The brilliantly talented, insightful and always frank Viv Vermaak has perfectly summed up the feelings of so many people in South Africa (and the world) who suffer from anxiety and depression. Responding to Viv’s words, posted Tuesday morning, one parent said “you wrote this today for my daughter, who is very dear to my heart. Thank […]

For all those missing SA, proud South African Adri Joubert Alborough has put together a compilation of  beautiful photos taken around South Africa. Like many South Africans, Adri has family scattered around the world in the US, UK, New Zealand and Taiwan. “I have so many friends abroad, and am constantly being asked for photos… so […]

A 50-year-old father was gunned down outside his son’s school in Green Point on Tuesday morning at 07h35. His eight-year-old son was injured in the incident and has been taken to hospital, said the South African Police Service (SAPS). According to local reports the man has been named as Advocate Peter Mihalik, who has represented […]

The Garden Route District Municipality has confirmed seven fatalities in Karatara, in the Knysna Municipality, in South Africa on Monday evening. The Municipality updated the figure from four to seven just after 20h00 on Monday evening. (The death toll was later reported at eight.) They were all killed in the same house that caught fire. […]

It’s becoming easier for South Africans living in the UK to travel home for a holiday, with new flights added from London to Johannesburg and Durban this week. With South Africa being a popular destination for holiday-makers from the UK, SA expats get to benefit with British Airways (BA) increasing their direct flights between London […]

New satellite data reveals the world’s largest air pollution hotspot is in South Africa – in Mpumalanga… which is home to a cluster of 12 coal-fired power plants, with a total capacity of 32 gigawatts owned and operated by Eskom. The data also revealed that millions of people in Johannesburg and Pretoria are also being […]

South Africans living in London are invited to attend the annual Starfish Wine Tasting, taking place on Wednesday 21st November – an opportunity to taste some of the finest wines from around the world… and to help orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa. The intimate after-work wine tasting will be hosted by Investec in […]

On Trevor Noah’s latest Between The Scenes segment (filmed literally between The Daily Show scenes), the SA expat and talk show host shared another South African memory – how his then 10-year-old brother explained race to a friend who couldn’t understand why Trevor looked white and his brother didn’t. Trevor’s two younger brothers are from […]

Kevin Anderson has clinched his biggest tournament win of his entire career, by winning the 2018 Vienna Open, an ATP 500 event! The victory means that the South African expat, who is based in the USA, has qualified for the ATP Finals in November… making him the first singles player from South Africa in 23 […]

Namibia’s desert landscape got a makeover this week as magical water poured down from the heavens. In some parts over 100mm fell according to the Namibia Meteorological Service, flooding rivers (see video below) and finishing with radiant rainbows. Well known Gauteng-based publicist Georg Knoke, who grew up in Namibia, said on Facebook: “Magic in Sossusvlei – […]

Social media has tracked down possibly the unhappiest Western Cape supporter, after the Sharks – who won Saturday’s Currie Cup Final – sent out a message searching for him. https://www.facebook.com/TheSharks/photos/a.268468059849653/2374264172603354/?type=3 On Sunday morning the Sharks posted a photo of the man, looking incredibly down in the dumps as the score shows Western Province trailing 9-17 […]

CapeNature and SANCCOB Saves Seabirds successfully released 13 rescued and rehabilitated African penguins on Saturday at Stony Point penguin colony in Betty’s Bay, on the Overberg coast of South Africa’s Western Cape province. While the first bunch raced (or waddled) for freedom, watch below as a few stragglers needed to be coaxed into the water… […]

Several fires have raged in the Western Cape, South Africa, this week, claiming the life of one firefighter pilot and destroying at least 10 homes in the Southern Cape, and leaving thousands homeless in Cape Town informal settlements, as the region has been gripped by a heatwave… and tonight flames continue to burn in the […]

The Currie Cup reached a thrilling conclusion in Cape Town on Saturday when the Sharks avenged their defeat in last year’s final… to beat this season’s unbeaten Western Province, dashing their hopes of a fairy-tale finish. The Sharks won 17-12 in what was the ninth time the two sides have battled it out for the […]

The future of Mapoyi Mthetho, the ‘unknown’ opera singer filmed singing outside a Bloubergstrand restaurant on Thursday, is looking a LOT brighter… thanks to Capetonian diner Nicolene Smith capturing the moment on film (see below), and to South Africans who made the video go global (and thanks to Mapoyi’s incredible talent of course!). At midday […]

Chinese business tycoon Jack Ma has three main pieces of advice for South Africa: improve the education system, invest in entrepreneurs and ensure clean governance. Speaking at the inaugural South Africa Investment Conference business dinner on Friday night, Ma said for any country to develop it has to pay attention to those three elements. Ma […]

It’s been a fantastic day for South Africa as local and international businesses have come to the inaugural South African Investment Conference bearing gifts in the form of investment commitments to the tune of R290 billion ($20 billion). “This R290 billion is what we have now in our hands and these are in addition to […]

Two South African actors from Gauteng have found a brilliant way to deal with whatever bad news blows their way – through humour and song! Marissa Claasen and Thiart Li have teamed up to create “PUN-demonium” with their regular video songs, posted together with positive hashtags like #enoughsaid #proudlysouthafrican and #Laughatyourself. Thiart says: “Even though SA […]

South Africans have been sharing a beautiful video showing an incredibly talented Capetonian singing opera, while restaurant diners watch and video him. It was posted on Facebook by Nicolene Smith on Thursday, after lunching with her parents at Ons Huisie in Bloubergstrand. Nicolene said she felt it her “duty” to record and share. “What a […]

Amongst the more depressing aspects of Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s maiden budget speech to the South African parliament on Wednesday (details here), there were some highlights… Sanitary pads are to be added to VAT free items which will come as welcome news to over half the population! Sanitary pads – along with bread flour and […]

Tributes have poured in for South African firefighting pilot, Nico Heyns (65), who lost his life in the line of duty on Tuesday in Vermaaklikheid, in the southern Cape. Early on Thursday evening, Working on Fire posted the following moving video tribute to a man who was loved and respected by all who knew and worked […]

Europe made a step forward in the fight against plastic on Wednesday with a move to ban popular throw-away plastic items like straws and cotton buds… and a greater burden to be placed on manufacturers to recycle; all in a bid to help clear up ocean pollution. Under the proposal by European Union (EU) lawmakers […]

A heartbreaking photo of a bottlenose dolphin mother was captured in South Africa this weekend. Amongst a school of around 600 Indo-Pacific dolphins, the cow can be seen carrying her dead baby, reluctant to let it go… It’s a phenomenon known to marine scientists. Raggy Charters’ Lloyd Edwards, who took the tragic photo, said it […]

Urgent help is being sought from South Africans, locally and abroad, after a devastating fire ripped through Khayelitsha township in Cape Town in the early hours of Saturday morning. While most of us were peacefully sleeping, a fire raged through the township – fuelled by strong winds in the Western Cape –  claiming the life […]

South Africans were blown away – in the wrong way – this week when the SARS Chief Officer for Digital and IT Mmamathe Makhekhe-Mokhuane appeared on SABC to “clarify” the halt to the SARS modernisation programme in 2014… after news that it could cost up to R1-billion to fix the South African Revenue Service’s IT infrastructure. […]