Dr Megan Russell is using her engineering knowledge to find practical solutions to the problems of healthcare in poorer countries by helping develop medical technology appropriate for more primitive conditions. This young South African’s enthusiasm for engineering earned her a place on this year’s Mail & Guardian newspaper list of 200 remarkable young South Africans, an […]

Every first Wednesday of the month, alternative cinema enthusiasts in Johannesburg are treated to a host of indie films at Atlas Studios in Milpark, northeast of the city centre. It’s an opportunity to watch films that are not on the main cinema circuit. Founded in 2004, the First Wednesday Film Club (FWFC) is also a networking […]

Ten years after Zakes Mda’s acclaimed novel The Madonna of Excelsior was published in 2002, a theatre adaptation is now ready for South African theatre audiences. The play is directed by Netherlands-based Roel Twijnstra and South African playwright and director Jerry Pooe. It opens on 15 August at the Andre Huguenet theatre in Bloemfontein and runs until 18 […]

From an email doing the rounds! Check out the snow on the N1 between Laingsburg and Beaufort West last week…

Congratulations to Team SA – the athletes, coaches and administrators – for a fantastic Olympic performance! With a final tally of six medals, this made London Olympics 2012 the most successful Olympics South Africa has enjoyed since its re-admission to international sport 20 years ago, in Barcelona back in 1992. Amongst the medals and the […]

Yesterday 7th August 2012 will be remembered by many, for years to come, as a magical day in various parts of South Africa…when the snow fell…and turned parts of SA into a white winter wonderland. Jo’burg became Snowburg as it experienced snow for only the 22nd time in the last 103 years! Professional photographer Kim […]

South Africa’s children have a powerful ally fighting for their rights. In and out of the court room South African advocate Prof Ann Skelton is doing ground-breaking work to advance the rights of children and bring about changes to the country’s juvenile justice system. In honour of Skelton’s work over the past 25 years to […]

Teenage ballet dancer Michaela DePrince survived a brutal civil war, adapted to a new life in a faraway country, and overcame numerous challenges to excel in a white-dominated art form. Today she’s regarded as one of the US’s most promising young artists. DePrince is African by birth, born in the West African country of Sierra […]

From an email doing the rounds… Why is Curry so popular? Please take time to read this excerpt slowly. If you pay attention to the first two judges, the reaction of the third judge is even better. For those of you who have lived in Natal, you know how typical this is! They actually have a Curry […]

From an email doing the rounds: If the words are a little too blurry for you, here’s a transcript: The real Africa is the one they never show you. The real Africa is hidden beneath veneer of poverty and hunger and death,a cancerous mass on the face of the earth that the rest of the […]

As the world prepares to honour Nelson Mandela on his 94th birthday, many wonder what meal would mean the most to the former statesman on this great day. Xoliswa Ndoyiya was Nelson Mandela’s personal cook for 20 years; a career that began two years after the former statesman was released from prison in 1990 after […]

South African wildlife is in the news for a good reason, with the recent announcement that two local productions have been shortlisted for the 2012 Wildscreen Panda Awards, part of the UK’s Wildscreen environmental and wildlife film festival. The two films are Saving Rhino Phila, produced by NHU Africa, and Survival Stars: Home Sweet Home, an Earth-Touch production. Each is […]

  South Africa’s athletes will be walking out in style at the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in London, in a kit created by Durban designer Leigh Schubert. It was up to South Africans to decide which kit makes it onto the field, and the public voted overwhelmingly in favour of Schubert’s striking […]

Jonathan Shapiro has been taken to court over some of his most controversial cartoons of the past few years – the most notable being a depiction of several African National Congress leaders in a compromising situation with Lady Justice – but his doggedness has won him the 2012 Freedom to Publish Award. Zapiro, as Shapiro is more […]

The team heading off to the 2012 Olympic Games in London at the end of July has been finalised. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) announced the full team of 125 athletes on 4 July, with 13 extra names added to the initial 112 publicised in June. “Finally, we have a complete squad!” […]

What does it mean to be a South African? Brand South Africa, together with the Department of Arts and Culture, is trying to find the answer. In a world first, the search is on for the Formula of a South African (FormulaSA), a unique equation that looks at the country’s progress since the inception of democracy and into […]

WELCOME HOME Debbie Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari! The two South Africans are finally back in SA after being kidnapped by Somali pirates for 20 months. The couple was captured by the pirates at the entrance to the Mozambique / Madagascar Channel as they were on their way to meet their first grandchild in South Africa. […]

Zenobia Baumgarten is not only a woman with a zest for life, but she loves to share that zest with others. Baumgarten is the 2012 winner of Total South Africa’s Eco Pioneer competition – and a handy R20 000 (US$2 400) – for her use of natural and recycled materials to decorate her home. In her […]

Three young people from Soweto in the south of Johannesburg have begun an enterprising journey to uplift and inspire the young people of South Africa, in memory of late student activist Hector Pieterson. Sina Molefi, a half-sister to Pieterson, together with Zuza Mbatha and Tera Gaju, call themselves “activists of Hector Pieterson”, and say they […]

It all started with a tweet on 1 May 2012 notifying people using the social network site of a campaign that was geared not at book lovers, but those who needed to get into the habit. The first objective of ReadaBookSA was to secure 4 000 Twitter followers by the beginning of June 2012, when it […]

The first group of athletes who will be representing South Africa at the London Olympics next month was announced by South Africa’s Olympic governing body, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), on Wednesday 6 June in Johannesburg. A total of 112 sportsmen and women made it into the initial list, with the […]

The premiere of Kanye West’s slickly stylised short art film, “Cruel Summer”, created a major buzz at the Cannes Film Festival – partly because he was joined by girlfriend – and reality star – Kim Kardashian at the Palm Beach launch party…but largely because of the pioneering 7-screen experience that was brought to Kanye’s Cannes […]

Zola Budd-Pieterse is no longer the naïve young darling of South African athletics, but the 46-year-old still has what it takes. She finished her first ultramarathon in April 2012, running a cold and rainy Two Oceans in Cape Town in under 4 and a half hours. At 56km, the Two Oceans was the longest race Budd-Pieterse […]

Although his childhood dream was to become a professional football player, it was his unexpected triumph at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 – in the men’s marathon – that won Josiah Thugwane his long-standing fame and glory as one of South Africa’s greatest sport achievers. Thugwane, who was only 25 years old at the time, ran […]

Sifiso Dlamini, has always been a sneaker fanatic. By the time he was 12, he owned 12 pairs of footwear because he knew that in Soweto, that was how one was judged. Dlamini is the founder and CEO of an aspiring streetwear brand named Eish Hade, which is currently focusing on footwear. Eish Hade loosely […]