South African author Marlene van Niekerk is one of 10 authors from around the world – four of them from Africa – nominated for the Man Booker International Prize. The award, worth £60,000, will be awarded on May 19. Van Niekerk was joined on the list by other Africa nominees Mia Couto of Mozambique, Ibrahim […]

During the summer months, South Africans gather every Sunday at sunset in Cape Town’s Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden. The iconic gardens set the scene for performances by much loved local and international musicians. Food, friends, family and famous flora are all on the bill. The series of concerts promote local talent and provide a platform within […]

On the 28th of December 2014 mist like smoke rolled over Table Mountain. A human rainbow formed on the lawns facing the stage. The prospect of rain did not dampen the crowd’s spirit; instead, braais were ignited, South African flags were distributed and laughter was shared. Members of Hot Water and other contributing artists occupied […]

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 […]

The auction of South African art at Bonhams in London last week might have been slightly less record-setting than in other years, but two art legends once again came out on top – Irma Stern and Jacob Hendrik Pierneef – with their paintings fetching millions. Stern’s “Fisherman, Madeira” sold for £338,500 (R6.1 million) making it the highest […]

A man from Hanover Park in Cape Town is inspiring young students with his long and dedicated journey to education. Eric van der Byl spent four years walking 34 km every day to get to university and home again. His long walk ended with his graduation this week. And already he is employed and teaching the next generation […]

As international Wellness guru Deepak Chopra (67) wraps up his trip to South Africa with an observation that Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg “were uniquely enlightening experiences”…here are some of our favourite enlightening quotes from the author below. The New Age speaker was in the country to discuss “wellbeing”…of which he said South Africa as a nation was […]

Groot Constantia’s 2013 Chardonnay has beaten over 800 Chardonnays around the world to be crowned the best in the world….well, to be crowned Chardonnay du Monde to be exact. The South African wine was judged the world’s best at the recent 22nd annual Chardonnay-du-Monde competition in the Burgundy wine region of France. As can be gleaned from […]

1. Some people seem to believe that Johannesburg is a beautiful place. 2. They make ridiculous claims about it being the largest man-made forest in the world. 3. But this makes no sense. 4. Because in reality the place is a practically a desert. 5. Nothing exciting ever happens there. 6. There is literally nowhere […]

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden has done it again. The diverse Cape floral kingdom has been awarded top position in the  2015 International Garden Tourism Awards. This comes just a couple of weeks after Kirstenbosch’s suspended walkway, the Boomslang, was declared Most Beautiful Object in South Africa at Design Indaba Expo 2015. These awards highlight the significant role that Kirstenbosch […]

We watched Americans trying South African snacks (and making the cardinal sin of forgetting to dunk their Ouma Rusks in coffee!). Now South Africa has responded with a video of South Africans (including children) trying American snacks. The original BuzzFeed video has been viewed over 1.5-million times since it was published on 7 March 2015! In […]

Congratulations! South Africa has powered through to the World Cup Cricket Semi-Finals with a whopping nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the quarter finals today! This is South Africa’s first-ever World Cup knock-out win since it entered the arena in 1992. Protea bowler JP Duminy pulled off a hat-trick – the first hat-trick ever by a South […]

South African dentist Jaco Marx from Bethlehem, Free State, has today been named the winner of the South Africa National Award, part of the prestigious 2015 Sony World Photography Awards. Marx captured his winning image during a rare sighting of a Brown hyena in Namibia. The image, named ‘Strandwolf’, was selected as the single best photograph taken […]

A humble car guard made newspaper headlines in Durban on Friday thanks to both his integrity and that of those who benefitted from his principles. This story is republished here with kind permission of journalist Mariclair Smit and the Northglen News in uMhlanga: Residents Surprise Selfless uMhlanga Car Guard by Mariclair Smit It has often been said, […]

For many Capetonians, DuNoon is a township on the fringes of Milnerton. For young filmmaker Howard Fyvie, it’s his new home. In a short film called ‘Township Diaries, Excerpt 1,’ Fyvie explains why he has moved to DuNoon (also written as Dunoon or Du Noon). “We hear such negativity about the townships, and [that] the government sucks and […]

A South African great-grandmother is making headlines around the world with her 100th birthday celebrations. Footage of Georgina Harwood skydiving near Cape Town yesterday has been aired on international news channels everywhere. The BBC in the UK put together a wonderful compilation, set to the ‘Chariots of Fire’ music as the 100-year-old was escorted from the airport […]

It’s 48 years since Professor Chris Barnard put South Africa on the medical map by performing the world’s first heart transplant, and now a  team of surgeons from Stellenbosch University (SU) and Tygerberg Hospital have proved SA remains at the forefront of medical progress by performing the world’s first successful penile transplant. The ground-breaking operation lasted nine hours and  took […]

There’s a fantastic new trend emerging in South Africa – thanks to social media – of giving a public shout out and recommendation to those people who work hard day in and day out, striving for excellence in their trade. In the latest shout-out post to go viral, Claire Dodds of Cape Town wrote about an […]

Less than a week after fires ravaged mountain slopes in the Western Cape, new life is beginning in the midst of the devastation…as shown by these photos taken a couple of days ago by South African trail runner Ryan Sandes. Sandes took the photos during a “morning adventure” up Black Burn Ravine. He said that after […]

If you haven’t heard the name Michael Andrew, stay tuned. He could be the next Michael in swimming after Michael Phelps, except this Michael has roots in South Africa. In fact, the 15-year-old swimming sensation has been on a three-month trip to South Africa visiting family, but also taking part in several competitions, such as […]

The thing with solar-powered cars is that you can only drive them during the day. It’s a problem solved by Nigerian student Segun Oyeyiola, who added a wind turbine to his Beetle. Now he can drive all night, too. It cost the Nigerian man more than R70 000 to fight his personal battle against global warming […]

Congratulations to writer and editor Ivan Vladislavić who has won the prestigious Yale University Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction.  Vladislavić says he has been “in a bit of a daze” since hearing the news, and that he will use the $150 000 (almost R1.8-million) cash prize “to pursue my own work in a way that’s never been possible […]

The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government has allocated R12.060 billion to spend on various infrastructure projects in the province during 2015/16 financial year.   “The province is budgeting to spend R12.060 billion in 2015/16, R11.804 billion in 2016/17 and R12.196 billion in 2017/18 on various infrastructure projects. This equates to R36.060 billion over the 2015/16 MTEF,” said […]