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TOYOTA FORTUNER 2.8 GD-6 4X4 VX ETA: NOW Since launching in 2006, the Toyota Fortuner has become a household name – and more. A staple of the South African suburban upper-middle-class existence, it has become every bit the metropolitan must-have, much as the latest iPhone or Eskom-busting battery backup has. A number of successive facelifts extended the Fortuner’s tenure till an all-new second-generation model followed in 2016, itself earning a noteworthy upgrade in 2020, when the flagship 2,8-litre GD-6 engine was boosted by a welcome 20 kW/50 N.m. In reaching another milestone in its ten-year life cycle, in 2023, the Fortuner has been treated to another – albeit relatively minor – reimagining. Pricing starts at R635 500 for the entry-level 2,4 GD-6 RB manual (the sole three-pedal derivative on offer), extending to R915 400…

WilhelmL_CARmag Petridish_Mooks It is an immaculate space. Being so clear and white in colour, this garage, in its current state, truly allows the cars to shine. Your eyes don’t have a choice but to fully focus on the objects in front of you. Wynand du Toit has collected his cars on a farm in the Overberg over a number of years. “I remember as a child that my father drove Mercedes. He always used to send my mother to the dealership to buy a new car. But it had to be a diesel. So, in the early years it was a 220 diesel, then a 240, followed by two 300 diesel models. She always washed the cars herself, and that was the case until the day she died – she never allowed anyone…

‘LANDSBURGERS SOU NIKS GEWEET HET AS DIE VSA NIE IETS GESÊ HET NIE’ TOE die vragskip Lady R op 3 Oktober 2022 uit die Russiese hawe Noworossijsk vaar, het satellietoë haar dadelik begin volg. Die rede? Lady R is op ’n swartlys van skepe wat soms lande aandoen wat deur Amerikaanse sanksies geteiken word. Teen 19 Oktober was sy in die Egiptiese hawe Alexandrië; daarna is sy deur die Straat van Gibraltar en langs die weskus van Afrika af. Sy het die hawens van Togo en Kameroen aangedoen en later Suid-Afrikaanse waters binnegevaar. Toe, vroeg in Desember, verdwyn Lady R eensklaps van die radar af, moontlik nadat haar elektroniese identifikasiestelsels afgeskakel is. Vir die volgende vier dae was sy onsigbaar vir die satelliete – maar nie vir Ben* nie. Want hy het ’n…

TOE haar seun gebore is, het sy baie drome gehad oor die wonderlike dinge wat hulle nog vorentoe als saam sou doen. Staptogte, visvang, bergfietsry – Chantéll Bothma kon nie wag om ’n wêreld vol avontuur vir haar kind te ontsluit nie. Maar sy het nooit die kans gekry om dit te doen nie. Pleks daarvan was sy angstig en depressief en het sy gereeld pyn gehad. En dít was die ma wat haar seun die afgelope sewe jaar leer ken het. Chantéll pak die skuld vir haar swaarkry en lewensgehalte op die maastoestelle wat in 2016, maande ná haar seun se geboorte, chirurgies in haar baarmoeder en blaas ingeplant is. Toe sy kort ná die geboorte intense rug- en buikpyn begin ervaar het, is bekkenorgaanprolaps by haar gediagnoseer. Haar dokter het gesê dit…

’NMENS kan verstaan dat dit vir haar – ’n welvarende vrou met ’n luukse leefstyl wat al die wêreld deurkruis het – moeilik moet wees om die woord te lees: “Kommin.” Maar as jy so deur die kykerskommentaar op sosiale media en elders blaai oor die TV-reeks Die Real Housewives van die Wynlande, dan is dit ’n woord wat pal opduik. Anita Lloyd (55) se gedrag en taalgebruik, so sê sommige kykers, is sommer plein kommin. Voor die reeks onlangs begin het, het baie mense gedink die voormalige Mej. Suid-Afrika Amy Kleinhans-Curd, ’n stylvolle en suksesvolle sakevrou, sal die deelnemer wees wat al die aandag trek. Maar nee, Anita was van die begin af die ster van die reeks. In die bemarkingsmateriaal het sy na ’n stylvolle vrou geklink – die eggenoot van die grootbaas by…

IETS aan sy donker oë en skewe glimlag wil-wil bekend lyk. Hy gee geesdriftig raad oor rekwisiete en stemoefeninge, en die aspirantakteurs in sy klas hang aan sy lippe – die man weet duidelik waarvan hy praat. Maar dit vat ’n tweede en derde kyk om hom te plaas: Dis immers jare sedert Izak Davel (39) en sy blokkiesmaag derduisende kykers na hul asem laat snak het met sy knap rooi Speedo in die Survivor SA-reeks vir bekendes. En nog langer sedert hy as die hartebreker Scab in die sepie Egoli: Plek van Goud bekend geword het. Hy lag vandag lekker oor daai swembroek. “Die Speedo was vir my ’n praktiese ding toe ek daar op die eiland was. Ek wou nie met ’n nat broek oral rondloop nie, dus het ek…

