South Africa lock Lood de Jager has been ruled out of the Bulls side for their Super Rugby clash against the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday with a shoulder injury and is expected to spend at least two weeks on the sidelines. The Springbok second-row player was forced from the field 15 minutes into […]

Foreign workers in South Africa with expertise deemed vital to the economy are worried that authorities will reduce the number of critical skills eligible for work permits, a move they say could force some of them out of the country as early as April. Immigration lawyers say a shortened list of critical skills circulating among […]

Lions captain Warren Whiteley has been ruled out for six to eight weeks with a torn left pectoral muscle, another injury setback for the Springbok loose-forward. Whiteley sustained the injury in the first half of Saturday’s  19-17 Super Rugby loss to the Stormers, with his diagnosis confirmed by the team on Monday. The 31-year-old will […]

South Africa is close to signing an interim trade agreement with Britain that would replicate arrangements with Europe and ensure trade will not be disrupted in the event of a hard Brexit, South African Trade Minister Rob Davies said on Monday. With just a month to go before Britain is due to leave the European […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the establishment of a Special Tribunal to swiftly recover monies and assets lost by state institutions through irregular and corrupt means. The tribunal will adjudicate over any civil proceedings brought before it by the SIU, which investigates malpractice in state institutions, state assets and public money, the presidency said in […]

JOHANNESBURG – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a tribunal to fast-track legal proceedings from corruption investigations by the country’s Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the presidency said on Sunday. This is intended to swiftly recover monies and assets lost by state institutions through irregular and corrupt means. The tribunal will adjudicate over any civil […]

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa – Sri Lanka’s historic 2-0 test series victory over South Africa had seemed somewhat fanciful when they arrived in some disarray and on a long losing streak, but now they leave as the first Asian side to win a series in the country. South Africa had whitewashed Pakistan 3-0 at the […]

JOHANNESBURG – The South Africa’s rugby union (SARU) says it will scrap a rule that requires overseas-based players to have at least 30 test caps to be eligible for Springboks selection… as part of a “radical” overhaul of its contracting system. The 30-cap rule was instituted at the start of 2017 in an attempt to […]

PATERNOSTER – In a small fishing village on South Africa’s rugged west coast, restaurateur Kobus van der Merwe is struggling to process his meteoric rise to gastronomic stardom. He recently got back from Paris, where four days ago his 20-cover Wolfgat was named Restaurant of the Year at the inaugural World Restaurant Awards, also winning […]

Zambia will begin a planned cull of around 2,000 hippos in May, a senior government official said on Friday, reviving a measure put on hold two years earlier amid protests from animal rights activists. Zambia says its population of 12,200 hippos is too large for the water levels in the Luangwa river, where most of […]

Sri Lanka seamer Kasun Rajitha grabbed two wickets as South Africa limped to 91 for five at tea on day two of the second and final test at St George’s Park on Friday as the game continues to move forward at pace. The home side has an overall lead of 159, but suffered a massive […]

Rescuers have retrieved another 13 bodies from a disused South African coal mine following a gas blast there around two weeks ago, police said on Friday, raising the confirmed death toll to 18. More than 20 people were trapped underground in early February when a gas pipe exploded after they entered the mine to steal […]

Even medicines that are years past their expiration date and haven’t always been kept in strict climate-controlled conditions may still retain their original potency, a small study suggests. That is good news for people working in remote areas of the world where sometimes an expired medication is the only one available and the alternative is […]

Rating agency Moody’s said on Thursday that it did not believe that South Africa’s decision in its 2019 budget to raise the expenditure ceiling by around R16 billion ($1.14 billion) over three years would weaken fiscal policy credibility. Moody’s, the last of the big three rating agencies to rate South Africa in investment grade, is […]

South Africa’s support plan for struggling state-owned electricity firm Eskom will put further strain on the country’s finances, rating agency S & P Global said on Thursday, although it should be offset to a degree by easing external pressures. In his maiden budget speech on Wednesday Finance Minister Tito Mboweni outlined a 69 billion rand […]

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bat first in the second and final test against Sri Lanka at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on Thursday. The home side have handed a debut to all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, 21, who comes in for the injured Vernon Philander in the only […]

Deutsche Bank is hiring 26 people in South Africa, a spokesman said on Wednesday, less than a year after scaling back the operation in a broad restructuring of its investment bank. The spokesman said the lender had appointed a new head of corporate finance coverage in South Africa and the remaining hires would mostly be […]

There will not be a host and Sunday’s Oscars ceremony will not open with the traditional monologue in which celebrities and politicians are skewered. Yet, with the rock band, Queen, pop superstar Lady Gaga and two musicals in the race for best picture, the highest honours in the movie industry will have an unusually strong […]

CAPE TOWN – South Africa will bail out state utility Eskom with R69 billion ($4.9 billion) over three years, the centrepiece of a budget on Wednesday that exposed the limited room President Cyril Ramaphosa has to fix the economy ahead of an election in May. Ramaphosa, who is fighting rifts within his own party ahead […]

South Africa will inject 23 billion rand ($1.63 billion) a year over the next three years into state power utility Eskom but will NOT take on 100 billion rand of debt as requested by the struggling firm, the national budget showed on Wednesday. The Treasury said the first step in a plan announced by President […]

A rescue package for Eskom, South Africa’s most important state firm, is expected to dominate Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s budget speech on Wednesday, with the struggling power utility at risk of collapse without a large bailout. Eskom supplies 90 percent of South Africa’s electricity but is drowning in 420 billion rand ($30 billion) of debt […]

DAR ES SALAAM – A prominent Chinese businesswoman dubbed the “Ivory Queen” was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Tanzanian court on Tuesday for smuggling the tusks of more than 350 elephants, weighing nearly 2 tonnes, to Asia. Yang Feng Glan had been charged in October 2015 along with two Tanzanian men with […]

German haute-couture designer Karl Lagerfeld, artistic director at Chanel and an icon of the fashion industry with his extravagant outfits and striking catwalks, has died aged 85. Instantly recognizable in his dark suits, pony-tailed white hair and sunglasses, Lagerfeld was best known for his association with Chanel but delivered collections for LVMH’s Fendi and his […]

South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe said on Monday that he would NOT buy any assets which struggling state power firm Eskom puts up for sale, in response to speculation that he was eyeing an Eskom financial subsidiary. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is Motsepe’s brother-in-law, this month unveiled a plan to split Eskom into three units […]

Caster Semenya has said the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) breached confidentiality regulations ahead of her appeal hearing on Monday where she is fighting for her athletics future. The South African 800-metres double Olympic champion is seeking to overturn a new set of IAAF regulations that are aimed at lowering the testosterone levels of […]