I wasn’t sure what it would be like going back home after 12 years. Last time, I was a decade younger, with two small girls and far less London in my bones. Now, I’ve got more kids, more wrinkles and I may have forgotten what the sun looks like.

The sensation of being torn comes in waves. Can I belong to two places at once? Or is it my lot to be traitor, one way or another

Is there such a thing as too much Springboks?

Only a game? Since when. Oh… you’re not South African. My condolences.

Being given 50c to spend at the Spar down the road was, like, better than winning the grand prize on Telly Fun Quiz. No seriously. (Okay, not counting the trellidor.)

Mike’s Kitchen—a necessary rite of passage into the utopia of growing up, where you could stay up late, eat sweets all the time, watch too much TV, live at your friend’s house and never do any times tables.

There was only one proviso with Inecto—never ever spill it. Like, ever. On your face, on your clothing and especially not on your boyfriend’s parents’ cream lounge carpet.

The lady looked pensive. Her head turned this way and that; too quickly, like a meerkat on the lookout for snapping snakes in the veld.

My mom, who knew nothing about rugby (she shouted for Australia in the opening game until we told her that South Africa wore GREEN not GOLD #facepalm), was an absolute legend; scouring Shell garages for World Cup collectors’ memorabilia.

Jis, I miss home when the rugby’s on. It’s just not the same here in London. Today is Friday and I know the people back in SA will be rocking up to school and work in their bokke jerseys, and if they can’t afford one they’ll rummage for green or yellow, or a flag or something (anything!), to represent.

If you fell on the ice, you had to make fists because some super-jock speed skater would almost certainly skate past you at that exact moment and chop your fingers off. An arm if you were super unlucky. Everybody said so. It happened to people who knew people. No, really. No matter. We were in. […]

If you’re over 60, on a Wednesday you have privilege of appointment to renew your driver’s license at the licensing department in Edenvale. My license was due to expire so I decided I would take up the offer… writes Clare Paterson. I devised the perfect plan… …the department opens at 9am and I had a […]

There’s nothing like a Parktown Prawn in the car on the way to school. “We’re going!”—mom bellows from the other side of the house. I lightning myself out of bed. Throw on my uniform (luckily, it’s summer—no tie), lurch for my school bag (praying I packed accurately the night before), will an apple into my […]

Proudly South African expat Hayley Reichert is gatvol. Below is her passionate letter to all South Africans, revealing alleged incompetency she has witnessed within SA’s foreign affairs department, DIRCO, whilst trying to aid South Africans in escaping Russia’s attack on Ukraine.  Dear fellow South Africans, Our government does not care about us, and they care […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Kindness is contagious. Especially with children, writes South African expat, best-selling author and motivational speaker Trevor Romain. It’s amazing how empathetic children can be, especially when inspired to be so. Over the years of working with children, I have discovered that sometimes all a child needs, to be empathetic and kind, is permission and a […]

As the year 2018 draws to a close, I would like to reflect on it by revisiting some of the the major rejections I have had to deal with over the years, starting with the many I received as a village boy, when applying for bursaries in 1991, so I could be the first one […]

I am writing this story for me. I have always written, and it has always helped to offer insight and gain perspective. It is cathartic and, right now, I know that I need it to heal. I am writing this story for Mick, Alessia and Claudia. I had never, ever wanted to live as much […]

Canada, as everyone knows, is awesome… writes Phil Maloney from Maple and Marula. We invented all the best stuff in the world, like the internet, steak, clothes, and Beyonce. OK, like, maybe we didn’t INVENT all that stuff, but we HAVE it in Canada. And, to America’s constant surprise, we also have running water, electricity, and […]

So the story I’m about to tell you is so New York and one of the reasons people love this place… writes author and former South African expat Ted Botha, who now lives in Joburg, but was back in New York for a couple of months. It all centres around a stray one dollar bill. I […]

While statistics reveal the sad state of so many households in South Africa where children are growing up with absent fathers, there are men like 27-year-old Sabelo Malusi Thabethe whose greatest dream is to hold down his job so that he can buy a home in a safe area and take care of his daughter. […]