Twin brothers from Khayelitsha township in Cape Town have surmounted considerable odds over the years, and this week they will do it again by both graduating as doctors from Stellenbosch University. And their message: Believe in yourself. Wandile and Wanele Ganya grew up in J-Section of Khayelitsha, the sons of a domestic worker, Sylvia, who […]

The gorgeous exhibition of the Natural History Museum’s 51st Wildlife Photographers of the Year (WPY) has reached Cape Town, and includes the works of several South Africans among the winners. Its opening was attended by HRH Prince Harry during his visit to the country. The WPY says it champions ethical photography, where images are chosen for their […]

As holiday makers descend on Cape Town, the choice is to be quickly identified as an out-of-towner – whether it is by wearing khaki shorts and sensible shoes or holding a camera – or to fit in and act like a local. For anyone choosing the latter, here’s a handy guide to being a Capetonian. Dislike Johannesburg […]

Justice Malala’s book, “We Have Now Begun Our Descent: How to Stop South Africa Losing its Way”, does a number of things well. It reclaims the space for a particular kind of conversation among successful but ordinary South Africans – those who are not radical or particularly steeped in the eloquent and sometimes exclusionary new […]

Johannesburg and Cape Town won two of 10 environmental leadership awards during a ceremony that took place at the same time as the COP21 summit in Paris last week for their efforts to tackle climate change. The awards were given by C40 Cities, a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. The C40 Cities Climate […]

High tea – that sumptuous invention credited to the Duchess of Bedford to quell the pangs of hunger between lunch and dinner – is still part of the culture at a range of hotels in Cape Town. So settle back and raise your pinkie as you enjoy the savoury and sweet treats found at some of the best high tea spreads […]

Whether you call it shweshwe, shoeshoe or isishweshwe, the indigo cloth or Germanic print that has been a part of life in Southern Africa since missionaries gave some to Lesotho’s King Moshoeshoe I is probably trendier now that it’s ever been. Many young designers are tapping into the designs and motifs used for shweshwe cloth for postmodern inspiration. […]

Everything from unidentified flying objects over Durban’s UFO-like stadium to women taking to the roads of Cape Town – to fix them, no less – to reminiscences about walking the famed “camino” trail across northern Spain, those are a few stories you might not have seen this week. 1. Good grief, green light a UFO? The […]

It started with one picture of shoes lined up against a wall, posted on Facebook by Fish Hoek High School in Cape Town, and another two pictures of students walking away from them shoeless. And it quickly grew into a storm of good news across the country. “As our Matric class of 2015 finish writing […]

Jenny Crwys-Williams, the well-known talk show host, was driving home in Johannesburg this week when she saw something that took her totally by surprise… “How fabulous is this?” Crwys-Williams wrote on Facebook. “Driving through Craighall Park I thought I saw a scarecrow. So I turned round, parked & walked down the road and sure enough, it […]

BLOEMFONTEIN – A full panel of five judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa has found Oscar Pistorius guilty of murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, saying that the lower court erred in its decision of culpable homicide. The ruling was read on Thursday by Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Eric Leach. He […]

PRETORIA – During the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to South Africa for the China-Africa summit this week, the two countries signed 26 agreements worth R94 billion ($6.5 billion) on Wednesday, the South African government announced. Xi arrived in South Africa on Wednesday from Zimbabwe, ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in […]

Almost 60 percent of Africans believe that corruption in their countries has increased over the past year, although in South Africa this figure is 83 percent, according to a new survey released on Tuesday. According to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer for 2015, done together with Afrobarometer, it spoke to 43,143 respondents across 28 countries […]

South Africa has made incredible strides providing anti-retroviral treatment to millions of people since 2004. HIV has been transformed from a grim and inexorable death to a chronic disease controlled with a cheap, safe tablet-a-day, rendering a person with HIV healthy and non-infectious. Treatment is freely available at primary care clinics, administered largely through nurses. […]

HARARE – The Chinese president, who is on his way to South Africa for an Africa-China summit, is stopping off in Zimbabwe first, making him what media have called the most important foreign leader to visit the country since independence in 1980, according to news reports Tuesday. On Friday and Saturday Xi Jinping will attend the Forum […]

A new book by veteran South African journalist John Matisonn claims that once-beloved (by many readers, at least) editor of the Sunday Times, Tertius Myburgh, was an apartheid spy and that Thabo Mbeki tried to warn US and UK leaders off attacking Iraq. These are two of numerous revelations made in the just-published “Gods, Spies and […]

Two weeks ago in Kruger National Park clients of Wild Wings Safari came across an elephant calf stuck in a muddy hole. Try as it might, with lots of encouragement from one particular adult, it just couldn’t make it. Finally, however, after a few other elephants had come to check out the scene, the adult got down and […]

There’s nothing quite as sad as a weekend market that’s empty but for a couple of aunties bravely trying to sell their crocheted doilies and koeksusters. Well, those days are gone if these 10 weekend markets around South Africa are anything to go by. From the trendy Neighbourgoods Market in Johannesburg, where people hang out quaffing wine overlooking the […]

Dreaming of a fabulous holiday to South Africa? While few holidaymakers in the past probably thought of renting someone else’s home – or even a room in it – the US company Airbnb seems to be changing all that around the world, especially in South Africa – and your holiday options are now quite spectacular…as seen in the photos below. Airbnb’s home/room/couch-rental […]

It has been only three weeks since Tanzania elected John Magufuli, the son of a farmer, to take over from Jakaya Kikwete, whose government was scarred by scandals and excesses, and it’s already clear why the can-do, cost-cutting, austere, corruption-hating new leader is known as Iron Fist and the Bulldozer. There might be tongue-in-cheek celebrations on Twitter – […]

A slick new video made by a young German doing a trip around South Africa – great music, thrilling footage from a drone – includes a scene less than halfway through that might throw some viewers into a moral dilemma. He rides an elephant. The scene is jarring because in the rest of the video, titled “For that […]

The traditional huge post-Thanksgiving sale day in the US, Black Friday, had South Africans lining up outside stores early on Friday, with stores packed with shoppers and, in some cases, even battles over cheap Coca-Cola. Checkers, which together with Shoprite is one of the biggest promoters of Black Friday this year, put out an ad beforehand […]

Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Front, addressed the Oxford Union at Oxford University on Wednesday during a trip to the United Kingdom, including in his speech everything from expats to Nelson Mandela. Here are some of his quotes to the “most famous debating society in the world” pulled from the news media. On rich South […]

NEW YORK – South Africa joined 13 other countries including North Korea, Sudan, Syria, China, Russia and Zimbabwe on Wednesday to vote against adopting the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, according to news reports. The declaration recognises the extreme importance and legitimacy of human-rights activity, and those who carry it out. Fourteen countries voted against the bill in […]

This week saw a South African win an award for his searing documentary, another magical multitudinous meditation on the beach in Cape Town and the opening of a hot new design centre in downtown Johannesburg. Plus much more. Remembering Cecil – March in London South African opponents of hunting, canned hunting and petting of lion cubs march […]