PRETORIA – Residents of a house in Villeria got a surprise visitor in their back yard this week, when a 1.5-metre, 4.5-kilogram water monitor that had possibly escaped capture took refuge in their pool before the zoo came to rescue the reptile. The monitor was first discovered behind the family’s rubbish bin before it scurried into the pool, the […]

A Scottish man and an Irish woman lost their lives in a yachting accident off the Western Cape early on Monday, after a survivor swam to shore and raised the alarm, the National Sea Rescue Institute said. The NSRI expressed its sincerest condolences to the families and friends of George Mills, 61, and Rachel Daly, 49. […]

After all the jokes, the marches, the petitions and the videos – it appears that President Jacob Zuma has made the first step towards possibly paying back some of the South African tax payers’ money that was used to fund renovations at his private Nkandla residence. The news broke late Tuesday night in South Africa […]

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Congress on Monday passed the Electrify Africa Act, which aims to bring electricity to 50 million Africans by the year 2020. The act was under deliberation for two years and now goes to President Barack Obama to be signed, according to news reports. The bill will provide a framework for a […]

Dumisani Gwala is the rhino-poaching kingpin you’ve never heard of. Gwala is currently awaiting trial to take place at Mtubatuba courthouse and now YOU have the power to help put him in jail. Gwala is the leader of KwaZulu-Natal’s biggest rhino-poaching syndicate, and it is believe about 80 percent of the horns in the province go […]

South African Airways will stop flying between Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi, a route that was opened in March 2015. The Minister of Finance said in a statement on the weekend he had granted approval for SAA to cease operating the route, which has not performed as expected. SAA’s interventions to improve the financial performance on this route […]

BEAUFORT WEST – A woman who was driving past Beaufort West on Sunday was arrested after trying to bribe a traffic officer, it was reported. Apparently the 51-year-old woman would have received a R700 fine for the speed she was going at, and she offered to pay the traffic officer R200. The issue of bribery […]

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 […]