This post will serve as a reminder of how our lives were blighted by apartheid whose graffiti was everywhere. And I mean everywhere! Also every day! It was relentless… writes author Shadley Fataar. The pictures used to represent a small selection of the many signs we were exposed to on a daily basis. A picture is worth a thousand […]

82-year-old South African-born Elsa Perez stars in the documentary called “Get Riel” featuring Perez dancing as well as footage sent through by South African riel dancers. The Sunnyside Up Film Festival in Ardmore Oklahoma, USA will be screening ‘Get Riel’ next month in its competition, and you can show your support by voting on their […]

Stefan Graunke aka Coastal Ghost is a man on a mission: to stop at as many beaches as he can to collect as much rubbish as possible – a trip that will take him 2780kms around the South African Coastline. And you’re invited… “The more hands the better so come and join us for some […]

Government’s Infrastructure Fund is set to receive a R100 billion over the next decade as the state steps up its infrastructure programme by partnering with the private sector. “Government is stepping up its infrastructure build programme by partnering with the private sector, development finance institutions and multilateral development banks to create an infrastructure fund,” said […]

Work is afoot to reconfigure the South African electricity sector by addressing challenges faced by Eskom, with the board of the first subsidiary of the power utility to be appointed by mid-2019, Treasury said on Wednesday. Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month in which he announced government’s plan to […]

BP employee Beverley Plaaitjies has taken it upon herself to beautify the ladies restroom at BP Buffeljagsrivier with flowers. According to BP Buffeljagsrivier Manager Maraine Klein, it was all her idea and so she brings flowers from home or borrows from locals to create her floral bouquets – and as if that is not enough, she […]

South African George Knoke visited Sethare Lodge in Botswana and came across this astounding piece of art by Angus Van Zyl Taylor called Reflective Resonance. Georg commented on his Facebook page: “The logistics to get this sculpture here from South Africa- across the border into Botswana- must have been a massive challenge! The stone sculpture […]

People from around the world, including international celebrities Joanna Lumley, Evanna Lynch and Jan Leeming, pleaded with the Johannesburg Zoo to have a heart on Valentine’s Day and agree to free Lammie, a 39-year old female elephant who lives a lonely existence since her mate Kinkel died in September. Animal protection groups Humane Society International/Africa, […]

Would you wait if it was your child or someone you loved? Robbie Eddles – an incredibly special and courageous 17 year old from Durban, South Africa – has just relapsed for the third time. He was first diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when he was 5 years old and fought so bravely for so […]

On this day in 1990, Nelson Mandela left Victor Verster Prison in Cape Town a free man, after spending 27 years in prison. Accompanied by his then-wife Winnie, Mandela was enthusiastically received by the throngs of people who gathered to see him outside Cape Town’s City Hall. Mandela spent 18 years on Robben Island and […]

For the best part of a decade, South African artist Nelson Makamo has had a deal with his 11 year-old cousin, Mapule Maoto. He pays for her studies, and she agrees to model for his colorful paintings. Today, with fans all over the world praising his work, including the likes of Oprah Winfrey, it’s turned out […]

Merlin Mosoko has trained dozens of children to play basketball. “Here we don’t only play basketball. We are also taught about the dangers of substance abuse and other life skills,” says Allen Chisvo, a grade 12 learner at Leiden High School in Delft, Cape Town. “My dream is to become a software developer and play […]

Ivonne Gentle has been looking after dying dear ones since she was six years old, when the first of her three sisters passed away from cancer… writes Julienne du Toit. By the time her third sister succumbed in 2000, Ivonne and her husband Tommie had moved from Gauteng to the little Northern Cape settlement of […]

On the way to school on Tuesday, 29 January, Dylan Harris saved a fellow pupil from harm while walking to school. The attacker tried to steal Christine’s mobile. On Tuesday, January 29, Dylan Harris was riding his bicycle to school when he saw fellow student of Secunda High School, Christine Gazi being attacked while walking […]

South Africa’s Lindiwe Matlali has been recognised by the Queen of England for the awesome work she does as founder and CEO of Africa Teen Geeks, a non-profit organisation that teaches school children and unemployed youth how to code. Lindiwe is the latest recipient of a Points of Light Award for 2019. Inspired by her […]

South African expat Nitanja Steyn has lived in the Netherlands, the US and Germany since leaving SA in 2014. But no matter where she lives… her heart belongs back home in South Africa. Yesterday she penned a poignant poem ‘Die Verlanging van ‘n Suid-Afrikaner’, in Afrikaans (see below). Here she has kindly translated it into […]

It’s all systems go for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), to be delivered at 7pm on 07 February 2019. President Ramaphosa will be delivering his second SONA after taking over the reins in February 2018. The SONA will be the last of the fifth administration, due to the elections later this […]

It’s dawn. I’m in a reflective mood. So many thoughts & emotions to consider. I’m not a night owl, although the moon has held me captive on many occasions. It’s still up there. Far away. But this is the sun’s turn to rise. The light is still soft. It’s bathing our garden in gentle pastel […]

I was in Johannesburg, South Africa, for one night a few weeks ago (before going to visit the Botshabelo orphanage) and I awoke to this beautiful summer day… writes South African expat, best-selling author and motivational speaker Trevor Romain. From the window of an Air B & B on Linksfield Ridge, where I stayed, I looked […]

In 2016 when my mother fell ill I had to travel to Johannesburg quite regularly. It was a crazy few months from August to November. My mother was ill, my father fell ill too and my son Liam was involved in an awful car accident… writes South African music and entertainment entrepreneur, and former frontman […]

There are not many South Africans who have been honoured by having a statue of themselves erected in London… writes Peter Ball from The Heritage Portal. Only two come readily to mind and they are Jan Smuts and Nelson Mandela, whose statues stand proudly in Parliament Square, Westminster. However, there is a lesser known South African […]

The transcript of an address – titled ‘My South Africa’ – by Prof Jonathan Jansen is going viral yet again. The man many South Africans wish was in politics first delivered the speech to a meeting of Rachel’s Angels in September 2013. Eighteen months later it went viral again to unite the nation after xenophobic […]

As the year 2018 draws to a close, I would like to reflect on it by revisiting some of the the major rejections I have had to deal with over the years, starting with the many I received as a village boy, when applying for bursaries in 1991, so I could be the first one […]

I saw a picture of a Tickey Box recently. One of the red ones that used to sit on the counter of shops in South Africa. It took me back instantly to my grandfather’s general store in Vredefort in the Orange Free State… writes Trevor Romain. One thing I remember clearly as a kid, was […]

As countries around the world marked 100 years today since the end of the First World War, a South African granddaughter – Seonaid Davidson Beningfield, from KwaZulu-Natal – recalls stories of her grandfather’s bravery (of which he, like so many soldiers of that time, never spoke)… My grandfather, William Henry Boyne Davidson, was 17 years old when he […]