You know how they ask you on aircraft to choose between beef and chicken? “Chicken or beef?” In that moment of limited choice one gets renewed appreciation for the variety of choices on offer in a cultural hotspot such as South Africa. Instead of only beef, you can choose between biltong or sausage or a fat steak or mince or softly cooked oxtail. And in the chicken department you will find chicken trotters or drumsticks or curry chicken or kebabs. At the end of the day it might be the unique mixtures of different things that make it near impossible for any other place on earth to be exactly like South Africa. The good news is that you can enjoy all the benefits of life abroad without missing out on South Africa’s diversity and diverse cultures.        With ShowMax you can experience all the nicest elements of South Africa and its people without even getting up from your armchair in Australia, New Zealand or wherever you live. There are more than 14 000 episodes of series and films that you can enjoy, irrespective of your taste preference.

If you would really like to hear and view some Afrikaans again, then ShowMax will become the apple of your eye: there are thousands of hours of quality programmes and films in which Afrikaans is spoken in all its different spectres. There’s the rough, rugged and extremely beautiful Karoo Afrikaans as you will hear it in Vlug na Egipte, the modern Afrikaans of the city slickers as spoken on Binnelanders, and the dynamic Cape Afrikaans of Suidooster. Murders are resolved in Afrikaans on Die Byl, braais are held in Afrikaans in Jan Braai vir erfenis and laziness is also depicted in Afrikaans in Dis hoe ons rol. If you remember with nostalgia how wild things could get sometimes in good old Africa, then you might just need to view a few episodes of The Wild; the comings and goings of the Lebones, Van Reenens and Tladis against the background of a luxury lodge in the wilderness should do the trick. Our Perfect Wedding is a reality programme that showcases South Africa’s biggest personalities, especially when the stress associated with the big day is responsible for fireworks between people. Things become heated between the Zungus and Ndlovus in IsiBaya, Mzansi’s Telenovela. You can also see South Africa’s proud export product, Trevor Noah, in action on Tonight with Trevor Noah, and in the documentary series My Story, you can start learning more about famous South Africans such as P.J. Powers, Barry Hilton and D.J. Fresh.

If you haven’t tried it yet, sign in on ShowMax. The free trial period of seven days means that you can sign in without any risk to see whether or not you might be interested. If you do indeed like it – and we like to think that you will – you will get unlimited access to world-class entertainment with a distinctive South African flavour at only $8,99 per month. Go to ShowMax.com to sign up and flavour your life with a touch of braai spice.