A slick new video made by a young German doing a trip around South Africa – great music, thrilling footage from a drone – includes a scene less than halfway through that might throw some viewers into a moral dilemma. He rides an elephant. The scene is jarring because in the rest of the video, titled “For that […]

The traditional huge post-Thanksgiving sale day in the US, Black Friday, had South Africans lining up outside stores early on Friday, with stores packed with shoppers and, in some cases, even battles over cheap Coca-Cola. Checkers, which together with Shoprite is one of the biggest promoters of Black Friday this year, put out an ad beforehand […]

Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Front, addressed the Oxford Union at Oxford University on Wednesday during a trip to the United Kingdom, including in his speech everything from expats to Nelson Mandela. Here are some of his quotes to the “most famous debating society in the world” pulled from the news media. On rich South […]

NEW YORK – South Africa joined 13 other countries including North Korea, Sudan, Syria, China, Russia and Zimbabwe on Wednesday to vote against adopting the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, according to news reports. The declaration recognises the extreme importance and legitimacy of human-rights activity, and those who carry it out. Fourteen countries voted against the bill in […]

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will not be at a summit in South Africa next week, nearly six months after he left the country during a dispute between the Pretoria government and the judiciary, which had ordered he be detained until it reviewed his indictment for alleged war crimes. News reports on Thursday said South Africa […]

PRETORIA – A South African judge on Thursday lifted a domestic trading ban on rhino horn that was imposed by the government in 2009 to try stem poaching of the animals. The decision by Judge Francis Legodi in the Pretoria High Court came after Malelane game farmer John Hume and Limpopo farmer Johan Kruger fought a legal battle to […]

Move over, Starbucks, doughnut-maker Krispy Kreme and competitor Dunkin’ Donuts are also opening up in South Africa. While much attention has been given to the fact that coffee giant Starbucks will open its first branch in South Africa in 2016, it’s been less publicized that at least two other very successful US chains will be doing likewise. (Krispy Kreme’s first […]

In a story coming out of Bronkhorstspruit, a company called Bio2Watt in October started giving off its first power created by cow dung and other waste, and one of the main users of its energy is a nearby BMW plant. See how it all works at the Bio2Watt plant serving BMW: According to a news report […]

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier, wants to buy 10 narrowbody planes and is considering Canada’s Bombardier and Brazil’s Embraer jets among others, as it plans to nearly double its fleet between now and 2025, chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam said Monday. Tewolde, speaking on the sidelines of a global aviation forum in Montreal, […]

JOHANNESBURG – The state-owned freight and logistics company Transnet has secured R12 billion ($853 million) for its locomotive programme, it announced on Monday, bringing to R48 billion the capital raised to buy the trains. Transnet said it sourced the latest money via a club loan from Absa, Nedbank, Bank of China, Futuregrowth Asset Managers and Old Mutual Specialised Finance.   “I think […]

ACCRA – The former president of Namibia, Hifikepunya Pohamba, became the fourth president to be awarded the Mo Ibrahim Foundation prize for African leadership, last given in 2011, at a ceremony in the Ghanaian capital on Friday. The award, created to reward an African leader who serves out his constitutional term and then leaves office, was created in […]

GABORONE – A 1,111-carat diamond was unearthed in a mine 500 km north of the Botswana capital this week, the biggest diamond find in the country and the largest in more than a century, it was announced on Thursday. The discovery of the stone, weighing 222 grams, was made at the Karowe mine owned by the Canadian Lucara Diamond Corporation, the firm said in […]

NEW YORK – Sixteen of Africa’s 50 richest people are from South Africa, which takes over the lead from the 2014 No. 1 country, Nigeria, which only had 10 on this year’s list, according to Forbes magazine. South Africa also has six of the continent’s 23 billionaires, Forbes said when it publicised the list on […]

JOHANNESBURG – The embattled South African Airways has appointed a new CEO after only four months, its seventh chief in four years, after the airline faced renewed challenges from its pilots and staff, according to news reports on Wednesday. SAA said in a statement that Thuli Mpshe will be replaced as acting chief by the head of technical […]

South Africans are heartbroken today by the news that All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu has sadly passed away at his home in Auckland, New Zealand. The much-loved rugby hero, who was catapulted to worldwide fame after the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, was only 40-years-old. Oregan Hoskins, president of the South African Rugby Union (SARU), said: […]

CAPE TOWN – After several weeks where it seemed South Africa might lose a huge American agricultural contract, it has signed an agreement with the United States to resume imports of 65,000 tons of chicken a year, according to news reports on Tuesday. The US had threatened to suspend trade benefits for South African farm products earlier this […]

The name is derived from “happy prospect” in Afrikaans, and once upon a time, life and the gold haul were both good at the Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine, 50 miles west of Johannesburg. But two years after the mine’s owners abandoned it because it was unprofitable, sewage runs in the streets of the old mining village, […]

This article is not meant to belittle the horrible events that occurred in Paris on 13 November but to highlight the notion that the winds of change have brought new terrors that should make one rethink traditional conceptions of safety. Eleven-Thirteen (11-13) is another infamous date to be added to 9-11 and 7-7; another senseless act of terror; another deadly […]

Countless Muslims around the world are voicing their disapproval of the ISIS attacks on Paris on Friday, in which at least 129 people were killed, by raising their voices on social media under the banner #NotInMyName. At the centre of the campaign is a video from September 2014 called “#NotInMyName: ISIS Do Not Represent British Muslims” that […]

Paris was gripped by terror on Friday night, as gunmen simultaneously attacked six locations, with shootings and explosions leaving at least 127 people confirmed dead, according to France’s President Francois Hollande. A siege at a packed concert hall, that left many dead, ended around 1am Paris time after more than 100 hostages were evacuated by police. Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility. The […]

GENEVA – A Hong Kong property tycoon has bought a 12.03-carat blue diamond found in South Africa last year at auction for a record $48.4 million (£31.7m), it was reported on Thursday, the second diamond he had bought for his seven-year-old daughter in two days. Joseph Lau confirmed that he had bought the “Blue Moon” diamond […]

It used to be a rare event when a high-ranking member of the African National Congress said something critical of the party or dissented, or pointed at cracks in the political firmament, but recently it has become more frequent. Add to the growing list of voices being raised Ben Turok (talking about the strictures of the ANC […]

The horror novel ‘Day Four’ by South African Sarah Lotz has reached the semifinals of the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards, which brands itself as the only major book awards chosen by readers. A book about South African Elon Musk has also been nominated, in a non-fiction category. Goodreads, which started in 2007 and has apparently got 40 […]

PRETORIA – Eight policemen each received a 15-year jail sentence on Wednesday for the murder of a Mozambican taxi driver who was dragged behind a police van, according to news reports. The death of Mido Macia in February 2013 was caught on a mobile phone camera which showed him being manhandled, handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged […]

JOHANNESBURG – The remains of a dinosaur 50 percent larger than a T-Rex, found near Clarens in the Free State, are being pieced together by the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, it was announced on Tuesday. The plant-eating dinosaur, still to be named but which goes by the nickname ‘Highland Giant’, would have weighed about […]