HARARE – At least 55 elephants have died in a game park in western Zimbabwe since September from starvation caused by a severe drought, the wildlife agency said on Monday. Zimparks spokesman Tinashe Farawo said the animals had died near water holes dotted around the Hwange National Park, a sign that they had traveled long […]

It’s what parents have feared for years… Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Friday it is recalling around 33,000 bottles of baby powder in the United States after U.S. health regulators found trace amounts of asbestos in samples taken from a bottle purchased online. J&J shares fell more than 6% to close at $127.70. This […]

Eskom says it has had another major setback at its Medupi Power Station based near Lephalale in Limpopo and will be implementing Stage 1 load shedding from 9am to 12pm midday and thereafter revert to Stage 2 load shedding until 11pm. While last night Eskom Acting Group Chief Executive Officer Jabu Mabuza said the power […]

Nicholas Ninow, convicted of raping a seven year old girl in the bathroom at a Dros restaurant in Silverton in Pretoria last September, has been sentenced to life in prison. He was also sentenced to five years for the use of drugs and another five years for defeating the ends of justice. The gallery in […]

Parents and the community of Eastwood in Pietermaritzburg are urging the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education to deploy more security at Eastwood Secondary School. The call comes after grade 11 learner Hershel Fynn was stabbed to death outside the school gate on Tuesday. According to learners, the 18-year-old boy was killed after he confronted another learner […]

Due to a shortage of capacity, Eskom is implementing a second day of rotational load shedding (power cuts), according to the South African utility… but the weekend looks brighter. In a statement issued in the early hours of Thursday, Eskom said a number of its generating units are still out of service due to breakdowns. […]

Eskom’s stage 2 load shedding will cost the Western Cape economy R150 million per day, according to WC Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, David Maynier. The fact is that the load shedding announced by Eskom today will damage the economy in the Western Cape, he said in a statement on Wednesday. “The impact of […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa will face loadshedding today as state power firm Eskom – which many South Africans refer to as Eish-kom – said it will cut up to 2,000 megawatts of power from the national grid on Wednesday due to a shortage of generating capacity. Eskom said on Twitter that the power cuts would […]

The trial of former South African President Jacob Zuma has been postponed to 4 February next year. His trial will then proceed after a 15-year delay. The former president faces charges of corruption, money laundering and racketeering linked to the multi-billion rand arms deal at the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Today Zuma appeared alongside representatives of […]

JOHANNESBURG – Former South African president Jacob Zuma will appeal a high court decision to deny him a permanent stay of prosecution on charges related to a $2 billion arms deal, his lawyers said on Tuesday. Zuma, in office from 2009-2018, had applied for a permanent stay of prosecution for alleged fraud, racketeering and money […]

On a frigid September morning in Mkumbi, a remote village in the Pondoland region of the Eastern Cape, 63-year-old Sizane Nompethu rose at dawn and walked at a brisk pace down a rocky path to work her family’s small plot of land, just as she had every day since she was 15. “I am old […]

In the hillside Pondoland village of Manhlaneni, a small delegation from the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform stepped into a dimly-lit rondavel where a group of women sat on upturned beer crates removing the leaves from dense bunches of cannabis. One of the women passed a large handful of green buds […]

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA – At least three mortar bombs were fired on Sunday at Mogadishu’s international airport, injuring at least six people in the compound where several embassies are located, a diplomatic source said. The missions of the United Nations and African Union, as well as several embassies, are based inside the perimeter fence. The Horn […]

Eastern Cape Police in South Africa have warned the Uitenhage community to guard against physically picking up or handing any strange or foreign objects that they recover at the Strelitzia Dam… after residents discovered three old – but lethally dangerous and still live – mortars on Friday! The local residents had no idea how dangerous […]

MUMBAI – India maintained their formidable home record by (unfortunately!) crushing South Africa by an innings and 137 runs in the second test at Pune to clinch the three-test series with a match to spare on Sunday. Made to follow on, South Africa were bundled out for 189 in their second innings in a little […]

TOKYO – Japan sent tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers on Sunday to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history, which killed 18 people and briefly paralyzed Tokyo. There were also 13 people missing, public broadcaster NHK said, as Typhoon […]

TOKYO – One of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit Tokyo paralyzed the Japanese capital on Saturday, leaving millions confined indoors and streets deserted as fierce rain and wind killed two, flooded rivers and threatened widespread damage. And just after the storm hit, an earthquake also shook Tokyo. (See Update at bottom of page.) […]

TOKYO – Two men were killed, over 60 people were injured and more than six million people were advised to evacuate Tokyo in Japan as a powerful typhoon bore down on the Japanese capital on Saturday, bringing with it the heaviest rain and winds in 60 years. (UPDATED 16h30 SA time from 1 fatality to […]

Lack of accountability leads to wasteful expenditure and mismanagement, says activist. Contractors have abandoned more than 50 major school upgrade projects in the Eastern Cape after government departments failed to pay them on time. Many of these schools have been stripped of valuable materials and vandalised after being abandoned. One example is Makhanda’s Grahamstown Primary […]

A South African expat, Brian Smith, has been charged with the murder of a woman in Alaska in the USA. Smith’s arrest for first degree murder followed the discovery by a female passerby of a memory card lying on the ground in Fairview neighbourhood in Anchorage. The card contained 12 incriminating videos and 39 graphic […]

Seventeen-year-old schoolgirl Michaela Booyson was battered to death with a pickaxe in the early hours of Sunday morning in Mossel Bay. She was allegedly killed for her pair of Nike sneakers. SA Women Fight Back, the movement which began following the senseless murder of Meghan Cremer two months ago in Cape Town, is calling on […]

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has confirmed that two elderly women were found murdered in a retirement home in Port Elizabeth this morning. The news shook Port Elizabeth with SAPeople member Eileen Trew revealing: “I’m in Port Elizabeth. This morning’s news is a shock for our City and the elderly. Two women were murdered […]

Refugees sitting outside the offices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cape Town say they have been victims of xenophobia in South Africa and the UNHCR should help them settle elsewhere. Carine Kavira, who says her brother was shot dead in a 2012 xenophobic attack, says she won’t leave the UNHCR […]

A renowned psychologist and specialist in surviving hate crime and violence in South Africa was brutally killed on Sunday in Johannesburg by a gang of armed robbers who broke into her home through the roof. Leading scholar Dr Mirah Wilks was ambushed and attacked by the men who had waited until her husband Frank left […]

TOKYO – Rugby World Cup organisers were forced to call off matches for the first time in the tournament’s 32-year history on Thursday – eliminating Italy as a result – saying the risk from Typhoon Hagibis made hosting them an impossibility on safety grounds. Italy’s game against New Zealand in Toyota and England’s match against […]