As the tourism show Indaba 2016 wraps up in Durban on Monday, where thousands gathered to sell and promote the best destinations in Southern Africa, we give you a postcard from each of the nine provinces. The famous and the not-so-obvious destinations – all gorgeous, all worth visiting. Soon! Blyde River Canyon, Mpumulanga Lisbon Falls, Mpumalanga. iSimangaliso national […]

The love-him-hate-him presenter from CNN with the distinctive delivery, Richard Quest, is at South Africa’s tourism Indaba again this year, taking place in Durban from Friday to Monday. He kicked off the show with a frank interview with Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom. The Indaba is arguably the most attended travel show in Africa (with 1047 exhibitors, 1856 buyers […]

Government has welcomed the ratings agency Moody’s announcement confirming South Africa’s long-term government bond and issuer ratings, after months of speculation that the country could be downgraded to junk status. The department of finance has reportedly been going out of its way to show the international ratings agencies it is committed to fiscal responsibility since late […]

The new head of the SA Post Office, Mark Barnes, must be smiling today. A strike that could have crippled the already embattled state agency that he has been trying to make viable could not even muster a few hundred supporters. “It’s great news and to be honest it’s a victory for common sense. It’s a […]

Havana, Cuba. The pictures, from the top, are of the famous Hotel Nacional, a taxi driver nearby, the Plaza de la Catedral, a mural in the old town, the Cafe O’Reilly, the Museo de la Revolucion, inside the Museo Nacional de las Bellas Artes, an old car serving as a taxi near the malecon (boardwalk), […]

Rescuing wild animals is a long-haul occupation, as Louise Joubert of SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary knows. But a few weeks ago, a more than four-year-long cheetah project – which had lots of heartache in between – came to fruition, with the birth in the wild of at least six cheetah from parents that had been rescued. “We […]

Sometimes referred to as “Mister Parliament”, there are few, if any, speakers in Parliament whose speeches are as anticipated as Democratic Alliance’s chief whip John Steenhuisen, at least if Youtube views of his speeches are anything to go by. We’ve rounded up some of the best. 1. Steenhuisen takes on Zuma, “the ugly head of […]

Addressing the House of Assembly that was almost half empty, because most of the opposition (due to a boycott of him) plus many ANC members (because who knows why) were not there, President Jacob Zuma today told the speaker to get the house in order. He spoke about how South Africa’s dignity was compromised by the […]

Five Zimbabwean men have been successfully growing crops on land abandoned as unprofitable in Malmesbury. The landowner, N7 Meat, gave up farming crops on the land, claiming losses of over R1 million. Albert Zinhanga and four friends met the landowner when buying an ox for slaughter at N7 Meat in 2014. Noticing fallow land, they […]

In an unprecedented move, eight opposition parties, including the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters but excluding the Inkatha Freedom Party, will boycott President Jacob Zuma’s speech in Parliament on Thurday, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said in a statement signed by the party leaders. They said it would be “an empty speech of an utterly […]

NEW YORK – “Lesedi la Rona,” the largest gem-quality rough diamond discovered in more than 100 years, will be auctioned in London next month and is expected to sell for $70 million (£48.2 million), international auction house Sotheby’s said on Wednesday. Ahead of the auction on June 29, the 1,190-carat diamond, its name in Botswana’s […]

Parliament descended into chaos for a few minutes on Wednesday as the Economic Freedom Fighters tried to prevent President Jacob Zuma from addressing the assembly, despite warnings from the Speaker Baleka Mbete, who finally told the EFF to leave the chamber. It was reportedly the first time Zuma had appeared in the assembly since two […]

A story doing the rounds on social media has it that President Jacob Zuma will get a luxury jet, the most expensively kitted-out one in the world, a Boeing 747-8 with all the trimmings. It’s a good story but totally fabricated. On 22 April, in fact, Armscor, the acquisition arm of the SA Defense Force, […]

At Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, where Christopher Panayiotou, 28, stands accused of murdering his wife, Jayde, two groups of women picketed against each other. Outside, holding placards with ‘Justice for Jayde’ written on them, the Democratic Alliance Women’s Network (DAWN) stood silently at the main entrance to the court. “This is to raise awareness […]

The Union Buildings might seem the obvious place to put Parliament if it were to move from Cape Town, but it appears the mayor of Pretoria/Tshwane has other ideas. He is talking about the old Boer War fort at Klapperkop. During this year’s state of the nation address by President Jacob Zuma it was suggested that […]

AfriForum will meet with the South African chief of police on Wednesday to discuss a strategy to deal with farm murders in South Africa, according to the civil rights organisation. AfriForum said it would meet with Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane, the acting national police commissioner, to discuss the manner in which farm murders can be prioritised […]

As the increasingly popular festival in the desert AfrikaBurn drew to a close for its tenth annual rave, the organisers said that a 52-year-old woman had died after an accident at the event. “It is with a heavy heart that we report that on Saturday (30th) April 52 year old Dana Lawless passed away after being airlifted […]

The mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille has condemned the “despicable” racist words of a 26-year-old Capetonian whose tweet full of foul language about the government went viral, and said she is referring it to the South African Human Rights Commission. “I condemn these comments as there is no place for racism in our society. We are […]

The idea of being on an island all your own isn’t new, but Thanda Island off of southern Tanzania is taking that a little step further. Instead of there being numerous lodges, there’s just one. And it’s not just a lodge, it’s a villa for you and your guests alone. And it’s run by South […]

And the answer is: Honfleur, Normandy, France ? – taken on a recent holiday by #ProudlySouthAfrican Mia Conradie who lives in Paris.

A 240-bed safari lodge to be built near Malelane Gate in the Kruger National Park has been approved, the SA National Parks said this week. SANP said the Department of Environmental Affairs had given the green light to the Malelane Safari Lodge, whose impact would “definitely be far less than the sprawling towns of Skukuza and Satara”. […]

The much-hyped Mall of Africa opened its doors on Thursday, and the traffic began before the crowds started flooding in – and neither had not eased off by midday. “It’s 12:48pm and they decided to close the entrance to the mall. They are making a KILLING today! #MallOfAfrica,” @zowie_jean tweeted. The 300-store mall in the new Waterfall development, […]

Almost three dozen lions that were rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia since 2014 are finally going to make the last stage of their journey back to a better place, and will fly to South Africa on Friday. The organisation of the massive airlift by Animal Defenders International is going through its final phases before the aptly named […]

A 160 km cycling track between George and Plettenberg Bay, part of a much larger plan to make the Western Cape a biking mecca, is planned to be launched early next year. The Western Cape government said in a statement this week that the route, which will be the first part of the projected “Cape Cross” cycling […]

Today is the day South Africa remembers the first election on 27 April, 1994, the man who made it all possible, Nelson Mandela, and the freedom obtained by all. Lots of people are sending in wishes – even stores and bars and music festivals trying to cash in on the deal, even Mariah sent a […]