A new television mini-series documenting the life of former president and Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela will be filmed mostly on location in South Africa and will cost a whopping US$20-million (R160-million) to produce. Three production companies will be involved with the six-hour mini-series – Canada’s Blue Ice Film; the UK’s Left Bank Pictures and Out […]

The annual gala dinner for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (UK) is to be held in early March at one of the UK’s most exciting venues – Madame Tussauds in London! For more information, see the invitation below…

The 15-year-old South African actress Khomotso Manyaka has earned a position on Time Magazine’s list of the 10 best performances of 2011.       Manyaka was lauded for her performance as the scrawny, big-eyed Chanda in Life Above All, an adaptation of the Allan Stratton novel, Chanda’s Secrets. The film focuses on the stigma surrounding HIV/Aids. Both […]

Africa’s oldest liberation struggle movement and South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has turned 100 years old.   Thousands of people descended on the quiet Free State province to the city of Mangaung, also known as Bloemfontein, to celebrate the party’s existence since 8 January 1912. The celebrations were attended by former heads […]

  A casting agency in London is looking for South Africans for a major Hollywood movie! Guys & Dolls Casting supplies Supporting Artistes/Extras to films, commercials and TV productions like Judge Dredd, Harry Potter, EastEnders, Holby City, Tescos and T Mobile commercials etc. They are currently working on a massive Hollywood movie directed by Ron […]

Thanks to canny survival skills learnt in the bush, former Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier Norman Mpedi has made a drastic career change and launched successful organic juice manufacturing operation Nguni Juices, using wild indigenous fruit harvested in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal. It all started when Mpedi could not find work in the South African National Defence Force following […]

Two South Africans have done the country proud by being selected as finalists in the Android Developer Challenge for sub-Saharan Africa. Hosted by Google, the competition tasked entrants with developing new, high quality applications for mobile users in Africa and around the world, using Google’s open source Android operating system. Entrants were invited to submit applications […]

Rooibos is known to be a beverage that can provide relief after a hard day at work, but although well documented, its soothing effect has not yet been proven scientifically. Now, researchers from Stellenbosch University have discovered that the South African herbal tea contains compounds that can help to alleviate anxiety and stress. According to research […]

Die Antwoord will be touring the USA in February. If you live Stateside and haven’t seen them yet, here’s your chance for a lekker South African jol! Thursday 9th Feb. 2012 – Philadelphia PA Trocadero Friday 10th Feb. 2012 – Boston MA Paradise Rock Club Sat 11th Feb. 2012 – New York NY The Fillmore […]

Two filmmakers from the African continent have been commended by major film bodies for their bold adaptation of an Academy Award-winning film into a true African epic. The Boda Boda Thieves, a film by South African producer James Tayler and Ugandan director Donald Mugisha, has recently been selected as one of five films – out […]

Award-winning local stand-up comedian Trevor Noah will be the first South African – and African – comedian to appear on the popular late-night American talk show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Dr Christian Neethling Barnard – famous for performing the first ever human heart transplant – was honoured in early December by the City of Cape Town, which named a street after the brilliant South African cardiac surgeon. The ceremony took place exactly 44 years after Barnard’s astonishing medical achievement on 3 December 1967. The operation lasted […]

A great Christmas gift idea is to purchase a P.A.S.T. Experiences Tour Voucher for someone special. Select from a choice of private or budget tours such as I Love Shopping in the CBD or Public Art. “I always think an experience is a wonderful gift as you never forget it” Jo Buitendach, founder of Past […]

submitted by Karen Greaves* Stickit Buddies has a huge range of trendy character stickersespecially designed and hand drawn. You can create your own unique combination of character stickers especially to suit whoever you’d like to give the gift to, so that they can stick them on their car’s back windscreen or side windows, or even on […]

If you grew up in South Africa then it’s almost a guarantee that you have stumbled across the story of Racheltjie De Beer, the Voortrekker girl who, after getting lost with her younger brother during a snowstorm, uses her body to shelter him from the cold, sacrificing her life for his. The time has arrived […]

Singer songwriter Josie Field has just launched her third album 1984; she’s opened for James Blunt at the Dome in Jo’burg, Ziggy Marley in Soweto..and played for Madiba on his birthday. She was born 27 years ago at the Jo’burg Gen; lives in Melville, South Africa; and is organizing a fantastic blues/folk concert – The Drake […]

submitted by The Fudge Lady EXCITING NEWS TO SHARE!!!! Heaveny Fudge by the Fudge Lady can now ship to other countries too! We can shrink wrap the fudge to hold in the freshness and highest standard of quality. Here are the steps that will need to be followed for all customers wishing to order that […]

From an email doing the rounds Some years ago a small rural town in Spain twinned with a similar town in South Africa. The Mayor of the South African town visited the Spanish town. When he saw the palatial mansion belonging to the Spanish mayor he wondered how he could afford such a house. The […]

Nigeria’s Central Bank governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, has been voted Africa’s Person of the Year 2011 by Forbes Africa, beating two Nobel laureates, a former president and the richest man in Africa. Sanusi masterminded the recovery of Nigeria’s financial sector by introducing radical reforms when he started his tenure as governor of the country’s central bank […]

About eight years ago, a South African couple left their home comforts to set out on a journey of a lifetime that would be the envy of many spirited adventurers. Now they are making their way back home, and they have many stories to tell. Iain Manley and Claire van den Heever have written an absorbing travelogue […]

South African Michaela Mycroft has won the 2011 International Children’s Peace Prize, the junior equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize. Chaeli, as she is fondly known, won the award for championing the causes of the disabled – something the 17-year-old has been doing since she was nine. Mycroft knows first-hand what it’s like to live with […]

Invasion biologist Prof Dave Richardson of Stellenbosch University (SU) is the 2012 recipient of the John FW Herschel Medal, a top award of the Royal Society of South Africa. The prestigious award honours Richardson’s multidisciplinary contribution to science in South Africa through his internationally recognised work on the ecology and management of invasive species. The award is […]

A celebrated batsman and an accomplished bowler, South African-born all-rounder Basil D’Oliveira passed away in England, his adopted country for over four decades. He died on 19 November, aged 80, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. The global cricketing community has reacted to the news with grief, and tributes have been carried in press publications […]

The prestigious Sydney Film Festival now has South African expertise to take it to greater heights, with the appointment of local programmer Nashen Moodley as its new director. Moodley, the former film programmer of the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), brings a wealth of experience to the Australian event, after a decade at the helm of the […]

Table Mountain has been announced as one of the New7Wonders of Nature along with the Amazon, Halong Bay, Iguazu Falls, Jeju Island, Komodo and Puerto Princesa Underground River. In 2008, Table Mountain was identified as one of 440 magnificent natural sites selected by the New7Wonders Foundation to enter the three-phase New7Wonders of Nature contest. In […]