Awê 
There is always an h at the end of Aweh… for the homies, the hood…
Greetings - my name is Fiona Bulman and my home is in one of our children’s back garden in Pietermaritzburg - the City of Choice so they would have us believe. Strangely for me it is that - in spite of the crumbling infrastructure and the traffic congestion at times you are within 10 to 15 minutes of the countryside. This city also has some gems - the KwaZuluNatal Museum, the Botanical Gardens, the Tatham Art Gallery and the Bessie Head Library. Here there are dedicated teams of people and spaces where I can still engage around my passion - social justice through education. And I love my Daily Maverick.
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Hi all, I’m Riaan Duvenage, surgeon and head of the Dept. of Surgery in Worcester Hospital. I love Daily Maverick and read it daily. Apart from my job which I’ve been doing for about 30 years, I also love music (mostly classic rock and blues, some jazz) and photography, reading, woodworking, web development and lots of other things…I’m an aging dude who regularly gets mistaken for a real musician, oil rig worker, lighthouse keeper or a priest of the Russian Orthodox church…
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Hi there compatriots (eish I sound like Ramaphosa - remember the family meetings?). Its great to connect with you all. I am in the process of retiring from my day job as General Secretary of the Transnet Bargaining Council.
My wife and I love going on hikes and camping expeditions, something we hope we’ll be able to do more regularly in our retirement. We plan to be very active (bearing in mind that we are now senior citizens) in the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) space by promoting mediation as an alternative to this adversarial system of fighting things out in court (litigation). We are both accredited commercial mediators. That will also help to (as somebody else put it here) keep the wolf from the door.
Thank you Daily Maverick for this fantastic idea of connecting us here.
Cheers.
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Hi,
I’m Nomtha and really not one to generally introduce myself, but will see how this goes… I’m an exile (not-so-young) child, born in the UK and now spending time between SA and UK. While home is most often Oxford due to work, I also have a home in Jo’burg. Although my parents have both passed, I would love to spend more time in SA, but have only just gained citizenship and am a while away from retirement, so I’ll probably be posting on the professional network as well (background is IT procurement).
I’m a qualified rugby referee at the community level, which consumes most of my winter weekends in the UK, but I’ve also been lucky enough to referee when in SA, with my highlight being Assistant Referee for a women’s Golden Lions v Bulls Daisies match. I’m quite keen on it - particularly seeing more focus on women in sport, and really look forward to getting more visibility - we need to see more on TV and get the coverage in the DM right up there (doing well so far - if i can get the moniker of ‘Bokkerinas’ to stick, I will consider myself ‘done’!).
I admit I don’t often read ‘cover to cover’, but I do prefer the DM’s international coverage and supplement it with the NY Times and Telegraph in the UK to stop myself getting too much into a single echo chamber of news.
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Hey guys, sorry I’m a bit late to this (although that’s a great summary of who I am lol) - I’m Julia, and I’ve been an environmental journalist with DM for over four years now, reporting on all things climate, weather, water, energy, biodiversity… and everything in between (as the climate crisis intersects all facets of life) - I love trying to prove climate deniers wrong (joke, contrarians can never change their mind), and getting to meet and talk to incredibly interesting, compassionate and smart people. When I’m not interviewing other people, I’m begging people to interview me - as I love talking about myself 
(case and point this super long intro section!!)
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Hello everyone.
Leon, anaesthesiologist, Joburg. Owned by wife, son, 3 rescue dogs ( 2 Rotties ) and 7 cats.
Love books ( from Spawn to Fosse ), music ( Pärt to Mogwai ) and movies ( Tarkovsky to Villeneuve )
Greatest existential angst is that I’ve now accumulated more books than I’ll ever be able to read.
Great initiative, DM, thank you.
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Hi, I am Alex. I am a retired electrical engineer living in the Midstream Estate in Gauteng. I spent 40 years in engineering. Three years with Siemens (for example work on the electrification of the Sishen-Sldanha railway line), 28 with Denel and nine in the UAE. The vast proportion of my time was spent working on unmanned aerial systems, I ended up as a system engineer in that regard. I managed to write an (unsuccessful) sci-fi novel. From what I have learnt about that is that I will always disbelieve the critiques from a particular vanity publisher (who claims to have a “hybrid” publishing methodology). I believed their (false) praises of my book and I gave them a lot of money to publish it, leading to me receiving zero royalties. These days I am mostly at home, keeping myself busy with home maintenance, WhatsApp and email messages on my PC, playing word games (such as Wordle, Quordle and Waffle) and watching TV. Feeding the wild birds in my garden is a recent interest. I take and fetch my special needs son to Irene Homes and interact with various family members and friends. I am lucky to be reasonably healthy, so I intend to use DMC in addition to the Daily Maverick news to spice up my day! 
