Why Good News in South Africa Matters More Than Ever!

For the past 11 years, Good Things Guy has been telling a different side of the South African story. Not because bad things don’t happen here but because alongside every... The post Why Good News in South Africa Matters More Than Ever! appeared first on Good Things Guy.

May 24, 2026 - 05:28

Why Good News in South Africa Matters More Than Ever!

For the past 11 years, Good Things Guy has been telling a different side of the South African story. Not because bad things don’t happen here but because alongside every crisis are communities helping, strangers donating, rescuers stepping in and ordinary people refusing to give up on each other.

South Africa (24 May 2026) – Somewhere between the breaking news alerts, the doomscrolling and the national fatigue, South Africans started believing that this country was “only” broken. That the only stories worth telling were the ones that made us angry, gatvol, scared or hopeless… fearful. To be honest, if that’s all you consume every single day, eventually, it changes how you see everything around you… your neighbours, that person standing in the queue next to you, your future and even yourself.

But that’s never been the full story of South Africa, and for the past 11 years, the Good Things Guy team has spent every single day searching for the side of this country that rarely leads the bulletin but somehow carries the soul of who we are… teachers, doctors, rescuers, animal lovers, entrepreneurs trying to create jobs against impossible odds and communities feeding strangers after floods and fires.

The ordinary South Africans doing extraordinary things simply because they care about somebody other than themselves… the helpers, heroes and healers.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” – Fred Rogers

My life changed in 2014 because it was the first time I truly started paying attention to stories like these. Of all the helpers. And all I wanted to do was share them with South Africa. And the world!

What started as one small platform sharing (just one) positive news story a day quickly grew into something much bigger than I (or my team) could ever have imagined. Today, Good Things Guy has published more than 30,000 stories focused on good news, inspiring South African stories and the people working every day to make this country better. And over the years, we’ve seen firsthand what happens when those stories reach people at exactly the right moment.

We’ve watched readers raise millions of rand for causes that moved them emotionally. We’ve seen communities rally around families after devastating tragedies. We’ve seen tiny charities suddenly receive nationwide support because somebody shared one article at the right time. We’ve watched surgeries funded, schools rebuilt, animals rescued and lives changed because South Africans were reminded that they are not powerless and that there are still good people out there trying their best to make things better.

I think that’s why good news matters so much more than people realise.

And it’s not because it ignores reality or pretends everything is okay… good news brings balance to the constant flood of negativity that so many of us carry around every single day. The news (whether good or bad) doesn’t just report on a country… it shapes the country’s emotional mood. And when people are only exposed to fear, corruption, crisis, and anger, they eventually stop believing that positive change is even possible.

Good news interrupts that cycle. It reminds people that alongside the corruption and chaos, there are also South Africans doing the MOST!

It’s been 11 years (almost 12) and Good Things Guy stopped feeling like “just a website” a long time ago. It has become a community of people who still believe South Africa is worth fighting for. Today, you can find our good news across almost every platform imaginable… on the website (hello, hi… you’re reading this here), across social media, in our weekly newsletter, on radio stations like 947, 702 and CapeTalk, on TV like eNCA and Die Groot Ontbyt, in podcasts, keynote talks and even on billboards around the country thanks to our incredible partners, Primedia Outdoor and Tractor Outdoor.

And actually, it’s all because of you! Every bit of that growth happened because South Africans kept sharing the good. As I would say in my social media posts (which might be wildly inappropriate for a “serious” article)… “buy a donkey”.

One of the biggest turning points for us came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when our inboxes became filled with messages from people needing urgent help. Families looking for food. Women trying to escape abuse. Animal rescuers searching for support. Communities needing shelter, counselling, educational support or simply somebody who could point them in the right direction. We realised that people weren’t only looking for inspiring stories anymore, they wanted to know what came next… they wanted practical ways to help and practical places to turn when they needed help themselves.

That’s when “The Helpers” was born.

Powered by the Good Things Guy team and built alongside the incredible Druff Interactive team, The Helpers was designed as a centralised, user-driven charity directory connecting South Africans with organisations that can assist them, while also helping people support causes close to their hearts. Whether someone is searching for help with food insecurity, gender-based violence support, cancer care, animal welfare, shelters or educational initiatives, the platform was built to make those connections easier, faster and more human.

Because hope on its own is important, but hope backed by action is what changes lives.

We now have 311 organisations listed on the platform, and while that is nowhere near our 30,000 articles, it is growing every single day. But more so, what makes me really happy (and proud) is how The Helpers is doing what it was intended to do… help! Every single day, South Africans are logging on to find help, help each other or share the help.

And I think, maybe, that’s always been the real purpose behind Good Things Guy. Not just sharing good news South Africa stories for the sake of positivity but reminding people that they are part of the solution too. That even in the most difficult times, there are still millions of South Africans waking up every day determined to help somebody else, build something meaningful or leave their communities better than they found them.

And I think maybe that’s the goal, isn’t it? To leave people, places and things a little better than we found them. That’s the stuff that actually matters in the end.

As Good Things Guy moves towards its 12th birthday on the 1st of August, the mission remains exactly the same as it was when this journey first started more than a decade ago: to remind South Africans that there is still good here, still kindness here and still people trying their absolute best to make this country work.

South Africa has never only been the sum of its problems. It has also always been the sum of the people who refuse to let that define us… the helpers, heroes and healers. And I believe if you are reading this, that’s you.