Editor 'shocked and amazed' (yet again)!

For the past month all divisions of Investec have been fielding calls from brokers and clients demanding a response to our exposé (nose102) of the multi-billion rand pension fund rip-offs and other nasties at Investec Employee Benefits (IEB). The “confidential” letter sent to unhappy clients by Investec Asset Management (IAM) pretty well tells it all.

Make us an offer, insurance giant tells claimant

The wheels of justice have yet to turn for 55 year-old Iman Dharsey, who suffered multiple injuries in a bus accident in October 2002. Iman’s cries for justice are so inaudible that even her own attorney hasn’t bothered to get the matter placed on the roll for adjudication.

On the morning of 7 October 2002 Iman boarded a Sibanye bus (operated by Golden Arrow) for her normal journey to work in Cape Town. Shortly thereafter the bus stopped unexpectedly and Iman was thrown about violently.

How did a cop in the Durban Metro Police come to be lord of a R17-million manor?

The identity of the person living at 88 Addison Drive, La Lucia (a spectacular resort made famous by the Oppenheimers many decades ago as a seaside destination for the rich and famous) has in recent months been the subject of intense speculation amongst the locals: is he/she a rock star? A rap artist? Arms dealer? Oil baron? It had to be someone flash who took up residence in the mansion bought last year – at auction – for R17m. It has since been extensively renovated.

Sewage from a cliff-top development in De Kelders threatens to poison the water supply of the Southern Cape hamlet.

If the De Kelders water supply ever tastes foul – well, maybe it is. Because the village has a bloody great sewage tank perched right above its water supply. De Kelders is a charming little hamlet situated close to the much less charming fishing and shark cage-diving town of Gansbaai, Western Cape. It sits on a cliff overlooking Walker Bay and locals will tell you that the whale-watching is even better than it is in nearby Hermanus.

By: Robert van der Valk

Did the Springboks deserve to win the rugby World Cup?

President Mbeki remarked that the players were so big they could easily replace his presidential guard.

What a remarkable feat for the Boks to come out tops in the Rugby World Cup. But how on earth did we do it, given the parlous state of the game in this country, and our dismal record against any meaningful opposition? Good team selection and a careful game plan counted for plenty of course, but the key factor, actually, was massive luck – the luck that saw the team escape facing any really serious contenders.

A rude shock awaited all concerned when vehicles were seized by the police from a car dealership - and then went missing.

An investigation into the protracted legal tussle between Modack senior and Absa has led to serious questions about the bank’s apparent inability to stand by its clients. But what’s really alarming is the fraud going on in the country’s vehicle registration system – which has been revealed by noseweek’s enquiries into the police’s handling of the matter.

A donor wrests control of his weapon from the Jo'burg War Museum

 

Who owns the fabulous Sword of Stalingrad, for more than 40 years a crowd-pulling centrepiece of Joburg’s  Military History Museum? We do! insists the museum’s director, John Keene. No, I do! counters distinguished neurosurgeon Martin Lewer-Allen.

History records three truly legendary swords: King Arthur’s Excalibur, the Sword of Damocles and the Sword of Stalingrad. The last, a magnificent two-handed bejewelled broadsword with solid silver crossguard, was presented to the people of Stalingrad by King George VI in honour of the Russian army’s victory over Hitler's troops in a brutal battle that turned the tide of World War 2. Stalin accepted the sword from Sir Winston Churchill at the Teheran Conference in 1943.

 

Michael Duerr, the German investor who took offence at the Reserve Bank practice of stealing back shares from unwanted shareholders, sold his Hermanus property and returned to Germany within days of the appearance of nose101 – in which we reported on the tiff.

Following our discovery of billionaire Miko Rwayitare’s secret deed of donation giving his wife Conso 50% of the shares in Propro, the company that owns their R100m Sandhurst mansion (noses101,102), ...

A non-neighbourly spat over the rights and wrongs of right of way

 

The lofty presence of a giant, 30-year-old pin oak, slap bang in the middle of their driveway, has caused an almighty row between well-heeled residents of an exclusive Bryanston complex. One of them, fiery Joburg insolvency attorney Alec Brooks, went as far as seeking a high court order against his neighbours to have the old oak cut down – and failed.

So what got Brooks so het up? Was it the night-time hooting of the Giant Eagle owl that has claimed the upper boughs of the 25m oak to roost on?

 

How to make a mint in the passenger cruise business when you haven't got a ship

At noseweek, we're always happy to share good fortune – so we’re letting you in on a little loophole we’ve discovered in the passenger cruise business, one that could well earn you a quick million bucks (or more). All it takes is three simple moves...

 

Why is the government dragging its heels over legalising a miracle plant that could create wealth as well as thousands of jobs and homes?

Nobody disputes the amazing properties of the hemp plant. Easy to grow and freakishly productive, environmentally-friendly, hemp has been a boon to humankind for at least 8 000 years, and possibly longer.

If it wasn’t for the fact that certain members of the hemp family contain high levels of the narcotic ingredient THC, it would still be, as it once was, the world’s most widely-grown crop.