Charles Clarkson

Erstwhile geologist, engineer,project manager, investment manager, mentor, geopolitical thinker, much travelled writer and failed musician.

[Steven Phillips, MD @StevePhillipsMD]

Wow, scraping the bottom of the barrel. Just when I thought The Lancet couldn’t lose any more credibility.

[🆆🅸🅻🅻 🆂🅲🅾🆃🆃 ♿ 🇮🇱 @guillum]

Governments around the world have different numbers of individuals that comprise their cabinets, or equivalent thereof.

These might include Ministers and Deputy Ministers (or the equivalent in those countries).

United Kingdom: 23 cabinet ministers, and 5 ministers "who also attend cabinet". Total, 28.

United States: VP, 15 department heads, and 15 principal deputies. Total, 31.

South Africa: Deputy president, 32 ministers, and 43 deputy ministers. Total, 76.

So … while two of the most prominent nations in the world get by on 15 – 23 government departments, South Africa needs more than double.

Why is this, @CyrilRamaphosa? I'm not saying that those countries don't have their problems, we all do ... but DAMN.

Or is this just you making sure the cadres get to "eat a little bit"?

[Robert Duigan @uMarhobane]

Very very hard to express a moderate reaction here

[Jack Miller @JackMillerCPT]

CAPEXIT Cllr Karl Bodin exposes the health risks and dangers to Cape Town residents if the DA goes ahead with its water desalination plans.

https://t.co/obtovmvMKN

"Contaminants such as hormones, pharmaceuticals, and antibiotics many of which are hormone endocrine disruptors pass through even the best water recovery systems"

In addition to the health concerns, this project will cost the Cape Town taxpayer a fortune.

Far simpler and safer solutions exist in the form of reservoir restoration and new dams, many of which would have been online already if the DA had prioritised water security over the last two decades instead of providing free houses, free water and free electricity to economic migrants from the Eastern Cape and the rest of Africa.

#SaveTheCape
#CapeIndependence
#VoteCAPEXIT

[Boerin @MM75401261]

Frans Cronje se siening van Hill-Lewis se aanval op Dr Pieter Groenewald. "Hy het gelieg", sê Cronje op The Common Sense se Facebook blad en gee die feite.

[Nicole Barlow @Nicole_Barlow1]

@capesocialist Myself and @SentinelfromSA wrote this, specifically to counter this persistent false narrative that you and other keep perpetuating....

https://t.co/c6MpYEa5vw

[Charles Clarkson @CharlesGeoEngPM]

@Jonathan_Witt @SentinelfromSA @RomanCabanac Steenhuisen will follow Roman into the Wilderness soon. 👋

[Brian Cox @ProfBrianCox]

This is indeed a superb letter from The Astronomer Royal of Scotland. “Someone, somewhere, has taken the decision to defund astrophysics research in the UK, but no-one seems quite sure who that was, or why.” I agree - my colleagues in particle physics have also tried, without success, to discover who owns the decision to damage physics research in the UK, perhaps irreparably, at a time when our economy desperately needs the skills and knowledge we develop and teach. @UKRI_News need to get a grip urgently and fix the problem someone, somewhere, has created.

[Acclaimed Journalist @Jonathan_Witt]

It can not be stated enough just how bad this messaging is from GHL:

- the FF+ is a natural ally of the DA, not a foe
- it is well known that the DA has lost support to the FF+ because of Steenhuisen’s behaviour, but this will not convince a return
- opinions vary but many consider Groenewald to be the best Minister in the GNU and not any of the DA Minsters. Attacking him comes across as jealous and petty
- the issue being raised by GHL was not created by Groenewald or the FF+, but he is trying to sort it out. Imagine this logic of attack being applied to Macpherson who still has no control over thousands of assets of state owned infrastructure, or Schreiber who has numerically done nothing to stem/reverse illegal immigration
- criticizing someone outside the DA for holding a “talk shop” is very rich when the DA does this exact thing often
- lastly is that Helen Zille will likely be the Mayor of Johannesburg by year end. Just imagine all of the things she will not be able to fix in her first 2 years - GHL just opened the floodgates on hammering her without rebuke

Whomever advised this as a strategy needs to be fired immediately, and the DA really needs to learn how to predict the future consequences of their words and actions better. My goodness.

[Just me @raisingmenalone]

Let's talk about the SA Lottery operator. Ithuba who just exited was run by the Mabuzas. Got the licence during the peak of David Mabuzas reign in Mpumalanga where they are from. He was rumoured to have hit squads. The new operator has Paul Mashatile written all over it with latest ties revealed. ANC funders and political interference written all over it. Licence is worth billions. Coincidence?

