DAR ES SALAAM – A fuel tanker exploded in eastern Tanzania on Saturday killing at least 60 people, authorities said, as flames ripped through a crowd that had gathered to siphon petrol from it. Video clips circulating on social media showed the charred remains of dozens of young men and burnt motorbikes. In footage from […]

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has ordered the sprawling Selous Game Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site, to be split in two to restrict the access of big game hunters. Covering 50,000 sq km (19,000 sq miles), the Selous reserve is one of the largest protected areas in Africa, and is famed for its elephants, lions, […]

SINGAPORE – Singapore said this week it had seized 8.8 tonnes of elephant ivory, a record haul by authorities in the city-state, which conservation groups say is a transit point for the illegal wildlife trade. The elephant ivory, estimated to be worth $12.9 million, came from nearly 300 African elephants, and was heading to Vietnam […]

The cigarette maker Philip Morris has opened a flagship store in Johannesburg, hoping to promote its heated tobacco product IQOS, according to the company. The store for IQOS, which stands for I Quit Ordinary Smoking, is in Sandton. South Africa, with an estimated 7 million smokers, is the only market in Africa where the company […]

The International Monetary Fund’s latest report on the World Economic Outlook has predicted that South Africa will continue to have a slower growth that much of sub-Saharan Africa, even slower than previously anticipated. In its report, “Still Sluggish Global Growth,” which was released today, the IMF predicted growth in South Africa of 0.7 percent in […]

I’m sorry. I wanted to love The Lion King. Especially since it’s set in Africa. I tried so hard. It features South Africa’s own John Kani as the voice of Rafaki. But the film was disappointing in so many respects… writes Cassie Jo. As most of South Africa knows by now, Walt Disney’s newly revamped […]

DAR ES SALAAM – Elephant and rhino populations in Tanzania have begun to rebound after a government crackdown dismantled organised criminal networks involved in industrial-scale poaching, the country’s presidency said this week. A prominent Chinese businesswoman dubbed the “Ivory Queen” was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Tanzanian court in February for smuggling […]

On July 16, one of the most luxurious trains in the world, the South African Rovos Rail, set off to make the first-ever passenger train trip from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. It is the second major journey across Africa that the private rail company has launched in its 30 years. The train journey […]

South Africa coach Stuart Baxter is keeping Nigeria guessing over the approach he will adopt in Bafana Bafana’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) quarter-final on Wednesday… after diverting from his usual style in SA’s brilliant 1-0 win over hosts Egypt. Under Baxter, South Africa normally play with a counter-attacking style but the team surprised Egypt on Saturday by diverting from that slightly […]

A four-seater plane built by twenty South African teens that left Cape Town six weeks ago has landed in Cairo, after successfully completing the 12,000-kilometre journey. Pilot Megan Werner, 17, founder of U Dream Global, which assembled the Sling 4 aircraft, said she was thrilled by the accomplishment, telling the BBC: “I’m so honoured to […]

A 21-year-old from Durban, South Africa, was the youngest out of 120 entrepreneurs named by Forbes Africa in its latest Top 30 Under 30 awards. Avthar Aniruth won in the business category. An innovative, self-taught 21-year-old, Aniruth is founder of Epic Motion Pictures and Audience Networks. “My obsession with making videos, prompted me to learn […]

The man whose name was synonymous with the success of Mango, the low-cost airline wholly owned by South African Airways, is to take over the CEO post again after leaving three years ago. Nico Bezuidenhout, who helped found Mango in 2006, led the upstart airline until 2016, during which time he also served two short […]

The South African government has said it learnt with “deep regret” about the tragic loss of life following an airstrike on a migrant detention centre in Tripoli, Libya, that killed at least 44 people, mainly migrants. Over 130 more were left wounded according to the UN (United Nations) mission to Libya. For migrants who are […]

LONDON – The body of a suspected stowaway from Africa fell hundreds of meters from a plane flying over southwest London, landing in the garden of a man’s home, just missing him – by only a metre! – as he sunbathed, according to neighbours. Police believe the man fell into the property in Clapham from […]

The people in Zimbabwe are hurting right now because we love this place so much and we can’t bear to see it like this… writes entrepreneur Anton Bhana. People are tempted to leave and some are leaving, but to be honest nobody really wants to leave. We love this place. Even those who have left […]

Scrapyard innovator to Netflix hero, William Kamkwamba inspired social trailblazers at a week-long innovation get-together that has just ended in Durban, and encouraged those who had moved abroad to come back to help Africa with their inventions. Kamkwamba has been inventing since he was a child in Malawi when he gained global attention for building […]

HARARE – On Monday Zimbabwe ended a decade of dollarisation, making its interim currency the country’s sole legal tender in a step towards relaunching the Zimbabwean dollar. The central bank also hiked its overnight lending rate to 50% from 15% as a part of a set of measures to protect the RTGS dollar introduced in […]

More than half a thousand vultures, almost all of them endangered species, died from feeding on the poisoned carcasses of three poached elephants in central Botswana, it was reported last week, in what was one of the biggest wildlife poisoning incidents of its kind since 2013. Among the 537 vultures found dead at the site […]

Five African commercial banks – including Standard Bank and Absa – have partnered in a $375 million financing deal to build a new diamond mining vessel for a subsidiary of Anglo American’s diamond unit De Beers. Nedbank Namibia, RMB Namibia, Standard Bank, ABSA and Bank Windhoek agreed to provide 80% of the funding for the […]

HARARE – Zimbabwe must have a new currency by the end of the year, according to President Emmerson Mnangagwa who argued on Friday that this would help stabilise prices and inflation, which is at a 10-year high. The southern African nation in February removed an unrealistic peg for its electronic dollars and surrogate bond notes […]

The new season of Survivor is the battle of the superfans! Here’s an awesome opportunity to watch a FULL episode, and get hooked on all the intrigue on the Island of Secrets. Survivor SA: Philippines was so outrageously good that our expectations are super high this season. If you live in South Africa, Kenya or […]

Wildlife near cities face many dangers. Some are easy to detect, such as when new developments destroy natural habitat. Others are less obvious. For example, rat poisons are a useful tool for controlling a common household problem. But many who use them don’t realise that they have dangerous side effects for wildlife. Rat poisons are […]

Zimbabwean cricket legend turned singer, Henry Olonga, walked onto The Blinds stage… and “smashed it out of the park” (in the words of The Voice Australia) with this rendition of Anthony Warlow’s  ‘This is the moment’. Watch the video below. The 42-year-old, who is married to an Australian, played 30 tests and 50 One Day […]

GABORNE – Former Botswana President Ian Khama quit the ruling party on Saturday as a policy feud with his hand-picked successor deepened, threatening to split the party that has ruled the country since independence in 1966. Khama handed power to his then-deputy Mokgweetsi Masisi last year after serving as president of the diamond-rich southern African […]

Algeria – the nation where malaria was discovered – is officially free of malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, making it the third African country to eliminate one of the world’s leading killer diseases. With no recorded cases of malaria in three consecutive years, Argentina was also declared malaria-free – the second […]