Que Lebatha

Liker of nice things | Master Manifestor | Part time Yogi | Former Triathlete | Foodie | Hopeless romantic | Music Connoisseur

[Que Lebatha @qlebatha]

@tanyajunghans Yes please! Cause same 😫

[Redi Tlhabi @RediTlhabi]

I'd like to share a memory of Tshidi's first radio broadcast. Disclaimer: memory is highly contested and I respect that some of you may have a different memory. This is how I remember it.

Tshidi was on the traffic desk working with Aki Anastasiou. She had grown frustrated as she felt there was so much more she wanted to do. I didn't know her well at that time, but she cornered me after my show, sitting on those famous red and blue couches outside the studio. She was itching to just do some meaningful work. The problem wasn't her or her bosses. It happens in broadcasting that the slots are filled and everyone is just good at their roles. You keep knocking and waiting for an opening.

Or you do something else and Tshidi did something else!

A few weeks later, she used her phone to record some conversations with homeless people under a bridge in Braamfontein/Parktown. She encountered them every day on her way to and from work and was curious about who they were. She started talking to them: asking them questions about their lives, dreams, health, etc. She knew their names, there was some laughter too.

The final product was really a beautiful, poignant audio testimony of humanity and agency. No editor commissioned the story. Tshidi saw, felt, and acted. We played the recording - I don't know if it made it on the news, but I am 💯% certain that my producers and I lined it up on our 10am slot. What followed was a one-on-one interview with Tshidi where she was the guest, telling us about her product. This was around 2012 and the rest is history.

That's what I remember - Tshidi pausing to talk to people she didn't know simply because they were human and deserved to be heard. Tshidi demonstrating curiosity and not following "the obvious."

Nobody was responsible for that output. She did it by herself and thus launched her place into the firmament of meaningful journalism.

I reminded Tshidi of this every time she thought I was hard in my critique of some editorial outputs. We would go back and forth with messages. All I know is that I was speaking to someone who had CREATED her own journalism beat - human stories- at a highly competitive platform. The bar was high because she put it there with her first creative, heart-felt production: Humanising homeless people whose dreams were swallowed up by trauma and neglect. Tshidi did that. By herself.

Goodnight and Farewell.

[Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team @visacashapprb]

We. Cannot. Breathe.

#F1 #VCARB #DutchGP

[World Athletics @WorldAthletics]

You don’t want to miss this 👀

Built For Speed | The Letsile Tebogo Story

Coming to World Athletics + on 3 September 📺

[Que Lebatha @qlebatha]

Yoh

[Que Lebatha @qlebatha]

@UncleCul I asked this at my gym once and they said the municipality came to “fill them up” that morning 🤷🏾‍♀️

[Khaya Dlanga @khayadlanga]

I do understand the desire to secure the bag. But the way the sports betting industry in South Africa is moving has become a pandemic. It is stealing from our people; stealing school fees, grocery money, families are going hungry. Loans aren’t being paid. Homes and cars are lost. Hope is being mortgaged for the chance of a win that almost never comes.

As some of you know, I am saying this out of personal experience.

When people are addicted to it, it causes them to lie. As it did with my brother.

It causes them to steal. As it did with my brother.

It causes them to cover up. As it did with my brother.

It makes them ashamed. As it did with my brother.

It leaves them feeling as if there is no way out. As it did with my brother.

It causes them to feel worthless. As my brother wrote in his suicide note to me.

It causes them to end their lives. As my brother did. (Of all addictions, gambling leads to the most suicides).

I do not say this lightly: I believe there should be a ban on using public figures to promote gambling.

I know that my brother was not led to this by influencers or celebrities. I just think that the industry must be banned from using celebrities and influencers in any shape or form to save the next family. Influencers and celebrities are people with real reach and trust, and the industry knows this.

While my brother’s tragic end was not caused by any celebrity endorsements, today’s influencers are handed the blueprints and the bricks to build that same road that leads to ruin for so many others. The industry cynically exploits it, making them the smiling, welcoming faces on a path that can lead to utter devastation. We cannot afford to wait for more suicide notes like my brother's.

[Que Lebatha @qlebatha]

@SiyabongaNYZ Stop 🥹😭😂

[Que Lebatha @qlebatha]

@MadamAfrika Well done!

[Track & Field Gazette @TrackGazette]

Watch South Africa 🇿🇦 storm to GOLD in the men’s 4x100m at the World Relays in 37.61s!!🥇

First African team ever to win the 4x100m.

🥈 USA 🇺🇸 - 37.66
🥉 Canada 🇨🇦 - 38.11
https://t.co/IxsmEh9UQJ

[British Vogue @BritishVogue]

After a 22-year hiatus, #DianaRoss returns to the #MetGala in an 18-foot gown embroidered with her family’s names: https://t.co/fAQNRMl7VX

[Ronan McGreevy @RMcGreevy1301]

There are things that a printed newspaper can do that no website could ever do. This is magnificent.

[Hamilton Insights @LH44_insights]

🚨 | [Food for thought] : When Lewis Hamilton announced he would be joining Ferrari for the 2025 season, the entire paddock held its breath. You could feel the air shift across the paddock — twelve years after he had left McLaren for an unproven Mercedes project, Lewis Hamilton was once again taking a leap of faith. But this time, he wasn’t the rising star seeking a breakthrough anymore. He was a legend, walking into the most mythologised team in Formula 1 history, a team starved of titles and desperate for resurgence. The symbolism was immense. So were the expectations.

