About Vegan SA

Vegan SA is here to make life more fun, enjoyable and less daunting in South Africa for both existing and potential new vegans alike. We can help and encourage people take the leap into veganism, thus helping improve the lives of all animals.

The concept for the VeganSA.com website is for it to:

• Be a dynamic guide for existing vegans, to make their lives easier when booking restaurants and holidays, when out shopping, or cooking at home. It will provide much-needed information nationwide on where to dine, sleep, and shop for food, drinks and other products.
• Act as driver to inspire and motivate potential new vegans to take up the cause. The greater the number of vegans in South Africa, the louder our voices will be heard, and the more animals we can help.
• Act as a tool to leverage positive change amongst non-vegan establishments, providing them with compelling reasons and motivations to change their policies and join the vegan cause.
• Provide much needed publicity and media exposure for veganism.
• Offer vegan recipe listings which will spice up your life and enhance creativity in the kitchen, inspiring variety and delicious choices for vegan dining.
• Raise money to promote veganism. All our profits are donated to vegan charities and animal rights causes, mostly within South Africa.

This information does not exist elsewhere in SA, and it's crucial that we change this to shift the vegan movement into the public mainstream. Vegans want and deserve to live fulfilling lives (when it comes to eating) in SA. There's really no good reason why vegans should get such a raw deal when it comes to choices in South Africa.

Business managers and owners just tend to be ignorant of, or apathetic to, vegan needs. We want to change all that by providing vegans with a useful reference point when they're choosing places to go. We keep our guides practical to SA by listing vegan-friendly, not just vegan-only, establishments.

The nature of our website is such that it will only ever be as useful as the listings contained therein. Therefore we invite all South African vegans out there to join us and get involved to make this project a success. Get involved, follow the latest news on our Vegan SA Blog, or join our VeganSA Facebook Group.

The Vegan SA Team

General Manager: Sheldon Hey

The inspiration behind the Vegan SA concept, Sheldon is responsible for the website marketing, development and maintenance, besides writing some of the site's content.

Sheldon has been vegetarian since around 1990, but only officially switched to being vegan in early 2006. He stopped eating meat as a protest against animal cruelty, and finally took the plunge to veganism once he could no longer justify to himself the consumption of dairy.

Actions speak louder than words for Sheldon, who advocates that anyone who truly cares about animals must get active and do something to help their cause. "Often people say that they care but this is usually accompanied by a long list of excuses that there is always something more important to do. I'm afraid that achieves nothing".

Sheldon is also General Manager of Dive The World, a dive travel agency where he can satisfy his interest in travel and marine conservation. He has written many articles on this subject, including an Idiot's Guide to Building an Artificial Reef. Sheldon enjoys diving, hiking, visiting national parks and rugby. His favourite foods are Thai, Indian and Middle Eastern.

You can contact Sheldon at SheldonH@veganSA.com

Regional Manager - Cape Town: Bianca Clarke

Bianca has been vegetarian since early 2005 and has been vegan since mid 2007. Once she saw the bigger picture about the extent of animal farming and its environmental impact, and learned that law does not regard animals as sentient beings, she says she really had no other intelligent choice to make. Bianca believes education is the key to animal liberation and environmental issues, and that we have to lead by example. She is an animal rights activist and environmentalist.

Bianca runs her own interior design and decor company. She is married to Jo, from the Sentience website (and is therefore also learning web design in her spare time). Bianca and Jo have 6 cats.

She loves to be outside where she can hear and feel the earth, reads a lot, and enjoys a good bottle of Merlot. She cooks and eats non-stop, and is a 'wiz' in the kitchen. She love curries, spaghetti bolognaise, avocados, and all the different types of mushrooms.

You can contact Bianca at BiancaC@veganSA.com

Regional Manager - East London: Angela Tuson

Angela Tuson lives in the Eastern Cape and looks forward to building on local Xhosa traditions that are already earth-people-animal friendly. She runs a community library in Arcadia, East London, for a Non-Profit Organisation (ITEC - Institute of Training and Education for Capacity-building) that concerns itself with the well-being and personal growth of children.

She thinks that working on literacy projects is much like being vegan, as they are both ways of engaging with society through the sharing of resources and information. And they both provide fun and adventurous ways to align values with daily choices.

Angela has been marching confidently in the direction of vegetarianism, step by step since her early teens, and has been a vegan since 2001. However, she doesn't like to call herself a vegan because she buys one non-vegan product ... food for her 3 SPCA-adopted cats.

Angela enjoys fine dining, living it up and winding down. She likes big, rich and satisfying food like pasta dishes, Xhosa cuisine and Asian food. She spends enormous amounts of time looking at how systems relate, whether that's playing computer games or lying on her stomach watching ants. She likes music with a beat - baroque, swing and heavy metal. And she reads rather a lot.

