South Africa has once again been plunged into darkness on Thursday morning when stage 2 load shedding was implemented countrywide due to the delay to return five generation units to service and a further two units went offline. Some will be experiencing their loadshedding later today. Eskom has issued warnings of a “severely constrained” power system and […]

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s despatch of envoys to Zimbabwe in a bid to defuse the latest crisis, in which the government has engaged in a vicious crackdown on opponents, journalists and the freedoms of speech, association and protest, has been widely welcomed. Such has been the brutality of the latest assault on human rights […]

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen says it is high time for President Cyril Ramaphosa to “grow a spine, stand up to his party and start putting South Africa first”, in his party’s call for the South African president to end hard lockdown immediately and end the “irrational bans on tobacco and alcohol”. In a […]

Dr Naledi Pandor, Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Minister, sits down for a very candid interview: Naledi Pandor on her parents “Our parents played a very important role, especially our mother. Our father was very active in politics, in the struggle and so our mother was the one who was at home,” International […]

While the best available estimates show that over 3 million people in the private sector have already lost their jobs and that a fifth of private sector employees did not receive a salary in June as a result of the ANC lockdown crisis, the DA says it can exclusively reveal that at least 84 337 […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Dr Sydney Mufamadi and Baleka Mbete as Special Envoys to Zimbabwe following recent reports of “difficulties that the landlocked country is experiencing”, the Presidency said. The “difficulties” referred to include reports from those in Zimbabwe of security forces unleashing a brutal and sometimes physically violent clampdown on citizens across the […]

National Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane says an instruction will be issued to government departments across all spheres to halt the emergency procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) as the State tightens the lid against corruption. At a joint virtual meeting of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces Finance Committees on Wednesday, Mogajane said […]

The number of new COVID-19 cases identified on Wednesday is 8 686, bringing the number of infections since the outbreak to 529 877. With 414 new fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll now stands at 9 298. Of the additional deaths, 135 were recorded in the Eastern Cape, 122 from Free State, 62 from […]

COVID-19 has wrought havoc on poor households in countries across the world. In South Africa, more and more people are facing hunger resulting from mass job losses and small, poorly implemented supplementary cash grants. On top of this the pandemic has put in stark relief the country’s poorly understood food system, in which powerful firms […]

Keeping a promise to maintain a clean administration, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said today that a lifestyle audit showed that all members of his cabinet and their spouses live a lifestyle in line with their income and that there were no conflicts of interest. “When I became Premier last year, I committed to clean […]

Dear Mr President The Covid-19 pandemic caught the entire globe by surprise, and despite this, South Africans willingly joined the fightback in March. The pandemic has had severe effects on the populations of the world – economic collapse, hunger, and poverty have been exacerbated in countries already struggling with internal issues such as inequality, high […]

Eskom and the Special Investigating Unit today issued a summons in the North Gauteng High Court to recover R3.8 billion, lost to state capture, from former Eskom executives including Brian Molefe and Anoj Singh, former cabinet minister Mosebenzi Zwane, former board members, members of the Gupta family and others. “The funds were lost in a […]

Across the world, the higher education sector is changing because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Conversation Africa’s Nontobeko Mtshali asked vice-chancellors from three South African universities to share their insights about what these changes could mean for the country’s higher education landscape. What long-lasting changes to South Africa’s higher education sector has the pandemic brought? […]

The ANC Parliamentary Caucus says it has decided to take firm action – through an internal disciplinary process – against ANC MP Boy Mamabolo, who threatened Sunday World Journalist Ngwako Malatji… allegedly threatening to shoot him and “kick his testicles”. “We denounce the alleged unbecoming behavior of the ANC Member of Parliament. As an MP, […]

Hundreds of community members turned up today outside the magistrate’s court in Hartswater in the Northern Cape of South Africa, where five suspects appeared for the murders of Breggie (73) and Danie Brand (83) and their daughter Elzabie (54) which has shocked the nation. The peaceful protesters from Hartswater and surrounding communities carried posters condemning […]

Many South Africans living abroad are losing the right to work, receive healthcare and remain legally resident in foreign countries because the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has been unable to process their passports and other crucial documents in a timely manner, says Democratic Alliance (DA) Abroad Leader, Dr Rory Jubber. While passport renewal applications […]

The former Commissioner of Correctional Services, Linda Mti, and four others have appeared in the Pretoria Specialized Commercial Crimes Court in connection with charges relating to four tenders worth over R1.8 billion awarded to the now infamous Bosasa company of Gavin Watson, who died in a car crash late last year. The company allegedly went […]

Dear Family and Friends writes Cathy Buckle from Zimbabwe. I write this letter from a bitterly cold Zimbabwe where tension is high and people are anxious. There are 300,000 civil servants in Zimbabwe. A month ago they were promised a “cushioning” allowance of US$75 a month for the next three months and pensioners would get […]

The illegal trade in cigarettes in South Africa has been booming for decades but when lockdown regulations banned the sale of smokes, it increased demand in the black market like never before. Overnight, furious smokers became blue-collar criminals illegally purchasing cigarettes from their neighbourhood dealers. But small-time dealers lead to high-stakes criminal syndicates. Now in […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has today, Monday 27 July,  launched two #StopFarmAttacks websites – one in Afrikaans and the other in English – and called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to retract his comment denying farm murders. The website contains an open letter to the South African President urging him to apologize for his “untrue and […]

Two men have been arrested over the sale of cigarettes in the Northern Cape of South Africa, in contravention of the Disaster Management Act regulations. Meanwhile in Gauteng over 600 people were arrested over the weekend in a blitz on those breaking the #Covid19 regulations. Members of Springbok Public Order Police arrested the first male […]

For months, train stations went silent as the national lockdown in South Africa forced millions of commuters to stay home, but on the railway tracks, opportunistic criminals went to work targeting state facilities that had been left non-operational. Looting on the Train Tracks In a special investigation produced by Nicky Troll, Carte Blanche goes deep […]

Children born in other countries are entitled to South African citizenship as long as one parent is South African, the Constitutional Court has ruled. A seven-year legal battle is finally over and the court has ruled that the Department of Home Affairs must immediately recognise as citizens Yamika Chisuse, born in 1989 in Malawi; Martin […]

Anti-apartheid struggle hero Andrew Mokete Mlangeni, who died this week at the age of 95, was the last surviving of the eight African National Congress (ANC) activists who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Rivonia trial in the 1960s. Mlangeni spent 20 of his 26 years in jail on Robben Island alongside fellow […]

The DA says it does not support the decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to close schools in South Africa for four weeks. “President Ramaphosa has bent the knee to all-powerful teachers’ unions, in particular SADTU, who do not have the best interests of learners at heart,” said DA Leader John. “This is not leadership. President […]