A 37-year-old British pilot working for an anti-poaching unit in Tanzania has been fatally shot by poachers while flying over a poaching scene in his helicopter, according to news reports. The Friedkin Conservation Fund said Roger Gower, from Birmingham, was tracking poachers on Friday in the Maswa Game Reserve. He was apparently shot through the […]

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Southern Africa is moving towards greater acceptance of sexual and gender minorities though there is still a long way to go, the United States’ first special envoy for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people said on Wednesday. Randy Berry, an openly gay senior U.S. diplomat, was speaking […]

A low-flying South African Air Force Gripen jet that circled a neighbourhood of Johannesburg on Thursday got people tweeting excitedly and taking videos of the seemingly errant plane. And then it was back again on Friday. “Wonderful to hear and see the #Gripen #Fighterjet flying over Randburg this evening again!” was one tweet. Another tweeter said […]

Watch out, Netflix users, your days of making merry – that is, if you access hundreds of extra TV and movie titles from the U.S. – may be over. The company has announced plans to stop people around the world from watching Netflix programmes outside their territory. Many Netflix subscribers around the world have been bypassing regional restrictions […]

The Reserve Bank has increased interest rates in South Africa by 50 basis points, a move that was expected and has been met with a mixed response, although the markets immediately reacted positively with the rand strengthening. The announcement was made on Thursday by Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago. According to news reports, this means the rate at […]

JOHANNESBURG – The High Court in Johannesburg ruled on Friday that Gareth Cliff must be reinstated as a judge on Idols with immediate effect. Cliff had been dismissed from the show after being drawn into the Penny Sparrow controversy. After Sparrow’s “monkeys” remark, Cliff had reportedly retweeted a poll on Twitter that asked whether racist social media posts […]

JOHANNESBURG – A total of 230 frogs – 80 bull frogs and 150 rain frogs – destined for Taiwan and hidden in small plastic containers have been confiscated at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport and brought to the National Zoo in Pretoria, according to a statement released by the zoo on Thursday. The amphibians were sent […]

The city of Cape Town will donate to charity all the unclaimed cell phones it has confiscated from people caught talking on hand-held devices while driving. “While the Safety and Security Directorate initially considered auctioning the cellphones, we have subsequently decided to give the cellphones to community-based organisations like neighbourhood watch groups instead,” mayoral committee member for […]

LONDON – Two South Africans sentenced alongside Nelson Mandela to life in jail were given the Freedom of the City of London on Wednesday in recognition of their fight for freedom and racial equality, as were the lawyers who defended them at trial. Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg received the award with fellow South African George Bizos and Lord Joel Joffe […]

JOHANNESBURG – The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is opening a new office in Cape Town, the JSE said in a statement on Tuesday. The JSE said the move was to enhance its service to clients, build and strengthen relationships, and provide accessible support to the market. The city has increased its footprint in the financial services […]

JOHANNESBURG – Thousands of people joined the Democratic Alliance in the March for Jobs in Johannesburg on Wednesday, a horde of blue T-shirts crowding the streets into the city to bring attention to the estimated 8.4 million unemployed in the country. Addressing the crowd, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the party wanted to make job creation […]

A KwaZulu-Natal SPCA says it has been overwhelmed with support to save a 36-year-old female orangutan that has been languishing away – a “caged tragedy” – in a zoo near Pietermaritzburg reportedly owned by circus owner Brian Boswell. “We thank you for your responses to our plea for her release,” the Kloof and Highway SPCA […]

JOHANNESBURG – The first wide-ranging show of the artist Henri Matisse in South Africa will be presented in Johannesburg later this year, the French Embassy in South Africa said on Monday. The show, “Rhythm and Meaning”, will run at the Standard Bank Gallery from 13 July to 17 September. It will be the fourth major exhibition […]

Cricket South Africa has imposed a ban of 20 years on Gulam Bodi after he admitted charges of contriving or attempting to fix matches in the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series. Bodi was charged with several counts of contriving or attempting to fix matches on 31 December 2015 following an investigation conducted by CSA’s Anti-Corruption […]

A ban on the hunting of leopard in South Africa has been imposed by the Department of Environment Affairs for the rest of 2016, and it will then reassess the situation, according to news reports. The department said that conservation authorities in the various provinces were told that leopard hunts should not be authorised in 2016, and […]

JOHANNESBURG – The billboard erected in Johannesburg at the launch of the #DAforJobs campaign this month to protest unemployment in South Africa has been vandalised and destroyed, the DA said on Monday. The DA said it wanted the ANC to confirm or deny that it was behind the destruction, according to news reports, which quoted a party spokesman as […]

Almost 700 people were caught in traffic roadblocks in Cape Town over the weekend, as part of a new campaign by the city to crack down on road offenses, according to news reports. The new 18-member team – including members of the city’s Traffic Service, Metro Police, Law Enforcement and the Western Cape Traffic Department – will conduct […]

The BBC cricket correspondent and Olympics equestrian commentator Jonathan Agnew was caught driving without a license outside Johannesburg, and said a corrupt policeman took everything except R20 that he emptied out of his pockets, according to news reports and Agnew’s tweets about the incident. On Friday, when South Africa was playing England at Centurion, Agnew was apparently […]

In February the low-cost African airline fastjet will be expanding what is expected to be a growing list of flights around Africa, when it flies two new routes from Zimbabwe to Johannesburg. Johannesburg is already a destination for fastjet from Dar es Salaam and will be the first international destination for fastjet Zimbabwe, according to recent news reports. […]

The online campaigning group Avaaz has gathered more than 1 million signatures worldwide against Yahoo Japan for allegedly allowing the sale of ivory online. Avaaz launched the campaign accompanied by a horrific photograph of an elephant with its tusks and trunk severed, with the words, “Yahoo – stop your deadly ivory trade!” In an open letter […]

PRETORIA – The South African government has condemned the terrorist attacks that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia. At least five people were killed and several others injured in suicide attacks at a restaurant located at the Liddo Beach on Thursday evening 21 January 2016. The Al-Qaeda linked group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack. “South […]

A KwaZulu-Natal municipality in South Africa has awarded scholarships to 16 young women who are virgins and who will undergo tests throughout the course of their studies to prove that they remain “pure”. This was the condition given to the 16, who were awarded the Maidens Bursary Award from the UThukela District Municipality. According to news reports on Friday, the […]

Chaos broke out in Kempton Park on Saturday after police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets following the death earlier of a Nigerian man in police custody. A large group gathered outside the private hospital, as shown in this video: According to various reports, Nigerians at the Arwyp Medical Centre in Kempton Park said the 38-year-old man, […]

HOBART, AUSTRALIA – A South Africa rapper has been jailed in Tasmania, Australia, for indecently assaulting a fellow artist who was asleep in her hotel room, it was reported. Brian Simiso Zwane, who performs as OkMalum­Kool­Kat­, was trying to get a fine so that he could leave the country on Friday, but he was given a month-long jail […]

Foreign direct investment in South Africa fell by 74 percent in 2015 to $1.5 billion, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development released on Wednesday. “Central Africa and Southern Africa saw the largest declines in FDI,” UNCTAD said. “The end of the commodity ‘super-cycle’ had an impact on resource-seeking […]