Ben Smith

@THR Sam Smith rocks up looking like a glittery Victorian widow who lost a fight with a feather duster and a sequin factory.

It’s simple: stand with the UAE or stand with the evil Iranian regime and the IRGC. No middle ground anymore. No mediators, no silent allies. We’ll defend ourselves and strike back at every terrorist attack !! Choose your bloody side!

Fully automatic R4's and grenade launchers get stolen from a SANDF base...yet government still targets law abiding civillian firearm owners. @afriforum

Between 2000 and 2023, Africa received approximately $1.3 trillion in total foreign aid from Western countries. That's trillion with a "T", Mr. multi-billionaire president 💰

> Rwandan immigrant had asylum application rejected > Stayed in France. Nobody bothered to deport him > Local priest gave him a job looking after the Cathedral > Priest let him stay in his home with him > He set the Cathedral on fire > He murdered the Priest Emmanuel Abayisenga was sentenced to 30 years in prison People just will not learn We need to deport them all

Illicit trade is no longer a side issue. It is organised crime, economic sabotage and a direct attack on South Africa’s revenue base. A parliamentary reply confirms that SARS works with SAPS, the Hawks, the NPA, the FIC, the State Security Agency, the Border Management Authority and others through various multi-agency structures. It also confirms something important: the current approach has been fragmented and siloed. That is a serious admission. Illicit trade in tobacco, fuel, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, counterfeit goods, scrap metal, mining, vehicles, wildlife, cyber-enabled fraud and money laundering cannot be defeated through isolated operations. The reply refers to a proposed President-led National Illicit Economy Disruption Programme, targeted disruption of high-risk value chains, smarter border management, dedicated prosecutors and courts near ports of entry, and stronger public-private collaboration. That is the right direction, but the test will be execution. South Africa does not need another committee that meets, talks and produces slides. It needs intelligence-led operations, prosecution-led investigations, asset forfeiture, border enforcement, customs capability, and real consequences for syndicates and corrupt facilitators. For the police portfolio, the key question is simple: what exactly are SAPS and the Hawks responsible for, how will their performance be measured, and how often will Parliament receive proper updates? Illicit trade funds criminal networks, weakens legitimate businesses, destroys jobs and undermines the state. Parliament must demand clear milestones, responsible departments, quarterly reporting, sector-by-sector enforcement outcomes, arrests, prosecutions, seizures, asset recovery and revenue impact. The fight against illicit trade cannot be symbolic. It must be measurable. IC

The Firearms Control Amendment Bill cannot be steamrolled through Parliament. In the Portfolio Committee on Police, I raised a serious concern with the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service. On slide 9 of their presentation, the Secretariat referred to the review of the Firearms Control Amendment Bill and used the words “to ensure enactment.” That wording matters. It suggests that the outcome has already been decided: push the Bill through, and treat Parliament and public participation as process boxes to tick afterwards. I asked the Secretariat directly whether they intend to advance the Bill in its current form, or whether they are prepared to substantially reconsider it based on actual evidence and stakeholder input. Because right now, the approach does not line up with the serious concerns raised by stakeholders, the slow Nedlac process, and the failures we already see in the current firearm control system. My question was simple: Why is the Department prioritising further legislative restriction before demonstrating measurable improvements in: -the Central Firearms Registry; -SAPS’s own firearm losses; -illegal firearm recovery; -firearm tracing; -ballistic capacity; and -actual enforcement against criminal possession of firearms? I also made it clear: the Portfolio Committee on Police is not a rubber stamp. The Secretariat then made an important concession. They accepted that the word “enactment” may need to be revised. More importantly, they confirmed that they have commissioned research into whether the current firearm legislation is actually being fully implemented, and what the failures in implementation are. The most important line from the response was this: “We can’t rush to the amendment of legislation if, for instance, it’s the failures of the implementation of the current legislation.” That is exactly the point. Marco van Niekerk captured this well in his article. The concern is that government appears to be moving towards new restrictions before properly diagnosing the real problem. He also points out that the failures are not theoretical: CFR dysfunction, state firearm losses, weak tracing capability, and limited enforcement against criminal possession of illegal firearms are all part of the problem. (Here is Marco’s article on @CommonSense_ZA: thecommonsense.co.za/Editorials/par…) And to add insult to injury, this past week the SANDF confirmed that military weapons were stolen from Tek Base in Lyttelton. Reports state that three R4 assault rifles and a grenade launcher were stolen after a break-in was discovered on 27 April. Access was suspected to have been gained by cutting a hole in the perimeter fence, and a burglar door was forced open. That raises obvious questions. Where were the controls? Was there functioning CCTV? Were there alarm systems? Were there access logs? Were there armed patrols? Were inventories being audited? How can military-grade weapons be stolen from a base while government wants to tell law-abiding citizens that the problem is that they are not regulated enough? This is the contradiction. The State loses firearms. The State fails to secure military weapons. The State struggles with tracing and ballistics. The CFR remains dysfunctional. Criminals continue to possess illegal firearms. But the policy answer is apparently more restriction on lawful firearm owners. That is not good enough. South Africa does not need symbolic legislation. We need enforcement. We need working systems. We need accountability. We need functioning ballistics. We need a competent CFR. We need state-owned firearms secured. We need illegal firearms recovered. We need criminals prosecuted. Any revised Firearms Control Amendment Bill must be evidence-based, transparent and properly consulted on. No steamrolling. No predetermined enactment. No rubber-stamping. Fix the State’s failures first.

