Here’s this week’s Carte Blanche line-up, available for South Africans living abroad from Tuesday – 16 January 2018 – if you subscribe to Showmax International. (You can try their free 14-day trial first.) Watch the trailer at the bottom of page. The State Capture Inquiry State Capture: it’s the story of one shocking revelation after another, […]

We’ve just returned to Canada after spending almost four weeks in South Africa… writes Daleen Loest. We spent some time in Gauteng and then toured the Western Cape and the West Coast. Man, what a breathtaking place South Africa is! We never felt unsafe, and people were friendly, helpful and just plain awesome all the way. […]

SOUTH AFRICA – Yesterday was the 115th anniversary of the birth of the author Alan Paton, who was honoured in a Google doodle that showed him looking pensively out of a train window at hills that are lovely beyond any singing… writes Gus Silber. The doodle quite brilliantly captured Paton’s flinty, thin-lipped severity of countenance, […]

For Showmax overseas subscribers, January just got better. South Africans living abroad are able to tune in to all their favourite shows from home by subscribing here… with a host of top new series launching this month! From travel shows to historical documentaries to hilarious sitcoms to real-life, deliciously juicy talk shows, the new kykNET […]

Why is it that when the West was turning away from direct colonialism in the mid-20th century, South Africa shifted to apartheid, an intensified form of this heinous system? One of the answers lies in the country’s history of colonisation by two contending settler classes – the Dutch and the British. The Dutch, or Boer, […]

Dale Steyn has been ruled out of bowling in the ongoing Test match against India due to a heel injury sustained on the second day of play at PPC Newlands on Saturday. The fast bowler landed awkwardly in footmarks while bowling shortly before the tea break, with subsequent scans confirming tissue damage to the foot. […]

Elders, the best-selling Afrikaans book about the Camino pilgrimage in Spain by writer, journalist and TV presenter Erns Grundling, is the inspiration behind Elders: Die Camino, a documentary series launching on KykNET and Showmax this January (and available to South Africans abroad – subscribe here!). The book is based on Erns Grundling’s personal experience along the […]

Thousands visit Sea Point pool, one of the few municipal pools in Cape Town operating during the drought. Because it uses sea water, the Sea Point Pavilion has been one of the few municipal pools open during the summer school holidays. Barry Christianson photographed Capetonians enjoying this famous public space. Families from all over Cape […]

Newlywed South African expats – Marelize and Ryan – were hoping to capture the “perfect couple photo” whilst on holiday back home… but instead ended up with broken bones and a visit to hospital when they were washed off the rocks they were posing on. The couple has kindly agreed to share their video with […]

The 2017 National Senior Certificate (NSC) overall pass rate is 75.1%, Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga announced on Thursday evening… although the Democratic Alliance (DA) says this is not a reflection of the true matric pass rate. The DA said: “While the pass rate of 75.1% may seem satisfactory, Minister Motshekga has not sufficiently […]

This year’s annual Tweede Nuwe Jaar (Second New Year) celebration – on Tuesday 02 January 2018 – was as brilliant as usual… providing a colourful display to the crowds, as over 13,000 dancers took to the streets of Cape Town to celebrate what’s known as the Kaapse Klopse Carnival. Oday Mtour captured these spectacular photographs… The Carnival’s […]

The wait for results is almost over for the Class of 2017 as Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is set to announce the outcomes of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Examination this evening. The Minister will release the national pass rate as well as figures for the provinces in a live broadcast at 6pm from […]

On Friday South Africa’s Constitutional Court delivered yet another blow to the country’s President, Jacob Zuma. ConCourt ruled that Parliament has violated its constitutional obligation to hold Zuma to account, by failing to determine whether he has breached section 89 of the Constitution. Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane said today: “This is a consequence of […]

South African comedian Nik Rabinowitz teamed up with FLOW to produce this video, giving visitors to Cape Town a (humorous) low down on how to save water in the drought-stricken Mother City. Welcome to #neighbourhoodwash… https://www.facebook.com/flowsa/videos/10156128474847834/

I finally got around to watching Tali’s Wedding Diary, the South African mockumentary series now screaming on ShowMax… writes Gus Silber. I say screaming, because Julia Anastasopoulos, who plays the titular Tali, so perfectly nails – as in nails skritching down a blackboard – the voice, accent, mannerisms, persona and neuroses of the northern suburbs […]

A Boxing Day story, posted on Facebook by Gauteng resident Tshepo Judge Dijana, has gone viral in South Africa for its warm Christmas spirit… which Tshepo hopes will last the whole year long. Tshepo began his post: “Thoughts on racism: Just had the most interesting encounter!” Tshepo had pulled up to help “the most unlikeliest characters […]

The last few weeks, I have found ample reason to curse my ill-timed blog migration project. Here I was chasing down broken links when in reality I was meant to buy Christmas presents and decorate the house… writes Eva Melusine Thieme aka Joburg Expat, named after the blog she created while living as an American German expat in South […]

In a move that underscores his commitment to conservation, His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales – aka Prince Harry – has formally joined African Parks as their President. The appointment was just made public Wednesday morning in a statement released by Kensington Palace.  African Parks is a conservation NGO, founded in 2000, that manages national […]

Durban enjoyed a bumper weekend with more than 1,686,174 people visiting various beaches around the City during the long weekend, 23-25 December 2017. According to eThekwini Municipality it was a fun-filled and incident-free weekend with no drownings reported, thanks to a great team of lifesavers, police and municipal workers. In a media release, the Durban […]

It is summer time in the southern hemisphere and locals and tourists are flocking to the coast to enjoy the sunshine, salt air and some of the best beaches this part of the world has to offer. In southern Africa it’s also the time when great white sharks migrate closer to Cape Town’s shore to […]

Afriforum says the ANC’s decision to amend the Constitution to allow for expropriation of land in South Africa without compensation puts South Africa on a road to conflict and is nothing more than a plan to “steal property”, putting South Africa on the Zimbabwe route. The civil rights organisation threatened that it will “not sit back” […]

Talented South African choreographer, dancer, actor and teacher – Lungelo Ngamlana – who grew up in one of Cape Town’s oldest townships, has been choreographing shows around the world. Nan Melville caught up with him in New York… I met Lungelo at New York Tisch Drama School where he, together with fellow South African music-maker, […]

The competition for the top six leadership positions in South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), was no carefully choreographed script such as the one-candidate-per-election of Chinese Communist Party congresses. It was a rip-roaring, full-throated democratic contestation – as raucous as US primary elections. Even more so, with delegates’ repeated singing and dancing. This point […]

Award-winning writer, and Nelson Mandela’s authorised biographer, Charlene Smith was the first journalist to ever interview Cyril Ramaphosa. She thinks it was in 1982 or 1983. Here Charlene recalls some of her memories with the new ANC President over the years… He’d just formed the NUM [National Union of Mineworkers] and the offices were two […]

Drought, protests, anger over the social grants payment system, and the collapse of Metrorail marked this year in South Africa. A man walks through Marikana in Philippi East, on 14 February 2017. A high-profile court case eventually resulted in the City of Cape Town being ordered to buy the land on which Marikana is located. […]