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bonking with multiple partners is very much the norm in sa, as is the harsh reality of children born out of wedlock. and our president is leading the way.

ann donald reviews the man who loved books too much by allison hoover bartlett

medical scheme, momentum, gives client's confidential information to his boss. by revealing his medication his condition was also revealed.

property developers seem to flout building laws by simply getting approval when the building is already up. rob booth is lucky to live in constantia but his luck ran out when "mr constantia", michael fenner-solomon crossed his path.

tax adviser, costa divaris, has been accused of menacing his lover, karen ovis. divaris has a particular aversion to litigation and would rather "break knees - which are situated between the thigh bone and the shin bone".

with talk that eskom intends building at least three, and possibly six, nuclear reactors, critics are fearing the worst and the hermanus mayor, theo byleveldt, laughs off the residents' fears.

night events have become a reality at turffontein, despite strenuous objections from steed owners and local residents. so just how did phumelela, which controls much of the sport, persuade the gauteng government to go along with the plan?

owners and trainers appealed, and phumelela did a bit of work on them, using its status as landlord and threats of eviction as leverage.

durban’s flamboyant and much-unloved city manager, dr michael sutcliffe, will poke his nose into city staffers' lives.he will be probing housing contracts worth r300m between the city and s'bu and shawn mpisane.

families claim local wi-fi mast is making them sick. the craigavon refuseniks have reason to believe taht iburst has erected up to 13 masts illegally.

how come transnet awarded an option to trevor manuel's friend fred robertson to buy a prime piece of cape town real estate work at least r200m - for just r3.5m?

frederick robertson might have been the point man and the face of the deal back in 2000, but his liesbeeck leisure (pty) ltd was in partnership with brimstone investment consortium - whose key figures were none other than tshamano phaswana, professor jakes gerwel and dr patricia gorvalla - all members at the time of the transnet board.

how do you trust caregivers who see you as a cash cow to be handed from one specialist to another? a noseweek reader wrote to us giving another angle to the life fourways saga.

why are e-cigarettes are being allowed to advertise without restriction, when the advertising of ordinary cigarettes is illegal. and isn't that theme tune of one e-cigarette radio ad obviously echoing the theme of the famous peter stuyvesant ads of yesteryear?

government agency secretly wrote off a whopping r1.3 billion of civil servants' retirement funds to prop up biggest ever bee deal under the watchful eye of ceo brian molefe. there can be no way that the pic saw value in buying its r4.3bn stake and advancing a further r1.7bn to afrisam.

all that is serious, but not half as serious as the discovery that none of this is reflected in the published annual reports.

what do we get?

who needs to visit the big city, or be a dedicated nosehound, to catch the whiff of a juicy fraud? right here, hidden away in this narrow country life, scribbling away for my small-town rag, fraud stories come my way. i'm talking about defrauding intestate estates. a truly big problem in local black society.

the most shocking aspect of all is that faked lobola certificates are often backed up by various members of the deceased’s own family, who give testimony to the intestate estate administrator at the magistrate’s court, verifying the certificate’s legitimacy.

len ashton reviews resident alien by rian malan (jonathan ball publishers).

we must cherish rian malan. just as the bien pensants subside into semi-comatose acceptance of south africa’s bewildering contemporary contradictions, the author of my traitor’s heart shuffles back onstage to scour the mind and heart with an enormously energising selection of creative journalistic observation in resident alien.

back in march 2009, councillor ian neilson (currently city of cape town deputy mayor), then chairperson for the powerful mayoral committee for finance, economic & social development, told noseweek to forget it when we asked to see the lease agreement that had handed a prime gordon’s bay property to alexander acavalos’ ocean diners cc (nose114).

it falls to noseweek to record yet another bad day at the office for investec bank's collections department.

well, not quite: in fact it was the alert grahamstown correspondent of the despatch newspaper in east london who last month reported that one of the companies in sandton property developer zunaid moti’s abalengani group has been ordered into provisional liquidation by the grahamstown high court.

