Pick of the week's articles

[Daily Maverick] Sunday, 2 July 2017 STORY OF THE WEEK [TRAINSPOTTER: Hell’s Wedding Bells — How the #GuptaLeaks reveal that South Africans paid for the whole damn thing]( By By RICHARD POPLAK, with reporting from amaBhungane and Scorpio The Daily Maverick and amaBhungane can now confirm that the legendary Gupta family nuptials — a four-day wedding binge-fest in Sun City that took place between 29 April and 3 May, 2013 — was paid for in its entirety by money stolen from a Free State dairy project, and laundered through a Gupta shell in Dubai. In all, at least R33.4 million was pissed away in the wedding of Gupta niece Vega, and new nephew-in-law, Aakash. The happy couple were aided and abetted in their endeavours in no small part by the current Mineral Resources Minister, Mosebenzi Zwane, who will be remembered as the most generous wedding underwriter in South African history. And so, we arrive at the understanding that South Africa is an ungainly mash-up between two seventies classics, The Godfather and Invasion of the Body Snatchers — a gangster state in which the inhabitants are zombified agents of a corrupt, festering uber-mind, based not in outer space, but in the United Arab Emirates. [Op-Ed: Dear President Zuma, let’s talk about Duduzane]( You misled Parliament, again, Mr President. I therefore urge you to appoint the independent Commission of Inquiry that the former Public Protector stipulated, without any further delay. By MMUSI MAIMANE. [Defenders of the Gupta realm: South Africans join the bots and find all the usual suspects]( Paid/Mechanical Twitter never sleeps. On Friday, while the rest of us might have been numbing our pain, Twitter Gupta bots were beavering away, plotting the collapse of WMC all in the name of GET (Gupta Economic Transformation). Andrew Fraser, an independent marketing strategist, also worked on Friday tracking the Gupta/WMC Twitter network. The end result, a graphic rendition of Gupta bot activity that looks like the flight schedule of a very busy city airport. By MARIANNE THAMM. [ANC conference: It’s not about policy, stupid – it’s about who wins]( On Friday delegates from the ANC’s branches all over the country meet for the first time this year. It will, importantly, not be the last time. Instead, the policy conference, which should be about, you know, policy, is going to be overshadowed by the leadership battle. It is obvious to all and sundry that many people in the party don’t really care about policy at all, and only about who wins. In the slightly unreal politics of the ANC at the moment, it won’t come as a surprise to anyone to read that the ANC Policy Conference is both crucially, vitally, fantastically important, and not important at all. By STEPHEN GROOTES. [GroundUp: Gupta-owned company blocks improved healthcare in Mpumalanga]( This story exemplifies how state capture affects poor people. By Nathan Geffen for GROUNDUP. — [Toppling Jacob’s ladder: Outa delivers a hard blow]( No more Mr Nice Guy was the message delivered by Outa to President Jacob Zuma in Cape Town on Wednesday. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse says it has compiled a mammoth dossier detailing several months of investigation into state capture, which it will present to Parliament, African National Congress’s NEC, the Hawks, the Minister of Police, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Public Protector, in an attempt to unseat Zuma. The question is, however, whether any accusations will stick to President Teflon. And whether his supporters will read it. By MARELISE VAN DER MERWE. [The power of Zille extinguishes EFF firebrand]( Truth be told, the populist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a tamed political party after the DA Federal Executive Council's decision on Helen Zille’s nostalgic colonial tweets. If you do not agree with me, consider the serious threats they made of ending cooperation with the DA should the outcomes of Zille’s disciplinary hearing retain her as the Premier of the Western Cape. Well the outcome was pronounced and not only unmasked the hypocrisy of the EFF but also showed the DA’s prowess in neutralising its political enemy. [Op-Ed: Tough choices ahead for Kruger National Park]( What is the purpose of national parks in modern South Africa and where will the money come from to protect and sustain them? asks TONY CARNIE. [Letter from Trumpland: America’s answer to the Apartheid Museum]( The new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC represents decades of effort and lobbying for an institution to “highlight the contributions of African Americans” but this isn’t how the museum has been received by ordinary Americans. By GLEN RETIEF — [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](