If there’s one movie you watch today – make it Sarafina! In South Africa movie theatres across the land are commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising on 16 June 1976 with free screenings of the film. (Watch trailer below.) There have been scenes around the country today – #YouthDay – of old people […]

As we all know, there are so many fantastic, wonderful South Africans who don’t make it into the news… but sometimes we can forget when the headlines are dominated by the corrupt and criminal. So here’s a shout out to some awesome South Africans: From Bridget Reynolds in Gauteng: “I was at the cinemas at […]

The Test Kitchen in Woodstock has been voted one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in New York City on Tuesday, for the second year in a row, with the Cape Town’s La Colombe making the top 100 list for the second time. Chef Luke Dale-Roberts’ Woodstock restaurant came in at position No. 22, after coming […]

A young Grade 7’s random act of kindness in Johannesburg, caught on camera, is not only inspiring for our youth… but adults too. The youngster in question is named only as Johannesburg Mini Councillor, Jason. In a post on Facebook, the Johannesburg Mini Council said that on Saturday “a group of Councillors were celebrating a […]

I love old signs when I’m on the road. They tell me where I’m going, who lived here, what brands were promoted and what the travelling salesmen flogged to the locals over the decades. Sometimes, on a dusty Karoo trail in the back of beyond, they’re all I have for company. I run across old […]

As the winter’s first snows fall on South Africa’s mountains, lots of us remember something we often forget – ours is a land of amazing mountains. Here are 10 of them, many covered in snow (with a surprise 11th at the end). We also remember that the Mountain Club of South Africa has this year been hiking these […]

Jesse Clegg launched his new album “Things Unseen” earlier this month at the Goodluck Bar in Johannesburg. Music is both entertainment and escape. It captures moments of experience; fragments of life. It embodies the unseen. It is in darkness that we see the stars, that we dream, that the emptiness consumes shadows and hidden truths. Sometimes […]

Talented Cape Town chef and photographer Bruce Marais is one of four competing chefs on the latest episode of the hugely popular US channel Food Network’s show “Chopped”. In the show the chefs are given a less than obvious combination of ingredients to quickly transform into an appetiser, an entree and a dessert, with one of the four being eliminated after […]

For anyone who has been on a South African Airways flight – sitting way back in economy like many of us maybe – here’s a glimpse of what it’s like to be in the cockpit during take-off. This flight was a recent one from Johannesburg to Perth, Australia, on the A340-300. “Our long history of filming […]

The predicted cold front has arrived in South Africa, transforming the landscape into a beautiful winter wonderland. The following photos have been sent in to Snow Report SA‘s facebook page from Lesotho, the Free State, Eastern Cape and KZN. More on SnowReportSA:

The hashtag #LoveRugby will appear emblazoned on the back of the Springbok jersey in the first Test against Ireland in Cape Town, South Africa, today as SA Rugby (SARU) reclaims the “good story” they have to tell but which is not always heard. The Springboks kick off at 17h00 against Ireland at DHL Newlands in […]

A diamond found in South African in 2014, the Cullinan Dream, has become the most expensive Fancy Intense blue diamond sold at auction, according to Christie’s. The diamond sold in New York this week for $25,365,000. In the audience was Mark Cullinan, an international jewelry dealer and the great-grandson of Sir Thomas Cullinan, who discovered the Cullinan […]

Refentse Morake, a Vereeniging youngster, didn’t find success overnight, but pretty close. Just over a year ago the high-school student was overheard singing by someone who recorded him on her cellphone, the clip quickly spread, and now, just over a year later, Refentse has a CD out and several professional tracks on YouTube. His latest video is a […]

When you become an expat, there’s no better holiday than the one back home! As Leonie B-T packs her bags to head back to the UK after a fab holiday in her beloved South Africa, here’s a selection of the places and scenes that make going home so special… Leaving a grey Schiphol Airport in […]

Thousands of people are expected to line the streets of Muhammad Ali’s hometown Louisville, Kentucky, for his memorial today as a procession takes his body past sites that were significant in his life. Outside of America, there was perhaps no other continent as significant in his life as Africa. The American boxing legend had a deep connection with […]

As Johannesburg celebrates one of its big birthdays (that’s one of the questions), the city is showing off its stuff more and more. It was recently called one of the “coolest” cities in the world (that’s another question, by whom?) and travellers are spending more than just one night there. In honour of all that – and […]

I gotta say – South Africa is not a bad place for a holiday. The Aussie dollar went a long way. Let’s look at the good and the bad… The Good. Great service flying Qantas, food great etc etc The Bad. It was 14-hour flight and the guy in front of me was farting for 12 of […]

It started – as so much of my research has – with a hunch. For many years I have been completely overwhelmed by the high walls that South African suburbanites have created around their dwellings. They have always struck me as confronting, offensive and aesthetically unappealing. But, more than this, I couldn’t shake the feeling […]

We laugh at foreigners who think wild animals roam our South African roads… but lately the evidence has suggested they may be right! For at least the second time in ten days, elephant have wandered down the main road between Mica and Hoedspruit. The first time – 30 May – it was one rogue elephant. And […]

In a joint statement Wednesday from SA Rugby and the ANC Youth League it was confirmed that plans to disrupt Springbok Test matches have been cancelled, as a result of “positive engagements between the two bodies”. ANC Youth League Secretary General Njabulo Nzuza said that although rugby still had much work to do, his organisation had […]

Sculpture on the Cliffs is one of the highlights of the Fynarts Festival in Hermanus, South Africa, which looks set to be another fabulous year with the new art works being installed this week. According to Tanya Tiefenthaler, founder of ILoveHermanus facebook page and community, “each year artists are commissioned to produce works that remain on […]

KAGISO RABADA led a strong performance with the ball for the Standard Bank Proteas as they opened their Tri-Nation One-Day International (ODI) series account with an emphatic 47-run bonus-point win over Australia at the Guyana National Stadium in Providence on Tuesday. The right-arm paceman bowled with swing and precision to pick up an outstanding 3/13 […]

On Friday two cyclists wheeled into Cape Town after a 19,000-kilometre trip from London across Africa, while a South African filmmaker readied to finish his bike trip across the US to raise funds for his next feature film. The journey from the UK by Emily Conrad-Pickles and James Davis (pictured above), done under the name london2capetown, was in support […]

South Africa’s CSIR has unveiled the fastest computer in Africa, which has been named Lengau, the Setswana for cheetah, it was announced on Tuesday. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Centre for High Performance Computing showed off the petaflops (PFLOPs) machine in Cape Town. “This is a supercomputer with processing speed capable of a thousand-trillion […]

Two of South Africa’s best-known actors, Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo, who were seen around the world in the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy”, have teamed up again for a new thriller that is being released in July. The two, who have become sort of acting royalty, have been acting together for a long time, at […]