I’ve been looking into the Wilgenhof scandal, and instead of relying on TikTok videos and random posts, I went through the actual investigation report published by Stellenbosch University.

And honestly, there are several things in it that deserve far more attention.
For anyone unfamiliar with the story, Wilgenhof is a men’s residence at Stellenbosch University. In January 2024, two rooms were opened during an audit: Hool 88, where the Nagligte conducted disciplinary activities, and the Toe Argief, an archive containing records, memorabilia, costumes and other items associated with the group.
The Nagligte were established in 1914. According to the investigation, they originally had both initiation and disciplinary functions, but from around 1936 their focus shifted to discipline.

What shocked me most was that the report described a disciplinary ritual with an almost unbroken history, despite previous university attempts to stop it. Those attempts were sometimes followed by the activities going underground or resuming later.

Think about that. This wasn’t simply a case of a few students inventing a bizarre tradition one year. The panel was investigating a culture that had reportedly persisted across generations.

The details of the disciplinary rituals are disturbing.

According to the report, students accused of breaking residence rules could receive what were called “crime” slips. Those subjected to Nagligte discipline were woken around midnight and escorted to Hool 88 by members dressed in black costumes and pointed hoods. The rituals involved berating students and punishments that could include consuming linseed oil or bitter aloe crystals.
The report states that students were naked during these proceedings until 2020. From 2020 onwards, they wore a vest and underwear.

I find the existence of an unofficial disciplinary system particularly concerning. Who decides what punishment someone deserves? What happens when the people enforcing the rules have power over the people being punished? And how does something like this become accepted as normal within a residence?

But the symbolism is arguably the most disturbing part.

The panel examined the Nagligte’s costumes, the number 88 and other material found in the rooms. Its findings drew parallels between the group’s imagery and practices and those associated with the Ku Klux Klan and Nazism.

The report specifically addressed the number 88, which is widely associated with white supremacist symbolism because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, making 88 a reference to “Heil Hitler”.

The panel considered explanations offered for the number’s use at Wilgenhof and concluded that it had not received a reasonable or acceptable explanation for the symbolism. It found that the number was being used to convey notions of white supremacy.

This is important because the report wasn’t merely describing a strange room with old objects. It was examining the historical meaning of those objects and what their presence represented within the residence’s culture.

The panel also placed Wilgenhof in its historical context, describing it as a predominantly white, male, Afrikaner residence for much of its history.

I think that context matters when trying to understand why the panel took the symbolism so seriously.

Then there’s what reportedly happened in 2023.

The investigation found that Nagligte activities had moved off campus to a private farm, where a private company hosted them. Participants signed indemnity forms.

This raises a question I can’t stop thinking about: if a university attempts to stop a practice, but that practice continues somewhere else, has the underlying culture actually changed?

Moving something off campus doesn’t automatically prove that everyone involved intended to evade university rules. But it does make the distinction between stopping a practice and simply relocating it worth examining.

And the story didn’t end when the report was published.

In June 2024, the university’s Rectorate accepted the panel’s principal recommendation that Wilgenhof should close. In September 2024, the university Council decided to close the residence in its existing form and replace it with a reimagined male residence.

However, the matter became even more complicated when allegations emerged that the investigation report had been amended. The university Council subsequently commissioned a further investigation into the circumstances surrounding those changes. On 2 December 2024, Council acknowledged that the Rector and Council chair had erred by not informing Council about amendments to the report.

That part of the story interests me almost as much as the original findings. When an investigation into institutional culture becomes the subject of a dispute over changes to its own report, it raises difficult questions about transparency and accountability.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that every Wilgenhof resident participated in these practices, supported the symbolism or knew everything that was happening. The report’s findings should be discussed accurately, without turning every former resident into a suspect.

But I do think the case raises serious questions about how traditions survive, how institutions respond to harmful practices, and whether the people responsible for challenging those practices can be trusted to communicate the findings transparently.

History that is not remembered is easily rewritten, and suffering that is not witnessed is easily denied. Dimbaza matters because it shows what apartheid did in the open while trying to keep it out of sight. To remember is to refuse that erasure—and to insist that the dead and the dispossessed are not forgotten.

More and more, with the shrinkflation we all see, the ens*ttification we all experience, inflation, food pricing, unemployment... What the hell is the end game of the corporate greed? When is enough enough for the CEO's, managements, shareholders, consultants, investors? Why do the majority of South Africans have to suffer while a CEO is getting massive bonuses for ensuring cancer-like continued growth of a company, while the company cuts jobs? Managers are getting raises while employees are burning out? When shareholders keep getting what they are 'due' while the products and/or services are worse? "Oh well ja I mean we have to raise our prices" - No, you don't. You choose to. If these big companies were so great they'd maintain quality, pricing, hiring and employee living wages. I'm actually disgusted with it all. How does anyone who earns millions, while their employees don't have even a living wage, even sleep at night?

