The DA has revealed that the real matric pass rate for South Africa’s Class of 2021 is 51.4%. The Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga announced the results of the NSC matric examinations last night. The results do not however take into consideration the high dropout rate. This year, the dropout rate of learners between grade […]

Demand for rhino horn in Asian markets, especially Vietnam and China, has pushed the remaining rhino populations to the brink of extinction. In the past decade, nearly 10,000 rhinos were killed by poachers in Africa. The remaining rhino populations in Africa and Asia are steadily declining, with fewer than 30,000 animals left in 2020 from […]

Steve Lewis (62), a semi-retired professional Engineer from Pretoria, South Africa, has his heart set on building a home for his gardener of over 25 years, Abel Shabangu (53), who is a dear friend of the family. Despite his diligent work ethic, Abel has only managed to build a simple tin shack with access to […]

Yesterday, Netflix and Shondaland dropped the first look at eight new Bridgerton photos teasing what many different characters in the popular show will be up to this season. Bridgerton returns for a second season on March 25, 2022. In keeping with the tradition of the novels, season two tells the romance story of Lord Anthony […]

Well known KwaZulu-Natal safari guide Gavin Udal captured a rare scene last week, at the Hluhluwe Game Reserve in South Africa, of a troop of Vervet Monkeys swimming across a swollen crocodile-infested river! This is not something monkeys would usually do. Gavin – who owns and runs Wendy’s Country Lodge & Zululand Adventures – said: […]

The Department of Water and Sanitation opened two sluice gates at the Vaal Dam on Monday, due to continued rain in the catchments feeding the Vaal-Orange River System and the Integrated Vaal River System, resulting in increased inflows. The department said three gates from the five that had been opened previously had been closed. One […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to join Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder of the multinational conglomerate NantWorks, LLC, in launching the NantSA vaccine manufacturing campus in Brackenfell, Cape Town, on Wednesday. The President and Dr Soon-Shiong will also launch the Coalition to Accelerate Africa’s Access to Advanced Healthcare (The AAAH Coalition). This follows last September’s announcement […]

Parents and guardians of unplaced learners stood in a snaking queue outside the Gauteng Department of Education’s office in Marshalltown, Johannesburg on Wednesday. They are hoping to find space in schools for their children. State schools in inland provinces reopened on Wednesday. Inland schools opened on Wednesday but in Johannesburg about 700 students remain unplaced […]

A powerful poem by South African writer and Animal Rights Activist Herman H Le Roux, about the hundreds of thousands of domestic workers in SA, has gone viral for a second year. Read the full poem here: I, Domestic Worker – Author Herman H Le Roux, Artwork by Mary Sibande I get up at four. […]

South Africa recorded 2 597 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, pushing the total number of laboratory-confirmed infections to 3 559 230 since the outbreak. The majority of new cases today are from Western Cape after 721 people tested positive, followed by 602 in Gauteng, 547 in KwaZulu-Natal, 167 in the Eastern Cape, 129 in the […]

A new study has shown that the Omicron wave in the Western Cape was much less deadly than previous waves, owing to vaccination, high rates of past infection in the community, and reduced risk of severe disease and death owing to the variant itself. Over 5,000 adult Covid patients were surveyed during one month of the fourth […]

Following a furore over the prices for Robben Island Museum’s (RIM’s) newest tour package, the museum issued a statement on Sunday saying “the walking tour is not designed to exclude South Africans, but rather offers an alternative way to experience the rich historic tapestry that maps the journey of South Africa’s liberation struggle.” The new […]

You can watch Carte Blanche on Sunday 16 January in South Africa on DStv Now or stream it overseas in most countries from 18 January if you’re abroad. Here’s what’s coming up this week on Carte Blanche: MEDICAL A Genetic Mystery   When a geneticist from Cape Town headed to Namaqualand to figure out why so many people were […]

Over the past few weeks, several beaches across Durban’s coastline have been intermittently closed and reopened because of serious raw sewage spills into the ocean and rivers. Several beaches in Durban have been closed because of serious sewage spills into the ocean and rivers. Environmental activists have criticised eThekwini Municipality of failing to maintain its […]

The most recent passenger arrival figures from Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) are the clearest sign yet that the metro’s trade and travel-related industries – and the economy at large – are set for re-growth in 2022. According to the airport’s data, Cape Town welcomed 869 119 air passengers between October and December last year, […]

The Gauteng province has officially exited the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with the rest of South Africa’s provinces already having reached their peak and on a steady decline. Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla announced the good news during the department’s first COVID-19 briefing of the year. “Of note is that the decline in […]

The DA has called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to dismiss Patricia de Lille immediately. The DA asserts that the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure’s “poor attempt at covering up her complicity in the burning down of Parliament, by strenuously trying to stop the release of the independent audit report by BDO and insisting that […]

In late August each year, the normally barren landscape of the Namaqualand, along the western boundary of South Africa, is transformed into a vista of brightly coloured daisies as far as the eye can see. The flowering of the Namaqualand daisies attracts close to 10,000 tourists per season to a part of the country that […]

In a first for the African continent, three maritime-focussed nano-satellites from South Africa are expected to be launched into orbit on Thursday afternoon by SA expat Elon Musk’s Space-X in the USA. The three nanosatellites – the first to be entirely developed on the African continent – will be launched from Cape Canaveral at about […]

South Africa has recorded 6 762 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24-hour reporting cycle, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 540 891. According to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), this increase represents a 15.5% positivity rate. A further 181 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 92 830 to date. “The […]

Season 2 of the Showmax Original The Real Housewives of Durban launches on 28 January 2022, with new episodes following every Friday. Showmax has just released a first look at the three new wives featured this season, who will be bringing all the class, glamour, sass, and drama we’ve come to expect from the incredibly […]

Durban paddlers Quinton Rutherford and Brett Hadiaris set a new Guinness world record for the longest distance paddled in a double surfski in a 24-hour period when they completed a brutal 219 km paddle from St Lucia to Durban on Monday. Rutherford, who recently set the equivalent Guinness world record for a single ski, and […]

Proteas fast bowler Kagiso Rabada will celebrate a special landmark today when he wins his 50th Test cap for South Africa. Aged 26, the paceman continues to marvel and break all sorts of records during his journey as a Test cricketer. Rabada already has 226 wickets to his name after last year becoming the fastest […]

An incredible series of photos taken at Augrabies Falls in the Northern Cape, South Africa, on Friday (7 Jan) have captured the sheer intensity of the cascading waterfall and the magnitude of man against nature. The photos were taken by Upington Town and Regional Planner LEN FOURIE, a regular visitor to the Falls who loves […]

The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) says South Africa recorded at least 4 482 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 3 526 054. A further 82 deaths as a result of complications related to the virus have also been recorded. This brings the total number of people who […]