The City of Cape Town's water demand management strategy restricts how much water poor households can use, while allowing those with swimming pools and water-guzzling gardens to imagine they live in a world of abundant water. This illusion has been allowed to last for far, far too long. And is, we believe, at the root of many of the difficulties we are currently facing. By JESSICA WILSON and TARYN PEREIRA.

A young Hout Bay teenager who was shot by police with rubber bullets during a protest in Hangberg over dwindling fishing quotas has undergone surgery. His name is Ona Dubula. By Ashleigh Furlong, Kimon de Greef, Mary-Anne Gontsana and Ashraf Hendricks for GROUNDUP.

Former deputy higher education and training minister Mduduzi Manana on Wednesday pleaded and was found guilty of three counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on charges relating to attacking three women at a nightclub in August. Manana said: “If you’ve provoked, walk away. Don’t act in this way. Now I had to man up. That’s what a leader does.” Sentencing has been postponed and it’s anyone’s guess what punishment he might receive. By GREG NICOLSON.

It is now well-established that global consultants McKinsey and their local Gupta-linked counterpart Trillian extracted R1.6-billion in fees for “turnaround” advice given to Eskom. In this investigation, the first in a series, we delve into an explosive report that says Eskom ignored warnings that the proposed contract might be illegal, and reveal internal documents detailing how McKinsey and Trillian planned their multibillion-rand payday. The scandal has further dented Eskom’s image, already battered by a succession of “state capture” revelations. Now it is threatening the consulting companies too. Corruption Watch says it is alerting US authorities about McKinsey, while Trillian appears to be fighting to stay open. By Susan Comrie for AMABHUNGANE and Pauli van Wyk for SCORPIO.

Close to two dozen leaders from the ANC’s leagues and regions in KwaZulu-Natal gathered at the party’s provincial headquarters where they implied that the court ruling which declared its conference unlawful and void was absurd. So now, they said, they would “defend the ANC” by supporting the provincial executive committee’s decision to appeal the ruling – although it’s not yet clear what the national leadership thinks of this. Meanwhile, this fight could soon come to a polling station near you. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS.

The muddle and political fault lines in Cabinet came into sharp relief over the financially and governance-troubled SAA when the deputy finance minister and the deputy president appeared at odds in Parliament. Central to this was the extension of Dudu Myeni’s term as SAA board chairperson, which the finance committee late on Wednesday resolved must be reviewed because of concerns over its legality. And with just 16 days to go before R6.8-billion falls due for repayment by the national airliner, questions also arose over government’s bailout through a special appropriations Bill that requires public hearings and proper committee processes before adoption. Parliament goes into constituency recess on Friday. By MARIANNE MERTEN.

Unless the electoral system is changed, oversight will depend on MPs acting against the “party line”. By Judith February for ISS TODAY.

New elite security team displaces long-serving parliamentary protection officers. By Moira Levy for GROUNDUP.

Simple booklet explaining the Eskom Inquiry has been published. By William Yoder for GROUNDUP.

What happens next is up to the party. By Safura Abdool Karim for GROUNDUP.

Rubber bullets, petrol bombs, flares and tear gas fill the air as protest escalated. By Ashraf Hendricks for GROUNDUP.

Rubber bullets broke his ribs and smashed his tongue. By Kimon de Greef for GROUNDUP.

South Africa must understand that other countries regard the adoption of the ban treaty in the UN General Assembly as very destabilising. And it might end up having a very serious impact on the international strategic environment. By PETER FABRICIUS.

The Democratic Alliance, which will be in the North Gauteng High Court most of the week in two cases against the president, on Tuesday argued that President Jacob Zuma has violated the Constitution by not establishing a commission of inquiry into Gupta-linked state capture, as recommended by the former public protector. Zuma first wants a chance to challenge Thuli Madonsela’s report. By GREG NICOLSON.

Judge describes Limpopo municipality as “disgraceful”. By Julia Chaskalson for GROUNDUP.

South Africa’s new financial regulatory model does what government does best: strangle private business, raise consumer prices, impose a complex new burden of rules, grow regulatory infrastructure, staff it with well-paid bureaucrats, and give them all conflicting mandates and lines of responsibility. By IVO VEGTER.