ever been clubbing at decodance, cape town’s club for older rockers  who like their music more led zeppelin than lady gaga? the club at the old biscuit mill in woodstock, where that wonderful organic market takes place each saturday?

owner, stephen leith, believes nick ferguson and jody aufrichtig want him out so they can develop the part of the building he now occupies.

the national credit act of 2005 changed the financing landscape quite dramatically – credit suppliers were suddenly required to act with a modicum of responsibility, and treat their victims, sorry, customers, with an iota of respect.

two sisters missed their first few bond payments, then got a tenant and when they found out the tenant wasn't paying they went to the bank. to their horror they found out their house had been sold.

nedbank "manager", lutchmana pillay, said it was his duty to look after zelda and ronelle, but as there was no response to the notice nedbank was entitled to sue.

gerda makes some serious allegations. for starters, she claims that dr percy miller messed up a spinal operation that he performed on her at bedford gardens hospital, on 9 january 2008, in that he incorrectly positioned a screw. as a result of this error, she says, he had to perform a second operation on 19 january 2008.

gerda claims that she was in so much pain after the second operation that she had to admit herself to the netcare milpark hospital, where a doctor told her that she was a “piece of scrap” and that he couldn’t help her, and that she should go back to dr miller and demand that he “correct his mess”.

stories about useless lawyers in a useless system, taking care of their own are old hat. so here’s one that adds an ingredient – a useless parastatal organisation that cost a cape town boat owner a whopping r2 million.

gary mills writes to the cape law society: "i have lost all faith in our legal system and your only advice is that i should approach an attorney for legal advice."

why did the state’s public investment corporation (pic) shell out r140m of government employees’ pension fund money for an asset valued just months earlier by its owners at only r31.6m?

and where did the lolly end up?

martin ettin and derek greenberg, both 62, make a formidable partnership. greenberg is the numbers man and ettin is the deal-maker.

when noseweek met with them we got some answers – albeit along with a load of schmooze.

yet another high-life fraudster is on the loose – and going international. having trawled the country’s professional classes for nearly a decade, gavin francois stassen has turned to the british market, where, he claims, he's already hauled in over 70 new investors.

stassen claims to have secured dr tommy meyer, dr dale howes, dr jan van der berg as well as doctors from the netherlands and germany.

he also claims to have sold his interest in stassmed hospital consultants to dr jackie shevel for a cool r400m.

read on to find out what makes a sucker a sucker.

shortly after 78-year old sailor gordon webb died on the operating table at panorama medi-clinic (nose118), and cardiac surgeon dr jj de wet lubbe tearfully told gordon’s widow jenifer that he had “nicked the mammary artery”.

jenifer webb appointed medico-legal attorneys millers to sue for damages, but the medical insurer, medical protection society, would have none of it

as you read this, corporate advisers are preparing strategic options for life healthcare, in the wake of 22% shareholder mvelaphanda announcing last september that it was realising and unbundling its assets. one option, say market sources, is a listing on the jse, as early as may. another is that 21.9% shareholder brimstone investment might snap up mvela’s stake, valued at around r1.6bn.

life healthcare group is currently valued at around r7.4bn. brimstone and tokyo sexwale’s mvela were the leaders in a bee consortium that acquired the group. their mission is simply to boost the bottom line.

but who will rush to buy life healthcare group shares after reading this?

mrs bunty money isn't the only person being aggressively hounded by shady joburg law firm van de venter mojapelo inc (vvm) for  an amount she didn’t owe. our investigation in nose123 has elicited considerable response from noseweek readers.

climate change

heart of dryness: how the last bushmen can help us endure the coming age of permanent drought (walker publishing) by james g workman

jack lundin last saw his sister gill more than 14 years ago. he only learned in october that she had died - two months after that sad event. when he set about piecing together teh last months of her life, he was shocked to discover that while dying of cancer, gill had been subjected to grotesque mistreatment by a woman who suddenly became determined to inherit the estate that gill had only weeks before willed to charity.

when capetonians johan and angelique hafkamp planned a trip to australia last april, with their two young children (aged 18 months and three), they chose to fly emirates airlines. they could hardly have imagined the nightmarish voyage that awaited them.

