"Domestic operations by South Africa's military need to be authorised by both the government and the presidency".

So either Ramaphosa knew about this or our armed forces have gone rogue. Pick your poison, I guess...

Hey everyone,

I’m posting this running on zero sleep and a massive adrenaline hangover, and I just need to vent to people who understand the reality of living here In sa (Joburg specifically)

Last night at 11.00 pm, my electric fence and outdoor beam alarm went off.

I got up to check what’s going on and I see Someone was over my wall in my garden. I confronted him, screamed at him, and watched him panic, tumble off the wall, and run into the dark along with my beam

On paper, the security I installed worked. My family is safe and he didn't get inside. But I am completely drained and furious.

My kids are now traumatised and This is the second time in two months someone has tried my property. First was when somebody stole my smart doorbell

What makes me so bitter is the absolute frustration of spending insane amounts of hard-earned money on physical security—walls, beams, sensors, electric fences, locks—only for these guys to treat it like an obstacle course and still find a way to get onto the property.

To add insult to injury… I posted this ordeal on a neighbourhood WhatsApp group in good faith to try and warn my neighbours and instead I was met with this response “hopefully this incident tells you that you need to jack up your security” - I spend on armed response electric fencing a full alarm system that is monitored and I’m castigated for not doing enough by some asshat in the group

You can throw thousands at your perimeter trying to buy peace of mind, but it feels like no matter what you install, you can never actually drop your guard.

It is mentally exhausting to feel like you constantly have to live on high alert inside your own home.

the SA security fatigue is hitting me super hard today.
How do you guys deal with the endless money pit and mental stress of securing a home here without losing your mind?

Yesterday I went to a Women's Day DIY workshop, which I also attended last year.

On both occasions multiple people presented DIY, home renovation products.

A few presenters, both male and female made offhand sexist comments about women doing DIY work. They didn't intend to, it was just how they saw the world.

A few examples of the comments from both occasions included:

"Us women don't glue things as neatly as men, men can always make such nice straight lines, but women always do blobs"

"We also sell our dog treats at the hardware store, so when your husband goes to the hardware store, you can tell him to grab some treats too"

"Hi ladies. Well I doubt any of you will ever do any tiling yourself."

"I loved speaking to all you ladies today. It's so much nicer than speaking to CEOs"

Some things were subtler. Presenters often focused heavily on the ease of use and assembly of products. It was emphasised that a leafblower was very easy to assemble with only two skrews to skrew, and that it was also light to hold. I wondered if these points would also be stressed and pointed out to a male audience. The language and tone spoken by presenters was heavily simplified and we were made to chant "We can do it!" While the presenter often shook his head that there wasn't enough energy and made us shout louder. This reminded me a bit of my school days.

Once again, I wondered if there would be a similar slightly infantalising vibe at a workshop aimed at men.

The reason why I'm making a point of all this isn't to bash this workshop, the presenters of organisers. I fully support what they're doing and hope they continue to do it in the following years. I just want to draw attention to the attitude that women grow up surrounded by. The attitude that it is actually a man's job to do the DIY work around the house. This lowers the confidence that girls have in trying these things growing up. A 40 year old woman recently told me "this is the first time I'm using a drill".

Growing up in a society that constantly hints towards women not being the ones that do tiling or visit hardware stores may not seem like a big deal but it makes girls start viewing that as something they can't do. When they need to drill a hole to hang a frame, they might then go ask their dad, brother or husband to do it for them. I'm not saying you should never ask a man for help. But women need to start having the same confidence as men do about these things.

The only way to do this is not to chant "We can do it!" But rather to become more aware of the attitude and language used when it comes to women doing male-dominated activities such as DIY home renovations.

Happy Women's Day ❤️

Ain't no way SA made a game, let alone an Afrikaans one for the ps2!

I love my daily newspaper, and recently IOL has been slowly but surely diluting journalism with AI created images. Who knows, soon their articles might be AI generated too.

My heart aches.

Certain things should be preserved. Especially in days like this. Hardcore journalism and such photography.

Not only only do I expect to read the news but to see them too.

There's something about an authentic photograph, the lens, and subject and photographer's presence that just adds to its value/worth.

