Kurnel Plaatjies was having a bad week. He had been starved overnight, had a tube stuffed up his nose and fluid poured down it and sucked out. He had been forced to breathe strange mixtures and made to cough. And now strangers were trying to make friends when all he wanted to do was watch television. The indignant toddler is a volunteer foot soldier in the world’s most advanced attempt to create a vaccine to stop the spread of tuberculosis.

With the 2007 matric examination ending in most provinces next week, the final “time-is-up, put-down-your-pens signal” will mark the end of an era. From 2008 the Senior Certificate, better known as matric, will be replaced by a new school-leaving qualification for full-time candidates. It will be called the National Senior Certificate. Part-timers can still obtain the old certificate until June 2011.

A series of critical challenges looms for the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) as the embattled organisation prepares to re-charge presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma. The Mail & Guardian has established that the Zuma prosecution team has prepared a revised indictment in the light of last week’s Supreme Court of Appeal decision ruling on the legality of the searches of Zuma and his likely co-accused, the French Thint group.

Parliament might soon be able to flex its muscles and force the executive arm of government to take it more seriously. A report with suggested legislation will be tabled in Parliament on November 19 outlining the new role Parliament should play in deciding where the government’s spending priorities lie. This is part of a long tug of war between the national legislature and the national treasury.

In May last year Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour told Parliament the country’s two private prisons were too expensive. He promised that the eight new generation prisons to be built would not be operated by private companies and argued for a new model where companies would only be asked to build and maintain prisons, with the department of correctional services running the operational side.

The new government strategy to tackle crime in South Africa will be flawed from the outset unless individuals in key positions are removed, role players in the criminal justice system said this week. The strategy, masterminded by Deputy Justice Minister Johnny de Lange and non-executive director of FirstRand Laurie Dippenaar, aims to overhaul the crime-fighting system.

Defenders of the Koni Media bid for Johncom are trying to discredit the detractors. Former government spokesperson Onkgopotse JJ Tabane believes the critics are racially opposed to black empowerment. Others argue that the concerns are groundless. The Mail & Guardian asked a range of analysts and editors to give their views.