A lifeguard helped a senior beachgoer, a school celebrated 44 years of service, a 19-year-old became a firefighter and an old Kruger king returned… South Africa, you really know how to give us a week.
South Africa (08 August 2026) – It’s tough out there. We are all going through the most and it can feel like there is so much going on all the time. Because there is. There always is. But right now, it feels particularly relentless.
Pikitup has not “picked it up” in weeks in parts of Jozi. For many neighbours and friends, having water has become something of a lucky packet. You wake up in the morning wondering if it’s there. One of my colleagues has not had electricity for seven months. SEVEN MONTHS!!! The robots in my area have not worked since the G20 left and the potholes are potholing. Always. I’m not even getting into crime, corruption and poverty here.
Although we did have a woman standing on a chair in Home Affairs calling corruption out this week!
I’m just talking about the things we pay for. Come to think of it, through our taxes we pay for policing, commissions, social grants and a whole bunch of other things too. Are we getting what we pay for? Does it feel like it? It’s frustrating. And yes, maybe I’m feeling it a little more because yesterday was the 7th and, as a business owner, we all know what that means… PAYE.
There is a lot going on that can make us feel really, really horrible. Or kak. I love that word.
But I also know, perhaps more than most, that this is not the whole South African story. Every single day, our newsroom gets to see another side of this country. We meet the people who stop to help strangers. The teachers who give more than their job descriptions ask of them. The animal rescuers, volunteers, doctors, firefighters, neighbours, entrepreneurs and ordinary South Africans who decide that whatever is going wrong around them… they can still do something right. And there are millions of them.
That is the incredible privilege of doing what we do at Good Things Guy. We get to find those stories, tell them and remind South Africans that while the difficult stuff is absolutely real, it is not all that is real.
Two things can be true at the same time. This seems to be my 2026 theme. I have even developed a Keynote on it. South Africa can frustrate the living daylights out of us and it can also fill us with enormous pride. We can demand better from the people and institutions responsible for delivering it while celebrating the people who are already making things better.
That is exactly why our newsletter has existed for 11 years. Every Friday, we send 100,000 subscribers a collection of 15 of our favourite stories from the week that was. Considering the Good Things Guy team publishes around 110 stories every week, choosing just 15 is never particularly easy… but that’s the point. The newsletter is a little window into everything good that happened while the rest of life was happening around us. And this Saturday Wrap Up is your little sneak peek into that newsletter.
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How Do We Keep Matric Dances Special Without Making Them So Expensive?So, if this week has felt particularly heavy, and you are not subscribed to our newsletter yet (you should and you can by clicking here), these are a few stories you might have missed (and should absolutely read).
A Scottburgh Lifeguard Reminded Us What Ubuntu Looks Like
Nobody staged the moment. There were no cameras waiting and no expectation of recognition. A senior beachgoer needed a little help getting up the stairs at Scottburgh Beach and a lifeguard simply linked arms with her and helped her make the climb.
Cliff Bamber happened to capture the interaction and the footage quickly became something much bigger than a helpful minute at the beach. Locals began sharing their own experiences of Scottburgh’s lifeguards going beyond what is expected of them.
“We were sitting at the beach when the lady slipped. Before I could get up, the lifeguards were there helping her up. I said to my wife they go far beyond their duties. A huge shout out to the guys,” shared Mike Paulsen.
If you want to read that full story, click here.
Parktown Boys’ High Celebrated a Man Who Has Given the School 44 Years
In 1983, Alfred Mokoro arrived at Parktown Boys’ High School and was struck by how beautiful and well-maintained the grounds were. He made himself a promise that he would stay for a long time. 44 years later, the school stopped to honour the man who kept that promise.
Alfred has spent more than four decades preparing cricket pitches, marking rugby fields, tending grounds and creating the spaces where generations of Parktown boys have played, competed, made friends and grown up.
“One of the first things visitors notice is how neat and well-maintained the grounds are,” Alfred says. “I’m proud to have played a part in that.”
And what a part he has played.