Yet, just like in 2013, the myth had to wait — because the first reality check came not from headlines, but from the car’s limitations.

The SF-25 isn’t slow — but it’s temperamental. Aerodynamic instability, a narrow setup window, and unpredictable behaviour on track have made it a challenge, even for Leclerc, who at times, hasn’t hidden his frustrations. Lewis Hamilton, for his part, has been brutally honest. He’s far from satisfied with his own performance. But true to his reputation, his work ethic has been impeccable. There are no excuses. Just a steady, methodical effort to get better race after race.

After five Grands Prix, the results paint a picture of resilience. He’s scored points in four out of five races. A sprint pole and a sprint win in China reminded the world: the edge is still there, even if the main race didn’t count due to a DSQ. There have been no unforced errors, nor any clash. Just clean, composed racing.

It’s impossible not to draw parallels with his debut season at Mercedes in 2013. Back then, Lewis Hamilton had joined a team with promise but no guarantees. He wasn’t dominant, but he was consistent, strategic, patient. He laid foundations. In 2025, the dynamic feels similar. He isn’t setting the timing screens alight, but he’s doing the job. More importantly, in a championship increasingly dominated by McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull, he’s helping Ferrari stay in the fight and rack up critical points, or at the very least, making sure they’re not left too far behind.

The parallel with 2013 is tempting, but the contrast tells a richer story. Back then, Hamilton was a bold talent stepping into the unknown, still carving out his legacy. In 2025, he arrives not as a rising star, but as a monument in motion, a driver whose name is already etched in history. What he brings to Ferrari now isn't just experience or pace. It's gravity. It's a sense of direction. He doesn’t need to prove he can win; he’s here to help a legendary team remember how.

So what deserves recognition at this stage? No costly race errors. A sprint pole position in a car that’s notoriously hard to tame. A sprint win that speaks to his instinctive brilliance. A tone that’s candid, self-demanding, but always forward-looking.

He hasn’t dazzled yet. But he’s navigating with poise and intent. No fireworks, just the steady hand of a driver who’s been through it all, the quiet resolve of someone who understands the long game. And perhaps that’s exactly what Ferrari needs. Even Michael Schumacher didn’t conquer the sport overnight. His first season with the Scuderia was marked by flashes of brilliance and spells of frustration — and it took years of graft and belief before the dominance began. Lewis Hamilton knows that rhythm. He’s not here for instant glory. What makes his journey even more complex is that, for the first time in over a decade, he’s having to unlearn everything instinctive — twelve years of reflexes, feedback, and muscle memory shaped by Mercedes machinery. Now, every corner, every braking point, every engine mode feels unfamiliar. It’s not just a new team — it’s a full rewiring. And yet, he shows up, race after race, not with excuses, but with intent. Sometimes, the hardest battles are the ones fought beneath the surface.

As a matter of fact, I fully understand why the sport feels compelled to hold its most decorated driver to the highest standards. He’s HIM after all, THE — Black man — Lewis Hamilton. I also get the perverse delight some of the established punditry, largely made of underachieving former racers, seem to take in watching him wrestle to adapt to his new environment. Looking at you Croft. Looking even harder at you, Brundle. But let’s be clear. Leclerc is a phenomenal talent. Still, his first podium in five races wasn’t earned in a vacuum. It came from a mix of sharp qualifying, smart race execution, and the fact that Lewis held off his most direct threat just long enough for Charles to capitalise. Credit where it’s due, but context matters.

That being said, it is important for me to state that what we’re witnessing isn’t a decline. It’s a recalibration. Hamilton’s 2025 season isn’t about proving he still has it. It’s about showing that greatness evolves. It adapts, rebuilds, and endures. In a sport obsessed with speed, he’s offering something rarer: patience, perspective, and purpose. The results may not yet shine on paper, but the shift is happening — in the garage, in the data, in the culture. And if history has taught me anything, it’s that when Lewis Hamilton begins to build, it’s only a matter of time before the world watches him rise. Ferrari didn’t just sign a champion. They signed a compass.

[Que Lebatha @qlebatha]

@MadamAfrika Girl I’m coming with you 🎉

[chrissy @chrissyoriginal]

Suffering with Ferrari feels better than suffering with Mercedes. Idk how to explain it but it does.

[Formula 1 @F1]

OSCAR PIASTRI WINS THE CHINESE GRAND PRIX 🎉

#F1 #ChineseGP

[Chris Medland @ChrisMedlandF1]

Fantastic performance from Haas with Ocon seventh and Bearman 10th. Antonelli P8 and Albon P9 between them.

Only Alpine yet to score this season now with Gasly in P11 #F1 #ChineseGP

[Hamilton Insights @LH44_insights]

That new setup between Sprint and Qualifying definitely wasn’t it. 😅

But all in all, it was a good weekend. A pole, a win, a great start in the race and a fastest lap. We take the points! Congratulations to Lewis and more power to him moving forward 👊

#ChineseGP 🇨🇳

[Que Lebatha @qlebatha]

Guys we knew Ferrari came with Ferrari strategy

We had the fastest car though