A good wine is a complex marriage of body, bouquet, and flavour, often only fully appreciated by those with an equally complex palate. So how did two non-drinking former refugees become award-winning connoisseurs and admired winemakers in their own right? Don’t miss this feel good story on Carte Blanche this Sunday in SA on DStv […]

South Africa’s hospitality association has welcomed last night’s lifting of the State of Disaster – after 750 days – BUT has re-issued its call for the urgent removal of the PCR test requirement for unvaccinated children between the age of five and 12-years-old… which FEDHASA says is damaging tourism. Fedhasa said it’s “delighted” by the […]

The South African government has welcomed Moody’s decision to affirm South Africa’s long term foreign and local currency debt ratings at ‘Ba2’ and revise the outlook to stable from negative. The National Treasury on Friday said according to Moody’s, the key driver behind the decision to change the outlook to stable is the improved fiscal […]

Operating hours at Home Affairs offices will extend to 18:30 this evening, after the department’s systems went offline nationwide on Friday. “The Department of Home Affairs wishes to inform members of the public that services at the department have been restored. The department and the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) have been able to fix […]

South Africa’s Deputy President David Mabuza says the SA government has reached an agreement with Maputo that will see South Africa getting a supply of gas from Mozambique. “Discussions between our Minister here of Mineral Resources [and Energy] and Mozambique are quite advanced in terms of gas that we should transport from Mozambique to the […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa “stared into the heart of darkness” during the height of the July 2021 unrest. The President was giving his opening statement at the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) National Investigative Hearing into the July 2021 unrest that unfolded in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces (after protests, sparked by the […]

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has tabled a proposal that will see the fuel levy being reduced by R1.50 cents per litre. Making a statement to a sitting of the National Assembly on Thursday, Godongwana said the temporary fuel levy cut will come into effect on Wednesday next week, and will remain in effect until the […]

Shopkeepers pulled down their metal shutters and foreign staff stayed out of sight as hundreds marched through Hillbrow in Johannesburg, demanding that migrants leave and that their jobs go to South Africans. The march through dilapidated Hillbrow, where many African migrants live, was organised by Operation Dudula, a vigilante group whose activities have raised fears […]

Unemployment in South Africa grew by 0.4 of a percentage point to reach 35.3% in the final quarter (Q4) of 2021, Statistics South Africa has revealed. This is the highest since the start of the QLFS (Quarterly Labour Force Survey) in 2008. Releasing the QLFS statistics on Tuesday, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said Q4 of 2021 […]

Wednesday saw the first public meeting of the Devil’s Peak Vredehoek Outreach (DPV Outreach), a voluntary, community association formed to help homeless people in the area. A Cape Town suburb has tried a new approach to helping its homeless people. The Devil’s Peak Vredehoek Outreach uses peer educators to improve the lives of homeless residents. […]

Nando’s has done it again – creating an advert that gets South Africans laughing… and talking. The fast food peri-peri chicken outlet’s latest advert is centred around gender identity, new pronouns and the importance of family, diversity and inclusivity. Nando’s said in a statement today: “Navigating family dynamics is not for the faint-hearted. You know […]

World renowned healthcare technology scientist, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, says South Africa can be the continent’s hub for innovation in health technology. Addressing the South African Investment Conference held in Johannesburg, the famous South African expat and businessman, who is based in the USA, said: « It is a very interesting time in humanity. For the first […]

Taxi drivers and owners brought Cape Town’s city centre to a standstill on Thursday as a large convoy of minibus taxis from Khayelitsha, along the N2, to the Western Cape Legislature. Hundreds of taxi drivers and owners marched and drove in convoy along the N2, to the Western Cape Legislature on Thursday. They were mainly […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The World Bank has issued the world’s first wildlife conservation bond, raising $150 million to help efforts to increase the endangered black rhino population in South Africa, the bank said in a statement on Thursday. The five-year ‘rhino bond’ issued on Wednesday will pay investors returns based on the rate of growth […]

Drivers for e-hailing services embarked on a three-day protest action on Tuesday demanding regulation of e-hailing platforms such as Bolt, Uber, Uber Eats, Indriver and DiDi. The work stoppage was prompted by rising petrol prices and issues over workers’ rights in the e-hailing industry that have been simmering for years. Drivers for e-hailing platforms embarked […]

A stand-off took place on the banks of the Liesbeek and Black rivers in Observatory on Monday between First Nations groups with opposing views on the future of this land. This followed the Western Cape High Court interim interdict halting the R4.5 billion development by Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, which includes new regional headquarters for […]

“It’s tough being a cop in South Africa. Between April 2020 and early September last year, 33 SAPS members were killed while on duty,” says John Webb, Executive Producer of Carte Blanche. “Enforcing the law in a country as violent as ours has other impacts, too, and I shudder to think of the levels of […]

Two Golden Arrow buses, two municipal vehicles and an Eskom vehicle were set alight in Cape Town. By Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik Two Golden Arrow buses, two City of Cape Town vehicles and an Eskom vehicle were petrol bombed in Nyanga and Philippi on Friday. Informal car taxi drivers, popularly known as amaphela, are accused of being behind […]

Lukhanyo Booi, Lali Booi and Tembelani Mnyani are three men from Fingo Village in Makhanda who have taken it upon themselves to clean up the town’s dirty streets. Armed with rakes and shovels, and sometimes using their bare hands, the three move around the city streets removing domestic refuse and filth. On Monday and Tuesday […]

As calls mount to do away with the National State of Disaster, President Cyril Ramaphosa says new health regulations that are meant to replace the lockdown regulations have been published. Responding to oral questions in the National Assembly on Thursday, the South African President said public consultations with leaders from different sectors of society are […]

Last month Carte Blanche featured a segment on the ‘Hoppers of Biblical Proportions’ that have plagued parts of South Africa (watch below), and as the newer videos on this page show, these enormous swarms of locusts are not letting up. A local farmer estimates there are billions of them. And the government isn’t doing anything […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Top African lender Standard Bank has ruled out funding all new coal-fired power plants and most oil-fired plants as part of plans to reach net zero-emissions by 2050, but campaigners said it could still do more to cut emissions. More financial services firms are setting net-zero targets to combat global warming but […]

“I am tired of appealing. I am tired of trying to ask nicely. What does it take to get action????” asks an extremely frustrated and concerned KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) resident and tourism business owner, Megan Bedingham, who discovered today that one of the main roads connecting the Free State and KZN is likely to close, due […]

Power utility Eskom has warned that the power system remains under constraint despite having recovered sufficiently to suspend all load shedding. Eskom brought load shedding to a halt on Sunday evening following a tumultuous week for the energy giant where it lost at least 20 000MW of generation capacity – forcing it to implement the more […]

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – South Africa’s civil aviation regulator grounded Comair’s planes indefinitely on Sunday over unresolved safety issues, in a move that also affects low-cost airline Kulula and British Airways, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded… writes Wendell Roelf. A spokesperson for the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) said it had extended a 24-hour […]