Taxi drivers, truck drivers and motorists complain that the R61 connecting Flagstaff and Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape of South Africa is potholed and getting worse. With potholes on both lanes, motorists say it is like manoeuvring through a minefield Two unemployed young men saw an opportunity in this. They started filling the potholes and […]

Virgin Active announced today that it would open at 5 a.m. on Monday, 24 August. However, this still depends on the government releasing gym protocols before then. Virgin said that although other gyms had opened already, it was waiting for the protocols from government. The opening of gyms was announced as part of moving to […]

A lekker new South African restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, has been opened “in loving memory of our old President Mr Mandela”. The fast food restaurant – Madibaz – was launched on Nelson Mandela’s birthday, 18 July, and is aptly called Madibaz! The South African Ambassador in Thailand, Geoff Doidge, performed the honours to officially open […]

Every day, Zwelakhe Mnomiya from Gqamu in KwaZulu-Natal walks about 20km to and from school. The grade 11 learner is among dozens of children who make the journey on foot to Gcotoi High School in rural Kranskop. According to Gcotoi High, more than 100 learners walk between 11 and 20 km to and from school […]

Photos from today’s large protest convoy against farm attacks in Mookgophong (formerly Naboomspruit) and across the nation show some haunting scenes, as the farmers and farm workers who gathered together looked up at the sky with their arms crossed above. The protest came as three of the five suspects in the murder of Alwyn van […]

With South Africa moving to alert level 2 at midnight, President Cyril Ramaphosa has cautioned South Africans against letting their guard down by not observing COVID-19 health and safety protocols. South Africa moves to level 2 of the lockdown at midnight, in a move that will see many restrictions lifted. “With this comes increased risk […]

South Africa’s move to level 2 of the lockdown is a step in the right direction, says the South African Medical Association (SAMA). “This is the correct decision by government and signals a major shift in the country’s response to the Coronavirus. We are happy with this decision and believe it will go some way […]

The five people accused in the murder of Danie, Breggie and Elzabie Brand in Hartswater, made their second appearance in court on 13 August. The triple murder of the family members on 27 July shocked South Africans around the country. The case was postponed until 27 August to allow the accused to apply for bail. […]

Not everyone’s impressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Saturday evening, in his address to the nation, that South Africa will move into Lockdown Level 2 with many regulations relaxed, including a lift on the ban on cigarettes and alcohol, and the opening of borders for inter-provincial travel. While some rejoiced – and looked forward […]

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs – Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – has today signed an extension to the already extended National State of Disaster (Covid-19). The State of Disaster was due to end today, but has now been extended a further month to 15 September 2020. According to the Government Notice 765 published in […]

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle and Martin Luther King, it takes a crisis to show the mettle of a true leader. And if anyone in South Africa has proved that over and over again during the past five months, it would be Western Cape Premier Alan Winde. Inasmuch as Cyril Ramaphosa has […]

Naked Wines has launched an exclusive case to raise over £225,000 to support  South African winemakers affected by the strict ban on domestic alcohol sales. The online wine retailer launched the online crowdfunding event this week – to raise funds for South African winemakers impacted by Covid restrictions in the country The South African wine […]

The Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, recently announced a further extension of visas for foreign nationals in South Africa. However, in the words of the Democratic Alliance (DA), he has “bizarrely refused” to make any provision for South Africans abroad whose passports will expire as a result of the extended lockdown. The DA is […]

Members of the South African cabinet and their deputies have taken more than one trip overseas every day for the past two years – that’s 949 trips, to be exact – in the 912 days since Cyril Ramaphosa became president in February 2018. All have been funded by the taxpayer. The worst offenders were Lindiwe […]

The African National Congress is allegedly planning to start a “sweetheart” union for the tourism sector sanctioned by Luthuli House and favourable to the ANC, to serve as the official voice of the tourism industry, an industry whistleblower has told the Democratic Alliance. The DA said it had been advised that the ANC planned to […]

StreetSmart South Africa usually raises R1 million a year to feed street children. This year the organisation expects to raise only raise half as much. StreetSmart is funded mostly through voluntary add-ons to hotel and restaurant bills (usually R5 a table). It had about 100 participating establishments. Charities funded via the hospitality industry are an […]

South Africa has once again been plunged into darkness on Thursday morning when stage 2 load shedding was implemented countrywide due to the delay to return five generation units to service and a further two units went offline. Some will be experiencing their loadshedding later today. Eskom has issued warnings of a “severely constrained” power system and […]

241 patients came through its doors. But now the temporary Covid-19 field hospital in Khayelitsha will close. It is yet another sign that the Western Cape, at least for now, is beyond the worst of the pandemic, although it is far from over. In March, Khayelitsha was the first township in South Africa to have […]

The drill rig DeepSea Stavanger has arrived in Cape Town before it heads to Mossel Bay to begin drilling in the Outeniqua Basin as part of a $400 million oil and gas drilling campaign by the French company Total. It will be there for up to 300 days. The massive rig has been commissioned by […]

If you listen to the challenges facing Bongisizwe Mpondo, your first thought is, who in their right mind would want his job? They are Sisyphean. What was once one of the world’s great rail networks (read your history) has, through more than a decade of neglect, mismanagement, corrupt and bungled contracts, theft and vandalism, been […]

The Department of Public Enterprises is once again boasting its readiness to implement the business rescue plan for South African Airways, to create a “lean, agile” airline, but no mention is being made of where the more than R10 billion needed to effect the BRP will come from. The department headed by minister Pravin Gordhan […]

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen says it is high time for President Cyril Ramaphosa to “grow a spine, stand up to his party and start putting South Africa first”, in his party’s call for the South African president to end hard lockdown immediately and end the “irrational bans on tobacco and alcohol”. In a […]

The Aalwynhof Old Age Home in the Karoo town of Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape is one of hundreds across the province which have not received their usual subsidy from the government since March. The home, which looks after 35 elderly people, has run out of money and may soon be unable to buy food […]

To support home and community food gardens, the Western Cape government’s “One Home, One Garden” initiative has already helped establish 1,371 food gardens – in the form of vegetable gardens or chicken coops – in two months, with more than 400 in just one week. “One of my key priorities for agriculture is farmer support […]

The North Gauteng High Court has referred a 5-year-old case between the City of Cape Town and the Minister of Energy and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa back to the Intergovernmental Dispute Resolution Framework, further delaying the city’s ability to buy electricity from independent power producers rather than Eskom. The judgement, said the […]