A good week for Phillipa Erasmus
After a two-year legal battle against the Gauteng department of education, former Pretoria Girls’ High principal Phillipa Erasmus has prevailed. The department agreed to a settlement out of court after a disciplinary hearing dismissed the original allegation of racism but pursued lesser charges. According to Rapport, which said it had seen the agreement, the department will pick up the legal costs — said to be about R500,000 — and pay Erasmus R150,000 for loss of earnings.
A bad week for Portia Anyamba
Portia Anyamba was jailed in the US for “acting as an agent for the Republic of South Africa” — in effect, spying. The 59-year-old former South African Air Force brigadier was convicted of providing false statements in attempting to obtain a security clearance while working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a “unique facility”, according to the charge sheet. The laboratory was established in 1943 as part of the US’s Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb.