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Borrowed from an askuk sub, but figured we would have some cool facts too
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There is a Jackie Chan movie in South Africa where he speaks Sotho in a particular scene.
Thank you Sooo much. People kept saying I was lying about this I remember the movie when I was a kid. Jackie Chan lost his memory and ended up in Africa.
This I have to see. Got a link mate?
Well it’s a mixture of sotho & Zulu but still.
https://youtu.be/yB0JFYOV_Z0
It’s from a movie called, “who am I”.
It says Zulu in the title but I can't find one with sesotho
If there’s one thing the Chinese will do it’s speak a native language, chile. I met a man on my way to JP with a HK layover and he only spoke to us in Zulu, inflections and everything. I’ve heard him speak better Zulu than our new King.
If anything had happened to Winston Churchill during World War II, Jan Smuts was earmarked to take over.
Whaaat!
He was a proven and verified badass at the time, and was key to founding the RAF, among many other things. He supported segregation like most white people at the time, but was against apartheid and advocated the liberalisation of race laws. He was a product of his time in my opinion, and would have lead to a much better South Africa a lot sooner if he had taken power again after the war, or even if he had lived a bit longer.
I live close to Smuts hill, and like to imagine what it would have been like to visit him and have a conversation. I am convinced he didn't hate black people like Verwoerd and the others, and he probably just thought the cultural barriers were insurmountable like a lot of people at the time.
I’m currently in the process of writing a short biography of his life as a university assignment. He is a very very interesting figure. Edit: it’s going to be over 2000 words 😬
Smuts was also literally a genius.
One of the academics at Cambridge said there have been only three truly great students at Cambridge on its history: John Milton, Charles Darwin and Jan Smuts.
South Africa would have been a very very different place if the Nats hadn't stolen the election from the Unionists.
Adding on- the plan was to appoint Smuts PM of the UK in case Churchill was incapacitated. It was proposed by Churchill’s private secretary (John “Jock” Colville), and King George VI warmed to it.
It’s mind-boggling to think the United Kingdom as a nation was fine with a PM who had fought in the Boer War against the UK, but I suppose he’d proven his loyalty to the Crown (this actually brought him some dislike from the more hardline Afrikaner folk who would later go on to institute apartheid).
The judgments of the South African Constitutional Court are the second most cited in the world
That right there indicates a super robust judicial system
It helps that our constitution is one of the youngest in the world, thus super progressive comparatively
The judiciary was basically the only thing keeping the Zuptas from walking off with everything. Zuma's bullshit was even too much for Mogoeng.
Too bad it struggles to lock away those that deserve it the most. Maybe that's due more to the investigators than the judiciary 🤔
That and the fact that our system’s virtually endless opportunities for appeals is easy to exploit if you have loads of money.
Do you have a source for this by any chance? Really want to read it.
Wow, no way!!
South Africa is the only country that's built its own nuclear weapons and then relinquished them.
IIRC you can even see one of the dismantled weapons at the South African National War Museum in Johannesburg
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/05/08/526078459/giving-up-nuclear-weapons-its-rare-but-its-happened
That Cape Town once had beautiful canals much like Amsterdam. The streets that end in 'Gracht' were canals. But were covered over and turned into underground sewers by the British who deemed open water lines to be unhygienic, which is not unreasonable given the scurge of dysentery in Victorian times.
They call the tunnels "The Jungle" its a whole underground network
And you can enter those tunnels. For example there is an entrance in Davenport Rd, en you can walk all the way into the castle.
Source: I have done it.
Sadly those underground tunnels now simply carry fresh water from the mountain springs straight into the ocean. Absolute waste in a city that is so short of water.
Victorian england was wild. Even sex positions were socially dick-tated.
It must have been hard.
Tennis player Rodger Federer's mom is an Afrikaans tannie.
And apparently he learned to play at Kempton Park tennis courts
What!?
I googled him and as soon as I saw her name, I already knew what she looked like.
We invented the creepy crawly
And the CAT scan!
And first human heart transplant
Also the "dolos" - those concrete structures on the shore to break waves. PE knows what i mean.
From wikipedia: The design of the dolos is usually credited to the South African Eric Mowbray Merrifield, one-time East London Harbour Engineer (from 1961–1976). In the late 1990s the claim of Aubrey Kruger gained more prominence.
And Pratley Putty was the first South African invention that made it into space.
Comment deleted by user
There’s a well produced documentary about a wild series of crimes in Krugersdorp which started around a decade ago called Devilsdorp.
It features interviews from the ORC guy and it’s one of the craziest stories from SA you’ll ever hear. Below, you’ll find some spoilers in chronological order and severity.
ORC Squad!
(Although really it was just the one orc.)
Pretty sure bunny chows sound made up to the rest of the world
Something a bunny would definitely not chow on
And no bunnies in the chow either
That " Maze" in Lucifer, speaks " devil" language, but in actual fact Swore in Afrikaans ( she's South African)
Ayo what she say
Translated and without the rasp in her voice, she said "you cant understand me because you cant speak afrikaans". Without translation "Jy kan my nie verstaan nie want jy kan nie afrikaans praat nie"
Luister vir my Lucifer jou dom poes ek sal jou wys ekse
What!? Maze the badass speaks Afrikaans?
Ja hey. It's sad though that Afrikaans is classified as a devils language!!!
The word "Garage" can mean 3 things;
Your Garage at home
Storage Unit or
Petrol/Gas/Fuel Station
And without giving any context we always know which Garage someone means.
Also could mean the place you take your car for a service. (My car is at the garage for a service).
That's true! I can't believe I forgot that, considering we do have a car in the garage for service lol
Would you believe me if I told you that we use all 4 of these in the exact same way in the UK?
…It can also refer to the place where you get your car serviced.
I showed a friend of mine from Michigan a picture of our local filling station and she lost it. It was clean, well lit and nice looking. Apparently it’s not the case there
That the author of Lord of the Rings was born in Bloemfontein
What!? Im shocked. Thats awesome
Apparently the area around Hogs Back sparked his ideas for Mordor
The Shire not Mordor, lol
Yeah Mordor was JHB CBD
Been there during winter. Beautiful area that I don't doubt inspired some of the places in Middle-Earth.
If I remember correctly there's a Brandewyn Stream of Brandewyn River in The Shire.
You’re right 🤩
That truly blew my mind😐
11 Official Languages. Surely the most of any country?
Edit: okay so Zim wins with 16. My bad
Now 12. South african sign language is mow a recognized official language
Ah yes, I forgot about that!
Just looked and sees like one of them is "Zimbabwean English" and they also have English so that seems like a cheat
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_recognized_official_languages (I haven't tried to verify it), Bolivia is the winner with 37.
Bolivia has 1 universal language (Spanish) and every province has it's own native language witch is only spoken in that province.
Papua-Neuguinea has over 800
Papua New Guinea has 4 official languages and 851 recognised indigenous languages. Zim has the most official languages.
Now this reads like a made up fact!
Just checked out the wiki page. Over 820 indigenous with fewer than 1000 speakers. That’s insane!
We have Cum Books