The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, created in 1945 through an act of parliament, turned 75 yesterday – its diamond jubilee. Working quietly in the background all the years, its scientists have developed numerous innovations that have helped move not only Africa but the world ahead. The CSIR has become well known well known […]

The civil rights organisation AfriForum addressed the community of Senekal today and branded farm attacks and murders in South Africa as a form of terror. This announcement came after the recent brutal murder of Brendin Horner (22) on a farm outside this town, said AfriForum. Representatives of AfriForum formed part of the crowds who came […]

Property investment of almost R14 billion underpins the Cape Town CBD’s resilience in the face of the devastating health and economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report. The State of Cape Town Central City Report 2019 – A Year in Review (SCCR), the eighth and the biggest so far, was published today […]

Home Affairs Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, says he has convened an inclusive meeting involving senior immigration officials and ports of entry managers to address challenges and confusion arising from the implementation of regulations pertaining to travel into South Africa. Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane was also consulted and fully endorses its outcome. Visa free status The visa […]

Several groups and individual farmers are expected to gather in Senekal, South Africa, today to support the community as two suspects in the murder of Paul Roux farm manager Brendin Horner (22) appear in the Senekal Magistrates Court. Brendin’s body was discovered tied to a pole in the Paul Roux district, Free State, on early […]

Cape Town entrepreneur, Shannon Smuts Brauer, will find out this week – on Thursday – if she has been shortlisted to the Top 10 in Chinese business mogul Jack Ma’s 2020 Africa Business Heroes Competition. Brauer – a former MasterChef SA Season 2 contestant – is the only South African who made it into the […]

PRETORIA – The National Commissioner of the South African Police, General Khehla John Sitole, and other senior officers met today with Agri SA, TLU SA and AfriForum in an effort to address matters of criminality affecting rural communities, and said that helicopters, drones and mounted reservists would be used more to tackle rural crimes. The […]

The South African Judge Albert Hoffmann has been elected president of the 168-member International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for the next three years. The ITLOS was established by the United Nations in 1982, with an international framework for law over “all ocean space, its uses and resources.” Based in Hamburg, Germany, there […]

South Africa’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, has been elected as the chair of the ministerial body tasked with finalising negotiations on the terms for the commencement of the preferential trade under the African Continent Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Patel takes leadership of the African Ministers of Trade (AMOT) three months prior […]

South African consumers will breathe a sigh of relief at the pumps as the price of petrol is set to decrease by between 23 and 32 cents a litre. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said the price of a litre of 93 (ULP and LRP) will come down by 23 cents while a […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday launched the Mooikloof Mega Residential City in Tshwane, Gauteng, which is geared to address the housing needs of the “missing middle”. The public-private partnership development seeks to assist the missing middle — people who earn too much to qualify for fully subsidised housing, but who don’t earn enough to afford debt-financed […]

After a decade-long struggle to register with the United Nations, AfriForum has received confirmation it is now officially registered with the UN’s Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC, as an NGO with special advisory status. AfriForum said that it would “take a strong view,” in any ECOSOC meetings it attended in future, on subjects like expropriation […]

It’s been an incredible week for anyone interested in the sight of politicians and businesspeople being arrested, charged and even sent to jail for their role in state capture and corruption. Friday ended with the bizarre news – even for South Africa – of a former police chief of KwaZulu-Natal “at large” after not turning […]

The government will release 700,000 hectares, the equivalent of 7000 square kilometres, of vacant state land in the next two weeks and lease it to qualifying applicants. The vacant or underutilised land is made of of 896 farms in all provinces except the Western Cape and Gauteng, according to a statement today by Agriculture, Land […]

If you are from a country that has been listed by South Africa in the High Risk category for Covid-19 infection and transmission rate, and you need to undertake a business trip to SA, you may do so from 1 October 2020 by following the below guidelines. While leisure travel to South Africa is not […]

Gauteng Premier David Makhura has placed the provincial Health Department head, Professor Mkhululi Lukhele, on immediate precautionary suspension for allegedly failing to exercise responsibility in the COVID-19 related procurement. The development comes after the Special Investigating Unit, in a report dated 22 September 2020, made the recommendation. “The Special Investigating Unit found that the Head […]

The back and forth of the South African Airways Saga continues, as the business rescue practitioners in charge of the airline’s future or demise have suspended all operations with immediate effect until they have a clearer picture of whence (and if) the money is coming to save the beleaguered carrier. “The BRPs have made a […]

Despite the South African economy shedding 2.2 million jobs due to the COVID-19 lockdown, unemployment in the country dropped from 30.1% to 23.3% in the second quarter of 2020, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA)… the lowest rate since 2009! However, before we all celebrate, the sharp fall in unemployment – as published in […]

GENEVA – Curbing capital flight and illicit financial flows in Africa could generate new funds to respond to the COVID-19 crisis on the continent, says UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2020, which was launched on Monday 28 September. The UN estimates that African countries will need to raise at least $200 billion to cope […]

Researchers at Stellenbosch University have found that South Africa has sufficient log resource options for a sustainable wood residential building market. “Our study showed that with the use of wood resources currently exported as chips, as well as planting trees in areas that have been earmarked for afforestation, it will be possible (in the long […]

Independent solar and wind power generators, among others, will in future be allowed to sell electricity to Eskom, which will hopefully break the cycle of loadshedding that has afflicted the country and its potential for progress. Rules were gazetted today allowing the procurement of 11,813 MW of electricity and storage from independent power producers (IPPs). […]

This Sunday Carte Blanche digs into murky waters to find out The Truth About 5G. You can watch the show on Sunday 27 September in South Africa on DStv Now or stream it overseas in most countries from Tues 29 September if you’re abroad. The Truth About 5G Fifth-generation cellular technology is the next frontier […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has thrown his weight behind the empowering of women in Africa by giving them enabling tools to build themselves a financially secure and independent future. President Ramaphosa was speaking during a high-level virtual panel, G7 Partnership for African Women’s Financial Inclusion on Wednesday. The panel also featured philanthropist Melinda Gates, Queen Máxima […]

The Competition Tribunal has approved The Foschini Group to acquire Jet stores subject to conditions, while seller Edcon has said that it would maintain its big branch of Edgars in downtown Johannesburg, which has been there for 90 years and is being renovated, a major impetus to the central business district. It was reported earlier […]

Unilever Southern Africa has agreed to collaborate with the Department of Small Business Development to increase investment in small, micro and medium enterprise (SMME) development. “Unilever [has] already identified input materials which can be manufactured locally and committed to work with the department to build the capability of SMMEs, particularly black, women and youth-owned, and […]