Here’s what’s coming up on Carte Blanche this week. You can watch in SA (Sunday 2 October) on DStv Now or stream it overseas in most countries from Tuesday 4 October if you’re abroad. Of Music and Friendship Nestled below snow-capped mountains, the Drakensberg Boys Choir School has an international reputation for its fine choral performances. Boys […]

Ponte de Lima, Portugal – South Africa’s Andy Birkett delivered a marathon racing masterclass as he became the 2022 world champion, winning a thrilling senior men’s K1 gold medal at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships on the Lima River on Saturday afternoon. Birkett had to fight to stay in contention during the early part […]

The Public Protector (PP) has found that the use of a SANDF aircraft in September 2020 to transport an ANC delegation to Harare, Zimbabwe, violated the law. The delegation included former Minister of Defense, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, and six other ANC delegates. The flight departed from Waterkloof Air Force Base on 8 September 2020 and returned […]

It’s incredible it’s taken this long, but finally Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla announced today (Friday) that 37 hospitals across South Africa will be exempted from the load shedding schedule. (See full list at bottom of page.) The announcement follows meetings to devise a plan to shield public health facilities from the devastating power outages […]

Africa’s most famous funnyman and TV star, the South African stand-up comedian and author Trevor Noah, is leaving his job as the host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in the US. Noah, who hosted the high profile show for seven years, says he wants to devote more time to his stand-up career. We asked […]

South African comedian Trevor Noah is quitting The Daily Show after seven years. He said “my time is up, in the most beautiful way. I’ve loved hosting this show. It’s been one of my greatest challenges, and one of my greatest joys.” (Watch the video below.) The South African expat says he wants to spend […]

Thirty years after their epic 10,000m Olympic final, and the highly symbolic victory lap, South Africa’s Elana Meyer and Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu met again in Barcelona. After a private visit to the Olympic Museum and a press conference, the two athletes returned to the stadium which was the theatre of their triumph, taking photos on […]

The project is expected to save billions of litres of water a year. By Liezl Human and Ashraf Hendricks The City of Cape Town and the Nature Conservancy are clearing invasive plants such as pine and eucalyptus trees growing in water catchment areas. Invasive species in areas such as Wemmershoek, Steenbras, Berg River, and Theewaterskloof […]

It’s easy to assume all animals have a neat dividing line between the sexes because the differences in appearance between males and females can be so striking. But the more scientists learn about wildlife, the clearer it is that nature doesn’t have a rule book. By Louise Gentle, Nottingham Trent University Most people know that […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has wished the Jewish community well over Rosh Hashanah and the High Holy Days that culminate with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Oct 4/5). Having begun at sunset on Sunday, 25 September 2022, the Presidency said, Jewish communities in South Africa and around the world are observing Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah, […]

Blood Psalms, the epic Showmax Original African fantasy, launches tomorrow, 28 September 2022. SAFTA and Africa Movie Academy Awards nominee Richard Lukunku stars as Senator Jabari, sent to the Akachi citadel from the mighty Great Nziwemabwe to attend the wedding of King Letsha (four-time SAFTA winner Mothusi Magano), but also to insist that the king […]

The board of South Africa’s power utility Eskom is expected to be “reconstituted and restructured” following a meeting with Department of Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan. The State-owned electricity company has been facing serious and recurring challenges since June this year – reaching a nadir of Stage 6 load shedding twice over the past four […]

International tourists are flocking to South Africa, with the Western Cape celebrating a whopping 191 international flights into Cape Town International Airport each week. BUT it’s South Africans themselves who saved the day during the Omicron nightmare, embracing the local is lekker attitude and spending their hard-earned rands on holidays at home. Addressing World Tourism […]

South African National Parks (SANParks) Airwing has received a R4,5-million donation for much-needed fuel for their anti-poaching operations. The symbolic handover was made by TotalEnergies Marketing SA MD and CEO, Mariam Kane-Garcia. It also marked TotalEnergies and SANParks long-term relationship of 60 years, in which TotalEnergies has focussed on nature conservation and contributing to the […]

A 1-metre telescope in South Africa has captured footage of the historic moment that NASA’s DART mission successfully made impact with asteroid Dimorphos on Monday evening US time. DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) – which weighed 570kg – has been flying through space for over 10 months to perform last night’s world-first planetary defence technology […]

Streaming giant Spotify has unveiled five new curated Afrikaans playlists, from Afrikaans Techno to Afrikaans Country, for Heritage Month in South Africa. With more than 433 million users, Spotify has decided to highlights SA’s third most widely spoken language, Afrikaans. By doing so, the audio streaming platform says it is giving voice to numerous different […]

Celebration kicks of with protest over hate crime against LGBTQIA+ community… Raising public awareness of prejudice, harassment and violence towards gay people was a key aim of the 18th Soweto Pride celebration, held on Saturday 24 September. The event started with a protest attended by hundreds marching through the streets of Soweto. Participants held placards […]

Grand Final day is huge in Australia. Ask any South African expat. But this year the AFL (Australian Football League) has attracted worldwide attention, with a sweet moment between the winning captain and a beautiful fan captured on film, after the Geelong Cats were crowned premiership winners. Watch below as the team’s captain, Joel Selwood […]

JOHANNESBURG (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – John first heard of cryptocurrency three years ago, when the teenager came across slick YouTube videos and Facebook posts of other South Africans claiming to have become wealthy overnight with bitcoin. By Kimberly Mutandiro Inspired, the then 14-year-old downloaded a trading app, lied about his age in order to set […]

CAPE TOWN, ZA – North American independent book publisher Catalyst Press will publish two graphic novels from Cape Town’s world-renowned animation studio next year. Pearl of the Sea, a middle grade comic by Anthony Silverston, Raffaella Delle Donne, and Willem Samuel, is slated for release 31 January 2023. The 166-page adventure comic follows Pearl, a […]

Air Belgium has signed a new commercial agreement with South Africa’s independent and premier airline, Airlink, which conveniently connects customers travelling to or from Brussels, with 36 destinations across Southern Africa. This follows the recent inauguration of Air Belgium’s new service between Brussels, Johannesburg, and Cape Town, using the fuel-efficient Airbus A330neo aircraft. This first cooperation […]

Two South African men are wanted by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service. Having taught at some of Britain’s most prestigious boarding schools, they have now been charged with a slew of sexual assault offences – dating back over 40 years – involving schoolboys as young as nine. One of the teachers is described as perhaps […]

The South African Cabinet has expressed its sincere condolences to the families of those who lost their lives after the tailings of an abandoned local mine in Jagersfontein burst open and released a disastrous mudslide around dawn on Sunday, 11 September 2022. The disaster in the small Free State town, which killed at least three […]

Had someone told me nine years ago that I would be celebrating Heritage day outside of South Africa for the next nine years I would have laughed in their face. Truly.? .. writes Flower La Elizabeth Warner, founder of Lekker Saffa Spaza. But here we are celebrating my ninth Heritage day NOT in SA but […]

The Springboks finished the Castle Lager Rugby Championship like they started it, with a win – this time by 38-21 (halftime 17-7) over Argentina – but they unfortunately failed to score the points needed to dethrone New Zealand as champions of the Southern Hemisphere, in front of a packed house of 45,982 people at Hollywoodbets […]