The fatcats at the colluding cartel knew a lot more than they've let on - and got off lightly with a R98.8m fine, according to previously unpublished evidence.

The stupefying scale and complexity of the frauds pulled off by Roger and Brett Kebble and their criminal associates while directors of some of South Africa’s biggest gold mining companies have had most regular reporters so absorbed that they can be excused for not having noticed some recent curious developments.

Is former parabat Frans Rootman a kind soul who's been taken in by a couple of women he's known for less than a year, as he claims, or is he a sharp operator ever on the look-out for easy pickings?

Kathleen Joseph is a businesswoman in her fifties, who does something of a double act with her daughter, Carmen Schiemann. The two apparently share a fondness for the colour purple – they’ve owned several businesses called Purple something or other, enter Frans Rootman, a man who had become a close friend and confidante of the two ladies.

Finish's dirty washing

Following complaints from your humble correspondent and Another, the advertising watchdog has ordered Reckitt Benckiser, makers of Finish dishwashing detergent, to desist from claiming that automatic dishwashers use 50% less water than the old hands-in-sink method.

BeeAwina - please don’t confuse this with yet another black economic empowerment deal; according to CEO Koos Koen, BeeAwina is a “social loyalty networking programme”.

Another pension Fund rip-off – but this one’s a little different in that it came to noseweek in the form of a report by the Financial Services Board to the Registrar of Pensions.

Chemical industry pensioners have lost a whopping half billion rand as a result of corruption and shocking professional incompetence. The real problem, however, was that the preference shares themselves never materialised.

The spirit of Thembela Matiwane still haunts the corridors of the Mowbray Maternity Hospital, crying out for attention (noses91&102). But nobody is yet ready to take responsibility for the 33-year old pregnant mother’s untimely death.

The KZN landowner who inherited an alien-infested mess from a former tenant, Mondi Shanduka Newsprint (nose105), has finally received a response from timber industry watchdog the Forestry Stewardship Council. And he’s not happy.

More than a year ago (nose92) noseweek told the story of Jimmy de Lange, presently serving a thirty-year murder sentence for what independent forensics expert Dr David Klatzow declared “should have been a clear case of justifiable homicide”.

Jimmy’s case has had a fair bit of attention from various quarters since – none of it leading to any change in his situation.