Franzee Hess

[Mteto Nyati @mteton]

Yesterday my daughter, who is studying in the United States, attended the Springboks versus All Blacks match in Baltimore.

She spent five years of her life in that city before moving to Cleveland. At the stadium she bumped into an old school mate from Dainfern College who now lives in Florida. Two South Africans, far from home, finding each other in a crowd of more than 68,000. It was already an emotional moment.

What neither of them expected was how deeply they would be moved by our national anthem. Standing there, thousands of kilometres from home, singing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Pride in our roots. Pride in our diversity. Pride in excellence. And faith - watching the circle and the kneeling that followed the final whistle.

That image stayed with me.

There is a well known observation in India, popularised by Gurcharan Das, that “India grows at night while the government sleeps.” It captures a country whose people and enterprises often advance despite, rather than because of, the state. South Africa has that same untapped potential. We see it in the Springboks. World-class performance is not confined to the rugby field. It exists across our people, our businesses, our communities. We have what it takes.

What we still need is simple, and it is hard:
Create a genuinely business-friendly environment.
Confront crime with seriousness and consistency.
Appoint leaders in both the private and public sectors on merit.

Those three interventions would allow this country to occupy the place it deserves among the winning nations of the world.

We are a resilient people. Our character has been forged in difficulty. In a volatile world, that character is not a weakness. It is an advantage.

The Springboks keep showing us what is possible when talent, discipline, purpose and belief come together. The rest of the country can do the same.

We have the people. We have the potential. Now we must get our act together and grow during the day as well.

#Springboks #RugbysGreatestRivalry #BetOnSouthAfrica #Leadership #Merit #SouthAfrica #ProudlySA

[DogeDesigner @cb_doge]

An 18-year-old kid gets stabbed in the street. He’s running for his life, begging for help, and instead of saving him, the police handcuff him while he bleeds out because the attacker claimed “racism.”

They let him choke on his own blood. No urgency. No humanity. Just cold, ideological policing.

Months later? Still no names. Still no suspensions. Still no accountability.

Meanwhile, the same UK police have arrested over 12,000 people for social media posts.

They move at lightning speed to jail citizens for tweets and online comments, yet they can’t even name or discipline the officers who allegedly let a stabbing victim die in handcuffs on the street.

This is the definition of two-tier policing: aggressive against ordinary people speaking online, but protective when it comes to their own failures and protecting the narrative.

The British people deserve real justice, not another cover-up.

Justice for Henry Nowak.

[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.

[IuliaL @IuliaL27]

I'm not interested in South Africa just because it's heartbreaking to watch a nation with so much raw potential get hollowed out, though it is.

I'm interested in South Africa because it's a warning of what happens when you replace merit with race, when grievance becomes policy, when forgiveness is skipped and revenge is dressed up as justice, and when you stop seeing individuals and start seeing groups.

That's not a South African problem. That's a human one. And the West is not as far from it as it thinks.

[Alice VL @RiseAgainstEvil]

On 28 January 2026, around 8pm on the Mabopane highway north of Pretoria, Air Force flight sergeant Michael Swanton was shot in the head through his open car window, right in front of his wife Stephanie.

The shooters were two bodyguards (Thabang Eugene Sohole, 41, and Michael Makampe, 42) assigned to Madibeng municipality mayor Douglas Maimane.

[Nick Hudson @NickHudsonCT]

A loan funding Lambos for comrades that our children must pay off.

[Peter Bruce @Bruceps]

I'd love to know who Microsoft's BEE partners are in this investment....

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The South African laws are literally super racist, plain and simple.

It’s not complicated: imagine if the law was called “White Empowerment”, instead of “Black Empowerment”! People would have a seizure 😂

South Africa now has more anti-White laws than Apartheid had anti-Black laws. Think about that for a second …

The current South African government has objectively implemented Apartheid 2.0. Shame on them.

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇿🇦 A senior South African politician just got caught lying about Starlink to protect mobile network operators.

Parliamentary communications chair Khusela Diko claimed Starlink "doesn't move the needle" on school connectivity.

Here's what she left out: 16,000 schools still have no internet after 12 years, a missed deadline, and mobile operators billions over budget.

Starlink offered to connect 5,000 schools for free and was turned away.

A rural mobile tower costs around $61,000 and can serve just a single school.

The numbers don't lie. The politician did.

Source: MyBroadband

[Alice VL @RiseAgainstEvil]

@elonmusk The legal costs completely bankrupted him. They may not have killed him, but they crippled him.

[Ernst Roets @ErnstRoets]

When someone tortures two elderly ladies for hours, rapes them with a glass bottle, cuts off some body parts and then uses their blood to write the words "Kill the Boer" on the wall, please don't tell us it's just "normal crime" or that they were simply killed for being isolated.

[Ian Miles @ianmiles]

Julius Malema is publicly calling for the expropriation of land from White farmers without any form of compensation. South Africa’s future looks bleak.

[Ian Cameron @IanCameron23]

About R3 million in payments to police members is now under criminal investigation after those payments were allegedly motivated as being linked to protection duties for President Cyril Ramaphosa.