SHE was the darling of the silver screen, an adorable button-nosed, curly-lipped cutie who made the movies of the ’80s and ’90s that little bit more special. We rooted for her in Sleepless in Seattle, popcorn forgotten as we held our breath to see if she’d finally meet up with Tom Hanks on top of the Empire State Building. We laughed as Kevin Kline led her in a merry dance through sun-dappled Provence in French Kiss. We got choked up when she was an alcoholic mom trying to get her act together in When a Man Loves a Woman. We sobbed and swooned when Nicolas Cage fell for her in City of Angels. And as for that fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally – it’s so famous there’s a…

‘IS MEVROU tevrede?” vra die verpleegster wat so pas Lotti se grys hare gevleg en om haar kop vasgemaak het. Lotti knik. Sy wens hulle wil ophou om haar Mevrou te noem. Lotti sal deug. Al is sy jare laas so genoem. Daar anderkant was sy Miss Totti. Iets te doen met hulle gesukkel met die vreemde taal se uitspraak. Eintlik is dit alles die ring se skuld. Die vervlakste ring waarvan sy net nie ontslae kan raak nie. Die verpleegster skud haar kussings op. Sy haat dit as hulle so hulpvaardig is. Sy haat die koel, skemer hospitaal. Sy haat die stilte. Sy haat die kanker. Sy haat dit om so onvergenoegd te wees. Toe die verpleegster haar alleen laat, neem sy haar Bybel van die bedkassie af. Laat dit net so…

SHE’D been missing for five decades, making hers one of the oldest missing person cases in the US. Yet every year for 50 years her family gathered around the table to commemorate the day she was born, blowing out candles, cutting the cake and releasing white balloons. The heartbroken Highsmith family held on to the belief that their missing daughter and sister was out there, somewhere – little knowing that “somewhere” was just 15 minutes away. In a remarkable turn of events, the Highsmiths of Fort Worth, Texas, recently discovered that the baby who was stolen from them in 1971 was living in the same area. And the moment Melissa Highsmith (53), who was snatched by her babysitter, reunited with them would melt even the hardest of hearts. Melissa grew up believing she…

YOU could hear a pin drop as the conductor raises her arms, the eyes of the children standing in a half-circle formation in front of her glued on her next command. Then she moves her hands and the choir bursts into a perfectly harmonised rendition of Las Amarillas, the traditional Mexican song by Stephen Hatfield. It’s enough to bring goose bumps to your flesh and a lump to your throat – a beautiful sound filling the room from a chorus of exceptional voices. Listening to them rehearsing at Goodwood Park Primary School in Cape Town, it’s easy to see why the Tygerberg Children’s Choir (TCC) has been making waves lately. The choir, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, has just returned home from the UK where they won two major awards in the…

With the Chrysler Valiant riding wave crests on the sales chart since the mid-1960s, the size and styling changes were enough to confuse even the most ardent petrolheads. Our bevy of tested models kicks off in 1969 and culminates in 1974. PACKAGING Our 1969 test featured the VIP. This was a larger car than the Rebel/Regal models by a full seven inches (178 mm). The actual body shell was borrowed from the Dodge Dart. Also tested in 1969 was the Rebel. In 1970, we tested the same model, but with the uprated engine that produced an extra 15 kW, taking the power up to 142 kW. In 1972 the Valiant VH was introduced with yet another new body that reduced glass area and was wider, but slightly shorter. The spare wheel of this…

SY WAS destyds pas klaar studeer toe sy as plekaanwyser by die Baxter-teater in Kaapstad begin werk het. Met elke vertoning het sy by die deur gestaan en kaartjies geskeur en gedroom dat dit eendag sý sal wees wat op daardie verhoog staan. Dan sou Carmen Maarman (44) haarself belowe: Ek gáán daar uitkom; dit gáán my werklikheid wees. En vandag, meer as twee dekades later, is dit so. Die aktrise is nou weer op kykNET te sien as die vurige Maggie Jantjies in die derde seisoen van die komediereeks Lui maar op, Belinda – ’n rol wat sy in 2019 die eerste keer vertolk het. Dis die einste Maggie wat alles vir Carmen verander het. Ja, daar was teaterrolle, maar die kleinskerm en silwerdoek het haar in ’n groot mate ontwyk tot…