“Your legacy lives on in every field, every garden and every corner of Parktown Boys’ High School,” the school shared.
44 years of showing up deserves to be celebrated! And celebrated it was… this was one of our top stories this week!
Cape Town’s Youngest 2026 Firefighter Is Just 19
At an age when many young people are still figuring out exactly what they want to do with their lives, Anelisa Matebese has already chosen hers… she wants to serve. The 19-year-old became the youngest graduate of Cape Town’s 2026 Cadet Firefighter programme, officially earning her credentials as a junior firefighter for the City of Cape Town.
Her family initially had their concerns, particularly her mom, who worried about the physical demands and dangers of the job. Anelisa knew what she wanted, though.
“As I grew older, I knew that I wanted to help the community. That I wanted to be part of those people who bring hope to the community,” she explains.
Her training even took her beyond controlled exercises and into real fire season call-outs, giving her first-hand experience of what the job demands. Now, with an entire career ahead of her, Anelisa has a message for other young South Africans who are told they are too young, too small or simply cannot do something.
And you can read that message here!
Our SPAR Hero of the Week Is Teaching Thousands of Young South Africans to Dream Bigger
Dr Siyabonga Khoza already has a pretty important day job… he treats patients with love and kindness. But when his shift ends, another part of his work begins. The Doc heads into schools, many of them in rural and disadvantaged communities, where he tutors learners in mathematics and speaks to them about education, medicine and what might be possible for their futures.
This year alone, he has already visited 28 different schools across South Africa but he is nowhere near finished. His goal is to reach 50 schools and more than 10,000 young people before the end of 2026.
“This is my personal mandate: to have social accountability for the country I would love to see by shaping these brilliant minds,” he says.
Doctors save lives in many different ways. This one is also helping young people imagine theirs.
This Week’s Kids’ Storybook Took Us Back Into the Kruger
Our Good Things Guy Kids’ Storybook continues to take South African stories and turn them into something our younger readers can enjoy too, and this week we headed deep into the Kruger National Park for the return of an old king.
Wildlife lovers spotted an incredibly old male lion believed to be around 15 years old, an extraordinary age for a lion living in the wild. Even more remarkable was the fact that he had not been seen for 3 years. Many believed he was gone. But the magnificent old lion was spotted walking through the bush again, accompanied by two younger males believed possibly to be his sons. The sighting has captivated wildlife lovers because this is no ordinary lion. He is believed to be the last surviving member of a once-famous coalition that ruled territory near a dam.
For children, it is a wonderful introduction to the extraordinary lives of South Africa’s wild animals. For the rest of us, there is something rather special about knowing an old Kruger legend is still out there, walking through the bush.
And Our OnePlan Pawsitive Story Has Feline Cadets Reporting for Duty
There are new recruits at a South African military base, although these particular cadets are considerably fluffier than usual… the resident feral cats have officially been dubbed “Cat Cadets” as part of a Trap-Neuter-Return programme being run with the F3 Feral Feline Fix National Sterilisation Project.
The cats are safely trapped, taken to qualified veterinarians for sterilisation and, once recovered, returned to the territory they already know as home. It is a humane and effective way of managing feral cat populations while continuing to care for the animals already living there.
The team has leaned wonderfully into the military setting too, issuing playful instructions for the recruits to report for TNR training and making it very clear that rumours of kitchen staff performing sterilisations are entirely false.
Important work, delivered with a sense of humour and a whole lot of care. We love to see it.
And those are only a handful of the stories we told this week.
The rubbish still needs to be collected. The water needs to flow. The electricity needs to work. The robots need to robot. The potholes absolutely need to stop potholing. And we should never stop demanding better. Good news is not about pretending those things do not exist. It is about refusing to let them become the only things we see. While we are dealing with everything that makes us “naar”, there are millions of South Africans doing “good things” on a daily basis. That is South Africa too. And after 11 years of sending out our Friday newsletter, I still believe there is enormous value in being reminded of that.
The bad stuff deserves our attention because we need to fix it.
The good stuff deserves our attention because it reminds us why this country is worth fixing.
by 
