The Telegraph newspaper in Britain has included Cape Town on a list of top places across the globe – from cities to countries to national parks – to visit in 2016. Other destinations on the list included Porto, Portugal; Yosemite national park in the U.S.; the Dominican Republic; Kenya’s Masai Mara; and the island of […]

Wondering how to celebrate New Year this year? Here are 11 fabulous and varied ways to bring in 2016 if you’re in South Africa. They may not be as famous as New York’s Time Square, London’s Trafalgar Square or Sydney’s Harbour Bridge lights…but they’re just as much – if not more – fun! 1. At the Karoo’s Festival […]

On 1 January 2013, Lorraine Loots set herself a goal: to produce one work of art a day for the next year. Two years and 730 paintings later, the results can be seen in “Paintings for Ants” and the newly launched “Postcards for Ants”. Along the way, Loots has picked up almost a quarter of a […]

A lanky teenage boy in jeans and a t-shirt takes a seat in front of a grand piano in a Karoo farmhouse. Behind him are a few dozen people on sofas and dining room chairs, waiting expectantly. At the entrance to the room is a platter bearing a small but growing pile of cash. The […]

Rhodes Rage, by Zapiro “In Zapiro’s 20th annual he skewers another momentous year including the drama over Rhodes and other statues, Nkandla pay back the money, spy cables, NPA shenanigans, Eskom and parastatal paralysis, union disunity, Charlie Hebdo, xenophobia, Juju’s boiler suit brigade, Godzille’s successor, cockroaches, Verwoerd’s ghost and other political creatures.” The Cape Town […]

South African fans of Mariah Carey are celebrating today as it’s been announced that the international superstar – and diva amongst divas – will tour South Africa for the very first time! In a statement this morning on their facebook page, the Publicity Workshop quoted Mariah saying: “Lambily, it’s been too long!! I’m so excited to […]

The movie studio dubbed South Africa’s Pixar, which made the international hits “Adventures in Zambezia” and “Khumba”, will back eight new animated movies and TV series – two more than initially intended – because the proposals it got were so good. The projects include a story about a lemming who must learn to defy his nature […]

South African musicians Jack Parow and Freshlyground have got together to make an action-packed Bond-esque music video with all the makings of a great spy thriller…including explosives planted in Table Mountain! Exquisitely directed by Jon Savage and Craig Hunter Parker, the five-minute mini-movie follows our South African secret agents of #zefspionage – Jan Bont (Jack Parow) and Geldpenni (Zolani Mahola) […]

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 […]

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 […]

SuzelleDIY’s latest video couldn’t come at a better time – she shared all her top tips on enjoying Amsterdam, just as Air France KLM announced they will now operate year-round daily flights between Amsterdam and Cape Town, starting in May 2016. The latest video from South Africa’s popular DIY queen is a little different from her normal household and how-to-make-a-braai-pie type of […]

Congratulations to Johnny Clegg who received an OBE this month for his contribution to music, upliftment, and the fight against apartheid in South Africa in a career that has spanned over three decades. Here’s the photo that says it all: The legendary South African singer joined personalities like actor Benedict Cumberbatch to be honoured by Queen Elizabeth II last Tuesday with […]

The seaside town of Hermanus became a movie set this week with the filming of “The Whale Caller”. Based on the acclaimed book of the same title by Zakes Mda and adapted for the screen by Zola Maseko, the story is about a kelp-horn-blowing man who seems to be deeply drawn to a very particular whale. […]

Thanksgiving is a very big time in the US, when people do anything to get home to the family and turkey dinner. This year National Geographic’s biggest scripted series ever tells the story of the first Thanksgiving, when British settlers on the Mayflower landed at Cape Cod in 1620, except it was all shot near another Cape – Cape Town. “Saints & […]

As superheroes hit the movie and TV screens of the world, South Africa is getting one of its own. And going from this trailer, it looks pretty special and amazing. So does Johannesburg! Director Gareth Crocker introduces clips from the series, “Jongo” https://vimeo.com/124604413 Based in the City of Gold and the Cradle of Humankind, the eight-part series “Jongo” […]

“Nomvula” is a very chill, very catchy Xhosa song by up-and-coming singer Nathi – he’s been called “a breath of fresh acoustic air” – in a gorgeous video shot around his home province of the Eastern Cape. The song is from his debut album, “Buyelekhaya”, and has already been viewed over 300,000 times on YouTube in less […]

The horror novel ‘Day Four’ by South African Sarah Lotz has reached the semifinals of the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards, which brands itself as the only major book awards chosen by readers. A book about South African Elon Musk has also been nominated, in a non-fiction category. Goodreads, which started in 2007 and has apparently got 40 […]

The already well-known three-year-old DJ Arch Junior has won the ‘South Africa’s Got Talent’ competition, and picked up a half a million rand in prize money in the process. The tiny DJ, Oratilwe Hlongwane from Alexandra, Johannesburg, who was clearly a favourite with the judges even in the semifinals, was one of six acts who reached the final, […]

Jeremy Loops has taken to Facebook to reveal just how challenging it can be for a South African musician to fill concert halls around the world. Many South Africans abroad – in other professions – will relate to that higher hurdle you sometimes have to jump to prove, to those at home and abroad, that you […]

Watch a foreign movie when you know it’s made in South Africa – but is meant to be somewhere else – and you can’t help looking for those telltale signs, places you recognise. It’s supposed to be Los Angeles or somewhere in the middle of America, but you know it’s the Atlantic Seaboard in Cape Town […]

Anyone visiting Johannesburg – especially Jeppestown – might notice some new art decorating its walls, garage doors and basically any space flat and vertical worth a spray can. That’s because the fifth annual City of Gold Urban Art festival took place at the end of October. Graffiti artists from South Africa and abroad took part in painting up the place, […]

One scene in Soft Vengeance will always stay with me: Two men sit in a TV studio for BBC’s Hard Talk. One is a British journalist, the other a smiling, heavily accented, one-armed man in a colourful African traditional shirt. “Is forgiveness too cheap for the kinds of crimes committed under apartheid in South Africa?” the journalist […]

A video of Sihle the Drummer (his surname is not given on Facebook) playing drums on an assortment of stand-in objects was first posted on his Facebook page in August and was viewed at least 410,000 times. That seems to have gotten him a real set, which he now plays in a new video. Watch Sihle’s first […]

Just in time for its 80th anniversary as a board game, Monopoly will now have a Cape Town version and will include the city on its world game board. “Monopoly fans around the world will be able to visit the big 7 Capetonian attractions, play beach bats on some of our top beaches, play sport, go to […]

South Africa plays a feature role – and it’s a good one – in the new James Bond movie, ‘Spectre’, even though South Africa will be one of the last countries in the world that actually sees a major launch of the spy extravaganza. While the movie itself – which is brilliant – flits from Mexico […]