Here’s a pick of ten stories coming out of South Africa this week…from a buzzy area in Joburg and whale art in Woodstock to moulting penguins and a surprising re-count of marchers. 1.The New York Times focused this week on Melville, Johannesburg, which has risen from the ashes numerous times. Once again, it seems to have defied […]

Just when the furore had almost died down over President Jacob Zuma’s comment about the ANC coming first, before South Africa, he seems to have opened up attacks on that same front again – saying the ANC came first, before democracy – and for laughing too much in the face of the country’s problems. Zuma […]

GABORONE – A 1,111-carat diamond was unearthed in a mine 500 km north of the Botswana capital this week, the biggest diamond find in the country and the largest in more than a century, it was announced on Thursday. The discovery of the stone, weighing 222 grams, was made at the Karowe mine owned by the Canadian Lucara Diamond Corporation, the firm said in […]

NEW YORK – Sixteen of Africa’s 50 richest people are from South Africa, which takes over the lead from the 2014 No. 1 country, Nigeria, which only had 10 on this year’s list, according to Forbes magazine. South Africa also has six of the continent’s 23 billionaires, Forbes said when it publicised the list on […]

So what’s the first thing you notice about being back in South Africa after a while away? From the moment you leave the airplane, things start hitting you, the landscape, the smells, the sensations. After one week back, this is what had hit returnee Edward Robbins. The accent. Gyms. They just get it. Roadside shopping.  […]

JOHANNESBURG – The embattled South African Airways has appointed a new CEO after only four months, its seventh chief in four years, after the airline faced renewed challenges from its pilots and staff, according to news reports on Wednesday. SAA said in a statement that Thuli Mpshe will be replaced as acting chief by the head of technical […]

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by what has happened in Paris, you’re not alone. In the aftermath of the attacks on Friday evening, many are finding it hard to figure out what has happened and, indeed, where all this is going. The media has barely taken a moment to breathe. In the last few days there have been French reprisal attacks against […]

Talking to foreign fund managers about South Africa is sobering. I spent last week doing that in New York. Billions of dollars that were directed into our shares and bonds over the past two decades are being pulled out. The only fund managers who are smiling are those that have gone short on South African assets, […]

CAPE TOWN – After several weeks where it seemed South Africa might lose a huge American agricultural contract, it has signed an agreement with the United States to resume imports of 65,000 tons of chicken a year, according to news reports on Tuesday. The US had threatened to suspend trade benefits for South African farm products earlier this […]

The name is derived from “happy prospect” in Afrikaans, and once upon a time, life and the gold haul were both good at the Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine, 50 miles west of Johannesburg. But two years after the mine’s owners abandoned it because it was unprofitable, sewage runs in the streets of the old mining village, […]

The double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokulea – or Hōkūleʻa – has arrived in Cape Town, halfway around the world from Hawaii on a 60,000-mile journey. And there to greet the boat was one of its most famous supporters, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. On the Hokulea website, it said the visit to Cape Town was helping to celebrate ancestral connections and renewed friendship […]

Nothing like spending a Sunday morning doing a walkathon with your pooch. Which is what some 1,000 Capetonians did this weekend, with dogs of every shape and size and breed. The 22nd annual Wiggle Waggle, held in Constantia in the shadow of Table Mountain and with an impending rainfall, was in aid of the Society […]

Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in a new anti-poaching video where an elephant’s tusk gets blown up after the “Terminator” says “Let’s get rid of the demand for ivory”. Watch the video of the tusk explosion: “Hey, stop killing 96 elephants every day just because of this ivory,” Schwarzenegger  says, holding up a tusk. […]

Countless Muslims around the world are voicing their disapproval of the ISIS attacks on Paris on Friday, in which at least 129 people were killed, by raising their voices on social media under the banner #NotInMyName. At the centre of the campaign is a video from September 2014 called “#NotInMyName: ISIS Do Not Represent British Muslims” that […]

As superheroes hit the movie and TV screens of the world, South Africa is getting one of its own. And going from this trailer, it looks pretty special and amazing. So does Johannesburg! Director Gareth Crocker introduces clips from the series, “Jongo” https://vimeo.com/124604413 Based in the City of Gold and the Cradle of Humankind, the eight-part series “Jongo” […]

With so many countries lighting up their buildings to stand in solidarity with Paris after the attacks on Friday night, many expected South Africa to do the same. Imagine Table Mountain draped in blue, white and red to show support… Or the Hillbrow Tower… But so far…no famous South African landmarks have been lit up (apart […]

“Nomvula” is a very chill, very catchy Xhosa song by up-and-coming singer Nathi – he’s been called “a breath of fresh acoustic air” – in a gorgeous video shot around his home province of the Eastern Cape. The song is from his debut album, “Buyelekhaya”, and has already been viewed over 300,000 times on YouTube in less […]

If every cloud has a silver lining, The Telegraph in Britain is pointing it out – 25 silver linings, in fact (and we’ve added a 26th – see the end of the story). When so many things seem to be going wrong in South Africa – with a drought to boot – it’s nice to […]

GENEVA – A Hong Kong property tycoon has bought a 12.03-carat blue diamond found in South Africa last year at auction for a record $48.4 million (£31.7m), it was reported on Thursday, the second diamond he had bought for his seven-year-old daughter in two days. Joseph Lau confirmed that he had bought the “Blue Moon” diamond […]

It’s said that behind every powerful language is an army and money. Consider the case of English. In South Africa, as in its other colonies, the British arrived with the Bible in one hand and the breech-loader in the other. Behind them was the English language, military might and money. British missionaries wanted to convert […]

It used to be a rare event when a high-ranking member of the African National Congress said something critical of the party or dissented, or pointed at cracks in the political firmament, but recently it has become more frequent. Add to the growing list of voices being raised Ben Turok (talking about the strictures of the ANC […]

Andrew Smith certainly thinks so, but he would. He is the founder of a South African solar company NVmyPower. But listen to what he says to a class and then judge for yourself. “Some people say buy a Ferrari,” Smith says. “Some people buy exclusive whiskey or a collectors item. This (solar) way, you’re not only saving […]

The horror novel ‘Day Four’ by South African Sarah Lotz has reached the semifinals of the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards, which brands itself as the only major book awards chosen by readers. A book about South African Elon Musk has also been nominated, in a non-fiction category. Goodreads, which started in 2007 and has apparently got 40 […]

PRETORIA – Eight policemen each received a 15-year jail sentence on Wednesday for the murder of a Mozambican taxi driver who was dragged behind a police van, according to news reports. The death of Mido Macia in February 2013 was caught on a mobile phone camera which showed him being manhandled, handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged […]

JOHANNESBURG – The remains of a dinosaur 50 percent larger than a T-Rex, found near Clarens in the Free State, are being pieced together by the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, it was announced on Tuesday. The plant-eating dinosaur, still to be named but which goes by the nickname ‘Highland Giant’, would have weighed about […]