In a road show requiring a bit of logistical tap-dancing, Ford South Africa took several drivers on a trip from Gauteng to Gqeberha. Fifteen different Single- and Super Cab models trekked roughly 1 500 km, testing the cars on not only highways, but some very gnarly byways, too. To my great delight, we spent a lot of time nosing over rocks, tight-roping through narrow passes and sloshing through mud and water. An added novelty of this press tour was that some of the bakkies were loaded: Ford bought several JoJo water tanks to be transported to communities in the drought-plagued Eastern Cape. My first impression as we headed out in our Single Cab 4×4 – with a JoJo tank strapped tightly to the load bed – through Joburg’s early-morning traffic and hit the…

RyanOConnorZA If you are a loyal reader of CAR Magazine – and I hope you are – you would have read my initial thoughts on the beautiful new off-roading beast that has finally made its way to market… the Ineos Grenadier. And if you are an avid follower of CAR Magazine’s website – let’s hope so – you would also have seen me bouncing around in the cabin of this impressive vehicle as we filmed our test drive from Inverness to Loch Long in Scotland. Or rather, ‘The heart of the heartlands’ – by Ineos’ own description. Nevertheless, whether you’ve been following closely or this is your first insight into our take on the Grenadier, here lies my most comprehensive review yet, where I’ll be breaking down the look, feel and…

TOE hy so drie jaar gelede ’n vriendin na haar ma se graf in Pretoria vergesel, sou hy nooit kon droom dit sou sy eerste tree op ’n nuwe lewenspad wees nie. By die begraafplaas was Dries Bekker (43) geskok oor die verwaarlosing wat hy om hom gesien het. Lang gras, onkruid, grafstene wat oorleun… Ja, die stadsraad doen maar selde instandhouding, het sy vriendin gekla toe sy die blomme neersit. En dan ook nie baie goed nie. Dis vir haar moeilik om self haar ma se graf netjies te hou, en sy het nie die nodige toerusting nie. “Toe dink ek, wat help dit ons sit vandag ’n vars ruiker op en sê: ‘Hallo, Ma, hier is jou blomme; ons sien jou maar later weer,’ en dan stap ons weg,” onthou Dries. Op…

DIT roep herinneringe op uit donker dae toe burgeroorloë veel algemener was. ’n Faksie wat die regering wil oorneem, val die presidentspaleis aan. Meteens word ’n rustige stad in ’n hel van ontploffings en geweerskote omskep. En gou flits berigte oor lyke in die strate en vlugtelinge wat landuit probeer stroom wêreldwyd. Tot onlangs was Khartoem, die Soedanse hoofstad, ’n taamlik rustige plek vir sy burgers en Suid-Afrikaanse ekspats soos Ilse Young. Op Saterdag 15 April het sy nog gedink haar dag sal net ’n gewone naweekuitstappie saam met haar gesin inhou. Haar man, Adam, het dié dag ’n potjie gholf gespeel, en sy sou hom later met hul driejarige tweeling, Duncan en Isabella, by die klubhuis ontmoet. Sy het as onderwyseres by ’n internasionale skool in dié woestynland suid van Egipte gewerk, en Adam…

A BASEBALL cap, a scraggly beard, a pair of sunglasses. Private security on high alert. A bullet-proof car. An escape into the night. It sounds like the makings of a spy movie, yet all this and more went down the day André de Ruyter fled the country with little more than the clothes on his back and a suitcase in his hand. There was so much secrecy and so much tension it almost didn’t feel like real life, a close confidant of the former Eskom CEO says. The source, who’s speaking to YOU on condition of anonymity, says André had no choice but to flee. He’d upset many people in high places following his e.tv interview in February when he’d made astonishing allegations of deep-seated corruption. There’d already been an attempt on his life…

HY HET drie jaar lank volhoubare lig in die donkerte probeer bring, maar toe André de Ruyter oplaas die tuig as Eskom-baas neerlê, het die kragreus hom nie vir sy diens bedank nie. Trouens, hy is weg in ’n storm – al die pad landuit, na waar hy nou “êrens in Europa” in geheimhouding lewe. Waar hy is, wil hy nie verklap nie – hy vrees daar is moontlik ’n teiken op sy rug. In hierdie verkorte, geredigeerde uittreksel uit sy nuwe boek, Truth to Power, uitgegee deur Penguin en nou landwyd beskikbaar, skryf die uitgetrede kragbaas oor sy beweerde vergiftiging, die chaos nadat hy bewerings oor korrupsie gemaak het, en sy haastige vlugtog na veiligheid. “Nee, nee, kollegas,” sê ek gefrustreerd. “Weet julle waarmee ons hier te doen het? Weet julle wat sianied…

