South African firm Bosasa has applied for voluntary liquidation after its lenders said they would close its accounts due to reputational risk, the firm said in a statement on Monday. “The extensive reputational damage in the past few months, occasioned by negative media reports, has resulted in financial institutions determination that the… group poses a […]

LOISABA CONSERVANCY, Kenya – Images of a rare African black leopard have been captured in Kenya, the first verifiable record of the animal for nearly 100 years, researchers have said. Using motion-sensitive cameras set up near water holes, researchers from San Diego Zoo Global and the Loisaba Conservancy captured video of the largely nocturnal cat […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa wants to talk to independent power producers (IPPs) about lowering the price Eskom pays for electricity from older renewable energy projects, a senior minister told Reuters, as the state utility struggles to emerge from a financial crisis. Eskom supplies more than 90 percent of South Africa’s power but is drowning in […]

Debutant spinner Lasith Embuldeniya took five wickets as Sri Lanka produced a strong fightback with the ball to set up a victory chase on day three of the first test against South Africa at Kingsmead on Friday. The impressive Embuldeniya claimed 5-66 and sparked a South Africa collapse as the hosts were bowled out for […]

South African international front-rower Steven Kitshoff will miss at least the first month of Super Rugby after suffering a hamstring injury in preparation for this year’s competition. The injury, suffered in a warm-up game last week, has proven more severe than first anticipated, said Stormers coach Robbie Fleck on Thursday. “The outcome with him and […]

HONG KONG – Hong Kong customs seized a record 40 kg (88 pounds) of rhino horns worth around HK$8 million ($1 million) from Johannesburg en route to Vietnam, the latest bust for authorities trying to tackle the rising volume of endangered species trafficked through the Chinese territory. The seizure came less than one month after […]

Struggling state-run power firm Eskom subjected South Africa to the worst power cuts in several years this week, after a decade of missteps when electricity sales stagnated and costs soared. The outages expose the risks to Africa’s most industrialised economy from Eskom’s virtual monopoly and the failure of successive governments to take on labour unions […]

South Africa’s Treasury head Tito Mboweni is likely to appease rating agencies and squeeze a tenth of a percentage point off his previous budget deficit forecast for next financial year, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday. The poll taken in the past week suggests Mboweni will announce a deficit target of 4.1 percent of gross […]

The Department of Public Enterprises said Wednesday that South Africa’s power utility Eskom is struggling to keep its mainly coal-fired plants running due to coal shortages and poor maintenance, with 40 percent of breakdowns a result of human error. The department, which oversees Eskom, also said in a presentation to parliament that Eskom was technically […]

South Africa is not planning to privatise embattled power utility Eskom after the firm is split into three separate entities of generation, transmission and distribution, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Wednesday. “At no stage has the president said, or the government indicated, that there would be privatisation of any of these entities or […]

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and elected to bowl in the first test against South Africa at Kingsmead on Wednesday. The tourists decided to have first use of a lively looking surface in partly cloudy conditions on an opening morning. Sri Lanka handed a debut to spinner Lasith Embuldeniya but have also […]

South African state power firm Eskom aims to end power cuts by the end of this week and for now does not suspect sabotage is the cause of unplanned outages at some of its power stations, a senior Eskom generation official said on Tuesday. “Our aspiration is to end load-shedding by end of the week,” […]

South Africa will be expected to continue their recent dominance over touring sides when they host ailing Sri Lanka in a two-test series starting at Kingsmead on Wednesday. Their recent 3-0 sweep of Pakistan was South Africa’s seventh successive home test series victory, a run that included a triumph over number one ranked India and […]

Duane Vermeulen’s return to South Africa comes as a major boost to the Super Rugby hopes of the Bulls and the bulky Springbok loose forward believes he can make a major difference as they look to turn around their fortunes. The powerful number eight signed a two-year deal with the Pretoria franchise, who beat off […]

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday the prospect of more power cuts by utility Eskom was “most worrying”. The cash-strapped company warned of wider controlled power cuts on Monday after six additional generating units unexpectedly went offline. “That comes as quite a shock. It is reported that there are six units that are […]

LONDON – For a man who spent nearly three decades in prison, the passage of time was no doubt important to Nelson Mandela. So it is perhaps fitting that an exhibition which opened in London on Friday about his life and legacy features his watch, which was always kept on South African time wherever he […]

French Oil and Gas major Total’s South African offshore discovery could contain 1 billion barrels of total resources and is “probably quite big”, Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said on Thursday. Total said it had made a significant gas condensate discovery after drilling its Brulpadda prospects on Block 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin. “It is gas […]

Pieter-Steph du Toit was named the South African Rugby Player of the Year for 2018 on Thursday, the second time in three years the versatile forward has won the award. He is only the fifth player to win it twice, edging out fellow Springboks Aphiwe Dyanyti, Franco Mostert, Handre Pollard and last year’s winner, Malcolm […]

CAPE TOWN – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced plans on Thursday to split struggling state power giant Eskom into three separate entities, as he sought to convince investors and voters that he will turn around a struggling economy before an election in May. Ramaphosa is balancing efforts to revive an economy burdened by government […]

Several dozen employees of South African state power firm Eskom picketed the firm’s headquarters on Wednesday protesting against potential job cuts and a proposal to split up the ailing company. Eskom, which supplies more than 90 per cent of the power in Africa’s most industrialised economy, is struggling with around 420 billion rands ($31 billion) […]

Staying at a hotel on the Thai island of Koh Samui in 2015, South African born Meghan Kerrigan noticed the four bottles of water she was given every day were clogging her bin with plastic. Outside her door, Chaweng beach was smothered in rubbish. It was then that she and Kohler brothers, Ryan and Matthew, […]

South African police arrested five people – including Angelo Agrizzi, witness at a judicial inquiry into alleged state capture – on charges of corruption and fraud in the awarding of government contracts, a police spokesman said on Wednesday. Agrizzi, a former executive of a private company Bosasa, testified for more than a week on how […]

South Africa will in the coming days unveil a package of measures to shore up state-owned Eskom’s finances and address structural issues facing the struggling power firm, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday. “In the coming few days we will be announcing a package of measures to stabilise as well as to improve Eskom’s financial, […]

Former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang, arrested in South Africa in connection with $2 billion in fraudulent loans, submitted an urgent bail application last week, one of his lawyers told Reuters on Monday. Chang, who has been in custody in South Africa since Dec. 29 and denies wrongdoing, had previously dropped plans to apply for […]

South Africa’s radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will nationalise all mines by 2023 if elected this year, the party said in its election manifesto launched on Saturday. The party is using an anti-corruption, jobs creation and state control of the economy platform to challenge the governing African National Congress (ANC) in the election expected […]