MAPUTO – Mozambique has been declared free of land mines decades after efforts began to clear the country of the killer hazard. According to the Guardian, Mozambique is to declare itself the first heavily mined country in the world to be cleared of all known minefields. One of the major movers behind de-mining efforts has been the […]

LONDON – Malaria death rates have plunged by 60 percent since 2000 – or 6.2 million lives saved, the vast majority of them children – according to a joint World Health Organization-UNICEF report released today. “Global malaria control is one of the great public health success stories of the past 15 years,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. […]

NEW YORK – The rhino documentary ‘Horn’, directed by South African filmmaker Dr Reina-Marie Loader, has won the 2015 award for Best Conservation Film,  the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival has announced. The film highlights the social causes that drive people to poaching and shows that the conservation of rhinos can be a problem solver for […]

PRETORIA – Oscar Pistorius cannot afford a new trial, his lawyer said yesterday, two days before the athlete’s case is to come before a review board that will decide whether he can spend the rest of his five-year jail sentence under house arrest. Lawyer Barry Roux said on Wednesday that Pistorius’ “financial ability” for a new trial was […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Top share index climbed to a one-week high on Wednesday, with SABMiller surging about 20 percent after news that AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer, was to make an offer to acquire the British firm, the world’s No. 2. SABMiller said Anheuser-Busch InBev had informed it that it intended to make an […]

The three most valuable corporate brands in South Africa are multinational mobile company MTN, Vodacom and Sasol, according to a Top 50 list released on Tuesday. The announcement was made by Brand South Africa and Brand Finance Africa in Johannesburg. The other top 10 spots were taken by Standard Bank, FNB, Woolworths, Nedbank, Absa, Investec and, in 10th position, […]

PRETORIA – A petition allegedly signed by 3,000 people in South Africa and abroad in favour of the release of Oscar Pistorius from prison has been rejected by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, it was reported on Twitter on Wednesday. Pistorius’ release was put on hold by the South African government less than a […]

HARARE – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has mistakenly repeated the same speech in parliament that he made during a state of the nation address on 25 August, it was reported on the BBC on Tuesday. His spokesman told the state-run Herald paper the error was because of a mix-up in the president’s secretarial office, the BBC said. […]

ZURICH – A Bloemfontein architect, Johann Beukes, died in Switzerland on Monday in an assisted suicide with the help of the local organisation Dignitas, according to news reports, which said he was the fifth South African to have used the Swiss group in a medically assisted death. DignitySA, which advocates legalising medically assisted suicide in South […]

CAPE TOWN – Two people reportedly died and 32 were injured this evening when a double-decker bus caught fire in Onverwacht Road, Strand, in the Western Cape. The SA Police Service said petrol bombs were thrown at the bus in Lwandle. According to the ER24 Emergency Medical Service, when paramedics arrived on the scene the bus was engulfed in […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African fashion retailer Truworths International said on Monday it was in talks with privately owned shoe chain Office about acquiring the British company. Though the South African retailer has clothing stores in Ghana, Nigeria and Botswana, it makes the bulk of its profits and sales in its home market where consumer […]

DURBAN – Strong action will be taken against protesting students who contributed to the destruction of property at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville campus, the government said on Tuesday. On Monday, students damaged buildings and burnt at least two cars at the Westville campus in protests focused on funding and lack of accommodation, according to news reports. The Department […]

President Jacob Zuma has presented an update to foreign ambassadors and high commissioners resident in South Africa today. In his address, the President discussed South Africa’s standpoint on various African and foreign policy issues…including his opinion on who’s to blame for the current refugee crisis and whether Al Bashir should be allowed to attend a conference in […]

CAPE TOWN – A new draft bill to tackle cybercrime in South Africa is being introduced, according to ZDNet. The proposed laws, which impose sentences of up to 25 years in jail, make phishing and ID theft crimes for the first time. South Africa will join Kenya and Nigeria as the latest country in Africa to have legislation […]

From today Friday 11 September, News24.com will stop hosting comments on its website, a favourite space that used to attract thousands of comments a day. In announcing the decision on Tuesday, News24.com’s editor-in-chief Andrew Trench said the South African news website had invested a large amount of money in developing a new news site that focused […]

NEW YORK – The New York Times on Friday still had as its most popular story the discovery outside Johannesburg of a new species of human, homo naledi, which was announced a day earlier. Media around the world covered the event extensively. The major new fossil discovery – the largest assembly of fossils of human ancestry […]

PRETORIA – Alleged rhino-poaching syndicate kingpin Hugo Ras was refused bail by a  Judge of the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday and will remain in jail, according to The Citizen. Eight fellow accused, including Ras’ wife Trudie and brother Anton were earlier granted bail. The accused were arrested in a country-wide operation by the Hawks in […]

Braam Farm, LIMPOPO – The hunters taking part in a controversial “driven hunt” – where animals are driven down a narrow corridor and shot at by people on erected platforms – continued on Thursday for the fourth day of the much-publicized event in Limpopo, according to animal rights organisers. They also said the hunters, daily bothered […]

There are currently no plans to review South Africa’s dual citizenship laws, the government said today. Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said this on Thursday when briefing journalists in response to media reports that the African National Congress (ANC) was considering a review of dual citizenship laws at its upcoming National General Council. He appealed for […]

The United States Diplomatic Mission to South Africa issued a security message in Pretoria today – Tuesday 8 September 2015 – warning of a “terrorist threat to U.S. interests in South Africa.” The message for its US citizens reads: “The U.S. Diplomatic Mission to South Africa has received information that extremists may be targeting U.S. […]

South African tennis player Kevin Anderson (29) powered through to his first Grand Slam quarter final on Monday night…knocking Britain’s Andy Murray (28) out of the US Open at Flushing Meadows. It was a brilliant match, the longest in the tournament so far (four hours and 18 minutes), ending with – as tennis veteran John McEnroe described it […]

The South African Rand traded at almost R21.22 to the British pound today (Monday), its worst level ever. The  U.S. dollar is R13.94, meanwhile, slightly up on it worst-ever level of R14.07 on 24 August. The news comes two days before Rand Merchant Bank and the Bureau for Economic Research are to release their business confidence index […]

The go-ahead has been given for the Springboks to leave South Africa on 11 September to take part in the Rugby World Cup (RWC), as planned. However a South African judge did say that “transformation is grinding very slowly”. An application by small political party Agency for New Agenda (ANA) to bar the Boks from playing […]

South Africa’s Anaso Jobodwana has won a brilliant bronze medal in the men’s 200 metre athletics in Beijing, China. It’s the second medal for South Africa at the 2015 IAAF World Championships after Wayde van Niekerk’s sensational gold win in the 400m yesterday that made all kinds of new records. (See here for more.) The double […]

In a drastic, but vital, step to prevent poachers from killing rhino in South Africa’s first World Heritage Site, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) have implemented a rhino de-horning programme throughout the Western Shores section of the Park. Unfortunately these are the kind of measures that have become necessary in South Africa. In […]