You can contact Angela at AngelaT@veganSA.com

Regional Manager - Johannesburg: Lesleigh Harnwell

Lesleigh is responsible for the vegan listings in the Jo'burg area, so if you own a food outlet in the area you better be nice to her! She also contributed much to the site content, including the encyclopaedic and beautifully written about veganism section.

She has been vegetarian since 2002 and vegan since 2007, when she could no longer block out the cries of the mother cows. She is an animal rights advocate who believes in living naturally and without cruelty.

Lesleigh works as a production manager for a conference accessory company. She spends most of her time doting on her beloved dogs, taking them for walks, writing and painting. She loves the outdoors and a good stomp. Her favourite foods are curries, anything with potatoes, and tofu ice cream.

You can contact Lesleigh at LesleighH@veganSA.com

Regional Manager - KwaZulu Natal: Marjorie Marino

Marjorie lives in KwaZulu Natal for part of the year and has been vegetarian since around 2007, but only officially switched to being vegan early in 2009. She has already contributed quite a lot of recipes to our directory as cooking is one of her passions.

She has respect for environmental concerns but since watching videos from others organisations and talking to some vegan friends, she's now more aware of animal feelings and rights. She originally stopped eating meat when she was stunned one time by the haunting and terrified screams of a pig that was being slaughtered nearby. This snapped her out of her apathy and mobilised her lifestyle change from that moment on.

On a brighter note, Marjorie enjoys cookery, travel and adventure - in all forms of her life. Her favourite foods are Asian, especially Thai, Indian and Filipino.

You can contact Marjorie at MarjorieM@veganSA.com

Regional Manager - Limpopo: Tachiriyah Baht Yisrael

Tachiriyah Baht Yisrael is the Regional Manager for Limpopo, which is a challenge she is very much looking forward to (transforming Limpopo into a vegan friendly province).

Tachiriyah has been vegan since 2005 and is part of a worldwide community of African Hebrew Israelites who hold fast to the belief that a vegan diet is a diet that was crafted by the Creator to promote and sustain everlasting life. A vegan diet is the only diet that approaches and recognises men as co-creators of the universe and also as holistic entities: body, mind, spirit and soul.

When she is not coming up with new product ideas for vegans, Tachiriyah spends her time giving restaurant managers new and creative ways to cater for the vegan niche market. After six years in the sales and marketing environment, Tachiriyah traded sales and budgets for being a trainer and moderator for New Venture Creation, and loves to plant herbs, cook, read and eat, eat and eat some more. Her favourites hang out spots are Exclusive Books, Fruits and Roots and the green outdoors.

You can contact Tachiriyah at Tachiriyahby@veganSA.com

Regional Manager - North West Province: Michelle Serrao Dias

Michelle is getting involved in veganism because innocent animals are suffering and they have no voice or power to say to Humans "STOP TREATING US SO BADLY". She wants to be their voice and approach people in the most subtle way possible, helping them to realize that what we are doing is so very cruel and that we can function properly without having to eat animals or do tests on them. She wants to convince people to get out of their "comfort zone" and change their lifestyle.

Like any lady, she loves make-up and beauty products. She's currently studying part-time to become a professional make-up artist. She says it's scary to see how many beauty products are tested on animals and how they have to suffer so that we can look our best. It's her aim to promote beauty products that are vegan and animal cruelty free.

Michelle loves a challenge and being a vegan / vegetarian is one of the biggest challenges she had to face to date. In the process, she's learning quite a lot about herself and getting to know who she really is! "Spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants" - Mohandas Gandhi.

Michelle enjoys reading esoteric books, Ccrystals, mosaic, fitness, being outdoors, swimming, and having a snooze in the sun. She works for a project consulting/developing company as a financial administrator.

You can contact Michelle at MichelleS@veganSA.com

Image Supplier - Johnny Greig

Many of the images that you see on this website have been kindly donated by Johnny Greig, a professional freelance photographer, living and working out of London.

Johnny specialises in still life and portrait work for advertising, editorial and corporate clients. More of his work can be on: www.JohnnyGreig.com.

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Testimonials: 

"I just wanted to let you know the amazing work that you do with zero funding. I guess the plight of animals and the environment is not up there on the agenda and budget of the government. I recently got introduced to one of your members by accident. She organised me a dinner party so I can introduce my family and my friends to my new vegan lifestyle. Tachiriyah is a gift to veganism!

I was amazed that being vegan can be so exciting to the palate. I'm currently on a raw diet as part of my detoxing regime to get rid of the meat that has been suffocating my intenstines for decades. Needless to say I don't feel I'm loosing out at all; the raw food is delicious and as days pass being on this detox, my senses are returning and heightening my enjoyment for life! So thank you! Keep up the good work! " - Stacey Baker, United States of America