Cynical fertiliser company sows death and devastation in greedy bid for profit.

Fertiliser giant Omnia has yet again been caught selling contaminated products, confirming the already widely held view that the company’s executives are cynically out to maximise profits regardless of the devastating effects they know these products will have on the agricultural sector and the health of consumers in general.

Saambou deal has yielded spectacular loans treasure.

 

Affordable, responsible and convenient. That’s the lead-in slogan in the latest annual report of African Bank, South Africa’s biggest legalised loan shark.

Using the word “affordable” to describe African Bank’s loans is almost funny – if you have a taste for cynical oxymorons. The hypocrisy is even more apparent after a closer look at how African Bank has feasted off the Saambou personal loans book it took over in 2002, with kind blessings from the SA Reserve Bank.

 

The chairman of the Board of Governors of St Charles College in Maritzburg has been a very naughty boy.

For a private Christian school whose boys and staff are nicknamed “Saints”, it is something of an embarrassment to be caught sheltering a sinner in their midst. The alleged sinner, Gae Bestel, is a person of some consequence; he holds the position of chairman of the board of governors of St Charles College in Pietermaritzburg. Until recently, his alleged misdemeanours have been hushed up, so as not to tarnish the school’s reputation.

 

Planning irregularities raise serious legal questions.

Ongoing noseweek investigations into a number of large property developments in Gauteng, together worth billions of rands, have revealed a disturbing pattern of environmentally damaging, and possibly illegal, decisions made by senior figures in the province’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and the Environment (GDACE).

SA Rugby faces major legal battle.

To recap: After SA Rugby, under new president Oregan Hoskins, stopped financial assistance to the Spears, reneged on a deal to get them into the Super 14, and excluded Spears from the 2006 Currie Cup, Spears, led by McKeever, took SA Rugby to court. 

But when Judge Dennis Davis held that the agreement was binding and left it to the parties to sort the matter out, SA Rugby simply threw more money at the problem. When mean tricks didn’t work, they persuaded Spears to go into voluntary liquidation. SA Rugby’s “victory” came at a cost – McKeever reckons they’ve spent some R8m trying to kill off the Spears. And it ain’t over yet!

But the wily McKeever has a couple of smart new stratagems.McKeever argues that, as the Competition Commission has fined SAA R100m and Mittal Steel R692m, why shouldn't it fine SA Rugby R40m?

Deals within deals and wheels within wheels in the battle of St Francis Bay

The original Beach Trust lost the confidence of residents and holiday-homeowners when it falsely claimed to have a mandate from them, and an agreement in place with the municipality. The Beach Joint Action Committee (BJAC) was then formed to find a way forward, and a referendum was proposed to get the buy-in of the bay’s residents.

Now this too has been delayed...

 

Is the Workmen’s Compensation Commission (WCC) broke, or simply not doing its work? If the frustrations of a group of 22 Western Cape doctors are anything to go by, both could be true. The Commission, managed by the Department of Labour under the reluctant watch of Cosatu, may well be hiding a serious incapacity to deliver.

Now a group of doctors who have presented unsettled claims amounting to many millions are waiting to see if the claims will finally be processed, after (then) Western Cape Commissioner Thozama Ngonyana undertook to look into the matter.

 

Manufacturer claims that machine washing dishes uses less water than doing them by hand.

 

If kitchen appliances could save the world, our troubles would be over. Unfortunately, much as we would all like to believe that we can “do our bit for the planet” while sparing ourselves a tiresome chore, it’s not going to be that easy.

Bosch, makers of automatic dishwashers among other gadgets, is just the latest in a string of advertisers attempting to exploit our growing concern about climate change by making all sorts of environment-friendly claims for the most environment-unfriendly of products.