A new airline is preparing to start flights in South Africa next week, entering the industry at a time when carriers near and far are going bankrupt amid the worst crisis in aviation history. Lift, owned by Johannesburg-based leasing company Global Airways, will operate three Airbus SE A320 jets and …
Read More »Top South African official due in court over corruption charges
South African police have issued an arrest warrant against a top official of the governing African National Congress (ANC) party on corruption charges, a spokeswoman for the country’s elite Hawks police unit said. Ace Magashule, who told reporters he had done nothing wrong, has assured the party he will appear …
Read More »South African father sets house on fire killing himself and his two daughters
A 51-year old man, Gladwn Mboweni, is believed to have committed suicide in South Africa by setting his home on fire using a highly inflammable substance. His two daughters, 13-year old Minkateko and Tsakani Mboweni,9, also died in the incident which happened at Nkowankowa township outside Tzaneen in Limpopo. Mboweni was the …
Read More »White South African farmers burn police vehicle, racially abuse gov’t official in wake of murder
Lirandzu Themba, a spokeswoman for South Africa’s Ministry of Police has reported that callers, some of whom identified as disgruntled farmers in the town of Senekal, threatened and racially abused her following the murder of a farm manager in the town last week. The Police ministry had criticized a violent …
Read More »SA re-opens its borders to international traveller amid restrictions
Guided by the World Health Organisation’s regulations, South Africa will gradually re-open some its international borders from 1 October 2020 after a six-month closure to manage COVID-19 infection rates. Business and some leisure travel will take precedence as the country welcomes international travellers in a staggered approach. “Travellers intending to …
Read More »South African Airways operations suspended
Operations of South African Airways (SAA), the country’s national carrier, have been suspended with immediate effect. “This means SAA will complete repatriation flights that have already been scheduled but will not schedule any further flights,” Business Day news site reports. Administrators said they were putting the struggling state-owned carrier under …
Read More »Tax evasion and theft ‘rob Africa’ of $89bn a year: UN study
Africa is losing nearly $89bn a year in illicit financial flows such as tax evasion and theft, amounting to more than it receives in development aid, a new UN study shows. The estimate, published on Monday in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) 248-page report, is the …
Read More »South Africa about to reopen, but not to everyone
South Africa plans to begin a gradual and cautious resumption to opening its borders to international travel on October 1. President Cyril Ramaphosa warned, however, that travel may be limited to countries that do not have high infection and transmission rates. The list of permitted and prohibited countries has yet …
Read More »Six African heritage sites under threat from climate change
From rock art in southern Africa to pyramids along the River Nile, humans have been leaving their mark across the continent for millennia. But extreme weather events, the rise in sea levels and other challenges associated with the changing climate are threatening to destroy invaluable cultural landmarks, a recent study …
Read More »Coronavirus: WHO sets rules for testing African herbal remedies
The World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed rules for the testing of African herbal remedies to fight Covid-19. Sound science would be the sole basis for safe and effective traditional therapies to be adopted, it said. Any traditional remedies that are judged effective could be fast-tracked for large-scale manufacturing. Madagascar’s …
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