Dr Sandile Buthelezi was recently appointed as the new head (CEO) of the South African National Aids Council. His appointment follows the suspicious non-renewal of the previous CEO Dr Fareed Abdullah’s contract and unsuccessful attempts to lure Eastern Cape head of health Dr Thobile Mbengashe to the post. The success of the new National Strategic Plan implementation and the long-term survival of a robust, relevant and ethical SA National Aids Council will depend on the new CEO. Spotlight put a range of questions to Buthelezi regarding his involvement in the Tara KLamp debacle, the persecution of doctors at Manguzi Hospital in 2008, and allegations of corruption. By UFRIEDA HO.

J. BROOKS SPECTOR remembers the events of 9/11 sixteen years ago and tries to understand how its repercussions continue to reverberate into our own time and the future.

While Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula announced an investigation into the disappearance of around 30 police-issue firearms from the Mitchells Plain and Bellville charge offices, it is common knowledge that much of the gang violence in Cape Town has been fuelled by the sale of guns to criminals by members of the SAPS. In August, the Cape Labour Court ruled that two of the province’s most senior anti-gang specialists, Peter Jacobs and Jeremy Veary, be reinstated in their jobs after they had been unexpectedly shafted by former acting National Commissioner Khomotso Phahlane. However, SAPS national leadership is appealing the ruling. There is something deeply rotten in the state of the SAPS in the Western Cape. By MARIANNE THAMM.

This month marks five years since the government’s National Development Plan was adopted by Parliament – and a spirit of celebration is in the air. At a gala dinner in Cape Town on Tuesday evening, speakers including President Jacob Zuma paid lavish tribute to what they described as a “living document”. In reality, the vision of South Africa in 2030 that the NDP sketches seems further off than ever – and the NDP increasingly resembles a text doomed to languish unrealised in a dusty drawer. By REBECCA DAVIS.

The speed at which a tsunami can move is frightening. But what is less dramatic, and sometimes more important, is the speed at which the tsunami pulls out, as its power is sucked away and what has been destroyed is revealed. Tuesday was a day in which we saw some of the devastation that has been wrought. As the power is sucked away from President Jacob Zuma, as the wave that brought him to the highest office in the land withdraws, so we see the stark damage that has been done to the ANC. And to the office of the Public Protector. Unfortunately, in the case of this particular tsunami, it has the potential to cause as much damage during its withdrawal phase as it did when it first broke across our political banks. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has been holding its breath for Tuesday’s Pietermaritzburg high court ruling, which declared the party’s November 2015 conference “unlawful and void”. That conference outcome favoured Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s lobbyists, but this judgment now takes the fight back to the branches. While the provincial leaders who have been invalidated have already declared that they’re preparing to appeal, their detractors hope this will give them the gap they needed to prove their strength in the province. So, it’s way too early to exhale. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS.

An explosive affidavit filed by the South African Reserve Bank in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday has confirmed suspicions that Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, colluded with President Jacob Zuma's legal advisers and the State Security Agency to use an investigation by her office into a 1985 SARB bailout of Bancorp to launch an attack on the independence of the South African Reserve Bank. The affidavit also suggests Mkhwebane lied about meeting “the Presidency”. The revelations most certainly offer grounds for reviewing Mkhwebane's appointment to the vital position and implicate the President in her unlawful behaviour. By MARIANNE THAMM.

Forty years after police killed Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko, no one has been prosecuted. That’s despite five officers being denied amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As the country commemorates another year since the struggle hero was killed, the inquest into Biko’s death should be reopened. The recent inquest into Ahmed Timol’s death sets an example. By GREG NICOLSON.

Widespread labour protests to hit France, US Supreme Court upholds refugee ban, and Tesla gives out free Irma-related range upgrades.

