Even medicines that are years past their expiration date and haven’t always been kept in strict climate-controlled conditions may still retain their original potency, a small study suggests. That is good news for people working in remote areas of the world where sometimes an expired medication is the only one available and the alternative is […]

Rating agency Moody’s said on Thursday that it did not believe that South Africa’s decision in its 2019 budget to raise the expenditure ceiling by around R16 billion ($1.14 billion) over three years would weaken fiscal policy credibility. Moody’s, the last of the big three rating agencies to rate South Africa in investment grade, is […]

South Africa’s support plan for struggling state-owned electricity firm Eskom will put further strain on the country’s finances, rating agency S & P Global said on Thursday, although it should be offset to a degree by easing external pressures. In his maiden budget speech on Wednesday Finance Minister Tito Mboweni outlined a 69 billion rand […]

Vulnerable communities have lost their land to the state and mining companies in the past decade. In 2018, the political stage was dominated by the question of whether government has or should have the power to expropriate property without compensation – and use it. Some hailed this as the silver bullet that would lift millions […]

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is intensifying its effort to identify and bring to book tax dodgers. This comes after revelation that the revenue collector is launching units aimed at tackling the illicit tobacco industry and big business. The illicit economics unit was launched late last year, while the large business unit is expected […]

Deutsche Bank is hiring 26 people in South Africa, a spokesman said on Wednesday, less than a year after scaling back the operation in a broad restructuring of its investment bank. The spokesman said the lender had appointed a new head of corporate finance coverage in South Africa and the remaining hires would mostly be […]

Shanaya Govender (5) from Roodepoort, Johannesburg has battled Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, since the age of 3. Shanaya initially became ill on the 14th April 2017 when she woke up in the middle of the night screaming with pain in her left arm and a fever of 41. She was rushed […]

The Department of Women has lauded government’s efforts to support South Africa’s star athlete Caster Semenya through her legal challenge of the International Association of Athletics Federation’s ruling. The department said it is appalled at the IAAF ruling, which expects certain athletes to reduce natural testosterone levels through artificial chemical processes. The federation wants women […]

An intelligence driven operation on Monday in Touwsriver, in the Western Cape landed two suspects behind bars for being in possession of a truck load of abalone with an estimated street value of R28 million. After receiving information about a truck allegedly transporting abalone to Gauteng on the N1 freeway, SAPS pursued the vehicle which […]

Ministers have widely welcomed Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s 2019 Budget, saying he had done well in the largely unstable economic climate. Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Zweli Mkhize said Mboweni had a difficult budget amid rising debt and stunted economic growth. “The Minister has tried everything that can be done. It’s a very […]

South Africa is supposed to be a secular state, but one can perhaps forgive Tito Mboweni, the Minister of Finance, for quoting numerous biblical verses in his 2019 Budget Speech. After all, South Africa’s fiscal situation is enough to make many people hope for divine intervention. The 2019 budget numbers show that the past year […]

“There are many opportunities in our townships, it is just a matter of finding them.” Unemployed for three years with nothing promising coming his way, 38-year-old Thulani Ngwenya has started giving tours through Gugulethu. “There are many opportunities in our townships, it is just a matter of finding them. Look at Khayelitsha for instance, there is […]

CAPE TOWN – South Africa will bail out state utility Eskom with R69 billion ($4.9 billion) over three years, the centrepiece of a budget on Wednesday that exposed the limited room President Cyril Ramaphosa has to fix the economy ahead of an election in May. Ramaphosa, who is fighting rifts within his own party ahead […]

Government’s Infrastructure Fund is set to receive a R100 billion over the next decade as the state steps up its infrastructure programme by partnering with the private sector. “Government is stepping up its infrastructure build programme by partnering with the private sector, development finance institutions and multilateral development banks to create an infrastructure fund,” said […]

In the 2019/20 financial year Government will AGAIN increase excise duties on alcohol and tobacco in an effort to raise much-needed revenue for the national fiscus, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday. According to the National Treasury’s 2019 Budget Review report, the adjustments will lead to an excise burden slightly above the targeted levels. […]

Work is afoot to reconfigure the South African electricity sector by addressing challenges faced by Eskom, with the board of the first subsidiary of the power utility to be appointed by mid-2019, Treasury said on Wednesday. Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month in which he announced government’s plan to […]

South Africa will inject 23 billion rand ($1.63 billion) a year over the next three years into state power utility Eskom but will NOT take on 100 billion rand of debt as requested by the struggling firm, the national budget showed on Wednesday. The Treasury said the first step in a plan announced by President […]

Tabling a difficult budget that required him to weigh priorities against a need for fiscal consolidation, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni kicked off his speech by saying that by doing things right, the country can return to “plum” times. A part-time farmer himself, Mboweni told the nation on Wednesday afternoon that it is time for the […]

A rescue package for Eskom, South Africa’s most important state firm, is expected to dominate Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s budget speech on Wednesday, with the struggling power utility at risk of collapse without a large bailout. Eskom supplies 90 percent of South Africa’s electricity but is drowning in 420 billion rand ($30 billion) of debt […]

Budding South African designer Thebe Magugu has been crowned the winner of the International Fashion Showcase (IFS) 2019 at London Fashion Week. The judges said Thebe had created a “striking visual impact but with real clarity” and called him “a leader of his generation”. In his winning presentation titled Dawning, Magugu used motifs from Africa’s […]

BP employee Beverley Plaaitjies has taken it upon herself to beautify the ladies restroom at BP Buffeljagsrivier with flowers. According to BP Buffeljagsrivier Manager Maraine Klein, it was all her idea and so she brings flowers from home or borrows from locals to create her floral bouquets – and as if that is not enough, she […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the government has asked traditional leaders to rally behind government to ensure that the five urgent priority tasks that he announced in his State of the Nation Address, are implemented. The President said this when he addressed the official opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders at the Old Assembly […]

German haute-couture designer Karl Lagerfeld, artistic director at Chanel and an icon of the fashion industry with his extravagant outfits and striking catwalks, has died aged 85. Instantly recognizable in his dark suits, pony-tailed white hair and sunglasses, Lagerfeld was best known for his association with Chanel but delivered collections for LVMH’s Fendi and his […]

The Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone has signed new investment agreements, which bring the total number of signed investors to eight and investment value to over R3 billion. These investors include international stakeholders from the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with the rest being local companies. All these investors are investing in […]

South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe said on Monday that he would NOT buy any assets which struggling state power firm Eskom puts up for sale, in response to speculation that he was eyeing an Eskom financial subsidiary. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is Motsepe’s brother-in-law, this month unveiled a plan to split Eskom into three units […]