When Donald Trump picked on South Africa earlier this week – saying it was a mess – he unleashed a storm of vitriol from South Africans around the world. Many of them said the true mess was his signature combover hairstyle, while others said he should butt out of South Africa’s affairs. It wasn’t the first […]

A poem by Faieza Mx, now living in Queensland, Australia… I want to wake up to the Majestic Table Mountain Always standing, Always there, Never failing Its beauty astounding As it watches over Cape Town The ocean so blue… Camps Bay, Strand, Boulders Sea Point I want to go home to gaardtjies shouting ‘hullo, hullo, […]

The South African husband of an Australian mom who received a ‘poison pen’ letter about photos she posted to Facebook has spoken out against his wife’s so-called friends. The letter is receiving worldwide attention as it grapples with a topic familiar to so many social media users.  How many baby photos is enough? Should we really post photos of […]

South Africans woke up this morning to an announcement from Eskom, posted just after 5 am saying “Eskom regrets to announce that Stage 1 #load_shedding will resume from 06:00 to 22:00 today.” But an hour ago it just got worse. Eskom announced “#PowerAlert” revealing it will move “from stage 1 to stage 2 load shedding […]

There have been uplifting, joyous scenes at the Peace March this morning in Durban as South Africans unite to let the perpetrators of attacks on foreign nationals – as well as the African continent and the world – know that South Africans say #NoToXenophobia. Durban photographer Graham Carruthers has captured the photos on this page of the […]

The first year students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University have spread a little Ubuntu with a 2-minute video project compiled for their Computing Sciences class. “The aim of our project is to do a community service as part of a team work exercise in our programming module, to teach us some soft skills,” Head of Department […]

It has been a sad day for South Africa as over 2,000 people brought Durban’s CBD to a standstill following days of xenophobic attacks in the KwaZulu Natal province. The recent flare up of attacks against foreign nationals has been blamed by some on a recent comment made by King Goodwill Zwelithini, King of the Zulus, saying “foreigners must go”. He […]

It had to happen. After Trader Joe’s, the hugely popular and huge supermarket chain in the USA (think Woolies but a bit cheaper), brought out its South African BBQ Potato Chips, biltong wasn’t more than a whiff away. And so the store has recently rolled out ‘The South African Inspired Biltong Beef Jerky.’ The American […]

Family Comedy ‘Strikdas – ‘n Familie gedoente’ has opened with a bang at the box office in South Africa and online worldwide with South Africans abroad being able to watch the movie at the same time that their families back home are doing so. The quirky new comedy earned R1 219 664 on its opening weekend. By the […]

You might remember him as the frontman of the band Fokoffpolisie and later Van Coke Kartel. Now Francois Van Coke is going solo, with his first 12-song album just released and titled after the singer himself. The first video, released on April 7 on YouTube – a lyrical ballad Toe Vind ek Jou which he sings […]

Cees Bruggemans, Consulting Economist at Bruggemans & Associates, sees hope and a brighter future for South Africa… BREAK IN THE CLOUDS by Cees Bruggemans It must be difficult to believe, with Eskom an ever bigger albatross around our necks, an imploding post office, and so from one scandal to the next. But there are breaks […]

Check out the photos below and see if you can figure out which picture is from which city – Johannesburg or Los Angeles? Scroll down and count how many images are of LA. (Hint: your answer should be somewhere between 6 and 13). The answers are beneath each pic. Just click on the picture number to […]

When it comes to languages, South Africa – the land of 11 official languages – truly is in shift. As the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) News channel said it would be axing Afrikaans and several other-language bulletins from its 24-hour news service, the government announced that Mandarin has been approved as an optional subject at […]

The reaction to Trevor Noah’s appointment as the successor to the haloed and revered Jon Stewart on his satiric ‘The Daily Show’ has quickly drawn extremes of reaction across the United States. On Twitter, there were plenty of questions. “Who?” “ Wait, who?” The South African comedian himself tweeted, “No-one can replace Jon Stewart. But together […]

Everyone knows about Table Mountain and the Waterfront, but what about the hidden secrets waiting to be discovered in Cape Town? For all the out-of-towners and overseas visitors, here’s  the lowdown from locals on where to go and what to do next time you’re in the Mother City. 1. Drive to Constantia Nek Stop at the […]

Jenna Lowe’s mom Gabi has posted a message to her daughter’s #GetMetTo21 Facebook page asking everyone to “please keep her in your thoughts and prayers” as the 20-year-old has unfortunately suffered some health set backs in the past few weeks since receiving her new set of lungs in December 2014. The Western Cape youngster became a […]

South African cricket captain AB de Villiers and coach Russell Domingo will arrive home in South Africa, after their awesome performance at the Cricket World Cup 2015, in the early hours of this morning. Their flight – SA 281 from Perth – will land at 04h40 and the two will address the media at a […]

From 6 April, anyone on a South African passport going to live in the UK for longer than six months will need to pay a ‘health surcharge’ in order to gain access to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). The new ruling – announced this month by the British Home Office – will affect all temporary, non-European […]

The South African Post Office (SAPO) has responded to the photos that have been doing the rounds on social media depicting so-called chaos at the PO’s International Mailing Hub at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. The photos by Facebook user Werner Leonard (which have since been removed) sparked rumours of “mayhem” at the PO’s international […]

Former tennis great Bob Hewitt has been found guilty in a Johannesburg court of raping several underage girls he was meant to be coaching in the 1980s and ’90s. Australian-born Hewitt, a former Grand Slam doubles champion, had been accused of rape by two women and of sexual assault by a third. Suellen Sheehan, who […]

The auction of South African art at Bonhams in London last week might have been slightly less record-setting than in other years, but two art legends once again came out on top – Irma Stern and Jacob Hendrik Pierneef – with their paintings fetching millions. Stern’s “Fisherman, Madeira” sold for £338,500 (R6.1 million) making it the highest […]

A man from Hanover Park in Cape Town is inspiring young students with his long and dedicated journey to education. Eric van der Byl spent four years walking 34 km every day to get to university and home again. His long walk ended with his graduation this week. And already he is employed and teaching the next generation […]

The daughter of missing South African yachtsman Reginald ‘Reg’ Robertson has issued another plea today – on her dad’s birthday – for people around the world to please help in the search for the lost catamaran on which her father and two other South African men are sailing. All contact with the yacht , a Leopard 44 […]

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 […]

As protests calling for the removal of the Cecil John Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) make headlines around the world, Capetonian Alastair During – who has walked past that statue many times as a UCT student – shares his reactions and realisations about  the protest. A Statue by Any Other Name…by Ali During When […]