HARARE – Soldiers patrolled Zimbabwe city streets on Tuesday and confrontations with angry civilians threatened to boil over, as the government offered public workers more money a day after protests over a disintegrating economy turned deadly. Monday’s unrest, in which several people died, followed sharp hikes in fuel prices decreed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The […]

As South Africa heads for the polls in a few months time in its sixth democratic election, political party electioneering has begun in earnest. President Cyril Ramaphosa kick started the governing African National Congress’s (ANC’s) election campaign in his January 8th Statement celebrating 107 years since the birth of the liberation movement. This campaign continued […]

HARARE – Zimbabwe will introduce a new currency in the next 12 months, the country’s Finance Minister said, as a shortage of U.S. dollars plunges the financial system into disarray, forcing businesses to close and threatening unrest.  The southern African nation abandoned its own hyperinflation-wrecked currency in 2009 at the height of an economic recession, […]

WINDHOEK – Namibia has suspended meat imports from South Africa due to the outbreak of the highly contagious foot and mouth disease, state broadcaster, NBC, said on Wednesday. The disease, which causes lesions and lameness in cattle and sheep, was detected in a northern district of Limpopo province, South Africa’s agriculture department announced this week. […]

DAKAR – Egypt will host the 2019 African Nations Cup finals, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirmed after a meeting of their executive committee in Dakar on Tuesday. They will stage the expanded 24-team event in June-July after initial hosts Cameroon were stripped of the tournament last month over concerns at the slow pace […]

NAIROBI – Girls in western Kenya returning to school after the Christmas break are undergoing compulsory tests for female genital mutilation in a move to crackdown against the illegal and harmful practice, a senior government official said on Friday. They are also being tested to see if they are pregnant. George Natembeya, commissioner for Narok […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Three former Credit Suisse Group AG bankers were arrested in London on Thursday on U.S. charges that they took part in a fraud scheme involving $2 billion in loans to state-owned companies in Mozambique, a spokesman for U.S. prosecutors said. Andrew Pearse, 49; Surjan Singh, 44; and Detelina Subeva, 37 were […]

Due to increased demand, South African Airways (SAA) has expanded its non-stop service between Ghana and the US. In a statement on Wednesday, the national carrier announced that it will increase its frequency on nonstop flights between the Ghanaian capital Accra’s Kotoka International Airport and Washington D.C’s Dulles International Airport to five days a week. […]

The wife of a South African man charged in Mozambique on terror-related activities has scoffed at the charges, and says her husband – Andre Mayer Hanekom – is being framed by influential people who want to get their hands on his beach property. South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has called […]

Turkish Airlines is now flying twice a week between the Zambian capital Lusaka and Istanbul, via Dar es Salaam. The new route was launched on 14 December 2018 and it makes Lusaka the 306th destination serviced globally by Turkish Airlines – more than any other airline. Turkish Airlines’ Senior Vice President of Sales Kerem Sarp […]

The U.S. military said on Monday it had killed 62 militants in six air strikes on Saturday and Sunday in the vicinity of Gandarsh in Somalia’s south-central Banaadir province. The military’s Africa Command (Africom) said four strikes were carried out on Saturday, killing 34 militants, and two more on Sunday, which killed 28. “Africa Command […]

PRETORIA – Andre Kruger’s stand at Africa’s first ever cannabis exposition displayed an indoor growing tent, complete with state-of-the-art lighting imported from the United States and fittings for a high-tech hydroponic irrigation system. What it didn’t have, however, was a cannabis plant. The four-day expo, which opened in South Africa’s capital Pretoria on Thursday, was […]

DAR ES SALAAM – Ten opposition parties in Tanzania say proposed amendments to a law governing political parties would criminalise their activities. Critics of President John Magufuli, who was the darling of social media when he first came to power in 2015, say he is increasingly cracking down on dissent with restrictions on the political […]

Professor Kelly Chibale, founder and director of the Drug Discovery and Development Centre, H3D, at the University of Cape Town, has been awarded the prestigious Gold Medal for 2018 by the South African Chemical Institute (SACI). Chibale said he was deeply honoured by the award, which is made to a person whose scientific contribution in […]

Big Life Foundation has revealed the harrowing rescue of one of Africa’s largest bull elephants this week in Amboseli National Park in Kenya. The incident occurred on Monday when the elephant was reported to be stuck deep in mud, up to his neck, in a swamp. “Our hearts sank,” said Big Life. “Given the size, […]

Paternal care – where fathers care for their children – is rare among mammals (that is, animals which give birth to live young). Scientists have identified more than 6,000 mammal species, but paternal care only occurs in 5 to 10% of them. Humans fall into that category, along with species like mice and lions. There […]

NAIROBI – Perhaps South Africa can learn something from Ethiopia which has overtaken Dubai as the top feeder for long-haul passengers to Africa, highlighting the success of the state airline’s expansion drive and the reforms of its new prime minister… which include allowing visitors to apply for visas online. Travel consultancy ForwardKeys said on Wednesday […]

KINSHASA – The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo is now the second biggest in history, with 426 confirmed and probable cases, the health ministry said late on Thursday. The epidemic in a volatile part of Democratic Republic of Congo is now only surpassed by the 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, where more than 28,000 cases […]

LUSAKA  – Britain’s Prince Harry on Monday offered Zambia support with boosting the country’s dwindling elephant population, as he began a two-day working visit without his pregnant wife Meghan. The Duke of Sussex, 34, was received at Lusaka airport by dignitaries and colourfully-dressed traditional dancers, later holding a closed-door meeting with Zambian President Edgar Lungu […]

The South African delegation participating in the G20 Summit will use the platform to promote and strengthen the interests of the country and the African continent, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said on Thursday. Led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the delegation left South Africa on Thursday for Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the […]

NAIROBI – When the soldiers started fanning out in the cashew nut growing regions of southern Tanzania – it was a jolting sight for traders and, campaigners say, a watershed moment for a country once held up as a darling of development groups. The government said the troops were there last week to make sure […]

Disney has released the first trailer for the much-anticipated live-action adaptation of The Lion King. Disney tweeted the trailer just over ten hours ago, on the eve of Black Friday, with a short tweet announcing the release date: July 19, 2019. At the same time it aired the advert during the NFL’s annual Thanksgiving primetime […]

Civil rights organisation AfriForum is attending a United Nation’s Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, in an effort to muster support against the South African government’s proposed amending of the Constitution in order to enable land expropriation without compensation. AfriForum’s attendance at the UN’s Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law is part of […]

NAIROBI – Gunmen kidnapped a young Italian woman who was working as a volunteer, and shot and wounded another woman and four children in Kenya late on Tuesday, police and witnesses said – the first abduction of a foreigner there since raids blamed on Somali Islamist militants six years ago. Men armed with AK-47 rifles […]

HARARE – More than 20 people survived deadly flames that swept through a South Africa-bound bus on Thursday evening in Zimbabwe. The bus – on its way from Bulawayo to Musina – caught fire, killing at least 42 people, according to local media reports. Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and more than […]