Glebelands Hostel killers-for-hire will face the state in September. 

After years of inaction, a rising body count, hits on witnesses and stories of crooked cops being up to their eyes in the violence at Durban’s Glebelands Hostel, eight alleged killers will finally stand trial in September. One of the accused is a former senior police officer.

The case of the Glebelands Eight (previously seven accused) has been dubbed a slam-dunk, but as experience has taught, when it comes to convictions for things to do with hostels, taxis or politics in KwaZulu-Natal, scoring is not assured.

Despite struggle roots in Gauteng’s Alexandra township, first-hand experience managing SA’s richest province and the chops to lead the ANC, the party’s treasurer Paul Mashatile says for the moment his sights aren’t set on high position but rather on the nuts and bolts of working with Cyril Ramaphosa to get the economy humming.

When Zweli Mkhize handed over the ANC purse strings to their new Treasurer Paul Mashatile earlier this year, he warned that the party’s debt of about R200 million could only be reduced if the ANC restructured. It had incurred substantive costs – largely through the ANC congresses in Polokwane and Mangaung – and owed millions to service providers.

Are açaí and goji berries, as well as quinoa  really super foods – or do they just fetch super prices?

They’re widely vilified, but food industry marketers really do have a tough job. People can only eat so much, and in industrialised countries where food is plentiful, they don’t tend to consume more of it as their incomes grow. Unlike sales of, say, personal computers in the 1990s or tablets in the 2010s, overall food spending tends to be pretty flat – it rises roughly with the growth of population.

The $2bn fine Deutsche Bank happily paid to the Federal Reserve for breaking the law was the equivalent of a motorist paying a $150 speeding ticket – no big deal.

When Volkswagen executives found out that United States regulations would kill off one of their diesel models, they pulled some tricks to fool them by installing software that misrepresented the emissions their vehicles released.

But the US found out and arrested several VW executives – one of whom was sentenced in late 2017 to seven years in prison for his role.

How does the US government respond when a business directly victimises hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of its own customers? Look no further than banker Wells Fargo, which has repeatedly screwed its customers, yet not a single executive has gone to prison.

What began as an extramarital affair for Vryheid pig farmer Thomas Volker, has ended up causing one of KwaZulu-Natal’s top liquidators, Pierre Berrangé, being placed under investigation by the Master of the High Court in Pretoria.

The Master’s Office has instructed Pretoria-based Theo van den Heever of D&T Trust to investigate Pietermaritzburg liquidator Berrangé (nose219) and his handling of the divorce-fuelled liquidation of a once- successful Vryheid business, the Penvaan Group, run by now-divorced Thomas and Renata Volker. 

The investigation will be conducted under Section 381 (3) of the Companies Act which empowers the Master’s Office to “appoint a person to investigate the books and vouchers of a liquidator” if there is “reason to believe that a liquidator is not faithfully performing his duties and duly observing all the requirements imposed on him”.

Shortly after Cyril Ramaphosa took over as President of South Africa in February, it was widely speculated that Dr Zweli Mkhize would become his new Minister of Finance. This didn’t happen, and, according to government sources, Noseweek played a role in his losing out.

Earlier this  year Noseweek ran a story about Mkhize’s wife Dr May Mashego who had received two R1m “loans” in 2007 and 2008 that were interest-free and did not have to be repaid if her company did not turn a profit. They came from Pietermaritzburg property developer Protus Sokhela.

Caught in his pinstriped pyjamas and splashed across the front page of one of Australia’s largest Sunday newspapers, disbarred and disgraced South African attorney Ronald Bobroff is convinced his meteoric demise is not of his own volition but by some twisted conspiracy driven by the insurance giant Discovery Limited.

And the conspiracy is real, says Bobroff, because those “against him” follow each other on Twitter.

The City of Johannesburg still refuses to explain why a multi-million-rand property valuation tender was handed to an ANC-backed company that was not among the initial bid-winners, instead labelling Noseweek’s request for them to account for the anomaly as “manifestly frivolous”.

Shortly before this issue of Noseweek went to press, the Financial Times reported that almost 20% of shareholders at Investec have objected to the company’s decision to reappoint KPMG as its joint auditor.

Investec responded with a lengthy statement accompanying the results of its annual shareholder meeting, setting out why it was sticking with KPMG.

Revelations over the past 18 months about KPMG’s practices in South Africa have highlighted its work for the notoriously corrupt Gupta family, for SARS and for VBS, a mutual lender that collapsed in March as a result of large-scale theft and corruption facilitated by its top executives.