Pick of the week's articles

[Daily Maverick] Sunday, 4 February 2018 STORY OF THE WEEK [Stealing the Crust: How the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela were robbed of their inheritance]( By KEVIN BLOOM & SASHA WALES-SMITH Under the land that belongs to the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela lie the richest platinum deposits on Earth. But a toxic alliance between government, traditional chieftaincy and major mining houses has stood between the community and its wealth. Could this be the largest state-sanctioned, business-perpetrated fraud in the history of Big Mining in South Africa? mailto:events@dailymaverick.co.za?subject=RSVP Finance minister Malusi Gigaba warns that South Africans would feel the pain of a tough budget this year. Do you wonder about the R50 billion deficit, or where another R40 billion for free education will come from. How much further will your monthly budget need to stretch with the 2% VAT increase? Will there be an increase in income tax or company tax? What does credit downgrade mean for you and me? Join Daily Maverick and 10X Investments as we break the 2018 Gigabyte Budget down to kilobytes. Date: 22 February, from 5PM. Venue TBC. Email events@dailymaverick.co.za to register your attendance. [Scorpio: The Makwakwa Dossier, Part 4 – In order to help his No 2, Moyane contravened the FIC act]( SARS boss Tom Moyane misused SARS in order to hustle information out of the Financial Intelligence Centre for the benefit and defence of his second-in-command Jonas Makwakwa, who stands accused of money laundering. Moyane also tipped off Makwakwa about the FIC investigation into his mysterious good fortune. This amounts to several serious contraventions of the Financial Intelligence Act. In accordance with the act, there are grounds for criminal charges against Moyane – something that might land him a jail sentence or hefty fine, experts say. By PAULI VAN WYK for SCORPIO. [Explainer: Why Capitec Bank is in the hot seat]( On Tuesday morning, a financial research group called Viceroy released a report looking into the business model and practices of South African lender Capitec. It is damning in the extreme, accusing Capitec of “predatory finance” and massively overstating its performance and value. Capitec will collapse, says Viceroy, unless it is placed under curatorship by the authorities. Here’s what you need to know so far. By REBECCA DAVIS. [State Capture: Back in the limelight, Lucky Montana punches everyone’s ticket]( Lucky Montana, the former CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), is punching everyone’s ticket. That of the ANC and its former Treasurer-General Zweli Mkhize, ex-Prasa board chair and now Deputy Finance Minister Sfiso Buthelezi, President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane, and the Guptas. It was a high-speed testimony delivered to the parliamentary State Capture inquiry on Tuesday. By MARIANNE MERTEN. [MultiChoice and ANN7: So many questions still left unanswered]( On Wednesday, the Naspers-owned pay TV company MultiChoice announced that it would not be hosting ANN7 on its DSTV channel from August 2018, following an internal investigation into its relationship with the channel. The #GuptaLeaks emails had previously revealed large payments made to ANN7 during the period when MultiChoice was lobbying government to make a decision on digital migration to benefit the company. MultiChoice says its investigation revealed “mistakes” in the handling of ANN7, but “no corruption”. They are not releasing the “commercially sensitive” full investigation report – so inevitably, questions remain. By REBECCA DAVIS. mailto:events@dailymaverick.co.za?subject=RSVP Finance minister Malusi Gigaba warns that South Africans would feel the pain of a tough budget this year. Do you wonder about the R50 billion deficit, or where another R40 billion for free education will come from. How much further will your monthly budget need to stretch with the 2% VAT increase? Will there be an increase in income tax or company tax? What does credit downgrade mean for you and me? Join Daily Maverick and 10X Investments as we break the 2018 Gigabyte Budget down to kilobytes. Date: 22 February, from 5PM. Venue TBC. Email events@dailymaverick.co.za to register your attendance. [What’s the fuss? Our family has been living on 350 litres of water a day for three years]( As the water crisis in Cape Town reaches Day Zero, panic has set in. Often you hear worries of how “will we cope with using less water?” or “it is the government’s fault” and also the uninformed accusation: “The people in the townships, look at them – it’s their fault, because they don’t pay for their water.” Well, while there are different opinions on this debate, my question is: if my household of nine can survive on less than 350 litres of water a day, why can’t others? By SUNÉ PAYNE [Analysis: The rugby problem runs deeper than merely having a poor coach in Allister Coetzee]( A leaked letter from Allister Coetzee to South African Rugby Union (SARU) CEO Jurie Roux indicates that the embattled coach will be fired before anyone can say “TMO”. But it’s another reminder that SARU couldn’t run a bath... and not because its headquarters are in Cape Town. By ANTOINETTE MULLER. [US: President Trump gives an astonishing impression of a real president in his first State of the Union speech]( Unravelling the US president’s first real State of the Union speech, J BROOKS SPECTOR wonders at the miracle of democracy and the depths that can be reached simultaneously. And he rose at 04:00 to watch it live and then listen to commentary on it and read about it as other journalists began to take the measure of it. [SONA: Mbete rejects DA, EFF attempts to remove Zuma before opening of Parliament]( National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete has told the EFF and DA she can't postpone next Thursday's State of the Nation Address to allow the ANC to recall President Jacob Zuma. Unless the ANC intervenes and intervenes now, Zuma's speechwriters should get to work. By GREG NICOLSON. [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](