For South Africans, there can be no more obvious candidate for person of the year than the whistle-blowers. The courageous few who chose to risk life and limb to expose the rotten, decrepit core of South African government and business. For them, the threats are not just limited to email trolls. They are real, and they are dangerous. As such, they are worth your reading time.

It would have been easy to pick the obvious candidate for international person of the year. But Donald Trump, the infamous sentient naartjie, was eclipsed in recent months by a bigger force. The ‘silence breakers’ who broke open the lid on sexual assault and the callous disregard with which men, including Trump, appeared to consider allegations there. Elsewhere, we have sports and runner-ups . They are all worth considering.

Zimbabwe’s military-led coup washed over the country in a matter of days. At the forefront of General Chiwenga’s grievances: the corrupt and quite possibly heartless wife of Robert Mugabe. Grace Mugabe has born the brunt of the country’s ire, having reached too far and too high by imposing the removal of then-president aspirant Emmerson Mnangagwa, effectively prompting her husband’s nearly four-decade rule to come crashing down. Aside from her political greed, Grace’s personal life is awash with spoiled, over-entitled children and outright assault charges. For Africa, there could be no other more critical person of the year. 

Rather than simply going quieter than Shaun Abrahams on a workday, Daily Maverick’s First Thing will have a plan of action. Running from the 27th of December until the 5th of January, we will be highlighting some of the most important issues that happened in 2017. There’s no doubt: the year was a bastard of note, but we’ll try to limit the stories to the big ones or, at the least, the very interesting. If you have a friend who still doesn’t know what a Gupta is or who won the elective conference presidency, tell them to find the First Thing and sign up now .

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