Honestly, Abe!

Abe Swersky 1927–2008

Many readers have called noseweek demanding an obituary for Abe Swersky, who died in August. We have decided to honour history by doing so on these letters pages where our most memorable encounter with him took place, in September 2003 (nose49).

The fate of that long-treasured Bryanston oak tree once again hangs in the balance. In nose103 we told how the Johannesburg High Court threw out the application of abrasive attorney Alec Brooks for an order to have the 25m tree cut down, simply because he objects to the tight turn around the tree as he drives in and out of his townhouse garage in the upmarket complex. 

Whither democracy under the ANC? What with the Scorpions being disbanded, the judiciary under sustained attack, and plenty of foolish talk about counter-revolutionaries (people with minds, apparently) being “eliminated”, the question is troubling, to say the least.

Not long after we published the story about a reader who inadvertently transferred R6,000 into Cell C’s bank account (nose104) noseweek received a call from the big red C itself. They didn’t want t ...

Comparing women to meat was bound to spark outrage, but there's even worse out there in adland.

In December 1997, on application by casino magnate Sol Kerzner, Judge Flemming of the Johannesburg High Court prohibited publication of the book Kerzner Unauthorised. Every copy of the book was pulped. Perhaps the single most significant act of censorship in the post-apartheid era. All that remains is to be found in the archived pages of nose21.

A cloud of illegal actions, evasions and confusions casts suspicion on the validity of a major empowerment deal.

This month noseweek takes the investigation further – to reveal distortions in the FSB report itself, which effectively serve to cover up Sanlam’s larger role in papering over the dirty dealings, and which also effectively protect the interests of, among others, BEE dealmaker Isaac Shongwe, who set up the whole scheme.

Prima Donné changes her tune on marriage

Last month the Road Accident Fund's proposal to pay compensation direct to accident victims instead of via their attorneys was put on hold by a high court judge. noseweek reveals the lawyer' secret fear.

Directors face bankruptcy as the Industrial Development Corporation hits them with a R42.7m demand.

The Jocks are trying to gain control over the use of the word 'whisky', but Dirk van der Walt is a man who marches to his own drum and he went straight to the top saying “I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of making South African consumers believe that South African whisky or any other blend is Scotch whisky”.

A South African inventor has lost his rights to the safe paraffin stove he designed, because a lawyer agreed to draw up an illegal transaction and refused to correct the error.

The invention should have resulted in Vale rapidly joining the ranks of the financially blessed, but, partly thanks to a major law firm turning a blind eye to the transgressions of a wealthy client, things haven’t quite turned out like that. In fact, our local hero has lost out big time.