Desecrated to piles of rubble, the tombstones of former Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa and anti-apartheid icon and journalist Nathaniel Nat Nakasa remain eyesores for their families.

More than a year after Meyiwa and Nakasa’s grave sites were vandalised in the Chesterville Cemetery in Durban, the families of the late icons remain in limbo, waiting for promises to be fulfilled by the eThekwini municipality and the SA Football Association (Safa) to restore the tombstones to their former glory.

My name is Aspasia. Every year as I approach the end of February I get that mildly sinking feeling that comes from recognising that perhaps the grand resolutions I made may not be panning out quite as successfully as anticipated in the alcohol fueled daze of January 1.

Perhaps you too know this feeling as you recognise that certain undertakings made so brightly on that first day of the New Year might still be firmly lodged on the to-do list around February 29. I’m not alone. Apparently research shows that more than half of the resolutions made, fail. To break this cycle of despond I decided that this year I should rather reset as opposed to resolve.

How, you ask? By starting with the basics. First up I’m fixing my breathing.

Police minister Bheki Cele delivered the quarterly crime stats for the period October to December 2021. Although there was a significant reduction in crimes such as sexual assault and robbery, murders continued to rise.

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi was supposed to addressed Hoërskool Jan Viljoen parents on Thursday afternoon.

The MEC was late for the meeting and while parents waited for him chaos was the order of the day.

It was a shouting match with slurs being traded between black and white parents inside the school stadium.

Angry parents told TimesLIVE their time was wasted and they want the racial allegations at the school solved fast.The MEC apologised to the parents and suggested he make his address on Sunday.

In his second day in the witness box, EFF leader Julius Malema told the equality court sitting in Johannesburg that the anti-apartheid song Dubul’ ibhunu, which translates to “shoot the Boer” or “kill the Boer”, was a chant and not a command to incite violence, as violence was not party policy.

In this edition of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, Hennie van Vuuren, director of Open Secrets, explains why, despite excellent work done by the state capture inquiry, the commission headed by Justice Raymond Zondo could have been more nuanced in at least six respects. 

Eusebius McKaiser and Van Vuuren discuss how some of the Zondo commission’s analyses were important case studies of parts of the state, but did not necessarily lead to adequate systems analysis to enable citizens to understand the general methods of the looters, with a view to developing early warning systems in future.

The equality court in Johannesburg on Wednesday continued with the hate speech matter brought by AfriForum. The organisation took the EFF to court over the singing of the song Dubul' ibhunu. AfriForum wants the song declared as hate speech and for the EFF to apologise and be fined R500,000.

EFF leader Julius Malema told the court AfriForum is creating a state of unnecessary panic among white people.

Malema will be on the stand again on Thursday.

Alleged mastermind of the murder of Tshegofatso Pule, Ntuthuko Shoba, appeared at the Johannesburg high court on Wednesday for cross-examination. Shoba testified that he was not worried about not being able to make contact with Pule for several days after the last time he saw her — which was the day she was murdered.

“I did not sing ‘Kill the Boer’, you have the wrong man.”

So said EFF leader Julius Malema in the Equality Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday during the hate speech case brought by AfriForum.

AfriForum took Malema and the EFF to court for singing Dubul’ ibhunu, translated as “Shoot the Boer” or “Kill the Boer”. The lobby group wants Malema, the party and MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi to apologise and pay damages.

Former president Jacob Zuma has been denied leave to appeal the dismissal of his “special plea” to remove lead prosecutor advocate Billy Downer from his corruption trial.

Pietermaritzburg high court judge Piet Koen on Wednesday ruled the trial must proceed, as agreed to by all parties, on April 11 this year.