where was the anaesthetist, dr marius gouws, when four-year old zenande failed to wake up after a routine procedure by dr bob banieghbal at life fourways?

a married couple is being hounded for rates and tax arrears on a house they sold some 40 years ago. mr & mrs money received a letter of final demand from attorneys van de venter mojapelo with no reference to the property address or erf number.

a prisoner who was released on bail after the court docket went missing has now herself mysteriously disappeared. state prosecutor, r oliver, has sent a scathing letter to mzwandile petros, western cape provincial commissioner of police, complaining about the highly questionable conduct of detectives at table view police station.

macdonald netshitenze was appointed registrar of patents and trade marks in the mid 90s and a black man with attitude, and no background in ip, was about as welcome as a wet fart in a space suit. his new bill will lead to all sorts of absurdities as it seeks to give protection to things which are not original, making traditional knowledge the antithesis of intellectual property.

unscrupulous operators are draining cash from the bank accounts of people who don't understand what they've got into. platinum africa is either taking money without instructions or taking money on instructions that are suspect.

chris dairopolous claims that mark kleynhans talked him into attending the savile row auction as a "phantom bidder" to push the price up.estate agent lew geffen describes it as a fantastic auction and adds kleynhans:  "we shot the lights out and blew the market away".

full details of how isaac shongwe’s letsema investments used the chemical industry’s provident fund to make a personal fortune have come to light in a high court application. lawyers asked for information on shares and a statement of account, but none of this was forthcoming.

the arabella operation in sa is up for sale. riaan gous, executive director, says it had nothing to do with the recession.

fnbs media liason officer, bongolethu futuse, says that the interest rate is based on several factors, inclucing the applicant's age, type and period of employment, level of indebtedness and the repayment period. african bank's rate is 170.4%.

a thriving business in fake court orders is being run under judges' noses. judge president piet schabort said that they were aware that this was happening.

the president is in

every once in a while you get a story that simply makes you pull out your hair and say; “i can’t believe this shit.” we don't just have a crime problem, but a policing problem as well...

being an environmentalist in kenya is a political hot potato very few would want to touch. professor wangari maathai, the 2004 nobel peace laureate, has experienced it all; her husband filed for divorce claiming 'she was too educated, too strong, too successful, too stubborn, and too hard to control'...

mweb has taken a cape town helicopter engineer to court about an astonishing r275,674 cellphone bill that he is said to have run up by using his laptop to access the internet while on a two-week trip abroad.

procydin is a pretty wonderful product. but can miracle pills really cure all known ailments?

as a result of a bitter behind-the-scenes battle to gain control over the r300m property portfolio of the troubled city capital investment scheme the judges have had to endure a veritable soap opera and the liquidators deny that their urgency is motivated by the lure of a big fat fee...

these greens are becoming politically treacherous and the department's advice clearly pointed to bias.

there’s an interesting debate going on in the world of medicine. the government has seized control over health care professionals...

here’s something that will make the legal profession sit up and take notice. slaps on the wrist for naughty exco members and with the exception of one, none of the four even bothered to read the document.

a retired scottish aircraft engineer, now facing financial ruin, has learned the hard way how to lose a farm in africa after he crossed paths with the brothers kotze, two sociopaths from gordons bay with long criminal records and a history of outrageous thievery...

as a nine-year-old girl, she survived the 1994 genocide that saw nearly a million of her fellow rwandans brutally butchered. some fourteen-odd years later she was trafficked into south africa and warned that she would spend the rest of her life in jail if she spilled the beans on a crime syndicate...

if you cherish free speech (if you don’t, you’ve probably chosen the wrong magazine), you will be pleased to hear that the north gauteng high court turned down the samro application for a temporary gagging order on graeme gilfillan...

when vic da silva applied to absa for a r2.5m loan to start a cattle baron restaurant in bel air mall in northern johannesburg, he had no idea what he was letting himself in for. absa certainly did ...

the gold waren’t in them thar pills.

how barry tannenbaum and dean rees exploited the rich seams of human greed and gullibility.

