Pick of the week's articles

[Daily Maverick] Sunday, 21 May 2017 STORY OF THE WEEK [A Taste for Strife: How a right-wing boycott has lost Spur millions and counting]( By REBECCA DAVIS In March, a video showing a white man confronting a black woman at a Spur steakhouse in Johannesburg went viral on social media. Spur swiftly moved to ban the man in question from its restaurants countrywide – much to the outrage of the Afrikaans right wing. That wing has responded with a Facebook-mobilised boycott campaign which is packing a powerful punch. The Spur chain has lost tens of millions of rand so far. Those hardest hit by the boycott are franchise owners in predominantly white, Afrikaans areas. Help support Daily Maverick. Mobile readers [click here]( to use SnapScan, or [click here]( for other options. [Molefe gambit: Zuma.Does.Not.Care.Any.More]( The return of Brian Molefe as CEO to Megawatt Park is perhaps the best illustration yet of the gaping divide between Luthuli House and the Union Buildings, of what happens when President and the governing party (or at least large parts of it) can’t agree on anything any more. It is also the best possible example of how our state-owned entities are going to be just another section of the casualties of the political battle that is currently playing out. At the same time, the decision to re-instate, or rather re-employ Molefe shows the depths of desperation that President Jacob Zuma and those around him are prepared to sink to. But it also adds a greater impetus to those who oppose Zuma, who may now feel they have to act before more damage is done. By STEPHEN GROOTES. [South Africa’s R40bn private security industry under threat]( More is being spent by South African citizens on private security than ever before, R45-billion a year, to be exact. That’s a third more than the government spent on the police last year, making South Africa’s private security industry the fourth largest in the world per capita. But a controversial bill currently awaiting President Zuma’s signature threatens to throw the industry into turmoil. BY SHAUN SWINGLER for CHRONICLE. [Bathabile Dlamini admits Sassa paid for private security for her children]( Sassa officials and Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini faced a pummelling by members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts in Parliament on Tuesday with regard to preparations to take over grant payments by 2018 as well as the agency’s R1.1-billion January 2017 closing balance in irregular expenditure. Dlamini also attempted to justify why, as a Cabinet minister, she had got Sassa to foot the bill for private security for her children. There were sweaty heads and furrowed brows all round. By MARIANNE THAMM. [Unburdening, Uncapturing: SACC and SACP take leadership while ANC dithers]( With 36 member churches and organisations representing millions of Christians, the SA Council of Churches (SACC) is arguably the biggest organised formation in the country. A pastoral letter to be issued across congregations reflecting on state capture and the report of their Unburdening Panel could have massive political consequences. The ANC had the opportunity to “unburden” itself of state capture and did not. So for the first time since the height of apartheid, the church is intervening to take on “a government that has lost its moral legitimacy”. The SACP, meanwhile, is convening “progressive forces” in the country for a national imbizo that could set the agenda for the big political conferences coming up. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY. — Help support Daily Maverick. Mobile readers [click here]( to use SnapScan, or [click here]( for other options. [TRAINSPOTTER – City Budget: The Great Unholy Tshwane Alliance brings us Pretoria-on-the-Rhine]( Can German-style social democracy work in South Africa? Tshwane Executive Mayor Solly Msimanga, of the Democratic Alliance, thinks it can. His party has formed a coalition on the council, backed up by the Economic Freedom Fighters. And yet, this unlikely gang will be implementing a straight-up version of the ANC’s National Development Plan. Can “growth” and “job development” happen in Zuma’s downgraded backwater? Msimanga's new city budget, tabled on Thursday, means that we’re about to find out. By RICHARD POPLAK. [Explainer: Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about the Cape’s water crisis]( As Western Cape dam levels reach a 30-year low and residents brace for “Day Zero”, this week’s Water Indaba in Rawsonville saw nearly 20 government officials and industry experts brainstorming to find solutions. Premier Helen Zille took a bracing view, framing the crisis as an opportunity for innovation, with economic sector representatives painting a somewhat bleaker picture. So just how much trouble are we in? And more specifically, why have interventions been such a long time coming? By MARELISE VAN DER MERWE. [Analysis: The lore of the ‘White Widow’, the 7/7 suicide bomber’s wife, Samantha Lewthwaite]( Samantha Lewthwaite resurfaced again with the reported arrest of a person in possession of South African passports, of which one purportedly had a photo of Samantha, the “White Widow”. Samantha’s name is truly comparable to that of a movie star, a person that has gained a reputation that far exceeds her actual position in extremism. Lewthwaite has evolved into a publicity stunt for al-Shabaab, a role that neither she nor al-Shabaab planned. By JASMINE OPPERMAN and VERYAN KHAN. [Op-Ed: Radical Economic Transformation – a progressive structural change in the fundamental features of SA’s political economy]( There is general consensus among all economic commentators and stakeholders that the South African economy is in dire need of a major overhaul. South Africa remains locked in a low-growth, path-dependent economic trajectory that is currently deepening social inequality and highly concentrated ownership patterns. There can be no denying that the economy needs to be radically transformed, which requires us to think afresh on the roles of institutions in economic governance and resource allocation. By MCEBISI JONAS. 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