I captured this portrait a few days ago in Imizamo Yethu (Our Efforts) Settlement in Hout Bay, South Africa. I came across some children playing in between the informal houses. I knelt down to greet them and ask their elders for permission to take a photo. They continued to play and couldn’t be bothered by […]

Democratic Alliance premier of the Western Cape Helen Zille is a well-known and pithy Tweeter, and her recent response in her Inside Government newsletter to SONA2016 is no exception. Zille said she hadn’t been more optimistic in years, and South Africa had made 300 years of progress in just a week. The extract was part of a speech she […]

South Africa is a country of extreme contrasts. It’s home to some of the oldest known human fossils and the world’s youngest language (ja, nee…Afrikaans). The land itself—though mired by its history of battles over ownership—is one of resplendent beauty. Speaking as a local, you may accuse me of bias. But I assure you that […]

A video of a South African Police Service (SAPS) unit hard at work has emerged, showing that it’s not all skop, skiet en donner in the SA cop force! Although it is movie scene fast car (well, motorbike) chases… The video was uploaded by CICA (Crime Intelligence & Community Awareness) on Valentine’s Day, reporting that the […]

In honour of International Childhood Cancer Day 2016, Cape Town’s iconic Table Mountain – one of the Seven Wonders of the World – was lit up in blue last night, 15 February 2016. According to CHOC (Childhood Cancer Foundation, South Africa) this day was started as a global collaborative campaign to raise awareness about childhood cancer and to […]

Radlyn Naidoo is a 19-year-old in Pretoria with Tourette Syndrome, but he doesn’t let that stand in his way of living his life and promoting a message that is brilliant, even for people without Tourette. In his first video (see below) Radlyn not only explains what he’s trying to achieve with his Facebook page, but he […]

South Africa’s legendary playground Sun City is due to undergo a dramatic rejuvenation project worth R800 million rand over the course of 2016. According to a media release from Pilanesberg National Park, which lies next to the iconic resort, Sun City will offer new food options including a micro-brewery themed gastro pub, as well as a “raft […]

Travellers to South Africa have been confused by headlines claiming that the law requiring minors to travel with an Unabridged Birth Certificate (UBC) had been “scrapped”. The law has not yet been scrapped… but Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom said in a statement today that his department is in “intense discussions” with Home Affairs to implement […]

For those who haven’t grown up in South Africa, the closeness that often grows between a domestic worker and her employer’s family can be hard to grasp. But the bonds and emotions run deep for many, with ‘family’ becoming a blend of both the domestic’s and employer’s children. And when there’s a heartbreaking death in the ‘family’, everyone […]

One of the things many South African expats miss is a spectacular lightning storm… so when the lightning strikes, on a trip back home – they capture it! Bev Tromp – formerly from 5FM – took these pics on Sunday evening during her holiday back to South Africa. “It was one of those wonderful wild crashing, light up the entire […]

BERLIN – The latest movie from South African director Oliver Schmitz, called “Shepherds and Butchers”, a courtroom drama about a man on death row, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday. The movie also has a theme song, “Angels”, produced by Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb and Vusi Mahlasela. (Watch clips of the movie and […]

It is the 22nd year of our beloved South African flag. And here, on its birthday year, are 22 ways we love it. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

At the 2016 #UbuntuAwards on Saturday night President Jacob Zuma said “South Africa is a beautiful country with wonderful people”. Addressing guests at the second annual Ubuntu Awards at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, the president said: “Today we honour those who hold our beautiful flag high, and who contribute to not only telling, but demonstrating […]

We all saw the SONA jokes and memes (like the one below) shared on social media after President Jacob Zuma delivered the State of the Nation Address on Thursday evening… but there are three other pictures  that are proving even more popular than the jokes. Pravin The first is a photo shared by SAPeople early this […]

A deaf four-month-old baby in Cape Town has become one of the youngest people in the world to get a cochlear implant, allowing her to hear for the first time, it was reported this week. The operation on Neave Barrett was carried out at the Vergelegen Mediclinic in Somerset West by a team from the Tygerberg Hospital Stellenbosch University Cochlear […]

When the Eastern Cape Department of Education failed to provide their children with a school, a group of parents in Gotyibeni in Xhorha took matters into their own hands. In 1994, Gotyibeni residents decided they needed a primary school for their children. Other primary schools were far from the area and children had to wait […]

Thursday was one of those rare hot, wind free, incredible summer days in Cape Town. I was in the air by 8am and spent nearly three hours flying along the coast, photographing our amazing marine wildlife. The dusky dolphins were playing along the Blouberg shores, Table Bay was filled with baitballs and frenetic feeding activity and […]

You could call it a Johannesburg hat trick. The latest travel pages of the British Guardian newspaper have posted a trio of major articles about the City of Gold, including 1) some fantastic readers’ pictures of the city shared on Instagram, 2) the paper’s own alternative guide and 3) some insightful readers’ tips. Here’s a taste of the […]

Kite boarders from 11 nations waited for the windiest day for the perfect conditions to fly high – and on Wednesday and Thursday they got it. “With iconic Table Mountain as backdrop – both wind and sea delivered some pumping conditions,” said the organisers of the Red Bull King of the Air 2016 competition. Watch some […]

BLOEMFONTEIN – Only three days after President Jacob Zuma’s case over Nkandla and whether he should #PayBackTheMoney came before the Constitutional Court, his lawyer is back arguing, in Bloemfontein this time, over the government’s decision not to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he was visiting the country in 2015. The adversaries in court, even though they […]

President Jacob Zuma might want to move Parliament from Cape Town to Pretoria to cut costs – many of which some would say have been created by himself and a bloated, inefficient government – but we have found a few reasons why maybe it might not be a bad idea. Pretoria needs the attention, Cape Town doesn’t. Pretoria […]

The latest Vanity Fair cover is an annual event where the most talked-about stars in movies grace the cover, and one of them is Gugu Mbatha-Raw, whose father is South African and whose name is actually short for Gugulethu. Mbatha-Raw was born in Witney, a rural and typically quaint Oxfordshire town, of a South African doctor […]

Nando’s South Africa has done it again. No sooner had President Jacob Zuma delivered his State of the Nation Address (SONA) Thursday evening, than the successful South African restaurant chain – famous for its chicken peri-peri – had posted an advert making fun of Speaker Baleka Mbete. “We see you Baleka. #SONA2016” the message says on Nando’s […]

It’s the tweet that keeps on retweeting. Six years on and people are still sharing Ed Sheeran’s twitter post from the night he was at a house party in London, surrounded by South Africans – who, like many expats abroad – were clearly teaching him some SA slang and swear words. On Thursday night ‘kief’ South African […]