The South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, will address the nation on developments in the country’s Covid-19 response tonight, Sunday 28 February. The ‘family meeting’ (as these addresses to the nation are being called by locals) will take place at 20h00. The Presidency said: “The address follows meetings in recent days of the National Coronavirus Command […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it will submit a parliamentary question to Pravin Gordhan, the Minister of Public Enterprises, in order to obtain full details of the costs and reasons for the use of a large SAA jetliner to fly to Brussels to collect a small consignment of apparently only 80,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses. UPDATE: […]

The South African Revenue Service has announced the formation of a High Wealth Individual (HWI) Taxpayer Segment, which will focus on wealthy taxpayers with complex financial arrangements. “For SARS to continue to provide a customised and seamless service to various categories of taxpayers, we are establishing a separate unit to focus on individual taxpayers with […]

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the race to make vaccines and other useful technologies more accessible to people around the world, has once again highlighted the tension between intellectual property rights and the promotion of public health. There is no doubt that the monopolies offered by exclusive rights such as patents are necessary to incentivise pharmaceutical […]

The South African government says it is working tirelessly to deal with the danger of fake news in the fight against COVID-19 and the vaccination plan. Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, believes that while social media is beneficial for communicating, it can be easily hijacked to spread false claims about inoculation. […]

As most South Africans know, the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa published a number of name changes for towns, cities and airports in the Eastern Cape, in the Government Gazette, on Tuesday. Today the department released an official statement about the name changes. “The transformation of the naming landscape is a critical […]

Everything is falling apart in Kannaland: water supplies, sewage, rubbish collection. Even the Ladismith city hall is in a mess in this Little Karoo municipality marked by strange political alliances and in-fighting. The municipality includes Ladismith, Zoar, Calitzdorp, and Van Wyksdorp. A brief trip by GroundUp to Ladismith and Zoar revealed serious municipal service failures, […]

Free State Agriculture (FSA) have expressed outrage at the announcement made during the State of the Nation Address Debate, by former Minister of Agriculture Tina Joemat-Pettersson, that MK veterans will receive expropriated farms. “This is nothing more than a repetition of Zimbabwean land policy,” said the FSA, accusing the ANC have hanging out “their Zimbabwe […]

In June last year, GroundUp wrote about pensioner Amos Khumalo, who used his state pension to build a bridge so that his wife could safely cross a fast flowing stream to Bara taxi rank from Elias Motsoaledi informal settlement in Soweto. A bridge built by a pensioner in a Soweto informal settlement has washed away. PPC cement […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has revealed that the group of “supposed” MK vets, operating under the banner of Tlhapi Zizi (Pty) Ltd, who have been controversially allocated Ivan Cloete’s farm, are ANC-connected individuals and people who already own farms. “This raises very serious questions on the fairness and transparency of the process that was used […]

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has declared the law which governs the communication surveillance activities of the country’s intelligence community unconstitutional. The case was based on evidence that the state spied on investigative journalist Sam Sole, of amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism, while he was communicating with a source in the National Prosecuting Authority. The judgment […]

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the country’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) tonight, 11 February 2021. Below is the full transcript of the President’s speech: On this day, 31 years ago, President Nelson Mandela walked out of the gates of Victor Verster prison a free person, a living embodiment of the resilience and […]

Long-held traditions associated with the State of the Nation Address (SONA) will not be on display tonight as President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the nation at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an impact on everyday life. What has not changed is that the President will still deliver the annual address at 7pm […]

The Khayelitsha community has been commended for their concerted efforts in flattening the COVID-19 curve. Western Cape Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz said: “As a province, we continue to face a pandemic which has taken many lives and destabilised our economy, resulting in many becoming unemployed. However, the outcome could have been far more severe […]

The DA has written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise, requesting a full investigation into exactly how and who paid for an “extravagant” trip by Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) Julius Malema and others to the home of former South African President Jacob Zuma in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, on Friday. The insinuation is that […]

Bad drivers in South Africa will no longer be able to get away with misbehaving as mounting demerit points could see them lose their licences. Are you ready for the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act to be rolled out nationally this year? Carte Blanche investigates whether AARTO can finally make the nation’s roads […]

If people who work for the government tell us our safety depends on us not knowing what they do, we might suspect that they wanted to cover up wrong-doing. Unless, it seems, they work for state security agencies. South Africa’s media are awash with shock at “bombshell” revelations about the country’s security services at the […]

Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, has expressed sadness at the passing of sport broadcaster, Sandile kaNqose. The popular broadcaster, who always had a ready smile, reportedly passed away on Monday at the age of 42. A die-hard sport fan, who had an insatiable passion for broadcasting, Nqose resumed his career at eNCA in […]

Traders who missed the peak tourist season say that despite the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday night that beaches are now open once again, the damage has been done. Thembisile Ngidi, who has plied her wares on Durban beachfront for 15 years, says the busiest days of the year are in December, and this season they […]

Lawyers acting on behalf of the Democratic Alliance (DA) have this weekend submitted to the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture an extensive list of questions to be posed to South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa. DA Leader John Steenhuisen said in a statement on Tuesday: “As ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa needs to […]

Disinformation, bad science and fake news have spiked to unprecedented levels as the globe has been battered by COVID-19 for over a year. This week Carte Blanche takes some of South Africans’ most frequently asked COVID-19 questions to some of the country’s top scientists. You can watch the show on Sunday 31 January in South […]

The African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) has confirmed the acquisition of provisional 270 million vaccine doses for African countries, with at least 50 million being available for the crucial period of April to June 2021. The 10-member AVATT, which was established by African Union Chair, President Cyril Ramaphosa in August, on Thursday confirmed this […]

The Department of Basic Education has made the decision to delay the opening of schools by two weeks, announced Dr Reginah Mhaule, Deputy Minister of Basic Education, in a media briefing on 15 January. This decision includes both public and private schools, including those private schools that have already opened. School management teams (SMT’s) will […]

Minister of Small Business Development, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, says she is “appalled” at the “misinformation peddled” by the Democratic Alliance (DA) about the expenditure of the small business COVID-19 relief funds. The DA recently issued a statement claiming the Department of Small Business Development has only allocated 8% of the funds meant as COVID-19 relief for […]

Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister, Thoko Didiza, says she is greatly saddened to learn about Professor Mohammad Karaan’s passing. Karaan was a former Dean of the Faculty of AgriSciences at Stellenbosch University (SU) and a champion of agriculture and rural development. The department has described the Professor as a giant in South Africa’s […]