To celebrate their 25th birthday, Engen management and employees embarked on a number of clean-up initiatives around the country – including beach clean-ups in coastal areas and river clean-ups for inland areas. In Cape Town, 100 employees were transported to Blaauwberg Nature Reserve yesterday where they spent the morning cleaning the area to make it […]

LUSAKA – Zambia has revived plans it suspended two years ago, after protests by animal rights activists, for the controlled slaughter of up to 2,000 hippos over the next five years, its tourism minister said on Monday. Charles Banda said the hippo population could not be supported by the water levels in the Luangwa river […]

South African department store chain Woolies announced Monday that it will remove single-use plastic bags from one of its Cape Town stores during a six-month trial period… in a bid to end plastic pollution. From November, Woolworths – which also has operations in Australia and New Zealand – will not offer any plastic bags at […]

Fabulous South African flowers and incredible exhibits are on display of this year’s Witness Garden Show in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. Regular SAPeople contributor Lorraine Scholfield was there and captured these stunning photos… The Garden Show is open from 9am to 5pm daily, and ends tomorrow – Sunday 9 September 2018. Proteas First… Blushing bride proteas Pincushion […]

We often think of Proteas as being Proudly South African (afterall, the King Protea is South Africa’s national flower), but how many of you knew that they’re actually widely distributed throughout the southern hemisphere… in places such as Australia, Tropical Africa, South America, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Malaya? This family apparently dates back […]

Here’s a message of caution for anyone planning on visiting the gorgeous fields of wildflowers in the Western and Northern Cape at the moment… check the vicinity carefully before you lie down amongst the petals to pose for a photo! What looks like a beautiful gentle scene could actually have turned into a tragedy. Capetonian […]

Every day, Ranger units encounter suspected poachers in the Kruger National Parks with up to three incursions with poachers taking place in the park daily. The SANParks rangers, have a huge responsibility on their shoulders and work tirelessly and risk their lives to safeguard our rhinos. Just last month, field ranger Respect Mathebula paid the […]

International actress Pearl Thusi and Humane Society International/Africa are exposing the ugly truth behind the “Snuggle Scam”. South African actress and wildlife advocate Pearl Thusi is collaborating with Humane Society International/Africa to warn residents – and especially travellers to South Africa – not to visit tourist attractions that offer lion cub petting and lion walks. […]

We have analysed the data, and can now answer this question. Much has been argued about the causes of the 2017 Cape Town water crisis. Is it the drought? Is it climate change? Is it population growth? Is it lack of foresight by national government or local government? Is it the rich? Is it the […]

“You feel so invigorated after a long walk through the cherry orchards of the Matroosberg mountains in Ceres!” says regular SAPeople contributor Nigel Riley, who captured the stunning photos on this page… South Africa received its biggest snowfall in ten years this week… #beautiful snow #beautiful Cape Town https://www.facebook.com/snowreportsa/posts/1582472298546785 Snowboarding, Matroosberg: https://www.facebook.com/SAPeople/videos/10155354904831949/ Video from Matroosberg Thursday […]

Burre Burger, founder of Droogtehulp, is urgently seeking help from fellow South Africans on behalf of farmers in the Eastern Cape and Southern Cape who are broken and desperate. Watch videos below. Despite the downpours in South Africa earlier this week, the heartbreaking photos and videos on this page – taken this week, on Monday […]

Forty shacks caught fire in two different areas of Johannesburg leaving many homeless, while a woman and baby have tragically died in township fires in the Western Cape… all believed to be a consequence of residents battling the intense cold front, which gripped parts of South Africa this week. Shacks alight. Mandela Park, Hout Bay. […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fossils of two amphibians that lived within the Antarctic circle 360 million years ago are forcing scientists to rethink the origins of land vertebrates, including where these pioneers first appeared and the climatic conditions that spawned them. Scientists said on Thursday they have unearthed partial remains of primitive Devonian Period amphibians named […]

Less than a 10th of all the plastic ever made has been recycled, and governments should consider banning or taxing single-use bags or food containers to stem a tide of pollution, a U.N. report said on Tuesday, U.N. World Environment Day. The study, billed as the most comprehensive review of government action to curb single-use […]

We all know that South Africa’s native Strelitzia is commonly called a ‘bird of paradise’… but turns out most of us have been looking at it wrong! A regular Reddit user, Charmito, posted the following pic and caption a few days ago, saying: “I’m 37 years old, and just today realized it’s called bird of […]

Two South African women – Makoma Lekalakala and Liziwe Mcdaid – have won the most prestigious environmental award in the world… for taking on the State, and stopping a proposed nuclear deal in its tracks. The winners of the international Goldman Prize were announced on 23 April 2018. Tonight, current affairs programme Carte Blanche will profile […]

Heavy rainfall in the past month (and even some good rain over Cape Town last night) has brought relief in most parts of South Africa, according to the Department of Water and Sanitation. In its weekly report yesterday, the Department said that the average dam levels have increased from 80.6% last week to 81.8% this […]

The Kalahari has been drenched in beautiful showers of wet, wonderful rain. The dry and arid soil, and vegetation, has soaked up the water and transformed the barren desert into a luscious green visual feast. ‎Local resident Pieter Kotzé, who works at Kalahari Rangers farm (formerly Mc Carthy’s Rest) on the Northern Cape border with […]

One of the most mind-blowing things about South Africa is its wildlife… writes Phil Maloney. Have you ever watched the National Geographic channel on TV? It’s like that, but with the added thrill of getting malaria (for real – if you go to the Kruger Park, take malaria medication). There are kabillions (rough estimate – […]

In February 2017, the city of Cape Town in South Africa was declared to be in a water crisis, and it was predicted it would become the first major city in the world to run out of water. DAY ZERO was looming, and coming closer if residents used too much water… It had all the […]

Capetonians are celebrating the news that Day Zero has been pushed back to 4 June 2018, as a result of the lowest daily consumption average yet of 529 million litres a day for the past week. Well done Cape Town!!! But as these photos – taken by Byron Martin on Sunday – show, more needs to be […]

While Capetonians awoke to a slightly overcast day, there is the promise that the latest Cold Front is going to start showering the region with much-welcomed rain later today, filling some of the Western Cape’s parched dams which have been drying up during its worst drought in recorded history. “Here comes thaaat Cape Town front […]

A South African woman has been seriously injured in an attack by a male leopard at Matopi 1 Camp on the Botswana side of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Unusually, she was inside her tent when the attack took place. This account of the attack was posted on 4x4community.co.za forum: On the night of the 4th of January my […]

It is summer time in the southern hemisphere and locals and tourists are flocking to the coast to enjoy the sunshine, salt air and some of the best beaches this part of the world has to offer. In southern Africa it’s also the time when great white sharks migrate closer to Cape Town’s shore to […]

Just after some South African streets – particularly in Pretoria – famously turn purple with Jacaranda petals, there’s a fabulously flamboyant flush of red flowers that are less well known. These are are Delonix regia… known in English as Royal Poinciana trees… or, quite aptly, Flamboyant trees! Fortunately Ria Viljoen in Pretoria and Sheryn Nader in […]