WASHINGTON – The U.S. Congress on Monday passed the Electrify Africa Act, which aims to bring electricity to 50 million Africans by the year 2020. The act was under deliberation for two years and now goes to President Barack Obama to be signed, according to news reports. The bill will provide a framework for a […]

U.S. talk show host Ellen de Generes has long been known as a supporter of animal causes, and now it’s African animal causes too. Two of her most recent guests were Dereck and Beverly Joubert, the South African conservationists and award-winning photographers. The South African couple, who have lived in the Botswana wilderness for some […]

The France-based chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen has become the first South African to win a coveted Michelin star for his restaurant JAN in Nice on the Riviera, it was announced on Monday. It was one of more than 50 new stars awarded in 2016, Michelin said. For restaurants in France a Michelin star is […]

Dumisani Gwala is the rhino-poaching kingpin you’ve never heard of. Gwala is currently awaiting trial to take place at Mtubatuba courthouse and now YOU have the power to help put him in jail. Gwala is the leader of KwaZulu-Natal’s biggest rhino-poaching syndicate, and it is believe about 80 percent of the horns in the province go […]

South African Airways will stop flying between Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi, a route that was opened in March 2015. The Minister of Finance said in a statement on the weekend he had granted approval for SAA to cease operating the route, which has not performed as expected. SAA’s interventions to improve the financial performance on this route […]

A prestigious new list of the top places in the world to see in 2016 starts off with the Cape Winelands, which,  as it happens, have also just featured for all the great food and wine you get on the so-called “gourmet trail”. The highly esteemed Robb Report says in its Top 21 Destinations for 2016, “South Africa’s perennially picturesque […]

BEAUFORT WEST – A woman who was driving past Beaufort West on Sunday was arrested after trying to bribe a traffic officer, it was reported. Apparently the 51-year-old woman would have received a R700 fine for the speed she was going at, and she offered to pay the traffic officer R200. The issue of bribery […]

A 37-year-old British pilot working for an anti-poaching unit in Tanzania has been fatally shot by poachers while flying over a poaching scene in his helicopter, according to news reports. The Friedkin Conservation Fund said Roger Gower, from Birmingham, was tracking poachers on Friday in the Maswa Game Reserve. He was apparently shot through the […]

The scandalous love story between Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams is known to many Southern Africans, but one newspaper calls it the “greatest love story you’ve never heard about”. Award-winning British actor David Oyelowo was so captivated by the true story that he’s spent the last five years bringing it to the screen. Seretse was an Oxford-educated student and a […]

Certain cities around the world get a name for great coffee. San Francisco, Seattle, London, Tokyo, Taipei. Now add Cape Town to the pack, especially over the last year or two as specialty coffee shops have exploded all over the Mother City. We sniffed out the best brew to be found. 1. The best coffee shop for over-the-top […]

Jonathan Plaatjies is 29 years old and unemployed. He lives in Nuwe Begin, just outside Mfuleni, about 30 kilometres from Cape Town’s centre. Plaatjies makes a living by collecting and selling scrap to some of the five or so scrapyards in Mfuleni. After Plaatjies lost his job as a security guard at Stellenbosch University he […]

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Southern Africa is moving towards greater acceptance of sexual and gender minorities though there is still a long way to go, the United States’ first special envoy for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people said on Wednesday. Randy Berry, an openly gay senior U.S. diplomat, was speaking […]

The Virgin Kitesurfing Armada took place on Saturday near Bloubergstrand in Cape Town, bringing together hundreds of kitesurfers in an attempt to break the record for the ‘Largest Parade of Kitesurfers’. After 3 hours of kitesurfing the World Record was smashed – with a total of 415 kitesurfers completing the one mile course between Dolphin Beach and […]

An elephant that had already mock-charged a vehicle in Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe obviously couldn’t take the titters and laughing of the occupants who weren’t taking him seriously. So he came back a second time. The ranger, who seems to have been taking snaps with his cell phone, obviously didn’t expect what happened. Watch […]

Under the headline “Saffa Day at Snowmass”, a Colorado newspaper snapped 60 South Africans who are working in Aspen during the winter season, with the South African flag draped on the snow in front of them. The Aspen Times said, “A group of roughly 60 South Africans who are working in the area for the […]

In the first of a series of sold-out concerts around the country, British Grammy-award-winning rock band Mumford & Sons played to a crowd of thousands on the Grand Parade in Cape Town on Friday night. The band will play another concert in Cape Town, one in Durban and two in Pretoria. Watch the crowd join […]

A low-flying South African Air Force Gripen jet that circled a neighbourhood of Johannesburg on Thursday got people tweeting excitedly and taking videos of the seemingly errant plane. And then it was back again on Friday. “Wonderful to hear and see the #Gripen #Fighterjet flying over Randburg this evening again!” was one tweet. Another tweeter said […]

Watch out, Netflix users, your days of making merry – that is, if you access hundreds of extra TV and movie titles from the U.S. – may be over. The company has announced plans to stop people around the world from watching Netflix programmes outside their territory. Many Netflix subscribers around the world have been bypassing regional restrictions […]

Muizenberg is the little place that could. So many times over the past decades people have believed that the  beach village way on the other side of Cape Town, the surfer’s corner, one of the oldest resorts in the country, might be on the rise. Well, now it finally seems to be coming true. Countless cars and buses used to […]

The Reserve Bank has increased interest rates in South Africa by 50 basis points, a move that was expected and has been met with a mixed response, although the markets immediately reacted positively with the rand strengthening. The announcement was made on Thursday by Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago. According to news reports, this means the rate at […]

JOHANNESBURG – A total of 230 frogs – 80 bull frogs and 150 rain frogs – destined for Taiwan and hidden in small plastic containers have been confiscated at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport and brought to the National Zoo in Pretoria, according to a statement released by the zoo on Thursday. The amphibians were sent […]

Cape Town-based journalist Sarah Khan recently embarked on a week-long road trip through Namibia with three other women, and wrote about the experience for The New York Times. Along the way she learnt 10 (and a half) lessons. Lesson 1. The Namibian sun is every bit as potent as you’ve heard. 2. As soon as […]

The city of Cape Town will donate to charity all the unclaimed cell phones it has confiscated from people caught talking on hand-held devices while driving. “While the Safety and Security Directorate initially considered auctioning the cellphones, we have subsequently decided to give the cellphones to community-based organisations like neighbourhood watch groups instead,” mayoral committee member for […]

LONDON – Two South Africans sentenced alongside Nelson Mandela to life in jail were given the Freedom of the City of London on Wednesday in recognition of their fight for freedom and racial equality, as were the lawyers who defended them at trial. Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg received the award with fellow South African George Bizos and Lord Joel Joffe […]

Dan Mace is a young surfer and film maker from Cape Town who has made some incredible movies already (check his YouTube page for proof), but now it’s #TheRainbowChain that’s on his mind. In a new video the 25-year-old says that even though corruption, crime and racism seem to be at an all-time high in South Africa, […]