Starfish Greathearts Foundation, a charity working with children in South Africa orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS, are holding an inspirational evening of jazz and classical music alongside traditional songs from South Africa this evening. The event – ‘Hope and Harmony’ – promises a wonderful line up of musicians, including: Queen of Afro-Jazz Pinise […]

Groot Marico, 1979 – It’s a lovely Saturday out here in the Bushveld…I’m sitting under a fever tree on a farm in the Western Transvaal (now Northwest Province) talking to a Marico family and drinking their mampoer very slowly and, if I may say so, quite thoughtfully. It’s all so very Herman Charles. [The late […]

Hillbrow, Jo’burg’s inner city Tenderloin district, was never a nest of angels… In the late 1970s and 80s, it was the most cosmopolitan piece of real estate in South Africa. You had your excellent Hillbrow Records, your Mi-Vami shawarma place, Estoril Books, your globe-trotting tattoo artist down in the basement shopping area on Pretoria Street […]

A poem by Faieza Mx, now living in Queensland, Australia… I want to wake up to the Majestic Table Mountain Always standing, Always there, Never failing Its beauty astounding As it watches over Cape Town The ocean so blue… Camps Bay, Strand, Boulders Sea Point I want to go home to gaardtjies shouting ‘hullo, hullo, […]

For everyone in the Southern Hemisphere who has had enough of having to sing about a White Christmas, here’s Jingle Bells South African style. See video below. The video was uploaded a couple of years ago by TheNixter (the same YouTuber who uploaded this season’s popular ‘12 Days of Christmas SA Style‘). The lyrics are […]

We’d love to hear from you… Chief Editor Jenni Baxter: jen@sapeople.com (Read an interview with Jenni Baxter) News and Features Editor, Sub Editor Ted Botha: ted@sapeople.com Entertainment Editor Cassie Jo: cassiejo@sapeople.com Administrator, Recipe Editor Faz Logday: fazila@sapeople.com General Enquiries: Email: admin@sapeople.com OR WRITE TO: UK Office SA-People Limited 59 Imperial Way Croydon CR0 4RR United Kingdom […]

Spoiling your family and friends at Christmas can be a little stressful…when it should be festive and fun! So to make it a little simpler for you, here are a few ideas on gifts for South Africans anywhere in the world – from stocking fillers, to the gifts that keep giving…and even a couple of luxury ideas to indulge […]

The Drostdy has always been one of the select few grand old hotels of the Karoo. As the prime accommodation in Graaff-Reinet, it began its “hotel life” as Kromm’s Drostdy Hotel back in 1876. The Drostdy had many re-models and facelifts over the century to come, the latest being an intensive upgrade that has taken […]

If you’d like to promote your Christmas Gift Ideas (products or services) to South Africans anywhere in the world – this is for you! Follow the directions below to be included in SAPeople’s Special Christmas Gift Ideas page for a very special price. You can add your business anytime up until 24 December 2014. To advertise […]

Type “is Africa ” into Google and auto complete is likely to offer something like this: That’s right: questions of hopelessness or ignorance that could only come from outside the continent. (The answer to all four, by the way, is no.) For too long external perspectives have determined Africa’s narrative by only telling stories of […]

The fabulous South African rusk has been a staple of Karoo travel, going back to the 1700s. Here’s the story of SA’s famous Ouma Rusks… If you were an explorer, a hunter, a prospector, a trekboer or simply a wandering remittance man crossing the great Thirstland, you always carried a bag of rusks in your […]

By Chris Marais & Julienne du Toit  In the big desert spaces of the world, an overland driver often encounters interesting objects along the road. Sometimes it’s a novelty object, a ‘world’s largest’ something or other. Other times, it’s a road sign full of bullet hotels. And you park next to it and wonder: what […]

Here’s another one of those emails – with a compilation of old and new photos from Africa – doing the rounds at the moment…showing that Plato was right when he said necessity is the mother of innovation.

My girlfriend and I were born about 20 minutes apart.

The next best thing to actually being in the Karoo, South Africa’s semi-desert Heartland, is to have access to the just-launched Karoo Space eBookstore. Download the Karoo Collection Sampler on your tablet or smartphone, find a shady spot somewhere and settle in for a tour of the most phenomenal people-friendly desert in the world. Travel […]

If you’re South African and of a certain age, chances are you’ll be familiar with the Silver Creek Mountain Band. Text & Pictures by Chris Marais The Creek is South Africa’s longest-surviving bluegrass band. Forty years ago, they were a live music force to be reckoned with. Two fiddlers, banjo, lead guitar and a big old […]

A friend who lives in London tells me one of her finest memories of South Africa is of going to sleep between bed sheets dried by sun and wind. She has this whimsical theory that while you sleep, the day’s energy gently seeps back into you through the sheets. I sometimes think of that when […]

For all those South Africans living in Australia…you know you’re settling in and becoming an Aussie when you can relate to these signs. From an email doing the rounds…signs you only see in Australia:

Valentine’s Day messages 2014 are published here. Click here to send an anonymous Valentine message. To: Liefieding Hi jy, happy valentine’s al is dit bietjie laat. Jy is so sexy!!  Wil jou hê. From: Klarabelle To: First Valentine Years can’t erase the memories of the short interlude of our wonderful relationship. Still carrying the flame for […]

South African project myHandsandHeart, an online and mobile platform for matching organisations and youth volunteers, was named on Tuesday as one of six winners of a global competition for local initiatives that are having a positive impact on their communities. The competition, dubbed the Shaping a Better Future challenge, was open to members of the […]

The shortest distance between Mozambique and Madagascar is about 500 kilometres – a long way. But not long enough to deter two South Africans from swimming the distance over a month in March, in what will be a world first. No-one has swum this stretch of the Indian Ocean, and no-one has swum this distance […]

South African music legend Johnny Clegg was taken by “complete ambush” (his words) when he joined Martin Bester Drive (MBD) radio show in November 2013. The Jacaranda FM radio team had a surprise in store for him…that turned into a tearjerker for both Johnny and the studio team themselves! MBD had contacted Johnny’s musician son […]

Like having babies, you forget the pain, says super athlete Jeannie Dreyer, referring to her astonishing first-place finish in the 2 300km Freedom Challenge mountain bike race. The route starts in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, and ends in Wellington in Western Cape, and takes place at the end of June. Thirty-three-year-old Jeannie, a housewife and mother of two […]

Known to many as the man who liberated South Africa from apartheid, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, whose clan name is Madiba, is a world-class icon recognised for his integrity and his will to fight for the freedom that we relish today. One way of understanding the man is to explore the countryside in which he grew […]

Happy Valentine’s Day to South Africans everywhere! (Update: 14 February 2015) Durban sunrise. If love was a teardrop, I’d send you an ocean… February’s full moon at Paternoster Beach Sent in by: Christopher Bettany – “Happy Valentine’s to everyone from Azura Benguerra Island Mozambique. This picture is of a stunning sandbank close to the island.” The […]