As the pandemic continues to plague the entire nation, the Electoral Court has since been forced to postpone the by-elections that were set for June due to COVID-19. In a statement released on Tuesday, the Electoral Commission said it welcomed the decision and that it will revise the by-elections timetable accordingly. “The Electoral Court today […]

A slew of countries ranging from the US to Brazil to Singapore to South Africa have decided to give people money in response to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. While the amounts and details of the grants have varied, these governments have all made it clear that such payments are a short-term […]

An earlier decision by government to allow the sale of cigarettes during the COVID-19 lockdown was rescinded after the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) consulted medical experts and various role-players. President Cyril Ramaphosa said this on Monday after sections of society implied that Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had arbitrarily gazetted the […]

This week, Carte Blanche investigates how the Corona Virus turned our world upside down. You can watch the show on Sunday 3 May in South Africa on DStv Now or stream it overseas in most countries from Tues 5 May if you’re abroad. COVID-19 in Wastewater – Early Warning of Infection? With the virus that causes […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared days of national mourning for the struggle stalwart Denis Goldberg who passed away in the early hours of Thursday. In terms of this declaration, the National Flag is to fly at half-mast at every station in the country from Friday, 1 May 2020 to Monday, 4 May 2020, as a […]

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has conveyed his condolences following the passing of Rivonia trialist and Esteemed Member of the Order of Luthuli, Denis Theodore Goldberg. “My thoughts are with Denis Goldberg’s family and his comrades around the country and around the world. This is a sad moment for our nation and a moment for […]

South Africans “celebrate” Freedom Day through gritted teeth, with a wry smile and an acute sense of irony, this year. Many, if not most, will be lamenting the loss of freedom due to the COVID-19 lockdown. For most professionals, there will be no public holiday, since days slide seamlessly into one another, punctuated only by […]

Many are hailing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech on Thursday night as one of the best in South African history. None captured the spirit as well as writer and animal rights activist, Herman H Le Roux, whose words written straight after Ramaphosa’s address to the nation have gone viral on social media, sometimes without his credit, […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it is extremely concerned by ongoing violent community protests outside the Ntunjambili Hospital in Kranskop, allegedly as a result of residents not wanting Covid-19 patients to be isolated when treated at the facility. While the protest action was eventually broken up by the South African Police Service (SAPS) through the […]

After many unanswered calls by government departments, the Public Service Commission has appealed to them to update contact details on their websites so citizens can reach them. Many have not been updated despite lockdown being in effect for three weeks already. The PSC said it has been inundated with unanswered calls and unreachable numbers. The […]

The South African government should massively ramp up its “insufficient” spending to cushion the country from the economic and social ravages of the Covid-19 lockdown and the pandemic, says the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) in a policy document. The think tank has released a detailed emergency rescue package which it says the state should […]

What strategy should South Africa follow to contain the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus after the current 35-day lockdown? Any strategy should be informed by the trajectory of the disease, the effectiveness – or otherwise – of the current lockdown and how the particularities of the country will interact with the virus. These include high […]

Parliament has resumed its business with immediate effect, starting virtual meetings and cancelling the upcoming leave period for MPs, the presiding officers have announced. Parliament was suspended last month as a precautionary measure to curb COVID-19. Briefing the media on Thursday, National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise and National Council of Provinces Chairperson Amos Masondo said […]

Following reports alleging that black African nationals, in particular, are being discriminated against in China as an anti-foreigner sentiment sweeps parts of the country, blaming them for causing the second outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, South Africa’s DIRCO Minister Naledi Pandor has said she believes Chinese authorities will attend to this “awful” […]

With this week’s arrest of the Gupta brothers in Dubai, it’s worth watching ‘How to Steal A Country’ – a fascinating and shocking documentary, by an Emmy award-winning filmmaker, on the rise and fall of the Gupta family and how they managed to ‘steal’ South Africa. (Updated 8 June 2022) As hard as it is […]

Any person or small business in the tourism sector, regardless of their skin colour, can apply for financial relief from the Tourism Relief Fund, says Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane. The minister said this following Afriforum’s announcement that it had served the department with court papers calling for the review of the Tourism Relief Fund. There […]

We are a group of concerned citizens and educational activists and South African leaders, with the support of the National Association for Social Change Entities (NASCEE). We have heard Minister Motshekga’s interview on e.TV on 10 April, and understand that a Recovery Plan will be tabled to the Cabinet in the course of the week. […]

As the world staggers under the catastrophic impact of eating a wild animal, probably a pangolin, the South African government has reclassified 130 wild animals as meat. The next pandemic could be round the corner with its epicentre at the southern tip of Africa. South Africa has embarked on a mission to commercialise and commoditise […]

A Bloemfontein mother’s open letter to the SA president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is striking a chord with South Africans around the nation. Writing in Afrikaans, Cathy de Lange, a blogger and owner of Meringue Mama, says she knows the chance of the president reading her letter is very slim, but that the message was heavy on […]

Lwazi Sithole has lived on the streets of Durban for over eight years, but since the national lockdown to disrupt the spread of Covid-19, the 28-year-old has moved to the Denis Hurley Centre, and has started to rethink his life… writes Nokulunga Majola. “I had forgotten what life is like off the streets. Here at the […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his condolences at the passing of Freedom Front Plus founding leader and former Chief of the then South African Defence Force, General Constand Viljoen. Aged 86, Viljoen passed away peacefully on Friday afternoon at his farm in Ohrigstad, Mpumalanga. The President offered his sincere condolences to Risti Viljoen and the […]

One of the world’s leading news broadcasters, the BBC, has praised South Africa for its “ruthless efficiency” in fighting the coronavirus, and for its “formidable leadership”. “South Africa seems to have acted faster, more efficiently, and more ruthlessly than many other countries around the world,” says the BBC, stating that more than 47,000 have been […]

It is a fact that 70% of cars in South Africa are not insured (see AA’s research below); and for this reason, the Government is working on a plan that makes third-party car insurance mandatory in South Africa. Uninsured car problems affect both motorists and pedestrians. If an accident is carried out by a person […]

Tonight Carte Blanche visits Bloemfontein Zoo where animals were left starving after the zoo was closed down a few months ago. Some even died. Fortunately it was announced in the last week that most have now been relocated to ethical facilities. The current affairs show also investigates how COVID-19 will affect the economy here in […]

The DA says it welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement Monday evening of a nationwide lockdown and the deployment of the South African National Defence Force. DA Leader John Steenhuisen said after the speech: “These measures are of critical importance in our efforts to combat the spread of the Coronavirus through our communities and contain, as […]