The South African government’s decision to allow the superyacht of the Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov to dock in South Africa is an ”international embarrassment”, says Darren Bergman – DA Shadow Minister of International Relations. International media, such as the Wall Street Journal, is reporting on Nord’s imminent arrival in SA waters despite American and European […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – One of South Africa’s largest grocery retailers Pick n Pay is expanding a pilot of adding cryptocurrency as a payment option to more stores after the successful completion of the first phase, it said on Tuesday. The announcement came weeks after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority formally declared crypto assets as a […]

Two years of hard teamwork, and considered capital investment, have paid off for Vergelegen wine estate in Somerset West, a provincial heritage site renowned for its wine, hospitality and environmental initiatives. The 322-year-old estate has been announced the winner of the coveted Wine Tourism Services category in the 2023 Best of Wine Tourism Awards (BOWTA). […]

The richest man in the world, who was born and raised in South Africa, Elon Musk, has entered the Twitter HQ building. “Let that sink in,” he quipped on Twitter yesterday, along with a video showing the historic moment that he took over the social media platform. Today – with good old-fashioned SA humour – […]

The ten-year struggle to get rid of e-tolls has reached a fairly satisfying end for several South Africans who fought tirelessly against a system which they believed was totally over-priced. It was announced today – during the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement – that the state will take over the South African National Roads Agency’s (SANRAL) […]

South Africa has scooped several top awards in the 2022 World Luxury Awards, which was held in Turkey this weekend. The final winners were announced to the public on Monday, 24 October 2022. Fusion Boutique Hotel in Polokwane, Limpopo won for Best Luxury Small Hotel in the World! The hotel offers A-listers a glamorous stay […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes today’s judgment in the High Court, which upheld the rule of law, and showed Speaker of Council, Cllr Colleen Makhubele, and the ANC acted illegally, dishonestly and unconstitutionally by effectively staging a coup in hastily removing the duly elected Executive Mayor of Johannesburg and Members of the Mayoral Committee… writes Dr […]

Social media users from South Africa to France to India are rushing over to Twitter to find out if WhatsApp is down… and yes it is (as of 09h45 SA time). UPDATE: WhatsApp is back up – please see Meta’s statement at bottom of page. “We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble sending […]

The municipality may have to forfeit the conditional grant due to underspending. By Daniel Steyn The Amathole District Municipality (ADM) risks losing a R493-million conditional grant because it has failed to spend the first R100-million portion. The Municipal Infrastructure Grant was allocated to the municipality in July by the National Treasury. A large section of […]

President Ramaphosa has welcomed the decision by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) countries to focus on price stabilization in their management of oil production. Rising oil prices contribute to higher fuel costs in South Africa, which exerts further pressure on small businesses, consumers and households, said […]

Eskom announced just before midday on Sunday, that at noon it would be implementing Stage 4 loadshedding… through until 05:00 on Monday and for the following couple of days, due to breakdowns of several generating units. Stage 3 loadshedding will be implemented from 05:00 on Monday until 16:00, thereafter increasing to Stage 4 until 05:00 […]

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation tonight to provide details on his response to the State Capture Report recommendations, and what steps are being taken against the perpetrators of state capture and to prevent such a take-over occurring again. The President yesterday advised the Speaker of the National Assembly Ms Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula […]

South Africa will resolve its electricity challenges, says President Cyril Ramaphosa. “Much as we are still dealing with the challenges of load shedding with Eskom, if we look through the tunnel, we see the light. We are going to resolve our energy challenges,” said President Ramaphosa during his walkabout tour at the Redstone Solar Plant in […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Cryptocurrency financial companies in South Africa will need to apply for a licence between June 1 and Nov. 20, 2023, in order to operate legally, the country’s financial conduct regulator said on Thursday. By Rachel Savage A declaration on Wednesday that crypto assets are financial products does not mean that they are […]

While load shedding was reduced from Stage 4 to Stage 2 until 5am this morning, Stage 3 load shedding will kick in this afternoon. “Load shedding Stage 3 will resume at 4pm until midnight on Wednesday and be repeated on Thursday. Stage 2 will then be implemented from 4pm until midnight on Friday,” Eskom said […]

Stage 4 loadshedding – South Africa’s word for planned power outages – was implemented early this morning, while most South Africans were still asleep. For Capetonians, fortunately, only Stage 2 was implemented. This will change to Stage 3 at 16:00, followed by Stage 4 overnight from 22h00. Eskom said the load shedding was implemented at […]

Grant paid within eight days of application. By Raymond Joseph Former National Lotteries Commission chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba personally recommended a R4.8-million grant, supposedly for a rural soccer tournament, to a company of which his wife was a director. R3-million of this money helped buy a luxury home for the NLC’s former board chairperson. […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the “phenomenally successful” official State Visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this weekend has paved the way for billions of dollars’ worth of investments to flow into South Africa. The visit to the Middle Eastern country was aimed at strengthening bilateral ties and trade relations between the two countries. The […]

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has said he can no longer indefinitely pay for the critical satellite services in the Ukraine, which his company SpaceX has been funding, at a cost of $80-million so far. He has allegedly asked the Pentagon to start helping to fund the service. Fans of Musk, who was born […]

(Reuters) – The world’s richest man, Elon Musk who was born and brought up in South Africa, has scented a new opportunity to capitalise on quirky products, launching a perfume called “Burnt Hair” that  sold 10,000 bottles to earn a million dollars in just a few hours. By the time Musk went to sleep on […]

JOHANNESBURG (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – For more than a decade, musician Thomas Nhassavele has been busking next to the parking payment machine at Johannesburg’s Rosebank Mall, South Africa, where drivers often dropped their change into his guitar case. By Kim Harrisberg But Nhassavele’s takings have dwindled in the past year or two as growing numbers […]

The massive blackout in Durban tonight (Tuesday 11 Oct) – which has plunged half the city into darkness – has been caused by an explosion at the 275kv Klaarwater major substation, according to eThekwini Municipality. (Wed 12 Oct: See Update at bottom of page.) The Municipality said the explosion resulted in “widespread power outage to […]

The “resolute resistance” of Johann Ferreira, CEO of long-distance bus operator Intercape, in the face of unabashed official bullying was to be commended, Makhanda High Court Judge John Smith has said. Last week we reported that the Eastern Cape High Court ordered Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula to protect Intercape, a long-distance bus company. On Friday Judge […]

The fee for a new adult South African passport is due to increase from R400 to R600 if you’re applying within SA and to three times as much – R1,200 – if you’re applying abroad, which will come as a shock to South African expats who currently wait months for new SA passports, whilst those […]

Loadshedding will be implemented daily at 16:00 – 00:00 (4pm to midnight) from Monday to Wednesday, Eskom announced on Sunday. The power utility says it endeavouring to “limit load-shedding to night-time to have minimal impact on the economy and population.” “The loadshedding will be used to replenish emergency generation reserves during the night to bolster […]