Dear reader,

A very momentous announcement was made this week. It went relatively unnoticed below the current chaos of the newsroom – print is, in fact, not dead. It is being kept alive and well by the inexperienced efforts of the BAHons Journalism class. Nevertheless, the huge announcement: we completed our final news cycle of the year last week.

This is an incredible milestone, and might leave one wondering – if the journalism class is no longer writing news articles, what on earth are they doing all day in that building on Crozier Street? Answers may vary, and be accompanied by a range of emotions, but ultimately news articles actually make up only a fraction of this degree. We are currently deep in the WordPress trenches, trying to figure out web design. We have also been warned that the following seven days will amount to as much work as we have already completed this semester. But back to the announcement, I would like to dedicate this newsletter to our chief sub-editors for SMF News.

Reid Donson, Danielle Schaafsma, and Anja van Zyl. These three students have managed to keep the wheel of news turning despite multiple setbacks, deadlines, breakdowns, and distractions. As much as the rest of the class loves to complain about the workload, we had the privilege of only having to focus on one article at a time. If it was our turn to sub, that number might be increased to five. However, I am willing to bet money (and this confession will severely hurt our brand) that most of the class have not read every news article published this year. But the subs have! They have read, re-read, and edited every article that was made available to the public, and the exceptionally high quality of work is in a large part due to them. While we have not celebrated the official end of the news cycles yet, I would still like to extend the class’ gratitude to these students.

While we stay glued to our desks, a very interesting development has happened somewhere else in the country. The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry started on Wednesday. This is a culmination of intrigues that have taken place since July, when KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi accused the now-suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu and now-suspended deputy national commissioner for crime detection Shadrack Sibiya of interfering with police investigations and protecting criminals, according to Daily Maverick’s Rebecca Davis. This raises serious concerns about the true depth of this corruption, as these are all prominent figures in the country’s political arena, according to Davis. The job of an investigative journalist is never complete.

This is a ray of hope, as we would all very much like to be employed next year.

Anke Spies, newsletter editor.

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The BAHons class of 2025 finally did a photoshoot in our class hoodies!
(Some of us are strategically placed at the back as they forgot to wear their hoodies, despite being asked to do so a week in advance.)

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