Did you survive the #DeepFreeze? Spring day was almost a month ago and here we are knee deep in snow without a blossom sight.

I’m Tonya Khoury, welcome to #ScratchTheSurface, lets crawl out of the chilly set of media that crossed timelines this week.

If you missed it, holidaymakers made their way to Durban to get to the beach and ended up stuck at Van Reenen’s pass, regretting that they didn’t pack life saving supplies like food and blankets. Some of the travelers were stuck in the snow for over eighteen hours. Even here in Sodwana bay, where we never have winter, I had three layers of clothing on. It was reminiscent of my dreadful days in London. I really loved this story, though, because of the spirit of uBuntu that radiated throughout this #HeritageDay long weekend. That magnificent spirit that is uniquely South African shone through to melt the pending tragedy. We saw farmers on tractors pulling people out of the snow. Gift of the Givers turned up, obviously. Side note: are you donating to this lot yet? The GOG rescued, fed and clothed those that needed it as many Saffers realised snow is not so cool, it’s actually icy. #SAWeather the #DeepFreeze. Chuck this feel good story in with one of my favourite holidays and you have a pretty good start to the week for media. South Africans who didn’t try to get to the sea were decked out in their regalia and were still hanging around a braai even though the wood was a bit damp. It’s our top story. #HeritageDay and the #BigFreeze.

Yet, things weren’t so cool in #politrix. We’re back with the mayoral chains my friends: the ketang strikes again. This time #CilliersBrink was removed as mayor of #Tshwane. This is a strange story. If you ask #HermanMashaba he’d tell you that he was peeved with the DA who, after the #moonshotpact, landed firmly in the ANC corner. Despite the entire purpose of the moonshot being to leave the ANC. The DA promised, faithfully, they would not work with the ANC, so many other parties tagged along to the spurious jump for the moon. It didn’t work, and the DA ended up back in bed with the ANC. This is why Herman said he turned his allegiance to vote to remove the DA mayor #CilliersBrink. He said that the DA was not true to its word. So, to summarise, Herman voted with the other political parties to get rid of the DA’s Brink. He did it because he didn’t want to work with the ANC, but guess who he worked with to get rid of Brink? You guessed it, the ANC. Do people think we are stupid? Look, I’m not saying Brink was any good, to be fair he took Tshwane to the brink of collapse. During his tenure, there was R13bn irregular expenditure. The highest #Tshwane has ever seen. That number should make your head spin. A debt of R7bn to Eskom, and more.

But it doesn’t end there. Let’s take a look at #Hammanskraal. How long must we talk about a place that has no water? The last time usable water dripped out of the taps was May 2023: that’s eighteen months without resolve. No matter what the political agenda, #Brink had to go. Who’s going to don the ketang next? Right now that’s on ice.

Then get this, Gauteng is going to pay R20bn to #etolls. E-tolls, the defunct system that we, as a country, tore down. We didn’t pay our e-toll bills and now the government will pay it on our behalf. So ultimately we paid our own e-toll bills. Can someone tell #OUTA?

Other political stories included #Simelane (the VBS chick) who appeared before the ANC Integrity Commission; that’s an oxymoron if ever I’ve heard one. #MK are about to be fined for their unsubstantiated election rigging argument. Rumour is the party is already bankrupt. Not just morally but actually no Madibaz. Our deputy, #Mashatile, is at odds with #Gwarube over the education system, which is in a right mess as the numbers of new school attendees rises exponentially and the buckling education system is on the brink of collapse. This week six hundred teachers were charged with misconduct. That is a frightening number, isn’t it? It should make a fire rage in you.

We had the elements show us exactly who was in charge as the narrative on mainstream media shifted from ice to fire. A #Midrand complex burnt to the ground this week and we found a woman dead under the rubble. Hundreds of people were displaced and it took firefighters days to put out the blaze. Is there a political party that will house these people? They lost everything overnight. Or are we still talking about the chains that bind us? #FireAndIce.

This next story made me rech, it made my stomach churn. A six-year-old child knicked an orange from a farm. So the farmer thought it justifiable when he drove over the child, smashing  those little legs into pieces. I hope he gets what he deserves. #Burn.

There was also this: The remains of forty-nine freedom fighters were returned to South Africa. The bodies were in Zimbabwe and Zambia. I’m confused; I don’t have to point out the obvious, do I? What was this story really about? Staying on the subject of repatriation, former Eskom contractor, #MichaelLomas, was extradited from London back to South Africa for forty counts of money laundering, fraud and bribes amounting to R745m. He arrived by plane, not like #ThaboBester, no, this guy arrived in a wheelchair and a neck brace. He said he was mentally ill and suicidal. Ok, but why the neck brace, were you in a car accident on the way?  Ah, the wheelchair and the mentally ill cards, those old chestnuts should be roasted on an open fire. What this does prove is that we can fetch crooks from overseas based on the #StateCaptureCommission. So where are the #Guptas? On ice?