Around 7.7km of scenic coastal road lies between the violence-torn township of Ocean View and the serene Scarborough home of Anna and Willem Cornelius. It has only been four months since their 21-year-old daughter, Hannah, a student at Stellenbosch university, was abducted, raped and murdered. On Saturday a bullet slammed into the head of nine-year-old Aqueel Davids, who was sitting in the lounge of his Ocean View home. Aqueel is one of at least 13 people, mostly children, killed in the township this year. Anna and Willem are intimately linked to the communities that surround them and are determined, through a trust in honour of their daughter, to find ways to heal and support South Africa’s walking wounded to which they now also belong. By MARIANNE THAMM.

Much media focus at the moment is on contenders for the ANC presidency and the forthcomingANC elective conference in December. Many cherish the hope that Jacob Zuma will leave the ANC presidency then and that the country will start the journey towards recovery from all the breaches of legality, corruption and irregularities that have marked his presidency. But Zuma is vulnerable to prosecution and wants to be replaced by someone who will shield him. If such a candidate cannot be found he may well stand for the ANC presidency again, since there are no limits on how many times a person can be elected ANC president. But even if Zuma does not stand and Cyril Ramaphosa is elected ANC president, Zuma will not meekly leave the state presidency and could mount a fight back from that position. In this context, opposition plans, led by the DA to take power in 2019 are in disarray with the loss of support from the EFF and other parties, making the DA vulnerable in metros it currently controls in coalition, and making the chances of defeating the ANC in 2019 less likely. By RAYMOND SUTTNER.

Property developers FWJK are readying themselves to build Zero2One, which will be Cape Town’s tallest building when completed. They and the City of Cape Town who grants land-use rights and requested departures have the opportunity to effect change and undo spatial apartheid. Either this or continue with business as usual where the poor and working class are relegated to the peripheries, out of sight and out of the minds of the affluent, predominantly white inner-city residents. By JULIAN SENDIN.

Amid the political noise of the ANC elective contests towards its December national conference, and the general state of disruption in South Africa’s politics, it’s difficult to keep eyes on what matters – the national coffers. Regardless of who wins the ANC party presidency that traditionally has led to the Union Buildings, what matters is the state of the national purse. Details will emerge in October’s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement. But government’s wiggle room is constrained not only of a multibillion-rand bailout for SAA and other state-owned entities (SOEs), but potentially also another year of dipping tax revenue. By MARIANNE MERTEN.

International jurists are brave pioneers blazing an uncertain and precarious trail through a maze of political, financial and other daunting obstacles to bring the world’s worst criminals to justice. By PETER FABRICIUS.

Conflict erupted at the CPUT campus in Cape Town over the handling of employee contracts and the suspension of students. By Denise Patterson and William Yoder for GROUNDUP.

A quick look at recent comments by senior ANC leaders in the run-up to the party’s December conference will reveal how high the stakes are, and the sharpness of divisions. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa talks about state capture and corruption, Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe suggests December is a “matter of life or death” for the party, while President Jacob Zuma has said that foreign forces tried to poison him, that witchcraft is keeping the DA in power in the Western Cape and that the youth must be vocal to “get our land back”. One of the possibilities that must now be considered is that the ANC’s December conference does not end in a clear victory but in what you could call a “disputed outcome”. In other words, one of the sides could simply refuse to accept the result. BY STEPHEN GROOTES.

SA business leaders and company directors have come face to face with a critical ethical decision. Should they part ways with KPMG or not? The fact that a major business corporation such as KPMG has become complicit in the machinery of corruption is a golden opportunity for the business sector and company directors to reveal their own ethical values. By IRAJ ABEDIAN.

Cyril Ramaphosa, as deputy president of the ANC, is next in line to become party leader. But the tradition of ensuring smooth transition of leadership in the ANC has been erased in the minds of those infected by the Gupta virus. So comrade Ramaphosa, if you want to be the president of the ANC, you must be prepared to fight for it, writes ANC Northern Cape chairperson ZAMANI SAUL.

The AU’s initiative to help affected countries looks promising, but needs global backing. By Liesl Louw-Vaudran for ISS TODAY.

There are literally hundreds of rumours circulating the South African political space. Will the African National Congress’s December election conference actually go ahead, given the manufactured chaos swirling around deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa? Will ANC presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, soon to be a Member of Parliament, be sworn in as Minister of Sleeping While Dancing? How will all of this work out? RICHARD POPLAK performs an act of national gastroenterology.

