JOHANNESBURG – The chairman of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, Gwede Mantashe, was quoted as saying the state should take without compensation land from those who own more than 12,000 hectares, comments that sent the rand weaker.   More than two decades after the end of apartheid, white people still own most of South […]

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has acted swiftly and appointed Dr Silas Ramaite as Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), following yesterday’s ruling by the Constitutional Court on the “invalid” appointment of Adv. Shaun Abrahams. ConCourt declared Abrahams’ appointment as invalid and “unconstitutional” following the suspicious removal of his predecessor, Mxolisi Nxasana, with a […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s Gold Fields said on Tuesday it plans to slash costs at its struggling South Deep mine, including cutting 1,100 jobs, or around 30 percent of its workforce. South Deep, the company’s last South African asset, has faced operational obstacles in a tough geological setting 3 km below the surface. The mine […]

Former policeman Mark Minnie, who co-authored the controversial expose on Magnus Malan, has been found dead on a friend’s smallholding just outside Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, according to local reports. Well known writer Marianne Thamm, who penned the foreword to the book, tweeted this morning: “Devastated by the news that Mark […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand plunged to a 2-year low against the dollar in early trade on Monday and government bonds weakened sharply as a renewed rout in the Turkish lira spread to other emerging market currencies. The rand slid more than 10 percent earlier in the day to hit a session low of […]

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled Monday morning that the appointment of National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Shaun Abrahams, was “constitutionally invalid”, upholding a decision by the lower court that the NDPP boss had been improperly appointed after former President Jacob Zuma removed his predecessor, Mxolisi Nxasana. Abrahams and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) […]

The South African Constitutional Court is expected to rule this morning on whether the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Shaun Abrahams, should vacate his position. Last year, the North Gauteng High Court declared that former President Jacob Zuma acted unconstitutionally in terminating former prosecutions boss Mxolisi Nxasana and replacing him with Abrahams. The application […]

NAIROBI – A hippopotamus attacked and killed a Taiwanese tourist who was taking photographs on the shore of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, on Saturday evening. The male tourist was sadly pronounced dead on arrival at the Naivasha District Hospital. His colleague, who suffered minor bruises, survived the attack over the weekend, according to the Kenya […]

There was unrest in Hout Bay in the Western Cape of South Africa today, where multiple buildings in the harbour district were set alight by protesters. Photos on this page by Justin Sullivan… According to Justin it appeared that a vehicle and house in Hout Bay central were targeted. It’s believed that one of the […]

South African independent business organisation, Sakeliga says it is studying a list leaked to AfriForum of 195 properties identified for expropriation without compensation. Sakeliga says it will in the meantime continue with its PAIA (Promotion of Access to Information Act) application to obtain the list of 139 properties supposedly identified as “expropriation targets” by the […]

Afriforum has today published a list on its website of farms that are apparently identified by the South African government to be expropriated without compensation in the weeks to come. This follows the ruling ANC’s announcement earlier in the week that the party had identified 139 farms for this purpose. The list of farms was […]

A South African police reservist, Seth Baise, is struggling to find answers as to what happened to his mother Colleen Crossley, last weekend in Germany where she went missing, and has subsequently been hospitalised. He’s also battling to get in touch with DIRCO, despite their recently launched Travel Smart campaign, raising awareness about the assistance […]

Fitness personality, Sibahle Mpishane is currently in hospital in Durban, South Africa, following an accident in the early hours of Thursday Mpishane is in critical condition, according to reports. The fitness guru, who is also the girlfriend of Kaizer Chiefs’ Captain and Goal Keeper Itumeleng Khune, reportedly crashed her car into a tree after hitting […]

A passenger, travelling from South Africa – who was allegedly carrying at least nine rhino horns in their luggage – was arrested at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport in Turkey on Tuesday. Rhino documentary filmmakers from ‘Stroop: Journey into the Rhino Horn War’ said: “One is heavy… but nine?!! No wonder the passenger was deemed suspicious at Istanbul’s […]

The baboons of Tokai in Cape Town, South Africa, appear to be too scared to fall asleep in their normal resting area. Instead – as shown in the video below – it looks like they’re choosing to rather remain exposed on the open road… As some said, it looks like a peaceful protest… but in […]

South African hip hop artist Linda ‘Pro’ Mkhize tragically passed away on Wednesday evening at the age of 37. According to a family statement he was visiting friends when he suffered a severe seizure. Tributes have poured in for the star of hits like ‘Woz’uzobabona’, with the hashtags #DankieSan, #RipLindaMkhize and #RipProKid all trending in South […]

It was 30 years ago today, 8 August, that the guns in Angola finally fell silent and a ceasefire came into effect, ending the hostilities between South Africa, Angola and their Allies, including the Cubans. Earlier this year, in May, almost 100 South African military veterans travelled in convoy to revisit battle sites that have haunted […]

Tesla Inc’s board is evaluating taking the company private, a day after Chief Executive – and South African expat – Elon Musk surprised shareholders with the idea of launching the biggest leveraged buyout of all time! In a statement on Tesla’s website on Wednesday, six of Tesla’s nine directors said the board had met several […]

Recent statistics show that almost a million South Africans are living abroad, and judging by the current mood in the country – that figure is set to climb sharply in the following year, as an increasing number of South Africans are feeling hopeless, frightened and ‘gatvol‘… of services that don’t work, of crime that rises, […]

Ever since South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa announced last week that the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has resolved to make an amendment to the constitution to explicitly allow for conditional expropriation of land without compensation, tensions have run high in the country. While Ramaphosa was very clear that the reforms will NOT […]

Hell hath no fury like a vested interest threatened… writes Magnus Heystek. It’s a common lament that when an investment scheme collapses the victims always try to find someone to blame. How often have we heard the mournful cry of thousands of investors, now badly out of pocket and in some cases penniless, that “someone should […]

Parts of the Western Cape and Northern Cape have received snow this morning in South Africa, and some more isolated snowfalls are expected through the day, according to Snow Report SA. The snow has fallen on the anniversary of the 7 August 2012 snowfall in South Africa where parts of Gauteng received snow, turning Joburg […]

Rhodes University Vice Chancellor, Dr Sizwe Mabizela, lowered the University flag this morning in commemoration of third year Bachelor of Arts student, Khensani Maseko’s tragic passing on Friday, 03 August 2018. The flag will fly at half-mast until her funeral on Thursday. Khensani passed away by suicide, four days after she had reported a rape, […]

A South African chef, on a working holiday in Indonesia, has shared some incredible footage of the evacuation currently taking place from the island of Gili Trawangan to Lombok, where 91 people have died after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook the resort islands causing thousands of buildings to collapse. It was the second powerful earthquake […]

A third bus is now reported to have been set alight in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, Monday morning. It is believed to be related to a minibus taxi strike planned by taxi operators for today, although the SABC says this has not yet been confirmed. Two Golden Arrow buses were torched earlier this morning. Two fire […]