edinburgh

Get involved, young South Africans are urged. The National Development Plan is promoted through Brand SA’s partnership with the President’s Award for Youth Empowerment and Youth Dialogue and Action Workshops.
• Implement NDP in everything you do

 

Brand South African encourages youth involvement in the National Development Plan through its partnership with the President’s Award for Youth Empowerment and Youth Dialogue and Action Workshops.

By Anne Taylor
14 August 2013

A wide range of South African productions are part of this year's Edinburgh Fringe – and are receiving rave reviews from critics, bloggers and audiences alike as they give audiences a crash course in the complexities of this country.

Chiminae Ball, Faniswa Yisa, Jennie Reznek in Voices Made Night UK company The Assembly cherrypicks productions from international festivals and presents them at four different venues in Edinburgh during the festival. This year sees its second "South African season". 

Last year, it kicked off with the runaway hit, Mies Julie – South African playwright and director Yael Farber's adaption of the Strindberg play, Miss Julie. She's back at The Assembly this year to stage another unflinching and challenging piece. While not set in South Africa, Nirbhaya (which means 'fearless' in Hindi) takes on the challenge of sexual violence against women.

A collaboration between Farber and seven Indian performers, it recounts the attack of Jyoti Singh Pandey, the young medical student who was gang-raped on a Delhi bus. Laura Barnett, theatre critic for The Telegraph has described it as "one of the most powerful pieces of theatre I've ever seen".

South African productions that are are in Edinburgh this year are there because of support from local institutions such as UCT's The Baxter and The State Theatre. The productions include:

Solomon and Marion
Solomon and Marion is a festival fringe sell-out. Starring Janet Suzman as an ageing South African divorcee whose only surviving child has emigrated to Australia, and Khayalethu Anthony, the grandson of her former housekeeper, this moving two hander was written by Lara Foot. Picked as a fringe top tip by The Guardian, the "refreshing" play also received four stars from The Times.

World Elephant Day, 12 August, aims to raise awareness of the dangers faced by the gentle giants of the wild and to support initiatives that protect them. Their numbers in Africa are down from a million in 1980 to less than 400 000 today.
• Tusker research goes social

One of South Africa's most famous hominins, Little Foot from the Cradle of Humankind world heritage site, has been incarnated in a play that has travelled around the UK - and is now headed for Grahamstown and Johannesburg.

A local beer produced by a family-owned microbrewery was introduced to the UK in March and has taken that country by storm.
• Top award for SA’s World Cup can

Princess Anne arrived in South Africa on Monday for a three-day visit as part of the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth's 60th year on the throne - and wasted no time in visiting a number of local charities she supports.

Britain's Princess Anne, in South Africa for three days as part of Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee celebrations, met Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe in Pretoria on Tuesday.

In 2011, the Springboks' defence of their Rugby World Cup crown came up short, but they bowed out of the event with great credit after a somewhat bizarre quarterfinal loss to Australia in which the only statistic they trailed in was the final score.

Springbok flank Schalk Burger was named South African Rugby Player of the Year for a second time, while Currie Cup champions the MTN Golden Lions picked up a hat-trick of awards, at the 2011 SA Rugby Awards.