BEIRA, Mozambique – Hundreds of thousands of people are in need of food, water and shelter after Cyclone Idai battered Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. And, as of today (Tues), at least 843 people had been reported killed by the storm, the flooding it caused and heavy rains before it hit. View the factbox at the […]

JOHANNESBURG – South African tax revenues fell a whopping R15 billion short of the government’s target in the 2018/19 fiscal year, with revenue estimated at R1.287 trillion ($91 billion), the revenue service said on Monday. South Africa has seen revenue collections fall consistently since 2015 due to weak economic growth and administrative weakness, the latter […]

Sri Lanka’s test captain Dimuth Karunaratne – who led his team to a record-breaking win against South Africa last month – was arrested on Sunday for drink driving after an accident injured at least one person near the main hospital in capital Colombo, a police spokesman said. Sri Lanka won a two-test series against South […]

LONDON – The Rolling Stones have postponed a tour of the United States and Canada to give singer Mick Jagger time to receive medical treatment, the veteran rock band said on Saturday. “I’m devastated for having to postpone the tour but I will be working very hard to be back on stage as soon as […]

JOHANNESBURG  – The retail price of petrol in South Africa will rise by nearly 9 percent from April 3, while the price of wholesale diesel will increase by close to 6 percent, the energy department said on Sunday. The price of petrol will rise by 131 cents to 16.13 rand  ($1.11) per litre in the […]

Roger Federer gained a measure of revenge against Wimbledon nemesis Kevin Anderson, beating the South African expat 6-0 6-4 at the Miami Open on Thursday to set up a mouthwatering semi-final against a player barely half his age. Federer, who himself is the son of a South African expat, will have little time to rest his 37-year-old […]

Former South African president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane will stand trial for culpable homicide over a fatal car accident in 2014, a Johannesburg judge said on Friday, rejecting a request to dismiss the case for lack of evidence. Driving a Porsche sports car, Duduzane Zuma, 35, crashed into a minivan taxi on a highway near Sandton in […]

South Africa’s central bank kept its benchmark repo rate unchanged at 6.75 percent on Thursday in a unanimous decision, saying it assessed the risks to the inflation outlook to be more or less balanced. All economists surveyed by Reuters predicted the repo rate would remain on hold. (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana, Tiisetso Motsoeneng and Naledi […]

BEIRA, Mozambique – Cyclone Idai’s deadly hit has left some 1.85 million people in need of assistance in Mozambique in a catastrophe that United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday rang “yet another alarm bell” about climate change. Guterres described Idai, which flattened homes and caused massive flooding after slamming into Mozambique near the […]

Roger Federer (whose mom is a South Africa expat) overcame a sluggish start to defeat Filip Krajinovic 7-5 6-3, and SA expat Kevin Anderson’s booming serve proved too much for Joao Sousa as the big names advanced to the fourth round of the Miami Open on Monday. Yay! “I definitely missed being on the match […]

South African bowling sensation Kagiso Rabada believes team morale is the key to success in the fothcoming Cricket World Cup, which will be held in England and Wales from May 30 – July 14. Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has already taken over 100 wickets for South Africa in both Test and one-day cricket games, which bodes […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s gold and platinum mines will shed around 90,000 jobs in the next three years as above-inflation electricity price increases by power utility Eskom add to already soaring operating costs, an industry body said on Monday. “In total, as many as 90,222 jobs would be at risk solely as a result of […]

Rescue teams in Mozambique moved hundreds of people displaced by Cyclone Idai’s massive and deadly flooding to safer shelters on Monday, while the government made preparations for a cholera outbreak that it says is inevitable amid the devastation. In areas west of the port city of Beira, hundreds of people were trapped for more than […]

South African wakeskater Matti Buys invited one of the most influential pioneers of the sport, Brian Grubb, for a trip around some of the most iconic landmarks in Durban. Here is all you need to know: – Wakeskating is an adaptation of wakeboarding without the rider being bound to the board in anyway, similar to […]

South Africa booked the last place at the African Cup of Nations finals with a 2-1 away win over Libya thanks to Percy Tau’s double on Sunday to complete the lineup for the 24-team finals being hosted in Egypt in June. The diminutive 24-year-old Bafana Bafana striker, on loan at second-tier Union SG in Belgium […]

At least 417 people have died in Mozambique after Cyclone Idai led to catastrophic flooding, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Saturday. And hundreds of thousands of children who survived need urgent help. (Updated from 293 deaths to 417.) “We’re going to have to wait until the flood waters […]

Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth has been ruled out of the Stormers Super Rugby tussle with the Wellington Hurricanes in the New Zealand capital on Saturday after failing to pass concussion protocols. Etzebeth took a knock to the head in the 35-8 victory over the Jaguares last weekend, but was named in the team’s starting line-up […]

Collectors from America and Europe are scouring Cape Town’s booming art scene in search of deals as diverse as an expressive oil painting by South Africa’s Irma Stern or a sculpture assembled from bottle caps by Ghana’s El Anatsui… with a record being broken this week at an art auction. Dozens of venues, including the […]

LUSAKA – Zambia banned an energy drink, which is also sold in South Africa, on Wednesday after it was shown to have been adulterated with the male sex booster Viagra, according to authorities in Ndola, the city of manufacture. The prohibition followed a complaint from Zambia’s medicine regulator in December suggesting that the drink – […]

Raw excrement, condoms and sanitary products regularly spill into homes and parks for many South Africans… who  are just some of about 4.5 billion people globally without safe sanitation, promised for all by 2030. Residents are lobbying for urgent rehabilitation of sewage works by South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation, widely criticised for lack […]

BEIRA, Mozambique – Rescue workers plucked more survivors from trees and roofs to safety on Thursday, a week after a cyclone ripped through southern Africa and triggered devastating floods that have killed hundreds of people and displaced hundreds of thousands. A priority for Thursday was pushing into flooded areas that had not yet been surveyed, […]

MAPUTO/HARARE – Cyclone winds and floods that swept across southeastern Africa affected more than 2.6 million people and could rank as one of the worst weather-related disasters recorded in the southern hemisphere, U.N. officials said on Tuesday. Rescue crews are still struggling to reach victims five days after Cyclone Idai raced in at speeds of […]

South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday he cannot say yet when rolling blackouts will end, as power utility Eskom struggles with capacity shortages that threaten to thwart efforts to boost economic growth. Eskom supplies more than 90 percent of the power in South Africa but has suffered repeated faults at its […]

Former Steinhoff chairman and top shareholder Christo Wiese said on Monday he is open to negotiations over his $4 billion claim against the South African retailer, days after it revealed the scale of devastating accounting fraud. Steinhoff said on Friday that an independent report had found it overstated profits over several years in a $7.4 […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) has included two prominent politicians – who were linked to corruption under former President Jacob Zuma – in its list of candidates for parliament ahead of May’s election… but a senior source allied to President Cyril Ramaphosa said tainted former officials are unlikely to make it […]