Weekend Thing: No protection for Public Protector

[Your weekend read is all set.]( [Click here for the web version of this email]( [Daily Maverick]( Saturday, 10 August 2019 [Text me on my cell-phone]( "Hi please find questions, notes around fundraising and events" CR17 campaign manager Donné Nicol to Cyril Ramaphosa In sum A leak of emails disclosed by News24 appeared to show President Cyril Ramaphosa having a direct hand in his own campaign funding, allegedly even reaching out to donors despite professing ignorance as to their identity. Splitting the hairs Despite an enthusiastic chorus of Tweets accusing Ramaphosa of possibly committing some manner of criminal deed by the EFF and its members, the devil, as it were, of Ramaphosa's emails, lie in the details. On the one hand, Ramaphosa was certainly approached by his aides to contact possible donors, but no evidence showed him acting on such. On the other side of things, however, Ramaphosa had professed to have had no hand at all in who donated what to his campaign, ostensibly to remove any possibility of favourable treatment. It's a difficult story to track, and the legality of the president's actions is not entirely clear. Thankfully [DM's Rebecca Davis]( has boiled down this particularly gamey haunch into a soft, easily-digestable ragu. You can read her plain-speak explanation of the #CR17 leaks [right here.]( Fingers in the dam Much like that little Dutch boy, Ramaphosa is plugging leaks in his own political existence as fast as new ones spring up. While the president seemed to be making [tangible gains against the Public Protector's quest]( to have him stop treating Pravin Gordhan like the perceived favourite child, the leaks revealed by News24 could compromise him just as he was gaining a solid political foothold. — [Click to RSVP]( [This Weekend We're Watching]( 鳴子系こけし／こけしの岡仁 Just over four minutes of exquisite doll making by one solitary Japanese craftsman. Somehow it seems like it's best watched with a whiskey by a log fire. [Don't Tread on Me]( [3:59]( The track length of Don't Tread on Me Just last week a woman and her dog were hiking a trail in South Duncan, Canada, when they noticed a cougar was stalking them. Not just following out of curiosity, but stalking in a "nommm nommm" sort of way. The solution? In the [video]( Dee Gallant tried shooing the cat away and shouting "bad kitty" to no avail. Instead, Gallant played Metallica's "Don't Tread on Me" and the hunting feline bolted after just a few notes. Just as well Gallant did not play "For Whom the Bell Tolls"... — [Click to RSVP]( Key Reading [No papers, no rights: The plight of undocumented foreign children in SA]( By Sandisiwe Shoba Without documentation, non-national children in South Africa are denied access to basic human rights. But with an inefficient asylum system in South Africa, the issues seem set to persist. [No large popcorn then...]( The movie Straight Outta Compton never played in Compton due to a lack of cinemas. Weekend reading [Business Maverick: Miners Find Out the Hard Way Why Cobalt Is Called the Goblin]( [Business Maverick: Miners Find Out the Hard Way Why Cobalt Is Called the Goblin]( BY Bloomberg [Ramaphosa vs Mkhwebane: Bad moon rising for the public protector?]( [Ramaphosa vs Mkhwebane: Bad moon rising for the public protector?]( BY Stephen Grootes [BUSINESS MAVERICK: Real estate barons mull combining muscle to beat hard times]( [BUSINESS MAVERICK: Real estate barons mull combining muscle to beat hard times]( BY Ray Mahlaka — [Click to RSVP]( [FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO A FRIEND]( Copyright © 2019 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](