PRETORIA – A parole board in South Africa is to meet on Monday to determine whether Oscar Pistorius should be released early from prison, according to news reports. Pistorius, who was found guilty last year of culpable homicide for the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, was due to leave prison in August to serve the […]

As the Springboks prepare to depart today for the 2015 Rugby World Cup (RWC), former Springbok legend Joost van der Westhuizen has sent them a powerful message on South African radio station Jacaranda FM. More than four years ago, Joost was tragically diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) and given between two and five years […]

Some of it is obvious, like the view from Table Mountain, and some of it is not, like street vendors and school uniforms. I grew up in Germany and now live in the USA. Here are the 30 things I remember most fondly from our expat life in South Africa: [vc_button title=”1″ color=”default”] Hadedas Hadedas […]

Trevor Noah isn’t the only South African ‘Trevor’ export to hit US shores. First there was Trevor Jones (now 66), an orchestral film score composer from Cape Town whose credits include ‘The Last of the Mohicans’. And then there was fellow musician and film score composer Trevor Rabin (now 61) who is again making news this […]

The evidence is on the pages of SAPeople’s Facebook page daily – the incredible, heart-stopping, gobsmacking beauty of South Africa, from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Natal, from the Kalahari to Namaqualand. People send us the pictures they take of Table Mountain, jacarandas sprawling across Johannesburg and Pretoria, the Valley of a Thousand Hills, the heartbreaking sunsets of […]

I’m going to describe a city that has been down on its luck for the past few years. No, make that decades. The downtown area in particular – the city centre – is one people have religiously made a point of avoiding. The test for you afterwards is to try and name the city. Actually, […]

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 […]

During the highs and lows of SONA2015, Twitter outdid itself, with tweeters inside Parliament suddenly becoming reporters (especially on those things the SATV cameras so obviously turned away from). An excellent and speedy video tweet from JacarandaFM’s @MornéJK actually crashed SAPeople.com for a while, so many people wanted to see the EFF being confronted by […]

Canadian photographer Kristian Holmes fell in love with a South African…and ultimately with her country, or more specifically with the city she was born and raised in – Johannesburg. Kristian and AJ (who is now his wife, also a photographer), have put together a wonderful list of why they love Jozi. And we love it! […]

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 […]

Yesterday SAPeople and other facebook pages shared a photo that had been uploaded to FB by Mbali Ndhlovu showing an entrepreneurial homeless guy on a street corner, offering Zulu lessons in exchange for cash (at the very reasonable rate of R1 per word!). Some people suggested “give that guy a Bells”. Well today he’s been given […]

In case you’ve missed them, here’s a selection of some of the best Ice Bucket Challenge videos from the last week…from the Springboks to Charlie Sheen…raising millions of dollars and awareness for ALS/MND. (And then there’s the guy who wants to shut it all down!) ALS Ice Bucket Challenge featuring Joost van der Westhuizen One […]

The Ice Bucket Challenge has finally hit South Africa…and here’s all you need to know (especially the problem with its name!): What’s the Point of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? It’s to raise awareness and funds for research on ALS and the hashtag to use on social media is #ALSIceBucketChallenge. Since the social media craze […]

Whether you live in South Africa’s most dynamic metropolis, or you’re just passing through, here – with kind permission – is renowned South African writer Gus Silber’s take on how you can make the most of it… Learn to appreciate the dawn chorus of the hadedah, for the touch of the bushveld it brings to […]

I must confess that I’d never read much of Mark Gevisser before someone at work in New York brought me this book because it had Johannesburg in the title and I was a South African. They thought I’d relate. Which I did, except it was more to the title than to the author. At last, […]

We love Jo’burg! I have always been a fan of Johannesburg, but never more so than a few weeks ago, after spending only four days there. This city is pulsing, pulling in vibes and influences from all over the world to create a metropolis quite unlike any other. Even the people who live there are […]

South African music legend Johnny Clegg was taken by “complete ambush” (his words) when he joined Martin Bester Drive (MBD) radio show in November 2013. The Jacaranda FM radio team had a surprise in store for him…that turned into a tearjerker for both Johnny and the studio team themselves! MBD had contacted Johnny’s musician son […]