The Weekend View

The Springboks will depart for Europe this afternoon (Saturday) for two warm-up matches, and the defence of their Rugby World Cup title in France. They are eager to become the first team to lift the Webb Ellis Cup for a fourth time. Our reporter, Liezl Olivier, spoke to former Springbok and now Cheetahs stalwart, Ruan Pienaar, about rugby's biggest showpiece, and South Africa's chances at the even...

The Human Sciences Research Council alongside the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation hosted a panel discussion on Zimbabwean ahead of the August 23 elections. The panel of experts looked at the pre-election environment in that country which has been characterised by violence. And they also looked at the prospects of free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe. Sebenzile Nkambule spoke to E...

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is hosting its Gauteng Provincial Congress where the party will elect new leadership ahead of the 2024 General Election. DA Federal Leader, John Steenhuisen, is expected to address delegates on the Moonshot Pact which he believes will usher in a new provincial government in Gauteng after next year's election. Incumbent Solly Msimanga is seeking a second term and he wil...

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Thursday insisted that his country will do with or without the support of the World Bank. He was responding to an announcement on Tuesday by the US-based global lender that it was suspending new loans to Uganda over what is considered among the world's harshest laws targeting LGBTQI communities enacted in May. Museveni said Uganda does not need pressure from a...

There is a collective sigh of relief after taxis started operating again in Cape Town yesterday following a weeklong stay away by SANTACO which turned violent leaving 5 people dead and thousands of commuters stranded. As the situation slowly returns to normal, it will be a lot longer for the tourism industry which suffered reputational damage after some countries issued travel alerts for the Mothe...

At yesterday's closing of the two-day National Dialogue on Coalition Governments at the University of the Western Cape, Deputy President Paul Mashatile called on the country to draw lessons from others and its own experiences on coalition governments. Mashatile gave examples of successful government coalitions when the  African National Congress (ANC) worked with the National Party at the national...

Banyana  Banyana has lost two-nil to the 2019 World Cup finalists, the Netherlands, in the crunch round of the 16-group fixture at the Sydney football stadium in Australia. Banyana is the first South African team, male or female, to get to the knockout stages of a world cup. Meanwhile, the curtain closes on the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town today with the final match between England and Aust...

The Western Cape E-hailing Association (WCEA), which represents different e-hailing services, yesterday announced that they were joining the Cape Town taxi strike. In a statement, the association said all their vehicles will be parked and not engage in any normal business with immediate effect. On Thursday, chaos, sporadic stone-throwing, and violence erupted on major highways in Cape Town as taxi...

Political parties taking part in the national dialogues on the coalition government have proposed a number of changes in the law to prevent the collapse of coalition governments. Some of the suggestions include a limit to the number of motions of no confidence to avoid it being abused for political reasons. Meanwhile, there are also reports that the Department of cooperative governance and traditi...

The military officers who seized power in the West African state of Niger 10 days ago have until today to restore Mohamed Bazoum as president or face military action from the Economic Community of West African States -  ECOWAS. In an intensification of the standoff coup leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani has declared that he will not bow down to pressure and urged his countrymen to get ready to...

There is a new banking scam you need to be aware of! The Ombudsman for Banking Services in South Africa is warning consumers about a new fraud technique that exploits a growingly popular contactless payment method to empty people's bank accounts. Fraudsters are using stolen card information - such as the card number, expiry date and CVV number -  to make purchases via digital payment wallets. Thes...

There are no surprises among the teams who will contest today's semifinals at the Netball World Cup 2023 in Cape Town with the top four on the latest world rankings all advancing in the competition. England will take on defending champions New Zealand and Australia will face Jamaica. Yesterday the Proteas beat Tonga 72-46 booking South Africa's place in the 5th-place playoff on Sunday. Meanwhile,...

 African leaders pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to move ahead with their plan to end the Ukraine conflict and to renew a deal crucial to Africa on the safe export of Ukrainian grain, which Moscow pulled out of last week. While not critical of Russia, the leaders appeared more concerted and forceful than they have voiced until now. That served as a reminder of the depth of Afric...

