SOUTH AFRICA (Reuters) – A South African high court, in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, on Friday struck down an urgent application brought by environmentalists to stop oil major Royal Dutch Shell starting seismic surveys to explore for petroleum systems off the eastern seaboard’s popular Wild Coast. The applicants, which included Greenpeace Africa and fishermen, […]

British tourists reacted with fury on Thursday as they boarded the first British Airways (BA) flight home from Cape Town since Boris Johnson cancelled all flights back to the UK from South Africa last Friday. They were further angered by the disruption and chaos brought to their holidays when BA sent out a text late […]

The South African Post Office (SAPO) says Christmas mail leaving the country will be delayed due to the international travel restrictions. Travel restrictions were imposed on South Africa after the detection of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus. In a statement on Wednesday, the SAPO said cargo space on aeroplanes is limited due to […]

South Africa should be applauded for having alerted the world about the Omicron variant that is now beginning to spread around the world, says President Cyril Ramaphosa. The President has criticised countries who have imposed travel bans on South Africa, following the identification of the COVID-19 variant last week. “We reject that in the strongest […]

A PET scan machine used for diagnosing cancer patients at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital has been out of action for more than three weeks because of broken air-conditioning that causes it to overheat. This was revealed today by Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi in an oral reply to DA questions at a sitting of […]

As the countdown begins to Shell’s seismic survey off the east coast of South Africa, conservationists are up in arms and trying to beat the clock in efforts to stop Shell from following through with this operation. Shell announced their plans to commence seismic surveys along the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast, an area renowned for […]

South Africans will be paying more at the pumps from Wednesday when fuel prices are expected to increase. According to the Mineral Resources and Energy Department, the price of petrol (both 93 and 95) will go up by 81c per litre, while the price of diesel 0.05% will increase by 72c and diesel 0.005% sulphur […]

Three terrified eco-students had a miracle escape in South Africa when their safari truck was attacked by a six-tonne elephant bull in musth, and rammed off the road. The elephant became enraged when two vehicles came a little too close to its breeding herd on the Selati Game Reserve near Hoedspruit and the Kruger National […]

Gauteng is seeing continued high levels of COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions, as the fight against the Omicron variant begins, according to Dr Waasila Jassat of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. She said the majority of patients admitted in Gauteng were not vaccinated, with a smaller proportion of patients admitted being fully or partially […]

The strange story of the house Fikile Mbalula offered to buy… By Raymond Joseph and Masego Mafata Upbrand Properties, linked to suspended National Lotteries Commission chief operating officer Phillemon Letwaba, bought a house in an upmarket Johannesburg suburb, days after Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and his wife made an identical offer on the same house. […]

South African Airways has cancelled all of its flights to and from Mauritius following the imposition of a travel ban on South Africa by the Mauritian government. Restrictions were also placed on at least five other Southern African countries after the Omicron variant was identified by South African scientists last week. SAA interim CEO Thomas […]

The DA is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to ensure that the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NSP-GBVF) is implemented as a matter of urgency. The call comes after the DA learnt that the South African Police Service (SAPS) has yet to create a specific crime category for gender-based violence and femicide […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on all those countries that have imposed travel bans on South Africa, and other Southern African countries, to urgently reverse their decisions… and to rather help in making sure everyone gets vaccinated. “There is no scientific justification for keeping these restrictions in place. We know that this virus, like all […]

British Transport Police have confirmed that they are investigating an incident on the London Underground in which a man with a South African accent shouted at a Muslim man to stop praying because the noise was invading his privacy. The video has been viewed over 1.1-million times on Instagram, where user ‘imjustbait’ uploaded it 24 […]

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) has confirmed that it has identified the Omicron variant in at least 13 of the 61 Covid-19 positive passengers who arrived in Amsterdam, from South Africa, on Friday. RIVM said in a statement on its site on Sunday that of the 624 passengers who arrived on two […]

Britain’s Health Minister, Sajid Javid, has confirmed that two cases of the new Covid-19 variant – Omicron – have been detected in Britain. Both patients had recently travelled from Southern Africa. Javid said: “Late last night I was contacted by the UK Health Security Agency. I was informed that they have detected two cases of […]

JOHANNESBURG, 27 November 2021: Air France says it has taken note of the French authorities’ decision to suspend arrivals from South Africa (and six other southern African countries) for a period of 48 hours as of November 26. As a result, Air France is cancelling its flights from Johannesburg to Paris (AF 995) on November […]

South Africans on two KLM flights to Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands were allegedly herded like sheep yesterday into a small waiting area, after sitting on the tarmac for three hours, and later abandoned by KLM staff and left without food, blankets or access to their medicines while they waited crowded together – with no […]

Johannesburg, 26 November 2021 – On Friday morning the Dutch government announced that South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe have been flagged as a “very-high-risk area where there is a COVID-variant of concern”, Omicron. This means passengers flying KLM from South Africa to the Netherlands will only be permitted to board if they […]

Belgium says it has detected its first cases of the new ‘super-variant’ B.1.1.529, which South African scientists yesterday announced they had identified in SA. Guardian reporter Ben Quinn tweeted that it was identified in an “unvaccinated young woman who developed mild flu-like symptoms 11 days after traveling to Egypt via Turkey”. She did not report […]

It sure feels like Black Friday for South Africans as the world moves to ban travel to and from the country, following the confirmation yesterday by South African authorities that a new “dramatically different” variant has been identified in the country. The variant – B.1.1.529 – has over 30 mutations according to SA scientists and […]

The South African government says it has noted the announcement by the United Kingdom (UK) to temporarily ban all flights from the Southern parts of Africa, including South Africa, from entering the UK due to the detection of a new Coronavirus variant, B.1.1.529. South Africa confirmed on Thursday that it has detected the new Coronavirus […]

The South African travel and hospitality industry has reacted with outrage at the UK’s decision to temporarily ban travel to and from South Africa, placing SA on its Red List from midday UK time today. SATSA slammed the decision, with its CEO David Frost saying: “It is far too early to tell what the impact […]

It was inevitable. Within hours of the South African Health Department and NICD confirming that a worrying new variant – B.1.1.529 – has been identified in South Africa, the UK (which only recently removed SA from its Red List) has announced that it is temporarily banning flights from South Africa. Israel has also put a […]

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, has confirmed that through collaborative efforts with private laboratories and the NGS-SA members, a new COVID-19 variant, B.1.1.529, has been detected in South Africa. Unfortunately it appears to have over 30 mutations (Delta only had two) and there are concerns […]