On the 31st of December 2014 Kirstenbosch was alight with anticipation.The stage was bathed in reds, ambers, purples and blues as the sky changed from blue, to purple, to amber, to red. The air was sweet and the scent of mist lingered. The year was coming to an end, but Mango Groove and Arno Carstens […]

After touring the USA extensively, The Parlotones graced South African crowds with a performance at the iconic Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden on the 11th January 2015. They shook things up with a colourful show that had the crowd singing louder than lead singer Kahn Morbee. The band’s tattooed arms, “make-upped” faces and graffitied musical instruments […]

On the 8th of February 2015 Freshlyground got into the Cape Town vibe as they danced barefoot across the stage. They like to keep things fresh with their refreshing humour and extravagant, yet authentic, performances. With songs ranging from Love to Mugabe, the variety of their music and talent is as diverse as the flora […]

Fresh off ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ Irish actor Jamie Dornan will soon be heading to South Africa to shoot a biopic set in the Congo. The 1960s-era movie, ‘Jadotville,’ will be filmed in Ireland and South Africa starting in April, according to Netflix, which has bought the worldwide rights for $17-million. The movie is based […]

A young guy in Vereeniging, Refentse Morake, is fast becoming an internet sensation with his guitar and beautiful voice…recorded on the cellphone of a passerby! Vereeniging resident Cecilia Kruger Marchionna (also known as Tannie Kleintjie) happened to overhear Refentse playing on his guitar when she was wandering up the road…so she whipped out her cellphone, […]

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 […]

Philani Dladla is a well-known feature of Joburg’s streets. The Pavement Bookworm reads books and gives reviews to passers-by. If they like the review, they buy the book. This way, he pays rent and buys food. But his bigger goal is promoting literacy among children. Walk along Gleneagles Road in Greenside and you will find […]

The life story of Nelson Mandela, a powerful tale of a charismatic lawyer and human rights activist whose work to dismantle apartheid landed him in prison for 27 years before he ultimately became the country’s first democratically elected president, has been told time and time again. Films of his journey have been made for the […]

There are probably few places that conjure ambience more than a library with mahogany shelves crammed with books, all centered on a crackling fireplace. So it’s not surprising that when Cape Town International Airport scored badly on its ambience rating, someone came up with the idea of putting in a library. In June, after a […]

The much-anticipated trailer for Chappie is finally here! And it looks like South African Canadian writer-director Neill Blomkamp has got his mojo back.  Blomkamp has returned to his much-loved bizarre sci-fi roots that earned his directorial debut District 9 an Oscar nomination. His second film Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, was less enthusiastically received. But […]

Good Morning, Mr Mandela is a memoir verging on a romance of sorts between Zelda la Grange and her boss, Nelson Mandela, a man who she served with dedication for 17 years as his personal secretary. It is a fiercely honest account of her emotional metamorphosis – from a conservative and prejudiced white racist South African, […]

This time of the year, you would usually not find Jules and me at home in Cradock. We would be tootling around somewhere on a back road in the vast Karoo. Namaqualanders just had a spectacular daisy season out in the west; summer is said to be on its way and is it shearing season […]

Looking out at the vast and sunny Karoo Heartland today, you’d never think that less than two weeks ago we were all snow-stormed in. Which takes me back exactly 33 years to the day, when I was sitting at a bar in Montana, USA, called The Cherokee Strip. The locals who drank at The Strip, […]

A Durban film, co-starring Capetonian Stelio Savante and SA child actor Sizo Motsoko, has been chosen as an Official Selection for the 2014 San Diego Film Festival where it will make its world premier. ‘Where the Road Runs Out’ made history when it became the first feature ever filmed in the small African country of Equatorial Guinea […]

Last summer I had a thought and shared it with my wife Jules. “Jules,” I said. “Imagine a South African sitting up north somewhere like Saskatchewan. He’s working in Canada but he’s missing South Africa like crazy.” “Yes?” “Now imagine that guy’s been to the Karoo but his kids haven’t. And neither have his new […]

When Pretoria boy Ted Botha moved to New York City, he was not so much an immigrant as someone on the make – a travelling South African looking to broaden his horizons. In no time he’d lied his way into a job in the New York magazine industry. Then he stumbled upon a small old […]

Fans of author, humanitarian, philanthropist – and South African expat – Trevor Romain will be pleased to know that Trevor’s second book in the very popular Random Kak series has gone to print. In a message to SAPeople, Trevor said: “I am happy to announce that my second book in the Random Kak series has gone […]

Following Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies’ visit to Hollywood last week, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will be leading a delegation of South African film makers to Los Angeles to engage with the major studios, the minister announced on Tuesday. Briefing reporters in Pretoria, Davies said his visit had sought to strengthen […]

Standing 1.93 metres tall, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a giant of a man whose remarkable life has been chronicled in a number of films, from his childhood to his political awakening, his activism against apartheid and subsequent imprisonment, through to his role as unifier, peacemaker and first democratically elected president of South Africa. The statesman, […]

As a travel journalist, you can wander the world, see all its peoples, taste 105 different kinds of ice cream and stomp through a thousand museums – but you know you’re always skating on the surface of experience. You’ve only had one layer of Life’s Onion. What a privilege it was then, for my wife […]

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 […]

  Cold Harbour, the new South African crime thriller from the producers of Jerusalema, will have its world première at the Durban International Film Festival on 19 July before opening in cinemas countrywide on 25 July. The film stars Tony Kgoroge as Sizwe, an ambitious policeman from Khayelitsha who uncovers an abalone smuggling scheme while investigating […]

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 […]

Johnny Clegg, Ross Learmonth, Yvonne Chaka Chaka and a host of other South African artists will gather together in July to remember musician Bongani Masuku who was tragically killed in an attempted car-jacking incident in Johannesburg last month. The concert will raise funds for his family, as well as awareness for Artists against Violence. It […]

The Franschhoek Literary Festival is one of the Groot Menere of all South African litfests. As authors of the Karoo Keepsakes series, my wife Jules and I normally hang out at smaller gatherings, like the Richmond Boekbedonnerd affair, the Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival at home here in Cradock and WordFest in Grahamstown. In fact, we’ll […]