WEEKEND WRAP

Madlanga effect, Cape Town housing squeeze, and why buy books we never read

This edition of the Weekend Wrap pays tribute to the life and work of Estelle Ellis, whose fearless reporting exposed broken hospitals, failing infrastructure and broken promises. We also unpack the so-called Madlanga Effect on civic governance, ask whether Cape Town is doing enough to tackle its inner-city housing crisis, and examine the policy debate over starting Grade 1 at age five.

By Daily Maverick

8 Aug

Illustrative image | Executive mayor of the City of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis. (Photo: ER Lombard / Gallo Images)

Farewell Estelle Ellis, who chased broken lifts, broken hospitals and broken promises

Estelle Ellis-obit — Estelle Ellis at the Daily Maverick's Gathering 2025. (Photo: David Harrison)

By Herman Lategan. The Daily Maverick journalist who spent years exposing failures in Eastern Cape hospitals, courts and municipalities, and who once got trapped in a hospital lift with a corpse rather than take an official’s word for it, has died suddenly. Read more.

Organic free-range eggs are not all they’re cracked up to be, study finds

BM-Ed-Organiceggs — Organic eggs worse for climate and animal welfare than caged hatches: study. (Photo: Bastian Parschau/Getty Images)

By Ed Stoddard. The environmental findings — notably concerning climate change — highlight how animal welfare concerns and activism can give rise to unexpected conservation consequences and ill-conceived policies. Read more.

The Madlanga Effect — a national lesson in civic governance, the law and ethics

ThammEffect — Illustrative image: Sandile Khumalo SC (Photo:Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu) |Sesi Baloyi SC (Photo: Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu) | Mahlape Sello SC (Photo by Gallo Images/Lefty Shivambu) | Former Independent Directorate Against Corruption Head Advocate Andrea Johnson (Photo: Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu) | Mbuyiseli Madlanga (Photo: Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu) | PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA - APRIL 15: Suspended Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) Julius Mkhwanazi (Photo: Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu)

By Marianne Thamm. If we are looking for the perfect vehicle to verse South Africans in a much-needed masterclass in civics and governance, it is the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into the capture of SA’s law enforcement agencies. Read more.

Addo farmer ready to Moer ’n Boer

Riaan - MoernBoer — Addo farmer Gideon Wessels is poised to make his debut in the MMA cage at the Moer 'n Boer fighting event in Pretoria on 19 September. (Photo: Supplied / Gideon Wessels)

By Riaan Marais. An Addo citrus farmer has just eight weeks to transform himself from farm manager to MMA fighter after accepting a last-minute call-up to compete in Moer ’n Boer season three. Read more.

Another Media24 restructuring won’t fix a broken market

Styli-brokenmarket — Media24 building in Cape Town. (Photo by Gallo Images / Rapport / Jaco Marais)

By Styli Charalambous. South Africa’s largest digital news publisher has attempted every remedy the turnaround textbook prescribes. Disposals, closures, massive headcount reduction and a digitally transformed subscription business still saw financial losses increase by 60%. If Media24 cannot break even, the problem isn’t the operating model. It is the market. Read more.

Foreign visitors vs locals — is Hill-Lewis finally addressing Cape Town’s inner-city housing squeeze?

By Kevin Bloom. Cape Town’s draft Short‑Term Letting By‑Law reclassifies many Airbnb-style rentals as commercial, raising rates and requiring registration — but will it free inner‑city housing for local renters? Read more.

Why you keep buying books you don’t read (and why it feels so good)

By Michelle Spear. Age-based admissions mask a deeper crisis: most children enter Grade 1 without the developmental foundations they need. Until South Africa invests in the birth-to-five years, the system will remain on unstable ground. Read more.

Grade 1 at age 5: A policy built on unstable foundations

By Monja Boonzaier. Age-based admissions mask a deeper crisis: most children enter Grade 1 without the developmental foundations they need. Until South Africa invests in the birth-to-five years, the system will remain on unstable ground. Read more.

Watch – More than 1,200 City Power outages in two weeks leave Joburg buckling

More than 1,200 active outages have hit the city since the start of July alone. From Sandton to Midrand - and right across the inner city - households and businesses are facing blackouts lasting up to 20 days.

Crumbling infrastructure, systemic operational paralysis, and brazen extortion schemes have pushed Johannesburg’s electricity network to its breaking point, leaving the utility increasingly unable to cope with a localised crisis that councillors warn is sliding out of control. Daily Maverick’s Anna Cox reports. Read more.