Timing has a lot to do with being successful, says Joan Joffe, one of the most recognisable faces in South African business. “Well, you certainly caught the computer wave,” I mention to her when we meet at a Rosebank hotel. “I caught three waves!” she responds. “The PC wave, the cellphone wave and the black […]

South Africa’s Beverly Singh, an engineering graduate from Port Elizabeth, is the first recipient of the Bloodhound SSC Chevening Scholarship – she will work with the construction team on the final assembly stages of the supersonic car, while pursuing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Initiated in 1983, the Chevening Scholarship programme is funded by the UK […]

Dr Mo Ibrahim, businessman, academic and philanthropist, delivered the 11th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in Pretoria on 17 August 2013. He joins luminaries such as former US president Bill Clinton, former Irish president Mary Robinson, and Nobel laureate, the late Wangari Maathai, who have all shared their opinion on important […]

South Africa’s beloved statesman and father of democracy and reconciliation, Nelson Mandela or Madiba, his clan name and affectionate nickname, has many women in his life. But perhaps the three most important are his three wives, one of whom is deceased, another from whom he is divorced, and a third, his loving present wife, Graça […]

Award-winning South African author Marie Williams talks exclusively to SAPeople about love, loss, Green Goblins and discovering what makes your heart sing. Marie was recently awarded the Finch Memoir prize in Australia for GREEN VANILLA TEA, a heart-wrenching and inspiring memoir of the loss of her  husband Dom, a fellow South African. The two had […]

Cape Town is going green in more ways than one. It has a network of bicycle lanes across the city that are to be painted green to demarcate their use for bikes only. “The colour coding helps to promote safety and awareness for vehicles and pedestrians,” says the city council. It is also one of the […]

The courageous women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 in protest against pass laws were honoured for their contribution in a colourful ceremony on the same day 57 years later, in Tshwane. These days, 9 August is National Women’s Day, and although its aim is to contribute to the empowerment of […]

The five finalists for the 2013 Businesswoman of the Year awards are all trailblazers in their own right, forging careers in fields traditionally dominated by men. Established back in 1980, the awards are held under the auspices of the Businesswomen’s Association of South Africa (BWASA), an organisation that promotes and empowers women in all spheres […]

Women’s Day, celebrated every year on 9 August, and the annual activities around it honour all the women who, through the years, have led South Africa out of colonialism and apartheid and into democracy. Women’s Month 2013 marks the 57th anniversary of the famous 1956 anti-pass march, which saw over 20 000 women, led by struggle […]

The Ebenezer Hannah Home in Ennerdale, a suburb in the deep south of Greater Johannesburg, is one of the beneficiaries of dairy producer Clover’s empowerment project Mama Afrika. It’s also one of Brand South Africa’s CSI projects, and deservedly so. The home stands on an undeveloped piece of land just off the N1 freeway. It’s instantly visible […]

Nelson Mandela calls Qunu in the Eastern Cape home, and it is where he has asked to be buried. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, the struggle veteran describes leaving the village as a nine-year-old, to travel with his mother to an unknown destination. “I could see the simple huts and the people going about their chores; the stream […]

President Jacob Zuma met with Academy Award-winning actor and activist Charlize Theron in Pretoria on Monday. The two discussed South Africa’s response to HIV/Aids and Theron’s role in the fight against the disease. In 2008, the United Nations named South African-born Theron as its Messenger of Peace, tasked with promoting efforts to end violence against […]

By: Mary Alexander

Young Dirk Coetzee from the Northern Cape province has been named the co-winner of a competition that invited children to design a helmet for Andy Green, the daredevil who will be attempting to break his own land speed record in 2014/2015 in the Bloodhound SSC (supersonic car). Driving Bloodhound, Green, a wing commander in the Royal Air Force, […]

Many know Graça Machel as Nelson Mandela’s wife and the former first lady of both Mozambique and South Africa, but perhaps few recall that she was once a fiery young freedom fighter. Born Graça Simbine on 17 October 1945 in Gaza, Mozambique, Machel went to a Methodist mission school and then to the University of Lisbon on […]

Like having babies, you forget the pain, says super athlete Jeannie Dreyer, referring to her astonishing first-place finish in the 2 300km Freedom Challenge mountain bike race. The route starts in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, and ends in Wellington in Western Cape, and takes place at the end of June. Thirty-three-year-old Jeannie, a housewife and mother of two […]

Nelson Mandela is regarded by many as a man of wisdom and insight – his words have touched and inspired people all around the world. Taken from Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations, we present some of the inspirational sayings by the former president that have roused and touched many internationally. The book, […]

South African surf legend Shaun Tomson is launching his new book – The Code, the Power of ‘I Will’ – in California this week.  The code is a simple strategy for confronting everyday challenges and making positive, life-changing decisions. In the book, Shaun uses twelve of his personal stories to share the power of “I […]

Strictly Come Dancing kicked off to a scintillating start on Wednesday 10 July in South Africa…with its two new hosts – globally-adored comedian Marc Lottering, and popular South African TV presenter/actress/DJ Pabi Moloi. The show, which is based on a BBC format and aired in over 40 countries, is brought to South African screens by […]

Standing 6ft 4ins – 1.93 metres – tall, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a giant of a man whose life will again be immortalised on the silver screen, this time with the focus on his earlier years through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa. The political activist not only united […]

A comprehensive timeline of the life of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, activist, political prisoner, president of South Africa, statesman and world icon of peace and justice. 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s 18 July 1918 – Nelson Mandela is born in Mvezo, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. His mother, Nosekeni Fanny, was one of four wives of his father, Gadla Henry […]

South African President Zuma has denied media reports that the former President Nelson Mandela is in a vegetative state. The President’s office clarified that Madiba remains under the care of a multi-disciplinary panel of South African medical experts who are attending to him on a 24-hour basis. President Zuma visited Mandela in hospital yesterday afternoon […]

The first time Kesivan Naidoo saw Nelson Mandela on television was 23 years ago, when the former president was released from prison. The jazz drummer was just 10 years old at the time and was oblivious to how that moment, 11 February 1990, would shape the way he made music in his adult life. Now […]

On his six-day tour of Africa, US president Barack Obama talked about increasing trade and accelerating economic growth, but his mere presence may have sent another message; that despite China’s increasing presence on the continent, the US is still here and it still wants to do business with Africa. This is according to Catherine Grant-Makokera, […]

Known to many as the man who liberated South Africa from apartheid, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, whose clan name is Madiba, is a world-class icon recognised for his integrity and his will to fight for the freedom that we relish today. One way of understanding the man is to explore the countryside in which he grew […]