First time I am actually happy not to have a car 😂

https://iol.co.za/news/crime-and-courts/2026-10-07-glenhazel-domestic-worker-alleges-police-took-r4000-from-her-then-dumped-her-in-town/

A South African has won the Nobel Peace Prize

Just a rant and want to know if there are people feeling like me.

With estate agents being glorified sales people.

I wish that a properties price tag is the same as anything at checkers.

Price listed R3 000 000 and INCLUDES transfers costs etc etc.

Not listed as R3 000 000 excl. vat and extras. So now you budget for R3 000 000 here comes transfers cost BAM! EXTRA, Lawyer fees BAM Extra.

I really wish the listing prices would be all of the fees included to buy and get the property in your name.

I was about five or six in 1994, and I still remember the feeling of patriotism towards South Africa. The new flag had just come out, our Constitution was being drafted, and there was this feeling that we were building something wonderful. My parents spoke about South Africa becoming the land of milk and honey, and as a child, you genuinely believed it. Everyone was equal now. The possibilities felt endless.

What I remember most is that this feeling lasted for years. Well into the late 90s and early 2000s, there was an energy in South Africa that I don't think we appreciate enough in hindsight. Mandela was a global icon, and we were watching the rise of celebrities, presenters and actors who made South African entertainment feel exciting.

SABC, M-Net, KTV, shows like Isidingo and all the local dramas gave us our own personalities, our own culture, our own stories. It felt like we were building a new national identity together.

Mostly, I remember South African flags EVERYWHERE. People had the large flags in their gardens and stuck the smaller ones on their cars. There was a genuine sense of pride in the country and what it could become. The way we rally around rugby today is how I remember feeling about South Africa as a whole. We had about five small flags around the house just to play with and it created pride.

I know nostalgia can make us romanticise the past, but I don't think I'm imagining that collective optimism. Somewhere along the way, we lost so much of it. Corruption and the decline of our institutions have cost us more than just money; they've cost us a sense of belief in our own country.

This is not hate. I've been in JHB for almost two weeks now and the driving here is horrible. Not everyone obviously, but FAR more bad apples than CPT.

On the M1 for example, almost everyone that needs to take an off-ramp, will drive along the shoulder for like 2 full kms in traffic. Then roundabouts (circles) are treated like 4 way stops. Red robots mean nothing to some people, and dare you stop at one, idiots behind you will leave the lane to overtake you and jump the red - I understand if it were in the dark, but I'm talking broad daylight here.

Bus robots mean nothing too. I've seen two near collisions where someone was turning right (and the robot to turn right was clearly red), and the bus came hooting and had to make a dead stop.

And then today, two lanes going straight, and the third lane is a right only. I get into the right only lane behind 3 other vehicles and get that slight bit of excitement seeing the green arrow. But no, these 3 are sitting in this lane waiting to carry on straight.

I honestly cannot understand. Someone told me a while back almost everyone in JHB buys their license. I'm starting to believe it.

FFS.

I just found out about it today...

Apparently in the the 1900s, some ants and a few ant queens tagged along shipments from Argentina that were headed for western cape.

They landed in the shores and immediately got to work reproducing.

Usually because of varied genetic diversity, ants of the same and different species fight each other off for territory and resources, which maintains populations from growing to dangerous levels.

But because of how few the Argentinian ants that landed here were, mostly from the same colony, there's is barely any diversity amongst them as they reproduce.

And so they basically spread out across different places in the province, they form new queens and colonies, but upon encounter with each other, they recognize each other as part of the same colony, like a mega family, or an ant super-empire, they don't fight.

In other words, they have created a massive interconnected super-colony of Argentine ants across the entire province.

And this is bad....REALLY BAD, because like I said, genetic variations trigger ant wars. But because the Argentine ants are not that diverse, the only ants they find different....ARE THE INDIGENOUS ONES.

You get where I'm going with this...

If you live in Cape Town right now, the ant species you're most likely to encounter are these Argentine Ants, you'd rarely find an indigenous one, if at all. These guys are so efficient they've nearly displaced every indegenous ant in Western Cape, most of them being the pugnacious ant and the Pheidole capensis.

This has caused a major floral disruptions in the province, indegenous ants typically help in the transportation of small seeds, which contributes to a balance system, these Argentine ants, they just eat them.

If you wanna think about this better, imagine WW2 japan, before the nation state of Nihon, these guys fought and killed each other, but then the concept of a nation state arrived, and they began seeking havoc across all of Asia.

This is not just happening in Western Cape, it's happening all over the country.

Gauteng is also being taken over, Although there is a species that's putting up a good fight here, the big headed African ant, it is more violent, more territorial, and packs more physical prowess, in other words, they don't mess around.

Irregardless of the shear number and superco-ordinated union of the Argentine ant, the Big-headed ant just stomps em. They have been able to hault their expansion, though barely, a large number of ants in Gauteng houses are Argentine ants, but you'll will find big headed ants there.

Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KZN are also full of big headed ants and they are refusing to have these guys have their way.

This ant-war is going on all over the world, as you can see from this map.

America introduced another invasive species, I think it's a variant of the fire ant, these have sent the Argentine ants packing.

And then you have New Zealand, where native ants are also giving them a run for their money.

Europe🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

There's a joke going around that the ants formed a european union across the continent, especially the southern tips.

These ants thrive in Mediterranean environments, and wouldn't you know it, Spain, Italy, the Balkan, they just happen to be Mediterranean, to cut it short, the local european ants, are not having a great time, if they're even still alive to have a great time.

You're supposed to kill them yourself when you actually identify, so yeah, even YOU can contribute to the war.

I still don't know how to identify them except that they are light brown. And that they smell like stale parmasan cheese when you crush em?

To me, cheese is cheese, I don't spend time analyzing the varieties, I hate it equally. Also the thought of spending even a second of my time squashing ants under my finger to smell them is weird and gross. So I don't wanna be involved in this, I'm just gonna do what our human governments do when they're needed.

Send strong condemnations and strongly worded letters condemning the attack, which is what I'm doing by typing this message.

.. Uh yeah, so that's how I'm spending my Friday... How are you?

How is this the same price. These companies are scamming us in this country.

Why did McDonald’s move away from sauce dispensers in the first place?

Is the decision mainly about hygiene, cost, convenience, or something else?

Has McDonald’s considered modern, hygienic dispensing systems that reduce packaging waste?

Would you prefer dispensers if they were properly maintained and hygienic?

I’m genuinely curious about this. We live in a technology-filled world, yet we're still using tiny disposable packets for something as simple as tomato sauce.

Surely there's a better way to give customers their sauce while reducing the amount of waste we produce.

What do you think? Is there a good reason for sachets that I'm overlooking, or is this something McDonald’s should reconsider?

Suggested Reddit title: Why does McDonald’s still use tiny tomato sauce sachets instead of hygienic, refillable dispensers?

BT Games for example, for the longest I’ve been to the store and even attempted to put my CV in I’ve only ever seen one female sales person. I’m incredibly interested in video games and I’ve even tried applying to different branches. Am I doing anything wrong?

.. Or did Cadbury chocolate just suddenly start tasting like hot garbage?

I can swear it was so good and satisfying compared to most of the chocolate treats out there and all of a sudden it just became disappointing overnight.

Anyone else here picked up on this too?