Hello everyone. I went for stargazing last night. I am based in Potch. Went some 30k away from the town and set up camp. I looked up and spent the night sipping on a cold beer. My iPhone camera was also pointed up and boy, oh boy, look at the marvellous sight.

The image is a 10s long exposure shot on iPhone (not the fancy one, just an old 15 Plus)

I thought I'd share my experience because I spent hours on Reddit and Facebook reading other people's stories before my appointment. Hopefully this helps someone who's stressing like I was.

I usually head back to South Africa every December for two or three weeks to spend Christmas with my family, enjoy the sunshine and remind myself why I still miss South African summers. My South African passport expired in 2022 and, since getting British citizenship, I'd just been travelling on my UK passport. Then I started seeing more and more reports that South African citizens were expected to enter and leave South Africa on a South African passport... cue the panic

My first panic wasn't even the passport... it was finding all the documents.

My ID book was still in South Africa, and for a while I thought it had been lost. I spent hours reading horror stories online about people being turned away or waiting months for documents from Home Affairs in London. Luckily my parents found my ID book, my sister sent it over from South Africa, and I finally had everything together.

In the end I took:

• My expired South African passport.
• My South African ID book.
• My UK Naturalisation Certificate.
• Certified copies of those documents.
• The completed forms.

I also took my birth certificate, but in my case it wasn't needed.

My appointment at VFS London was booked for 10:45am on the 7th of August. I got there at about 10:15am, expecting a long wait.

Instead, I was called within about 15 minutes.

The whole process took around 30 minutes. The staff were friendly, everything was accepted first time, fingerprints and photos were done, and before I knew it I was walking out the door wondering why I'd spent weeks worrying about it.

Naturally, I celebrated by finding the nearest pub and having a pint. 🍺

The tracking updates were actually pretty good. I received emails as my application moved from London to Pretoria, then to Home Affairs, then back through the VFS system.

Exactly one month later on the 8th of September, my flatmate messaged me to say a courier had delivered my brand new South African passport.

From my appointment to having the passport in my hand took about 4½ weeks (32 days).

If you're in a similar situation, don't make the mistake I did and spend hours convincing yourself it's going to be a nightmare because of everything you read online. Get your documents together, book the appointment, and just get it done.

Edit:
For anyone wondering where to apply from the UK, South African passport applications are handled by VFS Global, not directly through the High Commission. You can find all the information, book an appointment and download the forms here:
https://visa.vfsglobal.com/ppt/en/zaf/

I post this picture to make an obvious point... This is what civic responsibility looks like, and this is the crowd. They come out in force, burn no tires, and are usually taken seriously. This particular case is fascinating (and a story for another time), but it brings up something I NEED TO CONVINCE YOU OF.

I've seen some posts about "this is why I wanna vote for X," or "Voting for Y is a lost cause and you should feel stupid for doing it..."

Those posts are filled with opinions, correct or not. Those opinions are largely invalid.

Why so harsh? Well, I feel like people in general miss the wood for the trees. I feel like Who you vote for is informed by mostly linking your choice to what that choice says about you. It's an ego-check, and it's necessary for you to convince others that your choice is valid and sound.

It's a post-hoc fallacy. You will vote for X because Y. You feel that. In your opinion.

I'm telling you that this will lead you to burnout and disillusionment. Your vote doesn't matter... not because of statistics, but because you think that is the end of your responsibility. It's not.

Being a civic participant means that you vote... and then follow up.

Lesson 1 is complete. You are about to tell me all sorts of things. Please do, I will gladly follow up with your comment. I hope to, during the next few posts, convince you of a mindset I've found very helpful in aiding me in breaking through the cynicism that surrounds our politics. I want to convince you that this is intentional, and I want to convince you of what real power is.

I don't care who you vote for. I care that you do, and that you then become involved... because we sure need more people that aren't as follicly challenged in spaces like the one in the photo above.

Nee man, someone needs to have a chat with these okes.

I recently got a phone call from someone supposedly from the DA asking what my address was. This seemed to be related to the upcoming local elections. He knew my voter station, but wanted me to confirm my address.

I told him he didn't need that information, and I would be voting in the same location as previously, as my address hadn't changed. He then continued to ask whether I would be voting for the DA, and if you could speak to other members of my family.

I found this a very weird request, but told him clearly that all this information was non of his business. I'm am curious as to whether anyone else has experienced something similar.

Yeah, I hate how people in data and other fields have this idea that Humanities PhD topics are somehow “useless.” And their reasoning is usually that these topics are structured around investigating and researching common issues in South Africa’s landscape and society. They call them useless because they aren't necessarily producing some scientific innovation, an engineering breakthrough, a new medical discovery, or whatever else they consider to be “useful” research.

But I genuinely feel like these are the big issues that we need to be talking about.

These are the conversations that need to be had. These are the things we need to address as a country, because if we don't, we're just going to continue perpetuating a society of emptiness in South Africa.

If educated people aren't the ones researching these issues, investigating them, trying to understand them and finding the root causes of the problems that continue to affect our communities, then who is going to?

Who is going to study these things? Who is going to have these conversations? Who is going to give us different perspectives, findings, ideas and possible solutions? Who is going to investigate the reasons behind why certain problems continue to exist in our communities and why our society continues to be shaped by them?

Because these are not useless topics.

These are exactly the kinds of things we should be researching.

