JOHANNESBURG – Former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, who was sacked by President Jacob Zuma in December, sending the local markets into a spiral and the rand crashing, has been appointed to the board of the privately owned investment manager Allan Gray. The firm, which was started in 1973 by Allan Gray and is known for its […]

Brock O’Hurn is known to countless people on Instagram as the tall, handsome guy with the long hair who has made the man bun famous. But turns out that the six-foot-seven-inch Californian is smitten with Africa, and has just finished his first trip to Kenya. The 24-year-old, who has almost two million followers on Instagram […]

South African scientists have discovered an unexpected alignment in the rotating axes of supermassive black holes in different galaxies millions of light years apart. Prof Andrew Russ Taylor and PhD graduate student Preshanth Jagannathan, both of the Department of Astronomy at University of Cape Town, published their discovery in the Monthly Notice Letters of the […]

At least 11 people died in a bus crash in the Free State as it was making its way from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg, according to a statement on Sunday by Arrive Alive. The passengers were apparently volunteers returning from the African National Congress manifesto launch in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. “ER24 paramedics, along with various other […]

As the African National Congress launched its manifesto for the local government election at a much ballyhooed event at Port Elizabeth’s stadium on Saturday, much of the conversation on social media was about the less-than-stellar turnout (either due to the hot weather or a cold reception from disenchanted voters) and President Jacob Zuma’s dance moves. The Nelson Mandela […]

No sooner was it reported that whoever shot a movie or ad with a lion wandering around Braamfontein earlier this week – he was quickly christened Braam – had not got permission to do it, a video was “leaked” of another Braam wandering the streets. Only this one was a human dressed up as a lion. […]

JOHANNESBURG – A march for political change organised by the Democratic Alliance has started on Friday morning in Johannesburg, with thousands of people dressed in blue heading for the Constitutional Court. The #MarchForChange was joined by DA leaders Mmusi Maimane and Patricia DeLille, among others. The DA said in a statement on Wednesday that it had […]

This week the ANC Women’s League not only stood behind President Jacob Zuma, but said that Public Protector Thuli Madonsela was too popular to be in her position. This isn’t the first time the ANCWL has come out with some strange remarks – and been criticised for them. Then yesterday, Thursday, the league president, Social Development […]

HARARE – In what has been called the biggest public display of discontent with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in a decade, several thousand people marched through the capital on Thursday. Carrying placards saying things like “Mugabe Must Go”, the protesters were reportedly on their way to hear a speech by Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan […]

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton earlier this week was endorsed by her former colleague New York mayor Bill de Blasio, although things didn’t go off so smoothly. When Clinton said it had taken de Blasio long enough to endorse her, he said he was on “CP time”, a racially charged expression meaning “coloured people’s time”. Standing […]

Cape Town has added its fourth all-woman team repairing roads in the last six months in a bid to bring gender equality to a male-dominated field, the city said on Wednesday. The Women at Work programme, which lasts for 10 months and ends in July and is run in conjunction with a training facility, is […]

The windy city is ground zero for political battle in the coming days, leading up to the African National Congress’ weekend launch of its manifesto for the local government elections, as the party hopes to reclaim a city the opposition believes it can take control of on 3 August. As the ANC steps up the fanfare before its 16 […]

South Africa’s political parties are clearly coming out fighting in preparation for the 3 August local government elections, with the ANC creating new Facebook and Twitter pages with a smiling white dude and the Democratic Alliance’s Helen Zille trying (probably not too seriously) to get popular black DJ Fresh to change the name on his […]

LONDON – Cape Town was voted the favourite city in the world and South Africa the third-favourite country in the Telegraph newspaper’s annual travel awards, based on what it calls the most comprehensive, wide-ranging and reliable travel survey in Britain. The ceremony was held on Tuesday. The survey, which is reportedly based on the responses of 75,000 people, named Cape Town as […]

The SA movie industry is forging ahead with some great productions – from period pieces to cross-cultural love stories to tearjerkers and more. Have a look at the latest offerings. A group of soldiers in the Boer War find themselves sent to Saint Helena island in the Atlantic Ocean as prisoners of war in “Modder […]

The South African rand has hit its strongest level in four months – reaching R14.65 to the dollar at its best – after the sacking of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene by President Jacob Zuma in December sent the financial market and the currency tumbling. It closed trading on Tuesday at about R14.7. In early January the currency slipped to as low as […]

Nhlanhla Nene, the finance minister who was sacked in December by President Jacob Zuma, causing the financial market and the rand to plummet, has broken his silence for the first time, suggesting he will take up a new job shortly. “Watch this space,” he said. In the exclusive interview with eNCA, Nene said he had been […]

After a lifetime of being isolated from the world, the Atlantic island of St Helena, where Napoleon was exiled and died, had its first major flight from Johannesburg land this weekend. The flight, chartered by Air Safety Support International to bring its team of five personnel to St Helena to assess the airport, touched down on Sunday morning […]

Many South Africans abroad have heard that question, “Do you have lions in the streets?” Well, on Sunday it (possibly) came true with the appearance of one on the late-night streets of Braamfontein, in central Johannesburg. But it’s still unclear whether it was a hoax or the animal was part of a movie or ad production. The […]

PRETORIA – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that he wanted to “correct the incorrect impressions” spreading in the media that he believed churches should not get involved in politics. Ramaphosa said in a statement that he welcomed “the robust manner in which the churches and all other religious formations have engaged the government on […]

I spoke to a number of people today about the rhino poaching situation and the unconfirmed report that 32 animals died in just 14 days. I do believe this number could be very close to the truth, but what really made me stop in my tracks is that someone that had just visited the user […]

The Congress of the People, under former ANC leader Mosiuoa Lekota, has withdrawn from parliamentary activities following the African National Congress’s refusal to take action against President Jacob Zuma. In announcing this, the party also took a swipe at Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. The Constitutional Court ruled unanimously on 31 March that Zuma had failed […]

NAIROBI – The World Bank on Monday lowered its 2016 sub-Saharan African growth forecast to 3.3 percent from a previous forecast of 4.4 percent in October, citing plunging global commodity prices. The bank said the commodity price rout, particularly for oil which fell 67 percent from June 2014 to December 2015, as well as weak […]

“It was another crazy week in the Ukraine,” a South African there reported this week, after he had gone out on the streets of Kiev to record the latest goings-on. “First, the President was found to have an offshore account. Then the Dutch voted against the EU-Ukraine agreement (this is what set in motion the […]

The city of Johannesburg’s garbage-collecting division Pikitup has reached a deal with workers, who have been striking illegally for almost a month, which meant the clean-up of the city could begin on Monday. The strike caused tensions to rise in the city, with trucks that kept going out being fired upon at one point, according […]