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Southern Africa

The Southern African hot list
August 2025

Southern Africa • Insider guides • The Southern African hot list August 2025

What we’re loving in August 2025 (and you will too)

Stay informed and stay inspired! The Southern African hot list is your monthly dossier of what’s shaping the cultural and creative landscape across Southern Africa. From smart new openings and design-forward projects to events worth pencilling into your diary, we spotlight the ideas and initiatives that matter. Whether you’re a local with a keen eye on your surroundings or a traveller seeking authentic inspiration, this is your curated guide to the things that are getting our attention (and deserve your’s, too).

Top photography courtesy of Wilde Vy Bistro

Mahali Mzuri: safari minimalism in Kenya

Virgin Limited Edition’s Mahali Mzuri has always had an edge – but its latest redesign pushes this Kenyan safari camp into a new aesthetic chapter. The refreshed interiors by British designer Yasmine Mahmoudieh reframe traditional tented luxury with a warm, elemental palette – copper accents, Maasai-inspired patterns and tactile details like grass-cloth wall finishes. Located in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy, just north of the Maasai Mara, the camp’s layout remains unchanged – 12 luxury tents on raised decks overlooking the savannah – but the mood is more contemporary, more rooted. Communal spaces now carry a residential ease, featuring hand-carved furniture, intimate lighting and large-scale artworks that give the lodge a distinctive sense of place.

Mahali Mzuri
Masai Mara
Motorogi Conservancy
Kenya

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Photography courtesy of Mahali Mzuri

Bo-Vine in the City: meat-forward dining in Cape Town

This isn’t your average steakhouse. The team behind Bo-Vine on the Atlantic Seaboard has taken their slow-aged, grass-fed philosophy inland – and Bo-Vine in the City lands right in the heart of Cape Town with a new kind of swagger. Housed in an industrial-style space on Bree Street, the restaurant dials up the drama with charcoal walls, moody lighting and a display fridge stocked with Wagyu tomahawks and dry-aged cuts. It’s unapologetically meat-forward, but not without finesse – think truffle-parmesan fries, burnt butter béarnaise and a curated wine list showcasing the best of the Stellenbosch and Elgin reds. This is Bo-Vine 2.0 – still big on provenance, still proudly local, but now with a city edge and just the right amount of rock-and-roll.

Bo-Vine in the City
101 Hout St
Cape Town City Centre
Cape Town
South Africa

Photography courtesy of Bo-Vine in the City

Melote House: off-grid silence in Limpopo

Located in the heart of the Waterberg Biosphere, Melote House is a new architectural hideout by the team at Black Sable, designed as an off-grid sanctuary for quiet immersion in nature. Built from rammed earth, the structure feels elemental and grounded – low-slung, wide-angled and pared-back. Inside, it’s all about raw textures and natural tones – polished concrete, linen, timber and floor-to-ceiling glass that opens onto views of the bushveld. There’s no Wi-Fi, no TV and no forced itinerary – just a plunge pool, a freestanding bath and the sound of jackals at night. Melote was designed as a retreat for couples or solo travellers who want a deeper connection to landscape and it delivers on that promise.

Melote House
Lapalala Widerness
Limpopo
South Africa

Photography courtesy of Melote House

Meleko Mokgosi at Stevenson Gallery: dual-city intervention in Johannesburg and Cape Town

One of the most important painters working on the continent today, Meleko Mokgosi’s latest exhibition, Spaces of Subjection, is a razor-sharp interrogation of race, power and history – delivered in his signature monumental scale. Showing simultaneously at Stevenson’s Johannesburg and Cape Town galleries, the exhibition spans ink drawings, text-based works and paintings that challenge Western art traditions while spotlighting Southern African narratives. Mokgosi, who was born in Botswana and now teaches at Yale, draws heavily on postcolonial theory, psychology and cinema. His works are precise, deliberate and emotionally charged – expect massive canvases that unfold like film stills, annotated with hand-written phrases and fragments of dialogue.

Stevenson Gallery
Buchanan Building
160 Sir Lowry Road
Woodstock
Cape Town
South Africa

Stevenson Gallery
46 7th Ave
Parktown North
Randburg
Johannesburg
South Africa

Photography courtesy of Stevenson Gallery

Jan Franschhoek: Cape Wineland’s seasonal salon of slow excess

Jan Franschhoek is a seasonal, sensory deep-dive into Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen’s culinary imagination. Now entering its latest winter residency at La Motte Wine Estate, the experience unfolds in a 19th-century glass conservatory, reimagined as a candlelit dining salon where the lines between art, nostalgia and storytelling blur. Each dinner tells a different tale, with dishes inspired by the chef’s childhood in Mpumalanga and his time in Nice, where his Michelin-starred Jan restaurant first took shape. Expect plated courses that mix South African heritage flavours with French technique – like roosterkoek madeleines (wood-fired bread), wild herbs and ingredients foraged from the farm.

