Banks are raking in between R500 million and R800 million a month from bounced debit orders. That’s a sizeable portion of the banks’ non-interest fee income each year for little more than running a piece of computer code. How is it that they have failed to heed the findings of a Compeition Commission investigation into banking charges which recommended a R5 cap on a bounced debit order? 

Empires are built through the creation or acquisition of wealth. The Roman Empire came about through the productivity of its people and its subsequent acquisition of wealth from those that it invaded. The Spanish Empire began with productivity and expanded through the use of its large armada of ships, looting the New World of its gold. The British Empire began through localized productivity and grew through its creation of colonies worldwide—colonies that it exploited, bringing the wealth back to England to make it the wealthiest country in the world.

SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni is reportedly awol while SAA struggles to repay a R2,3bn loan to Standard Chartered Bank. Myeni's time at SAA is up, according to recent reports. Under her tenure, she clocked up losses of more than R10bn, got rid of several top executives, and was embroiled in financial irregularities, such employing a company with no experience to refinance R15bn worth of loans for the airline.

A couple from Meyersdale, Joburg, nearly lost their home as the bank that held the mortgage bond agreement, insisted they pay back the entire outstanding bond for being two weeks late on their payment. The Constitutional Court slapped Nedbank down, arguing that the couple had lawfully reinstated their bond, even though they were late in catching up on arrears.

Millions of rands allegedly laundered by a Gupta associate, Eric Wood, were used to sponsor the awards that named presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma the South African of the Year two years ago. The South African of the Year Awards are run by the Gupta family-owned The New Age Company.

More evidence from leaked emails show how finance minister Malusi Gigaba - while still at public enterprises - and his successor Lynne Brown placed Gupta associates into key positions in state-owned companies. The Guptas benefited to the tune of billions of rands.

Here's a case where Nedbank repossessed a Katlehong home for R10. You read that right. Ernest Mashaba and his family have been put through a decade of hell and have been evicted four times, each time re-occupying the house, believing the bank had made a mistake. Here's the kicker: Ernest Mashaba never missed a payment and has written confirmation from the bank that his mortgage loan is fully paid up. His story is little different from that of Johm Mojaki of Randfontein, who also has written confirmation from the bank that his loan is paid up. His house has also been sold behind his back. "The only way they will get me out of here is in a coffin," he says.

Rumours that President Jacob Zuma was about to resign and take up residence in Dubai - with the assistance of the Gupta family - sent the rand soaring to R12,70 to the US dollar on Monday morning. The president is now besieged not just by opposition parties, but a strong and growing faction within the ANC. The Sunday Times added fuel to this fire with stunning revelations of the extent to which the Guptas had managed to gain control of ministers and state-owned enterprises. 

Zimbabwe has become a mafia-run state, where 2,000 super-wealthy elites hold the country to ransom. The Marange diamond field is run by a nest of thieves, where an estimated $20 billion has been pilfered. In a country with 80% unemployment, this sends a clear message to the rest of the country - take the money and run, says Zimbabwean member of parliament Eddie Cross.

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has just barred SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) - which has summonsed thousands of Gauteng motorists for non-payment of e-tolls - from arguing 55 cases in court. Outa claims the Roads Agency has not followed court procedures and deadlines. Sanral will now have to restart court procedings from scratch. Further complicating matters is the issue of prescription, as some of this e-toll debt is now more than three years old and therefore may not be payable.

The good news is that as of Wednesday 25th May, everything you earn is yours to keep. The bad news is that up until Wednesday, you have been working for the government - and you spent five more days as a slave to government than in 2015. Every year the Free Market Foundation meaures how many days it takes to discharge South Africans' "debt" to government - in other words, how many days you must work to pay off the government's share of GDP. 

We now have a clearer idea of how the Gupta-owned Tegeta got control of the Optimum coal mine from Glencore for a song, using its "special relationship" with Eskom. The deal stinks to high heaven. It involved imposing an impossibly high fine on Glencore for supplying under-sized coal to Eskom, which allowed Tegeta to move in and capture the mine - and resume normal business with Eskom. Former mineral resources minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi was fired by President Jacob Zuma for refusing to co-operate with the elaborate scam. Here's how it went down.

