#HugoFerreira, 37, pleaded guilty to raping and severely beating his eight-day-old daughter, who later died.
He said he would give her something to “cry about” before he killed her. You would expect the world to stop. You’d expect South Africa to stop, yet this was little reported in the media this week and will not even come close to making Acumen Media’s top stories. Instead, we were busy giving America the middle finger.
I’m Tonya Khoury and I watched, with a gaping jaw, as South Africa didn’t pull a zap sign at Merica, it pulled three … in one week! It turns out, #FerilCyril, is quite, um, passive aggressive; yes that’s the term. It would be funny, if it wasn’t so very scary; well it’s still funny if you’ve got a dark sick sense of humour dredged from the deep gut of social media and news headlines.
Humour that has you so cynical you can’t tell a conspiracy from a conspiracy.
The most obvious zap was #EbrahimRasool. The president said there should be no fuss or fanfare for the fetching of our ambassador. Except, of course, the bussed-in rent-a-crowd with ANC colours and keffiyehs who brought Oliver Tambo airport to a standstill. Listen, I’m more pro-Palestinian than the next guy but even I know that stint was orchestrated.
Lindiwe #Medusa Sisulu
I wish we were that brave. I wish #EbrahimRasool spoke for South Africa; he doesn’t, he’s a pawn in a game of #TheREASON. #TheMiddleFinger. In a retaliation that was worthy of a chuckle, Merica sent #BrentBassool111, a known Zionist, with the Israeli flag pinned to all his social media profiles. Funny right? Well, if it wasn’t so serious. The #BattleOfAmbassadors and #MiddleFingers. There is speculation of who the replacement for Rasool would be, now that he has been declared #PersonaNonGrata by the US of A.
The DA touted dinosaur (but general good guy) #TonyLeon and murmurs in the cadre corridors suggested Lindiwe #Medusa Sisulu. That’s so funny; oh come on South Africa, it’s Friday. Have a laugh. That’s a serious #MiddleFinger and not just to Trump.
Renaming Sandton Drive
Then there was the attempt to rename #SandtonDrive to #LeilaKhalidDrive, another middle finger. If successful it would mean the American Embassy’s address would have the freedom fighter and US named “terrorist” Khalid mentioned in every correspondence addressed to their Embassy. #PassiveAggressive much?
And then, Juliaaaaaaasssss. You can always count on #Malema. He went and sang that disgusting song on #HumanRightsDay, just in case Elon didn’t get the message the first 500 times. That wasn’t even the zap sign. The middle finger came out when #ConCourt, the highest court in the land, told AfriForum, again, that this song was a “struggle song” and did not result in any subsequent deaths of farmers. We are still here, my dear South Africa.
There were also cabinet meetings to table and discuss “misinformation” about the non-existent #WhiteGenocide. We are told that the farmers have started to queue up to leave sunny South Africa, that’s if you believe the likes of Roets and Kriel. I don’t but you might.
No farmer is leaving his land in South Africa, if you show me one genuine application, I will be astonished. If I know one thing about the folk, they love this country more than any one of us.
Romanticising my country
Look, I hate writing about this subject, I always get hammered by my countrymen but ask yourself some serious questions. Is the ANC really coming for your house? Do you even own your house? Doesn’t FNB own it?
Because that is the situation for most South Africans. And then even if you don’t own the land and every last bit of it is taken and given to government like for example in rural Zululand where I live and OWN a home. I don’t own the land, I have a 99 year lease.
I paid for the privilege to live here, not just by putting my cash in, but also by working in the community to uplift my region, and that happens with all of us here. Guess what? It’s paradise, almost. Well, I could be overlooking the sea but the powers here decided that the dune is protected and no one may interfere with mother nature’s laws.
You may say I’m romanticising my country. I’m not. You may be giving your country a hard time for nothing. Do we have to keep the ANC in check? Yes indeed, and we are doing just that, in a democratic way. Slow and clunky but we wade through it.
Are there really 142 race laws against white people or are their laws to try and graduate from two separate sets of humans into one country. I do know this, Malema got real death threats this week. And from experience, I know they were real. Not all zaps are necessary.
Roodt’s race baiting
There was that revolting post from #DanRoodt insinuated that the death of the pilot that crashed in the Impala Jet was because the pilot was a black diversity hire who underqualified for the job. He wasn’t, not that that matters; he was highly decorated #JamesOConnell who plunged to a death, engulfed in flames and Roodt used it as race bait.
South Africa is embroiled in a race war that doesn’t exist. Can’t you see they’re playing with you? #RamaZapster told us, via his weekly mailer, to unite as a country and to fight disinformation. A mailer. Cute. Do we still read them? They were a thing from lockdown weren’t they? That was five years ago. Middle fingers!
The trial of the year and that’s saying something when a story like #HugoFerriera doesn’t make the news, #JoshlinSmithTrial has consumed my very late nights this week. Firstly, can we please make Judge Nathan Erasmus our president.
Zero zaps
Stat! I am in love with this man. He takes zero zaps and even told the one translator that he doesn’t appreciate his #PassiveAggression. He is patient but only to a degree and he’s a proper type A personality: if it’s not being done efficiently enough he’ll do it himself.
That goes for microphones that aren’t working, for incompetent translators, bad paperwork, advocates that take too long or use too many words. You name it, Judge Erasmus is on it. He schooled Rens, the shaky state’s witness.
The effects of drugs came across on screen like a horrific documentary as we watched #LourentiaLombaard’s testimony unfold and unravel. Every single day she was sick, had to be escorted off the podium in what looked like a series of panic attacks. She’s turned state witness and with all the tik and Mandrax, her brain is fried.