KyleSpliceZA SPACE-AGE MATERIALS KEEP ITS WEIGHT DOWN The Revuelto’s new aeronautics-inspired “monofuselage” chassis incorporates a carbon-fibre monocoque with a front structure made of forged composites (a blend of carbon fibres and resin) that allows it to be 10% lighter than the same unit used on the Aventador. Not only is there an increase in torsional rigidity, but there’s also an increased level of energy absorption in the event of a collision; Lamborghini claims it’s double that of the Aventador’s aluminium front frame. At the rear, the chassis is made of high-strength aluminium alloys, with hollow castings in the rear dome area that integrate the rear suspension’s shock towers and powertrain suspension into a single component. This allows for a significant reduction in weight and also for optimal weight distribution (44% front and 56%…

IT STARTED out like an ordinary Saturday morning for the South African expat family – dad was going to play golf, mom and the twins were going to meet him at the clubhouse later. “The kids were looking forward to their milkshakes,” Ilse Young says. But three-year-old Duncan and Isabella never got their treat. As Ilse was preparing to leave home for the club, she heard the news that there had been an explosion – then an ominous message from Adam followed. “Go back home. Don’t go anywhere, I’m coming.” Ilse, a teacher at an international school in Khartoum, Sudan, had met Adam, a manager for a food company, several years ago and the city had become their home. But the life they knew in the North African country was ripped apart when fighting broke out…

MUGABE’S MILLIONS REVEALED Inside Bona Mugabe’s messy split BONA MUGABE, daughter of Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe, has a massive property portfolio that she may have to split with her ex-husband as part of their divorce settlement. Bona (33) filed for divorce from former pilot Simba Mutsahuni Chikore in March. Simba wants half of their assets, which he says include a mansion in Dubai and 24 other residential properties, worth a total of around $80 million (R1,4 billion). According to court papers, Bona also owns 21 farms – some of which were allegedly acquired by the Mugabe family during the contentious takeover of white-owned farms in the early 2000s – luxury vehicles, farming equipment and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Simba, who’s also demanding joint custody of the couple’s three children, says the assets…

HYUNDAI PALISADE R2.2 ELITE 8AT4 7-SEATER ETA: NOW In parenting terms, because I can is the ultimate argument-ending put-down against headstrong offspring. That said, such obstinacy is seldom a satisfying conclusion to any family fight, and after all, an arm around the shoulder generally achieves more than a threat of violence. There’s also a second, less frequently considered option: pampering your brood in the new Hyundai Palisade. Freshly updated for 2023 after first landing on local soil in 2021, the most expensive and lavishly equipped Hyundai will now be available either as an eight-seater or a seven-seater, the latter option configured with a pair of captain’s chairs accommodating the middle-row passengers amid acres of leg-stretching space. Both versions are priced at R1 099 900. And pampered all shall be. The driver is treated…

MORE than a century after it sank, the Titanic continues to captivate people – and new high-tech images show the famous shipwreck like it’s never been seen before. The 3D images offer a clear view of the entire vessel, which lies broken in two parts at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, some 4 000 metres underwater. The scans reveal the rusted wreck as if the water has been drained away and close-up pictures show stunning details such as unopened champagne bottles and shoes on the seafloor. The images were created by deepsea investigators from Magellan Ltd and Atlantic Productions, who are making a documentary about the project. The team used remote-controlled cameras to scan every inch of the ship and its surrounding debris last year. They took more than 700 000 photographs from…

Price: R1 646 200 0–100 km/h: 4,11 seconds Top speed: 225 km/h Power: 400 kW Torque: 750 N.m Energy consumption: 18,1 kWh/100km Range WLTP: 446 km Worry-free electric motoring isn’t quite here, but it is getting closer with the likes of this i4 Peter PalmUnassuming, yet undeniably potent. The i4 M50 is one of the most exciting electricRyan de Villiers While we all wait patiently for the flood of reasonably priced, compact EVs to finally make their appearance at charging stations near us, we continue to review the high-priced models with much more power than anyone needs and at prices mostly well above the million-rand range. The present exercise is the brands showing off, and they have every right so to do. Perhaps when the runabouts arrive everyone will become interested in…

RENAULT CAPTUR 1,3 TURBO EDC ETA: NOW After initially launching the Captur locally in 2015, Renault South Africa quickly brought the updated version out in 2017. Although the second generation has been available abroad since 2019, it’s only just arrived in South Africa this year. The Mzansi arm of La Regie has kept the range short and sweet with just two models: an entry-level Zen, and range-topping Intens. With the assembled models at launch all in the range-topping Intens specification, I could not help but voice a little displeasure. I’m of the opinion that in order to get a more realistic idea of the Captur’s true prowess in this hotly contested segment, a better sample would have been the more affordable Zen model, which is R50 000 cheaper. That’s nothing to scoff…