In corporate greed, we saw #Discovery’s CEO get a payday worth R50 million. And we saw Steinhoff’s Burger admitting to insider trading; he got five years. I wonder what Jooste thinks of that? Oh yes, he’s dead… isn’t he? There was other news, but you know my words, they run out, a bit like water and teachers and so forth. The government wants to change the name of #SandtonDrive, I mean have you ever? I hate to tell you team, but you have much bigger fish to catch before you fry and the heat is on while you’re cooking another tender. The Ekurhuleni metro chief was suspended due to allegations of rape. There is a #ConstructionMafia that is hot on our trails and kidnapping has replaced hijacking as a crime of choice, specifically in the Eastern Cape.

And where for art thou Cupcake? The Prez was very busy at the UN General Assembly. He met #Zelensky (that must have been awkward, you know BRICS and all that). Cyril also met megalomaniac #Musk, who has been creating a blaze on Twitter to the point that #BlockMusk was trending on his own network. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at those meetings. Icy and spicy. The #GNU is 100 days old and has achieved, um, nothing. Situation normal, all on ice.

Let’s skate across the waters and see what horrors face us there. There are a cluster of predators in the media’s cross hairs. Among them, #MohammedAlFayed, the founder of Harrods in the UK and the owner of #Fulham Football Club and the father to #Dodi (Diana’s schumfempha). Turns out this oke was in a predatory class of his own. Yes, he’s dead now, but over one hundred and fifty women have come out to say he raped or sexually assaulted them. Some were nineteen years old at the time. Why did we wait until he died?

And then if you’ve been under a rock – not #ChrisRock – you might have missed the #PDiddy story. The Diddler is a fiddler. The crazy stories that are pouring out like a thousand bottles of baby oil show who this nasty demonic man really is; it is mind blowing. The number of celebrities involved and the depth of the rot are too much to fathom. There are rumours (from reliable sources) that #Diddy was very much involved in the death of #Tupac. Do yourself a favour and watch the #KattWilliams interview with #ShayShay. If you know nothing about this and you take just one voice from this revolting story, take Katts’. He speaks with eloquence and does not hold back about why #Diddy ruled with extortion, racketeering, rape, grooming and pedophilia. It’s gross, it’s revolting and it’s all true. Celebrities are panicking, deleting all their social media posts and saying their accounts are being hacked. To the point that Musk called Twitter a crime scene. Now we know what all those lyrics meant from Justin #Bieber, now we understand why Diddy took all mobile phones away at any party. Now we know why Eminem refused to work with him. And when Kanye starts making sense, you know we are skating on thin ice. Diddy is going to be huffing and puffing as the flames start burning his house down.

As is usually the case, the US has hogged the spotlight. In New York the mayor was indicted on corruption charges. They also have ketang wars, or so it appears. We saw the death penalty being administered to an innocent man #MarcellusWilliams. He was not guilty of the crime he was charged and sentenced with. That didn’t stop them killing a man. The parents of the victim even said he didn’t do it. His last words: All praise be to God in every situation. #RIPMarcellus.

And now the story I’ve wanted to write about since I opened this piece; #Lebanon, close to my heart, closer than #Palestine, which is saying something. In the UN Assembly, ten countries, the EU and the US called for a ceasefire and said that they had put a proposal together to implement immediately. #Netanyahu told us without question that he never had, nor would ever agree to a ceasefire. The UN was lit. #KingAbdullah from Jordan tore chunks out of Israel; #Erdogan from Turkey called for brut force and even slimeball #Macron said enough. It’s fair to say Israel has gone rogue; if it’s Palestine today and Lebanon tomorrow who’s on the agenda next? By any other name this is terrorism. People from Lebanon are in fear for their lives. A million people were displaced this week. This is another Gaza except in this instance the Arab world has risen. Iran has made it clear that there will be a retaliation. And where were the Brits? Well, Keir Starmer, the chop, called for the return of all the “sausages, and the hostages”. He didn’t even correct himself, he just kept talking. Sausages? Did you miss breakfast you git? Where do we find these leaders? Ice Ice Baby.

In Palestine’s Gaza, the IDF delivered a truck of 88 decomposed bodies for burial: there were no names, place of death etc just bodies. These IDF soldiers have been conditioned into robots as they kick the dead off roofs and watch kids take their last breath under the rubble of their destruction. If this is not enough to prove the point that this is a genocide, then the latest move should make you question even more. All #AlJazeera offices in Ramallah have been shut by Israel. Tens of soldiers walked into the newsroom’s head office and switched off the cameras at gunpoint. If you don’t see it now you never will. Netanyahu is a warmonger, a tyrant and needs to be reined in. And to add salt to the wound, after all this UN chinwagging, the US let Israel leave with a further $9bn for weapons. They really want that peace don’t they?

As the weather taunts me for yet another weekend, I have put my good foot down (the other one is in a brace) because I will be on a boat on Saturday. I’ve finally qualified to do Nitrox diving so now I have at least an hour at depth. In silence, with God.

I’m Tonya Khoury, keep your temperature mild and your head up as we cross the threshold into quarter four. I leave you with this great quote from Voltaire: “Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying?”.

Thanks for scratching the surface with me and Acumen Media.