I'd originally wanted to start this with something energetic like "Storytime, bitches!", but as I've found out (and written about) before, that would make people think I'm a robot, so I'm not going to have a pre-amble, and I'm just going to get straight to- oh, wait, dammit...

I used to work at the South African leg of an international company. Big player in the hospitality industry. You might say you'd want to Marry It, although I'd certainly advise against it.

I'd been a consultant before, and thought it was time to move in-house, because a consistent salary sounded like a good idea. I knew that I'd be giving up a bunch of freedom, and maybe I'd have to leave my phone on my desk when I went to the toilet, but I thought, hey, I can grin and bear it until 5pm and then swear at them on my drive home like everyone else. No problemo.

Now, I'm not a stranger to contracts. What I was asked to do was all pretty reasonable. They indicated my working hours, and said I could do flexitime, and I signed. I even didn't have a problem with the line that they'd included saying that sometimes I'd be expected to work unpaid overtime, because you know what, sometimes shit happens and projects need to be finished. We're South African. We know how to work hard when it's necessary.

<Insert tense, rising sounds of violins, as the audience begins to realise that which the main character doesn't>

I was part of a team of 3-ish people (I say "3-ish" because one of them would help out various teams when required, and not because they were a hobbit), and we had to manage a pretty big area. The technical term was "The Whole Of Fucking Africa". And with only a few of us, the work started piling up quickly. Pretty soon, my contracted working hours were clarified as being just guidelines. We didn't HAVE to keep to them. Well, WE had to keep to them, but the COMPANY didn't. So, not guidelines at all then. More like minimums. Like how the salary you receive is just the minimum amount of money you're supposed to get. Oh, it's not? Oh, ok, fine, so we're playing loosey goosey with definitions now, because the company isn't sure how it feels about the relationship just yet and wants to keep its options open.

After a few weeks of The Whole Of Fucking Africa throwing paperwork at us and the company expecting us to work all hours to complete it, I asked my manager what the deal was. Didn't they realises this was literally unsustainable? Yes, yes they did. This was a team that needed at least 6 people, she said, but the company had been "in the process of hiring" those people for a good 5 years by this point, which is the corporate equivalent of me telling my wife I'll fix the light in the garage "soon". And considering that only a week before we'd had a town-hall cheering about record profits that quarter, it was clear that the obstacle wasn't the existence of money, but rather the desire to part with it.

Boys and girls, I lost my shit. I had it, and then I didn't. It disappeared, right in front of me, during that conversation.

My contract said that I would work unpaid overtime according to "the needs of the business". There was no clear definition of what "needs of the business" actually meant, but at the time I was pretty sure that a reasonable interpretation was "shit the business needs done when things don't go according to plan". But here, things were going exactly according to plan. They didn't want to hire 6 people, because they could load it all onto 3 people and shout and steal time from them until the work got done. This wasn't according to "the needs of the business", this was according to "the planned inefficiencies of the business".

I raised this with my manager's manager. I raised this with the head of The Whole Of Fucking Africa.

They didn't think I should work there anymore.

To be fair, neither did I.

There really isn't any point to this story that you don't already know. Big corporates will hype you up with quarterly reports showing record numbers and give you a Pick n Pay platter during lunch as a thank you, while consciously ignoring the fact that those numbers are made out of the raw materials of your own unpaid overtime as they try to squeeze as many people-hours of work out of you as they can. Well done, team! Look at how much money we turned your time with your family into! It's letting our shareholders buy a yacht! Aren't you proud of that? The other team's time with their family only managed to buy our shareholders a bottle of Prosecco! You're so much better than them!

Fuck them. And fuck each of the million other businesses like them.

I know this is sharing personal issues and whatnot, but we don't know what to do or what we can do. The legal system, especially concerning divorce proceedings is unknown to us. If there is a better subreddit suited for this then drop suggestions in the comment section.
Like, Is there any advice out there? Her incompetent lawyer says taking it to court will cost her more than what she is owed. Are there options we are over looking. What do you think?

TL;DR
Sister is divorcing, all she wanted was the repayment of the sale of her car and to continue the current cellphone contract. Nothing else.
About a year ago he sold her car (for a lot less than market value I should add) and used the money to buy a new car for them both to use although she was never allowed to drive it. Then he decided to bounce on the marriage, leaving her with a broken heart and no transportation. Through his lawyers correspondence he agreed to pay her back the value he sold it for if she met his demands which she did - He took everything of value that they owned together, not to mention the heartbreak and emotional issues he has caused. She accepted his requests but insisted the phone and reimbursement of the vehicle is what she wants. He ended up getting everything he wanted and then withdrew the offer to pay her back for the car. Her lawyer notified her and the *swear word*-sorry excuse of a human get to leave the marriage with everything he wanted.

