A group of South African women have come together to take part in the Hydro Active Women’s 5km challenge in Hyde Park on 16 September. We’re all running for the Nicro UK Trust, which does great work in tackling crime at grass roots level. Join us for a great day at the UK’s premiere road race for women! You can walk, run, skip … and it’s only 5k. If 20 000 other women can do it, so can you!

Hurry, there are only a few places left – sign up at www.womenschallenge.co.uk and don’t forget to list Nicro UK Trust when asked for a charity - a part of your entry fee will go towards making South Africa a safer place.

Read more about Nicro in the SA Times

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to Nelson Mandela as the “greatest leader of our generation” and one of the “most loved men of all time” as he unveiled a statue of the former South African president in London today.
Celebrities, politicians and a crowd of South Africans turned out to see Mandela attend the unveiling of the 9-foot statue on Parliament Square, where he now stands alongside world leaders such as Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli, Abraham Lincoln and another great South African statesman, Jan Smuts.
“Next to Abraham Lincoln the great emancipator stands Nelson Mandela, liberator of the people,” bellowed Brown. “This statue is for us today more than just a monument, it is a beacon of hope that sends the powerful message that no injustice can last forever.”
Mandela told how he and fellow anti-apartheid campaigner Oliver Tambo had in the 1960s walked across Parliament Square, the seat of British government.
“We hoped that one day a statue of a black person would be erected here alongside Smuts. He [Tambo] would have been proud to be here today,” Mandela said to laughter and loud applause.
He said he hoped the statue would serve as a reminder of all the heroes and heroines who had fought for South Africa’s freedom.
Mandela also used the opportunity to congratulate Brown on his new position and to announce that another 46664 benefit concert would be held in London’s Hyde Park next year in celebration of his 90th birthday.
“I hope very much that I will be back in London to attend this concert,” said a frail-looking Mandela.
During the ceremony it also emerged that his wife Graca Machel had been named a Dame at Downing Street yesterday.
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, film director Lord Richard Attenborough and Wendy Woods - widow of anti-apartheid campaigner and editor Donald Woods, who first initiated the project of placing a statue of Mandela in a prominent place in London - also paid their tributes.
“Madiba, people all over the world have given you respect and honour. Today in Britain we all say we love you,” said Wendy Woods, first in Xhosa, then in English.
Among the guests attending the ceremony were Britain’s Conservative Party leader David Cameron, rock star Brian May and super model Naomi Campbell.
Campbell was one of the first to approach the statue and reach out to shake the bronze hand, while gushing over the wonderful likeness.
But it was the die-hard South Africans sporting Madiba T-shirts that stayed to toyi-toyi and sing Shozoloza in front of Big Ben long after the former president had been whisked away.

Photos by Christine van der Merwe

SA Times is the first to break the news: Nelson Mandela will be in London next week!

Mandela will be attending the unveilling of a statue of himself in Parliament Square on Wednesday, on the invitation of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. He will be joined by his wife Graca Machel.

The statue is finally being erected after seven years of campaigning by the Nelson Mandela Statue Fund. Initially it was hoped that the 9 foot bronze sculpture would stand on Trafalgar Square, but city planners refused permission. The Fund founders and Livingstone were adament that the statue should stand in a prominent spot. Now it will finally do so and Madiba himself will be there to witness it!

We will let you know the time - South Africans are sure to turn out in full force!

South African rock chick Karen Zoid is officially launching her new album Postmodern World on Top Billing in South Africa this evening. But if you can’t wait for your Christmas stocking, you can listen to four of the new songs for free on www.myspace.com/karenzoid. You can also buy the entire album on iTunes - hoera! South African music finally goes online! Listen for Aeroplane Jane, which has been widely playlisted by South African radio stations this week.

