In a ground-breaking judgment on parenthood, the Gauteng High Court in South Africa has ruled that the grandmother, not the father, of a child should benefit from the estate of a child that she looked after. The Gauteng High Court has ruled that a grandmother who looked after a child should benefit from the child’s […]

The interim results of an Africa-wide study of hospitalised Covid-19 patients shows that the continent is facing far higher mortality rates in intensive care units than other parts of the world, and that the higher death rates are best explained by scarce resources. Covid-19 has produced huge volumes of data in a short period of time, but […]

South Africans and Australians are emerging from winter and, where possible, enjoying trips to beaches and public pools. Beach-side picnics, braais and get-togethers are back on the cards for many of us. While daily COVID-19 case numbers have been looking promising in most places lately, we are still very much in a pandemic; your spring […]

Seventy shacks were destroyed and 197 people left without homes when a fire ripped through an informal settlement in Langa on Thursday morning. Seventy shacks were destroyed by fire in Langa on Thursday morning, leaving nearly 200 people without homes. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined by authorities. Many of the […]

A 40-year-old Zimbabwean woman has been treated for burn wounds in a hospital in Musina in Limpopo after she was doused with methylated spirits by employees at a SuperSpar for stealing food worth R25. A 40-year-old Zimbabwean woman was doused with methylated spirits by SUPERSPAR in Musina employees after she stole food worth R25. She […]

The best things in life are free. So say these Mitchells Plain hair salon owners, who are offering free haircuts to mense with disabilities… writes Venecia Valentine from Daily Voice. Nasief Hoosain, 42, and his wife Nashreen, 40, run N&N hair salon at the busy Rocklands Shopping Centre. They say the pandemic has hit them […]

A Johannesburg High Court judge has blown the whistle on what she says are dubious goings on between the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and some personal injury attorneys. Judge Denise Fisher had on her roll two RAF matters but was told they had been settled and she need not apply her mind to them. But […]

“Little Amal”, a 3.5-metre tall giant puppet representing an eight-year-old Syrian refugee, will embark on an epic 8,000km journey across Europe next year to highlight the plight of young refugees. Although her travels are a continent away, her journey started in South Africa with the Handspring Puppet Company, in Muizenberg, Cape Town. As part of The […]

Australian venture capitalist Mark Caruso is facing criminal charges in his home country of assault and aggravated home burglary. An attempt to keep details of his court appearances secret by means of a suppression order has failed. In Australia such an order makes it a serious offence to publish or otherwise reveal any details about […]

A Mitchells Plain family is overjoyed at their 10-year-old son’s acceptance to the Drakensberg Boys Choir School… writes Venecia Valentine from Daily Voice. Ethan Palagangwe from Eastridge is among 30 other boys selected out of the 1600 applicants who auditioned for a place at the prestigious KwaZulu-Natal school. But his parents Candice and Kagisho Palagangwe […]

The first report by the provisional liquidators of STA Travel paints a grim picture of the defunct travel agency. STA Travel has gone into liquidation, a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic. With assets of R3.7 million and liabilities of R213.5 million, few people will see their money back. About 200 employees and 27,000 customers are […]

Researchers from the HIV Prevention Trials Network have announced a “breakthrough” in the prevention of HIV in women. Wits researchers have announced a “breakthrough” in HIV prevention in women An injection every eight weeks was found to be much more effective than a daily pill The trials were conducted in seven African countries and included […]

The American public has had its say and for the first time in a generation denied a sitting president a second term. President Donald Trump’s tenure lasted just four years, but in that time he dragged policy on an array of key issues in a dramatic new direction. Joe Biden’s victory, confirmed by the Associated […]

The Green Scorpions have ordered the City of Cape Town to sort out pollution in the Milnerton Lagoon, following continued failures at the Potsdam Waste Water Treatment Works. The Green Scorpions have ordered the City of Cape Town to sort out the pollution of Milnerton Lagoon. This follows two earlier warnings. The City has appealed […]

Over the last year, the Western Cape Government has committed itself to ensuring that all of the citizens of this province, no matter where they live, would have access to appropriate Covid-19 treatment, should they require it. It was important to me, from the outset, that every person has access to life-saving healthcare… writes Western […]

Across the world, immunologists who retooled their labs to join the fight against SARS-CoV-2 are furiously trying to explain why some people get so sick while others recover unscathed. The pace is dizzying, but some clear trends have emerged. One area of focus has been the production of antibodies – powerful proteins capable of disabling […]

It’s been a week since the Van Der Vendt family were forcibly evicted from the home they lived in for 23 years on Irene Farm in Paarl. A family of nine from Paarl were forcibly evicted from their home on a farm on 20 October. Edwina Van Der Vendt and her family had lived on […]

A vocal opponent of plans to extend Somkhele coal mine, one of South Africa’s largest open coal mines, situated on the border of iMfolozi-Hluhluwe Game Park in northern KwaZulu-Natal, was murdered on Thursday night. Fikile Ntshangase, a vocal opponent of plans to extend the Somkhele coal mine, was murdered in her home on Thursday night. […]

Stephen Gray, the South African novelist, poet, biographer, literary scholar, editor, critic and academic, died in Johannesburg on October 22 after a short illness. He was 78… writes Darryl Accone. Born in Cape Town on November 30 1941, Stephen Richard Gray was to become a protean literary talent, writing in every genre, acknowledged as the […]

The City of Cape Town has granted in-principle approval of the Rondebosch Golf Club lease renewal, stating that the area is “not suitable for housing purposes at this point” and that it has “severe development constraints”. The decision by the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee was made on 20 October, with a final decision […]

Around a hundred thousand years ago, South Africa’s Cape south coast was a busy place. Giraffes, crocodiles, hatchling sea turtles and large bird species populated the landscape. Early humans were there, too. We know all of this because of fossil tracksites that today dot the Cape south coast, which is about 400km east of Cape […]

About 150 farm workers marched from Hanover Street to Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday in response to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s latest land reform strategy. Women on Farms supported by numerous organisations led a march to Parliament to demand land. The march marked International Rural Women’s Day and and […]

CoGTA Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has once again extended the national state of disaster, which was set to expire today, justifying it with “the need to continue augmenting the existing legislation and contingency arrangements undertaken by organs of state to address the impact of the disaster”… writes John Steenhuisen – Leader of the Democratic Alliance – […]

When Phumeza Booi Welisa from New Crossroads in Cape Town could not find a school suitable for her son with autism, she had no choice but to start her own. Phumeza Booi Welisa couldn’t find a school for her son with autism so she started a school. Her school has children with and without autism. […]

At the start of October, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Chinese government lauded South Africa’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Yet data concerning both the spread of the virus and the indirect consequences of the lockdown suggest that the severe restrictions imposed in South Africa – some of the strictest in the […]