‘THE THINGS I HAVE HERE BEFORE PROMISED, I WILL PERFORM AND KEEP, SO HELP ME GOD’ THE CEREMONY It was a service steeped in tradition yet contained many modern twists and nods to the variety of faiths, cultures and beliefs that make up the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, presided over the ceremony, which acknowledged the new monarch’s role as both the head of state and head of the Church of England. Since the late 14th century, coronations have followed instructions laid out in the Liber Regalis or “Royal Book” – a 34-page medieval Latin manuscript that describes the order of service. Kickstarting proceedings was 14-year-old chorister Samuel Strachan, who addressed the king. “Your Majesty, as children of the kingdom of God we welcome you in the name of…

FOR sale: 2 000 white rhinos and two farms on 8 500 hectares of North West bushveld paradise. The price? Around $10 million (R193m), but buyers will need to have very, very deep pockets over and above paying the asking price. The rhinos on this land form the world’s largest private herd – one-fifth of the global white rhino population – and farming and protecting the animals is an expensive business. Just ask John Hume (81), owner of the Platinum Rhino Project who’s throwing in the towel after nearly three decades of rhino breeding and conservation. It breaks his heart, but he simply can’t carry on any longer. “It’s impossible to say what these 2 000 rhinos have cost me,” John says. “Billions. I was rich then. And now I’m not.” Farm operations cost around R8,2 million…

IamDamianAdams 8 985 km 8,33 L/100 km + Stylish design, quiet and high-tech interior - Ride is on the firmer side During the brief time I have experienced our long-termer, the Sportage went from being one of my favourite family SUVs to arguably the champion of the class. It’s for good reason, then, that it’s been named as a finalist in the 2023 South African Car of the Year competition. It boasts an impressive breadth of ability and an exceptionally long list of standard features for the money. Sure, R749 900 is an eye-widening amount of money for a vehicle in this segment; however, this places it squarely in the realm of the popular Volkswagen Tiguan. The flagship Kia slots in between the R-line badged 110 kW (R722 300) and 162 kW (R795 900) models…

‘Out of everything I’ve done, Joshua is definitely my biggest achievement. It feels like I was always meant to be a mum’ As a Paralympic equestrian champion, it was a big moment when Natasha Baker introduced her newborn son to her beloved horse Lottie. And as these precious first family photos show, the meeting went very well indeed, with Lottie affectionately nudging her silky nose against the tiny legs of the newest addition to the family, whose name, HELLO! can reveal, is Joshua Fio Jaconelli. “Lottie absolutely loves him,” says Natasha, 33, joining husband Marc Jaconelli, 31, at her parents’ livery yard in West London to proudly introduce their first child to us. “She is the gentlest horse in the world and she literally went up to his head and snuggled into his…

ARIA BABU het vroeër vanjaar uit haar werk bedank om haar toe te wy aan iets waarvan die meeste mense nog nooit gehoor het nie. Nadat sy ’n aantal jare as beleidshoof van ’n Londense dinktenk gewerk het, het die 26-jarige tot ’n kommerwekkende besef gekom oor die toekoms van die Verenigde Koninkryk, die wêreld – en die menslike spesie. “Dit het vir my duidelik geword dat die meeste mense meer kinders sou wou hê as wat hulle het,” sê Aria. “As jy in ag neem dat kinders so ’n groot deel van mense se lewe is, is die feit dat hulle nie in staat was om aan hierdie behoefte te voldoen nie ’n duidelike teken dat iets verkeerd is.” Nou fokus Aria haar energie op ’n filosofie bekend as pronatalisme, wat…

Price: R569 900 0–100 km/h: 12,34 seconds Top speed: N/A Power: 89 kW Torque: 145 N.m CAR fuel index 7,2 L/100 km Likeably different, if challenged by a low cents-to-sense ratio in an overly cost-conscious segmentBraam PeensAttractively styled, rear a bit generic and seats not as good as in older Hondas such as the Accord, FR-V or CR-VPeter Palm Does the world genuinely need another compact crossover? Probably not. The three-box sedan is dead, and the few hatches not yet treading in Timberlands aren’t far behind. Whether or not all motorists are equally enthusiastic over this evolutionary shift remains open for debate. Not debatable is that, owing to their canonised design direction and proliferation of standardised infotainment systems, amid an ocean of selfsame silhouettes, it is becoming harder for OEMs to produce models that…

