pride

Bloemfontein, the City of Roses, is looking even more cheerful these days. The city’s cooling towers are receiving a facelift and will soon be covered in bright home-grown artwork.

September is Heritage Month, when South Africans celebrate the country's rich diversity in art, performance, history, customs and traditions, language, food, and the spoken and written word.

From a derelict piece of land once used for illegal dumping to a luscious green park complete with fountains and a big-screen TV - a lot can be done in 24 hours when you have someone like Luther Williamson behind the idea.

At just 36 years of age, the Eastern Cape's inimitable Phindi Kema is the first and only black person to breed thoroughbred horses commercially in South Africa. To top it off, she also grows lucerne and runs a citrus farm, a small dairy and a popular adventure camp.

Natalie Killassy grew up in the mining town of Carletonville, but knew nothing about the tough working conditions underground, or the many workers who are permanently disabled because of mining accidents. When she did find out, she decided she had to do something about it.

Meticulously crafted over many months, a giant beaded and embroidered South African flag now has pride of place at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

Alexandra township in Johannesburg has been under threat of demolition many times in its 100-year-old history - particularly in the height of the apartheid period, when other "black spots" in the middle of white suburbs met their deaths beneath state bulldozers. Of these, Alex alone survived. Thanks to a friendship.

Some 20 years ago, a young Mogwailane Kenneth Mohlala left his rural homestead on the outskirts of Steelpoort in Limpopo Province for the beckoning lights of Johannesburg. Today, Mohlala is the CEO of a company with an annual turnover in the region of R2.5-billion.

Johannesburg's Gay Pride Festival is gearing up for its 14th annual run from 18-27 September. The largest event of its kind in Africa, now spanning a whole week, the Festival has become a major tourist attraction, enticing like-minded travellers from around the continent and the rest of the world to join the celebration.