet Zuma. In his speech Maimane said, “Planet Zuma is […]

HARARE – The American plane carrying money for the SA Reserve Bank that was impounded in Harare airport when a body was discovered on board during a refueling stop there continues to be the subject of an investigation in the Zimbabwe capital, news reports said on Tuesday. The unidentified body, which the Reserve Bank said […]

CAPE TOWN – South Africa should start a register that names anyone who is caught faking a degree, the Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande said on Tuesday, according to news reports. Talking to journalists before the resumption of the SONA2016 debate, he raised the issue of dealing with the growing number of people forging or misrepresenting […]

In honour of International Childhood Cancer Day 2016, Cape Town’s iconic Table Mountain – one of the Seven Wonders of the World – was lit up in blue last night, 15 February 2016. According to CHOC (Childhood Cancer Foundation, South Africa) this day was started as a global collaborative campaign to raise awareness about childhood cancer and to […]

DURBAN – Police reinforcements have been sent to Westville Prison after an officer locked himself in the armoury and threatened to take his own life, it was reported on Tuesday. The Department of Correctional Services confirmed that a male officer was involved, and said that it was an ongoing situation being dealt with by a task […]

For the second time at least, someone has sneakily put President Jacob Zuma’s controversial home Nkandla up for sale on a free classifieds page, listing it as a “Luxury African Homestead”. The ad on the site OLX listed the price at R260 million and described it as a “3.83ha luxury compound with world-class security & entertainment […]