Only in Effrika

Nice place if it wasn't for some of the locals
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TheGreenAnger
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Re: Only in Effrika

#161 Post by TheGreenAnger » Fri Nov 18, 2022 3:36 pm

Ex-Ascot wrote:
Fri Nov 18, 2022 4:56 am
Most reflectives here speak Afrikaans. We hear it all the time.

"Attended" an online memorial for all the friends worldwide of an Afrikaans friend who died recently. Both English and Afrikaans was used. A lot of black folks online, all who spoke both perfect English and Afrikaans. Ms Theron is simply wrong. As they say in SA, "Afrikaners is plesierig!" Afrikaners often get a bad press but there are good and bad like in any group of people. My mate was definitely one of the good lot.

Afrikaners is plesierig,
dit kan jy my glo,
hulle hou van partytjies,
en dan maak hulle so:

Eers draai die ou vroutjie
en dan draai haar ou man,
en hy vat haar om haar lyfie
en dan draai hulle saam.

Goeienag, my ou vroutjie,
goeienag, my ou man!
Oor 'n week 'n partytjie,
en dan draai ons weer saam.
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: Only in Effrika

#162 Post by TheGreenAnger » Mon Nov 28, 2022 6:39 am

Another thought-provoking post from Mr Abramowitz whenIwaswhenwe.

Chem Cholet.JPG
We’re like mushrooms, I remember hearing my parents and their friends saying to each other, sipping sundowners and swatting mozzies by the pool, crunching peri-peri cashews from Beira. Mushrooms, us Rhodesians hey – kept in the dark and fed on *****. Another gin anyone? Castle?

The clink of bottles, the tinkle of ice.

Then the grown-ups’ conversation, previously so carefree, loud and laughter-filled, became a cobweb of whispers; did you hear about them, and they’re leaving for somewhere and he got caught doing that and foreign currency and passports and Jesus bloody Christ Steven haven’t you got homework to do instead of sitting here gormlessly eavesdropping?

Dusk wasn’t as relaxed anymore; helicopters whump-whumping overhead disturbed the evening birdsong. The news in black and white on the RBC a collage of grim and grimmer updates from out in the sticks and certain countries to the north of us. At PEfukkenS, the flag flew at half-mast more regularly.

So many lies. From Uncle Ian’s nasal assertion to his fellow Rhodesians of ‘a thousand years of white rule’, to all the people who said they’d be switching off the lights at the airport, before secretively flitting off into a never to be seen again except on Facebook 20 years later future. Liars, the lot of us.

So many lies we’ve told ourselves since: we’re alright, we’ve moved on, I think of myself as South African/ English/ American/ Australian/ Israeli now. So glad we left, got out at the right time, so sorry for the ones who stayed. So long, farewell, aufweidersein, adieu. The sound of moving.

But chickens, as June always told me, come home to roost. Do you know what that means my boy? Hey, do you fully understand? Understand chickens ma? Not really. It means that life catches up with you my boy. That’s what it means, not literally bloody chickens. Go do your homework. Ja ma, sorry ma.

And the biggest, darkest, loudest chicken of them all has come home to roost, flapping its wings, comb red as blood. Because contrary to anything Clem Tholet would’ve had us believe, we didn’t keep them north of the Zambezi and Rhodesians do die, and we have reached that time of our lives, and theirs, when they’re dying a lot.

Of course, a lot of Rhodesians of all colours have died already, from the many things that always killed us: malaria, bilharzia, flatdogs, nyokas, elephant, buffalo, rhino, landmines, bullets (sometimes self-inflicted), grenades, drunk drivers, tobacco, booze, drowning, stupidity, cancer and all the other slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

But as time passes, I get more and more news like hey do you remember this oke, he died last night. A family announcing sadly that a beloved parent has gone peacefully and will be much missed. The guy who all these years later lost his war against his memories of the hondo and took matters into his own hands.

And every time one of us dies, no matter where they have passed on – Down South, or in America, Australia, Israel, England, wherever – who gathers round the bereaved but other Rhodesians. Messages of comfort, of love, of respect and remembrance from home; because as we get fewer in number, we need each other more and more. Because home just might be where one grew up, and not where one lives now.

