All the stories in this week's M&G are free to read
Those negotiating for miners’ families say the state has been nothing but bloody-minded
Has Malusi Gigaba done enough to evade the axe? We may just see several familiar faces returning to Cabinet
After debating intensely with myself, I decided to let go of my heels and comfortably walk around in my slippers and actually show the world the mess I felt like.
Mining communities and industry want the minister’s charter scrapped and talks restarted
Residents facing eviction from their Woodstock homes “have no right or entitlement†to be accommodated at a location of their choice, says the lawyer representing the City of Cape Town.
The brewing insurrection in KwaZulu-Natal against the decision to recall former president Jacob Zuma has been quelled.
From comics to movies, the representation of Africans in popular culture has set the world abuzz
The furore over the film Inxeba has cast a light on men who are gay but deeply committed to their culture
A proposed hike in the VAT rate will be closely interrogated by Parliament before it is accepted, according to ANC MP and chairperson of the standing committee on finance, Yunus Carrim.
The ANC’s renewed commitment to land expropriation without compensation may be more political posturing— making it a podium pipe dream.
Rather than providing the Moerane commission with detailed responses to months of witness claims of complicity, the SAPS brass gave bureaucratic responses and defended the role of the police.
The Eastern Cape’s Joe Gqabi region has objected to the provincial executive committee’s request for a reshuffle of Premier Phumulo Masualle and members of his Cabinet, following new chairperson Oscar Mabuyane’s swearing-in on Monday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s message this week was emphatic: there will be no more man-boobs flapping in his wind of change.
The world has abundant fresh water but it is unevenly distributed and under increasing pressure, United Nations agencies say, as highlighted by the drought in Cape Town.
It was nine years ago when a brave deaf teenager went to court to force government to recognise South African Sign Language as a subject in school. Now, matric students will be able to take it as a subject.
James Selfe says the DA will have ”strategic challenges” now that Cyril Ramaphosa is president, but his party’s fight against corruption won’t stop now
A Zuma-less future could put pressure on opposition parties to reconfigure their strategies ahead of the 2019 elections.
In the Northern Cape, former mineworkers and their families live with lung-destroying diseases and barely survive financially. Lucas Ledwaba explores the reality of their poverty and untimely deaths.
HEALTH:
Why the world is just waking up to the power of immunisation to tackle this infectious disease and how we’re learning more with every rainy season.
AFRICA:
Rwanda has slashed infant mortality. Rumana Akoob travelled there to see how they did it.
Ethiopia’s ruling elite aren’t sure if they can contain the growing political crisis. Read Simon Allison’s analysis from Addis Ababa.
Morgan Tsvangirai was the hope of many Zimbabweans and the man Mugabe feared most, but he failed at the last hurdle
BUSINESS:
Thank the past president for the increase in value-added tax and the drastic cuts in expenditure.
In the 2018 budget tabled by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, he made the point that state-owned entities still represent one of the largest, if not the largest, threat to the government’s carefully laid financial plans
“The budget statement merely says that policy decisions concerning historic debt, adjustment of the family income threshold as well as interventions to decrease dropout rates and the construction of student housing will be taken in due course.â€
Spending cuts and VAT increase mean everyone will contribute to free higher education
A fund with an allocation of R2.1-billion over the medium term is being developed to benefit small and medium enterprises, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba announced during his maiden budget speech .
The budget should placate ratings agencies, but analysts say we need solid political leadership and policy reforms to evade full-blown junk status
Critics dismiss treasury’s claims that the increase in value-added tax is the best way forward
With severe drought conditions affecting large parts of the country and placing extreme strain on the supply of water for nearly four million Capetonians, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba set aside R6‑billion to mitigate the effects of the drought.
Renewed vigour to tackle corruption head on was apparent in the treasury’s 2018 Budget, tabled by Minister Malusi Gigaba in Parliament.
The labour movement and others criticise the budget for its increase in value-added tax, which will negatively affect the poor, and for making made no substantive inroads on wealth tax.
Whatever route the ANC goes, a balance has to be found between property rights and restitution.
COMMENT & ANALYSIS:
Instead of hitting low earners hard, the budget should have raised wealth and corporate taxes.
Malusi Gigaba should be given a role in Generations or the like — something with a part for a stylish smoothie. He certainly is a good actor, performing this year’s budget with conviction
What was Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport thinking? Getting the notorious racist and bad singer Steve Hofmeyr to write an analysis piece about South Africa’s new president and the putting out to pasture of the old one was not a terribly good idea.
”The ANC’s national leadership was never going to let Daddy finish his term. They couldn’t. Daddy’s an embarrassing liability to the ANC.”
As I end this letter, I am watching you take an early-morning walk, urging South Africans to be fit for purpose. I am sending messages to all my friends, saying: “Walk the talk with President Ramaphosa!†Let’s do it, literally and figuratively.
Clear policy, coupled with a push to identify high-impact projects, will accelerate change
The ANC — not the Constitutional Court, nor the Economic Freedom Fighters, nor the Mail & Guardian nor the South African citizenry — brought Zuma’s calamitous and corrupt reign to an end.
The hope of a new country ushered in by President Cyril Ramaphosa brings joy, but the road to achieving the changes required for a just and equal society is a long, hard one.
OBITUARY: Sampie Terreblanche’s name will live on in the hearts and minds of social scientists, economic justice activists and perhaps even a few guilt-ridden politicians.
The uproar over research about those who rue having a surgical transition obscures real issues
“Two more great ways to fill your personal budget hole up are to up revenue or increase your ROI (return on investment), provided you have an “I†to start with. Failing that, you can up revenue by working yourself to the bone.â€
Educators need to stop playing victim and plan to teach in less favourable conditions
FRIDAY:
“In Black Panther there are nuanced characters. Even the Killmonger cannot be hated. Indeed, in a conversation with a friend, he is a villain I could defend. After all, he won the throne fairly.â€
The meaning of traditional attire is being lost. But does it matter? Gogo Jessie Mabona thinks it does.
It’s a genre that can’t exist without the spectre of blackness. Black Panther gets this.
A couple have made it their mission to see more new work published in book form
A US museum has given Gunn-Salie the chance to realise an idea and take the message to the world
Go through the weekly tribulations and Sunday morning redemptions in Mapetla, Soweto with Tshepiso Mabula’s creative non-fiction.
From Bergville, a verdant town on the nose of KwaZulu-Natal, to uKhahlamba-Drakensberg. In Friday this week we take a picturesque road trip with S. Mnisi Mzolo.
SPORTS:
But it’ll take more than the celebration of a Muslim player to kick prejudice out of the game
Chain-smoking Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri expressed his gratitude to RB Leipzig bosses for building a room in which he could puff away this week as his team attempted to overturn a 3-1 deficit in their Europa League tie.
Highlands Park won’t be content with the PSL– it’s the Champions League they’re eyeing
