After all has been said and done, the University of Cape Town (UCT) announced tonight, after a council meeting, that the Rhodes statue will be temporarily removed from the university campus. Reactions on social media have been mixed with some expressing great relief and joy, others warning this is the start of something more sinister and several […]

Volunteer Wildfire Services (VWS) has reported another fire has broken out in the Western Cape, on Lion’s Head. Last month fires swept the Southern Peninsula resulting in the tragic loss of two lives. Firefighters from Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) are on the site fighting the current fire, and VWS is monitoring. According to freelance videographer Daniel Walsh “Wind is Strong […]

With insensitivity from some white people and skaam-kwaad from some black people…South African writer Max du Preez suggests perhaps we not a rainbow nation after all, and it’s time to call South Africa the Mosaic Nation.   A Rainbow Nation in Pieces by Max du Preez Is it a good or a bad thing to stir the […]

According to the Kenya National Disaster Operation Center at least 147 people were killed in today’s attack on a university in the north east of Kenya. (This version updated at 21:21 SA time, 02 April 2015.) Students at Garissa University College were taken hostage this morning. Many of them were in their dormitory fast asleep at the time that […]

Scatzy.com – the new VoD (video on demand) platform for indigenous movies from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand – launches their service today, 2 April, with the release of ‘Strikdas’ on the same day the film will be available in movie theaters in South Africa. This means that South Africans anywhere in the world will be […]

Mlu Mathonsi, acting CEO of the South African Post Office (SAPO) has confirmed that South African Airways (SAA) has been paid and our global postal service is back on! “We can confirm that SAA was paid just after 14:00 on 1 April 2015,” said Mathonsi. “The air freight service has been resumed.” SAA had suspended […]

Scatzy.com – the new VoD (video on demand) platform for indigenous movies from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand – launches their service today, 2 April, with the release of ‘Strikdas’ on the same day the film will be available in movie theaters in South Africa. This means that South Africans anywhere in the world will be […]

The families of three South African yachtsmen who have been missing at sea for over two months are hopeful that their loved ones may be found following a surge in interest in the satellite crowdsourcing platform, Tomnod. The surge was sparked by an object that was tagged by multiple members of the “Lost Catamaran & Crew at Sea” campaign […]

Congratulations to 24-year-old Liesl Laurie from Eldorado Park in Johannesburg who has been crowned Miss South Africa tonight…living up to her motto that she will “never fit in because I was born to stand out!” Liesl was crowned at the ceremony this evening, 29 March, at Sun City Superbowl.  Her first and second princesses are Refilwe […]

Along with the recently announced Health Surcharge, the United Kingdom has announced a series of amendments to its immigration rules, many of which will impact South Africans and most of which will begin to come into effect as soon as April 2015. The UK Government says most of these visa application changes are aimed at ensuring the […]

South African political analyst, author – and Rhodes Scholar – Eusebius McKaiser has defended his right to support the #RhodesMustFall campaign which calls for the statue of Cecil John Rhodes to be removed from the University of Cape Town (UCT) campus. After an opinion piece he wrote was published today on the New York Times website, furious defenders of […]

South African cricket captain AB de Villiers has expressed his disappointment at today’s defeat of the Proteas by the New Zealand national team at Eden Park, Auckland…and at letting their fans down. South Africa was beaten by four wickets with a ball to spare after the Duckworth / Lewis system was taken into account (due to rain delays). […]

The South African Post Office (SAPO) has responded to the photos that have been doing the rounds on social media depicting so-called chaos at the PO’s International Mailing Hub at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. The photos by Facebook user Werner Leonard (which have since been removed) sparked rumours of “mayhem” at the PO’s international […]

Former tennis great Bob Hewitt has been found guilty in a Johannesburg court of raping several underage girls he was meant to be coaching in the 1980s and ’90s. Australian-born Hewitt, a former Grand Slam doubles champion, had been accused of rape by two women and of sexual assault by a third. Suellen Sheehan, who […]

Groot Constantia’s 2013 Chardonnay has beaten over 800 Chardonnays around the world to be crowned the best in the world….well, to be crowned Chardonnay du Monde to be exact. The South African wine was judged the world’s best at the recent 22nd annual Chardonnay-du-Monde competition in the Burgundy wine region of France. As can be gleaned from […]

The daughter of missing South African yachtsman Reginald ‘Reg’ Robertson has issued another plea today – on her dad’s birthday – for people around the world to please help in the search for the lost catamaran on which her father and two other South African men are sailing. All contact with the yacht , a Leopard 44 […]

The term ‘canned hunting’ probably leaves many people scratching their heads. But for the folks behind Campaign against Canned Hunting (CACH) – who are holding the Global March for Lions this Saturday in Johannesburg – it’s a deadly business. The theme behind this year’s march, which will take place outside the Lion Park in Lanseria, […]

As protests calling for the removal of the Cecil John Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) make headlines around the world, Capetonian Alastair During – who has walked past that statue many times as a UCT student – shares his reactions and realisations about  the protest. A Statue by Any Other Name…by Ali During When […]

Former Sunday Times editor Ken Owen has passed away this morning. The writer, who grew up in Pretoria West, was suffering from cancer. Less than a month ago Owen gave a moving speech at his 80th birthday party celebrations, on 21 February, in which he said he was ready to “relinquish life”. He also used […]

Congratulations! South Africa has powered through to the World Cup Cricket Semi-Finals with a whopping nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the quarter finals today! This is South Africa’s first-ever World Cup knock-out win since it entered the arena in 1992. Protea bowler JP Duminy pulled off a hat-trick – the first hat-trick ever by a South […]

In November 2014, a Karoo-based German hydrogeologist called Dr Stefan Cramer made a bold prediction that fracking would not happen in the Karoo. He gave several talks on his theory and wrote an article called Six Reasons Why Fracking Will Not Happen. By mid-March this year, Cramer suddenly appeared to have been prescient in his […]

Helicopter pilot and #CapeFire hero Willem Hendrik ‘Bees’ Marais will be laid to rest today. But he will never be forgotten by his friends, family and the people of Cape Town. A facebook page has been set up in dedication of ‘Oom Bees’, as he was fondly called; and a makeshift memorial of cards, letters […]

The tragic deaths this morning of Minister of Public Service and Administration, Collins Chabane, and two of his protectors – Sgt Lesiba Sekele and Sgt Lawrence – in a car accident highlight the importance in South Africa to prioritise safety on our roads according to Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe. Radebe said the circumstances of their […]

Rare Diseases South Africa has issued a heartfelt plea for South Africans to help a Californian family find a young boy in South Africa who happens to be the only person in the world to share an identical gene mutation with their 7-year-old daughter. Both children have GM1 Gangliosidosis. In a message on their Facebook page, the NPO for rare […]

It’s 48 years since Professor Chris Barnard put South Africa on the medical map by performing the world’s first heart transplant, and now a  team of surgeons from Stellenbosch University (SU) and Tygerberg Hospital have proved SA remains at the forefront of medical progress by performing the world’s first successful penile transplant. The ground-breaking operation lasted nine hours and  took […]