Monitoring of spotted RS CVn and BY Dra type stars. I. Simultaneous optical and infrared photometry UBV(RI)cJHK photometry of 6 active stars, collected at theSouth African Astronomical Observatory in 1996 and 1997, is presented.The light and colour curves, which are compared with those observed atprevious epochs, show significant variation in their wave-likemodulation and in their maximum brightness.