The SA Medical Research Council’s waste water surveillance team has detected rapidly rising concentrations of Covid-19 fragments in samples collected from facilities in rural areas.

The Johannesburg magistrate’s court on Friday dismissed former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini’s application to have her perjury case discharged.

The police have apprehended a 38-year-old man for attempted murder after a night of carousing with a lover allegedly went sour.

At least 27 people were feared dead after a fire swept through a psychiatry clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, and media said police were investigating suspected arson.

The Australian authorities on Friday continued investigating the deaths of five children after a jumping castle was lifted into the air from strong winds at a school end-of-year celebration as condolences flowed into the grieving small coastal city.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party lost control of a previously safe parliamentary seat on Friday in a surprise election result interpreted as a voter backlash against a British leader beset by crises and scandal.

Activists are taking oil giant Shell to court over its Wild Coast seismic survey on Friday after another application on the same matter was dismissed two weeks ago.

Magopeni was charged in November for alleged negligence and bringing the public broadcaster into disrepute.

Former SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng has seven days to pay back the more than R11.5m “success fee” paid to him by the public broadcaster in 2016.

Most Covid-19 patients who died in SA hospitals since mid-November were unvaccinated or partly vaccinated.

Police minister Bheki Cele says law enforcement agencies are ready to handle any unrest that could be prompted by former president Jacob Zuma being ordered to return to jail.

Only 17% of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA's network in Gauteng is functional, transport minister Fikile Mbalula revealed during a written response.

A 51-year-old woman has been arrested after she allegedly killed her boyfriend following a dispute over his 13th cheque, Eastern Cape police said.

A Western Cape unemployed mother of five who depends on a social grant to care for her family has bagged R14m in the Lotto jackpot.

All provinces are technically in the fourth wave of infections, except for Northern Cape, which will hit the technical definition soon.

A man wanted for a cash-in-transit heist which occurred two months ago was arrested at his hiding place in Soshanguve in Pretoria on Thursday, the Hawks said.

SA is giving 2-million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to African countries in 2022.

Health minister Dr Joe Phaahla and his deputy Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo are briefing the media virtually on Friday regarding Covid-19 developments and the vaccination programme in SA.

The United Arab Emirates said it would embed in anti-money laundering regulation requirements that gold refineries source from responsible suppliers and undergo annual audits to ensure they are doing so.

While studies into the relationship between Covid-19 and vaping are ongoing, the World Health Organisation has noted factors that could lead to smokers contracting the coronavirus or making its symptoms more severe.

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

Should rhino translocations to other countries in Africa be encouraged?

The flames of SA's celebrated pastime of braaiing - especially over the festive season - have been partially doused by record-high meat prices for December.

Coronavirus live updates

A freelance video journalist accredited to the Associated Press and two other local journalists have been detained in Ethiopia, according to police and the country’s media regulator.

A small study of sevenCovid-19 cases in SA shows the Omicron variant can break through booster vaccine shots, one of the scientists involved said.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases reported an additional 36 Covid-19 related deaths and 24,785 new cases in SA on Thursday.

There is confusion over the fate of Libya's election that has not yet been formally delayed, but that an electoral official says will be impossible to hold on time.

Britain does not believe tighter border measures are effective when the Omicron variant has spread so widely.

Tunisia's parliament speaker Rached Ghannouchi said on Thursday he refused to suspend the parliament for another year.