Weekend Thing: Julius Malema's Home a-loan Christmas parody show

[Click here for the web version of this email]( [Daily Maverick]( Saturday, 15 December 2018 [Total Info-war]( “The onslaught continues." Pravin Gordhan on the fake news media campaign against him. In sum Focus shifted this week to the [underlying tactics]( utilised by an EFF beset on all sides with allegations of fraud and corruption. Now no longer standing on the moral high ground, the EFF has been hard at work digging a tunnel out of its currently toxic reputation. In true EFF fashion, however, the approach has been utterly sinister. Post-truth starts here The opposition party effectively entered into what can be termed a [post-truth phase]( of operations. The drowning out of critical debate and evidential cases against the party and its leaders with mountains of fake news has become its modus operandi. An [investigation into the EFF's social media campaigns]( and how it harnasses post-truth online to wrangle debate away from real issues has shown a pervasive tendency to make it about them. When Gordhan laid charges, the EFF laid its own charges, but in a louder, larger fashion. It didn't matter that the party's allegations against Gordhan were about as substantial as a tax certificate from Tom Moyane. Social-media carpet bombing has become the party's new normal. Why should you care? The EFF had founded itself on a legitimate platform of raising real issues that ordinary South Africans wanted answers for from the ruling party. The early EFF and its leaders had generally avoided massive fraud issues, Malema's tax problems notwithstanding, thereby adding a gloss of legitimacy to the party. That is all gone now. What is left is a sad assortment of compromised leaders left with no other option but to wage a war of bullshit against a growing mountain of very-real problems. — [This weekend we're watching]( Joe Barnard is leading the way in emulating SpaceX rocketry on a miniature scale. Far from just a hobby, Barnard has turned down offers to work in the burgeoning space-democratisation field to work on perfect self-landing rockets from his own backyard and budget. Downcount to off-blast 104 The number of days until Brexit Article 50 expires. Mayday Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to suspend another round of disappointing political implosion in order to usher in, well, a different kind of disappointing political implosion. Calling off the parliamentary vote on her precious Brexit deal, May was swiftly faced with a [mutiny from within.]( A coven of grumbling conservative party members initiated a vote of no confidence against their leader and her handling of the entire Brexit process. Ignore, retry, fail May was not voted out, [avoiding calamity]( and a possible scenario wherein Boris Johnson becomes a horseman of the Tory apocalypse. Nonetheless, opposition to May's carefully-negotiated deal with the EU continued, and no hope of passing the document into British law persisted into her meeting with EU leaders in Brussels. Her continental counterparts, in turn, said that [enough was]([enough,]( and that no further negotiations would take place. Thus, Britain is left in a weird kind of legislative no man's land, where MPs are neither prepared to vote in the Brexit deal that has been negotiated nor able to navigate their way to a new one. The third option, and currently most likely scenario, is a hard Brexit. That, in turn, could see anything from a reinvigorated British polity finding its own economic feet once more through to a nightmarish hellscape where the island becomes something akin to Guantanamo Bay with tea. Realistically, something in between is probably the best bet as of today. — [Chocolate block]( A neighbourhood in Westönnen, Germany ground to a confectionary-based halt this week, after an entire tank of chocolate burst. Covering the block in chocolate, nobody at the DreiMeister factory was injured. Firefighters had to spend hours hosing the road with warm water after the liquid chocolate rapidly froze in the winter air. Why the neighbourhood's children were not deployed to assist is anyone's guess. — Key Reading [Mazzotti’s Smoke ‘n Mirrors – a matter of taxes, fraud, smuggling and cigarettes]( By Jacques Pauw Self-confessed cigarette smuggler and EFF benefactor Adriano Mazzotti has admitted to also donating “hundreds of thousands of rand” to the ANC. Doe, a deer Santa's reindeer are all female. Male reindeer lose their antlers in winter. [Ethical Governance: Corruption-Busting Starts at Business School]( [Sponsored Content by the UCT Graduate School of Business]( The State Capture Commission of Enquiry brings with it a heightened consciousness to the scale of corruption in present day South Africa. With an estimated R100-billion and counting lost to State Capture, it may be the biggest heist in post-apartheid South Africa. While countries around the globe grapple with increasing levels of government corruption, South Africa’s pressing socio-economic concerns deem it urgent to imagine a system governed by strong anti-corruption ethics. [Support DAILY MAVERICK & get FREE UBER vouchers]( Not all memberships count points. Some memberships actually count FOR something and have tangible benefits. Maverick Insiders who contribute R150 or more per month, get R100 worth of free UBER vouchers every month. Yes, every month until October 2019. [Click here]( to sign-up. (Added bonus: you’re also now an even better, more mobile, person.) Weekend reading [Zeitz MOCAA weaves local lives into the global fabric of the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress]( [Zeitz MOCAA weaves local lives into the global fabric of the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress]( BY Christi Nortier [Saving SAA: The pilots’ perspective]( [Saving SAA: The pilots’ perspective]( BY Grant Back [Are Richard’s Bay coal exports the cause of SA’s current power crisis?]( [Are Richard’s Bay coal exports the cause of SA’s current power crisis?]( BY Rebecca Davis [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 Afternoon Thing subscriber list. Want to advertise in this mail? [Talk to us.](mailto:advertise@dailymaverick.co.za?subject=Advertising%20query%3A%20Afternoon%20Thing) [Getting too many emails from us? Manage your preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](