Cape Town traffic officer Nizaam Alexander – has been awarded the City of Cape Town Traffic Services Departmental Officer of the Year Award after he was shot on duty…and still managed to finish writing out a fine before seeking medical attention for himself! The Western Cape provincial government uploaded a video to YouTube honouring the […]

Don Clarke and Special Care’s music video ‘Zuma Must Fall’, which SAPeople.com shared last week, has taken off…making headlines in and clocking up tens of thousands of views with the lyrics being widely shared. This morning Clarke said: “As my song ZUMA MUST FALL edges towards 65K hits [which it has now surpassed] on YouTube […]

The luxurious boutique hotel Ellerman House, overlooking Bantry Bay in Cape Town, has joined 49 illustrious other hotels around the world in the latest “50 Greatest Hotels” named by the British Telegraph newspaper. The three other hotels in sub-Saharan Africa that made the list were designed, owned or managed by South Africans. They are Wilderness Safaris’ North Island […]

Penguins seem to have collected more than their fair share of annual days – there’s today’s Penguin Awareness Day (20 January), World Penguin Day (25 April) and African Penguin Awareness Day (17 October). But there’s a reason for this – they need our awareness! So here are 10 points about penguins we all should know… 1. African […]

Princess Charlene of Monaco, who converted to Roman-Catholicism shortly before her wedding in 2011, made her third visit to the Vatican on Monday, dressed in white and accompanied by her husband Prince Albert II. According to the Monaco Palace the couple met with his holiness Pope Francis to discuss a range of topics including environmental and climate […]

For anyone who hasn’t seen a South African theatre production recently, “Singin’ in the Rain” will astound you. The famous musical – which is actually seeing a revival on Broadway this year – gets nothing but praise, praise and more praise. After a wildly successful run in Cape Town – with audiences in the first three rows getting ponchos […]

Baboons were visiting our home in Hermanus, in the Western Cape, South Africa, today. They were here all day. I suspect the fires in the surrounding areas is what drove them to search for food in town. It’s a humbling experience when you recognise the humanity in animals. Like us, they have family structures and […]

Capetonian Kim Stephens has been overwhelmed and humbled by the response to an open letter she wrote to the South African president asking him to “take a run”. Apart from media requests, she’s also received “about 1 friend request every 2 minutes from complete strangers”! Kim said on her facebook page that 99 percent of […]

Reactions today in South Africa to Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane’s speech on race and identity in the country have been mixed. While many welcomed his words and said it was “charged with emotion”, “showed sincerity” and laid bare “some uncomfortable truths”, there were some who said it made them “cringe”. If you weren’t watching the live feed, […]

Philani Dladla’s story is well known to those who know him as the Pavement Bookworm and have bought books from him on Empire Road in Johannesburg, South Africa. But now he has added author to his résumé, with his newly published book titled, of course, “The Pavement Bookworm”. Dladla – whom we wrote about in […]

After a successful launch yesterday of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the rocket landed in one piece, as hoped…but then tumbled over and broke followed by a spectacular ball of fire. Watch video below. An epic failure some would think…but one which Musk is sure to say is […]

Even though the news from South Africa these past months has been alarming – the Rand having fallen to record lows, unemployment as high as ever, and the worst drought in years gripping the land – there is a silver lining: 2016 will possibly be the best year ever to travel to the country if […]

Watch South African entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX attempt to send a rocket in to orbit and then land it back safely on a barge in the sea…take off is at about 8.42 pm South African time. (See UPDATE below.) Watch the live webcast above or below. According to SpaceX: “With this mission, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will […]

Three years ago this weekend, small-town Mpumulanga schoolgirl Pretty Yende made her debut at the world-famous Metropolitan Opera House in New York. More astonishing than her voice was that it had been only a decade since Yende had learned what the word “opera” meant. This weekend Yende posted a message on Instagram from Paris, where she is soon to […]

While some of us are having Sunday breakfast, reading the papers and maybe enjoying a Sunday stroll…South African entrepreneur Elon Musk – founder of companies like PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla electric car – will be monitoring the progress of his Falcon 9 rocket, hoping engineers will be able to guide this one to land safely […]

Check out this awesome footage as South African professional kiteboarder Luke McGillewie takes to the air, and almost lands on the beach, in Cape Town yesterday. Fellow kitesurfer Jamie Farrell uploaded the video on Wednesday, saying: “They say the wind hit 51 knots (94 kilometers per hour ) today in Cape Town… And what happens in Cape […]

The following dramatic photos were taken yesterday by Hoopstad farmer Petrus Roux during a massive sandstorm (or stofstorm in Afrikaans) in the Freestate, South Africa…as it came closer… Local Welkom business Silostrat, which posted the photos, told SAPeople that Roux captured the incredible scenes of Mother Nature whilst planting maize outside of Hoopstad, an area renowned for its maize production. […]

Many of us hanker after South African food when we are abroad – Mrs. Balls Chutney and biltong immediately come to mind. But there are loads of other foods too, some that make foreigners cringe, either because of the taste (Peppermint Crisp) or the name (pickled fish). Some are very hard to explain (waterblommetjie bredie, bobotie), while others foreigners get just as […]

AB de Villiers has vowed to lead by example as he takes over the captaincy of the Proteas for the remainder of the Sunfoil Test series against England, after Hashim Amla stepped down last week. He also revealed that part of Test cricket is to make the opponents feel uncomfortable – “to remind them that they […]

Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa has paid tribute to late musician David Bowie for championing the struggle for equality. “He spoke out and pointed out uncomfortable truths to those around him about racism. In so doing, he was an agent of change and a trailblazer in many different ways,” Minister Mthethwa said. Bowie passed […]

South African musicians Don Clarke and Special Care have collaborated to release a song, named after the hashtag #ZumaMustFall. The video is being shared at the same time as a question now hangs over whether the debate of no-confidence in South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma – which had been welcomed by many – will take place […]

Days before hosting the Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles, Ricky Gervais teamed up with PDSA – the UK’s leading veterinary charity – to honour a special dog in South Africa with a PDSA Gold Medal, the highest honour a civilian animal can receive for bravery and devotion. (Update June 2020: The anti-poaching hero dog, […]

Award-winning American photographer Stephen Wilkes has captured an awesome composition of a watering hole he photographed – from day to night – in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Wilkes – who has produced similar compositions in Washington, Paris, London, Dubai and more – flew into Africa last year for his most ambitious ‘Day to Night’ project ever…right in the […]

South Africa experienced a rise in the number of travellers in and out of the Republic during the festive season and turned back “only 0.6%” of foreign minors, according to a statement by Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba at a media briefing in Johannesburg today. The minister convened the meeting to clarify the traveller figures […]

As kids head back to school this week, Suzelle gives some tips on how to hack your backpack: