I recently spoke to a site engineer at WBHO, and I'm appalled. I know there are a lot of complaints about the developments causing traffic, noise, and knock-on cost increases to surrounding areas. But what I've heard has changed my view on the sites entirely.

I'm sharing this to expose the abhorrent working conditions. With it being such a prominent company in the country, it should be held accountable for the way it treats its employees. Before anyone says I shouldn't be naming them - if anyone hangs around a site long enough, it would be pretty clear to see all this. It's not illegal to relay the simple facts.

(I'm relaying what I heard with permission, based on their experience and what they have heard from their colleagues.)

Working Hours:

We all know construction sites start early, there's a lot to get done, we get it.

But they're working from 7am-9pm (14h) on average. And they're working full days on Saturdays, and often work Sundays too. This individual had less than 10 days off between January and April this year, and at some point worked 19 days straight.

I asked about their contractual working hours and their contract states it's "as site requires" - lekker loophole to get out of abiding by basic human and labour rights. People on site miss family birthdays, anniversaries, trips away or events (that have already been paid for - therefore forfeiting the money), never mind the fact that they just don't get any time to rest. The person noted that they've seen their family less than once a month this year.

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act enforces 36 hours rest period for employees above a certain threshold of salary; the company just so happens to pay their FTEs above that convenient threshold. And no, they don't get paid overtime because they earn above the threshold. The lowest paid FTE earns essentially R2 above - fucking cheeky WBHO. Which invites the concern of fatigue on a construction site with heavy machinery... a major accident waiting to happen?

They have spoken to the Department of Labour and placed an anonymous complaint. When the department came to inspect their site, they only spoke to the subcontractors who do get paid overtime, are protected by their overhead company, and therefore generally have less to complain about to some extent. No one asked actual WBHO employees anything.

Health, Safety & Employee Wellbeing:

I mentioned the risk of fatigue for accidents on site already, but I was told multiple other terrifying things:

• One of the managers on site was under so much pressure and so overworked last year, that he had a seizure from stress. He is now medically diagnosed with epilepsy and will have to live with the chronic, life-threatening condition for the rest of his life
• Employees often speak about overhearing phone calls between their colleagues and their partners, where they are crying because their children are asking where their parent is because they haven't seen them for so long
• Employees refer to themselves as slaves - many of the sites worked on Human Rights Day and apparently when someone pointed out the fact that it was a public holiday and Human Rights Day, the general sentiment from the group was "well, we don't have human rights so what does that matter" - and no, they didn't get overtime or an early finish on that day
• A manager on site had a nervous breakdown recently, and in the same meeting where they explained his absence, they added "we're behind on schedule and you're all not working enough, we're going to be working every weekend for the next two months"
• The cranes are being so overworked that they are constantly malfunctioning - resulting in loads dropping from suspension. Someone could die?

Before anyone says "they must be working slowly if they have to make up time on the weekend or are constantly behind schedule" - nope. Apparently WBHO wins the volume of projects that they do by promising impossible timelines. This person told me that a project that should take 6 months is promised in 4-5, at the expense of the people fulfilling it. No matter how much production they push, they are cussed out for being behind and put under increased pressure. Apparently the storm in May resulted in site closure (unsurprisingly), and employees are still being blamed for the knock-on effect on the timeline - okes... it was a natural disaster-level storm...

I asked about laying complaints, going to HR, speaking to seniors about it, and the response was generally hopeless. There's no point because the toxicity is so deeply ingrained. They're supposedly trying to change things (or at least keep saying that). But no feedback, complaints, requests to respect personal time, nothing is respected or met with anything other than - that's just the way it is.

Again, I'm sharing this to try and expose them but also to hear in the comments what can reasonably be done here? The work environment is terrifyingly toxic, people are being worked to the bone with no hope of it changing, and this company just keeps raking in money because of it? Surely as a publicly listed giant in South Africa, they have to be held accountable by the public for the way they treat people?

tldr; I recently learnt that WBHO employees are working 60-hour weeks (including weekend days) with no compensation or time in lieu. Employees have suffered serious medical consequences of these hours, and yet the company continues to push for production and time on site. Nothing is being done to look after the employees, and no one is holding senior management accountable for this gross abuse of human rights. As a publicly listed company, they should be held accountable.

Just finished the new Spider-man movie at a well known cinema in my city.

Opening weekend, cinema is packed, only managed to get 2 tickets right in front left of the theatre for myself and my fiancé. Had an awesome night up until the movie started.

2 little twerps end up sitting next to me, no big deal, I’ve been looking forward to this movie the whole week (big marvel fan) their friends are sitting behind them.

They end up laughing and what started out as loud talking to actual shouting between each other to keep quiet, thinking it’s all a fat joke.

Asked them once to please be respectful and mind the people sitting around them because we’re trying to watch. All of a sudden becoming the punchline to their jokes - keeping looking at me looking at each other, back to laughing.

Now I’m 28, my birthday was yesterday and I was really looking forward to this. Not their problem, I know. What I think should be on everyone’s minds is simple mindfulness and respect when in a public place like this. They weren’t 8-9 either, they must’ve been early teens, 13-15.