Khona-manje the last of us, “The Last Rhodesian” who ever that may be, will die too. Before they do, could they please switch off the light at the airport?
Amen to that!
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Re: Only in Effrika

#163 Post by ricardian » Thu Dec 01, 2022 5:31 pm

Ricardian, Stronsay, Orkney UK
www.stronsaylimpet.co.uk
visitstronsay.com
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/EGER

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Re: Only in Effrika

#164 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sat Dec 03, 2022 12:45 pm

ricardian wrote:
Thu Dec 01, 2022 5:31 pm
Awkward questions
The ANC, rotten to the core.
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Re: Only in Effrika

#165 Post by TheGreenAnger » Thu Dec 08, 2022 8:03 am

My spies on the ground in Randburg tell me that the Jo 'burg weather has been somewhat stormy of late. This seems to borne out by these videos...

There is no such thing as a mini tornado. Either there is a funnel cloud or there is a tornado? Size is irrelevant (so they say)!



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Russian skullduggery in Simons Town

#166 Post by TheGreenAnger » Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:28 am

Another reason to distrust the reprehensible ANC government!
Sanctioned Russian ship moves mystery cargo in Simon’s Town navy dockyard under cover of night

From the Daily Maverick -

A Russian cargo ship sanctioned by the US for carrying arms secretly loaded and unloaded unknown cargo in Simon’s Town naval dockyard in a high-security, clandestine operation on the night of Wednesday/Thursday this week. The DA is now demanding an explanation from Defence Minister Thandi Modise.

The secrecy of the Wednesday/Thursday midnight operation, under the extra cover of rolling blackouts, has raised suspicions about the nature of the cargo.

And the unknown persons involved in the transactions with the Lady R, a Russia-registered roll-on roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessel, may now have fallen foul of the US sanctions.

Several Simon’s Town residents observed and photographed cranes loading at least six containers from trucks onto the Lady R at the naval dockyard quayside from just before midnight on Thursday, 8 December 2022.

Some said they had also seen cranes offloading pallets and crates of cargo from the Lady R onto trucks on the quay.

And two trucks containing four more containers were seen standing at the nearby Glencairn naval sports ground on Thursday, prompting speculation that they would be loaded onto the Lady R that night. (This has now been confirmed and the trucks were returning at the time of publication).

“Clearly something is going on,” DA defence spokesperson Kobus Marais told Daily Maverick.

ByNight.JPG

He added that he had written to Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thandi Modise, saying she “must explain to South Africans what a sanctioned Russian ship is doing at the Simon’s Town naval base and why there is so much secrecy surrounding it”.

Daily Maverick also asked the SANDF and the navy to explain the presence of the Lady R, but received no reply.

In US crosshairs
David S Feldmann, spokesperson for the US embassy in Pretoria, told Daily Maverick that since 8 May this year, the Lady R and its parent company had been subject to US economic sanctions.

“We had previously advised the South African government that the Lady R was planning to stop in South Africa,” he said.

“We had indicated the vessel was sanctioned under US law because the ship is part of Russia’s military export-import business and had cautioned that entities supporting the vessel could run afoul of US sanctions,” he added.

“Very ‘interesting’ how the Russians took over the entire SAN base last night,” one Simon’s Town resident said.

“Private vehicles, forklift truck and crane, all just waved through at security. Unloading many pallets from the ship – three or more armed security personnel in attendance and containers arriving after midnight and loaded. This all besides it supposedly being a privately owned vessel, so where was customs? Insanity prevails.

This resident said the convoy of vehicles involved in the cargo loading and unloading had their headlights turned off and the escorts appeared to be armed. A resident who photographed one of the trucks entering the dockyard was pursued by an escort vehicle through the back streets of Simon’s Town, terrified.

Marais initially thought the Lady R might have entered Simon’s Town in distress this week as maritime monitoring websites had indicated it had sailed eastwards past Simon’s Town en route from Douala, Cameroon, to Dar es Salaam, and was already south of Cape Agulhas on 5 December. This suggested it might have turned back to Simon’s Town after running into trouble.

But Marais told Daily Maverick on Thursday, after hearing the many accounts of the mysterious loading and unloading of cargo in the middle of the night, that it now seemed the Lady R had entered Simon’s Town for a different purpose.