If your question is longer than 10 words, Rens forgets what you said at the beginning. This left frustrated legal minds shaking their talking heads. It was down to the judge, time and time again, to reset the course to keep the painful testimony moving forward.
The translators ranged from empathic and downright precious to completely incompetent. It was so bad that even I could translate better and ek kan not die taal gooi.
Folded like an old deck chair
That is terrifying, imagine if this wasn’t a high-profile case and a translator was really necessary, because, as we know most of the nation speaks Afrikaans (even though Ernst and Kallie will have you believe otherwise).
Under cross-examination Rens folded like an old deck chair under the weight of an elephant. The defence flipped the script and said that it was actually Rens who was the mastermind in selling #JoshlinSmith to a Sangoma for money. Rens was out of her depth and we almost stopped believing her.
To the point that the judge told her that if he didn’t believe her testimony after all the other evidence is done, she will be judged as complicit, and she will go to jail. No passive aggression here. Just facts, china.
That’s #JudgeNathanErasmus. The next witness is one of the key cops another #Lombard but with one A. He’s brilliant, he translates himself. It’s ridiculous. Anyway, he goes on to confirm most of Ren’s statements. The plot thickens. I’ll keep watching so you don’t have to, but I do encourage you to see the judge in action. It will fix your patriotism.
Wrapping it up
Let’s wrap up, South Africa, as your weekend is calling. There were several horror stories 26 trafficked Ethiopians found barely clothed running down the streets of #LombardyEast after escaping from a locked house. Zuma tried to escape his R29m legal bill; he didn’t, but he did, you know what I mean. There was a major floor crossing from ANC to DA in Western Cape.
Steve Hofmeyr flopped and had to cancel his gig (in Cape Town); no, man, it wasn’t at Spur. They tried to ban weed gummies for like four days, and then they were back, back again.
Our country did what it does best: freeing the zol and winning sports like a Trump landslide. Walaza sprinted to victory in an SA Under-20 record as he clocked 9.99 seconds in the Gauteng North Provincial Championships. #PrudenceSekgodiso in a spectacular performance, won gold in the 800m final in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in China.
And then, Bafana Bafana beat Benin by two goals to put them in a strong place to qualify for the World Cup, which is going to be hosted in America. #MiddleFingers!
Zap signs are us
Across the borders: Namibia has a new president and the USA has to get a visa to visit. Not sure that Namibia is high on the USA bucket list but okay. Zap signs are us. Heathrow was shut down because of a fire and the amount of grief that caused was like a small tsunami in London.
Wow, the Brits can whinge. If you believe it, two stranded astronauts were brought back to earth seamlessly and without muscle atrophy and a pretty poor looped seascape on the background video. They could have tried harder, except they actually chucked in a set of dolphins that apparently were not scared of the steam and immense heat that should have been coupled with the pods landing. America is a movie.
See, now I have to talk about Musk and Trump. Can someone save me please? So that Canada and Greenland thing is actually real. Even Putin issued words of warning that this is not a test. Putin himself has a bit of passive aggression as he left Trump on hold while he casually chatted to journalists, laughing that he had the naartjie waiting on the line.
Can we have a word about Trump’s black marker pens? Is it just me or does the sound of him signing feel like nails on a chalkboard?
We have to address the #SignalGroupLeaks where war plans included a journalist from a B-grade magazine in error. The group included defence secretary #PeteHegseth, National Security Advisor Walz; Vice President Vance; CIA Director #JohnRatcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, treasury secretary general Scott Bessent and little known editor Jeffrey Goldberg from a magazine called #Atlantic.
Horrible things to Tesla
In the group was a set of instructions, co-ordinates and other plans for the attack on the Yemeni Houthis. After a flurry of media activity, the Trump administration said that the group’s contents weren’t classified so Jeffrey went ahead and published all the screenshots.
I think his media sales are probably up, unlike Musk’s Tesla cars, which are doing so very badly because people in America are doing #HorribleThings to Muskat’s fleet. Labelled as domestic terrorism, the perps will be locked up perhaps even sent to Guantanamo Bay if you’re to believe the headlines.
While Elon was lamenting why he wasn’t on the Signal group, he also showed his new talent, building fidgets with dining cutlery. Even the Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, couldn’t deal as she stepped away backwards and slowly from the freak. I don’t get why people like this chop, he is a chop right?
Things got weirder in the #WitHuis as we saw mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor appeal to Trump to save the white man in Ireland. He also said he should be prime minister. Guys when does the candid camera man pop up? Pull a middle finger.
This place is madness
Then KFC put out an ad that can only be described as a play on cannibalism. I’ve never wanted to buy fried chicken less in my life. What on earth is that about? This place is madness. Sadly, George Forman passed away, imagine leaving a grill as your legacy, stranger things have happened.
Like, for example, an Egyptian lynx found its way across the border and mauled to Israeli soldiers. I don’t make this stuff up, I read the news, so you don’t have to.
Which takes us to my dear #Gaza and the plight of the Palestinian people. No aid, no food, no water, no electricity, no fuel has entered Gaza for two weeks now. At least 500 more people are dead and as we count the aftermath of the destruction of Gaza we learn that during the height of the war at least 10 children lost one or two limbs per day.
When you read words like this, you have to give it to South Africa; even if it’s not for the right reasons, we are doing the right thing. At the Oscars we saw a landmark event, where #NoOtherLand, a movie showcasing the plight of the Palestinians won Best Documentary Feature. In the weeks that followed we saw #HamdanBallal, the director kidnapped and beaten up by Israel. I expected nothing less.
That wraps up the past week or so across South Africa, Ramadan is leaving and Eid celebrations are beckoning. I wish you peace and a healthy dose of patriotism. I’m Tonya Khoury and thank you for scratching the surface with me and Acumen Media.
