Marianne Marsh

Wife, Mother, Sister, Friend, Reader, Walker occasional Cyclist & tweeter too!

[Vusi Sambo @VusiSambo]

Almost R4 billion in tenders from the Eastern Cape’s Department of No-Education awarded Khumzi over 5 financial years (mostly travel & accommodation make up R3.4 billion of that.

Khumzi's sole director & respected businessman, Sakie Sakhumzi Magele deserves to be conferred with the Order of the Baobab by President Cyril Ramaphosa— for his distinguished service in business, the economy, & community service. And for achieving the almost impossible: always being paid on time for services rendered & goods delivered to cadre-run departments. Black Excellence💪🏽💪🏽

I also want him on the Entrepreneurship core module of the Wits Business School MBA programme. As a resident lecturer 😃🤩

[Leah Potgieter MP @LeahK28]

South African swimmers have now won 16 Commonwealth Games medals despite inadequate funding.

Federations are still waiting for grants already due while parents pay to send athletes abroad.

Yet Gayton McKenzie found R31m for his World Cup spectacle. You do the math...

[Nix @NixPret]

@GaytonMcK You give SA hockey R3 mil every year any way?? According to your audit report. I hope this is not that money, that this is over and above because you give football R11.7 million every year and for some reason, boxing gets R19 million. Why?

https://t.co/4ox3zmQrRG

[𝖱𝖤𝖢𝖮𝖭𝟣-San ®✞🇿🇦 @Recon1_ZA]

With 28 Days to go, it seems like the South African National Hockey Team are having a hard time heading to the 2026 FIH World Cup.

They're trying to raise R2M between roughly 60 people.
That's R33 333 a head.

Considered in perspective that we have degenerates in government spending R436,619 a head for showboating at FIFA, some very serious moral questions arise.

You can't fund a national hockey player at R33K a head, but you can take some random podcaster on a trip at R440K a head.

Cool story, bro.

[News24 🇿🇦 @News24]

Gayton’s FIFA World Cup trip for celebs and dept officials to cost almost R20m

https://t.co/xWf7QL9K8j

[Koena Mashale @Koena_xM]

@Sowetan1981 Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said he also faces water shortages and is not special. “I had to go shower at a hotel…there is no special pipes.” @Sowetan1981

[Jacques Maree @JacquesMaree73]

Cape Town's public pools get a lovely little international write-up.

How Cape Town’s beautiful €2m public pool upgrades are making a splash https://t.co/WDNfajiWKK

[. @JulliaknowsBest]

SARS can notice you owe them R500 but they can’t notice over 2 Billion Rands being stolen from Thembisa Hospital. What a joke.

[Cian McCarthy @arealmofwonder]

Rest in peace, Patricia Routledge 🙏🏻

In memory of her, I encourage everyone to read these words of hers from February last year.

Whether young or old, you're bound to get something out of it.

*****

"I’ll be turning 95 this coming Monday. In my younger years, I was often filled with worry — worry that I wasn’t quite good enough, that no one would cast me again, that I wouldn’t live up to my mother’s hopes. But these days begin in peace, and end in gratitude.

My life didn’t quite take shape until my forties. I had worked steadily — on provincial stages, in radio plays, in West End productions — but I often felt adrift, as though I was searching for a home within myself that I hadn’t quite found.

At 50, I accepted a television role that many would later associate me with — Hyacinth Bucket, of Keeping Up Appearances. I thought it would be a small part in a little series. I never imagined that it would take me into people’s living rooms and hearts around the world. And truthfully, that role taught me to accept my own quirks. It healed something in me.

At 60, I began learning Italian — not for work, but so I could sing opera in its native language. I also learned how to live alone without feeling lonely. I read poetry aloud each evening, not to perfect my diction, but to quiet my soul.

At 70, I returned to the Shakespearean stage — something I once believed I had aged out of. But this time, I had nothing to prove. I stood on those boards with stillness, and audiences felt that. I was no longer performing. I was simply being.

At 80, I took up watercolour painting. I painted flowers from my garden, old hats from my youth, and faces I remembered from the London Underground. Each painting was a quiet memory made visible.

Now, at 95, I write letters by hand. I’m learning to bake rye bread. I still breathe deeply every morning. I still adore laughter — though I no longer try to make anyone laugh. I love the quiet more than ever.

I’m writing this to tell you something simple:

Growing older is not the closing act. It can be the most exquisite chapter — if you let yourself bloom again.

Let these years ahead be your TREASURE YEARS.

You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be flawless.

You only need to show up — fully — for the life that is still yours.

With love and gentleness,

Patricia Routledge

*****

Once more, rest in peace. 🤍

[Helen Zille @helenzille]

Many of you may know me as an ex-Mayor, an ex-Premier, and a Gogo.

But I’m also a daughter of Johannesburg, I was born and raised in this great City. This is why I'm joining the fight to wrestle it back from a criminal mafia, for delivery.

Here's my story. 🔽

#BelieveInJoburg

[Karabo Khakhau MP @KaraboKhakhau]

🇿🇦 Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela Appoints R800-Million Corruption Implicated ANC cadres as SETA "Administrators." I wrote to him. Here's my letter below

[Marianne Marsh @mariannemarsh]

@Martin_Nel_99 @MYANC No skaam

[Joburg lawyer @joburglawyer]

SA has 400 members of parliament each earning R1.1m plus perks. It has a President, deputy president, 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers all receiving around R2.7m. Why don’t they all just communicate with each other instead of calling a National Dialogue at a cost of R750m?

[Jeff Wicks 🇿🇦 @wicks_jeff]

Four years ago today, Babita Deokaran filed a report flagging R850m in suspicious Tembisa Hospital payments. Within weeks, she was dead. This is the price of knowing too much. A @News24 🧵

[Essie @Essiex2a]

I am not gonna comment, just leaving people to seê for themselves what we have to put up with

[Giulietta Talevi @GTalevi]

People of SA, don't you WANT GDP growth, jobs, lower taxes, a better life? Then why keep voting ANC? And why keep accepting that people like Fikile Mbalula in all his incoherent arrogance is what you/we deserve? The ANC needs to eat a large slice of humble pie here and acknowledge it's cocked up - and needs to do better

[Oubaas @theresnostress]

South Africa’s chucking another R37 million at the Israel genocide case, and it’s fucken stupid. We’re drowning in unemployment, crumbling roads, and kids without books, yet they’re splashing cash on a court fight that’s dragging on with no end. Smart moves fix home first—SA’s priorities are a joke.

[CuriousMindZA ✝️ 🧐 @curiousmindkzn]

@ewnupdates A huge waste of money that SA can not afford. Worse it also harms our economy and reputation. Why involve SAns in a war far away when we need to fix things at home? Brown envelopes, I'm sure.

[Marianne Marsh @mariannemarsh]

#Mnet #dstv 17 minutes adverts on a loop!