The insane year that was: SA newsmakers of 2016
Oh 2016... what a year it's been! From political scandals, to racial tensions, fees protests and arrests - this was a year which generally involved a lot of people behaving very, very badly, and others questioning: what the hell were they thinking? As the year draws to a close, we recap on some of the local news stories which captured headlines in 2016.
1.
It was a choppy start to the year. Penny Sparrow, a former real estate agent
on the KZN south coast - unleashed a racial storm with an inflammatory
Facebook post about black beach-goers.
It resulted in all sorts of emotions: anger, shock, disgust, disbelief, hurt - but also sympathy.
ALSO READ: Penny Sparrow pleads guilty to crimen injuria, sentenced
Sadly, Penny Sparrow wasn't the only one who directed racial slurs at their fellow South Africans.
The long list of others who've taken their place in the 2016 Hall of Infamy include: Justin Van Vuuren, Matthew Theunissen, Velaphi Khumalo, Vicki Momberg, Thabo Mabotja, Dawie Kriel, Will MacGibbon, Willem Oosthuizen, Theo Jackson and Ben Sasonof.
2.
#FeesMustFallReloaded marked its place on the academic calendar as students picked up where they left off.
Protests at higher learning institutions across the country were again the order of the day, and students' running battles with police and campus security a familiar scene.
Some died, others were hurt, hundreds were arrested (some still in custody), and libraries, vehicles and other university property went up in flames - all of this before and after Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande said the 2017 fee increment would be entirely up to the individual universities but should not exceed 8%.
3.
Who would have thought that the 2016 Local Government Elections would have such a nail-biting photo finish?
Among the several hung municipalities were the key metros of Johannesburg and Tshwane - where the ANC and DA were neck-and-neck.
ALSO READ: IEC receives 28 complaints ahead of local government elections
The DA secured the support of other parties through coalitions and council votes to take over the governance of the commercial hub and capital city from the ANC.
4.
Hair also took centre stage and made global headlines this year.
A group of Pretoria High School For Girls pupils used a popular annual school fair as a platform to highlight what they said was the school's discriminatory hair policy against black girls.
ALSO READ: Education specialist set to visit Pretoria Girls High
At some point, security members arrived and told the girls they would be arrested if they did not quieten down and disperse. A few pupils dared them to lock them up.
This precise moment of defiance was captured on video and in photographs which were circulated on social media - sparking an intense and somewhat robust and necessary debate.
An official inquiry has since found that there were incidents of racial discrimination by some teachers at the school.
5.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his former SARS colleagues, Ivan Pillay and Oupa Magashula were charged with fraud - relating to the approval of Pillay's early retirement from the revenue service.
The charges sent shockwaves across South Africa, and an already fragile Rand (recovering from Nenegate) went into another tailspin.
ALSO READ: NPA withdraws fraud charges against Gordhan
Some believed the charges had no legal basis and that they were really an attempt to 'capture' Treasury.
The charges were dropped the same week the trio were due in court when the National Prosecuting Authority backtracked on the basis that they had (after the fact) found that Gordhan et al. had no intention to act unlawfully.
6.
Thuli Madonsela's seven-year term as the public protector came to an end in mid-October, making way for Busisiwe Mkwhebane whose job interview South Africa were privy to.
Madonsela signed-off with the release of a series of investigative reports.
The much-awaited State of Capture Report was conspicuous by its absence from the pile.
The president had raced to the courts on the eve of its planned release to stop it from being made public, making for a cliffhanger.
Opposition parties also went to court and successfully argued for the report's release. The new public protector was tasked with publishing the report as ordered by The High Court.
Several high profile South Africans, including the controversial Gupta brothers, Mineral Resources Minister, Mosebenzi Zwane and former Transnet and Eskom CEO Brian Molefe were implicated through some damning evidence contained in the report.
On a lighter note, the State of Capture Report famously gave South Africans the #SaxonwoldShebeen.
