I heard someone say recently: “this variant is really catchy”. My family can bear testimony to this. We have just had a markedly quiet Christmas and new year, all of us holed up with positive Covid-19 results. This came as an unwelcome surprise – no doubt as it has to the more than one million […]

South African superstar Master KG, the man behind the global hit “Jerusalema“, recently met up with the award-winning Ghetto Kids in Jinja, Uganda. The Ghetto Kids have become famous worldwide with millions watching their viral videos. The meeting was arranged by Uganda’s songstress Sheebah who started her career as a dancer. Interestingly, Master KG revealed: […]

Three suspects are expected to appear before the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court after they were caught smuggling 73.5 kg of gold at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) in their hand luggage. The gold bars were detected by a security scanner which identified irregular images. A multi-disciplinary team was alerted by the security officials, and the […]

The price of petrol in South Africa is set to increase by between 40 and 43 cents a litre this week. In a statement on Monday, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said the price of 93 (ULP and LRP) will go up by 43 cents, while that of 95 (ULP and LRP) […]

This week Carte Blanche investigates a shipping provider who went into liquidation in 2020 and COVID-19 got the blame… while many emigrating South Africans suffered. Shipping Swindle It’s estimated that more than 20,000 South Africans emigrate every year. Finding a reliable service to courier a life’s worth of possessions and valuables is one of the […]

Gauteng’s provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS) Lieutenant General Elias Mawela has met with representatives of the cash-in-transit (CIT) industry following a spike in the number of CIT incidents in the province. Mawela, together with his Deputy responsible for Policing, Major General Tommy Mthombeni and the Provincial Head of the Directorate for […]

Enjoying the festive season, these monkeys in Umdloti, just north of Durban, appeared to be having some quality family time when Andrea Ben captured these cute photos of them “monkeying around” yesterday. Vervet monkeys are regular visitors to many gardens along the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) coast, and residents have been encouraged by Monkey Helpline to plant […]

South Africa has as of Wednesday recorded a staggering 17 710 new cases – bringing the country’s cumulative total of COVID-19 cases to 1 039 161, indicating a positivity rate of 33%. Several experts appeared on SABC this morning to discuss the status quo and the vaccine rollout. (Watch below.) “The positivity rate, being an […]

A new cohort of health workers is set to assist South Africa’s already constrained health system that is in the throes of a second COVID-19 wave, at the start of the New Year. Expressing concern by the rising numbers of healthcare professionals becoming infected with COVID-19, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced that the Department of […]

A simple bath in South Africa – with a stupendous view – is becoming a bit of an international star. Appearing today in The Daily Mail, one of the world’s most popular online media outlets, Grootbos Private Nature Reserve is featured as one of the amazing hotels on the planet where “the bath is the […]

More than 3 000 motorists in South Africa have been arrested throughout the country for allegedly violating traffic regulations since the start of December. “The majority of suspects (1 328 or 43%) were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. A total of 496 or 16% were arrested for driving speeds above the legal […]

South Africa has breached the one million mark of COVID-19 cases in South Africa, after 9 502 new cases were reported on Sunday, bringing the cumulative total to 1 004 413 cases. A total of 214 COVID-19 related deaths were reported, with 123 in the Eastern Cape, 17 in Gauteng, 13 in KwaZulu-Natal, five in […]

The South African Post Office (Sapo) has advised its customers not to pay self-appointed queue marshals a fee for a place in front of the queue when visiting their branches. “Customers are advised not to pay the fee demanded by these queue marshals, and to report such incidents to the South African Police and to […]

The World AIDS Day commemoration of 2020 took place in the midst of a global pandemic. It served as another reminder that people are not only susceptible to pathogens, but to the political, social and economic inequities that determine vulnerability to infections. HIV remains a major global public health challenge and COVID-19 has added to […]

South Africa’s Deputy President David Mabuza delivered the following Christmas message to the nation… Fellow Compatriots, The end of the year is a special time for everyone. It marks the pinnacle of individual and collective journeys we have traversed in the course of the year. It is a time to reflect on where we are, […]

The Department of Water and Sanitation says South Africans are poised for a bumper wet Christmas following persistent rains that fell over large parts of the country in the past month. (Although it looks like sunshine on Christmas Day for the Northern Cape and most of the Western and Eastern Cape.) South African Dam Levels […]

The South African government may have to review current lockdown restrictions and consider further measures to curb the exponential spread of the COVID-19 virus, says Health Minister, Dr Zwelini Mkhize. He warned that within days the number of daily positive cases recorded in SA will surpass that of the peak during the first wave. The […]

Following the recent massive fire that destroyed over 1,000 homes in Masiphumelele and led to the City of Cape Town declaring it a local disaster, the government has called on the public to assist where they can. Here’s a first hand account from volunteer Lynn Duddy… When you arrive it is a bit overwhelming, like […]

The Western Cape High Court has extended beach opening hours, but has judged in favour of keeping the Garden Route’s beaches closed for the festive season, as announced by South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa last week (along with all beaches in the Eastern Cape). The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it notes the ex tempora judgement […]

As thousands prepare to travel long-distance, operators say they need help with masks and sanitisers. Though numbers are down because of Covid-19 job losses, about 20,000 people are expected to travel from the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape this year. Taxi associations say they are taking precautions but need help from the authorities. Taxi […]

Colin Gertse, a 57-year old South African family man and pastor from Montagu, travelled to the US in March to earn money as a truck driver and create a better life for his family back home in SA… but sadly, in October he suffered an aneurysm. Colin is currently in critical care in a St. […]

The novel Coronavirus continues to spread rapidly amid the second wave of infections, with the country recording another 9 131 confirmed cases in the last 24 hours. This is after South Africa topped the 10 000 mark of new cases on Wednesday — for the first time since August. Meanwhile, 184 people succumbed to the respiratory […]

Epidemiologist and Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 in South Africa, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, has been awarded the 2020 John Maddox Prize. Prof Karim was named joint winner with Dr Anthony Fauci from the US. President Cyril Ramaphosa was one of the first to congratulate Prof Karim, saying: “It is an honour […]

A team of mercenaries plunge into a rural part of Africa, rescuing a hostage from ruthless terrorists. They make quick work of the bad guys until their extraction helicopter is shot down during the firefight. The team treks to a nearby site to await rescue, but stumbles across something much worse: a rogue lion with […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it will lay a complaint with Parliament’s Ethics Committee against the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, after he appeared to issue unlawful operational instructions to South African Police Service (SAPS) officials to shut down a film shoot at Camps Bay beach on Wednesday. The incident occurred yesterday when the Police […]