Africa: Why economists get it wrong by Morten Jerven challenges a number of common myths about Africa, particularly the notion that Africa has ever stopped growing. This false assumption arises because economists are using bad data or simply looking in the wrong areas.

Noseweek highlights two recent judgments that give cause for hope. One where the judge ordered a half-built building in Durban to be demolished, and another where the judge slammed delaying tactics and abuse of police and private investigators by deep-pocketed litigators. 

Rian Malan reviews RW Johnson's book, How Long Will South Africa Survive: The Looming Crisis. Johnson first published this book in 1977, predicting that economic and moral pressure would defeat apartheid, not the ANC's armed struggle. Turns out he was dead right. Will he be right this time with his dire prediction for SA?

South Africans hope that a change in leadership of the ANC or a miraculous act of reform with reverse the downward trajectory of the country. RW Johnson, author and Emeritus Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford, explains why this will not happen.

Nomgcobo Jiba of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has had a charmed life under the apparent protection of President Jacob Zuma, who many believe she is protecting - in return - from prosecution. The political interference in the NPA is legendary and this week just got a whole lot worse, says the Mail & Guardian.

A total of 400,000 white expat South Africans have returned to the country of their birth since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. And despite affirmative action quotas that give preferences to black South Africans, they seem to have little trouble getting jobs.

Is government finally waking up to the policy mess it has created in sectors such as mining and tourism?  Frans Cronje, CEO of the SA Institute of Race Relations, believes there is a glimmer of hope that may prevent the country sliding into the worst possible outcome - what he calls the rocky road. 

SA's new visa rules requiring tourists to supply biometric data has proven a bridge too far for many. The latest stats show a massive drop in the number of visitors from our supposed partners in the Brics countries, who decided to spend their money in friendlier countries.

While the media and public obsess over Nkandla, whether Cyril Ramaphosa will be the next president of SA and other issues, the country faces a far deeper crisis - massive youth unemployment being just one of them, according to political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi.

5 out of 5 securitisation audits so far concluded suggest the banks have been less than honest with their customers. In all five cases, the audits suggest the mortgage loans have ended up in Asia. 

Politicians are not renowned for eloquence or truth telling, but recent statements from ANC luminaries are pure drivel. Like Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi blaming "neo-liberalism" for his ministry's cock-ups, or ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe telling mining companies not to lay off workers just because they can't afford to keep them.

Two South American countries - Colombia and Venezuela - offer lessons in governance that we would do well to heed. Colombia is now one of the fastest growing economies in South America. Venezuela, ravaged by a drop in oil prices, is moving in the opposite direction.

The killing of Cecil the Hwange lion by a US dentist is tragic, but what we really need is protection from the wildlife lobby and its counter-productive lobbying for bans on the trade in animal parts. Europeans telling Africans how to run their wildlife resources has yielded a surge in trade for illegal rhino horn. 

The draft Expropriation Bill gives government the right to expropriate land in what it deems is the public interest, paying "just and equitable" compensation. The Bill has been attacked by the banking association and the SA Institute of Race Relations.

The ANC's commitment to race-based policies is relentless, regardless of economic consequences. Foreign direct investment (FDI) tells the story. SA companies are investing abroad at ever increasing rates while foreigners are less than enthusiastic about SA's prospects, no matter what government tells us.

Comair recently lost its case in the Pretoria High Court challenging SAA's latest government bail-out. The national carrier has received no less than R30 billion in government money over the last two decades, and has sunk no fewer than 10 start-up airlines in the process. SAA is a national disgrace, argues Leon Louw.

The government plans to do to farming what it has done to mining. In terms of new legislation now before parliament, government would take custody of all farming land for the benefit of all South Africans. The SA Communist Party's fingerprints are all over this one.

The National Credit Regulator will investigate hundreds of thousands of emolumernt attachment orders obtained by debt collector Flemix & Associates after a devastating judgment was handed down that makes it illegal to obtain such orders without a court hearing by a judge, according to Personal Finance.

A judge hearing the case of Nigerian trader Emeka Onkonkwo says it is the worst he has heard since the advent of democracy. It is a shocking indictment of police behaviour, abetted by the Department of Home Affairs, and reveals an ugly disregard for immigrants, writes Carmel Rickard in Legalbrief.

Four out of four securitisation audits so far conducted in SA apparently prove that the home loans have ended up thousands of miles away in Asia. Yet the banks still cling to their argument that they are the lawful owners of the loans, according to Moneyweb.

The South African Police Service, like its master the ANC, has become adept at protecting its own in the face of serious accusations of criminality, fraud and nepotism. To this extent, it is behaving like the ruling political party, writes Gareth van Onselen in Business Day.

SA's unemployment rate at 26% puts us behind Greece. That takes some doing, but we managed it. But this has not stopped the ruling party throwing its weight behind calls for a national minimum wage, which places us squarely in cloud cuckoo land, writes John Kane-Berman of the SA Institute of Race Relations in Business Day.

Nedbank CEO Mike Brown says he will challenge a subpoena calling on him to appear at an inquiry relating to the liquidation of Waterkloospruit Projects in 2001, when he was in charge of property finance at BOE Bank, later acquired by Nedbank. BOE picked up 137 stands for R100,000 in what is claimed was a sham auction, according to this article in Moneyweb.

The financial crisis has percolated down to first time home buyers in Cosmo City near Johannesburg, many of whom claim they have been evicted irregularly after having their homes repossessed. Scores of Cosmo City residents have been tossed out of their houses after falling into arrears on their bonds. Maxwell Dube of Cosmo City Chronicle decided to investigate and found 23 of these - all of them bonded with Absa - ended up in the hands of just one investor. The more he dug, the fishier the whole thing smelt.