As more and more celebrities like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian – and even US First Lady Michelle Obama – wear their African designs, South African and other African designers are turning heads in the fashion world. From Ankara print dresses to Xhosa-inspired cardigans, these hip designs are not just hitting the catwalks but also store shelves. While designers […]

JOHANNESBURG – The world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev gained conditional approval on Tuesday for its $100 billion-plus acquisition of SABMiller from South African anti-trust regulators, bringing the deal closer to fruition. Conditions attached to the deal include a binding one that no South African employee be laid off because of the merger, the Competition Commission […]

The involvement of international, sophisticated criminal groups in wildlife crime has been confirmed in the World Wildlife Crime Report – the first ever global assessment of wildlife crime, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The report shows what a devastating impact corruption has had, and concludes that “trafficking of wildlife is increasingly […]

In a heated and sometimes odd exchange with the South African journalist Jane Dutton on Al Jazeera, SA’s Minister of International Relations and Co-operation said she had a hole in her head from carrying water buckets when she was a child, that she had a lot of respect for President Jacob Zuma, and expressed disinterest in the […]

The Democratic Alliance has posted the 60-second video it says the SA Broadcasting Corporation has refused to air. The DA said in a post of Facebook on Monday, “Another DA TV advert they are refusing to show South Africa.” The video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media since it was […]

New Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has appointed his first Springbok captain – Vodacom Bulls player, Adriaan Strauss. The hooker will become the 57th Springbok captain and will lead South Africa in the Castle Lager Incoming Series against Ireland, which starts on 11 June in Cape Town. Coetzee made the announcement on Monday afternoon in Stellenbosch, where the national […]

The Department of Energy has called on the public to use petrol efficiently during the tough times ahead, as the country braces itself for a hike of 52 cents per litre from Wednesday, 1 June 2016. In a statement the department said fuel prices are adjusted on a monthly basis, informed by international and local […]

Almost 300 South African firefighters arrived in Edmonton, Alberta, in western Canada on Sunday night, heading to help battle the massive fires spreading across the province – and their first reaction was to immediately burst proudly into song. The 281 firefighters, who have helped out in Canada before, will join a team from Canada and the United […]

Tributes have poured in for South African expat Marisa ‘Maria’ Strydom who tragically passed away on Mount Everest last Friday. On Sunday night her husband, who was with her when she died, gave a heartbreaking interview to Australia’s Channel 7 about the tragedy. (Watch the video below.) The Melbourne-based couple – who met at university in […]

I have been on many tours, and I’ve been to many museums around the world, but I don’t think any of them had me as psyched as the one I did today – the infamous and iconic Ponte City in Johannesburg. Ponte’s designer, the 29-year-old Rodney Grosskopf, probably didn’t start out with the intention of creating something iconic, but because […]

The short-lived minister of finance, appointed by President Jacob Zuma to take over from Nhlanhla Nene, has been staying at a luxury boutique hotel in Pretoria with his family since the beginning of the year – at a cost so far of R500,000 – according to a news report on Friday. Even though Des van […]

The uproar created in the media over the past few days over the news that some R9 million had been spent from the police budget to buy cars for President Jacob Zuma’s four wives has got a quick reaction from him. His office announced on Friday that there will be a review of these policies, […]

Hollywood star, seven-time Mr Olympia and former Governor of California  Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted strolling through Sandton City this afternoon. He’s in the country for the inaugural Arnold Classic Africa 2016 which is showcasing some of South Africa’s top boxing talent along with 46 other sports codes. (UPDATE: Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger gets chased by elephant on […]

Lots of countries around the world are upping their flights to South Africa, but none more so it seems than the United Kingdom. British Airways (BA) had barely announced it would begin three weekly flights from Gatwick to Cape Town when it said it would add more flights from London over the summer as well […]

About 300 South African firefighters will leave on Sunday to join a group from the US and Canada to battle the massive wildfire in the province of Alberta, according to news reports this week. The fires, which have been raging for several weeks now, reportedly cover more than 5,000 square kilometres. The 80,000-resident town of Fort McMurray […]

Four suspected poachers were arrested in Kruger Park after a SA National Parks helicopter had been fired on five times, marking a “dramatic escalation” in the fight against rhino poaching, the minister of environmental affairs said in a statement on Thursday. Minister Edna Molewa congratulated the parks and law-enforcement authorities for “averting a catastrophe”. According […]

Photographer and videographer Johnny Miller is quite upfront about what he set out to do when he began filming in April – a series on inequality in three Cape areas – where people of vastly different means live almost side by side, except it’s often easy not to see that. But from the air, the discrepancies become strikingly […]

EAST LONDON – The captains of three Chinese trawlers intercepted by the South African Navy and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries appeared in an East London magistrate’s court on Wednesday over an alleged illegal haul of squid worth R48 million, it was reported. The three were charged with contravening the Marine Living Resources Act and […]

The South African high commissioner to Australia, who is facing charges of corruption and fraud, has been recalled by the government, according to news reports on Wednesday. Sibusiso Ndebele, South Africa’s former transport minister, has been charged with corruption for allegedly accepting more than R10 million in kickbacks, according to news reports. Ndebele, who was a […]

The story of three Chinese chokka long-line trawlers allegedly fishing illegally in South African waters, nabbed by the navy and escorted to East London was one of the highest-read stories on an international website earlier today, with the issue driven by a determined group of “armchair warriors” along the SA coast. The three vessels have […]

CAPE TOWN – Some R9 million of the police budget between 2013 and 2016 has been used to buy 10 vehicles for the wives of President Jacob Zuma, parliament was told on Tuesday. The vehicles – which included Range Rover SUVs, two Land Rover Discovery SUVs and five Audi SUVs and sedans – were necessary “to provide comprehensive protection […]

LONDON – The magnificent display of South African wildflowers put together by the SA National Biodiversity Institute at Kirstenbosch has received a gold medal at the 2016 Royal Horticultural Society’s flower show, which opened today. The team sent out a tweet a few hours ago saying “Our #RHSChelsea Flower Show exhibit received a gold medal!” It […]

If you’re a South African living abroad and you’re registered to vote in this year’s municipal elections, book your tickets home for early August! Local elections will take place on 3 August 2016. The date was proclaimed yesterday by Minister Des van Rooyen (who was famously appointed as Minister of Finance by President Zuma for a couple of […]

In 2014 President Jacob Zuma, while defending state money spent on Nkandla, referred to former president PW Botha having George airport built near his private home in Wilderness – obviously saying that if Botha could do it, so could he. Two years later, the comparisons between the two men have only multiplied. 1. Botha was leader of the ruling […]

While President Jacob Zuma urged all South Africans to pray for “peace, unity and tolerance” in South Africa yesterday, those words appear to have fallen on deaf ears in Hammanskraal where at least two people, possibly more, are reported to have been fatally wounded today in shocking protests. As horrific photos of burning buses and bodies […]