Unembargoed: November 9 to 15

North West ex-premier punted VBS

A forensic report claims Supra Mahumapelo urged municipalities to invest with the bank

Gama lobby guns for Maria Ramos

Supporters also claim Barbara Hogan and Trevor Manuel have been targeting the ex-Transnet boss

Gordhan details attack on treasury

The minister’s affidavit tells of bids to block a Bill that would enable scrutiny of dodgy money

African Investment Forum has 306 pipelined projects worth $208-billion

The bottom line was $208-billion at the Africa Investment Forum in Sandton this week.

ANC acts quickly to halt DD fallout

Branches peeved by Mabuza dropping NDZ may rob him of his deputy presidency of the country.

Slice of life: Rest easy, Roy

‘He had beauty in him and perhaps more than just a little darkness’

Rustenburg High shows up its junior school

While concerned parents continue to urge transformation at Rustenburg Girls’ Junior School (RGJS), Rustenburg Girls’ High School (RGHS) has — in contrast — been praised for its discussions with its alumni.

CT social housing brought to standstill

Departmental disagreements are holding up the development of five prime sites in Cape Town

Gatvol Capetonian sets its sight on 2019 elections

If coloured nationalist group Gatvol Capetonian has its way, it will soon be campaigning for the 2019 elections.

Tainted officials get new jobs

Ekurhuleni has reappointed two senior officials who have been implicated in corrupt World Cup deals

Integrity’s bark worse than its bite

Despite being given more teeth, the ANC’s integrity chair does not believe it can compel the ruling party to take action

Ingonyama Trust strips women of land

A rule by King Goodwill Zwelithini’s trust board — that only men can sign leases — is being challenged in the high court

Residents want trust to pay back ‘illegal’ rent

The Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) may be forced to pay back millions of rands it has unlawfully collected in rent for nearly a decade from people living on land it controls on behalf of King Goodwill Zwelithini.

R6.5-billion lost to alien invaders

In a world-first, South Africa has quantified the damage done by invasive species. Sipho Kings breaks down the good, the bad and the ugly flora and fauna contained in the new report

Internet freedom thrives in SA

South Africa has been ranked 8th in internet freedom out of 65 countries but, as Gigaba will know this week, we might be enjoying it too much

Fees battle could set a precedent

DA seeks to set aside state attorney’s decision to fund former president Jacob Zuma’s legal costs

Happiness is …
gender-affirming surgery

Thando Thengwa’s physical pain does nothing to quash her joy.
“I am so, so happy. It is indescribable,” the 37-year-old says from the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, where she is recovering from eight hours of gender reassignment surgery.

Bionic mushrooms are a thing now

Scientists have the technology (and apparently the inclination) to make fungus better, stronger, faster

Astrophysicists bicker over extraterrestrial drive-by

A scientific paper led by two researchers at Harvard University made a splash this week by claiming that a cigar-shaped rock zooming through our solar system may have been sent by aliens.

HEALTH:

Pills, not money, from these ATM’s

South Africa is the first in the world to install pill-dispensing machines in shopping centres

Supportive partners can curb HIV

Men can help to prevent new HIV infections by showing up for their partners. Here’s how.

AFRICA:

Somalia’s cheetah smuggling ring

Africa’s big cats are being trafficked to rich households in the Middle East who want ‘something more exotic’

Fear grips Tanzania’s queer people

A commissioner’s threat of a crackdown has resulted in them going into hiding or fleeing the country

SA show at Chino expo cringeworthy

The South African pavilion was a ‘disservice to the country’ — and no one could speak Mandarin

BUSINESS:

Haemorrhaging RAF staggers along

A new model is in the pipeline but the current fund’s liabilities are projected to rise to R393-billion by 2021-2022

Tax dodgy Chevron targeted

Several unions have approached the OECD to arbitrate a dispute that will affect all multinationals

Steinhoff class action is payback

The major bid lists as many as 42 defendants to get as much as possible out for investors

Climate change Bill needs to be strengthened

South Africa, like the rest of world, cannot and does not deny the negative effects of climate change. The Climate Change Bill, published on June 18 this year, is meant to be an effective and progressive response to it.

China’s lending spree needs scrutiny

Its opaque agreements may finally be exposed by borrowers approaching global financial institutions

COMMENT & ANALYSIS:

Elitism remains the enemy of democracy

Ramaphosa’s inability to imagine an emancipatory path takes us back to an unsustainable elitism

Editorial: Journalism under attack in Africa

‘Journalists will not go down without a fight, even as it becomes ever more difficult to do so’

Editorial: Othering is apartheid

‘The initiative by Parents for Change reminds us that the change most of us yearn for is something that we should not stop fighting for’

Letters to the editor: November 9 to 15

Our readers write in about Yemeni children, the integrity commission, and the M&G’s brief error

Tenants of the ITB, unite

“I’ve never been much of a fan of dead white men, apart from Joe Strummer from The Clash, but Vladimir Lenin is all right in my book.”

Hello! Women voters have real clout

A recent study shows just how important gender-related issues are to a well-defined electoral group

Accountability dies when journalists are killed

Today more journalists are murdered because of their reporting than die in war zones.

Rethink the rise in fertility ‘egg safaris’

Women holiday abroad to give their eggs and others visit countries like South Africa to get them

Immigration white paper critically flawed

A product of the Zuma era, it reflects xenophobia and vilifies human rights groups and lawyers

Ways to be a super queer ally

But in trying to be supportive, allies sometimes get it all wrong

Fifth column: Dark forces threaten Member

“Whatever he’s innocent of, Gigaba is guilty of ambition. How sweetly, almost shyly, he admitted that he has presidential hopes.”

Break poverty divide, read to your children

In today’s digital world, it’s becoming easy to find stories in South Africa’s 11 languages

Race is an obstinate variable

The education system needs a revolution so that black people’s academic achievements will improve

FRIDAY:

Border delays because officials can

Four hours after our arrival in Lagos, the immigration officials must have felt they had sufficiently flexed their muscles

The Weekend Guide

Don’t miss the Joburg Film Festival and veteran artist Sam Nhlengethwa’s exhibition this weekend

On our Lists this week: Reni Eddo-Lodge, Blood Orange

This week we’re watching ‘Fresh off the boat’ and reading ‘When I grow up’

Cultural songs go digital

The Samro Foundation is busy painstakingly digitising South Africa’s indigenous music

‘Kanarie’: Coming out in a silenced era

Beautiful voices, good laughs and sadness in this film, about religion, war and conscripts during apartheid

Shange paid the price for her honesty

Her book gifted me a vision of myself and many black women who carried my world

Mexico with its take on the dead

The celebration of the dead finds a resonance with the works of some of our leading creatives

Frida Kahlo’s communist ideas revisited and rejected

The artist’s dedication to the communist party is obvious in paintings such as Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick

The markings of Zulu rap

Manelis’s album part of quest to find his own sound and language that’s woke to the street and literary