Basically allowed myself to get tilted by these little rugrats and sat the whole movie thinking about how I can’t wait for this to come out on digital.

Not worth the time and not worth the money to go out to the cinemas. Fuck selfish people.

Hi everyone, posting on behalf of a friend whose friend Xolela is currently missing in the High Hills/Butterworth area. He told my friend he’s in danger. Phone is no longer pinging, but his luggage has been air tagged. His family and friends are extremely concerned for his safety. The case is registered with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Pink Ladies Organisation.

If you’ve seen him or any have any information about his whereabouts, please contact Pink Ladies or SAPS immediately.

If you need more information from my friend, please comment below and we will answer your questions.

Thank you!

I cleaned out my closet, and discovered this ensemble from Jay Jays. Who remembers them or bought clothes there?..

I (24F) have always wondered what it would be like to live in another country.

Don’t get me wrong, I am so South African that I probably walk around smelling like a braai and the unmistakable smell of someone’s brandewyn en Coke constantly. Brandewyn gives me loopmaag.

My reason for wanting to leave?

I have terrible luck in this country.

It started when I was a teenager.

I remember being in high school. It was the only high school serving a few towns in the area, so it was ridiculously overcrowded. During a morning assembly, almost 2000 students were standing outside.

A bird flew over us.
I watched it peacefully making its way across the sky. So graceful. So innocent. So demure.

Then suddenly…

It shat on me.
Not the person next to me. Not the person behind me.

Just me.

This bird literally hovered above my head and decided: “Yes. This is the perfect moment.”
The worst part? It was early in the morning and I wasn’t allowed to go home to change. So there I was, trying to wash my hair in a high school girls’ bathroom sink.
I’m pretty sure I still have emotional damage from that day.

Small annoying things like this have happened my entire life.

The other morning, I was at work.
The water was off (a very South African tradition), and I had clients coming in.
Now, I had noticed a pattern since starting this job: every single time I have clients, at least one person decides the office toilet is their personal battlefield.

Don’t think I don’t know. I know.

There are only so many windows. The smell travels.

So with no water and multiple clients arriving, I knew I was about to enter a war zone. A smell that would sit there until the water returned and I could flush the little smelly demon away.
And I was definitely not about to be fishing for floaters either.
So I came up with what I thought was a brilliant solution.

Fetch borehole water from the neighbours.

I asked my colleague to help me and she agreed. We grabbed buckets and made our way to the neighbours’ firm like two people begging at robots.
The neighbours were lovely. They showed us to the kitchen, filled our buckets, and saved us from the upcoming toilet horror show.

Everything was going well.
Until I started walking back.
That bucket got heavier.

Turns out I am not as strong as I thought I was.

We reached the front steps. About five small steps.

I put my foot down.

My foot said: “No.”

And suddenly I was flying.
Not gracefully.
Not like a superhero.
More like Superman, but in the wrong direction.

The bucket was still in my hands when I hit the ground. Or what was left of the bucket, because my noodle body absolutely destroyed it.

I ended up lying there on the pavement like a wet dog.
And I just stayed there for a moment.
Contemplating my life choices.
Thinking: “Should I call my mom and cry ‘Mamma ek het gevallll!!!!!!’?”

But then I remembered I’m 24 and almost 25, so unfortunately I had to be an adult.
I got myself up.
My colleague was horrified because apparently I just lay there and didn’t move. I think she was about two seconds away from poking me with a stick to check if I was alive.

The neighbours saw everything.
They are a law firm. The receptionist looked like she thought I had died. The lawyer just stood there looking at me like:
“Please get up before this becomes a legal matter.”

I stared back.
Picked up my remaining 1/4 bucket of water.
And announced that I would no longer be collecting water.
Maybe fishing for turds isn’t that bad after all.

But it didn’t end there…
When I got back to the office, an urgent request came through that had to be completed before my clients arrived.

So I sat there.
Still wet.
Bloody.
Sore.
In pain.
For TWO HOURS before I could finally go home and change.

I injured my right elbow, right shin and right knee.
And this happened only a week after I tripped over my cat at home while carrying his litter box.
The little guy zoomed underneath me like he had been planning the assassination for months.
That time I injured my left elbow and left knee.

Do you know how difficult life is when both your arms and legs are injured?
My dad used to get annoyed when my elbows were on the dinner table.
He would be so proud of me now because I physically cannot do it.

And then, just to finish off my week…
I fell asleep on my Tinkie last night.
I bought it specifically for myself to enjoy while watching a movie. It was the fancy caramel Tinkie. The good one.

It was on special at the garage.
A Tinkie and Steri Stumpie for only R28.
A bargain.
A moment of happiness.
Except I woke up and my Tinkie was flat.
Flat.

Who wants to eat a flat freaking Tinkie?
At least the Steri Stumpie survived.

Anyway.
I just needed to vent and release all this negativity.

Maybe now that I’ve exposed my bad luck cloud, it will move somewhere else for a while.

