DINNER PARTY INTEL: Slow justice, no justice

1. Slow justice, no justice

After waiting 13 years for the wheels of Western Cape justice to turn, a UK inquest has gone ahead with its own investigation into the death of a prominent cricket writer. Cheshire coroner Jacqueline Devonish found that Peter Roebuck, who had been covering a Test match in Cape Town in November 2011, died by his own hand, falling from a floor in a Newlands hotel. She blamed the delay on waiting for a hearing in South Africa, “which hasn’t come to pass”.

2. Indefensible defence spending

Even by international standards of wasteful defence spending, South Africa’s figures are shocking. Parliament’s portfolio committee on defence has been told that “fruitless and wasteful expenditure” by the department of defence was R430m. It was able to recover only R800. DA defence spokesperson Kobus Marais says the recovery rate is 0.002%.

3. Where eagles dare to nest

Joburg’s most famous birds, a pair of black eagles at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden, are preparing for new hatchlings. The Black Eagle Project has reported the pair making a nest ready for the eggs. The birds prepare for nesting between February and April, according to the observers of the eagle project. Their last progeny left the nest last June.