10. The Sunday Tribune lead article on how a company part owned by KZN Premier Zweli Mkhize's wife and daughter received a R3,3m tender from the national department of correctional services

According to the newspaper, "Mkhize's wife, May Mashego, confirmed that she and [their daughter] Nokulinda were directors of Bookize, together with Arvin Boodoo and his three children. She also confirmed that Bookize had just won the Department of Correctional Services tender to ‘supply the department with plastic granules'. ‘I really do not know what the problem is with Bookize. We are not even bidding for provincial tenders. We have gone national, in order to dispel notions that we get tenders because we are close to Zweli. We do jobs like any other company,' she said."

9. The Sunday Times interview with President Jacob Zuma (also here)

According to the Wally Mbhele and Mondli Makhanya Zuma appeared shocked and outraged at the reaction that had followed the newspaper's report of his lovechild with Sonono Khoza. The president seemed to imply that this reflected a lack of cultural tolerance from his critics. He also told the newspaper: "It was necessary to admit and own up to it. I felt it was necessary to apologise because some people were feeling bad about it. But even after I had owned up, things were continuing. I said, 'Well, let me apologise.' For me, I see the need to engage. I don't want to re-open the matter."

8. The Mail & Guardian interview with Western Cape Premier Helen Zille about the sexual harassment claims against Community Safety MEC, Lennit Max

Glynnis Underhill asks: "Max claims he's innocent of all claims against him. Do you believe him?" Zille replies: "I've asked him these questions directly and he has given me categorical answers. The woman making the most sensational claims in the media has never laid a charge or complaint through any official channels. If it turns out he's lying, it'll be the end of the road."

7. The City Press editorial on why COSATU is wrong to be so truculent over Pravin Gordhan's budget

The newspaper notes that "our unemployment rates are hazardous and destabilising... South Africa's ticking time bomb sits on corners where groups of young men gather unemployed and unemployable". The Finance Minister's wage subsidy proposal is, it states, an "attempt to give our next generation a leg-up into the formal economy." But all COSATU cares about is protecting its "labour aristocracy" and so complains about the possible creation of a "two tiered labour market."

6. Zapiro's "budget week special" cartoon explaining how a certain Julius is able to afford "life's little luxuries" on a limited household budget

5. Greg Arde's interview [$] in the Sunday Independent with national police commissioner Bheki Cele:

Arde writes that "Cele made headlines in December when he was photographed at the house of...S'bu Mpisane, the former eThekwini metro cop who, with his wife Shauwn, secured hundreds of millions of rands in city low-cost housing contracts... Rumours around Cele's friendship with Mpisane and his wife have been amplified because Shauwn's brother, S'bu Mkhize, was shot dead by police in the 1990s. Mkhize was wanted in connection with police murders and was also suspected of involvement in cash-in-transit heists."

"Cele says Shawun's late mother, Flora Mkhize, an ANC city councillor in Durban, asked him to look after her daughters because they had lost their father and their brother, and having grown up with them in Lamontville, he was like a brother. Cele says he doesn't know the source of the Mpisane wealth. ‘I know nothing about their business and have absolutely nothing to do with it,' he said."

4. Jan-Jan Joubert's analysis in Rapport of the intrigue within the Western Cape Democratic Alliance ahead of the provincial leadership elections:

The struggle over the leadership is, Joubert writes, testing the party's commitment to non-racialism, its provincial leaders, and "now unluckily, through her own doing, the DA leader, Helen Zille." It seems that the campaign has taken on some nasty racial undertones. Joubert asks why individuals who think and act racially are even in the DA, given that the party subscribes to non-racial principles. Zille also comes in for criticism from Joubert. The DA leader has the raised the possibility that Lennit Max is the victim of a ‘smear campaign', without presenting any tangible evidence to that effect. This has left, Joubert notes, a cloud hanging over his rivals Theuns Botha and Dan Plato.

3. The Financial Mail cover story on the rot in South Africa's State Owned Enterprises and how to fix it:

David Williams writes that the inherent governance flaws in the SOEs "are made worse by government seeing in SOEs opportunities for patronage (placing loyal ANC members in lucrative positions) and high-profile black empowerment. Both imperatives, which would help explain the long delays in making permanent appointments, seem to have taken on the status of virtually unbreakable rules. It does not follow that those appointed are necessarily unsuited or unqualified, but the risk is there. Ideological confusion over the role of SOEs has added to the malaise."

2. The Mail & Guardian report on and analysis of a looming fight within and between government and COSATU over labour market reform

Nick Dawes notes that the treasury seems to be pushing stealthily for a two-tiered labour market which would allow young and inexperienced work seekers a step up into employment. Meanwhile, Mandy Rossouw and Matuma Letsoalo report that COSATU is deeply unhappy with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's tentative proposals on the matter. The union federation's president Sdumo Dlamini told the newspaper:

"For the minister to say workers should not enjoy the same labour standards, it means workers would be subjected to different labour rights. We all agreed on decent jobs. This does not go to that. It actually addresses the plight of the youth, but the aim is to destroy them.  They will hate employment because the entry salary will be the same as those who are permanently employed, but there won't be any room for them to negotiate salary increases. They [the government] say more than 800 000 youth would be employed, but this will mean less permanent and formal employees."

1. The Sunday Times and City Press/Rapport "exclusives" on how ANCYL President Julius Malema has profited from govt tenders in Limpopo

Both newspapers reported that the company SGL Engineering Projects, co-owned by Julius Malema and Lesiba Cuthbert Gwangwa, received some R140m worth of govt tenders in Limpopo over the past two years. According to City Press the company "has won tenders for road construction, street paving, sewer reticulation, bulk water supply, landfill sites, cemeteries, central business district upgrades and provision of drainage systems." The Sunday Times commented: "At just 28, the ANC Youth League president apparently has significant influence over the awarding of government tenders and the appointment of senior government officials in the province."

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