“The vessel allegedly switched off its automatic identification systems, the transponders that provide position, identification and other information about a ship to other ships and to coastal authorities,” he said.

“The vessel should have docked at Table Bay harbour just like other commercial vessels. Instead, it was allowed to dock at Simon’s Town Naval Base, which, because it is the largest base in the country, is a national key point.”

Read in Daily Maverick: “Docking in the dark — Sanctioned Russian ship drops anchor at Simon’s Town Naval Base”

Marais noted that it was very unusual for cargo to be loaded and unloaded at night.

“Given the ANC government’s history with Russia, the minister needs to come clean and explain what is going on and why this commercial vessel – which is sanctioned by the US and European Union – was allowed to dock at Simon’s Town.

“What is the minister hiding and why is it shrouded in secrecy? The minister and the chief of the SANDF have a responsibility to tell South Africans what is going on.”

Arms for Russia?
Speculation has inevitably centred on the question of whether the Lady R was loading South African arms for Russia, perhaps to use in its war against Ukraine.

This suspicion has been reinforced by Modise’s recent refusal to say, in reply to a parliamentary question from DA leader John Steenhuisen, whether or not South Africa is selling arms to Russia.

Any private or public company intending to export arms to a foreign country has to get the approval of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), a senior government body which comprises Cabinet ministers and top officials.

But Ezra Jele, head of the NCACC Secretariat, told Daily Maverick that no one had applied to the NCACC for authorisation to sell arms to Russia, and so none had been approved.

“However, whoever is making such claims must have irrefutable proof of this, in order for the mischief to be properly located under the act,” he added.

A former naval officer who studied photographs of the cargo operations said they did not suggest that the Lady R was taking on equipment for repairs. He also found it suspicious that the ship was being loaded and unloaded at night.

He noted that the Lady R was still in Simon’s Town on Thursday, 8 December, “so no reason to work at night. Something is going on.”

Military analyst Helmoed-Römer Heitman is also mystified by the operation, but he does not believe South Africa makes any weapons that Russia “could use to any real purpose. Pretty much anything we make, they make.


“PMP could supply some ammunition for AK-47s, which I think some of their called-up troops still use.

“Hensoldt and Saab have good EW (early warning) systems and RDM could supply propellants and explosives, but I do not see those companies risking the wrath of the governments in Germany and Sweden.

“The SANDF does not have any compatible stuff in service or even in storage, other than the twin 23mm cannon, of which the Russians have more than enough.

“Conceivably they could be after secure comms (communications) equipment from Reutech but that would need to be manufactured, so not available at short notice.

“More likely might be some dual-use stuff from commercial companies, perhaps using an SA company as a decoy, but I cannot think of anything that would be too big to fly out (e.g. chips). We do not manufacture much that would be compatible with their systems and weapons.”

Read in Daily Maverick: “SA abstains from UN General Assembly resolution demanding Russia pay reparations to Ukraine for war damage”

Heitman also notes that South Africa does not manufacture the sort of long-range missiles that Russia has been raining on Ukrainian cities, especially their electrical and water infrastructure, over the past few months.

As a result, these stocks are believed to be running low and so Russia is presumably looking for replenishments.

Others suggest the most likely possibility would be UAVS – drones – which are playing an increasingly important role in the war in Ukraine.

Russia has been relying more and more on Iranian drones, perhaps because of diminishing missile reserves. And over the last week, Ukraine has thrice retaliated by hitting military targets deep inside Russia with adapted Soviet-era drones.

But a former SANDF officer was sceptical about this theory, suggesting Russia had a limitless supply of drones from Iran. DM
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Re: Only in Effrika

#167 Post by TheGreenAnger » Wed Dec 21, 2022 8:48 am

A South African Story:
While stitching a cut on the hand of a 75 year old farmer, whose hand was caught in the squeeze gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.

Eventually the topic got around to politicians and their role as our leaders. The old farmer said, "Well, as I see it, most politicians are 'Post Tortoises'.' Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post tortoise' was. The old farmer said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's a post tortoise."

The old farmer saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. “You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function,and you just wonder what kind of dumb arse put him up there to begin with."

