Eskom has announced that no load shedding is expected on Monday and the possibility of power cuts during the week is also low. “We are utilising emergency generation reserves to supplement power, as we had more unplanned breakdowns [on Saturday],” Eskom said on Sunday. Eskom said additional generation units would return to service on Sunday. […]

The petrol price will again come down by between 19 and 54 cents a litre this week. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has announced a 19 cent decrease in the price of 93 (ULP and LRP) and 95 (ULP and LRP) as of Wednesday. Meanwhile, both grades of diesel (0.05% Sulphur) and diesel (0.005% […]

For two months late last year, the deadly antibiotic resistant CRE (Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae), ravaged the maternity ward of Tembisa Hospital in Gauteng killing 10 babies. But this wasn’t the first time that a number of infants have died in the same period inside a public health facility in South Africa. Carte Blanche investigates the hospitals […]

Supporters of 70,000 sheep facing a horrendous journey to Kuwait, as well as the sheep themselves, were dealt a devastating blow today when the court decided not to step in and prevent the live export of the sheep from South Africa. The live export of sheep for Kuwait-based meat supplier Al Mawashi is due to […]

The prohibition of waste pickers from accessing the Coastal Park Landfill Site near Muizenberg saw an initial confrontation with security guards on Tuesday 18 February escalate to a group of about 100 people fighting to get in at about 7pm – sunset – last Wednesday 19 February. Reinforcements were called in the next day and […]

The Basic Education Department (DBE) has suspended with immediate effect the serving of canned pilchards as part of the national school nutrition menu across all schools in the country. The decision follows a recent order by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications that all formal wholesalers, retailers and informal traders remove and stop selling the […]

Between Germiston and Benoni is an open metal dump where more than 20 women survive by collecting scrap metal. Daily they pick through heaps of metal waste dumped by companies on the East Rand, looking for copper, stainless steel, zinc and brass. There are no ablution facilities and the women have to use the bush […]

In December 2017, the change to the foreign employment income exemption was promulgated into law. This has widely become known as the “expat tax”. The exemption at that point was capped at R1mil, meaning that South African tax residents earning foreign employment income above this threshold would no longer be exempt from tax in South […]

Numerous groups marched to Parliament or picketed outside the gates on Wednesday, ahead of the budget speech by Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni. Cry of the Xcluded Hundreds of protesters under the banner of Cry of the Xcluded marched to Parliament as well as the civic centre demanding that government deal with the crisis of […]

The South African Government has set aside R16.4 billion to repay guaranteed debt for the struggling airline SAA, the National Treasury said on Wednesday. This comes after the SAA Board placed the airline under voluntary business rescue in December last year after the struggling state-owned entity was unable to meet financial obligations. “Since 2008/09, SAA […]

A Spar franchisee in South Africa has been ordered to pay millions of rands to workers for unlawful deductions on earnings, as well as non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage (NMW), said the Department of Employment and Labour.   On Monday, the department welcomed the outcome of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) […]

A raft of tax increases and curtailing the public sector wage bill are just some of the interventions anticipated to be announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni when he delivers the 2020 Budget. Amid South Africa’s precarious economic state, economists, in anticipation of the Budget, say Mboweni has the unenviable task of extricating the country […]

The Department of Employment and Labour says the new rate for the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for each ordinary hour worked will now be R20.76. In terms of a notice published in the Government Gazette and signed by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi, the new rate will be applicable on 1 March 2020. The […]

About 150 protesters marched to Parliament on Monday to mark the first day of the two-day Real Jobs Summit, part of the Cry of the Xcluded campaign over unemployment. On Sunday participants in the campaign staged a performance of a play at the V&A Waterfront amphitheatre about unemployment, climate change and domestic violence. The play was […]

Nearly six years after the Lottery gave R13 million to establish a “Carnival Heritage Museum” intended to celebrate the colourful history of Cape Town’s minstrels, the museum still does not exist. The annual minstrel parade through the streets of Cape Town dates back to 1890, with South Africa’s minstrels inspired and influenced by American minstrel troupes who visited Cape Town […]

Dear Family and Friends, I am writing this letter to you on Robert Mugabe Youth Day (21 Feb), a recently proclaimed public holiday… writes author Cathy Buckle in her latest Letter from Zimbabwe. It’s a beautiful day under a hot sun and bright blue sky but it’s hard to see what our youth have got […]

Owing to unplanned breakdowns, Eskom will continue to implement rotational load shedding going into the weekend. In a statement on Friday, the power utility said unplanned breakdowns have increased the shortage in generation capacity. “Eskom will continue implementing Stage 2 rotational load shedding until Sunday at 6am owing to unplanned breakdowns that have increased the […]

Echoes of apartheid-style exploitation of workers have resurfaced in recent years in South Africa. Debates around these malpractices were given fresh impetus four years ago with the release of a documentary, Bitter Grapes. Produced by Danish journalist Tom Heinemann, it featured workers from South Africa’s winelands. Bitter Grapes cast light on wide-ranging exploitation. Hardships included […]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today warned against land expropriation without compensation in South Africa. Speaking during Wednesday morning’s session of the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Africa – which is being held in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia – Pompeo said expropriation without compensation would be catastrophic for South Africa’s economy and the country’s […]

An existing wind farm is crying foul after the government last month gave the conditional go-ahead for a massive new wind farm project on an adjoining property on the West Coast Peninsula near Vredenburg. The West Coast One wind farm, that has been operating since 2015, says the huge turbines of the recently approved Boulders Wind Energy […]

Helen Zille, Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance (DA), has announced that she is closing her Twitter account, after several racist and derogatory responses to a tweet she posted on Saturday evening (15 Feb 2020), which featured her grand-daughter. In the post, Zille’s granddaughter is seen preparing a chicken for dinner, during one of South Africa’s […]

Watch the live streaming below as Dudu Myeni’s son Thalente Myeni testifies at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry. Today allegations of corruption at Richards Bay’s Mhlathuze Water are under the spotlight. Earlier, despite confirming his company Premier Attraction 1016 was promised R2-million to complete a project with a certain timeframe, that involved client Optics and […]

Eskom announced on Sunday that it would stop rotational loadshedding at 21:00, but that sadly the “probability of loadshedding during the week remains”. Eskom said it was able to stop tonight’s Stage 2 loadshedding because the emergency generation reserves had adequately recovered. South Africa’s power utility said that the load shedding over the weekend had […]

Anti-drug trafficking groups say an increasing number of South Africans are getting arrested abroad for drugs smuggled through O.R. Tambo International Airport. This Sunday Carte Blanche investigates the status quo at the airport, as well as celebrating Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi, remembering Ladysmith Black Mambazo founder Joseph Shabalala and finding out why a popular Western […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says while it welcomes South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that municipalities will be allowed to purchase power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), it’s meaningless unless timelines are swiftly announced; and has urged Ramaphosa to stop the government fighting the City of Cape Town in court and allow the Mother City […]