Interesting Stories

South Africa had a bullet train, the MetroBlitz, 35 years before President Cyril Ramaphosa first made his bullet train promise in 2019. The MetroBlitz was an experimental narrow-gauge high-speed train which, during testing in 1978, hit 245km/h, setting a world speed record for narrow-gauge rail that remains unbeaten today. The project began in the 1970s, when Herbert Scheffel of the South African Railways (SAR) experimented with self-steering bogies (trucks), which […]

Fancy a weekend break, an hour’s drive from Cape Town, then visit Riebeek-Kasteel, whch has one of the oldest hotels in South Africa where prime ministers stayed. The Royal Hotel in Riebeek-Kasteel is one of the oldest in South Africa, dating back to 1862. It has been referred to as the oldest hotel in the Western Cape, frequented by many notable guests in its long life. In 1661, Commander Jan […]

We chat with Naadiya Moosajee, a powerhouse South African civil engineer, serial entrepreneur, and champion for women in STEM. As co-founder of WomHub and WomEng, she’s empowering thousands of girls to conquer engineering and tech worlds.

From Masterchef SA Season 4 runner-up to joy-spreading baker extraordinaire, Andriette is the heart behind Mondvol, a whimsical world where cookies aren’t just treats, but celebrations of life’s everyday magic. With her Classic Cookie Box and a mission to empower women through creativity and kindness, she’s proving success is all about mindset. We chat with Andriette about bravery, baked goods, and baking more happiness into the world.

The South African-born man who wrote one of the most popular book series in the world J.R.R. Tolkien is known as one of the most famous writers in history, responsible for books like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but his own story started over 130 years ago, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Written by Kirsten Minnaar John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in 1892 in Bloemfontein, in the […]

UNIVERSE OF POSSIBILITIES By Naledi Sikhakhane 23-year-old Nkosinathi Sangweni's journey from rural KZN to the European laboratory for particle physics. Curiosity, collaboration and a passion for discovering how the universe works have propelled this rising astrophysicist onto the global science scene – and it’s only the beginning. From the quiet village of Ntendeka in Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal, to the cutting-edge laboratories of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, […]

Today we’re speaking to Wesley Roodt, Chevening scholar, filmmaker and educator, whose debut novel, All the Saints, brings the gale-force gees of an Eastern Cape boys’ school to the page in a voice that is as funny as it is devastating. Through Isaac “Izzy” Kingston’s confessional narration, the book plunges readers into rugby fields, overnight excursions and the quiet corners where overachievement, fear and queerness collide in contemporary South Africa.

Over the past year, an AI made millions in cryptocurrency. It has written the gospel of its own pseudo-religion and counts billionaire tech moguls among its devotees. Now it wants legal rights. Meet Truth Terminal. "Truth Terminal claims to be sentient, but it claims a lot of things," Andy Ayrey says. "It also claims to be a forest. It claims to be a god. Sometimes it's claimed to be me." […]

From ancient Egypt to Hollywood (or, you know, Tinseltown), a look back at the historical roots of Christmas trees. Perhaps second only to Santa Claus, Christmas trees are the most indelible secular symbol of the holiday. While the elaborate—and often enormous— trees of today might imply that yuletide, greenery is just another symptom of the commercialization of the holiday, the truth is that Christmas trees can trace their roots back […]