Week of defied travel bans and defended colonialism

[Daily Maverick] WEEKEND THING with JOHN STUPART Saturday, 18th March 2017 "How did you get to the level where you collectively make yourselves look so incompetent?" Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng PICTURE OF THE WEEK BY EPA/PETER POWELL Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho reacts during the UEFA Europa League round of 16, second leg soccer match between Manchester United and FK Rostov at Old Trafford in Manchester, Britain, 16 March 2017. Check out [When the Dust Settles]( , an investigative feature by Chronicle & Code4SA, on Daily Maverick. THIS WEEK'S WRAP-UP [Concourt steps into Sassa fray]( Weeks of infuriating incompetence from Sassa surrounding the fate of millions of social grant beneficiaries reached a resolution of a sort this week. Hauled before the Constitutional Court, Sassa was ultimately instructed on Friday to extend its invalid contract with CPS. This was not without consequence, however. Concourt included harsh criticism for Minister Dlamini for having bungled the entire crisis, and indeed possibly even for creating it in the first place. [Trump's busy week disassembling the USA]( President Trump appeared to be rather busy this week. Firstly, an attempt to enforce a second travel ban was overruled by a Hawaiian judge. Secondly, Republican policy analysts conceded that millions of Americans would be left without healthcare in the current version of Trump's Obamacare replacement train smash. And to cap it all off, a whiff of burnt orange as furious accusations of Obama-era hacking extended beyond America and into Britain, with spooks on all sides calling the baseless statements "nonsense". Par for the course then. [Helen Zille takes to social media in the worst possible way]( Helen Zille's history of saying silly things on Twitter descended into outright ignominy this week. Zille tweeted "For those claiming legacy of colonialism was only negative, think of our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water etc." After a general outcry at the premier's defence of colonialism, an apology, kind of, was issued. DA leader Mmusi Maimane ultimately promised disciplinary measures, but by now the damage has already been done. [Commonwealth bid fails, scandal ensues]( South Africa lost its bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games on Monday. Planned for Durban, the official excuse from South African officials was that an operational budget could not be agreed upon. On another level, however, it appears as though shambolic planning contributed to missed deadlines and payments in order to secure its bid. Now, with millions already spent on unknown bid-related services, the pall of corruption begins to hang in the air. — Check out [When the Dust Settles]( , an investigative feature by Chronicle & Code4SA, on Daily Maverick. FACT OF THE DAY Only 1,419 of the 4,256 satellites orbiting the planet are operational. EDITOR'S PICKS [Heavy is the Head: Zuma and Mogoeng – the Sassa crisis from two perspectives]( By RANJENI MUNSAMY [Op-Ed: Coming soon – ANC’s moves to threaten internet freedoms]( By By MARIAN SHINN [Analysis: Tom Moyane, Zuma’s kingpin]( By MARIANNE THAMM [Fire and wind: Cape’s curse hits townships hardest again]( By REBECCA DAVIS — [Video of the week]( VIDEO OF THE WEEK [CALDERA]( By Evan Viera IN OTHER NEWS The popular image-sharing group 4chan has conducted one of 2017's single most impressive feats of open source research in the attempt to 'troll' Shia LeBeouf. The actor had set up a livestream of a flag that had "He will not divide us" written on it. After initial attempts to steal and/or vandalise the flag, LeBeouf moved the flag to an utterly remote area. 4chan's internet heroes analysed plane contrails, star alignment and satellite imagery to zero down, successfully, on the flag's whereabouts. One night-borne raid later, the flag had been stolen, a red "Make American Great Again" Trump hat raised on the flag pole, and the single greatest, most pointless act of vandalism completed. [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. Keep up to date on all DM activities by [clicking here](. [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](