HY WAS een van die onvergeetlike gesigte langs die veld toe die Springbokke die Engelse Rose in die Wêreldbekerrugbytoernooi in Japan in die stof laat byt het. Groot van postuur en gees het die assistentafrigter, Matt Proudfoot, ’n onontbeerlike rol in die oorwinning daar in die Verre Ooste gespeel. Dit is vandag vier jaar later. Hy is steeds die sesvoetreus met ’n passie vir rugby, maar Matt (51) se wêreld lyk anders. Ná drie jaar as afrigter vir die Engelse span is hy terug in Suid-Afrika, maar waar hy voorheen saam met sy vrou, Vanes-Mari du Toit (33), in ’n huis gewoon het, is hy nou alleen en woon hy in ’n gastehuis. Matt en die gewese Protea-netbalspeler was een van Suid-Afrika se bekendste sportpare, en dit was vir aanhangers ’n skok toe…

MIKE Thexton was 27, exhausted and ready to return home to Britain after a summer hiking in the Himalayas when he boarded a plane in Karachi, Pakistan. As fate would have it, the plane would never leave the runway. At 5.44am on 5 September 1986, Pan Am flight 73, which was en route from Mumbai to New York via Frankfurt, was hijacked. For 12 of the next 15 hours, Mike, one of almost 400 people on board, was held at gunpoint by one of four hijackers, part of a Palestinian terror cell intent on selecting Americans, but willing to settle for a Brit. The men, armed with rifles and hand grenades, had already killed their first passenger, 29-year-old Rajesh Kumar, who had been an American citizen for just two months, shooting him…

HE’D just fallen off his bicycle, he told his mom in a small voice, but she wasn’t convinced. A fall from a bike surely wouldn’t cause her then five-year-old son’s testicles to swell to such an extent. “When I say there was swelling, I mean his one testicle was three times its normal size,” says Amanda Martins*, who was bathing her little boy, Luke*, when she noticed the injury. She took him to the doctor the next morning and he confirmed her suspicion: it was highly unlikely the swelling had been caused by a fall from a bike. “When the doctor asked him what happened, he said he’d been kicked at school,” Amanda tells us. She and her husband, Mark*, went to their son’s crèche, Laspossie Kleuterskool in Pretoria East, and told the teachers…

The elegant S-Class still commands the respect of the segmentDamian AdamsYou can’t take your eyes off the 7 Series, but it doesn’t appeal to everyoneKyle Kock When the S500 was tested for the May issue last year, the CAR team felt that the decision to once again hand the segment crown back to Stuttgart’s range-topping sedan was more than justified, given how much Mercedes-Benz had improved on what we deem to be critical areas of evaluation, such as refinement, ride comfort and technology. It just so happened that the S-Class had long been the title holder in that division before the previous-generation (G11) BMW 7 Series made a strong argument for itself and snatched bragging rights. The victory would be short-lived however, when the current S-Class (W223) would give us reason enough…

‘EK IS ’n Pretoria-meisie. Ek het in 2000 saam met my ma hier gekom; in die jaar daarna was ek in gr. 1 in Laerskool Pierneef. Ons het in die bediendekamer gebly naby die skool. My ma het in die area gewerk, sodat ons daar kan bly. My ouma was ook ’n huishulp, my hele familie, almal, was huiswerkers gewees. Die mense by wie my ma gewerk het, het later getrek, en ons kon nie saam nie. My ma het toe nie ’n werk nie en ons is na die naaste informal settlement in Phomolong, Extension 6 in Mamelodi. Eers het ons ’n sinkhuisie op ’n jaart gehuur wat ons met ander mense gedeel het. My ma kon eers ’n paar maande later haar eie sinkhuisie kry. Ek het actually die foto vir…

After being officially crowned Charles III a day earlier, His Majesty picked up another title during last week’s Coronation Concert: Dancing King. The 74-year-old monarch was seen waving a Union flag and swaying to the beat during an exuberant set by US singer Lionel Richie in the grounds of Windsor Castle, which was watched by millions of people around the world. As the sounds of Lionel’s 1983 hit All Night Long took to the air, the King and his loved ones couldn’t help but begin to dance and sing along. His Majesty wasn’t the only one to get swept away by the music. The Duchess of Edinburgh, looking stylish in a coral dress by Beulah, showed she was a Lionel fan, throwing her hands into the air alongside Mike and Zara Tindall during…

