WATCH: Brakpan is getting its own Showmax series
The official trailer for 'Brakpan Chronicles' is here.
Showmax has just released the hard-hitting trailer for 'Brakpan Chronicles', premiering on Showmax on Friday, 20 February 2026.
The two-part documentary series comes from the team behind the SAFTA-winning 'Sex in Afrikaans' and 'Tiek Tok Boem!'
Watch here:
Just 30 km east of Johannesburg, Brakpan has long been mocked, memed and misunderstood – the default setting for anything considered "common".
But can you really trust anything you see online these days?
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.
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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 at the time than even 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, Maskell’s 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 slap fighter Terence "Supra" Labuschagne; female bouncers Hester Croucamp and Lina Stoltz; and former cop Jan "Stolla" Stols, who reminisces about the 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 producer Rian van Heerden.
Etiquette icon Emsie Schoeman also gives her take on how easy it is to be seen as "common", and how hard it is to shake the label afterwards.
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YouTubers theboys, aka brothers Matthew and Joseph Parry, who went viral with their Brakpan video Investigating the Most Weird Town in South Africa!, also add their view on the town.
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 simply 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."
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Image credit: Supplied