Yoh! Just as I was coming to terms with the Stazi in Parliament and people in funny hats not being the 80s flashback I thought it was, on paying for my much cheaper diesel yesterday, I caught the lunchtime news. That chap Julius is a miracle worker. Seriously. Not only has he inadvertently united South […]

Eish, Johnny Clegg is an inspiration on so many levels. Check how the legendary South African still unites, and dances with energy at the age of 61. The video was filmed by Marguerite Nokuthula de Villiers at the End of Year farewell dance outside Jeppe Hostel a couple of months ago, in December. In a previous interview […]

Yesterday marked the twenty-fifth anniversary since Nelson Mandela walked free – on 11 February 1990 – after 27 years in apartheid prison. It was an event that had been unthinkable to most South Africans, and the world, until only a few weeks before. Here is a fascinating look back at how South African newspapers reported on the […]

The 2015 Gourmand World Cookbook Award judges have chosen “Durban Curry, So Much of Flavour,” by Erica Platter and Clinton Friedman (PawPaw Publishers) as their South African Book of the Year. “It is outstanding, vibrant with passion and culture,” commented the judges. “Durban Curry” is also the winner of the South African Heritage and Indian […]

I live in Australia and over the past two weeks I heard and read two unrelated comments, but during the last day or so, they became quite related. The first was a comment directed at myself. I took my son to his sport and drama class and had a conversation with one of the facilitators. […]

Capetonian Bruce Marais left South Africa in 2009 to pursue a career as a (self taught) chef. Since then he’s worked in chateaux in France, villas in Spain, super yachts in the Med and settled in New York two years ago…but wherever he roams, he always returns home in the festive season for his annual SA fix… The […]

First we had loadshedding. Then the jokes. Now the musical videos… Ag Please Eskom – the joys of loadshedding Here’s a Loadshedding tribute song from Nikki Horn, aka TheNixter, whose previous South African-ised Christmas carols went viral during the festive season. Based on Jeremy Taylor’s ‘Ag Pleez Deddy’. Load Shedding Song 2015 – Hours Of Darkness […]

This morning we received a rather irate message from a Gauteng resident – Michael B.: “Where the hell are the lights? And now we have no water!” In fact in the past week we’ve received plenty of similar messages…Andrea in Durban was furious when she left work early “especially to get home in time to cook for […]

A Zimbabwean expat wrote the following poem which, although it relates more directly to Zimbabwe, contains some sentiments which are sure to resonate with those South Africans scattered abroad… who still long for ‘home’. The poem – ‘Homesick’, by Liz Crilly Bedford – was first published on Facebook page Ubiquitas. According to Ubiquitas owner Dean Sweeney, Liz is an amateur poet who […]

Check out the rare video footage below of two black mamba snakes fighting over who gets the girl! The quality of the film is unfortunately not that great, but the sighting is exceptional with the snakes conducting their ritualised combat in full view in the middle of the road. The sighting of the black mambas (Dendroaspis […]

André Brink, one of South Africa’s most distinguished writers, has passed away at the age of 79. Brink was on a flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town last night when he died. The acclaimed novelist had been on a trip to Belgium where he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Belgian Francophone Université Catholique de […]

A South African student based in the USA, has put together a cool 11-minute-video of the “best six weeks” of his life – proudly showing his American buddy around our beloved South Africa. And when you watch the video – which he’s called ‘Showing the Yank South Africa’ – you’ll feel like you were on the trip […]

The latest video from South Africa’s cricket team has knocked local and overseas fans for six. It’s packed with pride, patriotism and pure passion – for the game, the team, the fans…and our country, South Africa. With the help of the Proteas Supporters Club, South Africa’s national cricket team tracked down one of their biggest […]

There’s a trend emerging in South Africa of spotting selfless acts of kindness. And with social media as it is, these acts which in the past would go unnoticed – or certainly unshared – are now being spread faster than a viral video on load shedding. And each one brings hope. The latest story comes from DJ […]

New hand baggage regulations are due to be implemented at South African airports on Monday 2 February 2015. So if you’re travelling through SA airports in the next few weeks, it’s recommended that you arrive a little earlier as there are likely to be delays caused by those travellers still unaware of the new rules. The new […]

You know the drill. You move overseas and your first foreign friend (or even a guy in the queue at the post office) asks you whether lions roam the streets of South Africa, if Joburg’s roads are paved with gold, and whether we all live in trees. And it’s the same if you stay in […]

South Africans have long believed that biltong is superior to beef jerky…but there’s nothing as satisfying as hearing a foreigner praise our ‘African jerky’! Especially when it’s on a record-breaking TV show! In the video excerpt below, Willie Robertson  – of the hugely popular Duck Dynasty American reality television series – describes South African biltong as delicious, exotic, […]

Two dancers in Soweto have captured the attention of a New York-based British director…who happens to be the son of legendary musician Gordon Sumner (aka Sting) and Trudie Styler. The two dancers – Jabu and JR – have been performing their own interpretation of pantsula dance for years, and had already caught the eye of many […]

Many South Africans know somebody who died in a car accident. A friend, a parent, a child, a sibling. But it is only when you travel abroad that you realise that for most of the world, losing people you love in road accidents is not as common as it can be in our beloved South Africa. On Monday […]

The second season of the swashbuckler television series filmed in South Africa, Black Sails, starts in the United States this weekend. Starring Toby Stephens, it was filmed on location at the Cape Town Film Studios on the road out to Somerset West, where the set doubles for 1715 Nassau during the Golden Age of Piracy. […]

On the day of my graduation I couldn’t help but feel isolated at the far bottom tip of Africa. It felt as if I was missing out on the connected world ‘up there’. I was young, ambitious and curious. So I packed my bags and ventured over to France…working on Luxury Yachts as a stewardess […]

Prince Albert II of Monaco, has made an announcement via video following the births last night of the new royal twins. His South African wife, Princess Charlene, delivered son Jacques and daughter Gabriella on Wednesday evening in Monaco. In the video  the Prince says: “My Dear Fellow Citizens and Residents of the Principality, “It is with […]

A letter of thanks from an injured Dutch tourist to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) in South Africa [see below] has touched the nation, gone viral on social media, and filled SA citizens with immense pride in the country’s rescue workers, many of whom are volunteers. The incident occurred last month, on 10 November, when a 31-year-old orthopaedic surgeon from […]

The rare and adorable twin elephants that were born in South Africa last week have provided a feel good ‘Christmas miracle’ story in times of Eskom-generated darkness. The twins, who were born on Thursday at the big-four Pongola Game Reserve in Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal, have not yet been named as experts have given them their space, and […]

It’s the busiest time of the year, but South Africans have been experiencing extreme power outages that wreak havoc on Christmas shopping…along with all the daily mundane things like watching the food go ‘vrot’ in the fridge! (This article was published in December 2014! Click here for an update on the Top 10 South African Loadshedding / Load […]