#OccupyLuthuliHouse shows a house divided

In one of the more entertaining events of the year in our troubling political landscape, ANC members marched on Luthuli House to express their frustrations with party leadership and demand the resignation of President Jacob Zuma and the entire ANC National Executive Committee. Reach for the stars, as they say.

Awaiting their arrival were dozens of MK veterans wearing camouflage and menacing faces – they weren’t having it. They weren’t going to have the media up in their business either. And so, journalists were shoved and threatened and, at times, even caught in the middle of two angry groups of jostling ANC members, and lacking all the padding and gear worn by the police. The life of a news journo can certainly be rocky, with the occasional brick thrown in, even a bit of mace here and there, but they have a vital role to play in documenting the widening rift in the ruling party.

#McBride back on top

McBride’s victory is certainly worthy of some attention, as it most certainly gave ‘kleptocrats’ something to sweat about. The court with the biggest punch, the Constitutional Court, has knocked IPID head Robert McBride’s suspension flat on its face. The Minister of Police has even been ordered to pay McBride’s legal costs.

Not only that, it found the legal provisions empowering the Minister of Police to act unilaterally against the unit’s head are in fact unconstitutional, and parliament has two years to fix it. We’d like to imagine the word “unconstitutional” was barked out in unison with a few heavy blows of hammer on gavel.

It’s now speculated that this decision is going to ruffle the feathers of a certain investigative unit.

@RanjeniM: Gosh this judgment is very complicated… subsection blah, capital B section what what… Basically #McBride won. Police minister loses again.

Book braai at UKZN

Students have some legitimate complaints, there’s no denying that. Demonstrations are a legitimate form of expression, no denying that either. But a line must be drawn in the sand when it comes to destroying public property, and a double-thick super-bold line in cement when it comes to destroying books – it’s sacrilegious and downright fascist. Even if the books are badly written.

@alprodgers: Burning a library is not an act against authority, it is an act against knowledge. You are by definition no longer a student #UKZN

@abelmike: Can there possibly be anything more illogical than burning a university so as to enhance your chances of an education? #UKZN

The timing of this incident was in itself an epic fail – the day before #InternationalLiteracyDay.

iPhone 7 arrives… minus an audio jack

Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus launch has been met with controversy due to a bold decision the company made to remove a feature – the 3.5 mm audio jack. There are some new features, of course, but many people are far more concerned about the one they took away. The wireless ‘airpods’ were presented as a replacement, and forking out a bit extra for the converter means traditional headphones can still be used. The problem is that converter uses the charger port, which means charging and playing music can’t be done simultaneously. But Apple say it’s all in the name of better audio quality, and so the little jack just had to go. It’s not the first time they’ve disrupted the market with a new product and it’s a move that has worked for them before. Let’s see how it plays out.

@NJHiOfficial: Not liking the whole airpod part of the iPhone 7 if I’m honest. I like people to know I have headphones in and completely ignoring them…

However, a large portion of those who took to Twitter were more concerned about how they couldn’t afford an iPhone 7.

@Cowtuk: The iPhone 7 is water-resistant, has stereo sound and a better camera but it doesn’t have that one feature that I want: affordability.
That’s all for now. Time to recharge before we face another week full of who-knows-what.

*Image courtesy of @arter97