Some Context:
My sister's husband walked out on their marriage. He left her in July for tiktok friends after joining a group in April. He would spend hours(5+) everyday with them and she started having issue with that. Understandably so. She grew tired of the fact that she had to go to bed by herself every night. She ultimately asked him to set boundaries and he chose the 4month friend circle over their 11 year relationship.

The Situation:
He left their marital home and right on her birthday a few days later his lawyer sent her a formal request for his stuff. She went to lawyer up herself. After debating she decided that all she wanted was for him to not cancel the final year of her phone contract and for him to pay her for her car that he sold to buy their shared vehicle the year before. That's all she wanted. He left with the car, all the valuable appliances and her heart.
Here is what is so unfair. Their respective lawyers were handling both requests on their behalf, as lawyers do.
My sister's lawyer accepted all of her husband's requests basically convincing my sister that it would be over with quicker if they do. The husband himself (through correspondence) initially said he would pay her for her car or she can have the current car if she takes over the monthly installments. The next correspondence the offer changed and the current car was no longer offered and the amount to be paid changed from R50k to R40k. Then after that he changed it once again stating that he will give her R40k minus the full price of her cellphone. The phone was 2years old already and just under a year left on the contract. The audacity.
She accepted his initial demands and he kept revising his counter offers. As soon as my sister accepted his final demand, the husband withdrew the offer and issued for divorce proceedings. Basically leaving her with nothing but her legal fee. We can discuss all day long how sus this guy is being. How absolutely disgusting a person needs to be to be this crooked and shameless but that's not going to change anything.

Additional info:
Meanwhile her husband and his group tiktok friends are bashing her on TT lives and saying the rudest things. We received video evidence of this through an anonymous stranger.
My sister is pure, naive and just the kindest person. They talk about her in the vilest way. She is only guilty of asking her husband to set boundaries and to be present. He is so angry at her and i have no idea why he thinks he gets to be upset, he literally was the one that left. See he is upset that she wants the money for her car that he sold. In fact he called her greedy and said she is milking him. She didn't even want alimony or all the other things people usually request in a divorce. My sister spent 70% of her salary on their marriage and it turns out he wasnt even paying the full rent which was his responsibility. They stayed in one of my parent's properties. They let it slide, since he faked being such an upstanding guy. What he really is, is a skelm, taking advantage and skimming people from their belongings. I would name and shame the scum if it wouldn't get me into trouble

The lawyer:
This must be the most embarrassing excuse for a lawyer, how do you negotiate everything in favour of the other party. He didn't fight for her nor counter or anything. I am so confused. How do you take money and then hand everything over. That's not how you lawyer!

My sister learnt a very cruel lesson. To all the woman and men out there who blindly trust everything in your spouse's control. Stop. No matter how sure you are or how real it feels, it can change any moment. These 2 were discussing children not even a month before all of this. She really thought they were fine. So make sure you have access to your finances if shared. in her case her money was theirs and his was his. she had to ask permission to buy beauty products which he would say no to btw and then he would buy an xbox. You can easily be blinded by "love"
This person can call it quits in a moment.

I normally like the festive season and Christmas and decorating and wrapping gifts. I try and be positive or at least neutral in most situations.

This year has hit me in ways I never expected and... Ek kan nie. I might be complaining with a witbrood onder die arm. I was just fortunate enough to have always been comfortable. Now I am treading uncomfortable. And I realise there's many people a lot worse off than me.

I see the decor, but this year even adding a simple ornament to last year's ensemble seems like it will cost too much. How do you even plan a Christmas meal when suddenly every rand gets turned over? I don't even want to think of gifts because jirr.

Speaking of dinner, I am struggling with digestive issues so I cannot even eat all the yummy things the season normally brings.

I see the excitement for black friday (nevermind that it's not even November yet), but I can't feel excited. I don't want to see the specials, because I don't even think I'll be able to stockpile with how finances are going, nevermind buying something for myself.

I can't think of having a holiday, because even if I do get a bonus I will have to save it because the money is never enough. And I don't even know if there will be bonuses this year because our industry has taken a massive toll.

Anyways, my rant isn't as much about how expensive things have gotten. Just me not being able to stretch the rand as far anymore. And now just feeling generally mopey.

On 28 October 2023 (3 years ago), the Springboks defeated New Zealand 12-11 to win their 4th World Cup, which is more than any other nation - more remarkable when you note that we did not participate in the first 2 editions.

Hoping for a repeat next year!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to ask the ladies who have gone through the process of claiming maternity leave what the best option is.

I see that there’s companies that can do it for you, is that really necessary?
Can one not claim it themselves?
How soon before going on maternity leave would you suggest organizing it all?

Any advice and experience would really be appreciated 🩷