'Step aside Ace'

[Exxaro]( [Mail & Guardian Newsletter logo](#) [mg.co.za]( [The Ampersand Daily Newsletter from the M&G team](#) [Divider Strip] October 23 2020 | [View in browser]( [Divider Strip] [Facebook icon]( [Twitter icon]( [Instagram icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( Hi there, For better or worse we're never going to get a quiet week in South Africa, are we? Just as the news about politicking and backstabbing died down for two seconds we had yesterday's explosive story about the [SANDF getting its meds mixed up](. Now it's Friday and we're back to our day jobs: holding the powerful to account. This is what you can expect in this week's Mail & Guardian. In our [subscriber-only]( story this week, Paddy Harper reports that ANC Free State branches that marched against the party's secretary general, Ace Magashule, this week will [launch a major campaign to force him to step aside]( next month when Mangaung mayor Olly Mlamleli and her R255-million asbestos scandal co-accused appear in court in Bloemfontein again on corruption charges. The branches will continue to push the ANC national executive committee to suspend Magashule over corruption in the province during his decade as premier, and to dissolve the provincial executive committee elected in 2018, months after he became secretary general. Ailing hospital's vanity purchases: "Vanity" furniture worth R379 000 purchased by a Gauteng hospital chief executive, who was appointed despite facing serious disciplinary charges for fraud, has [highlighted the "stench" of the provincial health system]( reports Khaya Koko. Dr Zacharia Mathaba, the chief executive at Ekurhuleni's Far East Rand Hospital, was appointed to his position in November last year, after having transferred from Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital, which is in the same metro. This is according to official provincial human resources documents seen by the Mail & Guardian, showing how Mathaba's appointment as chief executive happened despite an uproar from unions after it emerged that he claimed overtime from September 2017 to March last year for work he allegedly did not do. Gas: South Africa's next 'battleground': The government's plan for emergency power procurement is extremely complicated and appears to be skewed towards [expensive power ships and gas-to-power projects]( excluding competition from renewable projects, reports Sheree Bega. The risk mitigation independent power producer procurement programme is intended to address the short-term electricity supply gap of about 2 000 megawatts, as identified in the integrated resources plan, between 2019 and 2022. [Divider Strip] [Breast Cancer]( [Divider Strip] [MG public servants]( [Divider Strip] [Facebook icon]( [Twitter icon]( [Instagram icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( You are receiving this email on {EMAIL} because 1.) You're a member of "Mail & Guardian" or 2.) previously subscribed [M&G logo] 25 Owl St, Braamfontein Werf, Johannesburg, 2092 Want to be removed? No problem! [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Email support: help@media-connect.co.za - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -