Marney van Zyl's latest guesthouse victim was mulling over some strange discoveries about her new guest, when a detective arrived at her gate waving a copy of Noseweek. Now the silver-tongued scoundrel has been arrested and reunited with the inmates of Sun City (Johannesburg prison) ... yet another extraordinary chapter to a remarkable tale.

Wide boys David Taylor and Andre le Roux acquired a majority shareholding in Tiffindell Ski in 2007, then rigged some deals and persuaded the State Bank of India to lend them R19m against the security of a bond. But creditors liquidated the company and now the bond's been nullified, leaving the bank R19m out of pocket.

Baby Michael, blinded and crippled both physically and mentally after ferocious assaults in the family home only months after his birth, has died, aged eight. His parents had yet to be sentenced for their crimes.

83 Joburg advocates face fraud probe which could cause "partial collapse" of the Joburg Bar says a senior advocate whose name appears on The List - and who is himself under investigation for double-briefing and overreaching.

Why the scandal surrounding advocates double-briefing in road accident fund cases? It's simple, really. Advocates are keen to settle cases on the steps of teh court because they're paid as much for one settled at 9.30am on trial day as they are for a case that drags on until 4.00pm. In fact there's a fair chance your advocate had two (or more)  briefs for that day, reckoning on settling - and being paid full fee for - most of them before going into court. A full bench of the Pretoria high court has led the cleanup, nailing some and curiously forgiving others.

We could have guessed it. Durban Advocate Sthembiso Mdladla, who has just been appointed to the secretariat of the Seriti Commission has a "history": Several years ago he was paid millions for heading a KZN commission of enquiry - but just never got around to writing a report. A foretaste of what we are to expect from the Arms Deal enquiry?

Accusation and counter-accusation as magistrates Phumelele Hole and Khandilizwe Nqadala clash in John Block country. We'd previously commented: "You have to wonder: where could our justice system go next?" Well, even further downhill, it turns out. 

Whenever the ghosts of the Arms Deal are asleep and when Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu gets a break from explaining away gravy jets, she appears to jump at the chance to polish her image. And in that worthy cause she and her advisors recently decided to alter  - and reprint - the Annual Report of The Castle of Good Hope, one of the state corporations in her charge.

In a country like South Africa, where consumer protection laws are weakly enforced, signing up for timeshare and vacation clubs is like going swimming with sharks. Here we have two sad tales that demonstrate the point: there’s no life after debt for unwary buyers of vacation club schemes.

Security firm fat cats demand lion’s share of tenders, writes Mark Thomas. Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, instead of hanging its head in shame at successive qualified audits, continues to haemorrhage public money. And while would-be tenderpreneurs eagerly wait for their turn to gorge, the old fat cats are unwilling to let go of their tasty catches without a fight.

German car maker, BMW, wants to put the lid on cheap spare parts. A case that's recently been argued in the North Gauteng High Court involving serial IP rights litigators BMW and a competing supplier of often identical but much more affordable replacement or "pirate" car parts, called Grandmark. Who's more right, less wrong?

Personal fitness trainer Daniel Tuval of Lonehill, Joburg thought he’d made a good buy when, in October, he bought a 2002 model Mercedes Smart car, with 90 000km on the clock, a complete service history and maintenance plan directly from its original owner for just R35 000. That's until he consulted Sandown Motors about a noise under the bonnet.

When police Warrant Officer Amos Shibambu responded to an ad selling Carprehensive insurance – offered by a crowd called Prime Meridian, part of the RMB Group – he received a call from a salesman who persuaded him to switch from his insurer to Carprehensive. The bait: Shibambu would get a fixed-for-life premium of R450 per month as opposed to the R500-plus he was paying. And there would be no excess.

As the West goes into financial decline, so China’s boom continues, there’s just no escaping that fact – not even at an art and antiques auction in the southern suburbs of Cape Town. This was evident as telephone bidders snapped up valuable pieces at fantastic prices.