Anyone sitting in London or Ottawa, Canada, or Scandiinavia – well, anywhere with a colder climate right now – might be thinking of sunnier climes. With the rand  hitting its lowest level ever against the US dollar, consider what these properties on offer in Johannesburg and Cape Town this weekend could be bought for in foreign currency. […]

Jeremy Loops has taken to Facebook to reveal just how challenging it can be for a South African musician to fill concert halls around the world. Many South Africans abroad – in other professions – will relate to that higher hurdle you sometimes have to jump to prove, to those at home and abroad, that you […]

Cape Town was treated to a beautiful formation of Lenticular clouds on Sunday (8 November). From the Blouberg side it looked like the legendary pirate Van Hunks truly was smoking a pipe! (According to myth the ‘tablecloth’ cloud sometimes seen over Table Mountain is caused by a smoking contest between the devil and Van Hunks.) Capetonian Enid Burt said: […]

Anyone visiting Johannesburg – especially Jeppestown – might notice some new art decorating its walls, garage doors and basically any space flat and vertical worth a spray can. That’s because the fifth annual City of Gold Urban Art festival took place at the end of October. Graffiti artists from South Africa and abroad took part in painting up the place, […]

Cape Town and the Winelands are famous for their stunning scenery and outdoor activities, but they are also a treasure trove of art, culture and history. Travel writer and tour guide James Bainbridge shares his cultural highlights of the Mother City area. 1. Babylonstoren  This 17th-century wine farm south of Paarl is a total gem, […]

Time to get our calendars out for next year as South African Rugby Union (SARU) have announced the Springboks’ home fixtures for 2016. Current Six Nations champions Ireland will play a three-test series against the Springboks in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth in June 2016, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) announced on Friday. SARU […]

This week, after undergoing an emergency appendectomy, Trevor Noah discovered what many Americans already know – that their “health system sucks” (in the words of some US media). After being admitted to hospital on Tuesday with abdominal pain, the South African comedian got his first real taste of the US health care system…and it was just like […]

Someone from Cape Town recently told me that living in this city for 6 years does not make me a Capetonian. Apparently the official integration period is ten years, and I had to work a lot harder on my accent. Eish. Problematically, this caused my identity crisis to reach new heights as I already felt […]

After my accident, whilst in a coma, Absa, set up an account for me. They generously deposited money into this and let it be known that it was available for public donations towards my medical expenses. Twenty-five years later, I am still banking with them! Recently I wrote to the Chief Financial Officer and I […]

A Climax windmill spins and creaks quietly alongside a dirt road linking Colesberg with the blue horizon. There is a cool morning breeze and a few sheep bleat in the distance. Soon, though, they are drowned out by the distant roar of a straining engine. A school bus appears, emblazoned with the words ‘Hantam Community Education […]

Staff members at One Loyalty, a South African company that specialises in emergency assist, got to prove both their loyalty and emergency skills on Friday with the unexpected joy of delivering a baby in their Joburg offices! “Giving life is a miracle,” said Marketing Coordinator Deepa Naran. “One Loyalty got to be a part of […]

Since the start of the weekend I’ve been hearing reports of the huge gatherings of humpback whales at Noordhoek, Robben Island and Dassen Island. As much as I wanted to document this amazing wildlife event, for five days in a row the wind was unfortunately too strong to fly…until yesterday. I woke to a beautifully calm […]

A video of Sihle the Drummer (his surname is not given on Facebook) playing drums on an assortment of stand-in objects was first posted on his Facebook page in August and was viewed at least 410,000 times. That seems to have gotten him a real set, which he now plays in a new video. Watch Sihle’s first […]

South African comedian Trevor Noah underwent an emergency appendectomy early Wednesday morning. According to a statement from Comedy Central (see above), the operation was successful and the Daily Show host is currently recuperating from the surgery. CC said: “As a result, The Daily Show will air an encore tonight. We expect he and the show will be back […]

Just in time for its 80th anniversary as a board game, Monopoly will now have a Cape Town version and will include the city on its world game board. “Monopoly fans around the world will be able to visit the big 7 Capetonian attractions, play beach bats on some of our top beaches, play sport, go to […]

South Africa plays a feature role – and it’s a good one – in the new James Bond movie, ‘Spectre’, even though South Africa will be one of the last countries in the world that actually sees a major launch of the spy extravaganza. While the movie itself – which is brilliant – flits from Mexico […]

Here’s another beautiful video of Cape Town from self-taught photographer Brendon Wainwright. This time he has spent two years taking over 7,000 photos to create this exquisite time-lapse. “I have been exploring Table Mountain National Park in pursuit of capturing its beauty like never seen before in a time-lapse video,” says Brendon. “This is 7,530 still images put together… […]

Heavy winds have wreaked havoc with the surf in the past 24 hours in Durban, KwaZulu Natal. Photographer NIC ABERDEIN captured these photos of the scene this morning. He said that despite “howling winds” the waves on the South African coast were “not as big as expected”. Yesterday EThekwini Municipality was forced to issue a press release […]

If South Africa has long been known as the World in One Country, this week it could have also been called Weather in One Country. Storms, terrible winds, blistering heat as well as snow have all hit various parts of the country. In KwaZulu Natal, powerful winds were having a strange effect on the land. Said one news […]

One month into his stint as a talk show host, Trevor Noah spoke to his wildly popular competitor Jimmy Kimmel about how he  gave up his life in South Africa, where he was becoming more successful, to come to try his luck in America. “South Africa is small,” Noah said. “And when you’re from a […]

I feel lucky that I stumbled upon Alexandra Baseball by mere happenstance almost exactly five years ago. We were on the verge of moving from the United States to South Africa, and our boys, then 13 and 11, were wondering whether there was baseball in South Africa. Ever so gently my husband and I prepared […]

South African state prosecutors lodged an appeal today, in the SA Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, for a murder conviction for Oscar Pistorius. The former Olympic and Paralympic athlete is currently under house arrest, after being found guilty of culpable homicide in the killing of his then girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day 2013. Chief Prosecutor Gerrie Nel […]

The anti-poaching wildlife message goes sky-high this week as two Emirates A380 jets take off wearing special livery featuring endangered species…in support of United for Wildlife (a global collaboration of seven of the world’s leading wildlife charities). According to a statement today from Emirates in Dubai, the livery – which features some of the animals threatened by poaching and illegal […]

CAPE TOWN – What started as a great day for the 21st annual Cape Town International Kite Festival on the weekend was blown away by the weather on its second day, and has put a worthy cause in debt, according to news reports. The two-day festival at Muizenberg, in aid of Cape Mental Health and upliftment […]

Breakfast in a bunny? That’s what’s being offered to Londoners at a corner take-away restaurant in Soho that is owned by a Londoner who once travelled to South Africa and was taken with the cuisine. The aptly named Bunnychow, which opened on Wardour Street about a year ago, is about one block away from the nearest Nando’s, which […]