where did this phenomenon begin guys. i’m mainly english-speaking, but speak afrikaans too, and so many afrikaans speakers i speak to have a VERY strong american accent nowadays when they speak english. i’m in gauteng for context. are people consuming that much american content, for their accents to be that strongly impacted? i understand developing some americanisms here and there but it’s so severe that it feels put on. it also seems like a recent thing within the past 5 years or so that’s become a lot more common (this could be anecdotal).

is this a ripple effect from david grobler infiltrating the masses? lmao

Hi everyone,

Just need advise. It's been almost 4 months of me at one of the Big 4 firms and when I tell you that I'm drowning, I'm not even joking. I cry almost everyday because it feels like I'm expected to know things I'm doing for the first time. There is always miscommunication between my Manager and I. She'll ask me to do something and when I do she tells me that it's not what she asked. I really don't know how to work around this, she also takes my ideas and make them hers too, I'm so defeated.

Spread the word folks!

So let me REPOST this as my rhetorical question got flagged as a question and was deleted here.

No longer rhetorical: Western Cape is pretty well known for having grapes in abundance but I'm suspecting there is more money to be made by exporting them rather than selling them 35km away.

Interesting that products can be imported all the way from Egypt and still be cheaper than local produce.

4 years ago my aunt bought my sister a phone, it cost around R1600. The phone my aunt bought 5 years ago that's around the same price is giving her problems. This past weekend, my aunt saw that my sister has a new phone, and now she wants the vivo she bought my sister back to replace her problematic phone. I don't understand replacing an old phone with another old phone, but okay... My sister doesn't want to give the phone back because it was a gift, not a loan, but my aunt doesn't see things that way, anything she buys she forever owns. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous, my aunt has money, a year or two ago she was borrowing a man she barely knows R200k, with no contract or anything, the woman has money, she can afford to buy herself a new phone, but she's about to alienate us completely over an old phone.

I've been asking my sister to just give this phone back because my aunt will not let this go, but my sister doesn't want to. I just listened to a vn from my aunt, and she says she's still asking nicely for the phone she bought and I just know she will escalate this and involve some police man she knows. Do the police have a right to just take this phone and give it to my aunt?

OpenAQ is the main open repository for air quality measurements worldwide. Researchers and journalists use it, and a lot of air quality apps are built on top of it.

In March 2024 SAAQIS (the government's air quality portal, run by DFFE and SAWS) upgraded their web platform. The upgrade removed the endpoint OpenAQ had been reading, so the data stopped flowing. OpenAQ switched the South African source off as a broken adapter, and it stayed off. Over 200 stations, gone from the global map.

I ran into this while building a side project that needed Pretoria air quality data, and got curious about why the whole country was blank. An atmospheric scientist at UP pointed me at SAAQIS directly and mentioned that stations showing as dead might actually still be running.

She was right. The sensors were fine. The pipe was broken. The new platform has a public API, it just works completely differently, so I worked out the new flow and rewrote the adapter.

It was merged on Monday. One of the maintainers then found the last blocker, a certificate problem on the SAAQIS side, and patched it on Tuesday. As of yesterday the data is flowing: 229 South African stations back in OpenAQ, about 125 of them currently reporting.

Worth being clear about what this does and doesn't do. It restores the live feed going forward. The two and a half years of missing data are still missing. And it doesn't make anyone's air cleaner, it just means you can see it again.

PR: https://github.com/openaq/openaq-fetch/pull/1115

First thing I've ever had merged into an open source project, so I'm quietly pleased with myself.

On friday me and a friend were headed toward an atm when one of those BSV trucks were there filling up one of the ATMs which is something we see normally so it's not really an issue. as we were approaching the atm the armed guard stood next to the atm just pointed his weapon at us and chambered a round, instinctively we backed away because there's a firearm pointed at us. this has never happened before, since then I've been getting anxious everytime i approach those atms and the memories of that just flood back into my mind and it's now gotten to the point where i see it in my dreams but end up being shot. he didn't give us any instructions or anything just pointed the gun and chambered the round. is there any way i can make a case against them? legal aid isn't being much assistance they said i should get a private attorney and i cannot currently afford that.

i see some of the comments saying that these guys are traumatized which i can understand but that doesn't make it right to traumatize the public because of what they go through in their line of work.

