Morning all, hope everyone’s wrapped up warm because Thursday’s brought some proper Highveld chill with it.
Thursday, 23 July 2026
Interest rates and your payslip are both taking strain
June’s inflation numbers came in higher than expected, which basically kills any hope of a rate cut and now has people talking hikes instead. To make it worse, real take home pay has dropped to its worst level in two years, so we’re all paying more for less while our actual buying power shrinks. I don’t think I need to tell anyone in Pretoria how this feels at the till, groceries and petrol just keep eating into whatever’s left after debit orders go off.
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722 generals and brigadiers costing us R3.6 billion a year
Turns out there are over 700 senior defence force employees each pulling in around R5 million when you factor in pay and benefits, and the department spends R3.6 billion a year just to keep them on the books. I get that senior military people should be paid properly, but that ratio of brass to actual troops on the ground has never sat right with me, especially when we hear about equipment shortages elsewhere. Feels like another case of the state being top heavy while service delivery struggles.
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An old Stellenbosch wine cellar is now a private school
There’s a lovely story out of the Western Cape where a historic wine cellar has been converted into a private school campus, offering decent education for R780 a month. That’s genuinely affordable compared to most private schools, and it shows what’s possible when people repurpose old heritage buildings instead of letting them rot. More of this please, we’ve got beautiful old properties all over the country that could be doing something useful instead of standing empty.
[Read more →](Old wine cellar in South Africa turned into a private school offering top education for R780 a month – BusinessTech]
Dog owners in the firing line in one of our best run municipalities
One of SA’s better managed municipalities is clamping down on residents who ignore dog bylaws, think unregistered pets, noise complaints and owners not cleaning up. It’s a small story in the scheme of things but it says something bigger, that the municipalities actually functioning properly are the ones still enforcing basic rules. Maybe if more of our councils sweated the small stuff we wouldn’t be dealing with the big service delivery messes.
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Right, tell me honestly, are you more annoyed about the rate hikes coming or about those defence force salaries? Chat below, catch you in the comments.
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