ANC veteran Dr Snuki Zikalala has been elected unopposed as the president of the ANC Veterans League. The ANC elders are holding  their conference in Boksburg, east of Johanesburg. Zikalala was nominated for president alongside three others, including former ANC treasurer-general and home affairs department director-general Mavuso Msimang, all of whom declined their presidential nominations. Msima...

South Africa's national rugby and netball teams had a good day at the office yesterday recording wins in the Rugby Championship and the Netball World Cup. The Springboks managed to grind out victory edging Argentina 22-21 in their final Rugby Championship fixture at Ellis Park Stadium in JHB. The trophy had however already been won by New Zealand earlier following a 38-7 victory over Australia, in...

 The EFF turned 10 years old this week and today the party will hold it's final celebratory anniversary rally at the 95 thousand seater FNB stadium in Johannesburg. EFF Commander-in-Chief, Julius Malema, is expected to address the gathering at noon. On 27 July 2013, the EFF National Assembly convened at Uncle Tom's Hall in Orlando West, Soweto. In it's decade of existence, the EFF has grown to bec...

The uncertainty of South Africa's economy and the risks attributed to the unstable performance of the Rand, as well as the current market volatility, has left a lot of consumers, savers, and investors feeling uneasy about what the rest of the year will look like for the financial planning goals they've set to achieve. Some South Africans can also remember the 2008 global financial crisis that resu...

115 CEOs from many of South Africa's largest companies have signed a pledge to offer their skills to the government to help alleviate the many crises that the country faces. The CEOs committed to helping solve country's energy, logistics and security issues. The pledge was signed THIS WEEK  by CEOs from Standard Bank, FNB, Shell, Anglo American, Napsers, MTN, and over 100 other major companies. Ca...

Areas near the explosion site in central Johannesburg have been without power since Wednesday afternoon, following a gas leak explosion. The City of Johannesburg Manager, Floyd Brink, says electricity and water will be restored to areas that the recent blast in the city centre has affected. He has also confirmed the structural integrity of the buildings adjacent to where the blast took place on Li...

Nominations for the ANC Women's league's officials took place last night and results are expected today after over 3000 delegates have voted for their preferred candidates. Former ANC Women's league Secretary General, Sisisi Tolashe received 1564 nominations, whilst ANC MP, Thembeka Mchunu got 796, the leagues former president, Bathabile Dlamini bagged 258 nominations. A moment of silence was also...

It's now just 5 days to go before the Netball World Cup 2023 is held in CapeTown, the first time on African soil.  A total of 16 netball teams will compete in the Mother City to lift this trophy and New Zealand are the defending champions. South Africa is competing in Group C against Wales, Sri Lanka, and Jamaica, with the Proteas' first game on Friday, July 28th, against Wales. We spoke to Netbal...

The ANC Women's League conference is expected to get under way at the NASREC Expo Centre, south of Johannesburg this morning after a slow start due to registration challenges yesterday. Last night the National Task Team Convenor Baleka Mbete delivered the league's political report in a session which was open to the media. Today will see the delivery of the league's organisational and financial rep...

President Cyril Ramaphosa will next week travel to St Petersburg for the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit on 27-28 July. Ramaphosa will join at least 40 other African heads of state and senior leaders for the meeting focusing on deepening cooperation between Moscow and African capitals. The summit will convene just over a week after the Presidency announced that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will no longe...

The National Truck Driver's Foundation says The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) deploying soldiers to four provinces in response to a series of truck torchings is just a temporary solution which does not address the real challenges in the industry and does not guaranteer safety in the future. SANDF head of communication, Siphiwe Dlamini, said that members have been deployed to KwaZulu...

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky's was left fuming this week after his country's hopes of quickly joining NATO were dashed during a meeting of the military alliance in Lithuania.   Zelensky went to Lithuania with high expectations of an assurance that his country would join Nato after the war with Russia was over. Instead NATO was non-committal simply telling Ukraine that it would be invited t...