The Mall of Africa will open its doors on Thursday, 28 April. It is the biggest mall built in a single phase in South Africa/Southern Africa/Africa, depending on which website you read. Construction consumed 10 million bricks and 8,500 tons of steel. It is located in Waterfall, a new living, working, retail area between Johannesburg […]

JOHANNESBURG – Steinhoff has increased its stake in Darty to 20.4 percent, it said on Friday, a day after a frantic bidding war with French rival Fnac for Europe’s third-largest electric goods retailer. Five new offers in less than 24 hours lifted Darty shares by more than 23 percent on Thursday to their highest since […]

LONDON – SABMiller sold 4 percent more lager in its most recent quarter than a year earlier as momentum improved in the second half of its financial year. The brewer of Miller Lite, Castle Lager and other beers said its revenue rose 7 percent in the quarter ended March 31, with sales volume up 4 […]

Well, Starbucks’ first store in sub-Saharan Africa opened in Johannesburg on Thursday morning, and such was the anticipation that people were lining up from about midnight on Wednesday, according to news reports. The opening in Rosebank made news in a few places around the world. “South Africa’s first Starbucks opens to long queues,” said Reuters. “Starbucks […]

Proudly South African congratulated Nestlé South Africa for its role in economic growth and job creation in South Africa, as the multi-national celebrates 100 years of operation in the country. “We salute Nestlé for its investment in our country over the years – particularly for its investment in the local economy through skills development programs, job […]

An open letter from Oakbay employees to the chief executive officers of ABSA, FNB, Standard Bank and Nedbank was sent on Tuesday pleading with the banks to reopen their accounts before the end of May… or Oakbay’s business will close. The workers say they have done nothing wrong and “how will we feed our families?” […]

Tuk-tuks are coming to Cape Town! The city said on Tuesday that if all goes according to plan, there will be 80 tuk-tuks to start off with in eight areas of the city for travelling distances of three kilometres or less. It is hoped that they will be on the roads by September, in time […]

A young South African couple are making news overseas with their ‘timeless’ creations – watches made of natural wood mixed with high-quality stainless steel and carbon fibre. Stuart and Makeeda Swan were featured in a BBC interview a couple of days ago, talking about their Cape Town-based company Bettél (a mix of the two words – […]

The South African rand has hit its strongest level in four months – reaching R14.65 to the dollar at its best – after the sacking of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene by President Jacob Zuma in December sent the financial market and the currency tumbling. It closed trading on Tuesday at about R14.7. In early January the currency slipped to as low as […]

NAIROBI – The World Bank on Monday lowered its 2016 sub-Saharan African growth forecast to 3.3 percent from a previous forecast of 4.4 percent in October, citing plunging global commodity prices. The bank said the commodity price rout, particularly for oil which fell 67 percent from June 2014 to December 2015, as well as weak […]

Two of the Gupta family have resigned their positions in the family’s South African company, and President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane has quit one of its subsidiaries, after what was described in a statement on Friday as a “sustained political attack”. The resignations from Oakby Resources and Energy were of Atul Gupta and Varun Gupta, who the statement said would resign with […]

Cape Town has most of the top expensive streets in South Africa, according to a new survey, which put six of the country’s top 10 costliest addresses on the Atlantic Seaboard side of the city. Three were in Johannesburg. Top out of the list is Nettleton Road, high above Clifton, which, with a value of almost R45 million, was almost […]

Only days after global accounting firm KPMG and Sasfin Bank announcned that they were no longer doing business with the Gupta family, First National Bank has done likewise. According to a statement on Wednesday by the Gupta’s Oakbay Investments, it demanded  an explanation from Jacques Celliers, CEO of FNB, “for the closing of the Company’s accounts. […]

The Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad will run a flight to Johannesburg for three months over the northern hemisphere summer, filling the gap left when embattled carrier South African Airways cut the route from its offerings last month. These will be added to the flights to the region already operated by Qatar Airways and Emirates, which both […]

JOHANNESBURG – Global accountancy firm KPMG and South African investment bank Sasfin have severed ties with a company owned by the Guptas, a family of Indian-born businessmen, due to a scandal over their relationship with South African President Jacob Zuma. In an email to KPMG staff seen by Reuters, local chief executive Trevor Hoole said […]

After producing the more exclusive Roadster, Model S and Model X electric cars, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Thursday that a five-seater sedan selling for a lot less – $35,000 – would come off the production line in 2017. Within 24 hours of the announcement, orders had reached 180,000. The car, which was launched in […]

The recent announcement of the imminent opening of a rival stock exchange to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) caused considerable media excitement. It is indeed a historic development in South Africa’s economic history and is to be welcomed, as competition often brings new thinking that benefits customers. But to claim, as commentators have, that the […]

BBC Worldwide announced Tuesday that it has invested in South African production company Rapid Blue. Based in South Africa, Nigeria and Angola, Rapid Blue produces original productions and international television formats for South African, African and international audiences. Rapid Blue – headed by dynamo couple Kee-Leen and Duncan Irvine – has produced thousands of hours of […]

The erstwhile Russian KGB called it dezinformatsiya and spent a large amount of energy and resources on it: the distribution of false information, malicious rumours, fabricated intelligence reports and forged documents, letters and photographs. The aim was to disrupt and discredit opponents, to deceive and obscure and to influence public opinion. Dezinformatsiya came straight from […]

South Africans in the UK can meet prominent businessman and DA 2016 mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, this Friday in London. When the former head of the Free Market Foundation announced his Joburg mayoral candidacy last month several expats in the UK asked “is he any good, is it worth coming back to SA […]

South Africa’s Capitec Bank has been ranked the best in the world, according to London-based international banking advisory group Lafferty, in its first Bank Quality Rankings (LBQR). The organisation used the banks’ own annual reports to make use of a combination of financial and non-financial disclosures to determine the quality of the banks and their respective […]

Lots of people might make fun of Klippies and Coke, but South Africa’s Klipdrift Brandy has just taken the top award in an international brandy competition. The World Brandy Awards announced on Thursday that Klipdrift Premium was its best brandy of the year. It also won for best brandy aged 2-3 years. Van Ryn’s Distillers […]

JOHANNESBURG – South African fashion retailer The Foschini Group said on Thursday it had acquired all the shares in high street chain Whistles for an undisclosed sum. Foschini, which last year bought clothing, footwear and accessories retailer Phase Eight, said in a statement it has acquired Whistles’ 46 stores and online retail business through its […]

Anyone watching news reports in England, the US or Australia these days might be struck by a growing phenomenon – South African accents. More and more journalists from South Africa are either taking the anchor seat on leading international news programmes or reporting for them from hot spots around the world. Whether it’s on an […]