As South Africa prepares for tomorrow’s State of the Nation Address, one passionate South African bares her soul on how she’s feeling right now in the New South Africa… Overcoming the Tsunami of Negativity…by Sanet Du Preez Viljoen Why did we come back to South Africa? And an even better question is…why do we stay? The obvious […]

South Africa’s favourite DIY queen, SuzelleDIY, has served up a fab tip on what to cook your loved one this Valentine’s Day (Saturday 14 February!). According to Suzelle it’s a great way to win the heart of someone you have a crush on…who may not even know you exist! (Although she does also say that the way to […]

The 2015 Gourmand World Cookbook Award judges have chosen “Durban Curry, So Much of Flavour,” by Erica Platter and Clinton Friedman (PawPaw Publishers) as their South African Book of the Year. “It is outstanding, vibrant with passion and culture,” commented the judges. “Durban Curry” is also the winner of the South African Heritage and Indian […]

I live in Australia and over the past two weeks I heard and read two unrelated comments, but during the last day or so, they became quite related. The first was a comment directed at myself. I took my son to his sport and drama class and had a conversation with one of the facilitators. […]

It’s a sad day when you wake up and realise you’re seriously considering leaving a place you’ve called home for the better part of 45 years. So it’s all the more poignant when you discover someone writing enthusiastically about what I believe could be a great city… In an article on Conde Nast Traveller – entitled […]

Capetonian Bruce Marais left South Africa in 2009 to pursue a career as a (self taught) chef. Since then he’s worked in chateaux in France, villas in Spain, super yachts in the Med and settled in New York two years ago…but wherever he roams, he always returns home in the festive season for his annual SA fix… The […]

First we had loadshedding. Then the jokes. Now the musical videos… Ag Please Eskom – the joys of loadshedding Here’s a Loadshedding tribute song from Nikki Horn, aka TheNixter, whose previous South African-ised Christmas carols went viral during the festive season. Based on Jeremy Taylor’s ‘Ag Pleez Deddy’. Load Shedding Song 2015 – Hours Of Darkness […]

Durban witnessed what is arguably its most successful tourism year in 2014, with an increase in visitor numbers of 12.8% over 2013, according to the eThekwini municipality. In total, 7.4 million people visited the warm East Coast city, with a total direct spend of R19.2-billion and 95 396 jobs created and sustained over the year, […]

The Tate Modern in London is hosting a retrospective exhibition for South African-born painter Marlene Dumas. The exhibition, titled The Image as Burden and made up of more than 100 paintings and drawings, opened on 5 February and will run until 10 May. It was curated by Helen Sainsbury. In 2005, Dumas’ painting The Victor […]

Whenever South Africa is on a sports field, the fiercest rivals always come from Australia. When both countries put on their green and gold colours, encounters usually turn into dogfights. With Australia being the co-hosts for the upcoming Cricket World Cup, we look back at the history of this bloodthirsty rivalry in various sports South […]

American exchange student Brendan Coli spent four months in South Africa in late 2014, during which he filmed video every day. He has compressed his footage into a remarkable 11-minute 30-second video called “The Life Project”, which reveals the remarkable character of the country through an outsider’s eyes. Watch Coli’s take on Cape Town, the […]

Congratulations to South African musician Wouter Kellerman and Indian composer Ricky Kej for winning a Grammy Award last night for their album ‘Winds of Samsara’. Their beautiful collaboration, on the Listen 2 Africa label, won the award in the Best New Age Album category at the awards in Los Angeles last night. At the time of […]

A Zimbabwean expat wrote the following poem which, although it relates more directly to Zimbabwe, contains some sentiments which are sure to resonate with those South Africans scattered abroad… who still long for ‘home’. The poem – ‘Homesick’, by Liz Crilly Bedford – was first published on Facebook page Ubiquitas. According to Ubiquitas owner Dean Sweeney, Liz is an amateur poet who […]

Check out the rare video footage below of two black mamba snakes fighting over who gets the girl! The quality of the film is unfortunately not that great, but the sighting is exceptional with the snakes conducting their ritualised combat in full view in the middle of the road. The sighting of the black mambas (Dendroaspis […]

It’s been just over a year since a South African’s random act of kindness (RAK) caused a tidal wave of good deeds to sweep the nation and the world. And now that South African – Brent Lindeque – is back with a new campaign – #RAK15 (as in Random Acts of Kindness 2015). Rules are the same. Film yourself […]

As South Africa’s first major men’s fashion show kicked off today at the V&A Waterfront, lots of eyes are not only on clothes by the country’s upcoming designers, but also on South African-designed bodies wearing (and not wearing!) them. One notable example – or two, in fact – comes in the muscled and cut shape of model […]

A South African student based in the USA, has put together a cool 11-minute-video of the “best six weeks” of his life – proudly showing his American buddy around our beloved South Africa. And when you watch the video – which he’s called ‘Showing the Yank South Africa’ – you’ll feel like you were on the trip […]

The latest video from South Africa’s cricket team has knocked local and overseas fans for six. It’s packed with pride, patriotism and pure passion – for the game, the team, the fans…and our country, South Africa. With the help of the Proteas Supporters Club, South Africa’s national cricket team tracked down one of their biggest […]

For World Cancer Day today (4 February 2015), we thought we’d share one of our favourite South African videos ever – the morning that 36-year-old mom Gerdi McKenna’s friends and family surprised her with the ultimate act of love after she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer…but then Gerdi sent us a message that’s even better […]

There’s a trend emerging in South Africa of spotting selfless acts of kindness. And with social media as it is, these acts which in the past would go unnoticed – or certainly unshared – are now being spread faster than a viral video on load shedding. And each one brings hope. The latest story comes from DJ […]

Cape Town has been ranked by National Geographic as the world’s second-best beach city in their latest Top 10 list. The international magazine places Cape Town’s beaches behind Barcelona’s “eight white-sand beaches that rim its Mediterranean coastline”. But the South African “capital of cool” pips Hawai’s Honolulu, Nice in France, Miami in the US, Rio […]

Philani Dladla is a well-known feature of Joburg’s streets. The Pavement Bookworm reads books and gives reviews to passers-by. If they like the review, they buy the book. This way, he pays rent and buys food. But his bigger goal is promoting literacy among children. Walk along Gleneagles Road in Greenside and you will find […]

You know the drill. You move overseas and your first foreign friend (or even a guy in the queue at the post office) asks you whether lions roam the streets of South Africa, if Joburg’s roads are paved with gold, and whether we all live in trees. And it’s the same if you stay in […]

South African Airways (SAA) will this week become the first airline globally to install the SatAuth (Satellite Authorisation System) which will allow for secure credit card transactions anywhere in the skies. “The system, first installed on the airline’s cabin trainer for testing in May last year, will not only allow secure credit card transactions anywhere […]

Let us make 2015 the year of unity and cooperation amongst all South Africans, as we continue to transform our beautiful country into the prosperous one described in the Constitution, the Freedom Charter and the National Development Plan,’’ said President Jacob Zuma in his new year address. As we move South Africa forward in 2015 […]