GENEVA – Two South African sisters who were imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, initially without charge, described their ordeal on Tuesday in an effort to give a voice to the voiceless as they said they had brought a complaint to the United Nations. Yumna Desai, a former English teacher at the University of Ha’il in northern […]

Protests continue to rock parts of South Africa with one fatality reported last night in the Western Cape, and a road dug up in the North West province. ANC member Andiswa Ndevu tragically died in a motor accident on Tuesday night, trying to escape violent protestors. Ndevu, a single parent and member of the ANC […]

SABRIC, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre, on behalf of the banking industry has released its annual crime stats for 2018. “We are concerned about some of the increases, which clearly reflect that criminals will take every opportunity to get their hands on bank customers’ money,” says SABRIC CEO, Kalyani Pillay. Combined gross card […]

The ocean around Cape Town is so polluted that pharmaceutical and industrial chemical compounds are accumulating in the flesh of fish caught off the coast. Scientists from the University of the Western Cape’s chemistry department have found that fish caught by small scale commercial fishers in Kalk Bay are contaminated by antibiotics, pain killers, antiretrovirals, […]

Competition is stiff between the men who push trolleys for vendors in the Cape Town city centre. Just before 7am Malk Gabriel is wading through peak-hour traffic in the Cape Town city centre, pushing a heavily-laden trolley to an informal stall. While making his way from a storeroom in Caledon Street to the Grand Parade, […]

South Africa will have no sides in the semi-finals of Super Rugby for only the second time in 16 years, but it could unfortunately be just the start of the country’s declining fortunes in the competition as teams are decimated by player departures. There have been mitigating circumstances to the failures in 2019 with the […]

African countries running up debt they won’t be able to pay back – including to China – should not expect to be bailed out by western-sponsored debt relief, the United States’ top Africa diplomat warned. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank began the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in 1996 to help the […]

South Africa’s cricket players expressed bitter disappointment and even embarrassment after their elimination from the World Cup was ensured by their loss to Pakistan at Lord’s on Sunday but they said they would learn lessons and return stronger. The Proteas’ chances of progressing in the tournament evaporated after they logged their fifth loss in seven […]

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 […]

On Saturday Lizzy Mathiso woke up to find the crèche she owns and runs in Lwandle in shambles. Two classrooms which cater for 54 children were destroyed. She was one of many people living in Cape Town’s informal settlements to have their shacks destroyed or damaged and to find themselves without electricity after a severe […]

ROME – The world is nowhere near to achieving a global goal to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030 because of a lack of accountability and responsibility by decision-makers, Nelson Mandela’s widow warned on Saturday. Graca Machel told ministers, ambassadors and representatives from 194 nations at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in […]

As predicted, a cold front swept into Cape Town and the Western Cape, South Africa, on Friday, bringing gale force winds, high seas, heavy rain and even snow over the weekend. https://www.facebook.com/snowreportsa/posts/2095228513937825?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCsoYUG32kTCr45LBeIHD5EZWoMq8k2T7mWH_HF58EcmE1ge7Ph3qjju8DSj1XoILfsYFP7D6NLJH67WyENSJIUstbxgVhhB-6_R0BJZcwp0XwCXhujudQBQLmTE3ndIJKbWC-D7Oj21HfQ-wXlqx4zxlEq_v3ncHqrGoTyUAvGo4CY8iBZGN7sLLNUHwUk37lPyr58BtuGET9BNdGkArf5rXHrN_etHi8tBVSEtjEc5FXEj9f566QXiBfU-zGB4KKQNb68avMS-zacb1UfjsZxnMuKq66dpCgRhaxPjFYw2PY8jnSmQ9u63BYG8fg2Q7Opj1TlvDIcvyYTKzq5HfT5fg&__tn__=-R Some areas suffered power outages and road closures (including Franschhoek Pass where a  rock-fall damaged vehicles and left the road totally blocked). The […]

JOHANNESBURG – South African pay-television firm MultiChoice Group is planning to lay off more than 2,000 workers in South Africa in a shake-up of its customer care service, the company said on Friday. MultiChoice, which competes with Netflix in online streaming via Showmax, said in a statement it is launching a consultation process to cut […]

A South Africa without lions is unimaginable – an iconic species of the Big Five. But we could face a world without these magnificent African ambassadors… as the breeding of lions for commercial purposes continues to flourish, warns Four Paws, one of the largest welfare organisation in South Africa, fighting for the protection of our […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s rand weakened against the dollar in early trade on Friday, as markets digested President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address (SONA) which some analysts said lacked detail on how he plans to fix the ailing economy. At 0640 GMT, the rand traded at 14.3800 per dollar, 0.2% weaker than its […]

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued a weather warning for the Western Cape as an intense cold front is predicted to hit South Arica on Friday afternoon, resulting in adverse weather conditions in the Western Cape – including gale force winds, some flooding and snow. SAWS says strong westerly to north-westerly winds (40 […]

The ANC in the Western Cape has called on the DA to immediately suspend Memory Booysen – Mayor of the Garden Route District Municipality – for accepting an all-expenses paid trip to Indonesia. According to reports, Booysen visited Indonesia with the parent company of a German firm that has been given a controversial 50-year lease […]

Almost 40 plant species have gone extinct in the Western Cape since 1900, making it one of the hot spots for plant extinction on the planet. A new study, published in journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, found that across the world about 600 trees, flowers, and fruit-bearing plants have died out since 1900, a rate […]

GEORGE, South Africa – Olympic 800 metres champion Caster Semenya has accused the global athletics governing body of using her as a human guinea pig as it emerged that the IAAF had sought to have her declared a “biological male” in proceedings before sport’s highest court. The South African was reacting to the full 163-page […]

JOHANNESBURG – Caster Semenya was invited on Friday to run in an 800m race in Morocco on Sunday – after previously saying she had been denied the right to participate in the event – but the invitation came too late for her to get there, her agent said. Double Olympic champion Semenya said on Thursday […]

JOHANNESBURG – A row within South Africa‘s African National Congress (ANC) about the role of the country’s central bank – the Reserve Bank – has unnerved investors and exposed deep divisions in the governing party. One ANC faction loyal to President Cyril Ramaphosa is opposing calls from a rival group for the central bank’s monetary […]

A teacher was shot dead inside the school premises of Masuku Primary School in Folweni, south of Durban, on Tuesday morning. Sibonakaliso Nyawose, 48, was a head of department, teaching Mathematics in Grade 7. He had been at the school for the past four years and had over 20 years of teaching experience. A witness, […]

South African Charl Schwartzel said on Sunday that he will miss the rest of the PGA Tour season to rehabilite a wrist injury. The 2011 Masters champion has not played since late in April, pulling out of last month’s PGA Championship and this month’s U.S. Open sectional qualifying. “I’ve been forced, due to my wrist […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s government has failed to tackle high air pollution levels in an area which is home to coal-fired power stations and refineries, a lawsuit filed by environmental and community groups says. The case – filed in the Pretoria High Court on Friday – claims the government has violated the constitutional right to […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s main opposition party – the Democratic Alliance (DA) – called on Monday for the Public Protector (SA’s corruption watchdog) to release a report into allegations President Cyril Ramaphosa misled parliament over a donation to his 2017 election campaign for the leadership of the ruling ANC. The opposition had complained to the […]