(Reuters) – The coast-hugging path that forecasters expect Hurricane Matthew to take as it moves up the Atlantic seaboard on Friday and Saturday could make the storm one of the most devastating ever to hit the U.S. Southeast, according to experts. If Matthew skirts the coast of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina as experts expect, […]

ORLANDO, Fla./MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Matthew, carrying winds of 120 miles per hour (195 kph), lashed Florida on Friday and cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes as it hugged the state’s Atlantic coast on a northward track after killing hundreds of people in Haiti. Matthew, the first major hurricane to threaten a direct […]

According to an anonymous message on Facebook, there is currently a Russian boat docked in Walvis Bay, Namibia, with a Chinese owner and crew who are seeking permission to catch a ton of dolphins, orcas and endangered African penguins to take back to China for an aquarium. The boat is allegedly equipped with tanks and devices […]

PRETORIA – Outgoing Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela has reported that her meeting on Thursday with South African President Jacob Zuma, and his legal team, was “cordial”. The meeting in Pretoria formed part of her investigation into alleged involvement of the Gupta family in such matters as the hiring and firing of Cabinet Ministers, securing of state contracts and other improper and perhaps […]

The Presidency says it is seriously concerned about the public attacks on President Jacob Zuma by some leaders in the gold mining sector. “While the Presidency respects the rights of citizens and leaders to freedom of speech, the business sector has many avenues to raise whatever concerns and issues it has with government and/or its […]

Awesome two-time Olympian Chad le Clos swam his way into the history books yesterday as he led South Africa to third place on the medals table at the two-day FINA / airweave World Cup in Dubai. In winning the 100-metre butterfly with a time of 49.14 seconds, Le Clos claimed his 100th World Cup gold medal! […]

PRETORIA – The price of all grades of petrol and diesel increased in South Africa on 5 October 2016. The Department of Energy said, based on current local and international factors, the price of petrol (93 ULP and LRP) was increasing by 44 cents per litre; petrol (95 ULP and LRP) by 43 cents per litre while diesel […]

In a week in which Professor Jonathan Jansen described the current protests at campuses around South Africa as a “tragic movie [that] does not end well”, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has invited all students, staff and alumni to attend a General Assembly on Friday 7 October from 11:00 to 12:30. Wits said: “It is […]

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has, on the recommendation of the National Assembly, appointed Advocate Busisiwe Joyce Mkhwebane as the new Public Protector for a period of seven years, with effect from 15 October 2016. The President – who recently had to pay back some of the costs of his Nkandla homestead upgrades thanks to a […]

DAVID MILLER and Andile Phehlukwayo both played the innings of their lives to get the Standard Bank Proteas across the line for a four-wicket win over Australia, with four balls to spare, at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead on Wednesday evening… to clinch the Momentum ODI Series by a 3-0 margin with two matches still to be played. […]

Sixteen-year-old Taahirah Zungu from Mafikeng in the North West Province in South Africa, was crowned as Miss Teen Universe 2016 in Turkey with World League of Beauty & Fashion. Taahirah was crowned at a ceremony in Bodrum. She also walked away with the titles of Miss Sympathy, Photomodel of the Universe and Best Talent in the Teen […]

The 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) has been released today. It is the 10th release by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and reveals overall significant improvement in governance over the past ten years across Africa, with unfortunately deterioration in Safety and Rule of Law holding progress back. Sadly South Africa is one of those that has deteriorated […]

Although South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has called for unity in addressing the current university fees crisis in South Africa, which has seen student protests raging on campuses around the country, his words appear to have distanced students even further… with many on Twitter calling his speech a “fail” and “empty”, displaying “no leadership”. Speaking […]

Thanks in part to the proliferation of fake South African passports and South Africans who perhaps arrive in New Zealand and never leave, New Zealand has become the latest country to make it a little more difficult for South Africans to visit their friends and family living in the country. As of 21 November this year […]

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson referred to the continent of Africa as “country” while delivering a speech on his first three months as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.  Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, Johnson said: “For all its difficulties, life expectancy in Africa has risen astonishingly as that country has entered the global […]

Conservationists have reacted with shock, outrage and bitter disappointment as it was announced in South Africa on Sunday evening that the CITES Committee has approved the ongoing trade in lion bone, setting “quotas” for the selling of bones of captive lions. Consumption of lion bone in Asia has increased over the past few years as […]

FAF DU PLESSIS led another splendid batting display with his sixth century, helping the Standard Bank Proteas to a massive 142-run win over Australia and a 2-0 lead in their Momentum One-Day International (ODI) series after the second match at Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on Sunday. The stand-in South Africa captain batted through a hand injury […]

Springbok coach Allister Coetzee said the Springboks 18-10 win over the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday, was an important boost to the team’s confidence for the remainder of the season. “It was an important win, not only for our confidence, but also self-belief,” said Coetzee. “I am a very happy man and […]

South African football player Jason Johannison, who moved to Australia when he was eight, has won one of his new country’s most prestigious sporting awards – the Norm Smith Medal! The AFL (Australian Football League) called his team’s win a “fairytale” that “stretched all the way to Johannesburg” because of Johannisen’s medal win. AFL.com.au described the 23-year-old […]

Late Friday night (30th October), lion conservationists were left feeling angry and frustrated at the fate of the once mighty and proud African Lion, when news broke that Lions may NOT be listed as a CITES Appendix I Endangered Species (a listing which would further safeguard lions from extinction). To decide the fate of the […]

South Africans – particularly those who live in the Eastern and Northern Cape – breathe about the cleanest air in Africa, according to a new WHO report on Air Pollution Exposure. WHO has released the findings from a ‘Country Estimates on Air Pollution Exposure and Health Impact’ study, with a new air quality model, that confirms […]

QUINTON DE KOCK struck the second highest ever score by a South African as the Standard Bank Proteas scored a crushing six-wicket victory over Australia in the first Momentum One-Day International (ODI) played at SuperSport Park on Friday. The young opener blasted 178 from 113 deliveries, clubbing 11 sixes and 16 fours along the way, […]

Congratulations to Capetonian photographer Micky Wiswedel whose awesome photo of athlete Jamie Smith won the Wings Category in the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2016, announced this week in the USA. The South African photographer headed over to Chicago for the Awards this week, telling friends as he left that he was “pretty damn stoked” to be […]

New evidence of Japan’s failure to control illegal ivory trading at a time when Africa’s elephants face extinction is revealed in a damning report released Wednesday*. The report from the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals the identities of four Japanese ivory trading companies that offered to sell elephant tusks to undercover investigators […]

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – SABMiller <SAB.L> shareholders overwhelmingly backed the brewer’s $100 billion-plus takeover by Anheuser-Busch InBev <ABI.BR> on Wednesday, clearing the last big hurdle for one of the largest corporate mergers in history. The combined group will sell more than a quarter of all beers sold worldwide and be the fifth largest consumer goods company. […]