10. The Daily Dispatch story on how one of the Eastern Cape's oldest churches - the 156 year old St Luke's Mission in Newlands - was completely looted ahead of Easter:
Asa Sokopo reports that four break-ins over a three week period "have left the church stripped of all electric wiring, a chalice, all silver ware, Ciboriums and a R10,000 lawn mower.... Canon Louis Flint said what was most devastating for him was the loss of the one of the biggest pieces of history the church owned - their 100-year-old brass bell weighing about 50kg. ‘This is a huge tragedy for us. That bell is over 100 years old and was imported from Scotland'."
9. Kevin Bloom's article in the Daily Maverick on how CNBC Africa has been getting around $3m/R25m a year from the Gauteng government - until Gauteng MEC Firoz Cachalia pulled the plug on the deal:
A memorandum of understanding had apparently been signed a couple of years ago between CNBC Africa and Paul Mashatile, the former MEC for the Department of Economic Development in Gauteng, committing the province to pay the broadcaster $3m per annum over five years. Bloom says that according to Marc Schwinges of the South African Screen Federation (Sasfed) until they "raised the issue nobody had questioned the legitimacy (or otherwise) of the payments. ‘The Gauteng Film Commission started a film-friendly investment initiative,' Schwinges informed us, ‘and they asked Sasfed to endorse the campaign. We were happy to, but we raised concerns about the CNBC payments. They were shocked we knew about the contracts.' The understanding of Schwinges is that Mashatile... allocated funds to the GFC on the basis that around half those funds be forwarded to CNBC Africa... Why then, in Schwinges's estimation, were the CNBC payments made? ‘That's a very good question. Nobody has given me an answer to it. It doesn't make sense, there's no reason. It certainly doesn't build an independent film industry'."
8. The Daily Dispatch story on how the Bhisho government had shot itself in the foot after going for a two-year extension of an expensive fleet tender for which it is currently paying R35m a month:
Mayibongwe Maqhina reports that "the government will pay nearly R1 billion to Fleet Africa when the extended two-year contract ends in 2012. The amount is almost a third of the R3bn, five-year tender awarded to Phakisa Fleet Solutions, which was cancelled late last year. This flies in the face of a R2.6bn bid submitted by losing bidder Makhubu Consortium to provide the fleet service for five years. The ‘transfer extension agreement', in possession of the Dispatch, was signed by acting head of Transport Linda Salie and Fleet Africa director Kamogelo Mmutlana."