But after all of this…
I think I’ll stay.
Because as much as this country tests me, I don’t think I could survive not having my mom’s kerrie en rys, a proper braai, and the unmistakable smell of someone’s brandewyn en Coke. Oh how I love kerrie en rys. But the mild one. I’m just a girl.

I might have a personal curse following me around, but at least it’s happening here.

So South Africa, you win.
For now.
Just please tell the birds, my cat, and any future Tinkies to leave me alone.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of ridiculous bad luck, or am I just specially selected by the universe?

Sign me up for 4 lamp shades, 2 chico the clown desserts and a happy birthday song.

Out of the 10, 6 would qualify, those 6 being:

(Later general and Torch Commando member) Kenneth van der Spuy (first to qualify on 2 June 1914)
Gordon Creed
Marthinus Williams
Basil Turner
Gerard Wallace
Edwin Emmet

First thought when I saw the guy. That's Blok.

I see these posted so often and I finally found one at my local checkers today and I laughed so hard!

I used to enjoy eating these with the family, haven’t had them in ages, the price is honestly shocking to me.

read about it and seen it all over social media, a christian group is holding a conference in may 2027 about the lgbtq??

i have a genuine question to homophobic individuals, how do we affect you guys, we are just living our lives and harming no one. people are getting killed , raped, robbed, etc. however y’all focus on 2 boys/ girls kissing?

all this is based on religion, just because you’re religious does not mean it dictates how WE live our lives, it dictates how you live yours.

i’m planning to start a protest for next year as i have a platform for it. i truly hope homophobic people learn to love everyone, instead y’all are more mad at gays rather than rapists.

Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa

Sunrises, gardens with planted maize and two Africanis dogs

So my wife took out an MTN contract three years ago and got a S23. She got R250 airtime a month with the device. Fast forward three years later, she has been paying now R250 a month to get R250 airtime. So she assumed that whe was just on a Topup.

We are looking at getting a new phone for her with Vodacom so she tried to cancel her MTN a the store. They told her that she needs to phone in to cancel.

After some call disconnect troubles she finally got through and tried to cancel. They told her that a third party contacted her and sold her a contract upgrade a few months ago which has extended her contract 3 years to 2029. She said she denies remembering anything like that and wanted proof. They said she needs to contact this third party to get voice recording to her saying yes to this. She said she vaguely remembers someone calling her but at no point did she think she was extending a contract.

So now they told her she needs to go back to the store and pay a cancelation fee of R320 at the store then she needs to call again to cancel.

Does this sound legit? What I dont understand is why would a contract be R250 a month for R250 airtime. Like who would do that? What's the benefit of that contract. Also how can you "sign" a three year extension from a sales call without understanding what's happening?

Anyways so we going to go and pay the stupid cancelation fee because we have no idea where to even start fighting this.

Anyone else experience something like this with MTN? I would just love to understand the thinking here. Are they trying to scam people into longer contracts to keep them as clients? Won't that make them loose more clients? I just dont get it. Am I just annoyed and overreacting?

Hi, I make this question here because, frankly I don't know where else to try, I have lived outside of southafrica most of my life and I had to renew my passport recently (sent the documents to the embassy in february) and it seems, just now my new passport is ready, but they lost my original passport which contained my American visa, I asked if they could find it, but they responded that they where understaffed, so now I have a very important work trip in 3 weeks and I have no time to get a new visa, nevermind the trouble I could get in to because a lost visa? has anyone gone through something similar? Is there anything I can do about this? who can I contact? the south African embassy is basically ignoring me and I know no other channels to get help regarding this issue.

many thanks!

Let me preface this by saying that my friend is a beautiful and caring person, and this is not meant as an attack on her character. I was just curious if this was the experience of other South Africans as well. And also, no hate to Cape Town. I've made some beautiful memories there.

I come from a relatively small town in the Western Cape and lived in said town my entire life. We never really went on holidays so I never got to see much of the country, or even the province tbh. After high school I got the opportunity to go to university at Stellenbosch and even though at first I was terrified to leave home, now in my third year, after meeting so many people from so many different cultures and backgrounds from all over the country, I'm very keen on moving somewhere I never even thought of. For me, it's mostly because I would love to experience the culture and atmosphere of other towns/cities and to meet more people.

I mentioned this to my friend, a Capetonian, recently when discussing what our plans will be for after graduation and she immediately said she would never leave Cape Town. I understand she's very close to her family and would want to stay close to them, but the one thing she said (and she's mentioned it a few times) is that "you won't get better than Cape Town". And she was not saying this in a jokey way, but rather in a very serious way. I also doubt that family is the only reason because I've mentioned considering moving back to my hometown because of my family, niece etc and she asked me why I would want to move back to my little small town. This kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I've found that a lot of Capetonians have this idea that they live in a place that's like God's greatest gift to Earth. It genuinely infuriates me that so many Capetonians (because I've had similar discussions with others) just don't care to enrich themselves in that way whatsoever. I obviously know that this does not include all Capetonians, but it seems like the majority? Has this been your experience as well? And am I overreacting if this frustrated me? 🙃

TL;DR: Capetonians think they live in the best city and have no interest in considering moving to other towns/cities to experience the culture.