DM Weekly Wrap - State Capture, Opposition antics, and Gupta banking

[Click here for the web version of this email]( [Daily Maverick]( Sunday, 2 September 2018 Story of the Week [Making money while being unbankable – how Guptas received their billions and special treatment from SARS]( By Pauli van Wyk for Scorpio and Kyle Cowan for News24 South Africa’s ‘elite anti-corruption unit’ the Hawks is in on it, the Guptas claimed to be willing to kill, and the State Capture dons aimed to “earn” about R8-billion from government entities such as Eskom and Transnet. Friday’s evidence before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture was lit. Relating this event, deputy minister of finance Mcebisi Jonas did leave us with a titillating question, though: By mid-2016 the Guptas were unbankable, so how did they receive, and continue to receive, their billions? We can shed some light on this question. [Key state technology agency was captured – lock, stock and secret codes]( SITA, the key State and Information Technology Agency tasked with providing IT to the country’s entire public service, admitted on Tuesday to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that the agency had been captured by one supplier – Keith Keating’s Forensic Data Analysts. And until quite recently, Forensic Data Analysts had been the only entity that had known the whereabouts of the server as well as the codes to the entire kingdom. By Marianne Thamm [Motshekga, his political star on the wane, out as justice committee chair; Zuma’s retirement’s looking cushy]( Mark Minnie, co-author of The Lost Boys of Bird Island, a just-published book exposing an alleged paedophile ring that included apartheid Minister of Defence, Magnus Malan, and at least two other National Party cabinet ministers who routinely abused young boys on an island off the coast of Port Elizabeth in the 1980s, was either coerced to take his own life or did so out of despair. By Marianne Thamm [The Gupta media empire is dead]( From an innocuous shake-of-the-head job offer in 2012, I found myself on the other end of a Gupta mood by 2017. I was one the journalists who wrote about them and who faced pillory again and again across social media as the family’s online trolling army took liberties with our images and attacked on what is now the biggest form of media – the online platforms. By Ferial Haffajee [It’s about uplifting local businesses, say residents]( After a violent afternoon in Soweto which left three people dead and incalculable loss to foreign business owners after their shops were looted, Soweto residents have said that Wednesday’s action was about uplifting locally owned businesses. By Bheki C. Simelane [After farm murders tweet, US Embassy in South Africa delivers much needed reality check to President Trump]( Most readers undoubtedly remember the anger and incredulity last week when a Donald Trump tweet, launched in the pre-dawn hours, picked up the mantra of white farmer genocide from Fox News, courtesy of the Cato Institute, and then courtesy, in term, from AfriForum. Now the so-called “deep state” seems to have struck back, Foreign Policy magazine reports. By J Brooks Spector [How to take over a city – EFF, ANC & UDM successfully boot Athol Trollip from Nelson Mandela Bay]( A motion of no confidence against Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Athol Trollip succeeded on Monday after DA councillor Mbulelo Manyati abstained from voting. The council meeting was defined by confusion and could be challenged in court. By Greg Nicolson [Themba Maseko: ‘South Africa now had a parallel system of government’]( Former president Jacob Zuma not only called Themba Maseko to push him to help the Guptas land government’s R600-million advertising spend, he also helped Ajay Gupta make good on his promise to “sort” Maseko out after he resisted. By Jessica Bezuidenhout [FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO A FRIEND]( Copyright © 2018 Daily Maverick, All rights reserved. You are receiving this mail because you are awesome and on the Daily Maverick First Thing subscriber list. [Getting too many emails from us? Manage your preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](