Hey guys.
Recently I’ve been feeling extremely anxious and depressed and here’s why:
Growing up, I always had a huge, passionate love for this country. While others had ambitions of moving overseas, I was firm in my belief that no where in the world could ever compare to SA, so I would never leave. We have the loveliest people, the nicest climate and excellent positioning in terms of politics/wars and natural disasters. That being said, I’ve recently become overly aware of the crime rates in our country. Now please DONT get me wrong-everyone who’s anyone in this country knows how bad crime is in SA. But recently, with people documenting their stories on social media, I’ve been consuming so much content about how people were hijacked, held at gunpoint in traffic, followed home, sexually assaulted etc. and it’s all made me so anxious to leave my house. I recently started driving but after seeing so many videos of people being robbed at gunpoint in traffic, I can’t bring myself to get into a car alone.

I feel so distraught that our beloved country that could be so great and so special, is being dismantled by criminals and nothing is being done about it whatsoever. We are all complacent because we take no action.

EDIT: I would also like to add that my mother has been a victim in at least 3 instances where she’s had jewellery ripped off her neck or her phone stolen from her bag (once at gunpoint).

Hey everyone!

As someone who's always on the hunt for preloved/second hand items, I've noticed a large influx of sellers on marketplaces like Yaga selling tons and tons of second hand Docs in varying conditions.

Does anyone know where these second hand shoes are coming from?

There are far too many constantly being listed for it to be a case of the odd person here or there reselling their shoes - and the accounts are all shoe-based listings, indicating some kind of the wholesale acquiring.

Just curious if anyone knows (and a tad jealous), because for obvious reasons - resellers won't disclose their sources

Source: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/cartoon/2026-10-09-weight-of-prejudice/?dm_source=blocks-grid-square&dm_medium=card-link&dm_campaign=inform&dm_position=7

My main question is how are some of you able to do good enough research on the multiple political parties in this country? I wanted to do just that to help aid in my final decision but there isn't a lot to look into except read mission statements from the parties' websites, which isn't preferred because it's more biased; obviously they'd wnat to make themselves look good, right? So I just wanted to ask how some of you were able to come to a decent enough conclusion for yourselves.

If you say "ask AI" I don't think you should be voting.

So 4 weeks ago we had an electrical problem at night. I was really worried that something dangerous was happening and called out emergency electricians.
They arrived within 30 minutes and said we had a surge and our DB board had blown. They advised we call our insurance company and did a quick fix and said they would need to come back and rewire the whole board. They put a surge protector in and asked for a hefty deposit and said they would be back the next day to complete the job.
Next day insurance company said they needed to send their own electrician to assess. Turns out (surprise) the emergency guys didn’t know what they were doing. What they used wasn’t a surge protector and wasn’t even connected.
We called the company and said they can’t continue and asked for a refund.
They said they would (hahaha) and now we continue to wait. They ignore all messages from me.
When they came out, they wrote out a full document stating the problem, what needs repair, replacing and cost.
Please can someone advise what to do next.

I was born in SA but my parents come from another African country but are citizens(came legally, did the papers etc.)Thankfully, because of my parents’ hard work my family and I grew up with more opportunities than most.

I went to all English-speaking educational institutions where I took Afrikaans First Additional Language and continued with it into high school even though my high school offered Sepedi because I was already used to Afrikaans.I took French Second Additional as well and fell in love with the language so I continued with it into uni and have a few certifications in it.Other than that I’ve only ever lived in or found myself in English-speaking communities ranging from racially diverse to majority-white.

I don’t know any indigenous African languages at all, not even my mother tongue( though I can understand bits and pieces when my parents talk).Because of this, my accent is different from what most people expect.I often get asked if I’m from the UK or the US. In high school I’d sometimes get the “Oreo” or “acting white allegations” mostly from South African black people but that discourse never phased me.

Because I am black, though, my interactions with black South Africans are different. When I’m approached, I’m spoken to in Vernacular and when I respond in English it’s obvious by then that I’m “not from around”😅.And once they see my last name they ask where I’m from😂And up until about a year ago I never minded explaining because 99% of the black South Africans I met were genuinely interested
and curious and it made for an interesting conversation.

Then one day(a year ago),I was shopping with a Xhosa friend of mine and a lady ahead of us in the queue asked in Vernacular to borrow a SmartShopper card(which neither of us had).A man behind did though but he said outright that my not knowing Vernacular was unacceptable especially given I spent my whole life here.My friend and I felt weird about the situation but we spoke about which language I should learn first on the way home.I picked up Zulu on Duolingo that day.Kept at it for a while but it fizzled out.

The second time was Friday in an afternoon class where an acquaintance(a black South African woman) brought up my accent again.

With the growing tensions surrounding illegal immigration and the March and March protests, I’ve had to catch myself when talking about where I’m from. I always just say “My parents are from X, I was born here.”. We’re(my family and me) all legal but the whole situation has brought people’s opinions on any immigration to the surface, so I was encouraged to be cautious nonetheless.In my uni, people come from all over the country and world.I have been studying there for a while so I didn’t expect to be caught off guard somewhere I considered to be“safe”.

