@CityofCTAlerts can you kindly assist our refuse bin has not been collected. We left it out in the morning and it still has not been fetched. We reside in Milnerton ridge. Strangely our neighbours refuse was removed.
@adidas how the hell do you advertise items on sale and after the order has been paid for you just go ahead and cancel my order with out an explanation.
@OldMutualSA you must be the most useless institution that ever existed. Getting a tax certificate has proven to be a nightmare God forbid you can actually send me my tax certificate without causing grey hairs. Absolutely pathetic service!!
@SundayTimesZA Ministers must travel at their own expense. If they can implement one thing that can make a difference to the lives of people in SA, then we can reimburse these useless money hungry vultures. Shame on then
🇿🇦GIVE THAT MAN A BELLS - GARETH CLIFF NAILS IT
“Politicians are parasites and they produce no value.”
Gareth Cliff didn’t whisper that. He said it out loud, in front of cameras, and didn’t blink. And for once, someone said what millions of South Africans have been thinking for years, but few dare to voice.
Let’s not water this down: he’s right.
In a country drowning in corruption, captured SOEs, crumbling infrastructure and R5-trillion in national debt, it is not some unknown virus or international sanction that’s killing the economy. It’s career politicians. It’s people with no measurable skill, no private sector experience, no understanding of economic consequence — making billion-rand decisions that the rest of us are forced to live with.
And still they arrive with blue light brigades, business class flights, taxpayer-funded accommodation, VIP protection, and an unshakable belief that they’re doing the nation a favour simply by showing up. Gareth’s comment, “they should be paid a pittance,” is generous. They shouldn’t be paid at all unless they earn their place by contributing real, measurable value.
And yet, we have MPs and ministers who walked straight from campus protests into Parliament — zero work experience, zero economic track record, zero real-life grounding — deciding on legislation that affects energy policy, taxation, education, and constitutional reform. It's no surprise that South Africa is being run into the ground by people who’ve never built anything in their lives.
Gareth puts it clearly: “You should only be allowed to go into politics once you’ve achieved something.” Start a business. Feed the homeless. Serve your community. Create jobs. Solve real problems. Not write slogans. Not memorise talking points. Not chant and pose.
Because politics was never meant to be a career path for the unemployable. It was meant to be a burden of service — something you did after you proved your worth, not something you chose because you had no other options.
Let’s be honest: how many politicians in South Africa today would survive even a single month running a private company? How many would make payroll? Navigate taxes? Deliver service? Balance a budget?
Now think about this: these are the people writing laws for the rest of us.
They regulate businesses they’ve never run.
They tax income they’ve never earned.
They manage infrastructure they’ve never used.
And they fail, again and again, with zero consequence.
The ruling party has turned politics into a self-enrichment industry. And no, the opposition isn’t clean either — too many are waiting for their slice of the same pie, not looking to throw the table over. And in the middle of it all, the citizens who actually pay the price — the builders, the doers, the risk-takers — are told to stay quiet and trust the process.
No. The process is broken.
And Gareth Cliff, love him or hate him, just spoke what too few have the spine to admit: our political class is parasitic. And unless we stop feeding it, it will devour everything.
Give that man a Bells. He earned it.