Business Day associate editor Sam Kokeli saw Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday, after the deputy president wrapped up a week of answering questions in Parliament. And both of them were sitting in economy class on the South African Airways flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Ramaphosa is the second high-ranking member of government to attract attention for […]

The tragic and redemptive story of Amy Biehl, the American Fulbright scholar who was living in South Africa when she was attacked by a township mob in Cape Town and stabbed to death, will be made into a film backed by Tyler Perry and some other US movie luminaries. According to news reports on Thursday, the movie, titled […]

Janusz Valus, the man who shot anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani in cold blood outside Johannesburg on 10 April 1993 and was sentenced to life in jail, has been granted parole. A judge in Gauteng North High Court said that Valus must be released within 14 days. The Department of Justice last year resisted Valus’ parole application, saying […]

DUBAI – Falcon Private Bank plans to expand in Africa and will look at opportunities arising from Barclays’ planned sale of its African assets, a senior executive at the Swiss bank told Reuters. Barclays said last week it would sell a 62 percent stake in Barclays Africa, its South Africa-based subsidiary, as it attempts to […]

A rare and beautiful orchid – that was last seen in the Western Cape 50 years ago  – has been discovered in the Fernkloof Nature Reserve. According to Fernkloof Indigenous Nursery the species was last seen in the Western Cape in 1966. On their Facebook page yesterday, the Nursery announced that the plant had been […]

Eighteen young elephants have been spirited out of Swaziland under “devious” circumstances to be taken to three US zoos before a court case could be heard about the damage that would be inflicted on the animals, according to an animal rights organization. Animal rights group Friends of Animals said in an open letter posted online on […]

For the second time in two months an employee of South African Airways based at OR Tambo International Airport has been arrested for extorting money from a foreign national who was denied entry into the country due to invalid papers.   Gloria Ntombi Sidumo (42), an SAA employee, was arrested together with a security officer […]

Three young men have been arrested by police in connection with the fatal assault on 16-year-old Franziska Blöchliger, according to news reports on Wednesday. The reports quoted Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut of the Cape Town police. “The circumstances surrounding the case are still under investigation and no further information can be released at this stage‚” he was […]

In its fourth annual report, in which it encourages South Africans to speak up against corruption, Corruption Watch has identified the most flagrant hotspots in South Africa as schools as well as traffic and licensing departments. In the report released this week, titled “Amp up the Volume” – the agency said that over the past four years […]

The parents of the teenager who was murdered in Tokai Forest in Cape Town yesterday, 7 March 2016, have launched an appeal for help to track down their daughter’s killer. In an emotional interview with EWN, Florian and Shireen Blöchliger say they are personally offering a reward in the region of R50,000 for information leading to […]

This evening mourners in Cape Town gathered at Tokai Forest to hold a vigil for Constantia Waldorf schoolgirl, Franziska Blöchliger, the 16-year-old who was brutally murdered in Tokai Lower Forest yesterday afternoon, Monday 7 March 2016. Edward Robbins, who was at the vigil, reported there were “several thousand people walking in total silence”. Watch video: Cars were parked […]

More than 3 million people visited their voting stations over the past weekend to register for the first time, to re-register and to update their registration details, the Electoral Commission of South Africa said in a statement on Tuesday. The IEC said it believed “the results show without doubt that South Africans remain highly committed to […]

Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration as Nigeria’s president presents new opportunities for reinvigorating relations between Nigeria and South Africa, the continent’s biggest economies. Since the 1990s, the collective leadership of Nigeria and South Africa has been vital in providing the foundations for African renewal, the creation of institutions on the continent and the mobilisation of African voices […]

CAPE TOWN – A young teenager was attacked and killed in Tokai forest on Monday afternoon, according to the local crime watch. A spokesman for crime watch in the nearby neighbourhood of Kirstenhof said on a news report on Tuesday that the 15-year-old girl had gone out with her mother and some other people but had separated from them. Her […]

It’s been quite a week for campers in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. On Tuesday morning I received a call that a man had been bitten by a hyaena, while he was asleep in his tent at Cape Vidal. Luckily it wasn’t life-threatening but nevertheless a hyaena with a penchant for biting people isn’t really what […]

PRETORIA – The New Development Bank of the five-nation BRICS grouping is officially open for business and has started hiring staff, according to the National Treasury. The bank is in the process of establishing its Africa Regional Centre in Johannesburg, as announced by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in his 2016 Budget Speech, and the Treasury […]

A ranger in Kruger National Park was wounded in a shootout with three suspected poachers on Sunday in which one of the men was fatally wounded, according to park authorities. Field Ranger Killers Ubisi was shot and wounded in the arm during a firefight in the central Houtboschrand section of the park, according to a statement […]

A strike at Johannesburg Zoo in South Africa has led to a unique opportunity for locals to volunteer and get up close and personal with some of the over 2,000 animals, while the allegedly illegal strike continues. The zoo workers went on strike on Friday, causing the zoo to shut down, because of apparent issues with salaries […]

After public outrage, world headlines, a petition and relentless support from her barrister, 92-year-old Myrtle Cothill is now allowed to remain in the UK with her daughter. Her barrister, Jan Doerfel, posted the following message to the petition page on Change.org today: “Right in time for [UK] Mother’s Day, we have been told by the Home Office that the original […]

The Gupta family, who have recently come under severe attack by politicians and the media for reportedly receiving preferential treatment and financial breaks in South Africa because of their close relationship with President Jacob Zuma, have denied a report they are leaving South Africa for Dubai. In an emailed statement to Fin24, a representative for Oakbay Investments, the […]

The Electoral Commission (IEC) has called on all eligible voters to come out in their numbers this weekend – 5-6 March – to register and to update their details ahead of the upcoming 2016 Municipal Elections during this weekend’s voter registration drive. This is one of the most anticipated local elections since 1994 as the African National […]

There will be an estimated 35,000 people riding the 109-km Cape Town Cycle Tour on Sunday, the biggest timed road race in the world, and it will include everyone from fund-raisers, moms and dads and kids, people in costumes, tandem riders, conservationists and even nudists. Well, the nudists won’t be ridding in the Cape Town Cycle Tour […]

The South African Constitutional Court has ruled that Oscar Pistorius is denied leave to appeal against his conviction for murdering Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. The verdict was upgraded from culpable homicide to murder on 3 December 2015, when the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that Judge Thokozile Masipa and her lower court had not correctly […]

The coffee chain Starbucks is to open its first two stores in South Africa in April, one in Rosebank, Johannesburg, and the other in the massive Mall of Africa between Johannesburg and Pretoria, according to news reports on Thursday. The stores will be Starbucks’ first in sub-Saharan Africa. The chain will reportedly adapt its menu […]

MAPUTO – Debris from a plane found on a beach in Mozambique could come from the lost Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that went down in 2014 while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with the loss of 239 people. The one-metre-long piece of debris with the words “No Step” written on it was found in […]