#FoodPoisoning. He called it a national disaster. Do you understand what that means? It means that cash can be released from a specific fund to handle this situation. What situation? The death of our children. Over two dozen of our babies have died and their cause of death has been completely elusive.
Cyril said that it was a tragedy and that #SpazaShops had 21 days to re-register their businesses. What you didn’t hear is that those gogos that sit at the side of the school with their peanut butter sandwiches will never be allowed to register. That means, you’re driving the kids to the exact destination where they might meet their death … the spaza shop.
Chaos ensued, well obviously because there are over 150 000 spaza shops contributing R180-billion to our economy every year. Even locals are helping foreigners re-register because we need these spaza shops. Who will feed our nation? I watched our minister of police, #SenzoMchunu, take on a massive heist in Durban where a shipping container filled with expired food was paraded across the teevee.
War on spazas
He pointed to a pack of spice and named it as the culprit because that is the type of spice that is found in our chip packets. While Mchunu was interrogating a packet of spice, children were hospitalised in #Mosselbay from food poisoning. That’s quite far from Durbs, isn’t it?
This war on spazas became so bad that people thought the small tin of #LuckyStar was fake fish and #StoneyGingerBeer became the object of great scrutiny. The cesspit that is our spazas revealed that not only was their expired food on the shelves, but prescription medication was in stock and many different counterfeit goods were unveiled.
And then there was the dumping, owners of these spazas, frightened of getting arrested, started dumping all the expired or illegal goods creating yet another headache. #NationalDisaster? You got that right.
Mining graveyard
#Stilfontein grabbed headlines every day. Last week I told you about 4 000 miners underground that refused to surface for fear of being arrested and/or deported. This week the story revealed that there were not 4 000 miners, the number was never confirmed and that these guys have been down there for almost four weeks.
How on earth can anyone survive four weeks without food and water? I’m told there’s a couple of spaza shops down these disused mines; I wonder if they are registered and have cleared out their expired food? Sorry, that was below the belt but after 1 000 #ZamaZamas surfaced this week, the police removed the pulley for the miners to exit the shaft.
That means that these criminals couldn’t get out of they wanted to. There were requests for ARVs, to which South Africa asked for prescriptions for the medicine. That was never going to happen, was it? Are we going to raid the illegal doctors too? There was an urgent interdict in court pressing the police to arrange for the miners to exit. Strange that we have to battle in court to stop a graveyard underground.
Regardless of whether they are criminals or not, we have a set of laws in our country and smothering people underground is not best practice. The #SANDF arrive today to aid or exasperate the situation, you decide. #MiningGraveyard
Electricity meters
It has been a busy week, we were raiding all over the place, this time it was #ElectricityMeters as the deadline looms for prepaid meters across Gauteng. Eskom says over five million prepaid electricity meters have already been upgraded and yet queues form the day before deadline; #Ramakopa stands firm in his assertion that the deadline was fixed and would not be altered.
And then that was that, the media stopped talking about it. So weird this media space I live in. #DeathlySilent.
It was the president’s birthday, and we watched as he was given a cake mid-air in his private plane surrounded by people he pays. He’s been busy ,old cupcake. He’s officially the head of G20 as COP29 ends and the reign is shifted from Brazil to South Africa. #Ramaphosa does conduct himself as a statesman, we have that to be grateful for.
On the back of the #ICJRuling that #Netanyahu and company should be arrested for war crimes, Ramatress warned that if the UN is not reformed there is a great chance of more war. He’s right, he stated the obvious, but he’s right.
#Zooooma
And as for our former president, #Zooooma. Well, the state attorney slammed #Zuma for suggesting, get this, that his dead advocate is somehow responsible for Zuma’s legal fees. It’s almost R30 million. The oke was your advocate, how can your debt be his? Ah you know what, tsek man. There is no end to your awfulness.
I was ready to dismiss MK when I learnt they are a year old this week and Floyd (turncoat) #Shivambu said that MK will lead in every province in the next election. Does that mean they are actually going to do some work? It’s been a year. When the media quizzed Advocate Pretorius from the #StateCaptureInquiry. He made it very clear that state capture is alive and well and the entire enquiry has been muted after years of exceptionally hard work. #WastedWords.
HSRC on gender-based violence
HSRC produced a study that made our jaws drop. Apparently, seven out of 10 South African men believe women should obey their husbands. That explains the GBV rate, doesn’t it? We have a femicide rate that is five times the global average. Who writes these things? And more importantly, how many respondents are in this so-called study because those seven out of 10 should be interrogated.
Then Miss South Africa, Mia le Roux, who was heading off to Miss Universe after the #Chidimma saga, withdrew citing health concerns. Joburg councillors gave themselves a salary increase during chaotic online meeting headed by the IFP’s Hlabisa; he made those salary adjustments so fast even the gavel couldn’t drop quick enough.
All eyes are on #RenaldoGouws as the racist’s time is up and #Gininda alleges #Kelly Khumalo orchestrated Senzo Meyiwa’s murder. This trial will get old with me.
Then I read that we are building dams to stop our water crisis. What? I mean we don’t have a water storage problem we have a crumbling infrastructure problem. Talk about papier mache over the cracks.
Thank goodness for sport
Ah thank goodness we get to sport! Bafana Bafana hit gold with a 3-0 victory over Sudan. Gayton McKenzie told Safa that they will have no excuse if Bafana Bafana fails to qualify for both the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2026 Fifa World Cup. And then the Springboks meet Wales tomorrow in what is bound to keep our smiles wide this weekend.
Across the ponds one story has kept this marketer’s interest. It’s the rebrand of Jaguar. The tag line is ‘Delete everything, copy nothing’; this coupled with an advert that seemed to be directed at the wokeys, not sure if they can afford a jag, but anyhoo.
Everyone is an expert during a rebrand and there were shots taken at the team for using a font that is similar to Motorola and some parts of Google. Others lamented that there was no cat in the branding. I have to agree, I love cats. One thing is certain, they made enough noise to keep all of us watching this great reveal. I’ve always loved a jag, I hope they don’t disappoint this fan.
Must and Trumpette
And what about Merica? Well, what a crazy place that is. Elon Musk literally thinks he is #ClarkKent as he sports a new set of glasses. Rogan, Musk and RFK are pictured with Trump on his plane eating MacDonald’s. It’s funny because RFK has no love for fast processed food, in fact he is known for it and he has been selected as the Health Secretary, so there is that. It wasn’t only burgers in the sky.
No, we had Donnie join Elon at a rocket launch (not that climate change matters) and then we saw Trumpette with Joe Rogan at a UFC event. They are having the time of their lives, these guys. Meanwhile Biden is walking into forests as he thinks the Amazon is his stage. Send him home.
And then probably one of the biggest stories of the year was the fight between Iron Mike Tyson and YouTuber Jake Paul. Did you watch it? I did, and yes, I screamed at the screen when Netflix froze but I also had a good holler at Mike, that fight was rigged.
There was no way he was going to lose. Did you see his training video versus young Jakey wakey? No comparison. I say Tyson lost; he didn’t, he bagged $20 million. That’s not a loss, that’s a win. More fool us for buying into this marketing ploy.
Thank goodness the weekend is upon us and the weather is smashing. I’m going to jump into the blue waters of paradise this weekend, under the surface, where it’s silent and blissfully unaware of the chaos on land.
I’m Tonya Khoury and thank you for scratching the surface with me and Acumen Media.
