So one day when I was a journalist at Scope, I realise that due to various family commitments and unforeseen bills I need to generate some extra cash. I would take a few days’ leave and head off somewhere with photographer Les Bush and we would find some stories and sell them off to various […]

Travel tips seem to be a dime a dozen these days and most people probably know it all when it comes to booking and organising their next holiday, or at least think they do. But what about travelling when you are migrating? Suddenly it’s a whole new ball game as you aren’t just thinking about […]

It was confirmed today that legendary singer and songwriter Rodriguez will be returning to South Africa early next year. This time he will be performing in Johannesburg and Cape Town again, as well as in Durban and Port Elizabeth. His last tour to the country was sold out within minutes of bookings being opened…so if you’re keen for […]

It was May, 1976…and as a lowly young reporter for the Pretoria News, I discovered that Siberia comes in many forms. Because I had disgraced myself and gotten a TV review horribly wrong, I was assigned a new position in life: Magistrates Court reporter. The position was seen as the grubby, greasy little bottom rung in the […]

Starfish Greathearts Foundation, a charity working with children in South Africa orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS, are holding an inspirational evening of jazz and classical music alongside traditional songs from South Africa this evening. The event – ‘Hope and Harmony’ – promises a wonderful line up of musicians, including: Queen of Afro-Jazz Pinise […]

Groot Marico, 1979 – It’s a lovely Saturday out here in the Bushveld…I’m sitting under a fever tree on a farm in the Western Transvaal (now Northwest Province) talking to a Marico family and drinking their mampoer very slowly and, if I may say so, quite thoughtfully. It’s all so very Herman Charles. [The late […]

Hillbrow, Jo’burg’s inner city Tenderloin district, was never a nest of angels… In the late 1970s and 80s, it was the most cosmopolitan piece of real estate in South Africa. You had your excellent Hillbrow Records, your Mi-Vami shawarma place, Estoril Books, your globe-trotting tattoo artist down in the basement shopping area on Pretoria Street […]

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, […]

For everyone in the Southern Hemisphere who has had enough of having to sing about a White Christmas, here’s Jingle Bells South African style. See video below. The video was uploaded a couple of years ago by TheNixter (the same YouTuber who uploaded this season’s popular ‘12 Days of Christmas SA Style‘). The lyrics are […]

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Spoiling your family and friends at Christmas can be a little stressful…when it should be festive and fun! So to make it a little simpler for you, here are a few ideas on gifts for South Africans anywhere in the world – from stocking fillers, to the gifts that keep giving…and even a couple of luxury ideas to indulge […]

The Drostdy has always been one of the select few grand old hotels of the Karoo. As the prime accommodation in Graaff-Reinet, it began its “hotel life” as Kromm’s Drostdy Hotel back in 1876. The Drostdy had many re-models and facelifts over the century to come, the latest being an intensive upgrade that has taken […]

If you’d like to promote your Christmas Gift Ideas (products or services) to South Africans anywhere in the world – this is for you! Follow the directions below to be included in SAPeople’s Special Christmas Gift Ideas page for a very special price. You can add your business anytime up until 24 December 2014. To advertise […]

Type “is Africa ” into Google and auto complete is likely to offer something like this: That’s right: questions of hopelessness or ignorance that could only come from outside the continent. (The answer to all four, by the way, is no.) For too long external perspectives have determined Africa’s narrative by only telling stories of […]

The fabulous South African rusk has been a staple of Karoo travel, going back to the 1700s. Here’s the story of SA’s famous Ouma Rusks… If you were an explorer, a hunter, a prospector, a trekboer or simply a wandering remittance man crossing the great Thirstland, you always carried a bag of rusks in your […]

By Chris Marais & Julienne du Toit  In the big desert spaces of the world, an overland driver often encounters interesting objects along the road. Sometimes it’s a novelty object, a ‘world’s largest’ something or other. Other times, it’s a road sign full of bullet hotels. And you park next to it and wonder: what […]

Here’s another one of those emails – with a compilation of old and new photos from Africa – doing the rounds at the moment…showing that Plato was right when he said necessity is the mother of innovation.

My girlfriend and I were born about 20 minutes apart.

The next best thing to actually being in the Karoo, South Africa’s semi-desert Heartland, is to have access to the just-launched Karoo Space eBookstore. Download the Karoo Collection Sampler on your tablet or smartphone, find a shady spot somewhere and settle in for a tour of the most phenomenal people-friendly desert in the world. Travel […]

If you’re South African and of a certain age, chances are you’ll be familiar with the Silver Creek Mountain Band. Text & Pictures by Chris Marais The Creek is South Africa’s longest-surviving bluegrass band. Forty years ago, they were a live music force to be reckoned with. Two fiddlers, banjo, lead guitar and a big old […]

A friend who lives in London tells me one of her finest memories of South Africa is of going to sleep between bed sheets dried by sun and wind. She has this whimsical theory that while you sleep, the day’s energy gently seeps back into you through the sheets. I sometimes think of that when […]

For all those South Africans living in Australia…you know you’re settling in and becoming an Aussie when you can relate to these signs. From an email doing the rounds…signs you only see in Australia:

Valentine’s Day messages 2014 are published here. Click here to send an anonymous Valentine message. To: Liefieding Hi jy, happy valentine’s al is dit bietjie laat. Jy is so sexy!!  Wil jou hê. From: Klarabelle To: First Valentine Years can’t erase the memories of the short interlude of our wonderful relationship. Still carrying the flame for […]

South African project myHandsandHeart, an online and mobile platform for matching organisations and youth volunteers, was named on Tuesday as one of six winners of a global competition for local initiatives that are having a positive impact on their communities. The competition, dubbed the Shaping a Better Future challenge, was open to members of the […]

The shortest distance between Mozambique and Madagascar is about 500 kilometres – a long way. But not long enough to deter two South Africans from swimming the distance over a month in March, in what will be a world first. No-one has swum this stretch of the Indian Ocean, and no-one has swum this distance […]