Jan Franschhoek
La Motte Wine Farm
R45
Franschhoek
South Africa

Photography courtesy of Jan

The Greenhouse x Shortmarket Club: big-city dining in Johannesburg

This new collab brings together two Cape Town icons – The Shortmarket Club and The Greenhouse – in a reimagined dining space that feels right at home in Rosebank’s high-energy art and design district. The interiors are luxurious and moody – dark wood panelling, copper finishes, velvet banquettes and surrealist-inspired art that feels playful rather than self-important. It’s sexy, but never try-hard. On the menu, Wesley Randles (of The Shortmarket Club fame) steers things toward innovative, contemporary bistro fare with unmistakably South African DNA – trout tartare with ginger and soy, braised short rib with chakalaka (vegetable relish) and a show-stopping soufflé.

The Greenhouse
6 Gwen Lane & Fredman Dr
Sandown
Johannesburg
South Africa

Photography courtesy of The Greenhouse

Ashanté Boutique Retreat: slow luxury in the Western Cape

Ashanté Boutique Retreat is a secluded, off‑grid eco‑sanctuary set along the Olifants River in the Cederberg Mountains, just over two hours from Cape Town. The one‑bedroom Ananda Cabin sleeps two, with a king‑size bed, indoor–outdoor showers, a freestanding bath, a two-way wood‑burning fireplace, and an open‑plan kitchen. Outside, a private deck offers a wood‑fired hot tub, braai/pizza oven, daybeds and hammock – all powered by solar energy. Designed for slow living and gratitude, the retreat encourages unplugging. Here you can birdwatch, stargaze, paddle, fish or rock climb right from the retreat.

Ashanté Boutique Retreat
Bulshoek Farm 583 part 1
Clanwilliam
South Africa

Photography courtesy of Ashanté Boutique Retreat

Sepial’s Kitchen: Korean fire and focus in Cape Town

Sepial Shim’s kitchen is a study in focused Korean home cooking, free from fusion or dilution. Located in Makers Landing, the restaurant thrives on seasonal ingredients and time-honoured fermentation techniques. Kimchi, doenjang and gochujang form the backbone of the kitchen’s flavour profile. The menu changes often, but signatures like kimchi pancakes, slow-braised pork belly and gochujang-glazed wings are regulars for a reason. Sepial also runs fermentation workshops, inviting guests to understand the process behind the flavours. The space is intimate and unadorned, spotlighting food without distraction.

Wilde Vy Bistro
Hooggelegen Farm
Durbanville
Cape Town
South Africa

Photography courtesy of Wilde Vy Bistro

Park Hyatt Johannesburg: Gauteng’s new-age city retreat

Park Hyatt Johannesburg debuted in Rosebank as the brand’s most intimate property yet – just 31 rooms and suites, making it the smallest Park Hyatt in the world. It occupies a lovingly restored 1930s colonial mansion, honouring Sir Herbert Baker’s architectural legacy with high ceilings, graceful arches, wide verandahs and a central courtyard centred on a mature jacaranda tree surrounded by sculpted gardens and a heated pool. Each room blends curated South African artistry with local themes – like Safari, Leaf and Sea Algae – featuring king-size beds, floor-to-ceiling windows, marble bathrooms, deep soaking tubs, crisp cotton linens and Ndebele-patterned throws. Dining happens at Room 32, a dramatic live-fire restaurant showcasing seasonal local ingredients, while The Lounge offers cocktails, cigars and a sommelier-curated South African wine list.

Park Hyatt Johannesburg
6 Tottenham Ave
Melrose Estate
Johannesburg
South Africa

Photography courtesy of Park Hyatt Johannesburg

Limoncello: wood-fired ease in Noordhoek

Limoncello has been named South Africa’s first official member of Italy’s prestigious Associazione Italiana Cuochi nel Mondo – a global recognition reserved for chefs preserving and promoting true Italian culinary tradition. For owners Luca and Cecilia Castiglione, it’s a serious nod to their roots and the decades they’ve spent keeping regional Campanian flavours alive on the Cape Peninsula. You won’t find reinventions here – just slow-simmered sauces, imported flour, and wood-fired techniques carried over from Napoli’s streets to Noordhoek’s beachside village. The menu is anchored in Southern Italian classics – parmigiana di melanzane, seafood caught that day, handmade pasta, grilled rib-eye and flavourful risottos. The wine list features boutique Italian and South African labels, chosen for balance rather than showmanship.