Hi there 🙋🏾‍♀️ The MK Party’s back in the headlines and, shocker, it’s not for winning any awards in good governance. This week, we also unpack Ukraine’s bold attack on Russia, how scientists are using AI to decode animal chit-chat, and the latest quiet exit of Afrikaners (no drama this time, just vibes). Oh, and a South African took on a UK right-wing panel and cooked. In our deeper dives, we look at political assassinations (yup, still a thing), the sneaky fuel levy hike, why Floyd Shivambu was always skating on thin ice with the MK Party, and how a controversial aide got fired on his actual birthday. Karma really said: “Surprise!” 🎁👋 Also, a HUGE thank you to everyone who filled in our survey last week! We love the direction and inspiration your input has provided. It seems the new format has won out over the previous format, but please keep the feedback coming. Mail [email protected] with your thoughts. Now, let’s dive into these stories and more in this week’s wrap, brought to you by Verashni Pillay and the explain.co.za team. 😄 _______ *Format:* 💬 WhatsApp msg: Keep scrolling 🔊 Voice note by Verashni: https://soundcloud.com/explain-za/jacob-zumas-mk-party-is-kinda-falling-apart-5-june-25 📰 Newsletter with pics: https://createsend.com/t/d-9F6B8F91B3B256DC2540EF23F30FEDED ▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ *BRIEFS:* *NATIONAL* *1. The MK Party is still refusing to let the 2024 election go.* They’re claiming vote rigging despite zero evidence. After two failed court bids, it launched a third one last Friday… then paused it four days later, and is now demanding access to the IEC’s voting data. The court’s already dismissed one related application, but MKP wants to appeal. The party could be a force, but thankfully for our democracy, they’re a shambles. 😆 *2. Speaking of Jacob Zuma’s party and court… our former pres is still in his Stalingrad era, dodging judgment in the 25+ year arms deal case.* He’s once again trying (and failing) to get prosecutor Billy Downer removed, arguing last week that the court’s rulings were too short and Downer too biased. The courts say Zuma’s private prosecutions were abusive delays. Will he ever face justice? 🤷🏾‍♂️ *3. Broadcaster Dan Corder shut down Ernst Roets' misinformation.* Debating the former AfriForum deputy CEO on UK show _Piers Morgan Uncensored_ last week, Corder said SA’s redress laws promoted representation across race, gender, and disability, and didn’t exist to target white citizens. Social media blew up, with music producer Prince Kaybee saying Dan “cooked [Roets] on a two-plate stove.” Corder 1, Roets 0. 🎤🇿🇦 *4. A second, smaller group of “Afrikaner refugees” arrived in the US on Friday.* There’s going to be a steady trickle of these: 8,000 Afrikaners will be resettled within the next few months, according to trade union Solidarity. Meanwhile, African American televangelist Mark Burns, who is apparently an adviser to Trump, said the Orange One has been misled about “white genocide” in an interview this week during a visit to SA. *5. Higher Education Minister Dr. Nobuhle Nkabane is under fire again.* Last month, she had to backtrack on a dodgy list of Seta chairs stacked with ANC-linked names, like Gwede Mantashe’s son. Cyril apparently read her the riot act. Now she’s been slammed for munching through a tense parliamentary grilling on the matter this week, offering surly replies while chewing. She says eating was allowed. The internet says: rude. *INTERNATIONAL:* *1. Elon Musk's drug use while working with Trump may explain a lot.* A _New York Times_ investigation last week, drawing on over a dozen insiders, alleges Musk took dissociative anaesthetic ketamine “sometimes daily,” causing bladder issues, plus ecstasy and mushrooms, and carried a 20-pill box including Adderall. Musk denied the report but has admitted to some ketamine use before. We’re still not excusing those Nazi salutes. *2. Ukraine’s latest move in the war? A drone strike inside Russia, targeting key airbases and damaging nuclear-capable bombers* . Sunday’s surprise operation, dubbed “Spider’s Web,” saw 117 drones smuggled into Russia in wooden sheds, then launched remotely, with some even guided by AI. 💥 Military experts are impressed, but Putin is livid, warning Trump he’ll respond and placing peace talks on shakier ground. *3. As the devastation in Gaza continues, we cannot look away.* And neither can Greta Thunberg. She’s aboard the aid ship Madleen, braving threats and drones to deliver food and medical supplies to Palestinians trapped under an inhumane blockade. This comes as at least 27 Palestinians were killed trying to access Israeli-backed aid sites. With Gaza’s death toll topping 54,000, calls for justice and accountability must grow louder. *4. South Korea and Poland just wrapped presidential elections.