Brakpan Chronicles: Die mense sê, kom in

Jislaaik. Showmax has just released the hard-hitting trailer for Brakpan Chronicles, premiering soon on Showmax.

The two-part documentary series is from Rian van Heerden and Provoco, the team behind the SAFTA-winning Sex in Afrikaans and Tiek Tok Boem!, one of IOL’s "Most Jaw-Dropping Documentaries of 2025."

Just 30km east of Johannesburg, Brakpan has long been mocked, memed and misunderstood – the default setting for anything “common.” But can you really trust anything you see online these days?

“Brakpan’s become a punchline, so we wanted to share the full story – or get bliksemed trying,” says Rian.

That full story begins all the way back in 1888, when a coal seam was discovered on the Eloff family farm, Weltevreden, which included a brackish water pan. The coal mine was followed by a railway, and, after gold was discovered, Brakpan was briefly home to the highest mine dump in the world, higher even at the time than any of the pyramids of Egypt. But once the coal and gold started to dwindle, the town’s fortunes changed. 

Brakpan Chronicles takes you to landmarks like Carnival City, The Rock Raceway, The Masonic Hotel, Thirsty Okes, Rosetulee and Ziggy T’s Roadhouse.

Along the way, you’ll meet characters like Ratkas, the pawnshop owner who went viral on TikTok for funnelling a one-litre bottle of Richelieu brandy; one-legged slapfighter Terence “Supra” Labuschagne; female bouncers Hester Croucamp and Lina Stoltz; and former cop Jan “Stolla” Stols, who reminisces about that time they had to call in the army to break up a Brakpan brawl.

“Brakpan is just a treasure trove of colourful, eccentric, larger-than-life personalities,” says Rian, who won the 2024 Silwerskerm award for Best Presenter for Wie Word ‘n Miljoenêr.

While Rian largely lets the Brakpaners speak for themselves, he does interview etiquette icon Emsie Schoeman for her take on how easy it is to become seen as “common”, and how hard it is to shake the label afterwards. 

He also tracks down YouTubers theboys, aka brothers Matthew and Joseph Parry, who went viral with their Brakpan video Investigating The Most Weird Town in South Africa!. Joseph passed away last year.

While Brakpan remains somewhere between a myth and a meme for most of us, the documentary reminds us that to many people, it is just home.

Johnny the Barber has lived in Brakpan for 57 years. He says, “It's the best in the world. I've been to Toronto. I've been to America – Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami for two days. These boertjies here are the best in the world, friendship-wise… They say once you've drunk the dam water here, you'll never leave Brakpan.”

“I have to admit, despite everything that happened, it was really hard for me to head back to Pretoria,” says Rian. “Brakpan is definitely one of the most unique, if not the most unique, places in South Africa. The people here, regardless of what anyone says, are real... And these days, you don't come across that often. Brakpan, with the exception of a few hotels, will be seeing me again soon.”