what is quite clear from emails between them is that rees knew exactly what he was involved in from the start.

my piston has a longer stroke

gerald shaw reviews dead aid:why aid is not working and how there is another way for africa by dambisa moyo (allen lane)and the trouble with africa:why foreign aid isn't working by robert calderisi (yale university press)

oh oh oh. that old saying “when chickens come home to roost” is sure being enacted horribly in our land of the rising sun, mpumalanga.

the internet makes everyone and their dog a publisher. liberating, yes; but the net provides a very broad canvas on which to scribble one’s stories – and to set traps for the unwary. in case of the society for professional engineers, one would have to be drunk and unwary to miss the clues that something is not quite right.

cathy's r4,800 loan will cost her r41,780

a grade 10 pupil lost his right leg after jumping from a first floor parapet to escape a bullying teacher. has there been a formal enquiry? no. has the teacher been disciplined? no, he's been promoted to deputy principal.

the appeal court has had to deal with a lot of intellectual property (ip) of late. on 30 september the court handed down a judgment in an area considered by some to be the graveyard of ip – company name objections

the thief in your pocket (see nose118) is still there. huge money is at stake, and cell content providers that piggyback on the networks are creaming it – not least by playing fast and loose with the official code of conduct regulating provision of such services.

an addo orange farmer is creating a mammoth stink in the neighbourhood with putrefying chicken bits.

architect abdulghani came up with 'a wonderful deal' with the free trade zone authority, through a business partner related to the chief executive. the mysterious egyptian demands billions to build his desert dream.

after six long years, the attempted murder trial of baby michael’s parents finally started last month. but on the second day, amid high drama, the magistrate called a halt after hearing that father bradley connor had already been convicted of an offence relating to the alleged abuse.

three months ago nose118 pondered whether the romance between renee silverstone, chief executive of the jupiter drawing room ad agency, and fnb’s brand manager derek carstens might give jupiter’s wholly-owned subsidiary metropolitanrepublic the edge in the fierce battle to win the bank’s new three-year r900m advertising contract.

forensic investigations into the cash flow through the ponzi scheme for millionaires conducted by barry tannenbaum and various of his agents, such as dean rees and darryl leigh, have been coming to a head in recent weeks. insolvency enquiries and even arrests are expected before too long.

mr nose, too, has been sniffing around and has managed to glean a provisional list of investors in the scheme and what amounts of money attach to them.

how likely is it that south africa has escaped the largesse of siemens bribery, which is classed as just another line item.

rflc

allan boesak was a power in the land in the 1980s, but he offers no apology for his handling of donor funds, which led to his conviction on one count of fraud and two of theft.

how sad that he could not say sorry.

recently the minister of justice made a meal of the terrible incidents that saw a reported 82 illegal miners die in welkom. the little “jewel of the lowveld”, barberton, has been grappling for the past three years with an escalation of illegal mining and its attendant deaths.

feral cats survive at the cost of threatened birds and beasts, but does a cat, confined in a cage in a no-kill shelter, have a good life, or would it be better to kill it painlessly by lethal injection?

should the state pay south africans compensation for crimes committed against them, particularly in cases where they have suffered significant bodily injury or impairment? the government says it will answer the compensation question... eventually.

cape town attorneys millers have responded to what they claim was “false information which puts our firm in a negative light”.

there was something unusual about the first girls to appear on the runway and the strip joint's boss is 'horrified', as couturier to the stars uses adult show for promotion.

the democratic alliance has declared war on wasteful government – its website even boasts a “wasteful expenditure monitor”. but who authorised the overstrand municipality to spend r25,000 on a flaky archaeological report about a local hillock?

investec has been having a torrid time of late and things don't seem to be getting any better.

with the help of absa bankers the property dealer lured small-time investors into perilous deals.

farooqi wrote to moti, thanking him for offering to settle the outstanding bond. unfortunately for farooqi, moti failed to settle anything.

how jim jones ripped off his website employer and then spun the story.

reinhard siekaczek was half asleep in bed when his doorbell rang early one morning in november 2006.