* In South Korea, liberal Lee Jae-myung comfortably beat a conservative candidate. The snap election was triggered by the former president’s impeachment after his martial law fiasco. This led to the highest voter turnout in decades - 79.4%. In Poland, conservative Karol Nawrocki, backed by Donald Trump, narrowly won over a centrist, making for an unhappy EU. *5. Scientists may be on the cusp of decoding animal languages.* Last month, Google released DolphinGemma, an AI programme to translate dolphins, trained on 40 years of data. In 2013, scientists discovered a pod of dolphins were using a new click they’d previously been taught to associate with sargassum seaweed – the first recorded instance of a word passing from one species into another’s native vocabulary. 🤯 ▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ *BIG STORIES:* *1. MK Party drama: Shivambu demoted after Malawi church trip* The MK Party has “redeployed” Floyd Shivambu from his role as secretary general to… just another MP. A soft landing, considering MPs earn over R100k a month. Where do we sign up for this kind of demotion? So, what went down? Shivambu caused a stir in April when he visited fugitive pastor Shepherd Bushiri’s church in Malawi over Easter. The MK Party leadership wasn’t impressed, especially since Bushiri is still wanted in South Africa on fraud and money laundering charges. The party said the trip went against its constitution, specifically section 3 (J) of its “Offences” list, for international trips that clash with party values. Shivambu claimed party president Jacob Zuma had green-lit the visit. But the MK Party still gave him the boot from his top role. He took the demotion on the chin, saying he respected the decision “as a disciplined member. ” But sources told _News24_ the trip was just an excuse to get rid of Shivambu, and unhappiness had long been brewing. Critics said the party’s administration was a mess under Shivambu and that he was cold and distant. To be fair to Shivambu, the party has gone through five secretary generals and four treasury generals since it started in December 2023. There was also talk of missing millions from the party’s coffers back in January. So it seems they’re making a mess of their admin anyway. Shivambu also upset the boss’s daughter. He got into spats with Zuma’s daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, who memorably went on a rant in February on Twitter, saying Shivambu was “the worst thing that happened to MK”, and described him as “useless”. She also posted “Fuck you Floyd”. Nice. She was later forced to apologise. Shivambu isn’t the first casualty of the MKP’s internal wars. Just last month, MKP chief whip Mzwanele Manyi was replaced by Colleen Makhubela, after clashing with deputy president John Hlophe. The feud was so intense that it reportedly got physical. For now, Shivambu’s back in Parliament, but don’t expect EFF-style chaos. With the MKP still mired in internal battles, he’ll likely be keeping a low profile. And with a party this messy, we don’t blame him. *2. Roman Cabanac finally gets the boot* You know that moment when the birthday cake comes out and someone hands you... a termination letter? That's what happened to Roman Cabanac, the now-former chief of staff to Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen. The controversial podcaster confirmed his sacking in a video on X yesterday, sarcastically thanking Steenhuisen for the “fantastic timing”. Cabanac was a lightning rod from the get-go. He came with a suitcase full of baggage: from defending apartheid-era policing to sneering at “poor Xhosas” and making homophobic jabs about Freddie Mercury’s death. Oh, and let’s not forget his love letters to the Kremlin and rants about NGOs being puppets of foreign powers. A further complication he may have faced, however, is a lack of security clearance: news reports earlier this year say the State Security Agency refused to grant Cabanac security clearance due to his dual French nationality. Despite this, he still made it through a six-week vetting process and landed one of the top jobs in Steenhuisen’s office. But that didn’t last long. Public pressure grew louder. Despite Cabanac trying to clean up his image, posting a semi-apology about how “2024 changed him”. Steenhuisen eventually asked him to resign last year. But Cabanac refused to relinquish the R1.4 m-a-year gig, dragging Steenhuisen through what must have been an arduous labour process (Cabanac has a legal background). Honestly, Steenhuisen and the DA only have themselves to blame. They’ve appointed too many woefully unqualified people like Cabanac and former MP Renaldo Gouws, both podcasting bros pushing the envelope on racism and bigotry without much else to offer. The DA has distanced itself from the Cabanac affair, however, saying ministerial appointments aren’t their business. Critics, including the EFF, called the hire “an insult to taxpayers”. Cabanac may go on to challenge his firing. But, what does this say about the DA’s judgment, Steenhuisen’s