SEEING their faces on his phone screen is the highlight of his day but it also makes him feel sad and alone. Because every time Francois Oosthuizen says goodbye to his husband, Bowen Li, and blows air kisses to their son, he wonders when the day will come when they’re living under the same roof. Francois (40) is in Cape Town and his spouse, who’s a Chinese national, is thousands of kilometres away in China with their four-year-old child, Kaiwei. Bowen can’t join his husband in South Africa because he’s still waiting for the department of home affairs to issue the permanent-residency permit he applied for two years ago. Francois, frustrated at how long it’s taking the bureaucratic wheels to turn, returned to South Africa from China just over a month ago in…

FOR decades he commanded the screen with his devilish grin, irresistible charisma and ability to rock any role from romantic comedy and edge-of-your-seat horror to searing drama and complex political thriller. But there was more to Jack Nicholson than being one of the finest actors of his generation – he was also a Hollywood heartbreaker of note and few leading ladies could resist his charms. For years he regularly made headlines but the 86-year-old has remained largely reclusive over the past decade, holed up at his house overlooking California’s Franklin Canyon Reservoir and only emerging on the rare occasion to attend a basketball game, a passion of his. Just last month he was seen sitting courtside with his youngest son, Ray Nicholson, at a Los Angeles Lakers game in LA. Dressed in all-black with…

Flanked by his two leading ladies, Michael Douglas cuts a dashing figure on the red carpet at the Cannes film festival. The veteran of screen and stage was accompanied by his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and their 20-year-old daughter Carys, who was making her debut at the French movie extravaganza. In a pink Elie Saab gown, the aspiring musician posed with her parents at the opening night gala as she and her equally glamorous mum Catherine – also in a dramatic gown by Elie Saab – planted a kiss on Michael’s cheek before the Fatal Attraction star, 77, received a special award honouring his lifetime in film. “Thank you Cannes!” he later wrote on Instagram. “I am so honoured to receive the honorary Palme d’Or for my career achievements. Catherine, Carys and…

‘I’m over the moon to meet Kate and be here. This is a memory of a lifetime’ Pictures of regal elegance, the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh continued their support of the King and Queen last week and teamed up in shades of blue to host a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Joined by their husbands the Prince and the Duke – as well as fellow members of the “slimmed-down” monarchy, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester – the two women spent the afternoon mingling with 8,000 members of the public, who enjoyed tea and sandwiches on the palace’s manicured lawns. Kate, 41, recycled a blue embroidered tulle skirt and matching blouse from Elie Saab with a Philip Treacy hat that she had worn to Royal…

WHEN he quit his job earlier this year he said he was looking forward to taking things easy. For the sake of his safety and his health, André de Ruyter said, he’d decided it was in his best interests to lie low, probably somewhere abroad. Everyone thought this meant the former Eskom CEO was planning to drop off the radar. But it turns out he has no intention of keeping quiet. His bombshell memoir – Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom – recently hit the shelves and has tongues wagging far and wide. South Africans stuck in yet another round of stage 6 loadshedding may require torches to read the book, but it’s not the first time De Ruyter, reportedly now living in Germany, has made startling statements. We take a…

THYME This hardy, perennial herb is easy to grow. It’s frost-hardy but also copes with dry conditions. Water-wise thyme does well in pots, as a creeping herb or as ground cover in a garden, with some varieties staying green throughout winter and producing pretty pink or lavender fragrant flowers. Keep in a spot that receives plenty of sun and ensure that the soil is sandy and well-drained. Feed with a liquid fertiliser about once a month and pick leaves and sprigs regularly to encourage growth. TIP To increase the longevity of your herbs, prevent them from creating seeds so that all the plant’s energy goes into the growth of the leaves. When they start forming flowers pick or prune them off to extend the life cycle. ROSEMARY Hardy and evergreen rosemary makes for a great winter shrub…

As sunny weather finally arrived, stars joined royalty in looking blooming marvellous as they toured the Chelsea Flower Show last week. Famous names from the worlds of TV, music and radio all dressed in their summer best as they mingled among the fragrant plants and flowers. Leading the arrivals at the official preview of the annual garden display were royal twins Lady Eliza and Lady Amelia Spencer. Newlywed Amelia wore a floaty dress from Zimmermann, while Lady Eliza went for a pink polka-dot outfit by Alessandra Rich. At the Natural Affinity Garden for Aspens, designed to highlight the therapeutic value of nature by helping visitors engage with their senses, musician and DJ Cerys Matthews was reading from her children’s version of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood. WINNING DESIGN Meanwhile, Dame Joanna Lumley, looking stylish…

