SA publishers will challenge Google and Facebook (now Meta) at the Competition Commission, seeking compensation for use of their journalism by the two US technology giants.

A looting scene played out on a busy Durban road on Friday morning when a truck carrying alcohol lost its load.

Covid-19 cases have started to increase in almost all provinces, health minister Joe Phaahla confirmed in the latest coronavirus update.

The Biden administration will restart a contentious Trump-era border program that forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for US immigration hearings, in keeping with a federal court order, US and Mexican officials said on Thursday.

Poverty, poor infrastructure and natural weather variability are bigger contributors to Madagascar's food crisis than climate change, according to a study released on Thursday by international research collective World Weather Attribution.

The failure by the government to provide feedback on November 3 to small truck operators regarding the employment of foreign drivers in SA resulted in the blockade of the N3 near Van Reenen on Friday.

The government will meet in the next week to decide whether more stringent virus restrictions are needed following a surge in Covid-19 cases after the onset of the Omicron variant, says health minister Joe Phaahla.

Shell is, for now, free to proceed with its seismic survey of the ocean off the ecologically sensitive Wild Coast after four environmental and human rights organisations today lost their legal bid to interdict it from doing so.

An Ethiopian national was arrested and 33 alleged Ethiopian human trafficking victims were rescued in Glen Austin in Midrand by the Johannesburg metro police department K9 unit and police highway patrol.

Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom in Durban announced on Friday it was postponing its live entertainment line-up for the festive season.

Some said the sentence was too light considering the gruesome murder, while others said justice was served.

The current wave of Covid-19 fuelled by Omicron is seeing mainly mild cases in those who are vaccinated, but it shows “a very steep rise - steeper than the rise and curve from previous waves.”

The SA Human Rights Commission hearing into the deadly July riots and looting continues on Friday.

The case against 87 alleged illegal miners, “zama-zamas”, has been postponed in the Orkney magistrate's court to January 2022.

SA, which is contending with a massive upsurge in Covid-19 infections following the onset of the Omicron variant, is readying a mandatory vaccine policy and is set to implement it early next year, a senior labour union official said.

A man has been sentenced to an effective 25 years imprisonment for the murder of a civilian in Katlehong while the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) was enforcing the level 5 lockdown in 2020.

Makhura expressed concern that at least eight million adults in the province are not vaccinated.

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Health minister Joe Phaahla and his deputy Sibongiseni Dhlomo are on Friday giving an update on Covid-19 developments and government's strategy on the vaccination roll-out plan.

Truck drivers barricaded the N3 toll route early on Friday causing major disruptions to traffic at Van Reenen's Pass.

The Hospital Association of SA has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement that a task force has been put in place to look at the possibility of making  Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for specific activities and public places.

The NICD has warned that more variants could develop wherever the coronavirus is present, and said vaccination is among the most powerful tool in fighting the virus.

Prof Ndung'u says HIV research in South African has better equipped SA scientists in tackling Covid-19.

Here’s what’s hot in the latest edition of the Afrikaans digital weekly.

UKZN's Aerospace Systems Research Group succeeds in testing a rocket capable of placing satellites weighing up to 200kg into orbit.

The Gauteng government says residents must vaccinate if they don't want to go into a harder lockdown.

The Omicron variant appears to be able to evade immunity from prior Covid-19 infection, new data has suggested.

Zimbabwe has identified its first case of the omicron variant of Covid-19, a day after announcing a 10-day mandatory quarantine of all travellers entering the country.

Advocate Hermione Cronje, head of the National Prosecuting Authority's Investigating Directorate (ID), has resigned.

The Plettenberg Bay Rage festival has been cancelled a day before it was set to start. Ballito Rage in KZN was cancelled on Wednesday.