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A South African billionaire businessman has apologized for telling U.S. President Donald Trump that “Africa loves you” during the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. A video of Patrice Motsepe’s remarks to Trump went viral on social media and sparked outrage from people who disagreed with Motsepe and lambasted him for speaking on Africans’ behalf. In the video, Motsepe can be heard telling Trump during a group dinner that “Africa loves America. Africa loves you. It is very, very important. We want America to do well. We want you to do well. The success of America is the success...

Tim Tebow and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters are officially husband and wife. The couple tied the knot at the La Paris Estate in Cape Town, South Africa on Monday night, according to People magazine. The ceremony was about 30 minutes long, during which the former NFL quarterback and the Miss Universe 2017 winner read their own vows in front of over 250 guests. “I want the vows to be perfect,” Tebow told People. “I’m leaving in the traditional things like ’till death do us part,’ but I’m also adding some of my own things to it.” Nel-Peters wore a custom gown from...

Music from South Africa fits the moment we find ourselves in this weekend and so Hugh Masakela and Miriam Makeba followed by Four Jacks and a Jill who all contributed to the popular music scene in the late 1960's. South Africa was the place where around the turn of the 20th Century the first institutions known as "concentration camps" were established by the once mighty British Empire. According to Wikipedia some 26-thousand white South Africans 14-thousand black South Africans died in these places. Out of that experience embittered whites eventually formed a "Reformed National Party" that came to rule in...

Jan-Jan Joubert is a political commentator par excellence, having covered parliament since 2001 for various publications and journalistic platforms. In a previous lifetime, he was political editor of Die Burger, Beeld and Rapport, and deputy political editor of the Sunday Times. In the here and now, however, Joubert traverses our treacherous political landscape as a “freelance media agent”. Standing on the doorstep of a new decade, his latest book – Will South Africa be Okay? – raises 17 crucial questions about the way forward after the 2019 national elections.

South African telecoms firm MTN on Monday said it was reviewing allegations raised in a U.S. complaint which accuses several firms of paying protection money to militant Islamist groups in Afghanistan. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court in the District of Columbia on Friday. It alleges the firms violated the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act by paying protection money to al Qaeda and the Taliban, thereby providing material support to known terrorist organizations. It seeks damages on behalf of U.S. military members and civilians killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017.

JOHANNESBURG—Growing problems at South Africa’s state-owned enterprises are pushing major companies toward bankruptcy and subjecting the continent’s most developed economy to rolling blackouts that are choking growth. Earlier in December, flagship carrier South African Airways narrowly avoided collapse after the government loaned it 2 billion South African rand ($137 million) and ordered a restructuring. The cash injection came as South Africans watch eye-popping testimony from a national commission where witnesses allege corruption at the airline and other state-owned companies under former President Jacob Zuma. The airline’s plight reflects the broader malaise of the country’s mismanaged and heavily indebted state-owned companies...

South Africa’s state power company intensified rolling blackouts to a record, signaling a deepening crisis at the debt-ridden utility and raising the risk of a second recession in as many years. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. said on Monday it will move to Stage 6 load-shedding from 6 p.m. local time, meaning it will cut 6,000 megawatts from the national grid, after a technical problem at the giant new Medupi Power Station curbed supply. That’s the biggest cut yet. The utility downgraded the status to Stage 4 as of 10 p.m. The utility is curbing power for a fifth straight day...

Nader, Khawaja, Clintons, Pope Francis, and Elite Converge in UAE & Africa Welcome to the jungle of elites, criminals, and Pope Francis who all seem to have their eyes set on South Africa, while Russia and China run naval drills off the coast. It’s an interesting intersection of events and individuals. What’s more interesting is the timetable of recently indicted George Nader and Andy Khawaja, along with the Clintons and Pope Francis, that leads to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who also have a big interest in South Africa. With the recent African proverb spoken by Pope Francis, mixed in...

The 2019 Miss Universe competition has completed, and one aspect of the show that caught the attention of many was the reaction of host Steve Harvey after reading a question for a contestant about climate change. Somebody get that video to Al Gore ASAP! SNIP

The 68th Miss Universe Pageant will be broadcast tonight (Sunday, 12/8) live from Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, GA on the Fox Network. The pageant starts at 7PM ET and lasts three hours. It’s hosted by Steve Harvey for the 5th consecutive year and broadcast simultaneously on Telemundo in Spanish. The Pre-Shows start at 3PM ET on Telemundo. 90+ contestants from all over the world will be participating. My high school friend’s daughter is representing Puerto Rico (Madison Anderson) so we’ll be watching this evening and hoping that she brings the sixth Miss Universe crown to the island.

