1. President Jacob Zuma seems to have fallen hook, line and sinker for another implausible scheme from another amateur operating outside the checks and balances of governmental structures, writes Ferial Haffajee. This time it's his son-in-law, Morris Masutha, who has somehow come up with a scheme to fund free higher education by completely rewriting the national Budget. Read here.
2. Michael Sachs' resignation as head of Treasury's Budget office could be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the fall-out from Zuma's free higher education plan. "The president's fee proposal means that a further R50-billion of cuts from other budgets will have to be found -- an almost impossible task with rating agencies breathing down the neck of SA Inc" writes Ferial Haffajee. Read here.
3. South Africa is on the verge of chaos, warns anti-apartheid activist Zackie Achmat. He says Zuma is leading "an organised criminal syndicate", and calls Zuma's ex-wife and ANC presidential candidate Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma "the state capture candidate". Read here.
4. It's not just politics that's in a state of utter upheaval at the moment. Weather patterns are being turned on their head with snow predicted in some provinces later this week. SnowReport SA said that snow will start falling on Tuesday night in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal as well as Lesotho. Read here.
5. The ANC has denied its special NEC meeting is discussing how best to remove secretary-general Gwede Mantashe following the shambolic Eastern Cape elective conference. The reports "are peddled to sow confusion and division within the movement", apparently. Read here.
6. Some of Hollywood's coolest indie kids will star in award-winning South African film maker Sibs Shongwe-La Mer new movie "The Sound of Animals Fighting." The film, which follows two young brothers who leave SA for Brazil after a close friend dies during a night of decadence in Johannesburg, will star Emile Hirsch -- who won America's heart for his roles in classics such as "Milk" and "Into the Wild" -- and Alice Braga from "City of God" and "Elysium." Read here.
7. Former deputy minister of higher education and training Mduduzi Manana admitted attacking three women in a Joburg nightclub after one of them called him "isitabane [gay]." Learn what sentence Randburg Magistrate's Court saw fit to impose on him here.