As part of a broad climate of political intolerance, incidents of torture of both activists and criminals in South Africa appear to be on a disturbing rise, writes Jane Duncan.

South Africa’s Protection of Information Bill (POIB) – known publicly as the Secrecy Bill – represents the biggest threat to academic freedom since 1994. Yet the voice of universities has been missing from the uproar over the bill, writes Jane Duncan.

With South African Sunday Times reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika arrested on Wednesday 4 August following complaints from Mpumalanga province premier David Mabuza, Jane Duncan writes about the alarming questions developing around freedom of expression in the country. But wa Afrika’s experience, Duncan stresses, will be far from alien to many local activists, who will be all too familiar with small-town repression, even if such stories prove to be routinely ignored by the mainstream media.