Janusz Valus, the man who shot anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani in cold blood outside Johannesburg on 10 April 1993 and was sentenced to life in jail, has been granted parole. A judge in Gauteng North High Court said that Valus must be released within 14 days. The Department of Justice last year resisted Valus’ parole application, saying […]

DUBAI – Falcon Private Bank plans to expand in Africa and will look at opportunities arising from Barclays’ planned sale of its African assets, a senior executive at the Swiss bank told Reuters. Barclays said last week it would sell a 62 percent stake in Barclays Africa, its South Africa-based subsidiary, as it attempts to […]

Raymond Ackerman, who put what is arguably South Africa’s favourite supermarket on the map after buying three stores in the turbulent 1960s, turns 85 today. Last week, quite coincidentally, a documentary about Ackerman’s life and how he strived to run a fair, non-racial business in apartheid South Africa, “Good Business, The Story of a South African Retail Giant”, […]

The Proteas might have lost the last game in the T20 series against Australia, but the match had its lighter moments, especially when a squirrel made its way onto the pitch and was chased by five officials, who even tried luring it off with nuts. https://youtu.be/03nEP77rwTc

Eighteen young elephants have been spirited out of Swaziland under “devious” circumstances to be taken to three US zoos before a court case could be heard about the damage that would be inflicted on the animals, according to an animal rights organization. Animal rights group Friends of Animals said in an open letter posted online on […]

Three young men have been arrested by police in connection with the fatal assault on 16-year-old Franziska Blöchliger, according to news reports on Wednesday. The reports quoted Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut of the Cape Town police. “The circumstances surrounding the case are still under investigation and no further information can be released at this stage‚” he was […]

In its fourth annual report, in which it encourages South Africans to speak up against corruption, Corruption Watch has identified the most flagrant hotspots in South Africa as schools as well as traffic and licensing departments. In the report released this week, titled “Amp up the Volume” – the agency said that over the past four years […]

More than 3 million people visited their voting stations over the past weekend to register for the first time, to re-register and to update their registration details, the Electoral Commission of South Africa said in a statement on Tuesday. The IEC said it believed “the results show without doubt that South Africans remain highly committed to […]

Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration as Nigeria’s president presents new opportunities for reinvigorating relations between Nigeria and South Africa, the continent’s biggest economies. Since the 1990s, the collective leadership of Nigeria and South Africa has been vital in providing the foundations for African renewal, the creation of institutions on the continent and the mobilisation of African voices […]

PRETORIA – The New Development Bank of the five-nation BRICS grouping is officially open for business and has started hiring staff, according to the National Treasury. The bank is in the process of establishing its Africa Regional Centre in Johannesburg, as announced by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in his 2016 Budget Speech, and the Treasury […]

Nothing like a bit of encouragement to push you when you’re cycling – which is exactly what this ostrich did to two foreign cyclists who were training for the Cape Town Cycle Tour. Their friend taping it all said he almost fell off his bike he was laughing so much. “We came down to South […]

A ranger in Kruger National Park was wounded in a shootout with three suspected poachers on Sunday in which one of the men was fatally wounded, according to park authorities. Field Ranger Killers Ubisi was shot and wounded in the arm during a firefight in the central Houtboschrand section of the park, according to a statement […]

The Gupta family, who have recently come under severe attack by politicians and the media for reportedly receiving preferential treatment and financial breaks in South Africa because of their close relationship with President Jacob Zuma, have denied a report they are leaving South Africa for Dubai. In an emailed statement to Fin24, a representative for Oakbay Investments, the […]

South Africa’s great singer Miriam Makeba – Mama Africa – would have been 84 today. The singer famous for “Pata Pata” and numerous other songs and for being one of the most public opponents of apartheid on the world stage was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father […]

The Electoral Commission (IEC) has called on all eligible voters to come out in their numbers this weekend – 5-6 March – to register and to update their details ahead of the upcoming 2016 Municipal Elections during this weekend’s voter registration drive. This is one of the most anticipated local elections since 1994 as the African National […]

There will be an estimated 35,000 people riding the 109-km Cape Town Cycle Tour on Sunday, the biggest timed road race in the world, and it will include everyone from fund-raisers, moms and dads and kids, people in costumes, tandem riders, conservationists and even nudists. Well, the nudists won’t be ridding in the Cape Town Cycle Tour […]

The coffee chain Starbucks is to open its first two stores in South Africa in April, one in Rosebank, Johannesburg, and the other in the massive Mall of Africa between Johannesburg and Pretoria, according to news reports on Thursday. The stores will be Starbucks’ first in sub-Saharan Africa. The chain will reportedly adapt its menu […]

On World Wildlife Day, people from around the world are tweeting by the second – messages and pictures – to bring attention to species: the elephant, the rhino, the lion, the tiger, the moose, the butterfly, pandas, foxes, the Vietnamese langur (sought after for supposed medicinal qualities), dolphins, dugongs, pangolins, pythons, antelopes, the list goes on and on. And also, […]

MAPUTO – Debris from a plane found on a beach in Mozambique could come from the lost Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that went down in 2014 while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with the loss of 239 people. The one-metre-long piece of debris with the words “No Step” written on it was found in […]

In his latest salvo against Donald Trump, the candidate who against all odds seems most likely to win the Republic presidential nomination in the United States, Trevor Noah this week riffed in the Daily Show on Trump’s similarity to the fascist of all fascists, Benito Mussolini. The show has already generated its own hashtag, “FascistWeek2016”. It did […]

The African National Congress chief whip in Parliament, Stone Sizani, who has been one of the loudest supporters of President Jacob Zuma in the house, has resigned from his seat and will be posted to Germany as South African ambassador, according to news reports on Wednesday. The ANC said in a statement that Sizani would […]

Cape Town might be high on many a traveller’s bucket list but there are at least 9 other destinations in South Africa equally worth seeing, according to the US site Mashable. “For a medium-sized country,” Mashable says in a recent story, “South Africa has a lot going on.” (We choose an 11th at the end.) The list, which […]

Mohau Pheko, South Africa’s ambassador to Japan, has said she regrets claiming she had a degree that she didn’t actually have, which came from a dubious university in America that closed after it was found to be selling degrees online. Pheko made the apology last week during an interview with the SABC, although she said that […]

The list of speakers today:  

The far-flung island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic – not to be confused with the one off Australia – might be known to many in South Africa, but opportunities to visit Napoleon’s last place of exile have been few. At least until now. British Airways-owned Comair has announced that it will soon start flying weekly from Johannesburg to a […]