SA Tourism has launched a new video ad campaign which showcases South Africa with breathtaking cinematography…coupled with a fairly sombre message asking potential tourists to “reconsider” South Africa. The video, with a British voice-over, begins by posing the question: “what is beauty?”. After  answering with a stream of stunning visuals of SA scenes, as well as using sentences […]

Since the National Elections, many of those South Africans overseas who made a massive effort to vote have raised questions about the election process from the mysterious VEC10 form to the lack of voting stations and the distressing news for those in four cities that their votes were never even counted in the end. In a blog post […]

Bafana Bafana have left today for their Australasia tour…and they need our support! So if you’re an expat in that region, please go cheer them along on 26 May (Australia) and 30 May (New Zealand). The football team faced a major crisis in the days leading up to their departure, as many players withdrew from the […]

Here’s an interesting TED talk by an American finance executive, Mellody Hobson, imploring businessmen and citizens to make a concerted effort to not ignore race. She argues that speaking openly about race creates better businesses and a better society. Mellody happens to be one of the only two black women in the USA to chair […]

South African “lion whisperer” Kevin Richardson’s videos of him playing, wrestling and hugging lions have become famous throughout the world. But his latest one has a very stylish twist. In this video Kevin plays football with the lions whilst dressed in a very larni suit. The video, which was created for fashion house Van Gils, has […]

British Supergroup One Direction announced today that they will be touring South Africa next year. The band released a statement this morning saying “here’s a bit of a huge announcement for you. Who’s ready for ANOTHER tour in 2015? The ‘On the Road Again Tour’ to be exact! IDHQ x” Apart from South Africa, the […]

South Africa’s version of Burning Man – Afrika Burn – has become the largest, and many would say the best, of over a hundred worldwide burning events that have been inspired by the original hedonistic art festival in Reno, Nevada. Burning Man in Reno has become a popular destination for, amongst others, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Facebook’s […]

It is with extreme sadness that we share the news that beloved member of Johnny Clegg’s band, Bongani Masuku, passed away last night. The following message was posted on Johnny Clegg’s facebook page a couple of hours ago: “It is with shock, anger and deep felt sadness that we mourn the violent killing last night […]

The Cell C Sharks game today versus The Crusaders at their home turf in New Zealand, will go down in history. Not only because the Sharks defeated the Crusaders for the first time ever in Christchurch in Vodacom Super Rugby history, with their 30-25 win which keeps them at the top of the log. But […]

Gauteng businessman, Agang SA supporter and Facebook commentator Tshepo Motsitsi writes an open letter to Dr Ramphele: I’m ambivalent about open letters but if I were to write an open letter to Dr Mamphela Ramphele it would be along these lines: Dear Dr Ramphele, In 2013 I got actively involved in politics inspired by your […]

For those who haven’t visited Durban for a while – it’s changed. And for the better! Durban’s beachfront has been undergoing a wonderful transformation with a beach promenade, revegatation programme, increased security and a tighter rein on litter. Local resident Richard Cousens, who took these photographers of Durban beachfront at dawn says “the best thing that […]

Mango Groove has been forced to cancel their forthcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand, leaving band members John Leyden “gutted” and Claire Johnston “disappointed beyond words”. Leyden, guitarist and founder of the South African band, said: “What can I say? We are gutted. We have been looking forward to this tour for many months now, […]

The South African National Parks (SANParks) has announced the tragic news of the first confirmed elephant poaching incident in the Kruger National Park (KNP) during the past decade. The Park has been a renowned target for rhino poachers, but elephants have remained safe in the Kruger for over ten years. Until now. According to SANParks’ Acting […]

The following blog post, written by TGIF’s Thorsten Marbach, was shared by a few of his friends on Facebook yesterday. It’s a message for all South Africans. Thorsten,  a thought-leader who talks every Friday at a Seattle coffee shop in Johannesburg, wrote: With the elections over, do we settle down to outsourcing the leadership of our nation […]

In April 2013 South African journalist Rowan Philp, who was based in Boston USA at the time, wrote an article for the Mail & Guardian about the very many successful South African expats in the USA and their incredible contribution to the rest of the world. The article was popular and before you could say ‘social […]

A South African by the name of Mandy (or Mando as they like to say in Australia) has proved to Australian radio listeners that the South African accent CAN be sexy! And that South African women aren’t shy! Popular Aussie Radio DJ Tim ‘Rosso’ Ross, who presents the afternoon ‘Rosso on Drive’ show on KIIS106.5 […]

The final results of the 2014 South African Elections have been announced by the IEC tonight. A record 29 parties contested the 2014 Elections, of which 13 received enough votes to secure representation in National Assembly. As predicted, the majority party in South Africa’s fifth National Assembly is the African National Congress (ANC), with a […]

Unfortunately the votes from four overseas cities have not been counted as they did not reach South Africa before the IEC’s deadline of 9 pm tonight. The four cities are: Toronto, Havanna, Madrid and Lubumbashi. According to a message on Vote Home SA’s Facebook page: “Please note that this was due to the votes being […]

The international votes are in with an overwhelming majority win for the Democratic Alliance (DA). The DA has won 84.44 % of the international votes, with the African National Congress (ANC) in second position with 8.32%. There was a total of 18,132 valid overseas votes with 15,311 of these being for the DA, and  1,508 for the ANC. Agang, […]

As news comes this afternoon that the Nigerian Government apparently knew of Boko Haram’s planned kidnapping of over 240 schoolgirls from a school in Chibok…but failed to act, we publish (with permission) South African businessman and commentator Tshepo Motsitsi’s take on the lack of response from foreign governments  to try to rescue these girls. Two hours ago Amnesty International announced that: […]

UPDATE (9.15 pm, 08 May 2014): Helen Zille from the DA has just tweeted: “Re the ballots that were found: auditing has established that they WERE counted before they were “dumped”. No fraud suspected” – pls see further updates below. Helen Zille, Leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), has responded to reports of ballot papers […]

Lisa Ashton, CEO and founder of The Winnie Mabaso Foundation, is outraged by a luxury resort in South Africa offering a “Shanty Town” experience to local and overseas visitors. Here she explains why in an open letter to readers everywhere: FROM LISA ASHTON: Yesterday as South Africans all over the country cast their vote I was reminded of many […]

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) announced tonight that so far 17,906 votes from South African overseas have been counted. These votes have been captured by 106 foreign missions. The IEC is still awaiting the final votes from a remaining 10 missions. These need to be received by 9pm tomorrow night. The IEC said […]

Updated 8.35 pm, Friday 9 May 2014: Provisional results of the 2014 South African Elections are almost complete. As predicted the country’s ruling party – the African National Congress (ANC) – took an early lead with 59.09% of the votes by 11.15 pm last night, and by midnight had already surpassed the 10,000 mark vote tally. By 8.35 pm […]

Here’s a great guide to computer lingo in South African terms, from an email doing the rounds… Log On – Make the braai hotter Log Off – The braai is too hot Monitor – Keeping an eye on the braai Download – Get the firewood off the bakkie Hard drive – Trip back home without any […]