Unembargoed July 13 to 19

ANC bash caught up in VBS web

Siphoned-off funds seem to have been used to buy a table at the party’s birthday dinner

Ingonyama drama shows up ANC rift

Ramaphosa’s flip-flopping on land and kowtowing to the king suggests he has been left weakened

Contralesa out shopping for allies

The traditional leaders’ organisation wants to change terms of engagement with political heads

GP ANC court battle could spark crisis

A dispute in the party’s least problematic province places its upcoming elective conference in peril

Jessie and co bring relief to quarrelsome ANC branches

Court battles between the ANC leadership and disaffected branches claiming gatekeeping have been averted in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal

Mathunjwa purges rivals in shake-up

Amcu leader targets key officials amid confusion about its status as a worker-controlled union

Apple a day keeps Grim Squeaker away*

There have been many success stories in efforts to extend the human lifespan in the past 200 years

Slice of Life: The gift that keeps on giving

“It’s very important to me to introduce opportunities into my community that people don’t know how to access”

Will it be funerals for empty caskets?

The 20 Life Esidimeni patients still missing should be ‘assumed dead’, says DA

Isaacs inquiry to start soon

Equal Education has confirmed the list of panellists heading the inquiry into sexual harassment allegations made against the organisation’s co-founder, Doron Isaacs.

Jail awaits if you fake your matric

Recently, education quality assurer Umalusi raised a red flag about two websites selling fake matric certificates, a criminal offence.

Black students ‘undervalued’ at UCT

Curriculum content at the University of Cape Town sustains colonialism and working-class black students believe their knowledge is not valued

Retrenched gold miners caught in a Catch-22

Pan African Resources closes Evander Gold Mine, leaving its former workforce out on a limb

SIU probes Pule Mabe’s associates

Net widens as investigators find evidence of fraudulent activity conducted in three provinces

Waste pickers lament non-delivery of karikis by Enviro Mobi

It has been almost a year since 58 waste pickers, representing 15 co-operatives in Ekurhuleni municipality, were promised three-wheeler motorbikes — also known as Kariki Waste Ways — by the Gauteng department of agriculture and rural development and the politically connected company, Enviro Mobi.

Officials want ‘secure storage’ for scooters

Waste-picker co-operatives, which were promised three-wheeler “kariki” motorbikes, have seen no delivery on the promise — despite a R26-million payout in a questionable contract.

Company’s website and app are empty shells

To the average customer visiting the Enviro Mobi website, it is unclear what its primary focus is. Click on the “About” icon to read the company’s official introduction, and you’re bound to remain bewildered as to what the company actually does.

‘Beaufort se baas’ is back, and is as controversial as ever

With 60% of the Karoo town jobless, the maverick politician has his work cut out for him

HEALTH:

Poisonous haze: Why the air we breathe could kill us

Climate change and air pollution could be conspiring against the continent, and fuelling new levels of death and disease

The NHI: We answer six of your burning questions

If the NHI Bill is passed in its current form, the NHI will be compulsory, regardless of whether you also belong to a private medical aid

AFRICA:

Ethiopia’s 100-day revolution

All new leaders promise change, but few actually deliver. But Abiy Ahmed appears to be cut from a completely different cloth

‘Nigeria, we are waiting’ – Ramaphosa

The South African president is calling on the West African nation to say ‘yes’ to free trade

‘Technology is not for women’

Women, especially the poor, face innumerable obstacles when they try to access technology

Buhari can’t have it both ways

The commitment of Nigeria’s president to fighting corruption is undermined by his officials’ disrespect for the rule of law

BUSINESS:

VBS: Widows and orphans may lose out

A liquidation application offers insight into the ‘epic’ fraud that saw the bank being fleeced

Is Absa’s new coat of paint enough?

Analysts say the rebranded banking giant needs more than just a fresh logo to regain market share

African trade far from free

The continent’s leaders need to weigh up the pros and cons of intra-African agreements carefully before committing their nations to them

Cut red tape so that small business is enabled and encouraged

South Africa has realised the value add that small enterprises can bring to the economy, but we seem confused about how to go about creating them.

SMEs hobbled by funding gap

Only 1% of South Africa’s small, medium and micro-sized enterprises ask for formal financing

How not to outlive your cash

Obeying the 4% rule is not always enough to ensure your savings last through retirement

COMMENT & ANALYSIS:

With the liberal world order in a state of crisis, genuinely democratic alternatives must be found

Editorial: Cave boys saga brought out the best in us

‘That familiar confluence of triumph and tragedy is what builds our ability to understand and share the feelings of each other’

Editorial: Hypocrisy off the field

‘The truth is that the likes of France continue to benefit from migration while still waging a war on migrants’

Letters to the Editor: July 13 to 19

Our readers write in about the Mail & Guardian’s bias and a writer’s attack on his ‘favourite whipping boy’

Picturing my kingdom as an island

Isolation from the rest of the world can be exasperating, but it’s what Zexiteers crave

The dangerous re-ethnicisation of South African politics must be stopped lest it lead to the same ethnonationalism that caused bloodshed in Rwanda, Yugoslavia and elsewhere

US gag rule ties SA’s hands

Put a stop to the policy that blocks aid to organisations offering abortion services

I’ll be flying to Jo’burg from Cape Town for the first time in a while, leaving a drenched city with level 6B water restrictions for a parched land with none

Let’s get physical

It is about time schools promoted activity to battle the creeping effects of tech-focused lifestyles

Interventions should be about building facilities that offer dignity to our children

Decolonised spaces must be given room

The future of students and the institutions that teach them can be advanced if they are transformed

FRIDAY:

We are not meant to be alone

I’m not that intimately close to anybody anymore. And even if I do have close friends and family, I no longer know how to ask someone to “khapha” me, be with me, talk to me with ease

This weekend

Fragile by Wolfgang Tillmans, notes on spectrality, sorcery and the spirit, and Photo Focus

On our lists

Melodious Thunk (from the book But Beautiful) by Geoff Dyer, feeling and ugly by Danai Mupotsa (Impepho Press), and iWalk ye Phara Dance by DJ Maphorisa and DJ Raybel, featuring Zulu Mkhathini and TDK.

What happens after the fest?

The Black Power Station keeps local artists on their creative toes in the gaps between festivals

The quiet activism of exposing everyday fragility

German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans captures the mundane alongside the epic

Both physical presence, and authenticity

It is hotly debated in many circles whether white gallery walls can ever become truly inclusive and evolved

To hate gays is to hate God

Like many, my varsity days saw me deeply conflicted in beliefs I thought I held. The parts of my sexuality that I hadn’t felt comfortable enough exploring in earlier years awoke within me. I found myself having painful internal tête-à-têtes.

Mending severed histories with returning shades

This novel weaves colonial fact and ancestral memory in contemporary Eastern Cape life

Bruce Lee, my father and me

As a genre, martial arts films have played a vital role in empowering the underdog

Cast out, then duped anew

Small-scale farmers who were given back their land now sell acorns to survive, a doccie shows