Pick of the week's articles

[Daily Maverick] Sunday, 21 January 2018 STORY OF THE WEEK [Cape Town Mafia: Biggest underworld trial to expose politically connected in city’s economy of the night]( By STEPHEN GROOTES Tourists and visitors to Cape Town as well as the city’s well-heeled residents who enjoy dining and dancing at some of the city’s high-end restaurants and nightclubs may believe they are immune to the endemic gang warfare that blights the lives of the city’s working classes. But the recent appearance of five alleged Cape underworld figures in what promises to be the most significant trial exposing the entrails of organised crime in the region has not only implicated high-ranking police officers, revealing the state’s links to the criminal economy, but also made visible just how intimate the under- and upper-worlds are. By MARIANNE THAMM. [Eastern Cape Drought: Rapidly overtaking the Cape Town crisis]( Cape Town has dominated headlines as the city most likely to run out of water due to the crippling drought in the Western Cape. But as officials in the Cape Town Mayor’s office scramble to work around a series of political scandals within the province’s ruling DA, the neighbouring Eastern Cape has been rolling headlong into disaster. And they don’t have a lot of options. By MARELISE VAN DER MERWE. [Social Development has allegedly paid SABC R500,000 to interview Bathabile Dlamini – but no one's talking]( On 18 December, slap bang in the middle of the ANC's bruising elective conference at Nasrec, Anele Mdoda, host of the SABC 3 Real Talk with Anele, re broadcast a two-hour hagiographic profile of Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini. Queries by Daily Maverick to confirm the payment of R500,000 of public funds by the DSD to the SABC for the interview, have been met with a long and stony silence from all concerned. By MARIANNE THAMM. [amaBhungane and Scorpio #GuptaLeaks: Meet the money launderers]( The Guptas used an international network of scrap metal dealers to launder hundreds of millions in kickbacks between China, India, the UAE and South Africa. We introduce them. By AMABHUNGANE and SCORPIO. [The creeping, fatal impact of listeriosis]( Listeriosis is serious but treatable – the problem comes when trying to trace the cases. Because of this, the disease might be deadlier than was first thought. By BHEKI SIMELANE and PUSELETSO NTHATE. [Analysis: Winds of ANC change blowing strong]( Generally speaking, in the metaphorically challenged battle between the buffalo and the tsunami, the tsunami can run out of options pretty quickly. Over time, the buffalo will emerge, perhaps sodden, but victorious. And so it is inevitably happening that political power is ebbing away from South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, and the tides are moving dramatically towards Deputy President and new ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa. However, Ramaphosa’s speech on Saturday was about much more than power in the ANC; it was a dramatic claim to national political power, to place him as the national leader to look to, and to put the ANC properly and firmly back in charge of the country. By STEPHEN GROOTES. [Analysis: The rise and fall of Richard Mdluli, a man who damaged our society]( Jacob Zuma may never have become president if it were not for Richard Mdluli. The story of the man who is now finally leaving the formal position of head of the Police Crime Intelligence Unit is intrinsically linked with that of Zuma, and his rise to power. Now, in a week in which the Assets Forfeiture Unit has started to freeze the assets of companies linked to the Guptas, less than a month after someone who is not Zuma’s ex-wife became leader of the ANC, Mdluli is walking the plank, just as the ANC’s national executive committee starts to withdraw into a four-day conclave. By STEPHEN GROOTES. [Scorpio: Lord Hain labels Moyane and Makwakwa ‘corrupt’, Hogan Lovells ‘either a willingly gullible or malevolent accomplice’]( Lord Peter Hain delivered a severe thrashing to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and international law firm Hogan Lovells in the House of Lords on Monday evening, over their handling of the disciplinary debacle of the Taxman’s 2IC, Jonas Makwakwa. Hain labelled tax boss Tom Moyane and Makwakwa as “corrupt” and accused Hogan Lovells of being “either a willingly gullible or malevolent accomplice”. By PAULI VAN WYK for SCORPIO. [EFF and H&M: Let’s ask the tough questions]( The EFF is struggling for relevance in a South African political landscape that is shifting fast. The next national election is in 2019 and then their strategies will be tested in a campaigning environment in which they will not have Zuma to lambaste as president of the ANC. What will their message to voters be then – we trashed a few stores and ended racism? By JUDITH FEBRUARY [FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO A FRIEND]( Copyright © 2017 Daily Maverick, All rights reserved. You are receiving this mail because you are awesome and on the Daily Maverick First Thing subscriber list. [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](