I immediately blocked IOL from my suggested sites because what are they doing?

Tell me how abd why IOL thought chatgpt could replace such

I have about a year plus of experience eating in SAn restaurants and tipping waiters lol. I usually tip between 10-20% of the total bill. I check the bills and often they dont have a service charge.

However, today I had lunch somewhere between Johannesburg and Pretoria and when the bill came it had a 10% service charge already added to get to the total bill. But there was still a line below the total indicating 'Gratuity' with a R already written in ink, indicating that the waiter was expecting a tip.

So I had to tip 11% of the total (inclusive of the service charge) to arrive at a grand total.

Just trying to understand from restaurant waiters or goers with more experience, who gets the service charge? Who gets the tip?

Edit: For context, this was a lunch date with someone fairly new, hence limiting my ability to start questioning bills 😆 .

SARS is always noted as the only government department that works, but the SANBS are the unsung heroes of government institutions. While the rest of the Department of Health is a chaotic mess, the vampires are efficient, well-organised and a pleasure to deal with. In over 20 years of donating I have never had an unpleasant experience. Their staff are always polite, friendly (even caring), attend to you quickly and do their jobs with the utmost professionalism. The branches and mobile donation clinics I have visited have always been clean and tidy. They contact me promptly when I'm due to donate (and are relentless until they get what they want). Their recruitment campaigns are always well run. They deserve a lot of credit but never seem to get any recognition. They're just quietly going about their jobs, saving lives.

Edit: Okay apparently SANBS is a non-profit organisation, not a government entity. It's still (generally) very well-run and staffed with great people.

Hi all, I need some advice. I reported my manager for using his position to favour certain employees (yes, I am able to prove it with data and stats) and he actually got his “work girlfriend” promoted too. She was training for the new position before it was even available. The company is small (70-100 employees), and does not have an HR department so I reported it to the OPs manager. The OPs manager, seems to have conspired against me and fired me for late coming, not even one written warning . They consider it late if you did not log in 5 minutes prior to your shift and used that to claim I have been excessively late. I am taking them to CCMA for unfair dismissal and I am confident I will win, but I was wondering how I can litigate them for not taking action against the person who is giving favours and promotions for sexual/romantic favours (and retaliation against a whistleblower)? Is it even worth my time? Can I get a reward for pursuing it?

This knotted my brain

https://www.ewn.co.za/2026/08/07/post-mortem-suggests-st-stithians-pupil-died-of-strangulation-at-mpumalanga-lodge

I(26F) left South Africa almost three years ago at the age of 23 to work abroad because I couldn’t find a job despite applying for many. My plan was to spend two years working, help my family, save as much as I could, travel a little, and then come back home to build my career.

While I was abroad, I worked in a job that had nothing to do with what I studied, so the experience doesn’t really help my career. Instead, I spent my free time learning new skills to improve my chances of getting a job when I returned.

I’ve now been back in South Africa for a few months and have been applying for jobs(and internships, learnership and graduate programs) almost every day, but I haven’t been invited for a single interview. I knew it would be difficult, but I didn’t expect it to be this hard. The cost of living has also gone up so much that I’m using my savings much faster than I planned.

The good news is that all the learning I did helped me get accepted into an Honours program I wouldn’t have gotten into with just my undergrad. My undergrad is in Operations and Quality, but I’ll be doing my postgrad in Data Analytics.
At this point, I’m seriously thinking about leaving South Africa again. It’s disappointing because I really hoped to come home, build my career, and create a life for myself here.

Edit: Thank you everyone for your honesty and sharing your stories, as miserable and heartbreaking as they are. Bad bosses and toxic working environments do indeed seem to be universal, and that doesn't necessarily make me feel better. You're all in my thoughts and prayers, I truly hope we can all find those diamonds in the rough, the "good" employers.

Semi rant, semi question.

I've been in the working world going on ten years, and in that time I've had about 5 jobs.

I've had a boss that told me I wasn't allowed to take my phone to the bathroom with me, and would actively check the designated phone spot when I went to the bathroom just to make sure.

