“It’s a Cultural Thing”: Mzansi Reacts to Foreigner’s Praise of Capetonians’ Kindness in TikTok Clip

• A foreigner visiting Cape Town was left completely stunned after random strangers on the street kept stopping to compliment her every single day she was there
• Emmy said the kindness from Cape Town locals happened so often and so genuinely that she left the house every day feeling like she was absolutely winning at life
• South Africans flooded the comment section of her post to confirm that the warmth and friendliness she experienced out on the streets is simply the Mzansi way of living

Cape Town has a reputation that precedes it in every possible way. The mountain. The ocean. The food. But one foreigner visiting the Mother City recently discovered something she was not prepared for at all.

Emmy, a content creator based in Lisbon who posts under the handle @emmygoesplaces on TikTok, shared a clip on 10 April 2026 that stopped Mzansi in its tracks. She described how complete strangers on Cape Town’s streets were complimenting her left, right and centre every time.

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Emmy talked about standing at a road waiting to cross when a man she had never seen before told her he loved her shoes. Then, just minutes later, at a coffee shop, a woman stopped her to ask where she got her glasses from. She said the compliments were happening so often that she walked back feeling like she had conquered the world every single time.

Cape Town has always had that thing

What Emmy experienced on those Cape Town streets is honestly nothing new to the people who live there. Cape Town, despite whatever else may be said about it, has a long-standing culture of warmth between strangers on the street. The philosophy of Ubuntu runs deep in the city, with locals known for pulling visitors straight into their communities without hesitation. There is something about the energy of the Mother City that makes every single person feel genuinely seen and appreciated.

People greet each other, give compliments freely and make real eye contact. For a Capetonian, that is just a normal day out in the city. For someone visiting from another country, it can feel like an absolute life-changing experience they were not expecting at all.

The comment section of Emmy’s post quickly became a warm love letter written to South Africa by South Africans themselves. Locals piled in to confirm that yes, that is simply how things are done around here. People made it clear that it is not a performance put on for tourists who happen to be passing through. It is the culture. It is how they were raised from the very beginning.​

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See the TikTok clip below:

Mzansi reacts to the video

Briefly News compiled some comments from the post below.

@Zimi commented:

“It's a cultural thing, we greet, compliment and talk to strangers.”

@❌Christi@flavour❌ wrote:

“It's better to be nicer and kinder to others than to be false and fake. We will say when we genuinely appreciate something. It's just the way we are here.🤷‍♀️”

@Bubbles4eva said:

“Giving flowers/a compliment to whoever takes nothing away from oneself. ❤️”

@zhorina isaacs said:

“I often have conversations with strangers. Yesterday, a lady paid for my coffee. 🥰 We just love each other.”

@goddess_ofthenorth commented:

“Being kind isn’t a strategy for us. It genuinely happens naturally. I love my country. Enjoy your time here.👌🏽🙏”

More articles involving Capetonians

• Skift's Megatrends forecast highlighted tourism's dual impact on Cape Town's economy and living costs.
• President Cyril Ramaphosa discussed in more detail his decision to deploy the South African Defence Force (SANDF) to the Western Cape.
• A man named Joshua shared on the internet what it was like growing up in the Cape Flats as a person from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Source: Briefly News