Thapelo

The Renaissance Man

[Vho Avendas @VendaVendor]

Paying R705/mo, R8460/year just to have airport lounge access you must qualify for by spending more on a credit card with a prime or -1 interest rate. Is just wild. I love how we tend to even defend it with aggression towards anyone who asks why. Consumerism/classism will end us.

[Thapelo @ThapeloMan]

This with buttered sourdough will take one to a ‘small heaven’…

[Ngwenya Nhlanhla @NgwenyaNhla]

Done

[Gina @ginnydmm]

Re Property In Cape Town

As received

“Cape Town is losing buyers. And the data tells you exactly why.

The Western Cape's average property price in Q1 2026 was R3,357,917 - 72% higher than the national average of R1,951,230. Gauteng now accounts for 50.8% of all property transfers in the country. Buyers are making a choice and Cape Town is losing that argument on affordability.

But this isn't really a Cape Town vs Gauteng story. It's a numbers story. And the numbers don't lie.
The average South African take-home salary in May 2026 was R21,510 in nominal terms. After inflation, real earnings dropped to R20,262 - the lowest level in two years. Nominal salaries grew by just 1.7% while inflation kept eating into what people actually take home.

To qualify for a bond on a R2.5 million property in the Northern Suburbs - not Sea Point, not Camps Bay, not Clifton - just a decent 3-bedroom family home in Kraaifontein, Edgemead, Durbanville or Bellville - you need a household income of roughly R55,000 to R60,000 a month. Net. For a suburb that sits in a 40km radius from the CBD. For a home that, ten years ago, was considered comfortably middle-class territory.

The SARB raised the repo rate by 25 basis points in May 2026. Prime is now at 10.5%. That reversal alone adds hundreds of rands to monthly bond repayments at a time when salaries are going backwards in real terms.

And for those who can't buy? Renting isn't the safe fallback it used to be. Cape Town has 26,877 active Airbnb listings. Every property that goes short-term is one less long-term rental on the market. Landlords know this. Rental prices are being pushed up month after month. And with credit bureaus tightening tenant screening, a single missed payment years ago can lock you out of the rental market entirely.

This is the reality for ordinary working people in the Northern Suburbs right now. Not the CBD. Not the Atlantic Seaboard. The suburbs within a 40km radius of the city - where people actually live, raise families, send their kids to good schools and build communities over decades.

Land is being acquired. Developments are going up. The idea of building a city within a city - dense, mixed-use, premium - is creeping outward from the CBD into what were once genuinely affordable nodes. And as that happens, the people who built those communities are being priced out of them. Not just first-time buyers. Parents whose children have left home, who don't want to leave the suburb they've lived in for 30 years, but who can no longer afford to stay. People who planned their retirement around the value of their home, not the cost of remaining in it.

We all know Cape Town works. The city delivers on services and infrastructure in a way that most South African metros simply don't. That's not up for debate. But that very success has become a trap - because it has made Cape Town desirable to the world and in doing so, has made it unaffordable to the people who actually built it.

Who is to blame? That's a complicated answer. But the question of how it gets resolved is more urgent than ever.
Because a city that prices out its own residents - its teachers, its nurses, its tradespeople, its retirees - isn't a city that's winning. It's a city that's hollowing out from the inside.”

[Su Birch @subirch]

https://t.co/FiAR0ZK8lp Special person Johan Reyneke expands his goal to improve the lives of his workers via a new way of raising money along the value chain.

[Dr. Hood Possum @DrLungi_Mashele]

What many don’t want to acknowledge is that the burden of immigration (illegal or legal) often rests on the shoulders of the poor.

They need to compete for access to schools, clinics, water, electricity, housing etc.

Since I’m in energy, I’ll use load reduction to illustrate.

[Amir D @starks_arq]

This picture means something to an entire generation of Dutch people.

I'm one of them.

My parents came to Holland as Moroccan immigrants.
I was born there.

Dutch passport.
Dutch better than my Arabic.
The first 18 years of my life, Holland fed me, schooled me, raised me.

The Moroccans helped rebuild Holland.
Holland gave them roads, schools, a future in return.

Fair trade.

But we never really integrated.

That's not on one side.
That's on everyone.

We learned to speak for our grandparents, because they never got to learn the language.
We brought our food.
We brought our culture. Mosques. Books and humor.

We had fun.
We hung out.
We went to each other's weddings and loved the mix of it.

And still.
We never really became one.

The politicians made sure to categorize us.
They needed us to be outsiders, while we were busy acting like insiders.

So a wall went up between neighbors.

Then yesterday a silly game with a ball put two teams on the same grass.
Two continents.
Two cultures.

Except they're not two teams.

They're teams stitched together by the same life.

The Dutch know the Moroccans. Intimately.
The Moroccans know the Dutch. Intimately.

The Moroccans in Morocco spend every summer selling to the Moroccans from Holland.

The Dutch spend every day next to Moroccans. In School. At The local butcher. The streets.

The Moroccan team is full of Moroccans carrying Dutch passports.

The Dutch team is full of their actual friends, neighbors, and colleagues.

Such a simple game.
Such a complicated story.

When I look at this image I don't see football.

I see high school.
I see pride.
I see distance.
I don't see compassion.
I see resentment.

And that's exactly how we lived in beautiful Holland.

Together. Happily.
And quietly, unconsciously, apart.

I left when I was 18.
I went back to Morocco.

I resented Holland.
For years it was me vs them.

Now I understand what I actually have.

