WORLDVIEW: Unravelling of the $100bn nuclear deal began at a quiet Drakensberg resort

The illustration of a society at peace with itself is when old men plant trees whose shade they will never know. It's a bit like that for investigative journalists. These hardy servants of society have the painfully slow task of accumulating of scraps of evidence. Eventually, their efforts lead to the unravelling of nefarious designs by those who would prey on society.

Rowan Philp is one of the finest examples of his breed. An education which includes stints at MIT and Harvard, the erstwhile chief reporter at the Sunday Times throttled back in mid-2013, leaving the big city for the original "Sleepy Hollow" – taking up a post of leading the newsroom at Pietermaritzburg's daily The Witness.

This unlikely step was to deliver the first hard evidence of an unaffordable nuclear deal between South Africa and Russia. A deal blown out of the water yesterday when the High Court ruled in favour of civil society litigants and sent the entire process back to square one.

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