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Hi Johan, I am Alex. I lived in Adu Dhabi and Al Ain for nine years, I am presently retired (back in SA) after spending forty years in engineering. I have just added my introduction text to this discussion in case you wish to look at that. I had a short spell of training some cadets in the air college in the UAE, so I suspect that I know what sort of culture and the associated mechanisations that you have to contend with. I also trained various system operators in SA and elsewhere, I preferred that. Have a marvellous day! 
Hi Dave, Elizabeth here, just a little bit up the coast at Yellowwoodforest, Morgan Bay/Gxarha. In the mix of brewing something village/community/eco-like in nature… it’s already been plentifully heartbreaking, and wonderful. Would love to connect.
Will send an email to what I assume is your address /username.
Hi All, I am Catherine Smith, based in KZN South Africa. I manage CityHope Disaster Relief, where we aim to support communities across the country and further abroad when disasters occur. I am also a wife and mother of two primary school kids and I am so looking forward to travelling to Cape Town tomorrow for the Change Makers Gathering this week. See you all there!
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Great to have you here, Catherine. Looking forward to meeting you in person on Thursday.
As a concerned citizen and a DM subscriber ( buying coffee for several years), I thank you for keeping my eyes wide open with excellent reporting and investigative journalism! I look forward to participating on this platform.
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Hello, Maverick Insiders!
My name is Brad. I’m an independent financial advisor and CFP® Professional. I guide individuals and families toward financial futures that honour both meaning and balance. I founded McWalter Financial & Advisory to revive a more rooted, attentive way of working - one that treats money as a tool for alignment, not just accumulation.
In a world that often races forward without remembering why, I believe in slowing down enough to ask better questions - ones that connect our present choices to the kind of legacy we want to leave. I see financial planning not as control over life, but as stewardship: a way of listening forward.
I also enjoy martial arts, padel and anything sci-fi! And let’s not forget, I’m a proud dad 
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I am a great fan of DM so I am excited to explore the opportunity of being an insider.
I am the owner of a recruitment agency in Sandton dealing with niche positions in the financial services sector. I enjoy gardening, theatre, reading and am an insatiable adventurist.
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Hi All, my name is Diarmaid De Burca and I own and manage Holistic Energy Solutions - an electrical energy efficiency consultancy.
I live and work in Cape Town and enjoy running and socialising.
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Hi Everyone
My name is Freddie. I’m a Counsellor (Specialist Wellness and Addiction). I live on a wildlife estate farm close to Whiteriver in Mpumalanga. I am excited to be here, althoughI’m TERRIBLE with technology and am not even sure that I’ll be able to get back into this application 
. Só, this may be my first and last visit.
I love my job. Yet, I’m in the process of qualifying as a Craniosacral Therapist, because I believe that “the body keeps the score” (as per Bessel vam der Kolk), meaning that talk therapy does only half the job in assisting my clients. We need to release what the body holds, as much as processing events.
When I habe free time I study, walk daily on the farm and read A LOT.
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Wow, Freddie, what a beautiful way to live.
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Hi there.
Diane from Hout Bay here.
DM is my trusted news source - for somebody who doesn’t spend much time online, I know I’m only reading news that is meaningful to me.
I have had an interesting chequered career since 1976 - Medical Technologist(Virology & Microbiology)Flight Attendant, self employed Importer since 1999 but my passion lies in teaching Taichi & Qigong. I’ve been a student since 2007 and now in my fourth year of teaching the practices. In our turbulent world, with endless information engulfing us daily, I teach one how to find our inner calm, to observe and calm our thinking, thus enabling us to experience life as the quiet observer. To examine our inextricable connection with nature, to learn from the cycles of life and nature and to incorporate these flows into our daily life, effortlessly. The practices are a meditation in movement.
My other passions are gardening(big time!) opera and languages. I am accomplished in 7, some more than others and am currently learning to read, write and speak Mandarin
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