University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) communications head Dasarath Chetty’s attempts to prove that he was defamed have been squashed in court again. Last week the Grahamstown High Court dismissed Chetty’s appeal against the Grahamstown Magistrate’s Court’s rejection in March of his defamation suit against fellow sociologist Jimi Adesina, a professor at Rhodes University.

Questions are being asked about the government’s second attempt at a mass literacy campaign after world-renowned adult education expert John Aitchison resigned recently. The reasons for his departure centre on his conviction that the education department is taking the new R6,1-billion campaign down the same road that led to the near-total failure of the previous campaign.

A new analysis of South Africa’s huge university dropout rate confirms some suspected causes of students not completing their studies. But it also provides surprising reasons for optimism. Finances, poor school preparation and inadequate academic teaching and support are among the leading reasons cited by students who have dropped out.

The United States government is heading for the dock. The American Civil Liberties Union has launched legal action against it over its denial of a visa to prominent South African academic Adam Habib. And now that the US has revealed its reasons for denying Habib entry to the country, essentially accusing him of ”terrorist” activity, the backlash against the superpower’s government is intensifying.

Can we read it or can’t we? The centre of this bizarre mystery is a doctoral thesis on disgraced former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje submitted to Rhodes University in 2005. The thesis was passed last year and the PhD was awarded. Yet there appears to be an embargo on the thesis, preventing anyone from getting access to it, according to several people involved in the saga.