The computing power required to design and develop a modern-day Formula One car operates at NASA-level intelligence and demands nuclear-grade power. In an ever-competitive category where tenths of a second are measured in millions of dollars spent, CFD – Computational Fluid Dynamics – have come to save precious wind-tunnel time, itself annually limited by the FIA in the interest of cost-saving to 30 teraflops of double-precision (64-bit) computing for simulation purposes, and only permissibly executed via CPU, and not GPUs. Following February’s F1 pre-season test, however, not a single supercomputer down the pit lane could have predicted that the Aston Martin team would have rocketed over the season shutdown from a lowly seventh in the 2022 constructor’s championship to sporting the second-fastest car of 2023. The new signee for 2023, immutable double champ…

There really is nowhere else quite like Babylonstoren. This symphony of sybaritic pleasures anchored in the soil will redeem and refresh you in ways few other places can. It is gloriously old (the farm dates back to 1692), with deep roots and magnificent terroir. The current incarnation, owned and nurtured into being by former magazine editor Karen Roos, opened its doors – and garden gates – in 2010, with restaurant Babel quickly becoming the stuff of farm-to-fork legend. And now, happily, there are new reasons to visit. Babylonstoren is one of the best-preserved farms in South Africa’s bucolic Cape Winelands, reimagined as a kind of 21st century Garden of Eden; the formally designed gardens (Roos worked with French architect and landscape designer Patrice Taravella, citing his understanding of “how to make…

IT FELT like he just couldn’t drive fast enough. The three-and-a-half-hour journey from Polokwane to Johannesburg seemed to grow by the minute and he spent every second of it praying his little girl was safe and sound. Elie Challita had left four-year-old Nada-Jane at home in Joburg, with his girlfriend, Amber Hughes, while he went house hunting in Polokwane. While he was on the road earlier that day, Amber (23) had called him in a rage after discovering he’d been chatting with other women on WhatsApp. She accused him of being unfaithful and threatened to destroy everything he held dear. “You broke my heart, I’m going to burn yours,” she told him before hanging up. “When she said that, my knees went weak,” he tells YOU. Elie (35) kept trying to call Amber, but he…

AN Austrian lady, very much a city girl, had accompanied her hubby on our hunt. Coming across some eland dung, I picked up a grape-sized pellet to roll between my thumb and forefinger. Hearing a gasp, I turned to see her expression of utmost disgust as she stared at the dung pellet. “Euw!” she exclaimed, “Was machst du?” Surprised, I raised it to show her, and she recoiled in horror. “I’ll explain later,” I said. I wanted to hunt the eland. Back at the lodge, after showering, we gathered at the lapa. The lady kept a polite distance, but after the meal I broached the subject as we sat around the fire. “You seemed horrified that I handled a scat,” I said. “Yes, I think it’s disgusting!” “Well, perhaps no more…

OM DIE draai, oor die laaste bult en daar lê Duinebaai se goue strand en akwamaryn sterretjies-see uitgestrek voor haar. Mooier as wat sy kon onthou. Sonja sluk aan die knop in haar keel. Dis asof die werklikheid van Ouma Miems se dood nóú eers werklik by haar insink. Die kusdorpie lê knus genestel teen die duine. Regs van die hoofstraat, veilig omring deur ’n halfmaan van natuurlike rotsformasies, lê die vissershawe. Sy wil-wil glimlag. Asof ’n mens dié nou straatjie ’n hoofstraat kan noem. Dis steeds die enigste geteerde straat op die dorp. Vreemd hoe dit voel asof tyd hier gaan stilstaan het. Sy stop by die strandwinkel om brood en eiers te koop. Die son skyn helder, maar binne is dit halfskemer. Ou Josef het seker nog nie genoeg geld…

When the owners of this home began the renovation they discovered that the existing slab couldn't support the weight of the planned second storey. So they had to demolish the whole property and rebuild on the existing foundation. “We took the best elements of our previous homes and updated those to get a more modern look,” says the owner. “Although we went for an industrial look, we tried to incorporate natural elements (wooden floors and ceilings) to ensure that the concrete/stone/steel didn't dominate to the point that it made the house feel cold and unwelcoming.” “The family spends most of their time in the double-volume lounge.”“A home is practical, liveable, and has a personality unique to the people who live there.” – the home owner“The (sun-facing) side of the home is almost…

IT’S one of those minerals you don’t hear much about but it’s not completely foreign either. You might have heard someone mention they had a deficiency or seen it pop up in ads for certain foods. Yet magnesium is pretty important. Not only does every organ in your body need magnesium to function properly, it also plays a role in energy production and helps regulate levels of other important nutrients such as calcium, zinc and vitamin D. Keeping your levels topped up can help give you more energy and protect against diseases such as osteoporosis, diabetes and dementia. It’s also necessary for the electrical activity that happens in your heart and brain, says British cardiologist Dr Sanjay Gupta, adding that it’s the mineral he most often recommends his patients make sure they…