South Africa, World
While you were sleeping: 22 December 2017
Daily Maverick's persons of the year announced, and First Thing's holiday programming information.
TGIF, 22 December 2017
“Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health … what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Life of Brian
STORY OF THE DAY
2017 Daily Maverick South African Persons of the Year: The Whistle-blowers
By JESSICA BEZUIDENHOUT and REBECCA DAVIS
In 2017, the horrifying extent of State Capture finally became clearer to the South African public. And we would still be languishing in the dark were it not for the whistle-blowers: the handful of courageous South African men and women who did not remain silent in the face of wrongdoing, but stood up and spoke out. From the anonymous figures who risked everything to expose the #GuptaLeaks emails, to the workers who blew the whistle on misdeeds in big corporates and State-owned Enterprises: South Africa owes you a great debt.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
Daily Maverick’s person of the year
For South Africans, there can be no more obvious candidate for person of the year than the whistle-blowers. The courageous few who chose to risk life and limb to expose the rotten, decrepit core of South African government and business. For them, the threats are not just limited to email trolls. They are real, and they are dangerous. As such, they are worth your reading time.
International, sports and more
It would have been easy to pick the obvious candidate for international person of the year. But Donald Trump, the infamous sentient naartjie, was eclipsed in recent months by a bigger force. The ‘silence breakers’ who broke open the lid on sexual assault and the callous disregard with which men, including Trump, appeared to consider allegations there. Elsewhere, we have sports and
African person of the year – the year of dis-Grace
Zimbabwe’s military-led coup washed over the country in a matter of days. At the forefront of General Chiwenga’s grievances: the corrupt and quite possibly heartless wife of Robert Mugabe. Grace Mugabe has born the brunt of the country’s ire,
Daily Maverick holiday programming
Rather than simply going quieter than Shaun Abrahams on a workday, Daily Maverick’s First Thing will have a plan of action. Running from the 27th of December until the 5th of January, we will be highlighting some of the most important issues that happened in 2017. There’s no doubt: the year was a bastard of note, but we’ll try to limit the stories to the big ones or, at the least, the very interesting. If you have a friend who still doesn’t know what a Gupta is or who won the elective conference presidency, tell them to find the First Thing and sign up
IN NUMBERS
250kg
The weight
FACTS OF THE DAY
Today is Unity Day in Zimbabwe. Mugabe family need not attend.
Lenin spoke English with an Irish accent.
FEATURED ARTICLES
2017 Daily Maverick South African Persons of the Year: The Whistle-blowers
BY JESSICA BEZUIDENHOUT & REBECCA DAVIS
2017 Daily Maverick South African Persons of the Year, Runners-Up: Those Who Found Their Voice
BY MARELISE VAN DER MERWE
Weather
BFN: min: 17° max 30°, cloudy
CPT: min: 16° max: 27°, sunny
DBN: min: 12° max: 27°, cloudy
EL: min: 20° max: 28°, cloudy
JHB: min: 16° max: 26°, rainy
KIM: min: 18° max: 31°, rainy
MHK: min: 18° max: 30°, cloudy
PMB: min: 19° max: 31°, cloudy
PE: min: 18° max: 30°, cloudy
PTA: min: 19° max: 29°, cloudy
Financial Data
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Gold=$1,266.62
Platinum=$916.55
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R/€=15.14
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BTC/$=16,749
JSE All Share=58,771.79
DJIA=24,782.29
FTSE 100=7,603.98