[Jaco Kleynhans @JacoKleynhans]

In recent months, there has been a major effort by many role players, including the Solidarity Movement, political parties, the US government, the private sector and many organisations, to repair the relationship between South Africa and the US. This requires leadership, serious negotiations on important issues such as BEE, property rights, rural security (including farm murders) and US national security issues (Russia, China, Iran, etc.). For South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs to once again attack the US President and his movement this week and accuse them of racism is irresponsible. South Africa simply deserves a better, less radical, minister than Ronald Lamola.

[Jewish Tim Flack 𝕏 @tim_meh87]

Redi Tlhabi just dropped a piece calling @Starlink a “national security threat” to South Africa… and warning us not to sell our democracy to @elonmusk . But she “forgot” to mention her piece is hosted on Phillip van Niekerk’s Substack, the same guy who’s A PAID CONSULTANT FOR MTN.

MTN has every incentive to slow-walk Starlink while pushing its own satellite plays. Transparency matters when lecturing about “democracy” and foreign influence.

[BanksyCat @Banksycat]

A foreign billionaire just did the job the entire British press wouldn't.

@elonmusk asked the question every newsroom in this country should have been screaming for months. Who are the officers that handcuffed a dying boy and let him bleed out in the street? Who are they, and why are they still in a job?

Not the BBC. Not Sky. Not GB News. A bloke in Texas with no stake in this country.

They had the story. They let it die. He picked it back up, called it unconscionable, and offered to fund a wrongful death lawsuit.

The answer to his question? Silence. Still.

This is Henry Nowak. First year student. Walking home from a night out with his football team. A wounded teenager telling officers he couldn't breathe, and the response was handcuffs, not an ambulance.

A boy dies like this on a British street and it should never have left the front page. It should have been the reckoning that didn't stop until someone answered for it. Instead it took a man who owes us nothing to drag it back into the light.

Not one officer named. Not one suspended. The watchdog is investigating now, and only now, because the pressure came from a website and not a single news desk in this country.

Ordinary people never needed permission to care. They raised over £40,000 for Henry at a charity football match in his memory. That is the Britain that still has a pulse. The one that doesn't wait to be told who's allowed to matter.

When the richest man on earth has to do your journalism for you, what exactly is the British press for?

So let me ask you the question they wouldn't. Did you see Henry's name on the news? Or did you have to find it here?

Henry Nowak. 18 years old. Walking home. He should have made it.

[Pookie's Polls & Opinions @pookiepolls]

I saw this on FB and it made me very sad. Is their absolutely NOTHING that this criminal government can do properly.

Written by James Deacon.

I am about to write what has to be one of the most difficult and painful posts for me to write on Facebook.

On Friday I was given news which unfortunately I cannot disclose yet that has forced me to turn my back on something I truly love with all my heart: Kirstenbosch Garden.

I have been involved there for 19 years due to my love and passion for the garden. However Kirstenbosch is no longer a place that brings me joy and happiness but rather pain and sadness.

When I walk through nursery now I see neglect, decay and death. The amazing plant collections that have taken decades and more to establish sit neglected slowly dying.

The Protea collection is less than a third of what it was and only a fraction of the Ericas remain. One plant has gone from extinct in the wild to completely extinct purely due to lack effort to keep it going. Places once full of plants sit empty and in some cases full of weeds because the production of plants is so diminished.

Great plantsmen and women like Ernst van Jaarsveld, Monique McQuillan , Louise Nurrish , Cherise Viljoen , Anthony Hitchcock who I admired and looked up to all left way before they should have because working there had become so unpleasant and because things like procurement made it impossible for them to do their jobs.

One told me when they tried to order pots the response they got from the management of SANBI the SOE that runs many of the country's botanical gardens was what were they cooking. Another ordered pots and three years later they yet to arrive.

Poor financial management has resulted in the organisation having to use funds donated for educational purpose to pay staff salaries.

Kirstenbosch no longer has a Protea or an Erica expert and hasn't had either for years.

Staff morale is at an all time low and respect for the leadership of the garden has broken down.

The garden cannot produce metal labels to tell visitor what the names of the plants are.

I say all these things not out of animosity to anyone or with the desire to see people in trouble. I say these things because I love the garden and what I am seeing is breaking my heart. I am also saying these things because after all the friends, experiences, knowledge and memories the garden has given me I feel I have a duty to speak out for the garden in difficult times such as these.

I don't know what will happen to me for saying all this. Maybe I will be banned from the garden or get into trouble. However I refuse to stay silent and standby while the things and people that I care about suffer. I also feel that we the current custodians of the garden have a duty to preserve and protect the work of those custodians of the past for the custodians of the future.

We have two choices to be remembered as those who fought for Kirstenbosch during its most difficult and challenging times or as those who sat idly by and allowed it break down and be ruined.

