A poem by Faieza Mx, now living in Queensland, Australia… I want to wake up to the Majestic Table Mountain Always standing, Always there, Never failing Its beauty astounding As it watches over Cape Town The ocean so blue… Camps Bay, Strand, Boulders Sea Point I want to go home to gaardtjies shouting ‘hullo, hullo, […]

Time to move from diagnosis to prescription… As an epidemiologist who has done work in understanding the ecosocial determinants of health and education, I surely do understand the ills of apartheid. I also understand that its effects will not disappear in one generation. Yes, apartheid was bad and its effect will be transgenerational (to think […]

Moving to another place gives one the opportunity to learn and understand cultural habits and traditions, and I’ve had the fortune to do so on multiple occasions. Being abroad also gave me the chance to see my own country – the Netherlands – from an outside perspective, and see how incredibly (weird) silly we Dutchies […]

The award-winning Kearsney College Choir pulled off their “first successful Flash Mob” last Friday night at a supermarket in Hillcrest, and in the presence of the beneficiaries of the event, Hillcrest Aids Centre. The flash mob (or flashmob) was held at Hillcrest Kwikspar on 20 March and uploaded to Facebook a couple of days ago. […]

The Cannes Film Festival 2015 has announced that ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ has been officially selected to be screened Out of Competition at the famous film festival on the French Riviera. The film will be shown on Thursday 14th May at the Grand Théâtre Lumière (that’s the main movie theatre at the festival). It’s been 30 […]

Along with the recently announced Health Surcharge, the United Kingdom has announced a series of amendments to its immigration rules, many of which will impact South Africans and most of which will begin to come into effect as soon as April 2015. The UK Government says most of these visa application changes are aimed at ensuring the […]

The video hoax of a German tourist annoying a game ranger highlighted how crucial it is to find the right job….and how important it can be to know your bush etiquette when you’re out on safari. As a South African safari guide, based in Tanzania, I have to admit there are a few slightly annoying things that happen over and over […]

South African comedian Trevor Noah is using his platform as an international comedian to educate and, well, chastise the world on a few issues. Taking his role as an ambassador of South Africa and the entire continent of Africa seriously, Trevor has been putting the world straight…while making them laugh. At the end of last […]

Groot Constantia’s 2013 Chardonnay has beaten over 800 Chardonnays around the world to be crowned the best in the world….well, to be crowned Chardonnay du Monde to be exact. The South African wine was judged the world’s best at the recent 22nd annual Chardonnay-du-Monde competition in the Burgundy wine region of France. As can be gleaned from […]

1. Some people seem to believe that Johannesburg is a beautiful place. 2. They make ridiculous claims about it being the largest man-made forest in the world. 3. But this makes no sense. 4. Because in reality the place is a practically a desert. 5. Nothing exciting ever happens there. 6. There is literally nowhere […]

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden has done it again. The diverse Cape floral kingdom has been awarded top position in the  2015 International Garden Tourism Awards. This comes just a couple of weeks after Kirstenbosch’s suspended walkway, the Boomslang, was declared Most Beautiful Object in South Africa at Design Indaba Expo 2015. These awards highlight the significant role that Kirstenbosch […]

We watched Americans trying South African snacks (and making the cardinal sin of forgetting to dunk their Ouma Rusks in coffee!). Now South Africa has responded with a video of South Africans (including children) trying American snacks. The original BuzzFeed video has been viewed over 1.5-million times since it was published on 7 March 2015! In […]

A humble car guard made newspaper headlines in Durban on Friday thanks to both his integrity and that of those who benefitted from his principles. This story is republished here with kind permission of journalist Mariclair Smit and the Northglen News in uMhlanga: Residents Surprise Selfless uMhlanga Car Guard by Mariclair Smit It has often been said, […]

A South African great-grandmother is making headlines around the world with her 100th birthday celebrations. Footage of Georgina Harwood skydiving near Cape Town yesterday has been aired on international news channels everywhere. The BBC in the UK put together a wonderful compilation, set to the ‘Chariots of Fire’ music as the 100-year-old was escorted from the airport […]

It’s 48 years since Professor Chris Barnard put South Africa on the medical map by performing the world’s first heart transplant, and now a  team of surgeons from Stellenbosch University (SU) and Tygerberg Hospital have proved SA remains at the forefront of medical progress by performing the world’s first successful penile transplant. The ground-breaking operation lasted nine hours and  took […]

There’s a fantastic new trend emerging in South Africa – thanks to social media – of giving a public shout out and recommendation to those people who work hard day in and day out, striving for excellence in their trade. In the latest shout-out post to go viral, Claire Dodds of Cape Town wrote about an […]

The thing with solar-powered cars is that you can only drive them during the day. It’s a problem solved by Nigerian student Segun Oyeyiola, who added a wind turbine to his Beetle. Now he can drive all night, too. It cost the Nigerian man more than R70 000 to fight his personal battle against global warming […]

Last month the Department of Home Affairs announced plans about the rollout of its new Smartcard IDs and passports. It also said that in order to alleviate queues at its offices – which many have been complaining about – it had come to an agreement with several banks to have kiosks at their branches (and also […]

There’s a certain delight South Africans abroad take in sharing their SA treats with foreigners. Their faces. Their reactions! If you’ve never seen it – this is priceless. Check out four Americans trying out South African food for the very first time… By the end of the video, which was compiled by BuzzFeed, their responses […]

Along with biltong, Mrs Balls and Ouma rusks, Lunch Bar is another one of those uniquely South African treats. Developed by Cadbury specifically for the South African market back in the 1960s, Lunch Bar was created as a “fill me up sweet snack that offers MUCH MUCH MORE.”  And so have their ads. Everyone has a […]

First the dress went viral – was it blue and black or white and gold? – and now the hardhitting ad by a South African agency to fight women abuse is doing the same. In an ad created for the South African chapter of the Salvation Army #StopAbuseAgainstWomen, the tag line above a picture of […]

As the ‘Lion Opens Car Door’ video spreads rapidly around the world – attracting a massive 1.4-million views in less than 48 hours – animal behaviourist Kevin Richardson has confirmed that he’s seen this type of incident happen himself. Richardson, aka South Africa’s legendary Lion Whisperer, says “Seen that happen at the park I used to work […]

A video from the Ad Council in the USA is spreading a lot of love on the internet. The Public Service Announcement (PSA), which was uploaded just yesterday, has already received over 1.5-million views on YouTube! The video, ‘Diversity & Inclusion – Love Has No Labels’, attempts to show that love has no boundaries, no […]

As today is declared the hottest day in Cape Town’s recorded history the fire that began in the early hours of Sunday 1 March 2015 continues to ravage the mountain, with firefighters now battling over 14 separate fires. Temperatures today reached 42 degrees Celsius, according to the Weather Office, making Cape Town the hottest it’s been in at least […]

Swimmers competing in the Wildside to Pollock Swim in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, this last weekend were joined by a playful pod of dolphins – not to mention a two-metre shark! – in a long-distance challenge that is destined to become a bucket-list swim in years to come. The intrepid bunch of swimmers, from the Eastern Cape, […]