An ostrich farmer from Grahamstown has thrown the local court into a spin by apparently proving that his mortgage loan with Standard Bank has been on-sold to an investor in Taiwan. This is the first time a securitisation audit has been presented in a SA court. On the basis of the evidence presented, the farmer says Standard Bank has no right to be in court.

The Constitutional Court has ruled against internet entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth in his challenge to overturn the R250 million levy deducted by the Reserve Bank when he exported his earnings more than a decade ago, according to Times Live.

800 years after the signing of the Magna Carta, the fight for individual liberty is far from secure, argues former US assistant treasury secretary, Paul Craig Roberts. Governments everywhere are attempting to peel back the liberties for which humankind has fought since before the time of King John in the 1200s.

South African laws are in the Stone Age when it comes to home repossessions according to a recent study. SA law specifically prevents repossessed homes being sold at auction with a reserve price in place, which is the opposite of what is required in other countries.

National Treasury has launched a new online portal aimed at making it easier to register for tenders at all levels of government. It will also promote transparency and combat tender irregularities.

Can a municipality sue for defamation? Bitou municipality in Plettenberg Bay thought it could after being defamed by two individuals in a previous court case. Judge Jeanette Traverso of the Western Cape High Court slapped it down.

The Concourt handed down a ruling in March that delivers a major blow to lenders. It suspends, once litigation has commenced, the operation of the so-called in duplum rule, which means lenders cannot then charge more than double the outstanding capital on a loan, according to this article from Werksmans.

Government is back-tracking on tighter visa requirements for visitors to South Africa after China cancelled planned direct flights and the tourism industry warned of chaos at the airports, according to Independent Online.  

Government has misjudged the level of public opposition to e-tolling, despite its ridiculous claim that e-tolls are not unpopular. It seems most people will continue to refuse paying the tolls that were foisted on them.

Attempts by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to put fresh lipstick on this pig called e-tolls are doomed to fail. South Africans have had enough of e-tolls, Eskom, Nkandla and anything else this government is trying to sell, according to Neels Blom writing in Business Day.

This is what happens when you put bureacrats in charge of policy - you get mind-numbing idiocy in the form of the Draft Online Regulation Policy vomited out of the Film and Publication Board (FPB). The Mrs Grundys at the FPB want to police your Youtube videos and reserve the right to report you to the Board's Classification Committee, according to Jeremy Malcolm at Electronic Frontier Foundation.

A New York judge this week came out swinging against against two banks, Nomura Holdings and Royal Bank of Scotland, saying the banks’ misconduct exacerbated the collapse in the mortgage market, according to the New York Times.

The Cape High Court last week reminded Parliament that the Constitution reigns supreme in SA after the Speaker earlier this year called in the police to remove unrul Economic Freedom Fighters MPs. Parliament has appealed the finding, according to Mail & Guardian.

The state attorney's efforts to hide from the public the endless bail-outs that have bankrupted 10 airlines - all in the service of keeping SAA alive - show pure contempt for the public, argues Leon Louw of the Free Market Foundation.

Mmusi Maimane, 34, was chosen as the new leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance over the weekend following former leader Helen Zille's decision to step down. Maimane has made it clear he intends to make a strong bid for the urban black vote by appealing to their concerns, and the fact that race remains a factor in SA politics, according to Polity.org.

It's finally happening. A class action suit being brought by the Housing Class Action against the four major banks to stop them selling repossessed homes at auction for a fraction of their value, according to The Star.

A landmark securitisation case is headed for the Constitutional Court that will test the banks’ right to repossess homes where the mortgage bond has been ceded to a new owner. The Concourt is also being asked to decide whether going under debt review constitutes an act of insolvency.

Liberland, a tiny dot of land wedged between Croatia and Serbia, is the world's newest country, founded by Czech libertarian Vit Jedlicka. Taxes are optional, there is no army and its borders are open to all. No wonder more than 200,000 people have requested to live there, reports the Guardian.

New BEE codes issued by the Department of Trade and Industry are so onerous that many companies will ignore them. They will use the Constitution as their moral and legislative compass, according to Loane Sharp of the Free Market Foundation.

Three badly written laws are now before the courts for adjudication. One of these has been referred by the National Credit Regulator, seeking to establish whether repossessed assets sold at auction can be sold far below market price. The solution suggested is to set a reserve price.

Xenophobic violence that has claimed the lives of at least seven people has prompted reprisals against South Africans from Mozambique to Nigeria. Outrage is building across the continent, placing South African firms such as MTN and Shoprite, at risk.  

Jonn Basson, founder of the social justice movement People Against Lawyers and Liquidators, died this morning after his farm east of Pretoria was raided by the sheriff of the High Court and liquidators. Basson had been fighting to stave off eviction from the farm, claiming he had been fraudulently liquidated.  

Celebrity investigator Paul O'Sullivan has promised to bring down police commissioner Riah Piyega after his offices were raided yesterday morning by about 20 police officers and his cell phones and computers were seized. The State has agreed to return ther seized items today, while O'Sullivan is seeking to set aside the search warrant.

Rael Levitt, former CEO of the now defunct Auction Alliance which closed down in 2012 following disclosure of fake auctions, has failed to prevent the Hawks from investigating allegations of fraud, corruption and money laundering.

Tales of bogus land claims and scammers are legion. One farmer was subjected to a bogus land claim for 10 years, and was met with delays and incompetence when he tried to get answers from the Land Claims Commission. The Supreme Court of Appeal had some choice words for the Commission in a recent case.