Happy Tuesday, hope your week is off to a decent start.
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
A child died and over 100 families lost everything in Plastic View
Another fire ripped through Plastic View informal settlement here in Tshwane, killing a young child and flattening more than 100 shacks. We go through this every single year, the same communities, the same total devastation, and yet nothing fundamentally changes. No proper electrification, no fire breaks, no real emergency infrastructure close enough to matter. These fires aren’t freak accidents anymore, they’re a policy failure, and our city needs to own that.
SARS is pushing back on those data breach rumours
Stuff’s been circulating on social media claiming SARS systems got compromised and taxpayer data is floating around. SARS came out and denied it pretty firmly. Look, I’m not saying take every government denial at face value, but I’m also not going to panic over anonymous posts on X. If you’re genuinely worried, log into your eFiling profile and check that nothing looks off. Don’t let social media give you a meltdown over something that may well be nothing.
Woolworths is in the hot seat as another business shuts after 30 years
The DA is now pushing for a formal investigation into SA’s competition laws after yet another long-standing business closes following a dispute involving Woolworths. Thirty years of operating, gone. Big retailers carry enormous leverage over suppliers and smaller operators, and when that power gets used to squeeze people out, there’s a very real human cost on the other end. Whether or not competition law is actually the right tool here, asking the questions publicly is the least anyone can do.
Two Crime Intelligence officers were ambushed and killed in Durban
Properly hectic news out of Durban. Two SAPS Crime Intelligence officers were shot dead in what looks like a targeted hit, travelling in an unmarked vehicle when unknown assailants opened up on them. Police are vowing justice, and I hope they mean it, because when officers doing sensitive intelligence work get taken out like this, it raises deeply uncomfortable questions about who’s behind it and what they were getting close to.
The Plastic View fire has me thinking again about something we never seem to resolve: what would it actually take for informal settlement fires to stop being an annual tragedy in Tshwane? Is it electrification? Better emergency response times? Proper relocation programmes? Or is it all of the above and nobody wants to foot the bill? Would love to hear your thoughts below.
Heavy start to the week, folks, but we keep going.
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