Springbok Sevens players Selvyn Davids and JC Pretorius were honoured for their superb performances during the shortened sevens season with the ultimate accolade after being named in the 2020 World Rugby Sevens Series Dream Team. World Rugby confirmed the winners of various World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 Awards on Monday, including the names of the […]

While President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged South Africans to proudly celebrate Heritage Day – on Thursday 24 September – by taking on the Jerusalema Dance Challenge, SA will actually not be the first country to use the gospel hit song for national celebrations (watch video below)… In Papua New Guinea, which marked its 45th Independence […]

South Africa will reopen its international borders on 1 October 2020, under alert level 1 of lockdown which began today, but not all visitors will be welcome just yet. SA to keep close watch on countries’ COVID-19 status The SA Government says while a ban will be put in place for international countries still experiencing […]

South Africans have been fiercely proud of ‘My Octopus Teacher’, the breathtaking documentary filmed in South Africa that’s currently enjoying popularity on Netflix internationally. It’s SA’s first Netflix Original Documentary and explores the moving relationship between Craig Foster and an octopus that he befriends in a kelp forest in the Cape Peninsula waters, during a […]

Who would have thought that something as simple a strelitzia seed pod would give a retrenched Salt Rock man the business opportunity of a lifetime. You could very well call Peter Shanley an innovative opportunist who not only has a creative eye, but plans to help others make a living through his breathtaking ‘lockdown lights’. […]

After three years of drought, Namaqualand (Namakwaland) is boasting a spectacular display of wildflowers, flourishing in every corner of the Northern Cape area… with an array of colours and shapes heralding a splendid and welcome spring (after a long winter Lockdown in South Africa!). Hester SophiaEsta Marais captured these beautiful photos of the 2020 Namaqualand […]

On the 21st of July, Wildlife ACT’s Community Conservation Manager and expert rhino tracker, Zama Ncube, and Priority Species Monitor Izzy Rowles, were on a monitoring session in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, when they came across an agitated White Rhino cow. A few seconds later they heard the sound of a White Rhino calf calling. This is […]

Step aside, Bear Grylls – South African adventurist Riaan Manser is bigger, badder and better at nature. And you can stream his travels on Showmax now. When it comes to roughing it, almost no one matches Riaan:  He was the first person to cycle around Africa – 37 000km. During his trip in 2006, he […]

Nando’s proved again tonight that it’s not just a fast food chicken outlet – it’s also fast with its distinctive and humorous adverts which tend to highlight SA’s unique culture! Less than an hour after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Wednesday that South Africa will enter Level 1 on 20 September and that its borders […]

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation at 19h00 tonight on developments in the country’s risk-adjusted response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many South Africans, fed up with the long lockdown, are hoping that Ramaphosa will announce a move from Lockdown Level 2 to Level 1, and that some international travel will be permitted. […]

Social media viewers around the world are falling in love with Sakhile Dube’s voice. Sakhile – a safari guide from St Lucia in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa – can be seen (and heard) demonstrating how the click sounds are pronounced in the Zulu language. His wonderful smile, welcoming viewers to iSimangaliso, and his smooth voice […]

Thirty international artists and photographers today launched a campaign to raise awareness and funds for the endangered African Painted Dog, also known as the African Wild Dog and the Painted Wolf, whose numbers have in the last century gone from half a million to under 7,000. The artwork at ‘LYCAON – Artists for Painted Dogs’ […]

After 18 months of construction, the Nelson Mandela Square, a park in the southern German city of  Nuremberg, was officially opened today. The park was planted with 70 new trees, and has a spacious lawn, bicycle paths, parking lots and Nuremberg’s first bicycle parking garage. The mayor Marcus König and the South African consul general, […]

The 2020 annual SA Agulhas II relief voyage to Gough Island will depart on Thursday under strict COVID-19 health protocols, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries has announced. Gough Island, some 2 600km south-west of Cape Town, is very strategic for South Africa’s weather observations and forecasting. The weather data collected at Gough and […]

Singing on the Last Night of the Proms, aka the BBC Proms, the summer festival of orchestral highlights, two days ago, South Africa’s fantastic opera singer Golda Schultz gave a moving rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical “Carousel.” Watch (and listen to) Golda Schultz sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” […]

South Africa’s Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, says “today, we cautiously but optimistically breathe a sigh of relief as we continue to see our detected cases, hospital admissions, deaths and even excess deaths declining”. South Africa’s recovery rate is now almost at 90% and the country’s mortality rate has remained stable at around 2%, Dr […]

South Africa is making its best wines ever, according to British journalist and wine master Tim Atkin, who managed to put together his latest report during the pandemic and gave two wines a perfect score of 100 points. “Rather than just a few individuals, what we have now is a constellation shining bright above us […]

South Africa’s recovery rate has now jumped to 88.9% after 573 003 patients recuperated from COVID-19. Meanwhile, novel Coronavirus cases have hit 644 438 after 2 007 infections were identified on Thursday, while the death toll stands at 15 265. Of the latest 97 fatalities, 26 are from Mpumalanga, 21 from Gauteng, 17 from KwaZulu-Natal, 15 from […]

Five young boys have been nicknamed ‘The Magnificent 5’ by the Animal Welfare Society of South Africa, after their caring rescue of a timid Labrador. The Animal Welfare Society (AWS) of South Africa – which offers a range of veterinary services to the underprivileged and disadvantaged communities of Cape Town – said the group of […]

Classmates at a school in Cape Town, South Africa, are inspiring the nation with their kind gesture for a friend in need. Seventeen-year-old Tashreeq Doovey, from Hanover Park, was recently robbed of his cellphone when he suffered a seizure while he was walking home. Not only is he a matric student, but also the sole […]

The clichéd adage “boys will be boys” has, over the ages, normalised unbecoming behaviours. It has also socialised young men into thinking that being a man could entail getting away with reckless behaviour, even the use of violence and aggression to assert power. In her analysis of violent masculinities in post-apartheid South Africa, feminist scholar Pumla […]

In May 2017 we (GroundUp) took photos of Cape Town’s dam levels at the height of the drought. This is what the Berg River looked like then: And this is what it looked like on Saturday: And below is what Theewaterskloof, which can hold more than half of Cape Town’s water at capacity, looked like […]

The Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRAA) says it applauds the decision announced in Zimbabwe yesterday to ban mining in national parks. The Association says it had noted with “great alarm” the reports that Special Mining Grants had been issued to mine coal within Hwange National Park. The decision was announced on Tuesday by Zimbabwe’s […]

In a debut novel that has been called “stunning,” “sparkling,” “compelling” and “engrossing” by reviewers in England, South African Helen Moffett has taken a minor character from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and breathed life into her, creating “an enjoyable, even racy addition to the drawing-room industry of novels riffing off Austen.” The novel is […]

SAPeople has collaborated with the Democratic Alliance (DA) to petition South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister to resolve the passport renewal application crisis that is currently brewing abroad. SAPeople is inundated daily with cries for help from South Africans abroad who are unable to contact their own Embassies, and whose passports are expiring – putting their […]