I don't know if anyone will read this or if it will achieve anything but I will not keep silent while the place I love suffers and will continue to speak out against what is happening.

[Right over Left Everytime @RightSide_Uk]

🚨 Kemi Badenoch is rapidly becoming the only adult left in British politics — and the contrast with Keir Starmer’s collapsing Labour circus couldn’t be more brutal.
Even though she’s not the leader of my party, the woman is rising fast in confidence, polls and sheer parliamentary firepower. Erudite, razor-sharp, critically analytical — she dismantles Starmer and his entire front bench week after week with facts, logic and zero tolerance for their two-tier nonsense. While Labour hides behind spin, smears and surveillance, Kemi stands up and actually fights for Britain.
This is what real opposition looks like.
This is what leadership sounds like.
This is the kind of no-nonsense, truth-telling politician the silent majority has been craving while Starmer’s regime tears the country apart with open borders, grooming-gang cover-ups, Islamist mobs screaming at the King, and armoured vehicles rolled out against peaceful patriots at tomorrow’s Unite the Kingdom rally.
Labour has no answer to her.
Starmer looks weak, evasive and increasingly desperate every time she rises.
The rest of the shadow cabinet can only watch as Kemi does the job they’re all too scared to do.
Yes, the Tories have baggage — 14 years of failure on migration, welfare and two-tier policing that helped create this mess. But under Kemi the party is finally showing signs of life, and the British people are noticing. She’s the antidote to Starmer’s authoritarian drift, the Henry VIII power grabs, the facial recognition intimidation and the deliberate cultural replacement that has left entire towns unrecognisable.
The silent majority has had enough of weak, virtue-signalling Labour ideologues who put everyone else first. Kemi Badenoch is proving that strong, unapologetic opposition is still possible — and it’s electrifying.
We demand:
✅ Kemi keeps going — clean house in the Tory party and give the country the real fight it deserves.
✅ Full respect for her as the only serious parliamentary voice holding Starmer to account.
✅ An end to the two-tier farce that protects Labour’s failures while demonising anyone who dares speak the truth.
Tomorrow at Unite the Kingdom the British people will show their strength — peaceful, proud and unbreakable — because real leadership like Kemi’s reminds us what’s possible when politicians actually fight for Britain instead of surrendering it.
Kemi is rising.
Starmer is sinking.
And the momentum is shifting.
Restore Britain.
Britain first — always.

[I ❤️ Cape Town ~ I Stand with Russia🇷🇺 MAGA @Lolita721611021]

🇿🇦“Only Two of Our Fighter Jets Are Working Because We Fight on the Ground” — Motshekga‼️

Pretoria — Defence minister Angie Motshekga has reassured South Africans that there is absolutely no reason to panic over the country’s collapsing air force capability, explaining that South Africa has “evolved beyond unnecessary flying.”

Speaking during what was supposed to be a serious parliamentary briefing, Motshekga reportedly defended the fact that only two fighter jets are operational by reminding MPs that “wars in Africa mostly happen on the ground anyway.”

“We are an African nation,” she allegedly explained confidently. “Why must we spend billions making planes fly when our soldiers already know how to walk?”

The minister reportedly added that the remaining grounded Gripen fighter jets are not “broken,” but are instead participating in what she called a “long-term parking strategy.”

Military insiders say the South African Air Force now spends more time washing aircraft than flying them, with one pilot allegedly

[Apranik 🇮🇷🇮🇱 @patriot_apranik]

On Jan 8-9, millions of unarmed Iranians answered the Shah of Iran's call, overwhelmingly taking over entire cities for hours.

With minimal military or logistical support, the Islamic Republic would be history today.

When President Trump promised “help is on the way, keep the position” these brave people held the line until the regime's thugs slaughtered them.

Never forget: Iranians aren't dying in the streets so the West can secure a “better nuclear deal” with the Mullahs. They are fighting to eradicate this terrorist regime once and for all.

[Neo @Realneo101]

DON’T LOOK AWAY.

The Islamic regime is planning to hang Saghar Gholami simply because she protested in the January uprising in Iran.

This girl is only 19.
Share her name before they kill her.

[Ken Gardner @KenGardner11]

We have a once in a generation -- maybe once in a century -- opportunity to break what might very well be the worst terrorist regime on the planet. Why on earth do we continue to allow it to bargain for the terms of its continued survival.

[Renaldo “Ngamla” Gouws 🇿🇦 @RenaldoGouws]

@Richard_Spoor Well no, it's Iran, they are the ones that closed the straight... what do you not understand? They are the ones that broke international law. If our government kills 40,000 of us I would want another nation to step in and safe me. Are you saying you won't?