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 […]

Here’s what’s coming up on Carte Blanche this weekend. You can watch the show on Sunday 9 October in South Africa on DStv Now or stream it overseas in most countries from 11 October if you’re abroad. Deadly Coal Run Carnage and death stalk the coal road as drivers put profits before lives. War in […]

“People who know how much they’re worth are not worth a hell of a lot,” is just one of Christo Wiese’s insightful quotes in record-breaking documentary, Steinheist. See more below! An insider glimpse into the biggest corporate scam in South African history, Steinheist features the wealthiest cast in Showmax history, including former Steinhoff chairman Christo […]

Load shedding in South Africa has been reduced to Stage 3 from this morning until 5am on Saturday morning, following the recovery of some generating units at Eskom. The power utility says the continuation of load shedding is necessary for further replenishing of reserves. Some 6 647MW is currently unavailable due to planned maintenance with […]

Anglo American has partnered with French subsidiary, EDF Renewables SA to form a new jointly owned company, Envusa Energy, to develop a renewable energy ecosystem (“RREE”) in South Africa, which will help fast-track SA’s decarbonisation and take care of Anglo’s power needs. Envusa will launch 600mw of wind and solar projects in its first phase. […]

South African expat and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has had a change of heart and is now planning to go ahead with his original $44-billion offer to take Twitter Inc private, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, potentially ending the bitter feud between the Tesla chief and the social media company. And allowing Musk […]

South African motorists will breathe a sigh of relief at the pumps this week as the price of all grades of petrol is set to come down by between 89 cents and R1.02 a litre. This marks the third consecutive month of decreases following increases experienced this year. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy […]

Another mine dam wall was reported to have collapsed at the disaster-stricken diamond mine in Jagersfontein, just weeks after a similar incident at the same site left at least one person dead and 70 injured; as well as damaging 60 homes and 2,615 hectares of grazing land. Free State Premier, Sefora Ntombela, issued a statement […]

Special Investigating Unit (SIU) head, Advocate Andy Mothibi, says the unit has gathered enough evidence for civil, prosecutorial and disciplinary action to be taken against those who allegedly “siphoned” some R279 million from the coffers of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC). The corruption-fighting unit recently concluded the first phase of an investigation into allegations of […]

The board of South Africa’s power utility Eskom is expected to be “reconstituted and restructured” following a meeting with Department of Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan. The State-owned electricity company has been facing serious and recurring challenges since June this year – reaching a nadir of Stage 6 load shedding twice over the past four […]

South African National Parks (SANParks) Airwing has received a R4,5-million donation for much-needed fuel for their anti-poaching operations. The symbolic handover was made by TotalEnergies Marketing SA MD and CEO, Mariam Kane-Garcia. It also marked TotalEnergies and SANParks long-term relationship of 60 years, in which TotalEnergies has focussed on nature conservation and contributing to the […]

Given the unpredictable performance of Eskom’s fleet of coal-fired power stations, President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that the country will not be able to eliminate load shedding in the short term. Just this week in South Africa Eskom is implementing Stage 3 load shedding between 00:00 and 16:00 until Thursday, while Stage 4 load shedding […]

Air Belgium has signed a new commercial agreement with South Africa’s independent and premier airline, Airlink, which conveniently connects customers travelling to or from Brussels, with 36 destinations across Southern Africa. This follows the recent inauguration of Air Belgium’s new service between Brussels, Johannesburg, and Cape Town, using the fuel-efficient Airbus A330neo aircraft. This first cooperation […]

Stage 3 loadshedding will continue to be implemented at 00:00 – 16:00 daily until Thursday; while Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented daily during the evening peaks between 16:00 and 00:00, Eskom said in a statement on Sunday afternoon. The power utility said it will issue a further update on Wednesday afternoon, or as soon […]

SAA’s board chairperson has denied that South African Airways’ future is at risk. John Lamola today dismissed claims that the state-owned carrier – which was once the pride of the nation – is facing liquidation due to delays in the conclusion of the strategic equity partnership (SEP) transaction with Takatso Consortium. Lamola said the media […]