1. South Africa's political heavyweight titleholder President Jacob Zuma is clinging to the ropes after being dealt a quick succession of near-fatal blows over the past two weeks. Zuma has been king of the ring since 2007: dodging rape accusations; incessantly fighting off 783 counts of corruption, racketeering and money-laundering; prevailing after a near loss in the Nkandla matter; sidestepping the backlash from numerous Cabinet reshuffles; knocking down motions of no confidence; and opting for the slow and technical game against state capture.
But a new contender has entered the ring, and it's a fight to the finish -- Zuma is on the backfoot for the first time in his career, stumbling, his legs buckling under him. Read more.
2. "Cape Town is past the point of no return and Day Zero is almost unavoidable." The reality has sunk in, as Western Cape premier Helen Zille admits that water use in Cape Town has increased again, forcing the city to prepare to implement Day Zero. Read more.
3. Johannesburg's 223m-tall Carlton Centre Is about to be unseated from its position as the continent's tallest skyscraper – once construction on Kenya's "The Pinnacle" building is completed. The 300-metre tower is now well underway, and estate agents are working hard to sell the hundreds of residential apartments in the luxury mixed-use development – one which will include its own helipad, a five-star Hilton Hotel and a viewing deck with vistas of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. Read more.
4. Newly appointed Eskom board chairperson Jabu Mabuza says that the stabilisation of the parastatal should not be taken lightly, and that "financial and business discipline" needs to be entrenched at board and executive level if the power utility is to be saved. At the weekend, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa enacted sweeping changes at Eskom and fired the board. Mabuza, reportedly the well-respected chair of Business Leadership South Africa, and Phakamani Hadebe, former head of client at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking, have been put in charge of Eskom. Read more.
5. South Africans woke up on Monday to another Twitter war of words: this time between rapper Gigi Lamayne and talk-show presenter Gugu Mhlungu. Gigi became the talk of the town – and the subject of body-shaming – after she posted a picture of herself in a bodysuit lying on the floor surrounded by money. The snap was from the music video of Miss Cosmo's song "Isaga Lam", in which Gigi features. Read more.
6. Make-up artist to the stars Muzi Zuma will be putting away his brushes and contour kit for now, thanks to his recent experience with TV presenter Bonang Matheba.
Muzi made headlines this week when he revealed that Bonang had not paid him R25,000 for work he'd done in July 2017. Read more.