Issued by Daniela Ellerbeck on behalf of the FW de Klerk Foundation:
The Constitutional Court refused to hear former President Jacob Zuma’s application for leave to appeal the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (“SCA”) judgment. This order, made on 31 March 2025, marks the end of Zuma’s private prosecution against journalist Karyn Maughan, which started on 5 September 2022.
“The FW de Klerk Foundation welcomes the Constitutional Court’s order, affirming public confidence in the judiciary and protecting journalists from vexatious litigation aimed at intimidating and silencing journalists. That the courts protect the right to freedom of expression, especially freedom of the press and other media, even if they are investigating high-profile individuals, is crucial for public confidence in the judiciary and the rule of law,” states Daniela Ellerbeck, an attorney and the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Constitutional Rights Programme Manager.
“The High Court’s judgment – that Zuma appealed to the SCA – determined that his private prosecutions against Maughan and Prosecutor Downer were ‘an abuse of process… instituted for an ulterior purpose’ (paragraphs 197 and 198). The SCA found that Zuma’s appeal to it – asking it to suspend the High Court’s order and allow him to continue these private prosecutions – lacked legal foundation (paragraph 22),” explains Shanees Nkandu, an intern at the Foundation. “The SCA found that public confidence in the judiciary and the administration of justice would have been undermined if Maughan and Prosecutor Downer were subjected to an ‘unlawful, abusive and oppressive private prosecution’ (paragraph 18),” concludes Nkandu…continue reading this article HERE.
Lindiwe Sisulu: {2004 – 2009} Sisulu was Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, focusing on conservation, sustainable tourism, and the promotion of South Africa’s natural heritage. She advocated for environmental rights and community involvement in conservation efforts.
high-fructose
Fun South African Fact: South Africa is the only country in the world to build and then decide to dismantle the whole of its nuclear weapons program.
Rink Ruler
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an old man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d run the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to have abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would lead to a painful death. Little by little, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still have yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t all bad. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful plan to go on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could get one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually have a few more years to enjoy life to the fullest and see the world in all its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a place with a new mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn all the ways to prepare the milk, and just enjoy the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in New Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Do you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to get a single glass? I do. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very end of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had come to an end, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.