10. The New York Times article on South Africa's post-Mbeki efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic:

Celia Dugger notes that for now "there is optimism among the scientists and advocates who had despaired as the nation dithered on AIDS under its former president, Thabo Mbeki. ‘I've never known such a gathering of momentum around H.I.V. as in the last month or so,' said Mark Heywood, who directs the AIDS Law Project based in Johannesburg." The newspaper quotes Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as saying: "If we had acted more than a decade ago, we might not have been in this situation where we are. Obviously, we did lose time."

9. The Daily Dispatch report on how the ANC had closed its archives at the University of Fort Hare after a Sunday Times article on some of their embarrassing contents:

Sibongile Mkani writes that on Thursday the Dispatch "was not allowed access to the files [as] the university's historian professor Cornelius Thomas said the files were no longer open for the public to view. ‘Following the Sunday Times article, the ANC asked the university questions and up until those questions have been answered the archives are temporarily on hold, therefore I cannot allow you access to the files,' he said....He explained that the collection was owned by the ruling party and was only given to the university for safekeeping and research purposes."

8. Gill Moodie's Bizcommunity column on how Avusa is planning to trial a pay wall system on the websites of its Eastern Cape newspapers the Daily Dispatch and The Herald:

Moodie quotes Avusa Media LIVE GM Elan Lohmann as saying the pay wall for the two sites should be introduced in the news few months. "The Daily Dispatch [in East London] and The Herald [in Port Elizabeth] are the dominant news players in their regions and this is the perfect setting to try it out. We do know there are risks but with the advertising model [for the two sites] not working, it's a risk we're prepared to take." This effort to make online users of South African news content pay for it appears to be a growing trend. Moodie notes that last year The Witness (Pietermaritzburg) put up a pay wall. And the Financial Mail and Mail & Guardian plan to do so in the near future as well.

7. John Scott's column in the Cape Times on the ANC KZN's severe Loxodontaphobia:

Scott notes that "Elephants are taboo - at least in KwaZulu-Natal. The ANC is afraid that the sight of an elephant sculpture at the entrance to Durban will have its members clamouring to join Mangosuthu Buthelezi's IFP, because its logo is an elephant. Internationally acclaimed elephant sculptor Andries Botha has been forced to cover three metal-and-stone elephants, each weighing six tons, with black plastic sheeting, so that passers-by don't have to look at them and be seduced into thinking about a political party that is not the ANC. It was the ANC municipality that commissioned Botha to sculpt the elephants in the first place, for a fee of R1.5 million. Only after the sculptures were virtually complete did the party realise elephants were the wrong animal. But elephants are all that Botha does. His life-sized elephant sculptures have already been placed in 17 countries, to advance the cause of his Human Elephant Foundation. So far nobody in those other countries has objected that the animal represents something with which they disagree. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a movement by the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal to boycott those countries unless they replace their elephants with something more acceptable."

6. Tim du Plessis column in Beeld on why Jacob Zuma's call for a national dialogue around our common heritage is an exercise in futility:

Du Plessis writes that the fundamental problem with this initiative is that the ANC is far from ready to conduct this debate in a constructive era. The liberation movement still believes that it occupies the moral high ground, and has a historic right to get its way whenever questions like this come under discussion. "Like someone who cannot smell their bad breath, the ANC cannot grasp how morally corrupt and bereft of integrity" it has now become. "How can you conduct a debate with someone or something which lives under such illusions?"

5. Justice Malala's column in The Times on the emerging phenomenon of Mbeki nostalgia:

Malala writes that "In the towns and the villages, many are remembering, with a certain fondness and nostalgia, former president Thabo Mbeki.... A poster could go up on the N1 highway with a picture of Mbeki on it: ‘Miss Me Yet?' Many would nod yes. After all, the Mbeki years did not consist of a parade of colourful revelations about the president's love life, or the offensive and fatuous eruptions of a youth league leader hellbent on wrecking his country. Crucially, agree or not, the Mbeki years had a defining motif, a vision around which the country could coalesce and unite (or disagree). That is really where the problem lies. People are not missing Mbeki because he was a great leader. They are missing him because where he left off there has been a gaping hole, a lack of vision, strategy and tactics."

4. The Mercury report on how a Gauteng tourist in Durban was mugged, then arrested by the police, assaulted, racially-abused and imprisoned:

Bronwyn Gerretsen reports that Charl Wessels says he was robbed of watch, wallet cellphone and ID book by a gang of five men at the corner of Dr Pixley ka Seme (West) and Gillespie streets. "Wessels spotted a police van across the road and tried to report the mugging to the driver, a plain-clothed policeman. ‘He told me to fuck off and... said it was not his duty to assist me. When I told him it was, he said I must not tell him how to do his job'. Wessels said he noted the police van's registration details and turned back, but the van gave chase. Three uniformed officers alighted, ran after him and assaulted him. ‘One of them hit me and the others kneed me in the ribs. The driver got out and assaulted me. They then told me to get into the Quantum (van)'. Wessels said he was taken to the Boscombe Police Station, where two of the officers locked him in a police truck. He alleged the policemen racially insulted him, calling him a ‘white pig' and a ‘bastard'. He also witnessed the same plain-clothed officer soliciting bribes from other detainees."

3. The Beeld report on how two murder suspects were released after the investigating officer failed to charge them with the crime:

Virginia Keppler reports that on April 10 three men attacked Willie Pienaar after he had withdrawn money from an ABSA ATM at the Kwaggasrand shopping centre. He had just climbed into his vehicle when one of the men grabbed him by the neck and shot him in the head. The attackers then threw his body out the vehicle and searched through it, taking his car keys, cellphone and wallet. The three men were chased down by members of the community and seriously assaulted - with one dying of his wounds. However, two of the suspects were let out of jail after the investigating officer concerned failed to charge them or submit a docket to court. The officer proceeded to disappear.

2. The Sowetan report on how ousted Safa bosses were planning to plunder the spoils of the Fifa World Cup:

Cecil Motsepe reports that Local Organising Committee was expecting that its share of the profits from the 2010 World Cup would be between R500m and R1bn. The committee, led by Molefi Oliphant as president and Irvin Khoza as his deputy, "voted at a meeting to reward members of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) board 10 percent [of the proceeds] while Safa executives stood to pocket 5 percent of the spoils.... Shockingly, associations of Safa were to be given a paltry 5percent."

1. The Institute for Security Studies report on the various conflicts of interest that have shaped the delivery of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa:

The report analyses the tenders for the construction and management of various stadiums built for the event, as well as the venal conduct of FIFA officials. It states in the conclusion that "Mega-events, like the 2010 World Cup, provide fertile ground for conflict of interest situations to manifest. The magnitude and uniqueness of the event, the nature of the construction industry, the vast sums of money involved, weak internal institutional oversight and accountability, opaque decision-making and the dearth of publicly available information all contribute to an environment conducive to conflicts of interest and corruption."

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