leadership, or just how broken our vetting processes are? That’s for voters to decide. But one thing’s for sure: if you’ve made a career criticising the ANC for not making “merit-based” appointments, maybe don’t start by hiring someone who needs to delete half his Twitter history just to get through the front door. *3. Petrol prices fall, but there’s a catch* Petrol prices are down. Yay! But don’t celebrate just yet – the dreaded fuel levy hike also kicked in yesterday, as promised by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s new budget. Quick explainer – our petrol prices are decided by: 🔹 International oil prices, 🔹The rand exchange rate and 🔹 The fixed fuel levy, which has just increased. So, despite the levy, the petrol price overall is actually a few cents cheaper thanks to a recently beefed-up rand. Recap: Government added 16c to every litre of leaded and unleaded and 15c to diesel in May’s budget (which passed after its third attempt). This is the first fuel tax increase in three years, and it’s meant to help fill a R3.5 billion gap in the contested national budget, which tried and failed to also introduce VAT increases. So you’re paying a little less at the pump this month, but it could have been even less if you weren’t paying a little more in taxes. Annoyed? You’re not alone. The EFF took the matter to court, arguing the fuel levy deepens inequality. They may have been counting on the same sort of success they enjoyed when they joined the DA in court to stop the VAT increase in April. But it was not to be. On Tuesday, the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town dismissed their bid to block the new fuel levy, ruling that the National Treasury acted within its legal rights to implement the increase. EFF leader Julius Malema response? "It was not the EFF that got rejected, it was the people of South Africa who lost because they’ve put an increase on fuel. Once you put an increase in fuel levy, everything else goes up". He’s not wrong, alas. Here’s what it looks like at the pump now: 🔹Inland: 95 unleaded is now R21.35 (down 5c), diesel’s around R18.55 (down 37c) 🔹Coastal: 95 unleaded is R20.52, diesel’s R17.81 So, where does this leave us? Slightly better off for now. But the relief may be short-lived, especially if the rand takes a knock or global oil prices spike again. For now, enjoy the small win and keep an eye on the road ahead. *4. Another political assassination. Are we just getting used to it?* This weekend, South Africa lost another politician to a bullet. Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) MP Khethamabala Petros Sithole (68) was gunned down on Saturday night while attending a meeting at the Buyafuthi Hostel in Katlehong, Gauteng. Three unknown gunmen opened fire, killing him and injuring two others. One victim remains in the hospital. Earlier today, two arrests were made. Sithole, who’d been with the IFP since 1979, was the party’s deputy chief whip in Parliament and a respected figure. Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum, all condemning the attack and demanding justice. But will there be justice? South Africa has a long, bloody history of political assassinations from apartheid-era murders like Chris Hani and Ruth First to recent hits on whistleblowers like Babita Deokaran and activists from Abahlali baseMjondolo. In just four months in 2024, before the national elections, at least 10 politically linked killings were recorded. That's one every two weeks, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. KZN continues to be the epicentre, with 19 such killings in 2023 alone. Why? Experts say it’s a mix of factors: fights over tenders, attempts to silence whistleblowers, and eliminating rivals, especially around elections. And yes, municipal politics gets deadly too. So what’s being done? Not enough, it seems. A dedicated police unit once tasked with probing these killings was dissolved earlier this year, a move slammed by parties like the MKP. And with only 15% of all murder cases being solved nationally, justice often feels like a long shot. Sithole’s assassination is a reminder that standing up in South African politics can still mean risking your life. If the murder of a sitting MP doesn’t sound the alarm, what will? South Africa’s future depends not just on casting votes, but on protecting those who take office. ---------------------- That’s it from us at The Wrap, an award-winning product of explain.co.za - simple news summaries for busy people. 💁🏾‍♀ The Wrap is sponsored by explain’s agency division. We specialise in content marketing for purpose-driven organisations, often with a pan-African reach. Mail [email protected] for a quote. 🇸​🇺​🇧​🇸​🇨​🇷​🇮​🇧​🇪​ Remember to share the love. 💫 Tell your friends to sign up: 📩 Email: http://explain.co.za/subscribe 📲 Our new WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vac06yM8kyyLmOulb80J _Till next time, goodbye from the team_ ✌🏽