<p>Nowhere is the gendered double standard more apparent than in the Miss Universe competition.</p> <p>While women in all industries face professional hurdles, pageants are one of the only workplaces where they are required to wear ball gowns while doing so. In this annual competition, women are expected to be gorgeous, intelligent, and poised; to look good in a bikini, ace a question-and-answer segment, represent their entire nation and walk perfectly in high heels. Meanwhile Steve Harvey, the reigning male host, automatically exceeds expectations if he manages to read out the correct winner (and was somehow rehired after fucking up his one and only job).</p>

Sometimes the host of a beauty pageant can provide as much entertainment as the contestants. Even a perfectly timed eye roll can leave a mark. The 2019 Miss Universe pageant aired December 8 on Fox with Steve Harvey serving as the host. Ninety women from around the world participated. Unlike some other recent beauty pageants, though, this one was striking due to the lack of controversial remarks made by the women. Two questions and answers did raise an eyebrow, though during the segment with the final five contestants. Eventual pageant winner Miss South Africa, Zozibini Tunzi, was asked by Harvey...

..... To look for self-defeating behaviour at work we don’t have to go back to ages past. And there is nothing like trouble over public access to water to bring out behaviour of the worst kind. In 2019, touring the Eastern Cape I encountered towns and trendy resorts with this trouble. The government blamed drought. Residents who knew better blamed comrades out of their depth who’d got winks and nods from higher comrades to run town councils. Israel stepped up to the plate. The ambassador put Israeli know-how for desalination and other fresh water solutions at the disposal of dry...

A gun presented as evidence in a robbery trial has accidentally discharged in court, killing a prominent lawyer in a freak accident. A prominent South African barrister has been shot and killed in court after a gun presented as evidence in the trial went off. Senior state advocate Addelaid Ferreira-Watt died after the freak shooting at the Ixopo Regional Court on Monday when the shotgun dropped and blasted her in the left hip, News24 reported. “It is alleged that the weapon was brought to court to be entered as evidence in a house robbery case when it accidentally discharged in...

Trending on Twitter: Molly Jong-Fast, notorious Twitter Trump-hater and pathetic hack "journalist", writes for The Daily Beast about her interview with Lisa Page, noted Fibbie "woman-about-town". It's Festivus Day for little Lisa!!https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Lisa%20Page%22Lisa Page Speaks: ‘There’s No Fathomable Way I Have Committed Any Crime at All'https://www.thedailybeast.com/lisa-page-speaks-theres-no-fathomable-way-i-have-committed-any-crime-at-all

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey said this week that he plans to move to Africa for up to six months next year. The tech executive announced the planned move following a month-long trip visiting entrepreneurs on the continent. “Sad to be leaving the continent … for now. Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!),” Dorsey tweeted from Addis Ababa on Wednesday. “Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020. Grateful I was able to experience a small part.” Asked for comment, Twitter said in an email: “We’ve nothing to share beyond Jack’s initial...

The first-ever highway partially made of reclaimed plastic was inaugurated in Mexico on Nov. 13. The 2.5-mile stretch of highway in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico used 1.7 tons of recycled plastic, or the equivalent of 425,000 plastic packaging units, according to Dow Plastics Technology Mexico. "The advantage of using recycled plastic products is that they can be used on all types of highways, not only in high-performance products, which can extend the life span of any paved road," Paula Sans, Dow Mexico's director of packaging and specialty plastics, said in a release. The newly paved stretch of...

Very interesting stuff going on in the Mary McCarthy files. It appears many of us missed a few important connections: One aspect of her background so far comparatively unexamined is her West African uranium connection. She served in a key government position concerned with West African nations producing yellowcake uranium at the same time that Joseph Wilson was working in the area. The two may be considered members of the “yellowcake community” within the Clinton national security apparatus of the 1990s.There are more questions than answers for the moment, but yellowcake uramium is not only of strategic importance for WMD...

MSNBC host Joy Reid sternly warned at an event for the American Federation of Teachers union that white Christian Americans will cling to power with tactics that echo South African apartheid.

VIDEO It is the name that dares not speak its name around Valerie Plame. Although Plame falsely (according to a Washington Post fact check) accused Scooter Libby of leaking her name, the true culprit was Deep State insider Richard Armitage of the State Department. Just the sound of his name makes Valerie Plame very very uncomfortable.