Africa’s oldest liberation struggle movement and South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has turned 100 years old.   Thousands of people descended on the quiet Free State province to the city of Mangaung, also known as Bloemfontein, to celebrate the party’s existence since 8 January 1912. The celebrations were attended by former heads […]

  A casting agency in London is looking for South Africans for a major Hollywood movie! Guys & Dolls Casting supplies Supporting Artistes/Extras to films, commercials and TV productions like Judge Dredd, Harry Potter, EastEnders, Holby City, Tescos and T Mobile commercials etc. They are currently working on a massive Hollywood movie directed by Ron […]

Thanks to canny survival skills learnt in the bush, former Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier Norman Mpedi has made a drastic career change and launched successful organic juice manufacturing operation Nguni Juices, using wild indigenous fruit harvested in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal. It all started when Mpedi could not find work in the South African National Defence Force following […]

Two South Africans have done the country proud by being selected as finalists in the Android Developer Challenge for sub-Saharan Africa. Hosted by Google, the competition tasked entrants with developing new, high quality applications for mobile users in Africa and around the world, using Google’s open source Android operating system. Entrants were invited to submit applications […]

Rooibos is known to be a beverage that can provide relief after a hard day at work, but although well documented, its soothing effect has not yet been proven scientifically. Now, researchers from Stellenbosch University have discovered that the South African herbal tea contains compounds that can help to alleviate anxiety and stress. According to research […]

Die Antwoord will be touring the USA in February. If you live Stateside and haven’t seen them yet, here’s your chance for a lekker South African jol! Thursday 9th Feb. 2012 – Philadelphia PA Trocadero Friday 10th Feb. 2012 – Boston MA Paradise Rock Club Sat 11th Feb. 2012 – New York NY The Fillmore […]

Two filmmakers from the African continent have been commended by major film bodies for their bold adaptation of an Academy Award-winning film into a true African epic. The Boda Boda Thieves, a film by South African producer James Tayler and Ugandan director Donald Mugisha, has recently been selected as one of five films – out […]

Award-winning local stand-up comedian Trevor Noah will be the first South African – and African – comedian to appear on the popular late-night American talk show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Dr Christian Neethling Barnard – famous for performing the first ever human heart transplant – was honoured in early December by the City of Cape Town, which named a street after the brilliant South African cardiac surgeon. The ceremony took place exactly 44 years after Barnard’s astonishing medical achievement on 3 December 1967. The operation lasted […]

If you grew up in South Africa then it’s almost a guarantee that you have stumbled across the story of Racheltjie De Beer, the Voortrekker girl who, after getting lost with her younger brother during a snowstorm, uses her body to shelter him from the cold, sacrificing her life for his. The time has arrived […]

Singer songwriter Josie Field has just launched her third album 1984; she’s opened for James Blunt at the Dome in Jo’burg, Ziggy Marley in Soweto..and played for Madiba on his birthday. She was born 27 years ago at the Jo’burg Gen; lives in Melville, South Africa; and is organizing a fantastic blues/folk concert – The Drake […]

From an email doing the rounds Some years ago a small rural town in Spain twinned with a similar town in South Africa. The Mayor of the South African town visited the Spanish town. When he saw the palatial mansion belonging to the Spanish mayor he wondered how he could afford such a house. The […]

Nigeria’s Central Bank governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, has been voted Africa’s Person of the Year 2011 by Forbes Africa, beating two Nobel laureates, a former president and the richest man in Africa. Sanusi masterminded the recovery of Nigeria’s financial sector by introducing radical reforms when he started his tenure as governor of the country’s central bank […]

About eight years ago, a South African couple left their home comforts to set out on a journey of a lifetime that would be the envy of many spirited adventurers. Now they are making their way back home, and they have many stories to tell. Iain Manley and Claire van den Heever have written an absorbing travelogue […]

South African Michaela Mycroft has won the 2011 International Children’s Peace Prize, the junior equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize. Chaeli, as she is fondly known, won the award for championing the causes of the disabled – something the 17-year-old has been doing since she was nine. Mycroft knows first-hand what it’s like to live with […]

Invasion biologist Prof Dave Richardson of Stellenbosch University (SU) is the 2012 recipient of the John FW Herschel Medal, a top award of the Royal Society of South Africa. The prestigious award honours Richardson’s multidisciplinary contribution to science in South Africa through his internationally recognised work on the ecology and management of invasive species. The award is […]

A celebrated batsman and an accomplished bowler, South African-born all-rounder Basil D’Oliveira passed away in England, his adopted country for over four decades. He died on 19 November, aged 80, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. The global cricketing community has reacted to the news with grief, and tributes have been carried in press publications […]

The prestigious Sydney Film Festival now has South African expertise to take it to greater heights, with the appointment of local programmer Nashen Moodley as its new director. Moodley, the former film programmer of the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), brings a wealth of experience to the Australian event, after a decade at the helm of the […]

Table Mountain has been announced as one of the New7Wonders of Nature along with the Amazon, Halong Bay, Iguazu Falls, Jeju Island, Komodo and Puerto Princesa Underground River. In 2008, Table Mountain was identified as one of 440 magnificent natural sites selected by the New7Wonders Foundation to enter the three-phase New7Wonders of Nature contest. In […]

Scott Ramsay is writing a blog, Year in the Wild, as he travels through South Africa’s national and provincial parks. He posts about his experiences and observations daily and keeps the conversation going with friends and followers via Facebook and Twitter. Increasingly drawn to the call of the outdoors, the former sales rep packed up his belongings, and […]

Capetonian Jo Maxwell – also known as ‘The Queen’ by those close to her – talks to sapeople about her brilliantly unique sleeping  bag invention…which tends to put a smile on everyone’s face. Jo invented The Good Night and God Bless Waterproof sleeping bags back in 2005 as a temporary emergency measure for night shelters, […]

A South Africa-based company has launched a new search engine which is run purely on green energy. In addition, through a number of strategic partnerships, the company – Ads4Trees – will be planting 1 tree for every 500 searches conducted by users. The search engine is linked to a fully-featured pay-per-click ad network and is […]

In a bid to develop a thriving entrepreneurial hub, Cape Town city management is encouraging citizens to improve their business knowledge with the hosting of Cape Town Entrepreneurship Week (CTEW) later this month. The event, which is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, will take place at the Cape Town City Hall between 15 and 21 November. […]

Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, has had a ‘whale’ of a time in South Africa where he was accompanied by his wife Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall. South Africa, a member of the Commonwealth, was included as one of the Prince’s destinations in his Autumn Tour 2011, along with Kuwait, Qatar, and […]

Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio are poised to jet into Durban for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in three weeks time. They’ll be joined at the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) by a glittering assortment of other celebrities including movie star and fomer Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former US vice-president and active environmental […]