Noseweek’s Susan Puren dives deep into the WikiLeaks Fishrot Files.

In May 2014 Jacob Zuma appointed Senzeni Zokwana as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. But by July 2016 Zokwana and his department were faced with a court application to interdict them from fishing an exploratory permit worth between R80 million and R120m per year, renewable for up to 15 years. Until now nobody connected the dots, except maybe the man who later became the whistleblower in Namibia’s Fishrot scandal, Jóhannes Stefánsson.

“They have a very strong political backup and we have a common friend in Namibia,” Stefánsson wrote.

Noseweek asked Edmund Greiner, lead maritime litigation specialist at Shepstone & Wylie, what he understood when Stefánsson said Global Pact had a strong political backup? He responded that he was instructed on behalf of the Icelandic group of companies to review a potential agreement wherein his client would supply a vessel to Global Pact. He said that his law firm was not involved in the permit the company had secured.

But the political backup was real because in another email Stefánsson informed a colleague about a planned meeting with Global Pact’s owners and their connections, referring to them as the “main person” and “a former Minister in South Africa”.

It is not clear which former minister but, according to company documents, Global Pact’s “main person” was James Booi, its managing director, who is allegedly a former bodyguard and friend of Jacob Zuma.

Effluent pumped into waterways poses ‘real danger’ to health, warns Dr Jo Barnes, dubbed the Erin Brockovich of South Africa.

In between worrying about Eskom, junk status and David Mabuza, spare a thought for just one more thing: the state of the country’s rivers. In a word, it’s dire. South Africa’s rivers are being polluted on a massive scale, with billions of litres of sewage discharged into the rivers every day. This is largely due to the fact that close to 80% of the 825 municipal sewerage treatment works are dysfunctional and have been for a long time.

One person who’s been trying to do something about this for years is Dr Jo Barnes, an award-winning researcher into water pollution, sanitation and water-related diseases. For more than 20 years, she has been trying to get municipal and other authorities to take note of the growing crisis affecting our rivers and the potential public health risk this poses. But the former senior lecturer in Community Health at Stellenbosch University – now retired but still working as a water consultant – has had little luck and, through the years, has even faced active measures to shut her up.

Findings of hidden Durban Council's internal probe ‘contradicted advocate’s argument’ at appeal court.

An advocate who successfully represented eThekwini Municipality in an appeal to have a high court demolition order reversed, thus saving the city millions of rands in damages, could find himself being questioned about why he did not disclose a confidential city report that was “explosive”,  “highly incriminating” and contradicted the argument he presented to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

This is yet another twist in a nearly six-year-long saga involving the construction of a yet-to-be completed luxury apartment block on Durban’s Berea. Nicknamed the Monster on the Berea, it has panoramic views of the city, the Port of Durban and the Indian ocean, while obliterating the views of neighbours (noses190, 212 & 230).

The state was the biggest beneficiary from the collapse of Tannenbaum's R3bn Ponzi scheme.

Ironically, the South African government ended up being the biggest beneficiary from the collapse of Barry Tannenbaum’s multi-billion-rand Ponzi fraud rather than the creditors.

Readers will recall how hundreds of wealthy South Africans were tempted with too-good-to-be-true quick profits to invest large sums – some individuals invested tens of millions of rand – supposedly to be used to fund the importation of the raw materials used to manufacture drugs for the treatment of HIV/Aids.

Court suspends consulting firm’s appointment.

The very appointment of Ntiyiso Consulting, be it for advisory and investigative purposes or the enabling of it to appoint external contractors, is unlawful – Judge J Ranchod.

The absurd decisions of the Tshwane Metro to disregard its own highly qualified, experienced officials to benefit private contracted service providers at the city’s Wonderboom National Airport have finally been stopped in their tracks by the high court.

Harold Strachan, Noseweek’s much-loved columnist of 20 years, died in Durban on 7 February 2020, aged 94.

Noseweek was surprised and delighted to discover that the life of Robert Harold Lundie “Jock” Strachan, our veteran “Last Word” columnist of 20 years, was celebrated with a marathon 2,500-word obituary in The Times (London), in which he is referred to as “one of the most remarkable figures in recent South African history.” We could think of no better way to honour his memory than to republish it here – with The Times editor’s kind permission – and slightly shortened.

When was the last time you called your wife beautiful? All the time, right? I wonder why we lie like that. We can all agree that Marilyn Monroe, Charlize Theron and Beyoncé are examples of great beauty. Does your wife look like that? I’m sure if you had a few beers and she had some good lighting, she’s worth a turn, but to go around calling all women beautiful is counterproductive. If everyone is “beautiful” no one is. The adjective is meant to portray physical attractiveness of an exceptional or higher standard. It’s like getting a distinction in good-lookingness.