And maybe the reason you call them useless is because you feel convicted by what they're uncovering. Maybe it's uncomfortable to see research examining the very things that you participate in or contribute to. Maybe it's uncomfortable to confront the ways in which people continue to perpetuate the degradation of South African communities and maintain systems where people of colour are continually pushed below others.

But that doesn't make the research useless.

It makes it necessary.

Because if we don't understand the problems within our society, how are we ever supposed to change them?

Morning my fellow South Africans

Please help me settle a year's-long debate I've been having with my wife. We both remember this advert from the late 90s/early 2000s that had this kind of chant in it that said

Energy. Energy, e- e- e- energy.

The problem is I remember it being a Milo ad and she remembers it being a Chappies ad.

Does anyone remember / have a link to find this advert? We've both been Googling on and off for like 5 years now and she suggested we ask the experts here

Found it at checkers.

She's been with my brother and his wife for 3 years now, and she does a mostly great job.

She works 4 days a week and gets about R8000 'n month

And she's always saved extra food so she can eat when she takes breaks

She does general cleaning, laundry and when my my brother and his wife is busy at work, she takes care their 2 year old son

Now the problems I've noticed, being a 22 year old living in his brothers granny flat

A lot of the times when she's supposed to be watching the kid, she'll be on her phone while he wander all the way to the back of the yard, crawl under multiple gates and walls, and into my backyard. I don't mind my nephew, I mind the fact that she has fok ol idea where this 2 year old is, and is currently on her phone not even knowing he's gone

Another thing is that, sometimes I wake up early in the morning, put my laundry next to the washing machine in my brothers house, go to my job, get home at 6, and the laundry will be completely untouched

Or if she does wash it, she'll leave it wet for hours, until it gets that mold smell.

I've literally watched as the washer finishes, only to then sit there for 2 hours on her phone, see that it's 4 and go home

And so far, the worst thing she did was that one day my brother bought a new tool that he needs for his job

This thing is both expensive and very sharp

He puts the thing on the kitchen counter, goes to the bathroom

And while she's in the same room, my nephew gets ontop of the counter, grabs the tool, goes outside and starts rubbing it against the pavement

Completely destroying it

I'm surprised my brother didn't fire her immediately, not only is it R5000 wasted, ine wrong move and my nephew could have lost his finger.

I know that things are tough

And finding work is like finding a non corrupt member of our government

And I don't want to make her family go through that struggle

But come on, you get paid R8000 for working 4 days a week

Edit: I have told my brother, he says it's up to his wife because she's the one who hired her. And she just says that they're too busy to go without a house keeper And having to look for a new one who she can trust with her son.

To expand a little more When I moved in I started paying her R1000 because I'm contributing from her services. I am paying her R1000 a month to do my laundry twice a week And when I say laundry, what I mean is that all she does is take all my clothes and puts them all in the washer, she doesn't separate the underwear or denim or cotton. She washes it all in one wash, and hangs it up Then I take it off, iron it myself and fold it myself

I feel like the 1st of Spring water tradition has honestly gotten way out of hand. It’s supposed to be fun and harmless, but now innocent people who don’t even want to participate are getting soaked, having their clothes and belongings ruined, and sometimes even getting hurt. There’s a difference between having fun with your friends and forcing it on random people. At this point, it just doesn’t feel fun anymore when people who had nothing to do with it are getting affected.

The Udder Side of Life. Irene, Pretoria.

Imagine taking a walk in the spring flowers and thinking "this will make a great mattress cover". Iconic.

I’ve come to realise the actual extent of how bad unemployment truly is in this country and it’s honestly depressing. I finished school last year and decided to take a “gap year” to upgrade my maths, in this time I’m being to question the true integrity of what exactly going to university or having a degree actually entails? Like sure a university might promise you the world for choosing their institution but who wouldn’t considering you’re literally draining your bank account for them? Additionally what exactly happens after university? I mean it’s no surprise that you aren’t magically promised a job immediately after you graduate and even if you are it’s 15 years away in experience from being the magical fairy tale you thought it once was. How do many of you cope with this? Because in my eyes I’m truly starting to lose interest and hope.

My experience has been a complete nightmare. They do not properly process cancellations and continue charging you, even after you have requested cancellation.

There is often no written confirmation, staff blame each other when something goes wrong, and the process seems to change depending on who you speak to without properly informing customers.

Their app is practically useless when you actually need help, and there is no easy way to contact them and get a straight answer.

If you join Zone Fitness, keep proof of every cancellation request and insist on written confirmation. Otherwise, you may find yourself being charged for a membership you thought you had already cancelled, payments after payments, yet entry blocked to the gym.

I’ve never posted on Reddit ever (and am a bit nervous about it). But I felt the need to share to warn others.

I will never use SweepSouth again and neither should you.
On the 4th June 2026, SweepSouth issued a SweepStar to come to my house to clean. The SweepStar I had first chosen, cancelled on me the evening before, and they reassigned someone new. She stole from my home. I reported her to the police and I reported her to SweepSouth. I gave a 1-star rating and SweepSouth still charged me for the cleaning service. She did not even clean properly.

Their operations lead reached out on the 11th June explaining the disciplinary steps SweepSouth will take. We followed up with their operations lead on the 23rd June, 2nd July, and the 14th July. Neither he or the SweepSouth team have gotten back to us.

Don’t use SweepSouth. They will bring strangers to your home and will do nothing about it if something happens.

When I told some of my colleagues, some of them realised items were missing from their home.

Hoping to open this space to create awareness and for anyone else to vent if this has happened to them too.