Free speech is under attack by an out-of-control government that seeks to monitor and regulate everything that moves (even sounds out of your mouth). Two of the most appalling pieces of proposed legislation to belly-flop before us are the Hate Speech bill - which makes it a criminal offence to jokingly insult a lawyer or a plumber - and the Information and Communications Technologies Policy white paper, which would create a semi-monpoly owned by the state with control over the radio frequency. 

The phrase "climate denier" has come to mean someone who refutes the facts of climate change brought about by humans. But as Scott Adams point out in this article, the climate science believers and deniers are actually talking about two different things. The subject has become so muddied by the word "science" that the term has lost its meaning. There may indeed be climate change - but don't expect science to solve this one.

This is how you end up thinking when you have been too long in a state-owned enterprise. The SA Broadcasting Corporation, faced with plummeting revenue, has proposed that it be allowed to charge license fees on all viewing devices, including your laptop, cell phone and tablet. This absurdity - from a corporation drowning in corruption and incompetence - must be stopped.

Why does South Africa keep embracing destructive policies when there is no shortage of proof that these policies will fail and spread poverty? Could it be that this is intentional, or that ideologues refuse to apprehend the lessons of history? Perhaps it is a bit of both. In this article, Temba Nolutshungu argues that we should heed the lessons of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and China's Deng Xiaoping, all of whom espoused free markets and individual liberty.

Sean Naidoo‚ a business from Marburg near Port Shepstone‚ has accused the Department of Public Works of orchestrating the "first land grab in the new South Africa". This relates to a lease agreement in a building, occupied by the SA Police Services, owned by Naidoo. He locked the Department out of the building, claiming he has been under-paid in terms of the lease agreement. 

Be careful what you wish for. SA's opposition parties want Jacob Zuma dislodged as president, but keeping him in power for as long as possible may suit their electoral chances come 2019. The ANC members are having to read the weather vane: if Zuma goes then many jobs are on the line, but if he stays, party loyalists will be roasted for protecting a fatally compromised man. So long as Zuma remains in power, the opposition can mine his failing presidency for all it is worth, reminding voters for the next two years how seriously he has damaged this country. Bloomberg explores how this could play out.

Durban's King Shaka International is an airport in desperate search of passengers. Like most public sector projects of the last 10 years in SA, it ended up costing between two and three times the original estimates. But this one was a corker: it was foisted on Airports Company of SA (ACSA) by then minister of transport, Jeff Radebe, and has lumbered the organisation with crippling debt since then. This crass decision explains some of the other bizarre goings-on at ACSA in recent months. Minority shareholders in ACSA - who have been trying to sell their shares back to government (without success) at something approaching fair value - say the company has abandoned its commercial mandate and now operates as a development arm of government.

The Hate Speech Bill is a ridiculous attempt to protect 17 different categories of perceived victims from insult or injury. Of course, it does not pass the Constitutional test, but perhaps it is not intended to. It allows politicians to indulge their favourite pastime of race-baiting to distract from their own failings. Former Judge Rex van Schalkwyk explains what is going on. 

It is reckoned that 100,000 South Africans have lost their homes since the Constitution came into effect in 1995 – despite its guarantees of fair administrative justice and its supposed enforcement of property rights. This outrageous scandal has been enabled by insouciant judges and a court system that operates as the enforcement arm of the banks.

Several people, who have each lost large amounts of money due to Internet banking fraud, are taking their fight to ABSA and Standard Bank – with legal action on the cards. The victims say numerous banking staff members must have been involved. The evidence suggests the crooks knew exactly what funds were available in the victims' accounts, which accounts were linked, and from where money could be transferred. 

Tens of thousands of South Africans took to the streets in major cities across the country last week, calling for President Zuma's removal. This follows Zuma's dismissal of finance minister Pravin Gordhan as part of a cabinet reshuffle that resulted in SA's credit being downgraded the junk by credit ratings agencies. 

Michael Hudson is a former bank economist whose job it was to work out the balance of payments surplus of South American countries so the major banks could capture this surplus for themselves. In his new book J for Junk Economics, reviewed by Paul Craig Roberts, Hudson explains how banks have become the new "rentier class" that has displaced the feudal lords of old. They produce nothing, but capture rents in the form of interest that have no costs associated with them.