/ 11 December 2017

Unembargoed: Mail & Guardian December 8 – 14

Get your fix of the M&G here.
Get your fix of the M&G here.

All the articles in this week’s Mail & Guardian are now free to read online

No deal—the ANC battle is on

Neither presidential hopeful is prepared to stand back for party unity, which could lead to a split.

MultiChoice: Bully boy or dirty player?

The pay-TV service admits it lobbied e.tv to drop its encryption agenda but denies resorting to bribery

Firms shrug off corruption

KPMG and McKinsey employees linked to Gupta deals have walked away with their pockets lined.

Flakka in SA is fake news—Hawks

The unit says it has found no signs of the psychosis-inducing drug but others insist it is in the country

Little Foot: Two assistants credited for finding ‘needle in haystack’

Meet Stephen Motsumi: A former Sterkfontein caves tour guide who made one of the world’s most important evolutionary science discoveries- Little Foot.

‘Sex pest claim got me fired’

An ex-staffer claims UFS sacked her on trumped-up fraud charges leaked by her alleged harasser

Ramaphosa: Money or the workers?

Is he the one to rescue the ANC and South Africa? There is no telling from his contradictory record.

The roast of Busisiwe Mkhwebane

The public protector was grilled so badly in court that she was left fighting for her professional life

Survivors of botched circumcisions live in secrecy

But surgery can help those whose dreams of a normal adult life were brutally ended

‘Ambassadors’ for trans surgery rally for better services

Transgender patients and activists have mobilised health profession to get more surgeons interested in doing gender-affirming surgery.

Imisebe’s Shembe legacy unsure

The church leader gained support for pursuing its founders ideals

Prison gang war sparks lockdown

Westville jail inmates say they are being unlawfully punished for gang violence

R100m for ‘ads’, too little for ships

Commemorative events and memorials, as well as consultants have cost the defence department millions

Promoting science for youth a ‘smart choice’

Cyril Ramaphosa and Naledi Pandor have a particularly pro-intellectual stance, pushing science and technology as a way to drive economic growth and job creation.

Unravelling the riddle of Jessie

Tough as nails, the ANC top-sixer is labelled a party unifier by some and clearly biased by others

Police officer among five arrested for hostel murders

Police have arrested five men — one of them a police officer — in what appears to be a major breakthrough in investigations into the series of murders that have taken place at Durban’s Glebelands hostel

Why abortion-by-mail services are spreading

Go inside the international network of women willing to break the law to give people access to abortions

Nigerians relive Libyan nightmare

Sent home after failing to reach Europe, migrants tell of the horrors they endured

New blood gives Angola hope

It took just 50 days into the new Angolan administration for the former president’s daughter to be replaced as boss of Sonangol, along with three other top officials at the national oil company.

Fit-again Nigerian president hits campaign trail

After months of illness and treatment abroad Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari made his first trip to a key state, the latest sign of his return to the national stage.

Sudanese courts rob the poor

Punitive fines are used to raise revenues, and women are the biggest target

BUSINESS:

Steinhoff implosion staggers SA

Former Minister announces investigation by Financial Services Board into alleged misconduct

Watch your job, the bots are coming

Automation is replacing manual workers at a rapid rate. What will be the ‘safe’ careers of the future?

Consumers fret over debit orders

Banks are usually blamed but a professional body is taking steps to stop fraud

Bitcoin: A pocketful of cryptonite

Invest in the risky cryptocurrency only if you are prepared to lose everything

FRIDAY:

Building bridges over taken land

We sometimes forget that our struggle as the beneficiaries of desegregation is to solve these existing power dynamics piecemeal, from the inside of these new shared intimate spaces.

Boycott predators’ films. Or not

We’d miss out on the work of the talented, but a stayaway is a vote for values—and for their victims

Surfing the Qqom Wave to oblivion

Before the hype wave, Gqom was Kwaito’s errant teenage child. In Friday this week, Kwanele Sosibo talks Gqom after watching the supposed EPK for Maphorisa’s project, the Gqom Wave documentary.

Spike Lee revives Nola Darling in a TV joint that hits and misses

The director has recast his signature film and its characters for a new generation

El Anatsui comes back to Africa

The world-renowned artist is being introduced to audiences with his latest exhibition ‘Meyina’

When pudding is no trifling matter

Pudding politics: Dinika Govender invites us into her family’s annual Christmas Eve dinner and shares her grandmother’s politically-layered dessert with us.

A Brazil travel diary: Nova Terra, Nossa Terra

”How can I explain this feeling of beginning to understand Africanity beyond the mother continent?”. Chaze Matakala’s travel diary across the Atlantic transports us into a pilgrimage on Africanness.

The gifts of imperfect everydays

A daily commune offers discomfort, the smells and sounds of the city and time to think about where you come from and where you’re going.

COMMENT & ANALYSIS:

Esidimeni’s are going on all the time

Unless care of the intellectually disabled changes there will be a never-ending series of tragedies

Illiteracy threatens our democracy

The democratic project is fatally wounded without a national plan to teach teachers how to teach reading

Shaun the sheep can’t safely graze

If CR17 becomes president, Abraham’s lack of action could provide the reason to get rid of him

The Cat is out of the bag in the race to anoint the Chosen One

“ANC national chair Baleka Mbete and treasurer general Zweli Mkhize didn’t have much fun at the KwaZulu-Natal provincial council.”

Sixteen days of denialism

The state’s response to violence against women and children avoids the real work that’s needed

Big Bro set to watch each pupil

The secret move to closely monitor public school education will track children right into adulthood

 

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