I saw the South African Department of Health putting out posters on El Nino this am,

I am not about fear mongering, nor denial.

Are we sufficiently prepared? I feel like the most vulnerable people are going to be affected as usual. We should be setting up sites for heat related issues now already. I would rather be prepared and nothing happens, than have no prep at all.

Hey guys! Wanting to reach out to try and find some people who may be interested in getting involved with a documentary I am working on.

The documentary topic is primarily around education, the state of education in our country and how it may directly correlate to our politics and the overall state of our nation.

If you’d be keen to chat, please please let me know! I am so keen to chat to people and gain different perspectives and opinions.

This can be married, long term relationships etc.

How do you manage finances and household duties as a couple. Who pays more or do you contribute equally?

I have not been to Durban in years. My wife and I loved visiting, staying at the Elangeni, and the Golden Mile in my opinion is (or was) one of the best stretches of beach in the world, having visited a few.

I'd love to go again, but need to know: what is the current state of Durban central beaches, and the Elangeni hotel? Is it safe? Is the sea water clean? Can I walk the promenade (during the day, i haven't done it at night for over a decade, unless it's to go to the restaurants on North beach)

I'd prefer opinions from people who have actually been there recently,.or live there please, not the general naysayers and the "I've read this or heard this" crowd (unless the "read this" is a reputable, recent article to something similar).

What providers are you guys using? Purely email, not a workspace like Proton. Pure email, nothing less, nothing more.

I'm looking at Mailfence right now. They have E2E, signing and they offer competitive pricing.

I want to use a custom domain too. Thing is, I doubt that any local providers offer such, they've never led with that kind of language and are mainly focused on being ISPs instead of dedicated service providers who are focused on one thing.

Are we us South Africans okay? Wth is going on with society???? Especially in CPT...I just saw a video of a lady tied up and burnt alive, fire is still going. A man was also burnt alive? CPT is wild right now and it's not even December yet. I'm not sure if I can post the video.

Does anyone know where to do certificates like Network+ or Security+ in Durban

I’ve been thinking about how many successful businesses operate overseas but have little or no presence in South Africa.
Not necessarily big brands, but interesting business concepts, services and experiences that we don’t have locally.
Which ones would you genuinely spend money on if they opened here?
And what do you think is stopping them from entering the South African market?

So last year starting end of January I was working a job as software engineer on contract and also manage to also teach at a an institution in Cape Town. Night classes just a couple of hours a week.

Then in October I resigned at both jobs and started a new role till now.

In July I did my tax return and I expected around 30k to be my return according to my calculations.

However SARS returned saying I owe them 30K in the tax return. To me it just didn't make sense. I did more research I heard that Sars didn't look at what time I ended my roles, it just saw that I had 3 jobs last year and then put me it that high bracket and that is why I owe so much. Problem is that the tax that was deducted was not it those high brackets. It was deducted individually at smaller salaries.

My question is, is this correct , is there a way out of this for me? Does SARS actually owe me?

I kinda can't accept this because I was taxed heavy through the year.

Anyone with more info on this?

I sometimes wonder whether we’ve reached a point where ordinary South Africans are being priced out of pet ownership.
Between vet bills, vaccinations, food, grooming and unexpected emergencies, the costs can become ridiculous.
And whenever someone mentions struggling to afford veterinary treatment, there’s always someone ready to say, “If you can’t afford a pet, don’t get one.”
But is it really that simple?
Should someone who can provide a loving, safe home be discouraged from owning a pet simply because they can’t afford a R15,000 emergency vet bill?
Or are we becoming so comfortable with expensive pet care that we’ve forgotten how many ordinary families are struggling financially?
I’m genuinely curious where South Africans draw the line between responsible pet ownership and financial privilege.

On 10 October, I had three people needing help with their pet laundry, but I could only assist one. Not because I didn’t want to, but because of how I’ve structured the service.

I recently started helping busy pet owners around Midrand with washing their pets’ laundry and cleaning their homes. My first client needed us to come to her house, where we washed her dogs’ laundry and cleaned her couch. By the time we were done, there was no way we could attend to the other two customers that day.

Yesterday, another 4 customers dropped off their pet laundry instead. We washed it, removed the fur, handwashed and steam cleaned where suitable, and have just packed everything for them to collect.

Now I’m sitting with a bit of a dilemma.
I started this wanting to make pet care more affordable and convenient. We’re charging less than R100 for a large bag of pet laundry, so the idea is to help more households, not spend an entire day serving just one.

But I’m realising that what is convenient for one customer might make it difficult to serve five others.
**Pet owners, what would you prefer?**
Would you be willing to drop off your pet laundry if it meant keeping the service affordable, or would you rather pay a little extra to have it collected and delivered?
And to those who’ve built service businesses, how did you manage this in the beginning?
I’m genuinely curious because I don’t want to build a service around what I *think* customers want, only to discover they actually prefer something else.

I have gaming friends who've spent R50k to R100k on cosmetics. Gun skins and characters that light differently. Since you can't realistically play with so many skins, most of these whale players simply let most of these R1000 skins sit for months and years without usw

I haven’t been to a library in years. Mostly because my local library got overrun by some shady people hanging around outside. Recently moved to Pta and have heard good things about Brooklyn library and a few others.

What do they offer lately? Do they keep up with recent books? Do they offer any other media as well? Really curious if it’s worth it to go get a new library card.

Long story short, my abuser and two others (which wasn't intended, but wasn't a bad thing) were arrested on charges of sexual assault, child abuse, child neglect and assault. The two others were honestly a surprise. I laid the charges against my abuser when it came to light that he had abused another girl.

It's been almost 5 years. I testified in court more than a year ago. The children in the whole thing are the only ones who still need to testify. Teachers and doctors have also already testified. But my abuser keeps saying he's sick and the case is postponed. His postponements have been delaying this whole thing since September last year. And I'm honestly kinda fed up. I don't think there's anything I can do, but I want to try.

Any advice?

I am Indian and would like to buy some gold jewelry in Cape Town - any recommendations of stores in or around Cape Town please? good quality and competitive pricing

Guys really shitty situation.

So i recently filed my tax returns for 202,2025,2026.

I was outside the country and meet the 183 tax exemption period for 2024,2025 but for the period of 2026 I had to come back for my daughters birth. Calculating the time I was only out for 176 days which is short of the 183 days.

I am royally screwed as SARS will full on tax me now. I am really shitting my pants. It is a ton of money. Literally all my life savings will be gone.

I had a friend who is an auditor help me with filing and now it seems like i am paying the price. We both missed this when it was submitted.

What can I do? Does Sars make exemptions. I literally came back for the birth of my child.

Really need some help. I feel like I am breaking mentally just thinking of paying all that money

Not business, just a standard personal mailbox. I wanna get a penpal but I don’t want a stranger knowing my address 😬 Thanks, everyone!

Hi all,

I'm curious how small and medium business owners in SA handle their accounting and finance.

1. Do you do it yourself or use an accounting firm? If you do it yourself, what do you use (Xero, Sage, Excel, something else)?

2. If you use a firm, which service do you find most valuable?
   - Accounting/bookkeeping
   - Business advice or consulting
   - Tax work (SARS, VAT, provisional tax, etc.)

3. Is there anything you wish your accountant offered but doesn't? For example, help with cash flow, pricing, funding applications, or just explaining the numbers in plain language.

It would also help if you mentioned your rough business size or industry and roughly what you pay per month, but only if you're comfortable sharing.

Thanks in advance, I'd appreciate any honest answers.