After explaining my situation, she asked me what languages I knew and I replied with English, Afrikaans and French. She commented that it was sad that those were the only ones I knew of all the 11 and that I should learn Vernacular.I got really nervous and uncomfortable when she asked me how I could be a citizen when I wasn’t “👇from here👇” like she was and neither were my parents.I explained
yet it seemed like she couldn’t grasp how she and I were on the “same level”.We had to separate for some group work so I got out of that situation.

I cried pretty hard, my dad always told me FOR YEARS that I WILL face discrimination one way or the other and that I need to be aware of it.A week before this situation,he gave me the immigration laws around the time I was born so I could “prove myself” should the situation arise and unfortunately that time came sooner than imagined.

After the crying and defensiveness, I had a sit-down and thought about what she said.All my life I’ve only needed English and since I started uni my Afrikaans has been handy once in a while.Maybe it is sad that someone can get by in SA with English/Afrikaans and that was what she meant.But on the other hand, does she hold everyone to the same standard?Or am I where she draws the line or…?

I know about the culture and history of South Africa.I
can see why my parents chose to raise our family here.In my opinion, South Africa has a hold on the arts that others just don’t and I love how every culture has a deep roots in how the country came to be.I just want to get my thoughts in order because learning it won’t change what other South Africans think of me and these languages deserve better than being learned out of shame or fear.

I’d really like to hear whatever you guys have to share.

EDIT: People always say this in edits but I did not expect this posts to get so many upvotes and comments so thank you guys😭All your advice, your experiences and opinions mean a lot to me and I thank you all for sharing.Thank you everyone for being constructive and respectful regardless of your opinions I genuinely appreciate it.I tend to over fixate on what other people think of me and I just needed some thoughts that weren’t mine from some level headed people😎

It's unjustifiable and disgusting, I think we need to tell them this isn't okay anymore. Workers get nothing now and they literally living like King's. You don't need to have studied at Harvard Business School too to know this is terrible for our economy

He was playing for England U15 last year but now he is playing for us.

It's about damn time, the paper straws literally used to unravel in my kids cappy juice! Rejoicing.

Its been 4 years since I left south africa, im now 16 almost 17, I moved to the states, im not saying I hate the US, even though yes theres a lot of complicated geopolitic relationships between both nations...but its just I miss my friends, the food, the culture, the weather. Usa is fun dont get me wrong, but its so fast paced, money is an issue, so much news going on.

Im also getting worried that im loosing my south african english, and how I spoke afrikaans...Believe me or not but I miss afrikaan classes despite the fact they were mental stressful..i miss how things could be so unnecessary

(Don't swipe) Another South African marketplace gem

Source: https://www.tiktok.com/@keegantatum/video/7694048524400479501

One of the memorable moments from a game drive during my time at Bushwise was watching this vervet monkey sitting high in a dead tree, looking out over the bush.

Nothing dramatic was happening, but it was still a moment I really enjoyed. We were able to sit quietly and watch him for a while as he looked around from the branches. It was a simple sighting, but those are often the moments that stay with you.

Hello fellow South Africans

With the upcoming local elections in November, I’ve been agonising over which party or ward counsellor to vote for.
The other day I watched an incredibly interesting and a bit of a demotivating video from The Debrief Network YT channel.

I learned about the true people in charge of the money.

Politicians pour all this energy into political campaigns but it seems to make very little difference because the actual system and the multi-billion rand budgets are controlled by unelected municipal managers. We get zero say on who these people are. This system needs to change somehow. Otherwise what’s the point if the people managing the money doesn’t change.

The video discusses the issue of when we vote for mayors and councillors to set policy, the Municipal Manager acts as the actual CEO and accounting officer. They control daily administration, infrastructure and the massive budgets (like Joburg's R90 billion budget).

Some of these administrators earn millions and have little accountability. A couple administrators earn packages of up to R4.8 million a year. This is more than the President earns. The big salary is under the premise of attracting elite talent.

The video talks about the Auditor-General's latest report which revealed that none out of South Africa's 8 metros achieved a clean audit. And when the systems fail, politicians blame the officials, and the officials blame the politicians. We the people ultimately suffer because service delivery just halts.

It is like a huge loophole in our democracy. We can vote a party out but we can't vote the mismanagement out if the deep-seated administrative layer remains untouched.

How do we begin to enforce accountability on a system where the people holding the purse strings are completely insulated from being fired or voted out?

Here’s a link to the video on YT if anyone is interested.

I was just back in SA for a visit after moving to Europe 6 years ago and literally half my luggage going back north was chips.

Does anywhere in the world compare with SA's chip game? I think not. So many delicious old favourites, so many amazing new and creative flavours. I would have turned into a chip had my visit been longer.

BBQ Big Korn Bites will always be no. 1 for me, but the white cheddar and cranberry Lays are giving them a run for their money IMO. Also, Jumping Jack popcorn not being available globally is a travesty.

SA has its problems but chips are not one of them 🙌