--- title: "While you were sleeping: 12 October 2017" description: "D-Day for apartheid jail killing, SpaceX lands reused rocket, and Dutch police foil helicopter escape." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "South Africa" author: "John Stupart" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/johnstupart/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-10-12-while-you-were-sleeping-12-october-2017/" published: "2017-10-12T06:02:44" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 745 --- # While you were sleeping: 12 October 2017 > D-Day for apartheid jail killing, SpaceX lands reused rocket, and Dutch police foil helicopter escape. By John Stupart · Published 12 October 2017, 08:02 SAST ## Content **Thursday, 12 October 2017** *“Heroes. Idols. They're never who you think they are. Shorter. Nastier. Smellier. And when you finally meet them, there's something that makes you want to choke the shit out of them.”* **Paul Beatty** ![Image](https://i2.createsend1.com/ei/d/15/67C/B28/csimport/849x493q70grootes-anctradition1.050934.jpg) STORY OF THE DAY [Analysis: ANC’s ‘tradition’ vs reality of the brave new world](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-utlkcd-l-p/) By STEPHEN GROOTES South Africa has been avidly watching one of the world’s strangest political campaigns ever to grip a democratic country. People have been criss-crossing the land, making strange claims and suggesting that the sky will fall in (or worse … remain as it is) should someone else get elected. And yet some of the arguments advanced are specious. One of the most heard is that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa must become the new leader of the ANC “because it is ANC tradition” that the deputy becomes the leader. In a campaign of weak arguments, this is surely one of the weakest. Yet, that it is made at all illustrates the strange world inhabited by the ANC’s candidates. [D-Day ruling for apartheid killing](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-utlkcd-l-x/) The North Gauteng High Court will rule today on the 1971 death of Ahmed Timol. Timol died in police custody under immensely suspicious circumstances. The police in true apartheid form had claimed Timol had committed suicide. Today, the testimonies of pathologists, cross-examination of former Security Branch thugs who last saw Timol and a general analysis of the entire story could see a murder verdict. [SpaceX successfully re-uses rocket](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-utlkcd-l-m/) Early on Thursday morning SpaceX successfully launched a re-used rocket and landed it again. The Falcon 9 rocket left Cape Canaveral carrying a satellite. Ten minutes after launch the first stage rocket detached from the payload and successfully landed on an Atlantic ocean platform. This is SpaceX's 18th successful landing. [Australian F-35 data stolen](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-utlkcd-l-c/) Rather sensitive data on the F-35 stealth fighter was stolen by a Chinese hacking tool. A defence subcontractor in Australia was hacked with the tool, having the world's most expensive fighter aircraft's data stolen along with that of the P-8 surveillance platform. Somewhere on the darknet, a hacker is about to become immensely wealthy selling said data to China and Russia. [Dutch police foil helicopter escape](http://email.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-utlkcd-l-q/) In what could have come straight out of a movie script, Dutch police reported one man shot dead and several arrested trying to spring a prisoner from jail. The aforementioned gang had planned to hijack a helicopter and use it to free their friend from prison. The prisoner in question: a local mafia kingpin responsible for a virulent drug trade in the Netherlands. Controlling a drug market in Amsterdam may seem like an odd thing to be in jail for, let alone having someone hijack a helicopter to get you out. — IN NUMBERS $9.80 The amount Ray Bradbury spent on a coin-operated typewriter drafting Fahrenheit 451. 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