John Magufuli was elected president of Tanzania in late October. Since then many around the world have been electrified by the honesty and goodness of this man, who is that rarity – a leader who actually has the interests of his country and its people at heart. In South Africa, with protests demanding #ZumaMustFall after […]

DURBAN – Former Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, now South Africa’s ambassador to Australia, has been charged with corruption for allegedly accepting more than R10 million in kickbacks, according to news reports. Ndebele, who was a minister from 2009 to 2012, appeared in court in Durban on Tuesday and was released on R10,000 bail. The charges, which […]

Thousands of South Africans across the country joined together on Wednesday to get President Jacob Zuma to step down, as they walked through various cities chanting “Zuma Must Fall”. The major protests were in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg and some went on for several hours, disrupting traffic in parts of the cities on the public holiday, […]

The African National Congress said on Tuesday it did not discuss the removal of President Jacob Zuma after he replaced finance minister Nhlanhla Nene with a lowly backbencher, which caused South African markets to go into a tailspin and the rand to spiral down. ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte told a news conference on Tuesday that Zuma […]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, said it would list its shares on the Johannesburg stock exchange as a “domestic” stock, removing a potential hurdle in its planned $100 billion-plus takeover of SABMiller. AB InBev said in a statement on Monday it intended to list there in mid-January, with a “domestic” classification, […]

New Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, only appointed on Sunday night, lost no time addressing media on Monday, apparently trying to quell the local and international concerns raised by President Jacob Zuma’s sacking of Nhlanhla Nene last week and replacing him with a virtual unknown, which caused the rand to tumble and SA financial markets to […]

Barely days after firing Nhlandhla Nene as finance minister and appointing unknown David van Rooyen in his place – and sending the South African economy into a downward spiral –  President Jacob Zuma has fired Van Rooyen and appointed Pravin Gordhan to fill the post. The presidency issued a statement on Sunday night confirming the […]

Just over a year ago, a photo of the Johannesburg mail centre went viral – it was in chaos – and things have hardly got better for the parastatal in 2015. But 2016 could see a massive change, with the head of a major JSE-listed financial company taking over the crippled mail service in a few weeks’ time. In November it was announced that […]

Mmusi Maimane, leader of the opposition, has today called on all South Africans to “take their destiny into their own hands, and stop Jacob Zuma before he destroys what is left of our democracy and our economy.” In a special Bokamoso edition this morning, and in the video below, the DA leader stressed that “when I […]

In a statement on its website today, the Presidency said it wishes to correct “malicious rumors” that have been circulating and published by some media houses about the removal of the finance minister and President Jacob Zuma’s relationship with South African Airways Board chairperson Dudu Myeni, even one about them having a baby together. The Presidency published the […]

In a media statement today, President Jacob Zuma attempted to explain his sudden replacement of Nhlanhla Nene with David Douglas van Rooyen as Minister of Finance, and said SA is to maintain its “prudent fiscal position”. Here is the full statement: “On Wednesday, 9 December, I appointed Mr David Douglas van Rooyen as the new Minister of […]

In a statement criticising corrupt and self-serving ANC politicians who have mismanaged the city of Johannesburg, prominent businessman and former head of the Free Market Foundation Herman Mashaba has thrown his hat into the ring for the seat of Johannesburg mayor in 2016. “I have decided to announce that I am making myself available as Mayoral Candidate […]

Barely hours after Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was sacked by President Jacob Zuma Wednesday night, the rand plummeted to an all-time low and social media started going crazy asking for Zuma’s head. Today #ZumaMustFall is still trending like crazy. The tweets range from the outraged (in by far the majority) to those calling for immediate […]

More than three-quarters of South Africans faced with having to pay a bribe pay it, according to a new survey, and almost half of all bribery takes place in Limpopo. The South African Citizens’ Bribery Survey 2015 was released this week by the Ethics Institute of South Africa. Of the 6,380 people surveyed, 26 percent […]

PRETORIA – The Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene has been replaced by President Jacob Zuma, the presidency has announced. The markets reacted quickly. The statement by the presidency said that Nene would be replaced by member of parliament David van Rooyen, who serves as a whip of the standing committee on finance and as whip of […]

Global campaigning community Avaaz has created a petition to put urgent pressure on President Zuma – and the leaders of India, China and Brazil – to join over 100 nations in a climate agreement that they believe would help “avoid catastrophic climate change”. Avaaz says: “Finally – great news from the global climate talks in Paris! A coalition of more than 100 rich […]

Chances are getting stronger that South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will be the next leader of the country, says powerful US financial news agency Bloomberg. In a story today titled “Once Militant, Now Millionaire. Next Up: South Africa President?” journalists Michael Cohen and Amogelang Mbatha write that Ramaphosa is the only serving politician in South Africa who has led both a […]

Madiba could be closing down. The first totally South African restaurant in New York, it opened 17 years ago in an area – Fort Greene, Brooklyn – that was way off of everyone’s map. And for a long time it did very well. Any South African in New York was invariably asked, “Have you been […]

Anglo American will cut its work force by two-thirds, the mining giant said on Tuesday, a move that is seen to reflect China’s diminishing appetite for commodities, according to news reports. As part of Anglo’s restructuring, its diamonds business will be run by its De Beers subsidiary, its platinum and base metals operations will come under Industrial […]

PRETORIA (Reuters) – A South African court on Tuesday granted bail to paralympian Oscar Pistorius after he was convicted of murder for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013, with the judge saying the athlete did not pose a flight risk. The Supreme Court last Thursday upgraded the 29-year-old athlete’s sentence to murder […]

PARIS – During the climate summit COP21 last week, 10 African countries announced their commitment to a plan to reforest huge tracts of the continent over the next 15 years. The announcement was made during the Global Landscapes Forum at the Conference of Parties (COP21). AFR100, the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative, is a pan-African, country-led effort to restore 100 […]

South Africa’s supermarket chain Shoprite has opened its first shopping centre in Tete Junction, Mozambique. The opening, on 3 December, marks the entrance of Africa’s largest food retailer to the Tete province. Since starting out as a small chain of only 8 supermarkets in Cape Town in 1979, Shoprite has grown to more than 450 stores […]

Johannesburg and Cape Town won two of 10 environmental leadership awards during a ceremony that took place at the same time as the COP21 summit in Paris last week for their efforts to tackle climate change. The awards were given by C40 Cities, a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. The C40 Cities Climate […]

Everything from unidentified flying objects over Durban’s UFO-like stadium to women taking to the roads of Cape Town – to fix them, no less – to reminiscences about walking the famed “camino” trail across northern Spain, those are a few stories you might not have seen this week. 1. Good grief, green light a UFO? The […]

BLOEMFONTEIN – A full panel of five judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa has found Oscar Pistorius guilty of murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, saying that the lower court erred in its decision of culpable homicide. The ruling was read on Thursday by Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Eric Leach. He […]