Five things you need to know about SA today

1. The Dispatch has quite a tale today. One of East London’s former mayors (the town has had quite a few in the past few years) chased after and karate-chopped a man, who allegedly stabbed a petrol attendant.  The suspect was arrested but the petrol attendant died as a friend of the former mayor was unable to get a call through to the emergency services. He flagged down a passing ambulance but they could not stop to help immediately as they were taking a woman to an old age home and returned too late. Lots of strands to this story that say a lot about our society. Read the story here.

2.  Trevor Manuel  is consulting lawyers over claims made by Allan Boesak in a book to be published soon, reports IOL and News24.  Boesak names Manuel’s family among other sturggle activists as benefiting from donor funds channelled through his Foundation for Justice and Peace. Read the IOL story here.

3.  There’s a moerse row brewing as Nelson Mandela’s grandson is denying that he has sold the funeral rights for Madiba’s funeral to the SABC for R3-million. He made his denial to both The Times and the Dispatch after  Sunday World broke the story. The Sunday World story says Mandla ignored repeated requests for comment. Read it here and read today’s story at The Times here.

4. And while we’re on the Sunday papers, I do feel the need to point out that the Sunday Times splash this week about young girls in rural Eastern cape being forced into marraige  is a story that appeared in the Daily Dispatch a few months back. Honestly, guys. Did you not think the Dispatch readers would notice?  Here’s the Sunday Times story and click here to read the Dispatch one from March.

5. News24 has a new look. Check it out but I must mention their perculiar practise of the past few weeks of leading with international stories. There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening right in SA, guys — web users can get international news from a host of foreign sites at the click of a button.

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