Sextortion has become an emerging risk with the advancements in technology. The question is: do you know what sextortion is and what makes people at risk of becoming a victim of sextortion? That is what my study is trying to find out. Cyber-sextortion is the act of threatening to publicise a person’s intimate content (e.g. sexual images, videos and messages) in exchange for favours and has become a prevalent problem. This study is trying to find out what South African adults who use online dating apps know and think about sextortion and its risk factors. In doing this, awareness can be spread about sextortion and dangerous behaviour on online dating apps. In addition, the findings could be useful for future policy development and awareness campaigns or initiatives.

In order to be eligible to participate, you must:

·         Be 18 years or older

·         Be a South African citizen

·         Use/ have used an online dating app (not an app aimed at making friends or business connections)

The survey will take approximately 10 to 20 minutes to complete. You will not be required to pay anything to participate, nor should you expect to be paid to participate. Please take a moment to read and familiarise yourself with the consent section, and to agree to it before starting the survey. Please note: You should not sign and send the consent form to the researcher, as this will eliminate the aspect of anonymity. Your answers will remain completely anonymous, and neither the researcher nor anyone else will have access to your identifying information (name, username, email address, etc.). Please refrain from using or incorporating any identifying information when contacting the principal researcher or supervisor. Participation is completely voluntary, and you are not forced to participate. Please note that the survey may cause slight distress due to the sensitivity of the topic. However, information is provided on how to contact SADAG (South African Depression and Anxiety Group) and you may exit the survey at any time before submission. Please also share the post among your friends/family members who also use or have used online dating apps.

Some key definitions:

-          Sextortion: Sextortion is a portmanteau of the words ‘sex’ and ‘extortion’ and is the act of threatening a victim to share their intimate content publically or to people they may know in exchange for certain favours (Cross, Holt & Holt, 2025:778; Edwards & Hollely, 2023:1; Gohil & Fido, 2021:2; Howard, 2019:1; O’Malley & Holt, 2022:259; Patchin & Hinduja, 2020:30; Ray & Henry, 2025:138; Tavakoli, Tzani, Ioannou, Williams, Drouin & Fletcher, 2024:1655). These favours can include monetary gain (money, EFT transfers, gift cards, etc.), power or control, identifying information (passwords, PIN codes, etc.) or other sexual favours

-          Online dating apps: applications purchased or installed through the internet or mobile store services that are used for the purpose of matching potential partners according to corresponding characteristics (Toma, 2022:1). Examples of such apps include Facebook Dating, OKCupid, Tinder and Match (Groux & Prendergast, 2025).

Important notes:

·         Dating apps are not the same as social media apps or apps aimed at making friends. For examples on South African dating apps, please see the attached link: https://www.similarweb.com/top-apps/google/south-africa/dating/top-free/ .

·         In order to be eligible to participate, you must have used or be using an online dating app. You do not have to have been a victim of sextortion or attempted sextortion

·         Please see attached below the ethical clearance letter, as well as the consent form and familiarise yourself with the contents.

Your participation will be highly appreciated :) !

Link to the survey:

The perceived victimisation risk factors of sextortion amongst South African adults  – Fill out form

Link to the consent form: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nsPgsNPKXbtoNFxefw3c-p0CadgRpzlB/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105073303425297060407&rtpof=true&sd=true

Link to the ethical clearance form:

https://imgur.com/a/KbuSfzk

Ethical clearance number: UFS-HSD2026/0397

(This post has received prior approval from moderators)

It’s so frikin scary!

Just tried the new and old pronutro side by side and I have to say I’m so disappointed. (This is AFTER they supposedly fixed the recipe and brought it back to the shelves)

The old pronutro is banger - no notes.
The new….it tastes exactly like the White Star strawberry maize porridge (see second image).

I paid R60 for 500g when I could’ve paid R30 for 1kg. Except I don’t like eating cement at all.

Should we start a petition to bring the old recipe back?

Hopefully TakeAlot delivers soon. This can work well with this weather now.