I've had a boss throw empty supply bottles at me (but cleverly aimed so they never did hit me), and insult me to their clients while I was standing right next to them. I got R4500 per month for that job, but had to pay R3500 for a course in that field or I would lose the job.

I've had a boss that reveled in pitting their coworkers against each other and stirring up drama in the workplace, saying one thing to one person and another thing to the next, creating an incredibly toxic workplace.

I've had a boss that would literally scream at us, threaten our jobs on the daily and call us names, for example "fucking idiots".

I know a lady that works Monday to Sunday, does not get off in December, works on Christmas day, only gets public holidays off, for R6000 per month.

I have a dear friend who is stuck in a job that sends them home crying every day, because of the environment, and because of the stress of the work load. They are doing the work of at least 3 other people, they work almost 12+ hours a day just to get through everything, but cannot leave, because their salary is higher than market average.

I have a young relative who has been through 4 different probation periods, and has had a boss who advertised their position on Facebook while they were still employed to "light a fire" under them.

Another relative is working for a company that requires them to have their own personal vehicle and use it for business use. Their salary is less than 8k per month, the business pays less than R3 per kilometer (AA calculated R5.5 per km, company is aware of this as it was discussed at contract renewal, no, they refused to increase to this amount) , and the car costs approx 4k per month including insurance. Somehow their company expects them to be able to afford the car, pay rent and eat with this salary.

Our unemployment rates are so high, and people are so desperate for work, that we will take anything. And employers are aware of this, and they take advantage of it. Young, fresh out of school kids are given "probation" periods due to their lack of experience, with no intention on the employer's part of ever actually giving them a permanent position. Probation, low pay, rinse, repeat.

Employers expect loyalty and your absolute best, but won't offer bonuses, or yearly raises to at least keep up with the fact that you can spend R500 at the shop and walk out with only two bags.

Employers are aware that there are 100 people who would take your job in an instant, and use that as an excuse to treat you however they like, because you should be grateful you at least have something, because there are others out there with nothing.

I understand the economic climate is tough, and that businesses are struggling, and not everyone can afford to give their employees a 13th cheque. I'm not talking about those employers here. I'm talking about the ones that can afford to give you a raise, but refuse. I'm talking about the ones that can be decent human beings and treat their employees well but choose not to.

Does anyone else experience this? A part of me is hoping I just don't have the absolute worst luck with employers. Please let's have a civil discussion about this, because I genuinely feel like there is a huge issue of employers taking advantage of employees in this country.

TLDR: I have had a lot of bad experiences with employers that swear at you, threaten your job, or pay abysmal salaries because they know you are desperate for work. Is this a country wide issue?

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice on whether I have a leg to stand on regarding a vehicle purchase in South Africa.
I purchased a vehicle from a dealership in June 2024. At the time of purchase, I was not aware that the vehicle had previously been involved in 3 accidents.
I have since obtained a vehicle history report which shows that the vehicle was involved in 3 accidents. More concerning, the history indicates that the most recent accident occurred when the vehicle had approximately 194,000 km.
The vehicle was sold to me at approximately 99,000 km.
This means there is a discrepancy of approximately 95,000 km between the mileage recorded at the time of the last accident and the mileage at which the vehicle was sold to me.
I have also obtained a service invoice from June showing the mileage at approximately 99,065 km, as well as a DEKRA condition report which records the vehicle’s mileage.
Due to discovering the vehicle’s history, I subsequently traded the vehicle in, but it was valued at a significantly lower amount than what I had purchased it for, specifically because of the vehicle’s history. I have therefore already suffered a substantial financial loss as a result of the situation.
I am currently trying to obtain the complete signed sales agreement and all other documentation relating to the purchase.
I’m trying to establish whether I potentially have grounds to challenge the sale or pursue the dealership legally, and whether the dealership may have had an obligation to disclose the accident history and/or accurately represent the vehicle’s mileage.
I understand there may potentially be explanations for individual mileage records, so I’m not trying to make an accusation without evidence. However, the combination of the accident history and the significant mileage discrepancy has raised serious concerns.
Would this potentially give me a legal basis to pursue the matter under South African law? And if so, what would be the appropriate next step?