Pick of the week's articles

[Daily Maverick] Sunday, 17 December 2017 STORY OF THE WEEK [#ANCDecides2017: Elective conference live blog, day one]( By MARIANNE THAMM for SCORPIO Former Minister of State security, David Mahlobo, and President Jacob Zuma were aware when they appointed SSA Director General, Arthur Fraser, in September 2016 that he was a key suspect in two damning and confidential reports by the then Inspector-General of Intelligence, Faith Radebe. The investigation into the clandestine and parallel intelligence structure, the Principal Agent Network (PAN), established by Fraser and former NIA DG Manala Manzini, found millions blown over the years without any authorisation, or accountability. The DA is considering approaching the courts to rule Fraser’s appointment as DG as illegal and irrational. [#ANCdecides2017: Zuma full of jokes, jibes and half-truths at ANC gala dinner]( President Jacob Zuma will finally wind down his work as ANC president on Saturday, while the end to his presidency of the country is also, mercifully, in sight at last. The president was all laughs and jokes and barbs as he delivered his last address as president to an ANC gala dinner. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS. [#ANCdecides2017: Court judgments put a spanner in the works of elective conference]( After a flurry of court judgments on Friday in North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State, ANC presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma could have lost as many as 136 votes. But the judgments are still in dispute and the wheels of justice turn slowly. It appears only one court judgment will resist the appeals process, likely losing Dlamini Zuma 27 votes. By GREG NICOLSON. [#ANCdecides2017: Hamas is in the house]( Two senior leaders from the radical Palestinian movement Hamas will be seated next to delegates from other ANC fraternal organisations from across the world in the Nasrec Expo Centre plenary hall, when the party’s 54th national conference opens there on Saturday. It’s the first time the governing party will be hosting a delegation from what major Western powers brand a terrorist movement. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS. [To end a dictatorship of the minority, we need ‘One ANC Member, One Vote’]( I’m hoping this will be the last ANC National Elective Conference to be decided by a minority vote – the last where a minority of ANC members elect leaders for the majority, and where a small ANC minority nominate leaders for the entire population of South Africa. [Scorpio: SANDF document outlines draconian draft state of emergency regulations]( Draft regulations for a State of Emergency were outlined at a “workshop” attended by 30 Department of Defence officials in October this year. For the first time in 20 years the draconian regulations enabling a president to rule by decree have been adapted (they would only become the law after President's and Parliament approval). The changes allow for all internet and cell phone communication to be blocked and citizens to be arrested, searched, jailed; their property can be seized without a warrant. From their side, The Presidency and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) claim to know “nothing about this”. Here is what SCORPIO has unravelled so far. By PAULI VAN WYK for SCORPIO. [Analysis: Why are South Africa’s securocrats so jumpy over Jacques Pauw & Ronnie Kasrils?]( There’s every indication that South Africa’s security establishment has a bad case of the jitters. We’re seeing attempts to indict published books, journalists being harassed, and controversial new plans for a state of emergency being drawn up. Paranoia is in the air – and has been for some time. But if things are seeming spooky now, they’re likely to get ever more so as the 2019 general elections draw closer. By REBECCA DAVIS. [The Steinhoff Debacle – the biggest fraud in SA history]( Tom Eaton (The Times 11/12/17) comments aptly on the manner in which the corporate elite has responded to the Steinhoff debacle. Losses amounting to more than R100-billion, exceeding, in 48 hours, the amounts the Guptas are accused of looting over a decade. Apart from qualifying as the biggest fraud in South African corporate history, the scandal sheds unflattering light not only on the morals of the corporate elite, but also their reputed financial wizardry to which their enormous wealth is so regularly attributed. [Mahlobo’s Nuclear Farce will implode our future]( Fifty-five million South Africans are being betrayed. Again. [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](