The Guptas, friends of President Jacob Zuma, have reportedly paid $30 million for a mansion in an elite area of Dubai, according to a report in City Press this weekend that it said was confirmed by two sources. The house is in Emirates Hills, according to City Press. Emirates Hills is a gated community apparently named […]

The Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, Sunday reported back on the progress of the Integrated Strategic Management of Rhinoceros – the South African government’s multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary strategy to combat the threat posed by rhino poaching – announced by Cabinet in August 2014; and released the latest rhino statistics. The minister also confirmed that South Africa […]

Today’s Sunday Times newspaper in South Africa reports that Public Protector Thuli Madonsela fears for her life after being informed that a hit had been put out on her. Madonsela, who has become a popular heroine in the country due to her bravery in standing up to and exposing corruption, allegedly received a tip off last […]

The love-him-hate-him presenter from CNN with the distinctive delivery, Richard Quest, is at South Africa’s tourism Indaba again this year, taking place in Durban from Friday to Monday. He kicked off the show with a frank interview with Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom. The Indaba is arguably the most attended travel show in Africa (with 1047 exhibitors, 1856 buyers […]

Government has welcomed the ratings agency Moody’s announcement confirming South Africa’s long-term government bond and issuer ratings, after months of speculation that the country could be downgraded to junk status. The department of finance has reportedly been going out of its way to show the international ratings agencies it is committed to fiscal responsibility since late […]

The new head of the SA Post Office, Mark Barnes, must be smiling today. A strike that could have crippled the already embattled state agency that he has been trying to make viable could not even muster a few hundred supporters. “It’s great news and to be honest it’s a victory for common sense. It’s a […]

Rescuing wild animals is a long-haul occupation, as Louise Joubert of SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary knows. But a few weeks ago, a more than four-year-long cheetah project – which had lots of heartache in between – came to fruition, with the birth in the wild of at least six cheetah from parents that had been rescued. “We […]

President Jacob Zuma has condemned the burning of 23 schools in Vuwani in Limpopo in protests that have turned violent and which he describes as suspicious. Today it has been reported that 50 schools in the area have been closed indefinitely, affecting almost 30,000 pupils (26,987 to be exact). The South African president said: “I wish […]

Addressing the House of Assembly that was almost half empty, because most of the opposition (due to a boycott of him) plus many ANC members (because who knows why) were not there, President Jacob Zuma today told the speaker to get the house in order. He spoke about how South Africa’s dignity was compromised by the […]

Five Zimbabwean men have been successfully growing crops on land abandoned as unprofitable in Malmesbury. The landowner, N7 Meat, gave up farming crops on the land, claiming losses of over R1 million. Albert Zinhanga and four friends met the landowner when buying an ox for slaughter at N7 Meat in 2014. Noticing fallow land, they […]

In an unprecedented move, eight opposition parties, including the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters but excluding the Inkatha Freedom Party, will boycott President Jacob Zuma’s speech in Parliament on Thurday, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said in a statement signed by the party leaders. They said it would be “an empty speech of an utterly […]

Rhodes University students have produced a powerful video – DISRUPT – following the #RUReferenceList and #RUInterdict that serves to continue the conversation surrounding the mistreatment of rape survivors on campus, and to expose the ways in which the university management and police have allegedly failed them. The film also exposes a culture in South Africa in […]

NEW YORK – “Lesedi la Rona,” the largest gem-quality rough diamond discovered in more than 100 years, will be auctioned in London next month and is expected to sell for $70 million (£48.2 million), international auction house Sotheby’s said on Wednesday. Ahead of the auction on June 29, the 1,190-carat diamond, its name in Botswana’s […]

Parliament descended into chaos for a few minutes on Wednesday as the Economic Freedom Fighters tried to prevent President Jacob Zuma from addressing the assembly, despite warnings from the Speaker Baleka Mbete, who finally told the EFF to leave the chamber. It was reportedly the first time Zuma had appeared in the assembly since two […]

A story doing the rounds on social media has it that President Jacob Zuma will get a luxury jet, the most expensively kitted-out one in the world, a Boeing 747-8 with all the trimmings. It’s a good story but totally fabricated. On 22 April, in fact, Armscor, the acquisition arm of the SA Defense Force, […]

At Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, where Christopher Panayiotou, 28, stands accused of murdering his wife, Jayde, two groups of women picketed against each other. Outside, holding placards with ‘Justice for Jayde’ written on them, the Democratic Alliance Women’s Network (DAWN) stood silently at the main entrance to the court. “This is to raise awareness […]

The Union Buildings might seem the obvious place to put Parliament if it were to move from Cape Town, but it appears the mayor of Pretoria/Tshwane has other ideas. He is talking about the old Boer War fort at Klapperkop. During this year’s state of the nation address by President Jacob Zuma it was suggested that […]

AfriForum will meet with the South African chief of police on Wednesday to discuss a strategy to deal with farm murders in South Africa, according to the civil rights organisation. AfriForum said it would meet with Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane, the acting national police commissioner, to discuss the manner in which farm murders can be prioritised […]

As the increasingly popular festival in the desert AfrikaBurn drew to a close for its tenth annual rave, the organisers said that a 52-year-old woman had died after an accident at the event. “It is with a heavy heart that we report that on Saturday (30th) April 52 year old Dana Lawless passed away after being airlifted […]

The mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille has condemned the “despicable” racist words of a 26-year-old Capetonian whose tweet full of foul language about the government went viral, and said she is referring it to the South African Human Rights Commission. “I condemn these comments as there is no place for racism in our society. We are […]

A waitress in Cape Town is due to receive a tip this week of R44,777.70… thanks to the kindness of strangers who were shocked, and moved to action, after a #RhodesMustFall activist from Oxford University, Ntokozo Qwabe, bragged online about having brought her to tears with a comment on his table’s bill. After Qwabe’s rather lengthy explanation online […]

The absolute joy of a former circus lion touching down on African soil has been captured in a photo at Emoya Big Cats sanctuary in South Africa. A photograph of the first lion to be released, ‘Iron’, was published on social media by Animal Defenders International (ADI) Sunday, with the following message: “Iron enjoys what is clearly a […]

The North Gauteng (Pretoria) High Court has Friday found that the NPA’s decision to drop 783 charges of corruption against President Jacob Zuma was irrational, and have added that the South African president should face his charges. A full bench of judges – led by Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba – gave the go-ahead for […]

A 240-bed safari lodge to be built near Malelane Gate in the Kruger National Park has been approved, the SA National Parks said this week. SANP said the Department of Environmental Affairs had given the green light to the Malelane Safari Lodge, whose impact would “definitely be far less than the sprawling towns of Skukuza and Satara”. […]

South African Post Office (SAPO) CEO Mark Barnes has responded to the threat of a PO strike next week. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced a planned strike on Thursday and Friday, before they begin an indefinite strike, over the lack of salary increases in the past two years. The decision to strike was […]