Best explanation of a politician I've ever heard.
Credit to Barry Hilton
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Re: Only in Effrika

#168 Post by Mrs Ex-Ascot » Thu Dec 22, 2022 11:39 am

Guess this couple have upset someone big time, plus being Reflectives: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... nalty.html
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Re: Only in Effrika

#169 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sat Dec 24, 2022 3:21 pm

Big tanker explosion in Boksburg today. Apparently the gas tanker got lodged under a low bridge and caught fire. It exploded while fire fighters were attempting to fight the fire. At least 10 people are dead.


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Re: Only in Effrika

#170 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sun Dec 25, 2022 2:10 am



The actions, or rather the lack of action by the police and emergency services, in not ensuring an evacuation of the area around the tanker fire, plus the continuing proximity of fire fighters once the pressurised LPG tank had ignited were primary factors in the death toll in this needless tragedy. Once the fire had taken hold, it should have become quite clear to the firefighters that they were in a high risk potential BLEVE situation and should have widened their perimeter while attempting, if possible, to continue to cool the tank, with unmanned branch holding equipment. The lack of a police enforced safety perimeter was just totally scandalous. Lack of training, and just general incompetence were evident in this incident.

Apparently at least 20 people are still seriously injured with burns and other blast injuries. It beggars belief that people with phones were moving towards the accident when the blast occurred.

What such a dangerous cargo was doing on suburban road, and how the tanker driver managed to drive his vehicle under a low bridge placarded with a height warning is another question altogether.
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Re: Only in Effrika

#171 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sun Dec 25, 2022 5:53 pm

Groun Zero.JPG
The driver of the truck survived, the authorities said, and investigators were working to determine how he ended up getting his vehicle wedged beneath a bridge. The truck was headed from Richards Bay, a city along South Africa’s east coast, to Botswana, and Mr. Lesufi said it was unclear why it was passing through Boksburg, a community about 30 minutes east of Johannesburg, where it crashed.
GPS or Google Maps issue?

The explosion occurred some 45 minutes into the incident!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/24/worl ... osion.html
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Re: Only in Effrika

#172 Post by TheGreenAnger » Mon Dec 26, 2022 2:31 pm



One suspects that the driver will be scapegoated when so much more needs to have been addressed in this case.
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Re: Only in Effrika

#173 Post by TheGreenAnger » Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:11 pm

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Re: Only in Effrika

#174 Post by Woody » Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:34 pm

TheGreenAnger wrote:
Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:11 pm
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Mrs and JuniorWoody just out of shot :((
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Re: Only in Effrika

#175 Post by G-CPTN » Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:39 pm

Woody wrote:
Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:34 pm
TheGreenAnger wrote:
Tue Dec 27, 2022 4:11 pm
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Mrs and JuniorWoody just out of shot :((
Can't see them I'm afraid.

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Re: Only in Effrika

#176 Post by Woody » Fri Jan 06, 2023 10:30 am

Is there a lot of diesel cars in South Africa, what are they going to do with it?

https://www.news24.com/news24/southafri ... l-20230106
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Re: Only in Effrika

#177 Post by TheGreenAnger » Fri Jan 06, 2023 6:15 pm

Woody wrote:
Fri Jan 06, 2023 10:30 am
Is there a lot of diesel cars in South Africa, what are they going to do with it?

https://www.news24.com/news24/southafri ... l-20230106
Sheer idiocy on the part of the populace,
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Re: Only in Effrika

#178 Post by prospector » Sat Jan 14, 2023 4:42 am

https://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders ... lack-farms

"Land reform is proving to be ineffective as corruption, poor implementation and limited institutional capacity continues. The involvement of government bureaucrats in land redistribution and farming decisions seems not to be working well for our nation as the ANC’s poor leadership has merely furthered degradation, poor operation and production. Below is an article that uncovers the findings of a research report showing how the results differ from the initial plan and what potentially lies in the future. – Carmen Mileder"

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Re: Only in Effrika

#179 Post by Mrs Ex-Ascot » Mon Jan 16, 2023 4:59 pm

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When things worked in SA!

#180 Post by TheGreenAnger » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:22 am

When SA had an airforce.JPG
When SA had an airforce.JPG (28.04 KiB) Viewed 1148 times
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