10. The Mail & Guardian report on the extent of the recent service delivery protests in townships in Gauteng:

Karabo Keepile reports that "Finetown residents took to the streets on Thursday morning, throwing stones, burning tyres and strewing rubbish....This followed a torrid week in Gauteng, which saw similar protests in Mamelodi and Bronkhorstspruit (on Monday), and Dobsonville in Soweto (on Wednesday). On Thursday the protests escalated sharply to take in Dobsonville (again), Reiger Park and Daveyton on the East Rand, Ennerdale (Johannesburg South), Protea Glen in Soweto, Ramaphosa informal ­settlement, Atteridgeville and ­Mamelodi in Pretoria. Residents of the Oukasie informal settlement in nearby North West also took to the streets on Tuesday."

9. Rapport's two page spread on the growing movement by (mostly white) ratepayer organizations to pay rates into a trust account, rather than to their rotten local municipalities:

In many smaller towns there has, it seems, been a collapse of basic municipal service provision. In Louis Trichardt for instance the sewerage pumps stopped working, there was a build-up of sewerage in the pipes, and it ended up bubbling up through the shower floor of one local resident, Mike Galvin.

8. The Financial Mail article on SADTU's efforts to kick the other unions out of the Education Labour Relations Council - which would make it the sole teachers' union able to bargain with government:

Sadtu president Thobile Ntola told the FM's Carol Paton: "The issue is the unity of the workers. Sadtu's objective is to unite workers. One way of doing this would be to raise the threshold so that organisations that fall below it would be put out of the bargaining chamber. They would then have to look to other unions for co-operation....There is absolutely no reason for these [apartheid-era] divisions any longer. There is one employer and one common enemy."

7. Janet Smith's interview [$] in the Saturday Star with COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi:

Vavi told Smith that he would not descend to responding to the ANCYL president's recent personalised attack:"The problem of responding to Julius Malema is that he has nothing to lose, while we are jealously guarding our dignity." He added that Malema's words were "Sunday picnic" compared to what he had been subjected to in the late Mbeki-era. "When we hear this name-calling from Malema, I think of round about 2005 and 2006 when there was massive state intimidation. Jesus... there were dead dogs and cats being thrown into my yard. My cellphone was being tapped. I was followed everywhere by cars. So really, being called a populist and all of that, it's just a small matter. It doesn't even shake me."

6. Rapule Tabane and Nic Dawes' interview in the Mail & Guardian with Jacob Zuma:

The president explained why he would not shout down Malema, whatever he said: "I haven't said that he is right but I've said he has a right to raise issues. If we stop Malema you would say that apartheid has come back. People must differentiate between private views and policy. I had to clarify that in the UK last week on nationalisation of mines. There is no president of the youth league who can just declare policy. Even the president of the ANC can't do that."

5. The City Press report on how the ANCYL had, in a retaliatory move, produced an "intelligence report" on its investigations editor, Dumisane Lubisi:

The newspaper states that the document, released to the media by Youth League spokesperson Floyd Shivambu "sought to prove that Lubisi was involved in money laundering, abused his position as a journalist for personal gain and that he had received ‘constant irregular and suspicious payments'. The document also contained confidential information concerning Lubisi and his wife, which ­included: Personal banking details; Residential address; Names and identity numbers of Lubisi, his wife and children; and Vehicles, including the make and number plates."

4. The Financial Mail article on how economic development minister, Ebrahim Patel, has been stomping on the toes of cabinet colleagues:

Carol Paton notes that Patel "has drawn up a mandate so broad that it ‘cuts across' almost all departments in government and overlaps significantly with the work of some." To get his way, Paton writes, "Patel will have to pull rank on his cabinet colleagues, or at least have the strong and explicit backing of Zuma. Several insiders in the cabinet and government officials are doubtful about his ability to do so. ‘All that is going to happen is that he is going to fight with every minister. He has defined himself in a supervisory role over his colleagues. This is the type of work that can only be done by the presidency,' says one. And, points out another, since Zuma's presidency is lacking in coherence and strength, even if Zuma were to support Patel completely - and given the pressure he is facing from centrist ANC leaders this is hardly likely - he will find it difficult to unite the cabinet around Patel's agenda."

3. The Sunday Times lead story on how Malema had been involved in a consortium scrambling to benefit from a lucrative mining rights privatisation scheme:

Buddy Naidu and Simpiwe Piliso report that "the government stake in Limpopo-based ASA Metals, valued at R250-million, will be given to a host of politically connected individuals despite it being earmarked for the poor. They include soccer boss Irvin Khoza and Kgomotso Motlanthe, the son of deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe. Malema was also a founding director in a consortium that was registered for the bid, shortly after discussions about the broad-based BEE deal commenced in 2006. He was later forced out. But the Sunday Times understands that he has since held several informal meetings with those involved in putting the deal together."

2. The Mail & Guardian lead story on how Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda stays at five star Cape Town hotels while parliament sits:

Jackie Mapiloko and Glynnis Underhille report "A Cabinet colleague of Nyanda told the Mail & Guardian that the reason Nyanda had apparently given for refusing to move into his Hooggelegen residence in sought-after Upper Claremont was because the public works department had not bought him a bed. A senior communications department source confirmed this explanation was also doing the rounds in the department, but added that Nyanda was allegedly also unhappy that his house did not have a view."

1. The Rapport lead story on how government was thinking about grabbing all of South Africa's productive farmland:

Hennie duvenhage and David van Rooyen report that in his introduction to the department's strategic plan land affairs director general stated that under one of the two options under consideration "all productive land will become a national asset and a quitrent land tenure system either with perpetual or limited rights is envisaged. This may require an amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution."

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter