POLITICS

How many of SA's whites were black?

And nine other of the best articles from the weekend papers

10. Charlotte Bauer interviews her semi-South African and soon to be hugely famous sister, Belinda

"CB: What do you think about polygamy? BB: A husband shared is a husband halved. How can that possibly be bad?"

9. City Press' lead story tallying up all of Jacob Zuma's "jobs-for-pals" appointments

These include: "A kwaito star who backed Zuma during his trials has landed himself a job as a deputy director in charge of the presidential hotline. Eugene Mthethwa was a member of the multi-award-winning kwaito group, Trompies, and has now ditched music to serve Zuma."

8. The Sunday Tribune's lead story on how alleged carjacker, Innocent Phumlani Dlamini, slipped out of "jail using a fraudulent bail certificate":

Charmel Bowman quotes one victim as saying: "I was shocked. How could he have gotten bail when he had been remanded and was due to appear in court this week? My faith in the entire judicial system came crashing down after waiting almost a year to get a court date finalised."

7. Charl-Pierre Naudé's interview with Breyten Breytenbach in Rapport:

The Afrikaans poet is savagely critical of the new regime. He says the ANC regards the state as a "privatized lobola-cow" which is being milked until it wails of poverty.

6. The Mail & Guardian's inside scoop on why Armscor CEO, Sipho Thomo was axed:

Sam Sole and Stefaans Brümmer report that "Thomo was alleged to have negotiated, without authority, the dropping of a $12,55-million penalty due from helicopter supplier AgustaWestland."

5. Dr Wilmot James' explication [$], in the Saturday Star, of the establishment of South Africa's system of race classification:

James sets out the historical background to the Sandra Laing story - now the subject of the feature film, Skin. In the United States race classification was based upon descent. This meant that if you had "one drop" of black blood you were black.

James writes that in the early apartheid period, as officials sought to separate out "whites" from "coloureds", the decision was taken to classify South Africans with substantial black ancestry but who looked white as "white." James estimates that as a result of this decision, and earlier passing over across the colour line, about ten percent of the white population in the 1950s "consisted of coloured individuals."

4. The Sunday Independent lead article by Moshoeshoe Monare on the contents of ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe's political report to the party's National Executive Committee:

Mantashe appears intent on trying to unravel - not cut - the Gordian knot of political patronage. He told the meeting that the party has "a duty to ensure that when a cadre is deployed, he or she meets the requirements of the post concerned by balancing political integrity and professional competence. As long as deployment is based on the principle of political integrity and professional competence, there should be no problem."

3. The F.W. de Klerk interviews - Financial Times and Rapport:

In the "Lunch with the FT" column this week Alec Russell presses De Klerk on when he came around to viewing apartheid as wrong (see transcript). Hanlie Retief meanwhile asks the former president whether his taking up of the cause of Afrikaans at Stellenbosch University is not an effort to correct his government's bungling of the CODESA negotiations.

2. The Sunday Times' lead story on Jacob Maroga's not unexpected Labour Court challenge to his "wrongful dismissal" as Eskom CEO:

The article, by Kim Hawkey, documents the extravagant remuneration package the former CEO was receiving, even as the parastatal was being run into the ground.

1. Carol Paton's well-informed and insightful analysis in the Financial Mail of the prospects for the Zuma administration:

The conclusion: "All these conditions - intense local political competition, expedient populist mobilisation and factionalism - will mean that political dynamics within his own party will make it very difficult for Zuma to act against ineptitude, incompetence, lack of accountability or corruption in government."

If you think there is an article from the weekly press that should be included in this column email your suggestion to [email protected]

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