While railways pensioners battle to survive, Transnet obstructs their legal claims.

Everyone expects Transnet will be “looking at it” until the very last day allowed by court rules, thereby delaying the process that extra month or two. By the time deadline day comes – maybe even a week or three later, since the courts are very tolerant of lawyers’ pleas for extra time – Transnet may find, with luck, that another 300-or-more of the pesky old railways pensioners will have died.

Cato Manor inquiry discredits police and reporters.

Having failed to railroad KZN Hawks boss Major General Johan Booysen into resigning by theatrically staging his arrest and arraignment on trumped up murder and racketeering charges – two years later a high court judge found the state had no credible evidence to support the charges  – and having then failed to get him sacked at a protracted disciplinary hearing where, instead the Commissioner of Police was seriously reprimanded for having a political agenda, the SAPS is now offering the corruption-busting cop millions to “quietly go away”.

Shyster investors took American firm for billions.

Among the growing number of people dissecting the Kebble era, there are some who can – and still do – manage to unearth aspects of that breath-taking period of skulduggery that have remained concealed or overlooked.

A set of brilliant observations arose recently in discussions between a group of high-level professionals with world-class skills, and intimate knowledge of the biggest unprosecuted fraud in South African history.

Modernity threatens the bucolic peace of the Klein Karoo.

Oudtshoorn, a sleepy little town of 100,000 souls in the Klein Karoo, is best known for its ostriches, the nearby Cango Caves and the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, an arts festival that shatters the peace and quiet for a few days every year.  But the locals fear their tranquility will be destroyed permanently by a proposed mall.

Former champion motorcyclist takes numerous short cuts in bid to land big prize.

When Noseweek reported on Mike Fogg’s part in the shenanigans over Kyalami, we touched on the way he and the Theodosiou brothers had hidden behind such a convoluted maze of companies and family trusts in their dodgy dealings that took 10 years to unravel in court. Now we reveal how the motorcycle-racing champion who earned his Springbok colours largely at Pietermaritzburg’s Roy Hesketh racetrack, has also contrived to become the de facto owner of the circuit that brought him so much glory. 

Iqbal Survé is said to be turning the press group into government lap-dog

Self-declared “gatvol” former employees of Independent Newspapers – now owned by the black-empowered fishing company Sekunjalo, headed by Dr Iqbal Survé – speculate that Survé has been “deployed” to transform the once-powerful Independent Group into a vehicle to promote government policy to the urban middle class.

Or, if that fails, to ultimately close down its titles.

Fame and fortune were on the horizon – then it all went pear-shaped. 

South African entrepeneur Bernard Jacobs, who developed a top-notch ship ballast treatment system that would help prevent contamination of the world’s seas, was on the road to international fame and fortune until the greed of a local state-backed development trust fund put the kibosh on a multi-million-dollar deal with an international strategic partner.

Hope surges after the long years in tangled R200m fraud case.  Edward de la Pierre and members of his family trust, CMT, have waited nearly 14 years to argue their case that Nedcor’s BoE Privat ...

Russia with love. Bob Mugabe's new best friend

Amidst the vicious scrabble for the succession, Zanu-PF’s new best friend Moscow delivers investment in the platinum industry, money and planes.

Nothing and no one seems able to stop the rival factions of the ruling party from undermining each other as they position themselves for the presidential succession. The claimed victims range from the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, whose bid for the Senate has been blocked by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, through to the prophets of a breakaway Apostolic sect, charged with sexual abuse and attacking the police.

Poll position. Guess who’s coming to dinner ...

The appearance of Mohammed Bashir Suleiman, who has been designated a “drugs kingpin” by the US – at the banquet of a Mozambican business association on 18 September – has infuriated friends of Filipe Nyusi, Frelimo’s presidential candidate. This is because the organisers, Confederação das Associações Económicas de Moçambique (CTA), invited Bashir to the event and placed him at the top table, just a couple of seats away from Nyusi.

As the CTA banquet in Maputo turned out to be a fundraiser for Frelimo’s election campaign, Bashir’s attendance sent a clear message: that he remains an important financier of the party, despite US reports that his fortune derives from drug smuggling.

A plastic sword that “wouldn’t be able to cut a cucumber”, was one of the more frightening images flashed around Australia after it was bagged as evidence during recent counter-terrorism raids. ...

Recently my heart went out to a bunch of mothers as they described the turmoil they were going through because of their sons’ addiction to drugs – the concoction known as nyaope to be exact.

These mothers were not from my Barberton but from another Mpumalanga dorp, Delmas. Their story was televised on an evening news broadcast. Apart from sympathy, I felt a deep sense of anger at the authorities’ inability to deal with this scourge that is spreading through our communities like a runaway brush fire. Even more infuriating was the comment from some politician who simply regurgitated the tired old line: “We will do everything we can to help these families and clean up the community of these drugs.”