Race baiting is the default political tool of dishonourable politicians seeking short-term goals. Detailed studies by the Institute of Race Relations shows ordinary South Africans of every colour are less concerned with the issue, and believe merit should be the basis for job selection. When Julius Malema says he is not calling for whites to be slaughtered (just yet?), are we to believe whites are here under sufferance? Rex van Schalkwyk, a former judge of the Supreme Court of SA, looks at what has become of the rainbow nation and whether we should believe politicians who cry racism as the source of all evil.

The National Credit Regulator (NCR) is seeking a high court order to stop banks from unilaterally taking money from customers’ savings accounts to settle outstanding balances on their credit agreements — a practice which the regulator says is widespread.

In 2011 Sylvia Vollenhoven put together an explosive documentary explaining how R30 billion was allegedly stolen from government in the final years of apartheid. The SABC refused to air the documentary, claiming it did not meet broadcasting standards. As the documentary explains, some of this money went to Broederbonders, and there's allegations of a former apartheid-era minister rushing off to the US with suitcases of looted money. One Reserve Bank shareholder asked to see evidence that the Reserve Bank actually has the gold it says he does, and is told this is forbidden. Then there is the R1,1 billion "lifeline" from the Reserve Bank to Bankorp (now part of Barclays Absa), of which only the capital had to be repaid. And as Judge Willem Heath points out, this loan was guaranteed with government bonds. If that seems weird to you, imagine your mortgage bank lending you money to buy your house and using it's head office as the collateral. It doesn't get much weirder than this.

One of the targets of those calling for a public inquiry into the looting of state resources by apartheid-era monopoly capitalism is oligarch Johann Rupert, who last year called for Zuma to go. This is payback time. There is a long story behind this episode, going back more than 20 years when Sanlam-owned Bankorp (now part of Absa) received an illicit bail-out, funded ultimately by taxpayers. It is certainly worth re-opening this saga, but an inquiry would be pointless if it didn't also look into repeated allegations of bank-capture of the court system.

South of Johannesburg, in the dirt poor area of Thulamntwana, shack dwellers were promised houses of their own after President Jacob Zuma visited the area in 2010 and found people living "like pigs". Six years later, hundreds of residents who scraped and saved together money to get housing allocations say thieves have made off with their money, and then sold the same property multiple times.

The holiday season is over, and the debt collection wolves are out in force. You may find yourself falling behind on your mortgage, overdraft or credit card payments. Then you will likely be issued with a summons. Don’t fear, says Armand Rinier. There are lawful ways of beating off the wolves. In this article he explains your legal rights when it comes to debt, and how you can stop paying interest, bank charges and collection costs. 

The Airports Company of SA (ACSA) went out of its way to attract private investors 20 years ago, promising privatisation and an Initial Public Offering for those who took the bait. Twenty years later, it's an entirely different story. Minorities say they are economic hostages to a company and its major shareholder (the government) that refuses to buy them out for what their shares are worth.

While Zimbabwe's banks lower their daily cash withdrawal limits to between $100 and $200 a day, an increasingly frail President Robert Mugabe withdrew US$6m for a 30 day holiday in Singapore, giving him petty cash of $200,000 a day. Opposition member of parliament Eddie Cross reports on the bleak outlook for the country in 2017, a situation mirrored south of the Limpopo in South Africa.

A new draft bill gazetted by the Democratic Alliance proposes giving provinces a say over whether roads are to be tolled or not. This comes amid public outcry over the SA National Roads Agency and its unsuccessful attempt to bulldoze Gauteng motorists into paying e-tolls. Opponents say e-tolls were implemented unlawfully and without proper public consultation. The ruling ANC may find itself torn over support for this bill. To come out in favour of Sanral and e-tolls with presidential elections just two years away could be political suicide.

Modern schooling has been desribed as a 12 year sentence without trial. The school curricula cannot cover the vast number of learning possibilities to which young people could be exosed. In this article, Eustace Davie of the Free Market Foundation proposes an alternative system that would substantially improve the outcome from our massive investment in education and provide work for the 9 million people currently unemployed in SA.

2016 was the year of corruption, graft and political upheaval. In SA, President Jacob Zuma clings to power while working out how to avoid facing more than 700 charges of corruption. At SA Broadcasting Corporation, Eskom and other state-owned enterprises, the year was marked by a constant drip-feed of scandal and corruption. But SA is not alone. The presidents of South Korea and Brazil face impeachment proceedings as public outrage over corruption was found to have political consequences.

Frans Cronje of the Institute of Race Relations makes the case that we are probably better off under President Zuma than the destructive communists on the one hand who want to unseat him, and the corrupt cronies on the other. In the middle are the pragmatic reformers who, if they are able to prevail, will have pulled off a remarkable feat.

