Here’s what’s coming up on Carte Blanche this week. You can watch the show today, Sunday 15 January in South Africa on DStv Now OR stream it overseas in most countries on Showmax from Tuesday 17 January if you’re abroad. The Art of Neglect It was a flagrant heist: a man walks into a prestigious […]

The decision by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to increase electricity tariffs by 18.65%, despite consumers spending over 120 days in darkness in 2022, with indefinite stage 6 loadshedding already in 2023, is official sanctioned daylight robbery against consumers… writes Ghaleb Cachalia MP – DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises. It is […]

JUST IN: Nersa has approved 18.65% Eskom tariff increase. (See video below.) I have written to President Ramaphosa to request an urgent meeting about Eskom and the growing power crisis, which now has South Africa on stage 6 until further notice… writes DA Leader, John Steenhuisen. I want to hear from him first-hand why his government […]

It was bad enough yesterday when Eskom announced that it would be implementing Stage 6 on a nightly basis “until further notice”… but this afternoon, South Africa’s power utility went a step further and announced that now Stage 6 loadshedding is being implemented “continuously until further notice”. The devastating planned power cuts are impacting not […]

South African born and raised entrepreneur, Elon Musk, has officially broken the Guinness World Record, for the “largest loss of personal fortune” in history! Guinness World Record says: “He has lost approximately $182 billion since November 2021, as estimated by Forbes, although other sources suggest that it could actually be closer to $200 billion. “Although […]

Cape Town International Airport recorded a spectacular recovery in passenger numbers during the peak season month of December 2022 when compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Preliminary stats from Airports Company SA (ACSA) show that: Cape Town International Airport recorded 266 656 international 2-way passenger numbers for December 2022, resulting in a spectacular 95% recovery when compared […]

The DA notes the expressed intention of the governing party to move Eskom away from Public Enterprises to the Ministry of Energy… writes Ghaleb Cachalia MP – DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises The DA is implacably against this move and will fight it, tooth and nail, with all the levers at our disposal. We share […]

Eskom suddenly announced on Tuesday night that loadshedding was to be escalated to Stage 6 during the night, starting at 21h00 and lasting until 05h00 on Wednesday morning. But then the really bad news followed. “Stage 6 nightly loadshedding will then be implemented at 16:00 – 05:00 until further notice,” said Eskom. The power utility […]

Gullible and desperate South Africans are falling prey to sophisticated international scammers. By Anton van Zyl. Gollong Investments, a Ponzi scheme GroundUp exposed in November, has collapsed. But a new scheme, New Energy International, has emerged and it appears to be very similar. According to a report by Surfshark, South Africa ranks sixth in the […]

The World Economic Forum (WEF) announced on Tuesday that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be joining the WEF Annual Meeting in Switzerland. The meeting is scheduled to take place from 16 to 20 January in Davos. The WEF describes itself as “the international organization for public private cooperation”. This year’s theme is: “Cooperation in […]

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister, Barbara Creecy is expected to visit the South African Antarctic Programme’s Research Station, known as SANAE IV, in Queen Maud Land. In a statement, the department explained that South Africa has had a presence in the Antarctic since 1960 and has contributed to scientific knowledge in the area and […]

South Africa has issued a statement strongly condemning the events that took place in Brazil on Sunday. Rioters stormed the Congress and Supreme Court buildings in the capital city, Brasilia. According to media reports about 1,500 people have been held over Sunday’s riots. They came a week after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was […]

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has allegedly survived a murder attempt that was made on him just a day after his resignation from South Africa’s power utility, 24 hours before the resignation was made public. De Ruyter’s coffee was apparently poisoned with cyanide. The 51-year-old reported the matter to Hermanus Police Station a couple of […]

South Africa’s Department of Tourism is calling on all black-owned tourism enterprises to apply for the Tourism Transformation Fund (TTF). The department, together with the National Empower Fund (NEF), aims to provide a financial boost to these enterprises through the fund. The department said: “The TTF aims to drive transformation in the tourism sector in […]

Eskom has announced it will be ramping up loadshedding to Stage 4 from 16:00 this afternoon until 05:00 tomorrow (Friday) morning, thereafter Stage 3 loadshedding will be implemented until Sunday morning. The power utility said on Thursday that the increase was necessary “due to the delays in returning seven generating units to service” – namely […]

Eskom has implemented Stage 3 load shedding from 16h00 today in South Africa. The power utility only announced it would be implementing Stage 3 about an hour before doing so. Eskom said in a statement on social media: “Due to the breakdown of two generating units and the delay in returning to service three generating […]

South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has announced that the price of both grades of petrol will decrease by R2.06 per litre, while diesel is to drop by between R2.68 (500ppm) and R2.80 (50ppm). The new prices, effective from today (Wednesday 4 Jan), mean that a litre of 95 unleaded petrol will […]

It is always important to consider whether it’s really necessary, or not, to ask for a personal loan or get into any kind of debt. However, in contexts like the present one, where interest rates are constantly increasing, we must be even more careful when it comes to making those kinds of decisions. The credit […]

TotalEnergies, the French energy giant, intends to drill up to ten exploration wells for oil and gas in the deepwater Orange Basin along the west coast, as well as conduct sonar surveys and vertical seismic profiling, among other operations. The explorations will span from 188 kilometres offshore to 340 kilometres from the coast. French energy […]

Stage 6 loadshedding will be implemented from 20:00 tonight, until 05:00 tomorrow morning, according to the latest alert from Eskom. (See separate Cape Town schedule below.) The power utility promised that Stage 4 loadshedding will resume at 05:00 tomorrow morning until further notice. “This is necessary to ensure sufficient generation capacity is available tonight to […]

There’s an amazing post going viral on social media… written by M&C Saatchi Abel Group founder Mike Abel who has a knack of inspiring South Africans and lifting the nation’s spirits. His latest offering, published here with Mike’s kind permission, is pure magic: We Still On We have Stage 6 load-shedding but our mountains and […]

Here’s what’s coming up on Carte Blanche this week. You can watch the show on Sunday 18 December in South Africa on DStv Now OR stream it overseas in most countries on Showmax from Tuesday 20 December if you’re abroad. Relentless Scammers It was touted as the opportunity of a lifetime. But little did one […]

Cape Town is expecting a bumper summer tourism season, with over 7 million visitors recorded this year already. Finance Minister Mireille Wenger said during a visit to Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) yesterday: “I can confirm that just over 7 million two-way passengers have come through this award-winning airport between January and November this year, […]

Amidst ever-worsening load-shedding (planned power cuts) in South Africa which have devastated the economy and dampened the spirit of the nation, Eskom’s CEO André de Ruyter has reportedly resigned. Many suspect he was pushed. Ghaleb Cachalia – DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises – says: “André de Ruyter’s apparent sudden resignation as the CEO of […]

Here’s what’s coming up on Carte Blanche this week. You can watch the show on Sunday 11 December in South Africa on DStv Now OR stream it overseas in most countries on Showmax from Tuesday 13 December if you’re abroad. South Africa Staring Down the Barrel You may be one of the good South African […]