Old friend… when I saw you, just a few short weeks ago, I could see that your eyes had lost their sparkle. I wished to be wrong, but I knew, right away, that this was our last meeting. I did not linger, much. You were in no need of company. Just quietly standing… I could […]

Nobody yet knows what triggered South African mom Lauren Dickason to murder her three daughters on Thursday, just over a week after they began their new life in New Zealand… but another South African mom, living in Sudan, has written a heartfelt post sharing her own near-tragic personal experience that sheds some light on mental […]

South Africa’s “First Lady” of flowers, Rosemary Ladlau, has died at her home in KwaZulu-Natal, a month before her 95th birthday. Well known local author Erica Platter has written this beautiful tribute to a remarkable woman… Messages of condolence and appreciation for Rosemary’s inspirational life, and her talents as a flower arranger and gardener, have […]

Nicci Lombard and her family are hoping for a miracle within the next 24 hours so they can return home to South Africa from Vietnam, or they will face a heavy fine which they can’t afford when their visa runs out on 2 July. Like many SA expats in Asia, their dreams came tumbling down […]

Queen Elizabeth II wowed the world yesterday with her delightful choice of outfit for her breakfast meeting with US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill. Photos of a beaming Queen were flashed around the globe… and it didn’t take South Africans long to notice that matching her smile, was a dazzling brooch she was […]

After being wrongfully arrested in June 2019, for an attempted robbery he didn’t commit, 19-year-old Sihle from Table View, Cape Town, spent eight fearful months in custody while awaiting trial. During that time – disconnected from the world – Sihle’s mom tragically died in a car accident… and the home he had always known was […]

At first glance, Deon Dreyer from Roodepoort in Joburg looks like a normal, healthy, smart and energetic young boy… but what you wouldn’t know, is that the five-year-old is still wearing nappies as a result of a serious medical condition he has faced his whole life – Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele. He was born with the […]

I really enjoyed watching four days of Sky News coverage of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations (in 2012). You have to admit that when it comes to pomp and circumstance, organisation and events, the Brits do it better than anyone else in the world… writes Chris Moerdyk. But, did you notice how Queen Elizabeth actually looked like […]

Generous South Africans have clubbed in to make a terminally ill young boy’s dream come true – to own a Playstation 5. And it’s just in time for his 12th birthday on 9 March. Shaunie Pretorius, from Benoni, was sadly diagnosed with a rare, aggressive, and terminal type of brain cancer called Brainstem Glioma, in […]

I moved overseas to Germany in 2014, but like approximately 820,000 other SA ex-pats, my family still live in South Africa writes Anelia Heese. In order to stay in touch, we had to become experts in the nuances of digital communication. On a video call in my kitchen, I will ask my tannie how to […]

I wrote this on my personal Facebook page a few days ago, and from the responses realised that other South African ex-pats might be also affected by, or experiencing, this dynamic and so thought to share it writes Sandy Jonker Geyer. Last Tuesday COVID-19 took a much-loved member of our family. Buyiswa Zibi, a beautiful […]

Sean Williams and Lovemore Robson have been inspiring Gauteng with their incredible mission to clean up the litter around Lonehill and Fourways, and protect the planet… but it’s Lovemore’s first trip to the beach that’s creating the most waves in South Africa. The duo have been cleaning up the streets of the Joburg suburbs, and […]

Perhaps it has taken a small cruel virus to open my eyes… writes Steve Hall. This invisible thing has brought a new clarity to the vision I once had but maybe didn’t notice enough. Covid-19 arrived unwanted and indiscriminate, and no amount of border protection or customs officials could stem the tragedy of its travels. […]

Dear Family and Friends writes Cathy Buckle from Zimbabwe. I write this letter from a bitterly cold Zimbabwe where tension is high and people are anxious. There are 300,000 civil servants in Zimbabwe. A month ago they were promised a “cushioning” allowance of US$75 a month for the next three months and pensioners would get […]

It was a beautiful day when Nelson Mandela and I met at his home in the late 1990s to brainstorm the programme of the Smile Foundation, writes Marc Lubner, one of SA’s leading philanthropists and Group CEO of Afrika Tikkun. As we fired off ideas at one another, our former president fell quiet for a […]

From his humble beginnings living in the backroom of a baseball clubhouse to walking out on the field as the first continental African to play Major League baseball, Gift Ngoepe’s life sounds like it’s been taken straight out of a Hollywood script. His story of passion meeting destiny is captured in the new documentary Africa’s […]

I left South Africa with my young child in October 2019 because of the worsening economy, minority group-killings and daily dangers such as high-jacking, robberies, theft and rape… writes an SA mom, who prefers to remain anonymous. It’s a daunting thing to raise a child under these circumstances… and not knowing with certainty if your […]

The successful rescue of a dog stranded on Table Mountain has gone viral in South Africa. During a time when the nation is yearning for good news, this beautiful story hit the spot. The incident took place on Tuesday afternoon, 16 June, when Wilderness Search And Rescue (WSAR) were activated just before 15h00 by a […]

For anyone who’s been lucky enough to visit Dalebrook Tidal Pool in Kalk Bay, South Africa, recently – they would have witnessed the breathtaking – almost spiritual – scene of stone sculptures rising stoically against the backdrop of  the beautiful Western Cape skyline. There are at least 50 of them, created with love by a […]

To take the shortest route to the shops and to school, shack dwellers of Elias Motsoaledi informal settlement in Soweto had to cross a deep gully with a polluted stream. Although only a few metres wide it could be treacherous. In the summer rains, it was prone to flooding. People fell and had to have […]

Two good friends and passionate golfers – South African Laurence Wells, who caddied on the European Tour for over 15 years and Australian Brian Nilsson who is still caddying on the same tour since 2000 – have teamed up away from the fairways of the world during the Coronavirus pandemic, to auction some of their […]

A Bloemfontein mother’s open letter to the SA president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is striking a chord with South Africans around the nation. Writing in Afrikaans, Cathy de Lange, a blogger and owner of Meringue Mama, says she knows the chance of the president reading her letter is very slim, but that the message was heavy on […]

A short film by a South African expat about the empowerment, courage and inspiration that can come from immigrating has been nominated for multiple awards at a film festival in the United States. The film – ‘Helen’s Birthday’ – looks at positive immigration, and tells the true story of South African expat Helen April’s journey […]

Joseph Shabalala was the affable leader of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a men’s group that sang isicathamiya, a traditional Zulu genre of South African a cappella. Even with heavy hearts at his passing, a lot of South Africans know they are much richer for his time in the world. For the group he formed, for making […]

There are many forms of hatred and exclusion in our world. There is fear of strangers, fear of foreigners, fear of other races, fear of people with other languages, cultures or religions… says former ConCourt judge Edwin Cameron. On the basis of many of these fears, we build exclusions. We ostracise people. We push them […]