Excellent response to Sir Tony Brenton ..

The average licensed firearm owner secures their personal firearms better than the state secures assault rifles and grenade launchers.

UAE is SAFE. UAE is STRONG. Today, the Islamic regime in Iran once AGAIN TARGETED my country, the UAE. This will NOT PASS. The UAE WILL make the Islamic regime in Iran pay. It will be DIFFERENT. We stand firm. We stand unshaken. Every reckless terrorist act brings this regime closer to its FINAL DAYS. The UAE WILL NOT TOLERATE THREATS to its people, its sovereignty, or global trade. The UAE will stop this Islamic regime in Iran’s piracy in Hormuz. By power. By force. By international law. Freedom of navigation is not negotiable. Security is not optional. And the UAE DOES NOT STEP BACK.

I know for a fact Cyril Ramaphosa and his ANC comrades comprehend how much money a trillion is.

Where is the money?

This is dodgy.

Today, President @CyrilRamaphosa visited Zimbabwe and was photographed with Wicknell Chivayo, a man currently under investigation by South Africa's own FIC for allegedly laundering over R800 million in Zimbabwean public funds. South Africa's Financial Intelligence Centre found that over R1.1 billion from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Finance @ZimTreasury flowed into a South African printing company, with more than R800 million rapidly transferred into accounts belonging to Chivayo-linked companies. The Hawks, SARS and SAPS are all involved. A South African High Court has already frozen Chivayo's bank accounts at FNB, Absa and Standard Bank and grounded his private jet in a case brought by his estranged wife Louise Sonja Madzikanda. But it gets worse. Wicknell's younger brother, Joachim 'G6' Chivayo, was arrested in November 2024 by the Hawks' Serious Organised Crime Unit in Brakpan for possession of six gold bars worth approximately R15 million. He was granted bail of R20,000 with strict conditions; he could not leave Gauteng or South Africa. He then failed to appear in court, and a warrant of arrest was issued against him on March 11, 2025. He jumped the border and never came back. Joachim Chivayo was subsequently appointed ZANU-PF's deputy secretary for information and publicity in Harare province in September 2025, a fugitive from South African justice, rewarded with a political position. So here is the full picture: South Africa's FIC is actively investigating the elder Chivayo. South Africa's Hawks have an outstanding warrant for the younger Chivayo. A South African court has frozen the family's assets. And Ramaphosa flew to Zimbabwe and posed for photographs with the man at the centre of all of it. What does this say about South Africa's rule of law? When a sitting president shares a frame with someone his own country's financial intelligence unit is investigating for money laundering and whose fugitive brother is sheltered by the very government hosting that visit, the message sent to criminals everywhere is clear: connections trump consequences. You genuinely cannot make this up. 🇿🇦🇿🇼 @Leon_Schreib @Sophie_Mokoena

@PMashatile FOKOFF mashatile! FOKOFF MGODOYI @MYANC amaGULUKUDU‼️

The preamble of the proposed amendments to the firearms control act, which seeks to effectively outlaw civilian ownership of firearms for self-defence, reads: “to ensure restricted access to firearms by civilians to ensure public order.” This is farcical.

Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of child trafficking 1,586 days ago. None of her clients have been arrested...

This is Eskom's Wilge Residential Village. Nine apartment blocks, 336 units, built with public money. Close to a biillion rand for a place that was never lived in... #CarteBlanche @LourensaEckard

@ChrisHelali Just pass this on for me, thanks: Fuck you, Mullahs minister of foreign affairs, Khamenei Junior, & the IRGC are all on the same team. And a big fuck you to you too, you pathetic piece of shit standing with them 😂

Meet Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN rapporteur on health. She promoted prostitution in Teen Vogue, and calls her opponents “evil scum white man.” She was recently found guilty by 🇿🇦 of bringing the medical profession into disrepute. Yet the UN still keeps her on. 🔗 x.com/grok/status/20…