A book whose author has refused a R600 000 000 bribe is a book that comes highly recommended. But be warned. The book, After Dawn: Hope after State Capture, is devoid of all autobiography, except one page mentioning Mcebisi Jonas’s feeling of loss when being offered that bribe. The book contains no biographical details. They […]

Three restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa, have started a brilliant campaign of inviting anyone feeling unsafe to come into their restaurants to seek shelter and feel safe, without any pressure to order anything. The warm and welcoming initiative was announced on Wednesday by The Raptor Room who wrote their post with a “sore heart”. […]

CAPE TOWN – South African business leaders on Wednesday urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to push through reforms faster to lift the economy and curb investment outflows, as executives and policymakers gathered for a continental economic summit. Frustration is building in South Africa. Ramaphosa has promised sweeping reforms, but growth remains below 1% a year and […]

South African chef Mario Barnard said he was “grossed out” and did not entirely enjoy eating grilled scorpions and crunchy insects mixed with garlic and spices on a trip to Thailand four years ago. But the experience inspired Barnard to start experimenting with insect-based meals and in July he opened a pop-up restaurant in Cape […]

There’s a growing trend for young South Africans to work aboard luxury super yachts, earning dollars and seeing the world! But how easy is it to get a job? Here’s one young South African’s firsthand account of her experience looking for work in Antibes… Saffas in Yachting I left South Africa for Antibes in the […]

PRETORIA – South African GDP grew more than expected in the second quarter thanks to a recovery in mining and manufacturing, official data showed on Tuesday, in a boost to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to revive a troubled economy. Growth in the three months to June was 3.1%, after a revised contraction of 3.1% in […]

The retail price of petrol in South Africa will rise by 0.7% from Sept. 4, while the price of wholesale diesel will increase by 1.8 percent, the energy department said on Monday. The price of petrol will rise by 11 cents to 16.03 rand ($1.05) per litre in the commercial hub of Gauteng province, while diesel will also […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s rand firmed against the U.S. dollar in late trade on Friday, as hopes for a rapprochement on trade between Beijing and Washington calmed investors’ nerves. The currency had suffered through much of August, sliding nearly 6% on fears of a downgrade to junk by Moody’s, and concerns about the trade dispute […]

JOHANNESBURG – South African state arms firm Denel said on Friday it had received a R1.8 billion ($118.13 million) bailout and that government would consider its request for a further R1-billion cash injection in budget planning for 2020/21. Denel, which has been struggling to emerge from a financial crisis, added in a statement it would […]

CAPE TOWN – The South African government may be forced to inject more money into state power firm Eskom by the end of March next year, should the struggling utility fail to meet its borrowing plan, a National Treasury presentation to parliament said on Wednesday. Treasury has already earmarked 59 billion rand ($3.9 billion) to […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa will today participate in a Japan-South Africa Business Forum at the Nissan Global Headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. This engagement by the President forms part of his working visit to Japan, where he arrived on Tuesday to participate in the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development. President Ramaphosa will use the business […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africans could start withholding their tax payments due to years of corruption which might force the country to seek an international bailout, the chief of the revenue service said on Monday. South Africa has seen revenue collection fall sharply since 2015 due to weak economic growth and maladministration, leading President Cyril Ramaphosa […]

DAR ES SALAAM/JOHANNESBURG – South African authorities impounded an Airbus 220-300 aircraft, leased by Tanzania’s national flag carrier, following a court application by a retired farmer who is owed compensation by the Tanzanian government, the farmer’s lawyer said. The plane had been scheduled to fly from the Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, […]

South African business coach and serial entrepreneur Andrew William Smith posted a video last Saturday posing the question which he says is on everyone’s lips lately: Is it time to leave South Africa? His 14-minute video has gained momentum during the week, attracting over 138,000 views. Yesterday Smith revealed that in the past few days […]

JOHANNESBURG – The legal separation of South African state power firm Eskom into three business units could take four years in total, the company said in an internal presentation seen by Reuters. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa promised to split Eskom into different units for generation, transmission and distribution earlier this year, as part of […]

A restaurant in South Africa’s Khayelitsha township in Cape Town – 4Roomed The Restaurant – and Le Wine Chambre in Johanneburg have been named as two of the world’s best restaurants of 2019. The list was compiled for the first time ever in a partnership between two prestigious global magazines – Food & Wine and […]

South Africa’s proposed switch to universal health coverage – known as the National Health Insurance (NHI) program – will be managed in a fiscally responsible way, a senior presidential aide told Reuters, forecasting the landmark reform would cost the state $2.2 billion per year by 2025/26. Meanwhile President Cyril Ramaphosa stressed in the National Assembly […]

The South African Finance Ministry has warned the public against a scam doing the rounds, in which claims are made that Deputy Minister David Masondo will offer people funding for their business. The scammers are on various platforms purporting to be the Deputy Minister. “The Deputy Minister of Finance would like to alert the public […]

CAPE TOWN – South Africa should discuss using worker pension funds to finance development and infrastructure projects, a proposal that has the backing of the country’s largest labour federation, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday. In its 2019 poll manifesto ahead of the May general election, the African National Congress (ANC) mentioned investigating prescribed assets […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa is likely to absorb extra financial support for the struggling power utility Eskom with new revenue and expenditure measures in the next mid-year budget review, with departmental budget cuts an option, ratings agency Moody’s said on Thursday. “In any event, Moody’s sees the government’s room to maneuver as extremely constrained,” Moody’s […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Thursday afternoon answer questions in Parliament for the first time since his election as President in May 2019. The President’s office said he will brief the National Assembly on government’s efforts to deal with the challenge of slow economic growth and high unemployment. The President is constitutionally mandated to periodically […]

The first vote at the 18th meeting of the CITES Conference of the Parties has delivered a historic win for African elephants to end the cruel practice of removing live elephants from the wild for export to captive facilities. CITES is the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Iris Ho, senior wildlife specialist […]

Mitchell Slape, the new CEO of Massmart, the retailer owned by America’s Walmart that has more than 425 stores throughout Africa, will start work on 1 September, it was reported today. Slape, who has worked with Walmart in Argentina, Japan and Mexico, had been appointed earlier in the year, but he has just received his […]

JOHANNESBURG – South African mobile phone operator Vodacom Group will spend more than R9 billion ($589 million) this year on network enhancements particularly in rural areas in its home market, its Chief Technology Officer said on Thursday. Vodacom, majority-owned by Britain’s Vodafone, invested 9.6 billion rand in 2018, Andries Delport said during a media briefing. […]

Standing in snaking queues – whether at Home Affairs, collecting a social grant, or a visit to a congested clinic – is a boring and time-consuming task many South Africans find themselves doing more often than they like. After hearing numerous complaints by peers and gogos in his community, 29-year-old Koketso Denny Nkuna from Burgersfort […]