JOHANNESBURG – The City of Joburg is heartbroken today as the death toll in the fire at the Department of Health has risen to three firefighters. The brave firemen paid the ultimate sacrifice, losing their lives while trying to rescue others and extinguish a fire which broke out on the 23rd floor of the Bank […]

SASOLBURG, South Africa (Reuters) – About 100 workers from South Africa’s mainly white Solidarity union staged a brief protest outside Sasol’s chemicals plant in Sasolburg on Wednesday over a share scheme offered exclusively to black staff. Solidarity union leaders, who say the scheme is discriminatory because it excludes white workers, handed over a memorandum criticising […]

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Steinhoff’s former chief executive Markus Jooste told a parliamentary inquiry today that his main mistake during his tenure, as the retailer battled an accounting scandal, was agreeing to a joint venture with Austrian businessman Andreas Seifert. Rather than take any responsibility for the global furniture company’s share price collapse himself, Jooste […]

A Gauteng firefighter, trying to rescue others, has tragically died after slipping off the balcony of the 23rd floor of a burning building in Johannesburg, South Africa. City of Joburg EMS (Emergency Medical Services) tweeted: “Sadly one of our own has fell from the building and has since passed on.” Earlier incorrect reports in local […]

The African National Congress says the latest figures from Statistics SA represent an urgent call to action for all South Africans to rally behind a common vision of growing the economy and job creation. The figures show that the South African economy moved back into a technical recession with a negative growth rate of (-0.7%) […]

The Botswana government has issued a statement refuting local and international reports of an alleged elephant poaching massacre that has resulted in the carcasses of 87 slain elephants being found near the Okavango Delta wildlife sanctuary. The 87 carcasses have been counted by Elephants Without Borders (EWB), a conservation nonprofit organisation that has been contracted […]

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Tuesday revealed the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures fell by 0,7% in the second quarter of the year 2018… and, judging from the comments on Twitter, South Africans realised they can no longer blame former President Jacob Zuma. These latest figures have pushed the country into a recession – […]

The ANC says it welcomes the withdrawal of the Expropriation Bill by the South African National Assembly today. Section 25 of the Constitution is currently being reviewed by Parliament… which is expected to add clarity to the controversial issue of land expropriation without compensation. ANC Chief Whip, Jackson Mthembu, pointed out that the withdrawal of […]

Today many South Africans – including the Democratic Alliance (DA) – rushed to convey their condolences to Miguel Louw’s family, as the decomposed body of a child was found in Phoenix yesterday near to where he went missing. However, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has asked the public not to jump to the conclusion […]

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – Two South African peacekeepers were wounded in a rebel ambush near the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, their U.N. mission said on Tuesday. The attack on Monday, on the outskirts of the city of Beni, underscored the challenges authorities face in tackling […]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan issued evacuation advisories for more than a million people and canceled hundreds of flights as Typhoon Jebi sliced across the west on Tuesday, cutting power, overturning cars and killing at least six people. Jebi, or “swallow” in Korean, was briefly a super typhoon and is the most powerful storm to hit […]

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa entered recession in the second quarter for the first time since 2009, data showed on Tuesday, in a stinging blow to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to revive the economy after a decade of stagnation. Statistics South Africa said the economy contracted by 0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter, led by declines in the […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – At least eight people were killed in an explosion at a South African munitions depot in Somerset West, near Cape Town, but the cause of the blast was still unknown, a fire and rescue official said on Monday. The blast occurred at Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) depot, a joint venture between Germany’s […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping offered another $60 billion in financing for Africa on Monday and said Chinese companies will be encouraged to invest no less than $10 billion over the next three years, but he also warned against “vanity projects”. Speaking at the opening of a major summit with African leaders, Xi […]

Music lovers in Durban and surrounds have been deeply shocked at news that Simon Milliken, former Principal Double Bassist of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, met with a violent death on Friday afternoon (August 31, 2018). Milliken retired from the Orchestra last year, but continued to perform on an ad hoc basis with his former colleagues, […]

A rich trove of cave paintings in South Africa going back perhaps 20,000 years is being erased. In caves along the Great Kei River and at the confluence of the White (Cacadu) and Black Kei rivers in the rural Eastern Cape, there is a wealth of rock art paintings. They are not well known and […]

PRETORIA (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund gave its full backing to South Africa’s land reform plan on Thursday, as long as the highly contentious process is transparent and based on the constitution. The Fund’s senior resident representative in South Africa – Montfort Mlachila – told Reuters that the reform must not damage farm output […]

Reigning Miss South Africa 2018, Tamaryn Green, has bravely spoken about her battle with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB) after staying silent for years, fearing the stigma that surrounds the illness. “It was the 23rd of June 2015 when I was diagnosed with pulmonary Tuberculosis,” she says, “and just like that my life changed.” In a campaign […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says today was a victory for “good governance and service delivery” in Tshwane, as the motion to remove Mayor Solly Msimanga failed (the ANC withdrew its motion of no confidence, and said it’s going to court)… but that it will request an urgent meeting with the Economic Freedom Fighters’ leaders. In […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African clothing and homeware retailer The Foschini Group (TFG) said on Thursday it was launching one of its African retail brands in Australia to test appetite outside its traditional market. The move announced by outgoing CEO Doug Murray and his successor, Anthony Thunström, aims to show whether TFG’s local brands can […]

The civil rights organisation AfriForum has formally requested the National Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, to investigate the claims made by a member of a notorious prison gang that Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, came to see them in prison to encourage the committing of farm murders. In a recorded interview between an agent […]

The explosive BBC World News documentary about rhino poaching in South Africa, which premiered around the world a couple of weeks ago, is now available to watch on YouTube. See below. The show lifts the lid on the alleged links between rhino poaching in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, and the alleged corruption within KZN courts […]

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – At least ten people died after a bus traveling from South Africa’s Cape Town to the Eastern Cape overturned in the early hours of Thursday morning, traffic officials said. The accident occurred at around 2 a.m. (2400 GMT) 50 kilometres outside Beaufort West, a town in the semidesert Karoo region. Another […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Solidarity, a union representing high-skilled workers, said on Thursday that it has agreed a three-year wage deal with state power utility Eskom, bringing an end to weeks of negotiations that led to load shedding (otherwise known as power outages). The much larger National Union of Mineworkers earlier said it had […]

South African-British endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh has made front page news in the UK, bringing much needed attention to the plight of the English Channel. Pugh, South Africa’s well known ocean advocate, completed #TheLongSwim of the English Channel yesterday. He didn’t just cross it like ‘normal’ people. He swam the entire LENGTH of the Channel. […]