It's been another crazy year for South Africa, but at this time of year it's easy to forget what strides we have made toward making the country a better, more beautiful place to live. Here's five stories we should all remember as 2017 wraps itself up.
We couldn't have been prouder when we heard the news that 81-year-old Ndebele artist, and national treasure Esther Mahlangu was honoured with a street painted in her signature Ndebele patterns in New York City. The mural was part of a tourism partnership between South African Tourism's US office, South African Airways (SAA) and bicycle-sharing platform Citi Bike, and also includes branded bikes and bicycle docking platforms. Viva Esther!
No one thought the local muso could fill the enormous FNB stadium, but lo-and-behold, Saturday night came and he actually did it, becoming one of the top five best attended South African concerts in history.
After he broke into the music scene he stole the hearts of many hiphop fans which led to his first fill up concert at The Dome, where 20,000 people attended in 2015.
He then moved on to fill up Orlando Stadium and now he did the unbelievable by attracting 68,000 people to his #FillUpFNB concert on Saturday night. Halala Mufasa, Halala!
LGBTQ visual activist Zanele Maholi's pioneering work was honoured by the French government with the prestigious Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal. Loosely translated as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, it is one of the highest cultural cultural honours a creator can be bestowed with by the French government.
The host of "The Daily Show" and comedian, Trevor Noah, keeps piling up the accolades and South Africans could not be more proud.
Noah's show bagged the Emmy for Best Short-Form Variety Series for the YouYube series, "The Daily Show: Between the Scenes" on 9 September in Los Angeles in the U.S.
The world's largest architectural award programme, the World Architecture Festival Awards, –– and South Africa's Ntsika Architects walked away with one of the big prizes. And to top it off two South African buildings have been shortlisted for the international Arcaid Architectural Photography Awards 2017 -- one of the world's foremost photographic prizes. Winning!