Not that many years ago – in fact, the day before the RWC 2019 final – I sat in my daughter’s school assembly wearing my Springbok rugby jersey (couldn’t resist taunting, just a little)… writes writer, wife, mother and dreamer ANDREA ZANIN, who now lives in the UK and is author of Our Fireside Stories.  […]

I love South Africa. I tried to leave once. I managed 10 months… writes Tammy Southby, the woman behind the best new South African blog on the block – Sunshine Simplicities. We lived abroad in a beautiful, Victorian house in Chislehurst, Kent. One day a lady overheard my accent in the store. She commented that […]

In my line of work, I get to meet the most wonderful people. And as one spends time chatting about projects over the years, one becomes friends, and sharing of stories start… writes Mia Ziervogel, Dossier. The women I speak about in this piece, are women at the top of their fields, they are creative, […]

As you will have noticed, I took a long sabbatical away from my blog… writes Susan Hayden from the Disco Pants Blog. I had a few reasons: it’s time-consuming; posts can take me an entire day and I don’t earn any money off it, so paid work has to come first. Then, trolls abound on […]

Prince Albert resident Yolande Singery yesterday rescued a Spotted Eagle Owl from the side of the road. While many motorists may not have noticed the owl needed help, animal lover Yolande picked up on its distress. Here’s her story: “Yesterday morning I had the absolute privilege of having an up close and personal account with […]

Dear Family and Friends, This is not a letter about Coronavirus, it’s one for the campfire when next you get there and I write it today for everyone struggling to save lives in this dark time in our history… writes author Cathy Buckle in her latest Letter from Zimbabwe. On a steaming hot night when even the […]

I woke up really early this morning. It’s a general restlessness I suppose, an unsettling of self… writes well known South African author and former radio and TV presenter Tracy Going. I went to bed last night fitful with the uncertainty of the future. So instead of lying in bed fretting this morning, I decided […]

I totter around the Pick n Pay in Germiston with my fresh platinum rinse and a trolley as my perambulator. Octogenarians overtake me with their sneaky leopard-crawling techniques, beating me to the till… writes Viv Vermaak (who had double knee surgery a few days ago). “Are you a pensioner?” the cashier asks me. “Excuse me…?!” […]

There are many forms of hatred and exclusion in our world. There is fear of strangers, fear of foreigners, fear of other races, fear of people with other languages, cultures or religions… says former ConCourt judge Edwin Cameron. On the basis of many of these fears, we build exclusions. We ostracise people. We push them […]

When I first arrived in South Africa in September 2016, it became rapidly apparent that I wasn’t in Vancouver, Canada anymore… writes Phil Maloney. There were full grown men running around in two-toned shirts and unintentionally hilarious hot pants, twonk-turkeys scaring the bejoobers out of me (hadedas!) with their unholy yelling, and boerewors EVERYWHERE. Oh, and […]

Do you guys remember when a traffic official tried to get a bribe out of me? I do… writes Canadian expat living in South Africa, Phil Maloney. And I also wrote all about it here. To make a long story short, I got tired of being asked for bribes when I was on the road, […]

To SAA Airlines, I flew out of LAGOS / NIGERIA with your airline last night – writes Louis de Jager – and I just wanted to say it was unbelievable!!! THE SERVICE WAS INCREDIBLY GOOD!!!! My back was hurting and I couldn’t walk, so I had to get help between flights – I had a […]

Three years ago, I had just survived an extremely rare form of brain cancer that put me in a group of less than 120 recorded survivors in the history of the planet… writes renowned South African speaker, endurance athlete and stage four cancer survivor Richard Wright. Earlier that year when I was told that I […]

I am not sure how to tell this in a FB-length post, at least at the level of emotional turbulence with which this happened… writes award-winning South African novelist, playwright and journalist Steven Sidley. On Friday night we have a dinner party [in Johannesburg, South Africa]. A few friends over for chicken and wine. Seven […]

The only Springbok garment I was able to find in my cupboard, at short notice, was a vintage model from the 2011 Rugby World Cup, the one the All Blacks narrowly won on home turf… writes Gus Silber in Johannesburg, South Africa. Still, it was green and it was gold, and there was the Bok […]

The Karoo Donkey Sanctuary sprawls over 18 hectares at the base of the Swartberg Mountains only two kilometres outside Prince Albert. Capetonians Jonno Sherwin and his partner Dr Johan Hugo bought the land in 2012 after falling in love with the area during a 2008 visit… writes Julienne du Toit from KarooSpace. The Sanctuary  URGENTLY […]

I don’t know you. I don’t know your name and I barely caught a glimpse of your face as we chugged out of Kimberly and you took aim at my Blue Train carriage window… writes Traveller24 Editor Selene Brophy. I can only imagine your circumstances. You could have hit any car but you hit mine. […]

Went for a lovely run yesterday like I used to with my dad many years ago… writes Trevor Romain. For some reason, just lately, It feels like the wonderful Jac Romain has been running with me. I have a very clear memory of saying goodbye to my dad and mom at Jan Smuts (Now, O.R. […]

The question most people ask when we meet them somewhere on our travels through the vast dry Karoo region of South Africa is: “How do you find your stories?”… writes Chris Marais from KarooSpace. Those who read our Karoo books and our regular features in SA Country Life magazine and various other publications want to know what sets us […]

I am always the first to defend South Africa… writes Yaffa Abadi. It has happened countless times. I sit around a Shabbat dinner and the host asks me, “so…how is it living in Johannesburg?” I jump up and say, wow, Johannesburg is a special place. I love it. The shock is almost palpable. They are […]

Sometime back in 2003, I was standing toe-to-toe with a Sutherland sheep farmer after his deeply rutted middelmannetjie road had nearly ripped the guts out of our little low-slung sedan… writes Chris Marais. We’d come to do a magazine story on some aspect of the guy’s farming enterprise, but the issue of his bad road took […]

Dear Mr President Ramaphosa, please fix the sole of South Africa….❤️??writes businessman and regular SAPeople contributor Stan Sanetra. I bought a new pair of shoes only two weeks ago. I undid the shoe laces… placed my one shoe on the heel of the other, and proceeded to push the shoe off. The sole of the […]

After 20 years living abroad, we’re moving back to South Africa to raise our family on a farm… writes Lauren from Wild Country Farm Blog. If anyone had suggested this idea to me 12 months ago, I’d have called you a raving lunatic. Land reforms, an election year in South Africa, fluctuating exchange rates, the […]

Lizzy was born on the other side of town, on a farm called Noorspoort, owned by the legendary Craven family. “I learnt from my mother how to bake and cook. She in turn learnt it from old Mrs Maria Craven, [rugby legend] Doc Danie Craven’s wife. “Later on I worked on another farm at Baroe, […]

The desperate search for an escaped lion in the Karoo National Park outside Beaufort West in the Western Cape continued into its sixth day. According to Park Manager, Nico van der Walt, the trackers started with the spoor where they left off the previous night. “As they were tracking in a very deep gorge they […]