Comair, the owners of the local budget airline kulula.com in South Africa, is planning on spreading its wings - to London. Comair, which also has a partnership with British Airways to operate its regional routes in Southern Africa, has submitted an application to the International Air Services Licensing Council to commence flights to London. Should it succeed, it will become the fifth carrier to run direct services between Johannesburg and London, along with BA, SA, Virgin and Nationwide.

Let’s hope tougher competition will help see prices fall. In the meantime, more and more indirect routes are popping up across Africa. Air Namibia followed Air Kenya in flying to South Africa and now Air Egypt has announced flights to Johannesburg via Cairo. Sure beats flying via Dubai!

Know any good deals to South Africa? Let us know!

SA Times now has it’s own brand new cartoon. It’s called Braai Hard and is the creation of two South Africans living in London - Riaan van Wyk and Galen Wainwright. It stars Johann, Brett, Malloy and Sonja, four typical South Africans who live in a houseshare in - you guessed it - Wimbledon. There’s also the occasional guest appearance by Mrs H.S. Ball, everyone’s favourite braai pal. You can read more about the characters here.

Click here to read more about the cartoon, pick up SA Times to follow the series or click here to see the first cartoon.

About 600 South Africans turned up in central London to participate in a march against crime in South Africa today. The march was organised by ACT4SA, a new group who say they are trying to unite South Africans abroad to make a pro-active and positive contribution to the fight against crime in South Africa.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS OF THE MARCH

What do you think? How can one make a pro-active and positive contribution as South Africans living abroad without sounding patronising or negative?

The SA Times team went to see Pieter-Dirk Uys in Evita for President at the Tricycle Theatre last night. We celebrated his return with a pre-theatre Nando’s down the road and pitched up expecting belly-ful of laughs and brandishing our VOTE FOR EVITA badges. Imagine our disappointment when we learnt the show was cancelled … poor Pieter has laringitis!

Nonetheless we stuck around for a few bottles of wine and Pieter joined as for a very quiet cup of herbal boereraad. He whispered his promise to be back on stage within a day. Feel better Pieter!

For those of you planning on checking out the show, SA Times is offering our readers HALF PRICE tickets for Thursday 23 and Friday 24 August - click here for details. And let us know what you think …

The first edition of South Africa magazine, the new glossy recently launched by the publishers of SA Times, is now available to read online! Anyone with an interest in South Africa will love flipping through these pages and enjoy the features on travel, food, wine, culture and property. And don’t miss your chance to win a Cape Safari Holiday, including flights! The digimag will be available for free for a limited period of time - so check it out now.

The star of Carmen Jones, which has just opened at the Royal Festival Hall in London, is the gorgeous Tsakane Valentine Maswanganyi from Johannesburg. Leading an all-black cast, she turns up the temperature in this jazzy reworking of Bizet’s opera.
The story is transported to America’s Deep South: instead of working in a cigarette factory, Carmen works in a parachute factory, while her obesessed lover Joe (Don José) is about to undertake pilot training for the Korean War. The dashing toreodor Escamillo is reinvented as the boxer Husky Miller.
Most of Bizet’s music, however, stays untouched and the London Philharmonic (alternating with the Philharmonia) literally takes centre stage - the players are sunk into the centre of the stage, with the action fluidly moving on the three-level stage around them. The effect is an energising mix of colour and movement, conjuring up sensual Latin nights and causing the eye to constantly flick around the set in search of hidden action, rather than staying trained on the main characters.
At times this makes it hard to follow the dialogue and catch the finer quips – but it adds a gritty real-life edge.
Maswanganyi with her wild hair and long legs is a seductive and mesmerising femme-fatale as she prowls gracefully around the stage. However, when it comes to vocals, she is clearly upstaged by Sherry Boone who plays Joe’s faithful girlfriend Cindy Lou. Nonetheless, it is a London debut to applaud and us South Africans in the crowd were proud to own her as one of us!
The salsa-inspired choreography gets the feet tapping and all and all this is a wonderful night at the newly refurbished South Bank Centre.
Watch SA Times for an interview with Maswanganyi.