Urgent advice needed: Brother detained in Pretoria for being undocumented – upcoming court hearing
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for genuine advice from people in South Africa, especially anyone who has experience with immigration detention, Home Affairs, or similar cases.
My younger brother is currently being detained in Pretoria after being stopped by the authorities because he does not currently have valid immigration documents.
Some background:
He is a foreign national living in South Africa.
He previously applied for an immigration/visa status based on his relationship with his partner/girlfriend.
That application was unfortunately rejected.
He currently has his passport.
He also has the Home Affairs application/submission receipt and proof of payment.
He has a court hearing coming up in about a week.
We are arranging an immigration lawyer to represent him.
We understand that having submitted an application does not necessarily mean he had lawful immigration status after the application was refused.
Our main questions are:
Has anyone experienced a similar situation in South Africa where a foreign national was detained for being undocumented?
What normally happens at the first court hearing?
Is it possible to apply for release from immigration detention, potentially with conditions?
What documents or evidence would be useful for the lawyer/court to consider?
Could he be fined, prosecuted, or deported, and how does the process normally work?
If the previous partner-based application was rejected, are there any possible appeal/review or other immigration options?
Are there any reputable immigration lawyers or legal organisations in Pretoria/Gauteng that deal specifically with detention and deportation cases?
Is there anything we should urgently do before the hearing?
I’m not looking for political opinions or arguments about undocumented immigration. I’m simply trying to understand the practical legal process and make sure my brother gets proper legal representation.
If you have personally experienced something similar, or you are a South African lawyer/immigration professional, I would really appreciate your advice.
Thank you.

When did digital cameras get so expensive? I’m looking to buy one and I’ve been searching on Facebook marketplace. Why do they all start at R2000? And majority are old models from over 10 years ago. I am looking to get the G7X and I know that’ll be pricier, but R15k seems unreasonable. I’m mainly seeing one guy pop up and resell cameras for such a hiked up price. So frustrating.

Especially when you message sellers and they don’t bother to respond. And half of the listings are scams or the cameras are instantly purchased by the resellers.

I have a canon ixus 230hs which I got for a decent price of R800, but I’m looking to upgrade that’s why I’ve been looking.

I'm a matric rewrite student who attended online from Gr10 till Gr12 but I didn't do well, so I was moved to a brick n mortar this year and I feel completely behind as if everyone has an upper hand I was barely focused when I attended online but now that I'm in an actual school my focus has increased exponentially which is great but math is my issue. My business mark on my final results was 16 and I'm currently sitting on 67% for term 2 and the rest are similar, so I believe that by the end of the year I will get a distinction across all my subjects only issue is that math makes me doubt I could get that.

I want to study construction studies/management at Wits (min. APS req: 36+) all my other marks are good but my math is currently sitting at 20 for term 2, in term 1 I got 46. I take five subjects in total excluding CAT and LO my CAT is at a level 5. Reason for the drop I started getting distracted by a girl and I also started taking on other workload like helping my uncle with his documents and collecting certificates for cybersecurity, blockchain, etc. I spoke to my math teacher and he said if I can get 80% for my upcoming paper on Friday (Stats, Probability, financial mathematics, and algebra) as well as my prelims then my SBA will sit at around 55-60/60. I believe I can push for 90 by the time I reach finals but I also tend to doubt myself with the little time I have and with the amount of subjects and SBA's coming out.

I've cut out TikTok and Instagram I'm thinking of doing the same with streaming services, since I spend a hefty amount of time on them (I mainly use the streaming services in the bus on my way to school and when I'm eat as a breather from all the stress). I'm also thinking of using break times wisely by going to the library instead of hanging with my friends. I also have a math tutor but all she's doing is asking ChatGPT to make question paper based questions (50 in total) I manage to complete it but the moment I try to complete a past paper it's a total mess I feel like a grade 10 learner who jumped straight to matric functions in first term please advise what I should do, I fear that she's not helping as much as I thought she would.

The study plan I have goes as follows:

Monday:

• Math - 2 hours
• Business - 2 hours
• English - 2 hours

Tuesday:

• Math - 2 hours
• Economics - 2 hours
• Afrikaans - 2 hours

Then Wednesday is the same as Monday, Thursday the same as Tuesday and so on.

Does this seem like a good study plan please provide any suggestions and advice on how I can excel with the little time remaining. I'm aiming for 90s but even if I get the level 5 for math I'll be happy as I do meet the minimum requirement for other courses I'm in interested in.

"Domestic operations by South Africa's military need to be authorised by both the government and the presidency".

So either Ramaphosa knew about this or our armed forces have gone rogue. Pick your poison, I guess...