I can read two cultures from the inside.

And I get to choose.
What I carry with me.
What I leave behind.

Because every culture has its gold.
And every culture has its rot.

The trick is knowing which is which.

Love. Be kind to each other.

[Emile Joubert @emilejoubert]

Top stuff, Ms Paton.

Carol Paton | The fragility of the DA’s white males https://t.co/srQofFXoiY

[Thapelo @ThapeloMan]

@Bikomfident They are deliberately being obtuse, it is exhausting…

[Koshiek Karan @iamkoshiek]

SA rugby continues to drop the ball 🏉❌

the Springboks play England this weekend facing possibly the emptiest Ellis Park stadium in 18 years

vast majority of tickets available are priced at R1,750- R3,000... out of reach for most loyal fans

[Thapelo @ThapeloMan]

🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

[Koshiek Karan @iamkoshiek]

I take it back... just realized SA Rugby were right about the Iran War causing high ticket prices

looks like Ellis Park is blocking the Strait of Hormuz

[Dr Sediko Rakolote (PhD) 🇿🇦 @SedikoR]

Personally, I refuse to be misled into believing that employers hire illegal immigrants out of compassion or because South Africans are lazy. My view is that their actions are driven by economic opportunism and racial prejudice, producing conditions that resemble modern‑day slavery. By exploiting cheap labour, they deliberately evade compliance with stringent labour laws, and the workers subjected to this exploitation are consistently drawn from a particular racial group.

For me, this is not simply about immigration; it is about class exploitation. Illegal immigrants in South Africa are deliberately positioned as a hyper‑exploitable labour force, denied rights and protections, while the bourgeoisie and petit‑bourgeoisie profit from their precarity. Some of the economic sectors benefit from this exploitation, and those who profit will be the loudest in directly or indirectly tarnishing or even attempting to character assassinate anyone who protests against illegal immigration. Arguably, illegal immigration sustains entrenched inequality, racialised vulnerability, and capital accumulation at the expense of lawful labour and social cohesion.

The fight against illegal immigration is inseparable from the fight against systemic racism and economic opportunism. To resist illegal immigration is to resist the bourgeoisie and petit‑bourgeoisie who profit from exploitation while undermining sovereignty, social cohesion, and the dignity of lawful labour. This is not a narrow battle over borders; it is a broader struggle against entrenched inequality and the commodification of human beings.

A critical question that arises is the following: is this not precisely the struggle that labour unions and political parties grounded in Pan‑Africanist and Marxist‑Leninist traditions ought to champion? Indeed, is this not the very terrain upon which rhetorical commitments must be transformed into substantive action, where outward proclamations are subjected to the test of inward conviction?

I am persuaded that the demand for illegal immigrants to leave is, in truth, a demand to dismantle the architecture of modern‑day slavery, to confront systemic racism, and to expose the vested interests that thrive on exploitation while silencing dissent. It is a call to restore justice, affirm the dignity of lawful labour, and defend the rights of the Africans. That call must be pursued within the confines of the law, and peaceful protest remains one of the most legitimate instruments of democratic resistance.

Thanks for engaging my post.
🇿🇦🙏🏽
@deptoflabour @1Khosi_Meth @DmJomo @TMFoundation_ @JacintaNgobese @PhakelaMthakath
@SAPoliceService
@Zwelinzima1 @IrvinJimSA #MarchandMarch #30June

[Dr Criselda Kananda @positivegp]

Here lies our biggest problem in South Africa 🇿🇦 those who love the country but hate its laws and it’s people. Why not take your business to Zimbabwe? 🇿🇼

[🇿🇦Certified Dyan™🇿🇦 @IndodaEqotho]

The black middle class is so disappointing!

They regurgitate what their caucasian mates parrot.

They’re trivialising the issue of unemployed DRs, teachers, academics & other black professionals bcs SA institutions have favoured foreigners over local talent…

We’re in trouble!

[JΛКΞ SHΛШ @Jake_Shaw2]

We all know that every dog is considered a “good dog” when it unquestioningly obeys every command from its master.

So yes, according to that logic, Zimbabweans are “smart” because they don’t demand better wages. They’re “smart” because they’re expected to be obedient and..

[Mithisa Motho @tafolaI8]

Dangotism

A phenomenon that makes citizens of shithole countries live vicariously through billionaires from the shitholes. It manifests like “My country is shit but my billionaire has more money than you in your better country”. Nigerians and Zimbos suffer from this

[Fikile Monareng @fikile_monareng]

Slightly unrelated but why does it seem as though people treat the granting of visas/citizenship as a MUST or a God-given right? You can meet all the requirements and still be denied, remember this is at the discretion of the Republic. The DHA needs to do a drive/campaign on this

[Cortés @Cortes]

Een Britse Pakistani insider legt uit wat voor type Pakistani’s de UK binnenkreeg via immigratie en waarom het leidde tot rape gangs en neef-nicht huwelijken (MSM zou zo iemand ‘expert’ noemen maar alleen als het in hun straatje past)

[Sandile @Sir_Sandile_]

Ngizwe was subliminally savage on this one. 🤣🤣

[Thapelo @ThapeloMan]

@ombachi13 Does the kid have to sound like that? 😅

[Thapelo @ThapeloMan]

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 Daai man o tlwaela bokgaitsedi ba o blaene..

[Senwamaphodi Sesemaruru @GwavaJoos]

"O kopa mang? O ntlwaetsa ke'ng wena?" 😂😂😂���� 😂😂😂