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The South African
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The South African
Animal sighting: Chameleon outwits leopard without changing colours [Video]
Today's animal sighting video captures an incredible and rare moment in the wild, as a chameleon escapes a leopard without even changing its colours. The footage of a chameleon outsmarting a leopard without even changing its colours was uploaded to YouTube and can be found on the channel named Animals Majesty. FOR MORE ANIMAL SIGHTING VIDEOS, VISIT THE SOUTH AFRICAN WEBSITE Watch today's incredible video of a chameleon escaping a leopard without even changing its colours. WATCH | Animal sighting: Leopard's incredible mid-air catch caught on Camera [Video] Keep up with The South African website for all the essential information you need! Enjoy a wide variety of exciting videos from news, business, lifestyle, travel, sport, viral videos, and lots more! Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
The Journal
29-05-2025
- The Journal
South African woman jailed for life after kidnapping and selling her six-year-old daughter
A SOUTH AFRICAN court has sentenced a woman to life in prison for kidnapping and selling her six-year-old daughter. Joshlin Smith went missing in February last year from her home in Saldanha Bay, a fishing town 135 kilometres north of Cape Town, and has never been found. Her mother, Racquel 'Kelly' Smith, was found guilty of kidnapping and selling the young girl, reportedly for 20,000 rand (€1,000). 35-year-old Smith and her two co-accused, a boyfriend and mutual friend, will all be jailed for life for human trafficking. They were all sentenced to a concurrent 10 years imprisonment for kidnapping. 'I am also ordering the entry of your names to the child protection register,' Judge Nathan Erasmus ruled. 'There is nothing that I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose,' he said. Smith was present at the court and sat through the hour-long proceeding with an impassive gaze. The judge said the mother of three was manipulative and had shown 'no indication of remorse' or concern over Joshlin's disappearance. The verdict drew cheers in the courtroom. Advertisement Joshlin's grandmother was also present in court in a white shirt emblazoned with images of the young girl. Nationwide search Smith was initially a figure of sympathy when her child disappeared, sparking a massive nationwide search operation. Photos showing Joshlin's striking green eyes, broad smile and brown pigtails flooded the internet. Joshlin Smith. The case drew national attention, including from a minister who offered a one-million-rand (€50,000) reward for her safe return. But it took a turn when prosecutors alleged that Smith sold her daughter to a traditional healer, who was interested in her eyes and fair complexion. The judge did not say in his ruling who the girl was sold to or why. Witnesses in the trial which began in March included the girl's teacher and a pastor, who said the mother had told him of the planned sale of her child in 2023. Police said today that they had extended the search beyond South Africa's borders. South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world, and the kidnapping of children is on the rise. There were more than 17,000 kidnappings in South Africa in the 2023/2024 financial year, an 11 per cent increase over the previous year, according to police statistics. The data does not specify the ages of the victims.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
White crosses shown by Trump not graves, says man who erected them
The man who organised a display of white crosses in South Africa, an image of which was shown by Donald Trump on Wednesday, has said that the US president was wrong when he described it as a "burial site". Rob Hoatson said the crosses were put up on the roadside in KwaZulu-Natal province as a memorial to a couple who were killed on their farm in 2020. During a sometimes-tense meeting at the White House, Trump showed his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, a video of the crosses to bolster his argument that white farmers were being targeted. While acknowledging there was violence in his country, Ramaphosa rejected the idea that the Afrikaner minority were being systematically killed. "These are burial sites… over 1,000 of white farmers and… those cars aren't driving, they're stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed," Trump said as the video was playing in the Oval Office. Mr Hoatson, a 46-year-old farmer, said that while he had no issue with the video being used without his knowledge, Trump was known to "exaggerate" and he was happy to set the record straight about the striking image. "It's not a burial site, but it was a memorial. It was not a permanent memorial that was erected. It was a temporary memorial," he said. WATCH: 'Turn the lights down' - Trump confronts Ramaphosa with video FACT-CHECK: Trump's Oval Office confrontation with Ramaphosa US ANALYSIS: Ramaphosa keeps cool in Trump's choreographed onslaught SOUTH AFRICAN VIEW: How Trump-Ramaphosa confrontation went down The crosses were set up to mark the deaths of Glen and Vida Rafferty, 63 and 60, who were Mr Hoatson's neighbours and were killed on their farm in August 2020. Two men were convicted of their murder in 2022. The memorial consisted of more than 2,500 white crosses that stretched along both sides of a road near the couple's farm. It has since been taken down. "But the big issue here is not really whether it's a burial site or whether it's a memorial," Mr Hoatson told the BBC and went on to talk about the murders of white farmers calling them "unacceptable" and "unnecessary". When asked how he thought President Trump behaved in the meeting, he said: "I think Trump placed the facts… at the foot of Ramaphosa and asked him to respond to them. "And I thought the response was somewhat pitiful. There wasn't a response. "So when President Ramaphosa said (last night) he'd never heard of it, he'd never seen it, you know, it was addressed specifically to him. I don't buy that. I don't believe that." In the Oval Office, Ramaphosa did say there was "criminality in our country" adding that "people who do get killed through criminal activity are not only white people, the majority of them are black people". South Africa does not release race-based crime figures, but the latest numbers show that nearly 10,000 people were murdered in the country between October and December 2024. Of these, a dozen were killed in farm attacks and of the 12, one was a farmer, while five were farm dwellers and four were employees, who are likely to have been black. Some Afrikaner activists have celebrated Trump's comments to Ramaphosa saying it put "the farm murder crisis on the international agenda". But leading Afrikaner political columnist Pieter du Toit, said what happened was the result of "months and years of exaggeration, hyperbole and misinformation fed into the American right-wing ecosystem by a range of South African activists". Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims? Do Afrikaners want to take Trump up on his South African refugee offer? Racially charged row between Musk and South Africa over Starlink Is it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats? What's really driving Trump's fury with South Africa? Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
White crosses shown by Trump not graves, says man who erected them
The man who organised a display of white crosses in South Africa, an image of which was shown by Donald Trump on Wednesday, has said that the US president was wrong when he described it as a "burial site". Rob Hoatson said the crosses were put up on the roadside in KwaZulu-Natal province as a memorial to a couple who were killed on their farm in 2020. During a sometimes-tense meeting at the White House, Trump showed his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, a video of the crosses to bolster his argument that white farmers were being targeted. While acknowledging there was violence in his country, Ramaphosa rejected the idea that the Afrikaner minority were being systematically killed. "These are burial sites… over 1,000 of white farmers and… those cars aren't driving, they're stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed," Trump said as the video was playing in the Oval Office. Mr Hoatson, a 46-year-old farmer, said that while he had no issue with the video being used without his knowledge, Trump was known to "exaggerate" and he was happy to set the record straight about the striking image. "It's not a burial site, but it was a memorial. It was not a permanent memorial that was erected. It was a temporary memorial," he said. WATCH: 'Turn the lights down' - Trump confronts Ramaphosa with video FACT-CHECK: Trump's Oval Office confrontation with Ramaphosa US ANALYSIS: Ramaphosa keeps cool in Trump's choreographed onslaught SOUTH AFRICAN VIEW: How Trump-Ramaphosa confrontation went down The crosses were set up to mark the deaths of Glen and Vida Rafferty, 63 and 60, who were Mr Hoatson's neighbours and were killed on their farm in August 2020. Two men were convicted of their murder in 2022. The memorial consisted of more than 2,500 white crosses that stretched along both sides of a road near the couple's farm. It has since been taken down. "But the big issue here is not really whether it's a burial site or whether it's a memorial," Mr Hoatson told the BBC and went on to talk about the murders of white farmers calling them "unacceptable" and "unnecessary". When asked how he thought President Trump behaved in the meeting, he said: "I think Trump placed the facts… at the foot of Ramaphosa and asked him to respond to them. "And I thought the response was somewhat pitiful. There wasn't a response. "So when President Ramaphosa said (last night) he'd never heard of it, he'd never seen it, you know, it was addressed specifically to him. I don't buy that. I don't believe that." In the Oval Office, Ramaphosa did say there was "criminality in our country" adding that "people who do get killed through criminal activity are not only white people, the majority of them are black people". South Africa does not release race-based crime figures, but the latest numbers show that nearly 10,000 people were murdered in the country between October and December 2024. Of these, a dozen were killed in farm attacks and of the 12, one was a farmer, while five were farm dwellers and four were employees, who are likely to have been black. Some Afrikaner activists have celebrated Trump's comments to Ramaphosa saying it put "the farm murder crisis on the international agenda". But leading Afrikaner political columnist Pieter du Toit, said what happened was the result of "months and years of exaggeration, hyperbole and misinformation fed into the American right-wing ecosystem by a range of South African activists". Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims? Do Afrikaners want to take Trump up on his South African refugee offer? Racially charged row between Musk and South Africa over Starlink Is it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats? What's really driving Trump's fury with South Africa? Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa
The South African
20-05-2025
- Sport
- The South African
Who is the former rugby star, now World's Strongest Man?
Rayno Nel made history by becoming the first African to win the World's Strongest Man competition. It was the first victory by a rookie at the event since 1997. Suddenly, everyone is asking, who is Rayno Nel? The 30-year-old, 148kg South African edged defending champion Tom Stoltman by just half a point in the two-day final to claim the title, and his journey from young rugby star to the World's Strongest Man has been fascinating. Nel was a talented rugby player before changing direction. Nel captained CUT in three successive Varsity Cup campaigns, before being called up by the Cheetahs, but ultimately he found his calling elsewhere. The former loose forward only took up strongman training properly in 2022, and works as an electrical engineer. Prior to the 2025 World's Strongest Man, he secured victories in five of the six international competitions he entered. 'Rugby was what I thought I would do for my sports career. I didn't think I'd do any sport ever again,' Nel said. 'But I always had this competitive side to me, so when I stopped playing rugby, I knew I needed to do something competitive. That's just who I am.' WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN STORY? Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
