South Africa’s COVID-19 cases continue to rise, with 16 078 new infections reported on Thursday, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). Gauteng remains the epicentre, accounting for the majority of 9 521 new cases (59%), followed by 1 912 in the Western Cape (12%). According to the public health institution, this surge […]

Red Bull surfing athlete, Jordy Smith has been officially confirmed as part of the team that will travel to Tokyo, Japan for the upcoming Summer Olympics, kicking off next month as surfing makes its debut in the Games. Smith has said that this opportunity wasn’t even on the radar for him as he never thought […]

Who doesn’t love something for nothing? A freebie is always a good thing, although some people might be sceptical when it comes to whether something for free is really free? That’s a whole other discussion! If you’re into enjoying online casinos, or you want to try one for the time then getting the best slot […]

The incidents of hunting with dogs is escalating across South Africa, particularly in rural KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). This week, Carte Blanche investigates to find out: is it an innocent traditional pastime fuelled by poverty… or a brutal, self-serving gambler’s game? Hunting with Dogs In a controversial practice that is increasing across the country, participants in so-called […]

Nicci Lombard and her family are hoping for a miracle within the next 24 hours so they can return home to South Africa from Vietnam, or they will face a heavy fine which they can’t afford when their visa runs out on 2 July. Like many SA expats in Asia, their dreams came tumbling down […]

An independent fire report on the wildlife that burned and ravaged about 600 hectares of land within the Table Mountain National Park, and some neighbouring properties, on Sunday 18 April 2021, has ruled out natural causes. This means that the fire was not caused by rock falls or lightning strikes; nor by accidental or negligent […]

A female tourist tragically fell and died in the Tsitsikamma National Park on Wednesday. The woman, believed to be in her 50s, fell on a trail leading to the suspension bridge in the park, according to the South African National Parks (SANParks). “The Park Rangers and National Sea Rescue Institute successfully retrieved the body of […]

The South African Embassy in Paris has written to French authorities requesting a thorough investigation into the incident at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport in which SA’s international opera singer Pretty Yende was allegedly mistreated and verbally abused. The incident took place on Monday 21 June 2021. As reported by SAPeople, Yende wrote on social […]

The daily Covid-19 case numbers in Gauteng, South Africa, are exceeding those seen during the previous two waves as the province suffers a ‘tsunami’ of Covid-19 cases in this third wave. The Premier has announced that from next week those between the ages of 50 and 59 will also be able to be vaccinated (the […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa and other Southern African heads of state agreed on Wednesday to the deployment of the SADC’s Standby troops to Mozambique to combat the horrific terrorism that has rocked northern parts of the country. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Maputo to consider the SADC’s proposed response to address the attacks […]

Gauteng Provincial Government has released a statement on Wednesday afternoon, announcing that it conducted a thorough check with all hospitals in the province, and that none of them – private or public – had any records of the ‘decuplets’ births reported by the Independent Media group on 7 June 2021. Gauteng government says it is […]

When the President’s iPad went missing in Cape Town yesterday, as he was about to deliver a keynote address about the Transnet National Ports Authority on live TV, he instead delivered a humorous monologue about how his iPad had been ‘stolen’. He was of course joking (although visibly a little shocked). It didn’t take South […]

A total of 46 893 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Tuesday, with 11 093 new cases detected. According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this represents a 23.7% positivity rate, pushing the number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 1 843 572. Of the latest infections, the majority are from Gauteng (67%), followed by the Western Cape […]

The South African Revenue Service’s (SARS) destroyed over 2,000 master boxes of illicit cigarettes, valued at R17.4 million on Tuesday, it announced in a statement. SARS director for customs border operations, Beyers Theron, said the cigarettes were either illicitly imported or illicitly manufactured in the country. They were seized and destroyed by a government inter-agency […]

Nine-year-old Romario Valentine is a pint-sized planet warrior and artist from Umhlanga, Durban. He has dedicated the last 4 years of his young life to protecting our planet… and has big planet-saving dreams for his tenth birthday. Fully focused on his passions, namely bird and marine conservation, climate change, and deforestation, Romario has remarkably already […]

Yesterday Gauteng Premier David Makhura warned that the province is in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis, as cases show no signs of slowing down. “Our province is under fire,” he said. “This place is burning with Coronavirus.” Today there are rumours that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa may soon announce a move to Level […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa today announced the establishment of the Transnet National Ports Authority as an independent subsidiary of Transnet. Following his visit to the Port of Cape Town, the South African President said: “This is an important part of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan… The weak performance of our ports is the result of […]

A year ago, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted that school closures in South Africa would result in learning losses. A loss of contact learning time would lead to lower educational outcomes, and the losses would be higher in no-fee schools (serving children from low income families) than in fee-paying schools. Now […]

The COVID-19 crisis has revived discussions on localising vaccine manufacturing to the African region to reduce the dependence on imports. The fact that Africa is lagging so far behind on the COVID-19 vaccination compared with Europe and North America has highlighted the importance of the issue. Most African countries depend on the WHO-sponsored COVAX scheme, […]

South Africa has reported 9 160 new COVID-19 cases, said the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). There were 36 858 COVID-19 tests conducted on Monday. This translated to a 24.9% positivity rate, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1 832 479. Of the latest infections, the majority were found in Gauteng (6 […]

South Africa’s internationally renowned opera singer Pretty Yende has described a horrific account of her experience at the hands of police officials at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris yesterday, Monday 21 June 2021. Yende (36) is in France to perform in La Sonnambula opera at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. It was just five years […]

South African professional cyclist Stefan de Bod will be flying the flag high for SA during this year’s Tour de France 2021 in what is a dream come true for the 24-year-old. Yesterday, he was announced as a Tour de France team cyclist for Astana Premier Tech. On Monday, Stefan said on social media: “First […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) and its COVAX partners are working with a South African consortium to establish its first COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub. The SA consortium comprises Biovac, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a network of universities and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The move follows WHO’s global call […]

Melville’s 7th Street in Johannesburg, South Africa, has been named the 12th coolest street in the world in a Time Out survey which was based on the opinions of 27,000 city-dwellers worldwide. It’s the first time Time Out has featured a Coolest Street guide, and Main Road, Kalk Bay, in the Western Cape was also […]

As Covid-19 cases rise rapidly, Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi claims that hospitals are “still able to cope with the pressure at this stage”… but it’s an open secret in the province, amongst concerned friends and family, that some patients are being turned away. Others are sitting for two days in a chair, waiting for […]