The annual Springbok Dinner will be a red carpet affair this year as we welcome the World Cup winning squad and coach Jake White to London to celebrate our recent victory with South Africans in the UK. This year the Springbok Dinner will be held at Madame Tussauds on 29 November - when our real life celebrities will stand alongside waxworks of the world’s most famous icons, including our own Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu.

The evening will be filmed for South African television. Don’t miss this chance to dine with the Boks! Book at Springbok Supporters Club UK website.

So tonight is the big night and everyone is wondering who will who will be rubbing victory under the noses of their British and South African colleagues and friends at the office on Monday …

In his column for News24 Chris Roper gives 10 reasons why its better to be a Bok fan than a Pom fan:

10 reasons it’s better being a Bok fan than a Pom fan:

1. Bok fans aren’t surprised and grateful when their team wins matches, they’re surprised when their team loses.

2. Green and gold jerseys look cool on all kinds of South Africans, but white jerseys make England supporters look like the love children of unhealthy Zombies and dead fish.

3. We actually have 15 players in our team, rather than just Jonny Wilkinson and 14 old guys.

4. The South African sports media might be a self-serving, sycophantic bunch of freeloaders, but at least they aren’t staked out outside the team hotel hoping to get a picture of Monty’s wife tanning topless.

5. Our coach has got a chin (okay, more than one when he speaks Afrikaans).

6. The Boks’ traditional rivals actually come from different countries like New Zealand and Australia, as opposed to being English provinces, like Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

7. Fans of other teams hate the Boks because they’re hard bastards - they hate the English because they’re hypocrites who won’t admit they’re hard bastards.

8. Instead of wanky names like Jason, Jonny, Martin and Phil, our players have cool names like Os, Bakkies, Wikus, Akona, and, uh, Percy. (Dammit, trust Percy to ruin everything again).

9. Bok fans don’t mind being hated, because of all the practice we had during the apartheid years. English fans, on the other hand, can’t seem to understand why the rest of the world loathes them.

10. Win or lose on Saturday, Bok fans are flying back to a summer of hot babes and beaches. English fans are doomed to a winter of sleet and clogged M1.

11. (Everyone knows South Africans can’t count) Schalk Burger pushes the earth down when he does press ups. Martin Corry sticks his bum in the air.

Sawubona! Kunjani?

A new web initiative is trying to get 1 million South Africans to learn to speak Zulu within 8 weeks. They’re broadcasting online video lessons that will help you learn the basics of the language - each week on a Thursday, starting today, a new video lesson is uploaded at www.mitv.co.za. So far 1000’s of individuals have registered, including South Africans from the USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Greece, Dubai, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. Join the fun!

Let us know how you get on! Sala kahle.

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

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?

South African adventure racer Julian Crabtree is doing a triathlon from London to Paris including swimming the channel. Only two people have ever done it before and he will be the first South Africa. In the process he will raise money for the Nelson Mandela Children’s fund.

The challenge consists of running 87 miles from the centre of London to the Dover coast, swimming the English Channel (22 miles) and then cycling 180 miles from Calais to the centre of Paris. The record is 80 hours - get behind him at www.juliancrabtree.com!

It constantly amazes us how many stories we get flooding into our inbox about South Africans attempting amazing feats such as swimming the channel, cycling the length of Britain, cycling from London to Cape Town, rowing around the world, climbing the three highest peaks in Britain … the list goes on …

Most of these attempts are in aid of charity. Hats of to all you brave and adventurous South Africans out there. Although we don’t always have space to publicize every story, we’d love to list your attempts here, so keep them coming.

SA Wines Online - the friendly web-based wine company with whom SA Times partners to bring you the SA Times Wine Club - is holding its own with some of the UK’s biggest retailers. They have just been shortlisted for Decanters Online Wine Merchant of the Year - and they need your vote to win.!

Decanter is Britain’s leading wine magazine and the retailer awards are held in conjunction with the famous Decanter World Wine Awards, with a shortlist drawn up in different categories by their expert panel. SA Wines Online is competing against Tesco, Waitrose and the Wine Society for the prestigious title of Online Wine Merchant of the Year.

The UK is the most important export market for South African wine, so help raise awareness of our fabulous wines by casting your vote on Decanters website - and stand a chance to win a complete set of Decanter wine accessories. Voting closes on the 3 August

The Homecoming Revolution are once again planning a big event in London in October this year aimed at attracting South Africans back home.
Last year they held an event at the Chelsea Football Club in Fulham aimed at providing South Africans thinking about returning home with practical information. Called Woza Ekhaya (Come Home), the event focused on recruitment and buying property in South Africa.
This year, SA Times has been told, they will be moving to a bigger and better venue: Olympia Conference Centre. Watch SA Times for the details.
In the meantime, the Homecoming Revolution have been conducting a “Where in the World” online survey in order to establish where South Africans abroad are living and what they are doing. If you haven’t yet participated, click here - so far only 2855 South Africans in the UK have participated, and we know there are more of you here than that!
The results should be fascinating. What SA Times can reveal, so far, is that apparently, according to HCR, the majority of South Africans living abroad (around 60%) indicated that they would return home.
What practical information would you like to know about moving to South Africa? Let us know and we’ll help find out.