The Democratic Alliance (DA) has filed court papers in the Western Cape High Court challenging a decision taken by South Africa’s national government to close the beaches in the Garden Route District for the entire festive season (16 Dec to 3 Jan). “We had provided President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma with an extended […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it will lay a complaint with Parliament’s Ethics Committee against the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, after he appeared to issue unlawful operational instructions to South African Police Service (SAPS) officials to shut down a film shoot at Camps Bay beach on Wednesday. The incident occurred yesterday when the Police […]

South Africa is set to receive initial vaccines from the COVAX facility to cover 10% of its population in the early part of 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced to the nation on Monday evening. The President said SA concluded all the necessary processes to ensure its participation in the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Global Vaccine […]

Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power utility, has a litany of financial and operational problems. In 2017 the Goldman Sachs Group declared it the biggest risk to the South African economy. Several cabinet members have said so too. President Cyril Ramaphosa declared that Eskom is “too big to fail”. The first huge problem is debt of […]

Democratic Alliance Leader, John Steenhuisen, was less than impressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcements tonight which included certain beach bans, alcohol restrictions, longer curfew and other guidelines. (View the full SA Festive Season restrictions here.) President Ramaphosa said on Monday that in the areas with the highest rate of infection, beaches and public parks will […]

Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Monday evening about the closure of some beaches, longer curfew, alcohol restrictions and other guidelines for the festive season, the tourism industry appears to support the President’s attempt to protect South Africans’ lives as Covid-19 cases soar and SA experiences its second wave of infections. There is a lot […]

Team YouTube has announced that YouTube is “back up and running!” Hundreds of users across the world took to social media on Monday afternoon to complain the service wasn’t working, and #YouTubeDOWN and #google were two of the top five highest trending hashtags on Twitter in South Africa today. Team YouTube had earlier acknowledged it […]

Following a video showing what appeared to be a packed crowd dancing at a Cape Town venue on Sunday, with flagrant disregard to Covid-19 protocols, the federated hospitality association of South Africa, FEDHASA, has condemned in the strongest terms what it brands “irresponsible behaviour by hospitality establishments and consumers” which may contribute to the increased […]

South Africans can breathe a sigh of relief as the planned loadshedding today, Sunday 13 December, has been cancelled. Eskom said in a statement on Sunday morning that it was pleased to announce that the emergency generation reserves had sufficiently recovered overnight and subsequently no loadshedding would be required. “Eskom thanks the people for their […]

Eskom announced some good and bad news to South Africans on Saturday evening. The bad news is the loadshedding will continue on Sunday between 06h00 and 23h00. The good news is that it will be  reduced to Stage 1, thanks to the recovery in the emergency generation reserves showing “significant progress”. South Africa’s power utility […]

It’s an early Christmas for Eskom which has struck a deal with service provider ABB to recoup over R1.56-billion which had been irregularly paid by the power utility to the Zurich-based industrial giant. According to the SA government news service “ABB was fingered in suspicious payments relating to contracts awarded in 2015 involving the control […]

Eskom has ‘urged’ the South African public to reduce their usage of electricity as the system is severely constrained, with a “high probability of loadshedding”. ​The power utility said in a statement on Thursday evening: While no loadshedding is anticipated, Eskom would like to warn the public there is a high probability of loadshedding should […]

On Tuesday Forbes announced that South African expat Elon Musk has become the second richest person in the world, after his fortune surpassed that of LVMH luxury brand chairman Bernard Arnault (by less than half a billion). The only person with greater wealth is reportedly Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos. UPDATE 7 Jan 2021: Elon Musk […]

South Africa’s brand new airline, LIFT, has officially lifted off… and landed to a plane hero’s welcome with a water salute landing at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. The airline will be flying in and out of Cape Town seven days a week. Wesgro – Cape Town & the Western Cape – tweeted “The […]

The directors of a mystery non-profit company which has received more than R7-million in Lottery funding have refused to say what the company does. Venalor is a non-profit company which has received more than R7 million from the Lottery. But neither the company nor the National Lotteries Commission will say what the company does or […]

While steady progress has been made in curbing COVID-19 related plunder, non-compliance continued to plague the disbursement of relief funds and procurement of goods and services, an Auditor-General (AG) report has revealed. According to SA News the “sordid tale” is contained in newly appointed Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke’s office’s second COVID-19 relief funds audit. The first […]

PARKTOWN – Police in Gauteng, South Africa, have launched a search for an unknown number of suspects following the fatal shooting of three security guards in Kempton Park. The suspects were allegedly driving in three vehicles on Tuesday, 08 December 2020 – two VW Polos and a Mercedes Benz with unknown registration numbers. Police cannot […]

Sediment from coffer dams built by diamond mining companies on the West Coast is smothering the seabed and damaging the inshore reef systems, perhaps permanently, diamond divers have warned. Diamond divers have warned of damage to the seabed and inshore reef systems from “coffer dams” on the West Coast. Coffer dams are temporary sea walls […]

Durban, South Africa, has been rocked by yet another explosion this morning, leaving 13 injured. The New Germany sky was stained with billowing black smoke on Tuesday morning as flames ravaged Zeta Chemicals in Otto Volek road. Less than a week ago, fire broke out at an Engen’s Durban refinery following an explosion at the […]

The South African economy finally began its journey to recovery during the third quarter of 2020, after being sent into a tailspin by the national lockdown when it recorded a severe decline of 51%. During the third quarter, South Africa’s economy rose by an annualised rate of 66.1%, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) revealed on Tuesday. Addressing […]

The local production of hand sanitisers in South Africa has contributed to saving lives and earning export revenues for the country as local manufacturers diversified and innovated. The data was released by Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel on Tuesday. He said that between June and November 2020, permits for the export of […]

Special Investigating Unit investigators on Tuesday morning pounced on the National Lottery Commission (NLC) offices in Pretoria, South Africa, as it probes alleged maladministration at the agency. The swoop comes after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on Monday secured a search and seizure warrant from a local magistrate court as part of its investigation into […]

South African National Parks (SANParks) is today celebrating Captain David Simelane, South Africa’s first black game capture rated pilot. Nicknamed “Blackhawk”, Simelane completed his game capture rating, which is an endorsement on his pilot license, with flying colours on 2 December 2020. SANParks CEO Fundisile Mketeni said in a statement: “We are extremely proud of […]

South Africa’s Justice and Correctional Services Ministry has kick-started the process to extradite fugitives Shepard and Mary Bushiri who escaped the country while facing criminal charges. “Given our sound and healthy diplomatic, strategic and political relationship, and our common citizenship of the SADC Community, we are convinced that the Republic of Malawi will honour the […]

A mysterious grant of R5.5 million has been given by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) to a Limpopo organisation which says it never got the money. (Plus see the DA’s revelations below.) The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) gave R5.5 million to a Limpopo organisation which says it never got the money. The NLC has confirmed […]