Here's a bit of Christmas cheer: in a year when there were some notable victories for the small guy standing up to bullying banks, Cape Town couple Ahdill Abrahams and his wife Zulfa delivered the coup de gras on which to end the year. The couple have been fighting a 10 year war to prove that FNB had securitised their loan. Here's how they did it. 

President Zuma has delayed signing off on the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill which South Africa is committed to enforcing in terms of its international obligations. It allows for warrantless searches in certain instances and would make it more difficult for corrupt officials to operate in the dark. The president believes aspects of the bill are unconstitutional. Chairman of the standing committee on finance, Yunus Carrim, says the committee will take its own legal advice on the matter and then let the Constitutional Court decide.

Business Day reports that several ministers are planning to resign should President Zuma remain in office, raising the stakes in SA's growing political crisis. The choice for these ministers - who remain unnamed - are to face Zuma's axe or to pre-emptively push him to resign.

This is the season to be jolly, but in January and February the hangover sets in and the banks start issuing their seasonal blizzard of summonses. Now is the time to prepare yourself.

SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) is fighting wars on multiple fronts. It attempts to toll the Cape Wineslands route was recently thrown out of the Cape High Court, while indigenous community members in Pondoland are resisting efforts to carve a beautiful new highway through closely-knit communities in the Eastern Cape. Many of the studies on which Sanral relies for motivating the Pondoland route have been debunked by independent studies, but Sanral is determined to press ahead in apparent disregard for the local people and the Constitution, as social activist John Clarke points out in this article.

Social justice is a good thing so long as it remain within the bounds of sanity. When #Feesmustfall jumps to #Science mustfall and #Datamustfall, something weird takes over. Independent economist Luke Muller points out that campaigners pressing for lower data prices ignore the evidence that data prices are competitive and there are multiple suppliers. No conspiracy to look at here. Evidence of this is the fact that the percentage of South Africans accessing the internet grew from 7,6% to 52% over the last decade.

Here's another tale of heartache for the banks, this time involving FNB, which attempted to claim R74,144 from a customer who had acquired a vehicle by way of instalment sale. The problem is FNB arrived in court without the original documents. The judge made short work of FNB's case and booted it out of court. In this case, the defendent Adrian Hart represented himself using a DIY defence template developed by a debt defence specialist. 

Donald Trump's election to the presidency in the US, despite an unrelenting media campaign against him, has exposed the shameful bias of the mainstream. The same bias is visible in SA, when few in the media are willing to challenge employment equity laws for fear of being labelled "racist". Or Julius Malema's insane calls for violence against whites. Or government's disastrous national democratic revolution that has brought the economy to a standstill. Where are the investigative journalists challenging this madness?

Former transport minister Sbu Ndebele has returned from his posting in the Australian High Commission to answer charges he received a R10m bribe for the extension of the eNatis contract to private company Tasima. Last week the Constitutional Court ordered the control of the Electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis) be handed back to government after it was found that Tasima's five year contract entension, awarded in 2010, was unlawful.

South Africa looks like it is facing its own "Trump" moment. In this excellent analysis, Capital Economics suggests that President Zuma may have survived last week's no confidence vote, but his end is nigh nonetheless. Zuma's game plan is clearly to find a friendly successor ahead of the ANC's elective conference in December next year. Then he may choose to resign knowing he will likely escape prosecution for corruption. The succession battle will likely provide fodder for a newly energised opposition ahead of the presidential election in 2019. South Africa is ready to turn its back on the Zuma era.

Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election is a victory of the working class over the oligarchs. But as former Ronald Reagan staffer Paul Craig Roberts points out, if Trump holds out the hand of conciliation to the neocons and warmongers who lurk at the trough of every US administration, then we will know that he has been captured by the oligarchs. The big loser in all this is the mainstream media, whose shameless shilling for Hillary Clinton was without precedent. Their credibility lies in tatters, and their priggish view of working class Americans has been exposed for all to see. Just one day ago the New York Times was calling it 87% certain that Clinton would win and the world would go on as it always has. Their readers are deserting them, as trust in establishment media hits an all-time low.  Ditto for the TV networks. Interesting times indeed.

The release of the state capture report by the Public Protector has shifted the balance of power away from President Zuma. Senior elements within the ANC now deem it safe to come out against him. Meanwhile the DA is shifting a chunk of its HQ to Johannesburg to ride a two and a half year campaign to unseat the ruling party from Gauteng, writes Keith Gottschalk.

When will SA National Roads Agency acknowledge that much of its e-tolls debt is unrecoverable?