By mixing the rhythms and vocal harmonies of traditional South African music with the sounds of gospel, pop and soul, Ladysmith Black Mambazo have created a distinctive sound that has kept them in business for 40 years and won them fans from across the globe. more

When BMW asked Esther Mahlangu to decorate a so called BMW "art car" in traditional Ndebele design in 1999, she stepped into the league of Andy Warhol and David Hockney (world-renowned artists who created previous art cars for the company). She was the first woman artist to have been honoured as such. more

Dance festivals in South Africa express with wonderful exuberance the varying dance traditions in South Africa. These wide-ranging styles are often grouped together at one of the many dance festivals regularly held across the country, where visiting audiences can expect a post-modernistic stomp second to none. more

South Africa has produced icons of the arts from an array of disciplines. Celebrated at home and abroad, these visual artists, writers, dancers, musicians and performers represent the country's diversity as well as its creative potential. They are all heroes of the arts. more

Icons of South African fashion design include rule-breakers, visionaries and business entrepreneurs, who, in flexing their creative muscles, have helped create South Africa’s unique design identity. Some have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, while others have shown their designs on catwalks from Cape Town to New York. more

Thandi Klaasen is nothing less than a jazz legend. Her career spans over more than 50 years and it already started as a child growing up in the multi-racial Johannesburg suburb of Sophiatown. Her mother was a domestic worker and her father a shoemaker, but her humble origins did not deter her from dreaming big. more

Comedy nights in South Africa provide diverse comedic entertainment, plus a good dose of fresh talent, too; events often include open mic sessions, providing platforms for the new comics hoping to break onto the scene. They provide an exciting night out as audiences never know what routine they might get. more

South African comedy festivals offer fantastic platforms for the country’s weird and wonderful characters, communities and cultures. A comedy festival is the best way to get it all in one shot, and to experience the country’s cream of the crop, mixing it up with top international comedians. A laugh a minute. more

Expect the unexpected in South Africa’s comedy clubs, where diverse comedians will shake things up with their radical commentary, scathing satire, colourful impersonations, improv routines, open mic sessions and a whole lot more; anything and everything goes at these eclectic, laugh-a-minute, multi-cultural affairs. more

She is a Zulu legend, a woman of infinite creativity, and an absolute authority on the traditions, folklore, music and history of the Zulu nation. Princess Constance Magogo Sibilile Mantithi Ngangezinye Ka Dinuzulu is also the mother of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, current leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party. more

Nadine Gordimer’s works were a thorn in the side of the apartheid government and, although a number of them were banned, she chose to stay on in Johannesburg. She was the first South African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. more

When the great South African icon, Nelson Mandela, was released from Robben Island in 1990, South African writer Nadine Gordimer was high on his priority list of people he wanted to meet with first. No wonder. This Nobel prize winner for Literature, struggled ceaselessly against apartheid - in black on white. more

Acclaimed resistance artist, Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993), astounded researchers from beyond his grave, when in 2002 art historian Barbara Lindop discovered 30 jazz songs, composed by the artist, amongst his manuscripts and paintings brought back from Paris after his death in 1993. South Africans had no clue this talented painter was also a Parisian musician. more

George Pemba (1912-2001) painted from a tender age and kept on doing so through South Africa's dark apartheid era, when black artists were frowned upon. Only at the age of 79 was Pemba truly recognized for his exceptional contribution to South African art. more