A Johannesburg judge has been suspended pending investigations to accusations he attempted to solicit a bribe to make a case disappear. It is alleged he accepted R90,000 in cash but the accused in the case still ended up in prison.

The draft Land Holdings Bill is due to come before Parliament. It will prevent foreigners from owning land in SA, restricting them to long-term leases rather than outright ownership of land, and no more than 12,000 hectares.

The ANC and Cosatu are threatening "drastic action" over high fees charged by SA's banks. The Democratic Alliance has warned against meddling with "free market forces" which is an odd statement for a sector in which there are just four major players. Hardly a free market at all. 

The riotous events in Parliament this week as President Jacob Zuma attempted to give his State of the Nation address points to the magnitude of the problem facing the ANC. That problem points straight back to Zuma, argues Vukani Mde.

Figures from the Debt Counsellors Association of SA shows a more than 50% increase in the number of consumers applying for debt review over the last 18 months. That shocking bit of news will weigh heavily on Finance Minister Nhlanlha Nene as he prepares his Budget Speech for next week.

The Constitutional Court is being asked today to compel Parliament to pass legislation forcing political parties to disclose their sources of funding. The case is being brought by My Vote Counts which argues that the Constitution guarantees the public's right to information needed to exercise its rights.

Nigeria has pushed ahead of South Africa as Africa's largest economy, but political tensions are at fever pitch. The government this weekend announced it was delaying presidential elections for six weeks, giving the army time to snap the neck of Boko Haram.

The resignation of SARS' controversial head of investigations, Johann van Loggerenberg, could see several tax cases he was investigating come under review. This could be good news for Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir and other alleged wrong-doers.

Proposed amendments to the 2013 Financial Services Laws Genertal Amendment Act read, in parts, like a masterpiece in economic illiteracy. It is a free lunch fantasy where reductions in consumer freedom, dressed up as industry regulation, yield bountiful blessings at zero cost.

Black liquidators are demanding answers from the Reserve Bank after it objected to the appointment of two black liquidators in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. An association of black liquidators wants to know the real reason behind the Reserve Bank's apparently racial preference in this matter.

What's behind the suspenion of Hawks chief Anwa Dramat? Was it his supposedly illegal rendition of four Zimbabweans to their home country where two of them subsequently died at the hands of the police? Or was it his investigation into President Zuma's Nkandla palace, built with public money? Or something else?

Two trademark cases came before the courts last year, illuminating some interesting aspects of trademark law. Two companies using the name Roberston - the name of the area in the Western Cape where the businesses are located - battled it out for the right to use this name. Then Kit-Kat had a go at a rather similar looking product.

President Jacob Zuma told the World Economic Forum in Davos last week that SA was a "country at work". Well, not quite. In fact, we compare miserably with other countries in sub-Saharan Africa and there is no real enthusiasm in government for reversing this trend.

The Department of Trade and Industry is likely to miss the target for the implementation of new BEE Codes scheduled for May 2015. This could result in those companies with a turnover of more than R10 million becoming non-compliant when evaluated.

Has the ANC in Gauteng fudged the e-tolls investigation it completed last year? Judging by its efforts to bring in a "hybrid" form of tolling, the answer is yes. The DA has now called for a referendum into the future of the blighted e-tolls system.

The minister of finance has called for suggestions from the public ahead of the 2015 Budget due out next month. Here's a few suggestions from a Cape-based businessman on how to get SA into double digit growth figures within six years.

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the Democratic Alliance was within its rights to claim that President Zuma had stolen South Africans' money to build his R246 million Nkandla residence in Kwazulu-Natal.

Was there political interference in the suspension of Hawks chief Anwa Dramat? More importantly, was the suspension lawful in terms of the SA Police Services Act, parts of which were deleted by teh Constitutional Court late last year. The court will deecide on the matter this week.

When a disgruntled cell phone customer got no satisfaction from the company management, he took his campaign for consumer justice to the public - by way of a billboard proclaiming the company "the most useless service provider in SA." It was the start of an angry court exchange.

A draft Code of Conduct for the Consumer Protection Act was published for comment late last year. It establishes an Ombud to deal with consumer complaints, and sets out to eliminate unfair, fraudulent and undesirable trade practices.

Rose Norton reports on a recent case where a consumer defaulted on the terms of a debt rearrangement and the bank successfully applied for summary judgment. The consumer took the matter on appeal, arguing that the creditor could not sue without rescinding or varying the debt rearrangement. The bank won the case on appeal.

The Highlands View Guest Lodge in Kensington, Johannesburg, successfully fought off an attempt by Nedbank to derail its application to overturn the liquidation order granted against it last year in the South Gauteng High Court. Now, nearly five years later, it seems the court will get to hear accusations of fraud and perjury against the bank. 

The SA government's response to corruption is to call for committees and investigating panels. Then it proceeds to undermine its own anti-corruption bodies, such as the National Protector. If it wants to get rid of corruption, it should start at the top.

SA Revenue Service (SARS) warns taxpayers in a new series of TV advertisements that "We are closing in on you." That's a far cry from the "SARS thanks you" ads of a year ago. High taxes have resulted in 20% of fuel and 45% of cigarettes in SA being smuggled. The new ads are counter-productive, writes Loane Sharp.

Eskom has been hit with a R600m law sui8t by two firms claiming the state power utility unlawfully terminated pension and funeral cover policies for its employees.