Hurricane Irma downgraded, sanctions debated for North Korea, and British air pollution out of control.

Evita Bezuidenhout celebrates 20 years of her Darling venue Evita se Perron with a weekly episode of 'Evita's Free Speech'. Here's the Episode 107. By PIETER-DIRK UYS.

On 8 September, Kenyan intellectual, legal expert and scholar, Professor Patrick Loch Otiena Lumumba, delivered the 5th Onkgopotse Tiro Memorial Lecture at the university of Limpopo. It was a remarkable event, coming as it does a week after the Kenyan Supreme Court’s nullification of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election win earlier this month and three months before a bruised and battered ANC limps towards the close of the Zuma era in December. Lumumba’s mesmerising lecture, for the truth that it spoke, must be recorded as a pivotal one. Masterful in its delivery, it is a meditation on greed, destruction, hope and possibility for the African continent. By MARIANNE THAMM.

You would be a fool to write off Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in the ANC succession race. The ANC Youth League’s 73rd birthday celebrations in Cape Town this weekend were only nominally about marking that rather arbitrary milestone. What they primarily provided a platform for was a demonstration of support for Dlamini-Zuma by the Youth League, the ANC Women’s League, and the Umkhonto weSizwe veterans’ association. But she is hard to read, and even harder to approach. By REBECCA DAVIS.

President Jacob Zuma appeared in good spirits as he prepared to move to consolidate his power, even as the ground is shifting in his home base of KwaZulu-Natal. Zuma cautioned the youth, without a hint of irony, against electing someone “who is just good at toyi-toying”, even as his detractors launched a counterstrike by airing rumours that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is about to be axed. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS.

Parliament is a political institution where not only broader dynamics of South Africa’s body politic play out, but also the factional power-plays of the governing ANC. And that political character, rather than its legislative or oversight mandate, is again front and centre with the arrival of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former AU Commission Chairperson and ANC presidential hopeful, alongside Matthew Wolmarans, the ex-Rustenburg mayor whose 2012 murder conviction was overturned and set aside three years ago. By MARIANNE MERTEN.

The High Court finds the Department of Home Affairs’ refusal of citizenship to six people unconstitutional. By Safura Abdool Karim for GROUNDUP.

There are literally hundreds of rumours circulating the South African political space. Will the African National Congress’s December election conference actually go ahead, given the manufactured chaos swirling around deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa? Will ANC presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, soon to be a Member of Parliament, be sworn in as Minister of Sleeping While Dancing? How will all of this work out? RICHARD POPLAK performs an act of national gastroenterology.

With confirmation late last week that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is becoming a Member of Parliament again, speculation is swirling that President Jacob Zuma is going to reshuffle his Cabinet in order to include her. There is a strong basis for doing this; life as a back-bencher is unlikely to be edifying for the former chair of the African Union Commission. But, so close to the ANC’s conference, any move by Zuma carries risks. And any appointment of Dlamini-Zuma to a position will carry consequences, both for him and for her. At the same time, the element of unpredictability in our politics is growing stronger; it is harder to predict what any of the actors, particularly Zuma, will do. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

As yet another astounding hurricane lashes part of America, J. BROOKS SPECTOR reviews the legislative storm that struck Washington this past week, and looks to see if it is now the template for what will follow.

Political elites and security services have captured the companies mining Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields and siphoned off billions, even as the government blames private companies for crucial data gaps in its accounts, a report released on Monday alleges. KRISTEN VAN SCHIE reports.

From across southern Africa, KRISTEN VAN SCHIE brings you a weekly round-up of news making regional waves.

It is time you and your husband let go of the grip you have on Zimbabwe and allow the country to rise up and flourish again. By GERALD DZAWO.

Developing countries must create cities of hope for the poor. However, many middle-income countries have seen wasteful congestion, the creation of slums, worsening air quality, floods, inadequate sanitation and joblessness. Overcoming these problems requires effective city management, and the integration of the urban agenda into national plans to promote job-rich growth, to provide safety and security, public goods and quality education. By ANN BERNSTEIN.