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, […]

South African father of two, Brett Archibald, made headlines when he fell off a boat near Indonesia in the middle of the night…and survived to tell the tale 29 hours later. His story caught the attention of TV Shows like ’60 Minutes’, and the hearts of companies like Dr Pepper who have made him their […]

Dennis Brutus pensively stroked his silver beard with both hands, thinking about the time in 1959 when Brazilian football club Portuguesa Santista were planning to visit South Africa to play against an all-white Western Province team. The Brazilian side was willing to drop their black players for the visit, in deference to apartheid, he said. […]

South African Jarred Gaskin was 17 years old when he was chosen to play for Arsenal Football Club’s youth team in England. He returned to his home in Johannesburg and was given two months to apply for British citizenship, which would allow him to play there. But within that two months, Gaskin got involved with […]

  Triggerfish is already Africa’s largest animation studio, and with world-class features like Zambezia (2012) and Khumba (2013) under its belt, the company is now in the big league and the sky is by far NOT the limit. Headed up by award-winning animator Stuart Forrest, this 3D animation studio now has its sights on competing with industry bigwigs such as […]

Commemorative events will take place in Alexandra township, the suburb of Westdene in north-western Johannesburg, and Soweto, where the original uprising began. Johannesburg’s executive mayor Parks Tau will unveil a plaque early on the morning of 16 June after a march from the Alexandra High School to the Realugile School in Alexandra, in memory of […]

Not many young people these days think of becoming a plumber. But Daniel Duda did and now he has the world at his feet. The 23-year-old is preparing to go to Los Angeles to deliver a talk at the Leap Foundation at the University of California, Los Angeles. It is a youth leadership programme where, […]

  His mother dropped out of school to have him when she was 18. He went to school in the townships, where his family lived in an RDP house. Today, 22-year-old Wandile Mabanga is writing his master’s dissertation in a field of quantum physics so specialised there are only two people in the world qualified […]

Former Capetonian Stelio Savante is making history in a lead role filmed in Equatorial Guinea. This is the first feature film to ever be shot in the small African country that’s usually more famous for its despotic regime than its movie-making industry.  Savante, one of South Africa’s top acting exports, stars in “Where the Road […]

Africa has the youngest population in the world, yet they are mostly unemployed or underemployed, even those who are educated. This, experts believe, is because their skills do not equip them for the modern jobs market, where information communication technology (ICT) skills are in high demand. According to African Economic Outlook’s 2012 report there are almost 200-million […]

  The !Gariep River – which is also known as the Orange – is South Africa’s longest river, at over 2 000km, and it takes 61 days to paddle from source to sea. We know this because three men stepped out of their kayaks in mid-March after completing the trip. In what has been billed […]

Nelson Mandela does not belong to one institution; he is a global resource. These are the sentiments of Sello Hatang, the incoming chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. Hatang and five other speakers, including South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, addressed an audience comprising stakeholders, international media and former anti-apartheid activists at the […]

Cape Town was transformed into Winter Wonderland yesterday with a massive hail storm that left the CBD looking like it had been covered in a white carpet of snow. Before the last drop of hail had fallen, locals were already sharing photos of the magical scene on Facebook. South African cartoonist Jerm seemed to have […]

I found it! I found the remains of the hut that sheltered explorer and naturalist William Burchell on the final leg of his journey to Graaff-Reinet in 1813. Burchell, the quintessential Renaissance Man, was one of the more celebrated of the early explorers who visited South Africa in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. […]

Nelson Mandela is travelling to Europe this year – multiple images of the icon will appear in Paris from 29 May to 6 July as part of the France-South Africa Seasons 2012 and 2013. “Produced by the highly regarded Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, in association with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the exhibition will celebrate Mandela’s relationship with the […]

We all give Lira and The Parlotones credit for enriching our souls with their songs. But less often do we give a thought to the songwriters and composers behind the hit makers’ music. This is the reason the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) has decided to acknowledge the creators of music in their inaugural Wawela […]

BARRA DA TIJUCA, Rio de Janeiro/Brazil (Sunday, May 19, 2013) –Jordy Smith (ZAF), 25, has won the Billabong Rio Pro in an exciting final over Brazil’s favourite Adriano de Souza (BRA), 26, by a score of 17.80 to 16.34 in clean two-to-four foot (1 metre) waves at Barra Da Tijuca. Stop No. 3 of 10 on the ASP […]

  The reciprocal leg of the bilateral cultural exchange Saisons croisées France-Afrique du Sud, which began in June 2012, swings into action between May and December 2013. The two-year-long programme was instigated by presidents Jacob Zuma and Nicolas Sarkozy, and it is based on similar successful events that have already taken place between France and Vietnam, […]

It is thanks to the work of Wines of South Africa (Wosa) chief executive, Su Birch, that most Cape wines are produced under environmentally sustainable conditions. And her efforts have paid off. On April 23, the British trade publication, The Drinks Business, presented Birch with its highest accolade, its Green Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. She was […]

There’s nothing like a road trip to get you down and dirty with what’s happening on the ground in the far reaches of South Africa. And that’s exactly what Barbara Mallinson and her business partner and husband, Ennis Jones, did recently, when they went out to document the voices of teachers and pupils. They also […]

Women in the Cape winelands are standing up to be counted, and are now producing their own wine, bottled under the label Women in Wine. A group of 20 women, all with backgrounds in the wine industry, formed the company seven years ago, with “the dream of giving women, especially farm workers and their families, a […]

He survived being shot down over France, internment in a Nazi prison camp, escape, recapture, Hitler’s ordered mass murder of his comrades, the Long March to escape the advancing Soviet army – and a freak tsunami back home. Flight Lieutenant Les Brodrick, the last South African to make the legendary Great Escape of the Second […]

  Africa’s time is now. In academic studies, institutional reports, business journals and the mass media a new story about Africa is emerging: one of growth, progress, peace, potential and profitability. Never in the half-century since it won independence from the colonial powers has Africa been in such good shape. Its economy is flourishing. Most […]

A music school in the Durban township of Umlazi is helping vulnerable and orphaned children get off the streets and become involved in more productive activities. With the help of South African mobile telecommunications company Vodacom, and consumer company Godrej SA, Tammy Dutton ambitiously set up a 40-foot shipping container that was converted into two sound-proofed music […]