What's on the cards

VISIONARY: 2026 WILL BE A TURBULENT YEAR BUT ALSO BRINGS HOPE

- Hein Kaiser

New Year's resolutions aside, everyone wants to have a glimpse of what 2026 may have in store for the country.

Tarot card reader Samantha Celeste of Heavenly Healing in Benoni said that there's no way to sugarcoat the year ahead, either. She said that the new year will arrive with all the subtlety of a death metal band at 3am in a retirement village.

January, she said, will be a rocky month for the establishment, she said. Political structures may wobble, economic policies could be overturned or disrupted and social order might take a few unexpected knocks.

"It is unsettling, but it clears away what no longer works," she said. "Think of it as demolition before reconstruction."

And if there is demolition to be done, the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry may well be holding the sledgehammer, she said.

It's a potential line in the sand and, she said, South Africans must expect more revelations that may shake the foundations of political and institutional power, forcing more hidden truths into the light. Exposed corruption and looming legal consequences naturally destabilise the systems that rely on secrecy to function.

February holds the line

After January's shockwave, February takes a more fortified stance. Citizens, leaders, and institutions plant their feet in position. It is a month about holding ground rather than charging ahead.

South Africans demonstrate once again that when circumstances wobble, grit kicks in. The mood may be tense, but the message is clear: no one is pushing this country around.

March's demand for justice

March, Celeste said, raises the volume on calls for justice, transparency, fairness and accountability.