NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India hosts its biggest-ever Africa summit this week as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to challenge China’s dominance on a continent that is blessed with vast natural resources and has the world’s fastest-growing population. New Delhi wants to project its soft power and historical ties to Africa, in contrast to China’s […]

STELLENBOSCH – The South African mobile social network Mxit, once dubbed the largest social network in Africa, has closed down commercial operations after a decade in business, according to news reports. All of Mxit’s intellectual property and technology assets will be donated to independent public benefit organisation The Reach Trust. Reports said that Mxit, which was launched in 2005, […]

South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale has said he is going to run for the post of chief of the world football-governing body FIFA, according to news reports. The 62-year-old Sexwale is the firth person to declare his candidacy for the post to soon be vacated by Sepp Blatter. The election for the post will take place on 26 […]

In preparation for Shabbat, or the Sabbath in Hebrew, no less than 1,700 women gathered in Cape Town on Wednesday to knead dough for the Great Big Challah Bake, part of a worldwide event started in South Africa only three years ago. One of the prime movers behind the project has been South Africa’s chief rabbi […]

Tragically, South Africa’s elephants appear to have become the latest target of poachers, with the Kruger National Park announcing on Friday that at least 19 elephant have been killed there this year after a decade where only two were poached, both only last year. Kruger spokesman William Mabasa said the majority of the elephants were poached in the northern part of the […]

While President Jacob Zuma is currently in a meeting with student leaders and university management at the Union Building in Pretoria, thousands are gathered outside…where they are protesting…and tweeting about their #FeesMustFall #NationalShutDown revolution. The President arrived an hour ago. The crowd of protesters (some chanting “Zuma must fall”) are demonstrating against the 10.5 percent […]

As students get ready to march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Friday, a comment by the Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, has become a video sensation and made students think his words show the government does not care about their demands. In this video, the news report that caused all the trouble: President Jacob Zuma, who has […]

HONG KONG – A Chinese group has awarded President Robert Mugabe what is called China’s equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, with the chairman of the committee saying the Zimbabwean president was “injecting fresh energy” into the global quest for harmony, according to news reports on Thursday. The Confucius Prize, first awarded in 2010, comes with an award of […]

In an unprecedented move, the University of Cape Town has decided to postpone exams in light of the current student protests over a proposed hike in student fees in 2016. In a statement on UCT’s website, Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price announced: “The situation at UCT and on all the country’s campuses is critical and without […]

University of Cape Town (UCT) student ALASTAIR DURING was amongst the crowd of students who clashed with police yesterday. Here he shares his lessons learnt… What I learnt at Parliament yesterday…by Alastair During Parliament has shitty security. It’s harder to break into my parents’ house. The police were more violent than the protesters. Stun grenades […]

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma will meet with the management and leadership of universities – as well as student leaders – on Friday, 23 October 2015, to discuss what the Presidency calls “the stalemate with regards to university fee increases”. In a statement this morning, the Presidency announced that Zuma will hold consultative meetings with the […]

Following the clash between student protesters and police outside parliament Wednesday, the widespread protests at universities in South Africa are making headlines around the world. The protests have rapidly evolved in less than a week from #WitsFeesMustFall (where it all began) through various universities’ #FeesMustFall to today’s #NationalShutDown…and #ANCMustFall. Several universities – from Wits to UCT, Fort Hare, Nelson […]

In an address to a group of schoolchildren this morning Reeva Steenkamp’s mother said she harbours no feelings of revenge towards the man who killed her daughter on Valentine’s Day 2013. Speaking at Reeva’s old high school – St Dominics in Port Elizabeth – June Steenkamp made her first public comments since Oscar Pistorius was released […]

Springbok wing Bryan Habana on Tuesday paid tribute to Zukisa Kela, a teacher from Johannesburg who died in tragic circumstances over the weekend following a gang attack. The 25-year-old Kela was a teacher at Westbury Secondary School. According to media reports, his last words to his principal before he left school at the weekend were […]

A group of protesters at the University of Cape Town booed and shouted at Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane as they pushed to make him leave the campus today. See video below. The DA leader had gone to UCT to meet with the latest of a growing number of students protesting fees at universities across South Africa. The […]

Oscar Pistorius was released into correctional supervision last night, a day ahead of the schedule announced by the South African Department of Correctional Services last week. This morning Pistorius family spokesperson, Anneliese Burgess, stressed to gathered media in Pretoria that Oscar’s sentence “has not been shortened” and that he will adhere to strict conditions. Reading from a family […]

Oscar Pistorius is to be released under correctional supervision on Tuesday. In a media statement today, the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Supervision and Parole Board (CSPB) said they had “approved the placement of offender Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision as from 20 October 2015.” The former Olympian has been held at Kogosi Mampuru II since […]

BEIJING – China has said it is banning the import of ivory obtained through hunting for the next year, according to a statement on Thursday by its forestry agency. The statement comes only days after the Chinese authorities announced the forestry police had seized almost $4 million in trafficked ivory and arrested 16 people, and other news that […]

Prime global residential rents are struggling to grow, but Cape Town and Zurich have substantially bucked the trend, according to the latest Knight Frank global rental index. In Cape Town prime rents – the top five percent of the market – ended the year to June 2015 10.2 percent higher, compared to the world average […]

PRETORIA – President Jacob Zuma has appointed an acting chief of the South African Police Service after suspending General Victoria Phiyega pending an enquiry into her fitness to hold office. The Acting National Commissioner will be Lieutenant-General Johannes Khomotso Phahlane, currently the Divisional Commissioner for Forensic Services, it was announced by the president’s office on Wednesday. A […]

Photos of a bridge which has collapsed in Sandton, Gauteng, are going viral on social media this evening, Wednesday. The temporary pedestrian bridge, constructed by Murray & Roberts, collapsed on the M1, close to Grayston Drive at about 4pm this afternoon. The company confirmed in a statement that there have been two fatalities. Emergency services estimate approximately 20 people […]

JOHANNESBURG – Crowds of protestors took to the campus of Wits University on Wednesday over plans to raise fees by more than 10 percent. The increases are meant to go into effect from 2016, and have been caused, among other things, by reduced subsidies by government, according to reports. A flood of messages about the protest, which began this morning, […]

BEIJING – In a sign that China may be taking a harder line on the trade in wildlife products, police there have seized one of the biggest hauls of smuggled ivory and other rare animal parts and have arrested 16 people, it was reported on Monday. Police in Beijing took possession of 804 kilograms of ivory, 11 kilograms of rhino […]

LONDON – The South African brewer SABMiller has agreed to a $104-billion takeover bid by its larger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev, it was reported on Tuesday. It will apparently be the largest-ever takeover of a British-listed company. According to one news report, the takeover is also one of the top five mergers in corporate history, and will […]

TORONTO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Contrary to reports that Chinese firms were buying or leasing millions of hectares of prime African farmland, Chinese investors have acquired only about 240,000 hectares, according to a book published on Monday. Deborah Brautigam, director of the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, analyzed media reports that Chinese […]