Viv Vermaak
Viv Vermaak is an award-winning investigative journalist, writer and director. She was the most loved and hated presenter on South Africa’s iconic travel show, “Going Nowhere Slowly’ and ranks being the tall germ, “Terie’ in Mina Moo as a career highlight. She does Jiu-Jitsu and has a ’69 Chevy Impala called Katy Peri-Peri. Vermaak's Podcast Report is a monthly feature on the Daily Friend Show, and appears monthly in the Daily Friend as a column.
Articles By This Author
Election 2026, the commentariat is warming up!
With the municipal elections less than two months away, people are casting the prediction dice with doses of aspersion. Opinions abound left, right and centre.
March and Braai: The strange loops of South African history
The first thing I thought of when I heard that AfriForum and March and March were collaborating was Piet Retief and Dingaan trying to broker a deal on a precarious cliff called Vulture’s Hill (Aasvoelkop) after a festivity took a wrong turn. In the modern version, the festivity is a braai, there is 24-hour TikTok coverage, and it is hard to say who the vultures are. Much remains the same, however; there is an epic battle for the same land, and only the invited will get a chance at a piece of it. In this version, the rainbow has taken a raincheck, and Ubuntu has been declared missing in action, presumed dead.
Who are the biggest baddies? Fauci, the SA government, or Peet and Mel?
What makes a person ‘bad’? How do we know someone is evil? It is typically defined by a consistent and intentional pattern of behaviour without remorse that causes harm to others. Our podcasters point some fingers at a few suspects.
I am a liberal. Are we the baddies?
I have to ask, because of late I’ve noticed that if you identify as ‘liberal’, the slew of insults is immediate and harsh. We are often referred to as libtards, libtarts, or scum. There are nastier ones, but for decency and family ratings, let’s stick to those. The Afrikaans word for scum is much more expressive: ‘gespuis.’ It is impossible to simply say this word; it can only be spat out with total condemnation of a person as a whole, similar to when we call someone ‘jou ma se p*es,’ which itself is still somehow a lesser slight in today’s political climate than being called a ‘liberal.’
A tin of baked beans for the coloureds, a plate of biryani for our boy, and a fancy hotel room for a refugee
The numbers for June 30 are modest: 120 marches, surprisingly little violence, some pan-African blowback, and only 1% of foreigners leave the country. I sampled some more reflective podcast opinions, adding a human touch.
A formula for the immigration problem
Is there a formula for dealing with these pesky foreigners? How many are too many? They are always marching in and out, across borders and into economies. People are having sex with them, exchanging cultural expressions, and, God forbid, some people are even employing them.
Will Cyril go to jail? Will Groenewald be president? Is the GNU cooked?
The Phala Phala impeachment process, the DA cabinet scramble and the upcoming election have all raised the temperature in the SA political pan. Voters are speculating, pundits are placing bets, and podcasters add some flavour.
Helen Zille: angel, witch, gogo or leader?
Women in power, from Joan of Arc to Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton, have always had a tough job bearing the judgements of their followers and detractors.
Sofa, so good, but Ramaphosa won’t wake up in the shower
30 years into the constitution, and South Africans are tuning in to the Phala Phala drama like Dallas in prime time. Podcasters add to it.
What do the moon landing, Riaan Cruywagen, and obesity have in common? Freedom!
A lot has changed between the first moon landing on 1969 and the historic 2026 Artemis mission around the moon. Human beings have now travelled further from the earth than ever before. We shared photos of the historic event with each other, not arguing this time whether they were real or not, but marveling at how AI could nowadays produce deepfake images that you could no longer tell from reality.