Mark Rountree

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether you believe in it or not.”

[NowThis Impact @nowthisimpact]

This speech has been circulating in MAGA circles, and they’re absolutely horrified by it.

[Phumzile Van Damme @zilevandamme]

Good. Some thoughts.

It shouldn’t even be about “diversity” and “inclusion,” especially if motivated primarily by cosmetic reasons.

Your sphere of work is one where there is by no means a lack of talent. But understand that there is nothing more demeaning than being a black person seen as a means to an end of “representation” rather than a living, breathing being with agency, opinions that may diverge from yours, the potential to outperform and likely to challenge you, your position and worldview. If you do not appreciate this, you are setting those talented people up for failure, and yourself up for endless talent attrition.

A better reason is to acknowledge that if you are going to authentically report and communicate South Africa, you must humble yourself enough to know that there may be lives and perspectives you do not know or understand no matter how much you have read about them. To be truly “South African,” you need the multicultural and multiracial voices of lives which, by no choice of their own, are very influenced by the unevenness of access.

It isn’t about quotas. It isn’t about diversity in itself. It’s about authenticity. It’s about truly representing South African experience and its realities.

That is why primarily white organisations, especially political parties in a country that is 80% black, do not break ground no matter how hard they try. It is a lack of South African authenticity. And it is easy to tell in how lives not truly known or understood are communicated.

Shrug.

(I briefly considered doing diversity and inclusion work after leaving politics, to preach this gospel in organisations around the world, but I’m from South Africa, and there is nothing more tiring than screaming into ears unwilling to hear to be understood we have to do. Maybe the exhaustion and trauma will lift one day. My arm can still be twisted though, probably 😂😩.)

[Johann Biermann 🇿🇦 @JohannBiermann1]

Super read on this Saturday morning.

[Sarah Mabotsa @Sarah_Mabotsa]

The @CityTshwane invites all informal traders & township businesses to come and learn about the new Informal Trading and Township Economy Bylaw. A meeting at Tshwane House on 18th March 2026 at 14:00 will be held to explain the details of this new bylaws
@nasiphim @tlangimich

[Sarah Mabotsa @Sarah_Mabotsa]

Did you know: the @TshwaneEconDev has confirmed that economic investment into @CityTshwane is rising fast.

The value of their investment pipeline has more than doubled, from R1,7billion a year ago to more than R3,8billion now. More investment = more jobs!!!

#TshwaneRising

[Mark Rountree @mark__rountree]

@mbuso_siera Under @brettherron and @PatriciaDeLille, Cape Town’s annual housing delivery was exceeded for the first time EVER in 2017/18.

It has never happened again - inner city housing projects were stopped and housing delivery collapsed.

[Sarah Mabotsa @Sarah_Mabotsa]

.@Our_DA wants Tshwane to get advice on community safety from Cape Town.

In Cape Town, sexual assault rates are almost double & the murder rates are more than three times as high as in Tshwane.

https://t.co/8hczgulyNN

[Richard Branson @richardbranson]

The utter irony of Putin and Trump meeting soon in Budapest to jointly seal Ukraine’s fate should not be lost on anybody. This is the very same city where the US, the UK, and Russia came together 31 years ago to give Ukraine ironclad assurances that its territorial integrity would be respected and protected within existing borders in exchange for giving up a third of the world’s nuclear weapons (to Russia!). Ukraine trusted the US, trusted the UK, transferred all its nuclear weapons to Russia, and joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Within 20 years, Putin effectively ripped up the Budapest Memorandum, ignored Russia’s pledge, and invaded and annexed Crimea. In 2022, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine finally removed all remaining doubts about Putin’s imperial greed.

If treaties and agreements between countries are to be trusted, the US and the UK must stand by the original Budapest Memorandum and give the Ukrainians everything they need to push Russia out of Ukraine, as President Trump said he would do before taking Putin’s latest call. It is the only way for Ukraine to get its territory back and put an end to this brutal invasion.

If the US and Russia continue to ignore the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, how on Earth can Ukraine be expected to have any faith in yet another Budapest memorandum signed in the same city between Russia and the United States? They can’t.

[UniteforChangeSA @Unite4ChangeZA]

🎥 We refuse to choose between values and competence.
South Africa deserves leaders who are both ethical and capable.
At Unite for Change, we reject racism in all its forms.

#UniteForChange

[Mark Rountree @mark__rountree]

WW2 “sprang from a tyrant’s belief that other countries lacked the means and the will to resist him.”

“wars are not caused by the build-up of weapons. They are caused when an aggressor believes he can achieve his objectives at an acceptable price.”

- Margaret Thatcher, 1985

[Redi Tlhabi @RediTlhabi]

Even the animals are committing "White genocide." South Africa is....WILD.

[Ben See @ClimateBen]

Heading for rapid extinction at 3/3.5°C and rising by 2045-54 and yet we're in virtually total denial.

[Eskom Hld SOC Ltd @Eskom_SA]

Eskom and Government are working hard to secure a stable supply, promote growth, and achieve net zero emissions by 2050 through fast-tracked renewable energy projects.

#PoweringSA #CleanEnergy

[Ben See @ClimateBen]

"The decisions they're making now are going to lead us to a 3°C world where humans simply cannot and will not survive..our media aren't telling the truth".
We risk 3°C by 2048 - 2094.

Habitat destruction, pollution, abrupt climate change = fast extinction.https://t.co/xNMFGzlqRF

[Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ @tribelaw]

For just the second time in its 179-year history, Scientific American is endorsing a candidate for president of the United States: Kamala Harris.

[GermanForeignOffice @GermanyDiplo]

Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables. And we are shutting down – not building – coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest. PS: We also don’t eat cats and dogs. #Debate2024

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

This Robin Williams thread will brighten up your day 🧵

1. His improvised scene in Good Will Hunting made the cameraman laugh so hard the camera started shaking. Matt Damon's reaction is authentic.

[Mike Abel @abelmike]

We have our own Wimbledon champion today #Mzansi 🇿🇦 🏆

Our very own Kgothatso Montjane won the Ladies Doubles Wheelchair Finals.

That’s a magnificent achievement given the level of talent, effort and sheer coordination required in not only overcoming a significant physical challenge, but simultaneously managing a wheeelchair around the court, and hitting a racket at the same time 🎾

#Heroic #DefyingTheOdds

[GOOD @ForGoodZA]

Thank you Extinction Rebellion Gauteng for your review of our climate policy!🌱🧡

We at GOOD not only see the vital need for action to prevent further damage to the climate but also recognise it for what it could be as a massive youth industry. 

#stopthesuffering of our climate

[eNCA @eNCA]

#GoodParty leader Patricia de Lille says the reason Zuma is trying to delay or dismiss this matter is because his co-accused Schabir Shaik was found guilty on the same charges. Courtesy #DStv403