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Here are some of the highlights in our edition this week:

Piet Croucamp says the Zondo Commission’s more than R1bn search for the truth about state capture has come to an abrupt halt. He says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s testimony was the low point in our expectations of the inquiry and the president should be held accountable.

With 20,000 murders a year, many South Africans are asking for the return of the death penalty. But who is prepared to look the condemned in the eye, put a rope around their neck and pull the lever? In the second instalment of a series on crime and punishment, Chris Marnewick SC takes a hard look at the death penalty. 

Max du Preez wonders why opposition parties aren’t picking the fruits of the ANC’s mismanagement and corruption, and asks how long the country will continue to be punished by Gwede Mantashe as minister of energy.

If a second critical court case makes an adverse finding against them, it could spell the end of arms manufacturers in SA, says Erika Gibson. How, she asks, did the department of defence allow itself to end up in this position?

Anneliese Burgess chats to Georden Hill-Lewis, who has been appointed as the DA’s candidate for the position of mayor of Cape Town.

He was called the Lion of the Western Transvaal, a formidable fighting general and a legend in his lifetime. This hero worship of a Boer commander, and the patriarchal attitudes of the time, meant Koos de la Rey’s remarkable wife, Nonnie, was never acknowledged, except by British officers who were in awe of her, writes Max du Preez.

It sounds easy: sip a syrup, take a tablet and you are protected against the coronavirus. But like everything that sounds too good to be true, the “magical” properties of vitamins and mineral supplements to fight Covid-19 remain a marketing ploy for which there is no supporting scientific evidence, writes Adri Kotzé.

We debut our new lifestyle supplement this week with cooking with geraniums, the microwave that has gone mainstream, samp as comfort food, a visit to Makhanda, a stroll through Simon’s Town and Kirby van der Merwe’s ode to eating a smiley. 

Lekker lees.