But here is the issue.

The members who were paid may not even have been involved in that protection work.

According to the information before me, the payments were picked up on the police finance system after concerns were raised about cash advances processed through a SAPS unit in Pretoria. The allegation is that the proper approved advance request forms, the SAPS 156 forms, were not uploaded on the POLFIN system.

Instead, a memorandum linked to protection duties for the President appears to have been used.

But the members who allegedly received the money were reportedly not listed on that memorandum.

That is where this becomes very serious.

Because if state duties linked to presidential protection were used to justify payments to members who were not actually part of that function, then this is not just sloppy administration. It points to possible fraud and a very serious abuse of internal systems.

This is also not happening in some ordinary part of the police service.

This appears to involve a highly sensitive environment where discipline, accuracy and tight financial controls should be non-negotiable.

So South Africans have every right to ask:

Who approved these payments?

Who captured them on the system?

Who signed off on the motivation?

Who checked whether the members being paid were actually assigned to those duties?

Why were the proper forms allegedly missing?

And how many other payments like this may still be sitting unnoticed in the system?

The matter has reportedly been referred to the Anti-Corruption Investigating Unit, and both internal and criminal investigations are under way.

Good.

But South Africans have seen this before. Money moves. Red flags appear. An investigation starts. Then silence. Then nobody important is held responsible.

That cannot happen here.

If these allegations are true, then public money was paid out on the back of a false or misleading justification, and the name of presidential protection was used to push it through.

That would be a disgrace.

This investigation must follow the paper trail properly. It must identify every official involved, every beneficiary, every approval, and every failure in the chain. If criminal conduct is found, then arrests must follow.

The public cannot be expected to trust SAPS while serious allegations of internal fraud keep coming from within its own ranks.

Accountability cannot end with the weakest person in the room.

We will monitor and follow up.

IC

https://t.co/xaF6vPCMmQ

[Europa.com @europa]

🇿🇦 On 26 March 2026, 61-year-old Johan Barnard was killed in a farm murder at his smallholding in Kameeldrift East, Pretoria. The attackers, believed to be multiple suspects, are still on the run.

Barnard, who had lived in the area for 18 years, was found by a neighbour after failing to make contact as usual.

He is believed to have gone to investigate suspicious activity early that morning between 06:00 and 08:00. He was shot in the stomach, with a second shot hitting a wall behind him. His face showed bruising, and there were signs of a struggle.

His firearm, cellphone and other items were stolen. A laptop was later found discarded in bushes near the house.

Follow: @europa

[Ian Cameron @IanCameron23]

A 71-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man were murdered on a farm in Glen Loerie, The Crags, in what appears to have been a violent attack.

According to reports, the incident came to light on Wednesday, 25 March 2026, at about 18:50, when a Mercedes-Benz was picked up by a licence plate recognition camera speeding along the R339 towards Uniondale. The vehicle was then flagged on a local security WhatsApp group, which prompted police to move quickly.

When officers went to the address linked to the vehicle, they discovered the bodies of the elderly couple.

Both had sustained multiple injuries. Police, together with community safety structures, then worked to trace the vehicle. It later overturned near Uniondale, and the driver allegedly tried to flee on foot before being caught shortly afterwards. A 34-year-old suspect from The Crags has since been arrested and is being held in Uniondale. He is expected to appear in court once charges are finalised, while the motive for the killings remains under investigation.

This case is another reminder of how important rapid coordination is between residents, private security networks, technology and SAPS on the ground. The use of licence plate recognition technology, quick information-sharing and follow-up action helped move this case forward fast. That matters, especially in rural and farming areas where response times and access to support can be more difficult.

But arrests are only the first step. There now needs to be a thorough investigation, proper evidence handling, clear communication with the family and community, and a prosecution process that is not delayed or weakened.

Rural communities need to know that when violent crimes happen, the system will respond with urgency and competence.

My thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims and with the wider Plettenberg Bay and Crags community.

Anyone with further information is urged to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or use the MySAPS App. IC

[Yusuf Abramjee @Abramjee]

A couple in their 70s have been found murdered on their farm outside
Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape.

[Europa.com @europa]

🇿🇦 As South Africa marked Human Rights Day, opposition leader Julius Malema launched his voter registration campaign, during which he sang “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer,” referring to white farmers.

2026 has seen a sharp rise in farm attacks across the country.

Follow: @europa

[Mark Barnes @mark_barnes56]

🇿🇦SAPO liquidation - people who lost jobs and money have a right to know what happened to these (R10,65bn) assets? [SAPO AFS March 2019, no debt]🇿🇦

[Alfonso Niemand @NiemandAlfonso]

Alert! There are renewed warnings from the public in Cape Town, that stone throwing, window smashing, armed robberies are taking place at N2/R300 and now also N7 near Blouberg. This problem is getting more and more out of hand. What are you doing about this mr Mayor? @geordinhl

[Johann Biermann 🇿🇦 @JohannBiermann1]

Sitting on the N2 near the airport now. Traffic complete stand still. Smash and grab in front of me.

No one can move. We are all sitting ducks.