JOHANNESBURG – South African state utility Eskom stepped up rolling blackouts (aka the dreaded load-shedding!) over the weekend as it lost 900 megawatts of electricity imports from neighbouring Mozambique, which was hit this week by a cyclone. Eskom, which generates nearly all of the power for South Africa, said that it had cut 4,000 megawatts, […]

HARARE – Cyclone Idai has killed at least 64 people in eastern Zimbabwe and destroyed homes, bridges and roads, making rescue efforts difficult, a government minister said on Sunday. The tropical storm has already pounded neighboring Malawi and Mozambique where at least 111 people died in floods and heavy rains as the cyclone approached. Mozambique […]

Here’s what’s coming up on Carte Blanche‎ tonight in South Africa (Sunday 17 March 2019), and from Tuesday (19 March) for South Africans living abroad. Stream it here. Limpopo Child Gangs A video showing a group of youngsters kicking and dragging Thoriso Themane emerges, sending shockwaves throughout the country. Themane, a young man from Limpopo, […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) has included two prominent politicians – who were linked to corruption under former President Jacob Zuma – in its list of candidates for parliament ahead of May’s election… but a senior source allied to President Cyril Ramaphosa said tainted former officials are unlikely to make it […]

South African learners joined an estimated 1 million school students – from over 100 countries around the world – who walked out of classes on Friday in a global strike, to protest against government inaction on climate change. (Watch video below.) Signs in South Africa included “Eskom we don’t want your dirty coal” and “The […]

Thousands of school students across South Africa called on government to act against climate change. Youths demonstrated at Parliament in Cape Town, the Union Buildings in Pretoria, and the Department of Energy in Durban. Similar protests are taking place on Friday in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America. The worldwide effort has been organised […]

JOHANNESBURG – Eskom has warned that the loadshedding of the past week is likely to continue until Sunday, and says that further cuts are probably on the horizon next week… which is not great news for business. Eskom supplies more than 90 percent of South Africa’s power… but has suffered repeated faults at its fleet […]

I often wonder how it was for you. I wondered then, and I wonder now… writes Ilze Lee. I know it must have been painful. Demeaning. Hard. I imagine that it was filled with many days of fear. So often, I see black people comment that white people have not apologised for what happened. We […]

Johannesburg is famous for having one of the largest urban forests in the world, but now the South African city faces losing much of that extraordinary and beautiful 10-million tree canopy as a tiny beetle threatens to cause one of South Africa’s largest ecological tragedies. ‘Garden Style’ author Melanie Walker reports on the current crisis, […]

A powerful tropical storm made landfall in Mozambique on Thursday evening, battering a coastal city with heavy rain and wind at speeds of up to 170 km an hour and injuring several people. Parts of Mozambique were cut off on Friday because of Cyclone Idai. In Beira, a city of around 500,000 people and a […]

Botswana’s High Court on Thursday postponed its ruling on a case challenging the criminalisation of gay sex, which is being scrutinised by campaigners hoping the law could be overturned. Judge Abednico Tafa told a packed courtroom in Botswana’s capital Gaborone that a decision would be handed down on June 11 after a one-day hearing. George […]

At least 49 people have been killed, and 20 injured following an attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Tributes from around the world have poured in, including one from All Blacks rugby player Sonny Bill Williams, who is Muslim: “My heart is hurting about the news coming out of Christchurch. Sending love & […]

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane is one of several well known South African figures who has joined the Woolies Water Challenge! Watch below… In a post on Facebook on Thursday evening, Maimane said: “44/10 or 4/10? It’s actually 4 out 10 South Africans who can not find a JOB. Let’s bring a job in […]

DAKAR – A mosquito-killing drug tested in Burkina Faso reduced malaria cases by a fifth among children and could be an important new tool in the global fight against the disease, researchers said. The drug, ivermectin, is already widely used to treat parasitic infections but had not previously been tested for its effects on malaria […]

JOHANNESBURG – The World Bank will lend Angola $1 billion to fund social security and water projects, their president’s office said on Wednesday. Angola, Africa’s second largest oil producer, has been pushed into an economic crisis by the fall in oil prices since mid-2014. Alongside a $500 million loan agreed earlier, which Angola is set […]

CAPE TOWN – A young lion captured after being on the run for almost a month spent the night in a South African police cell before being moved back to its national park home. And judging by the video below, he wasn’t very happy about it! The juvenile male lion escaped from the Karoo National […]

LONDON – Britain’s Prince Harry and his pregnant wife Meghan are to set up their own household, breaking away from the joint operation they shared with Harry’s elder brother William and his wife Kate, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday. Harry and Meghan, known officially as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have shared staff with […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s popular Standard Bank will cut around 1,200 jobs and close 91 branches as part of efforts to digitise its retail and business bank, it said on Thursday. South Africa’s lenders, like others around the world, have been shuttering branches and trimming their headcount in an attempt to cut costs and adapt […]

Cyclone Idai, the worst storm to threaten Mozambique in years, is due to make landfall late on Thursday according to South Africa’s Weather Services (SAWS). The powerful hurricane – called a “rare giant hurricane” in some international news reports – threatens to rip through Mozambique’s second largest port with winds of over 190 km per […]

At a special event in Johannesburg on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa praised the multi award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir for being South African heroes who have showcased what SA has to offer to the world. The Choir in turn presented the President with their third Grammy award! Ramaphosa said: “We thought it was important we hold […]

On Sunday a video by four South African students went viral… for its fantastic humour, showing what happened to their accents after drinking water from Woolworths, which is known for being super posh! Since then there have been some brilliant #WooliesWaterChallenge videos in response… Here’s the first video, in case you missed it, by Twitter […]

The Ad Hoc Committee – set up to amend Section 25 of the Constitution — has adopted a report on its work into a possible amendment to the Constitution in order for the State to expropriate land without compensation, in the public interest. Committee chairperson Thoko Didiza said in the report, the committee recommended to […]

ADDIS ABABA – Draped in traditional white mourning shawls, relatives of the Ethiopian victims of ET Flight 302 gathered silently in a hotel conference room in Addis Ababa on Thursday, before boarding buses headed for the crash site. Couples held each other, slumped forward in their chairs, their gazes downcast. Some men held their heads […]

Voting times for South Africans living abroad have been extended to accommodate Jewish voters after a meeting between the SAJBD (SA Jewish Board) and the IEC, the SAJBD said in a statement Wednesday. The voting day for South Africans living or travelling abroad is 27 April, which falls on a Saturday. The SAJBD said: Earlier […]

Around 220 animals tragically died during a fire on Monday evening at Mulati Wilddienste Farm near Brits in North West, South Africa. Police suspect it was arson. According to WildForLife, the animals “died a painful death, trapped in burning enclosures”. The heartbroken owner of Mulati, Gustav Strydom, said in a video interview that in 20 […]