First called the South African Native College, it opened its doors in Alice, Eastern Cape, in 1916. Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo met at Fort Hare in 1939. In 1960 the government took control of Fort Hare. At its May 2016 graduation ceremony there were 2,845 new graduates, 39 of them PhDs. There were celebrations at the […]

Less than a year after Cecil the Lion was shot in Zimbabwe by a US dentist, causing an international uproar, the famous lion’s latest offspring made a great showing in Hwange National Park. The cubs, fathered by Cecil’s son Xanda, were filmed earlier in the month near Linkwasha Camp in Hwange National Park by Graham Simmonds of Wilderness […]

On the same day that President Jacob Zuma lashed out at the Democratic Alliance in parliament that he “never lied” about Nkandla (see video below), the DA posted a graphic of how much Zuma has cost the country during his term in office. The DA graphic on Tuesday shows that GDP growth from 2009 has […]

The world’s rarest kitten – a Lykoi or Werewolf Cat – has been rescued from The Company’s Garden in Cape Town by TEARS Animal Rescue Feral Cat Project staff and volunteers, the agency said on Tuesday. The cat, found under a bush, is the only natural-born Lykoi on record in South Africa and one of […]

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has said the reports of his “imminent arrest” by the Hawks, alleged by the Sunday Times this weekend, have left him and his family distressed, and he cannot believe he is being investigated and could possibly be charged for something he is innocent of. He said in a statement on Tuesday that for 45 […]

Six months after Jean Sinclair, Ruth Folley, Elizabeth McLaren, Tertia Pybus, Jean Bosazza and Helen Newton-Thompson launched the Women’s Defence of the Constitution League over tea on 19 May 1955, the organisation held a conference in Port Elizabeth. The minutes of that meeting provide some insight into the tactics the women used to highlight “undemocratic” […]

The Economic Freedom Fighters under leader Julius Malema were thrown out of Parliament on Tuesday, as they were the last time President Jacob Zuma was to address the house, although this time it was with much more force and with punches flying. The EFF has maintained, since the Constitutional Court hearing over Nkandla ruled that […]

A tragicomic movie about two terminally ill young men on the road in South Africa has been one of the top 10 movies in Germany for most of 2016. According to the write-up for “Der Geilste Tag” (The Most Beautiful Day), writer/director Florian David Fitz “co-stars alongside the hugely popular German star Matthias Schweighoefer and the duo play […]

Professor Jonathan Jansen, a well-known commentator on politics in South Africa who saw himself at the centre of protests earlier this year, is to leave his post as vice-chancellor and rector of the University of the Free State to take up a post at Stanford University in the United States. According to a statement on […]

The Hawks investigative unit of the South African Police has been in the news recently because of a so-called former rogue unit at the SA Revenue Service that the Hawks want to question Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan about. A report in the Sunday Times this weekend even suggested Gordhan faced imminent arrest over the allegations, […]

JOHANNESBURG – The vice chancellor of the University of Johannesburg said the arsonists who attacked the Auckland Park campus early on Monday, causing R100 million in damage, would be brought to book. At the same time the Economic Freedom Fighters student body president said its members were not responsible for the fire, according to news […]

In South Africa we love the diminutive and the shortened word as much as the next far-flung English-speaking country – arvie for afternoon, mozzie for mosquito, and so forth. A recent video by Australian friends Josh and Rhys explains “How to Speak Australian – Abbreviate Everything” (see video below) that strikes the same note. Many of the words […]

The same day that the Sunday Times has come out with a report that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan could be arrested very soon by the Hawks, the president’s office released a statement condemning the media for speculating that cabinet ministers are about to be fired. “Ministers serve at the pleasure of the President,” the statement […]

ShowMax, the entertainment streaming service owned by South Africa’s Naspers is now also available in 36 countries in Africa, the company said on Friday. ShowMax, a cheaper alternative to Netflix (R99 versus $7.99 or R123) – with arguably a better selection of content, since it offers popular US shows from the HBO channel such as “Game of Thrones”, […]

All but one of a group of trawlers suspected of fishing illegally in South African waters managed to evade the SA Navy patrol boat, after numerous concerned citizens had raised the alarm about the boats acting suspiciously offshore. A post on the Facebook page of Salt Fishing South Africa on Tuesday morning by Mark Hicks got shared […]

More than four years ago Johannesburg journalist Alex Eliseev heard snippets of the most extraordinary story of Betty Ketani – there was murder, kidnapping, a trail that ran dead, and sheer coincidence – and this week the 18-year case came to a tear-filled end as Ketani’s family laid her to rest. Aliseev, who has covered some pretty harrowing stories (the Haiti earthquake, […]

About 30,000 South African tourists went to Kenya last year, making it the biggest African source of tourism for the country, and Kenya wants to push that figure up by 20 percent this year. “Our ease of access with a flight of less than five hours to Nairobi by Kenya Airways and South African Airways, products suited […]

The international ratings agency Moody’s has given Cape Town the highest possible credit rating, the city said on Thursday. At the same time Moody’s raised some of the ratings for Johannesburg. Cape Town now has the highest possible level of credit quality within the national context, the city said. The cities’ ratings are different from the country’s rating, which […]

If the new hero Black Panther in the latest “Captain America” movie sounds familiar, it’s because he has an accent that originates in South Africa. Chadwick Boseman, who plays the new character Black Panther in “Captain America: Civil War”, the superhero-filled movie that broke box office records last weekend when it opened in America, told talk […]

Rwanda, the home this year of the World Economic Forum Africa, taking place this week, is sometimes known as the Switzerland of Africa, and – with good reason, after its numerous successes – it sells itself as “Remarkable Rwanda”. The capital is Kigali, and the country is often referred to as Land of a Thousand […]

Eskom CEO Brian Molefe said on Thursday no more load shedding was anticipated in South Africa through summer of 2017, except for planned maintenance. Addressing the media in a quarterly State of the System briefing, Molefe said there had been no load shedding since August 2015. He said that capacity was being progressively added, and several […]

Shooting of “The Dark Tower”, based on the best-selling Stephen King book and starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba, has started in Cape Town and the Western Cape. The movie is being directed by Dane Nikolaj Arcel, famous for making the first (and best) “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and the brilliant but much-overlooked “A Royal Affair”. […]

In 2014 South Africa, which had been Africa’s biggest economy, slipped to second place behind Nigeria, and new figures suggest it has now slipped another notch – coming third behind Nigeria and Egypt. According to statistics released by the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, Egypt’s GDP has been growing steadily at over two percent the last […]

The Democratic Alliance has asked President Jacob Zuma to reverse the decision to procure a private jet – reportedly at a cost of R4 billion – which was confirmed by the Minister of Defence on Wednesday. “Given our current economic climate and our country’s record high unemployment crisis, South Africa cannot afford to spend R4 […]

In recent months two highly controversial political leaders, Donald Trump and Jacob Zuma, have received harsh, intense global media coverage. Trump, a white man, is the Republican presumptive nominee in the US presidential race as “leader of the free world”. Zuma, a black man, is the embattled President of the African National Congress-led government in […]