Court papers filed in the Western Cape High Court last week by University of Stellenbosch’s Law Clinic and Summit Financial Partners make for disturbing reading. They are asking the court to stop creditors from loading unlawful costs onto the accounts of distressed debtors, which they reckon has cost debtors R1 billion in unlawful fees. 

People Against Petrol and Paraffin Price Increases (Papppi), headed by Visvin Reddy, is calling for a 35% drop in fuel prices. Did you know that 38% of what you pay at the pump goes to levies and taxes? And that nearly R2 goes to the bankrupt and corrupted Road Accident Fund? Reddy has had enough. He put out a video stating his case for a fuel price reduction and it got 500,000 hits. Just as Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has thrown a crowbar into e-tolls, so may Papppi bring enough social pressure on government to rein in this runaway train.  

SA is being blasted by the foreign press. The New York Times climbed into deputy president David Mabuza, former provincial leader in Mpumalanga, for the sad state in which he left the province's public services. According to current and former ANC officials, he siphoned off money from schools and other public services to buy loyalty and amass enormous power, making him impossible to ignore on the national stage and putting him in position to shape South Africa for years to come. The Times wonders how well this sits with President Cyril Ramaphosa's campaign to end corruption?

The business rescue practitioners trying to save the eight Gupta-owned companies placed under business rescue in February have had to face down 42 court cases in less than four months. That works out at more than 10 a month.

By all accounts, these were the freest elections held in Zimbabwe in more than two decades. But, as MDC representative for South Bulawayo Eddie Cross (who retained his seat) reports, there were clear irregularities. The street riots that took place in Harare last week were entirely understandable, given the historic bias of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). This time, however, the ZEC appears to have discharged its duties with reasonable diligence. As Cross points out, there is a real chance Zimbabwe has swerved from the edge of the abyss and can now begin the arduous task of reconstruction after three decades of plunder under former President Robert Mugabe.

One of the most popular methods by which South Africans purchase immovable property is through a loan from a bank. This process involves a mortgage bond being registered over the immovable property as security by the bank to ensure that if a person fails to pay back the loan, the bank can rely on this as security in order to claim any outstanding money owed to them.

Zimbabwe's first post-Mugabe election looks like a neck-and-neck race between President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Zanu-PF and the MDC's Nelson Chamisa. MDC parliamenarian Eddie Cross looks at a numnber of potential outcomes, including the possibility of a coalition in the event there is no clear winner. We also look at Al Jazeera's coverage of the lead-up to the elections.

Cricket legend Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the country's recent election and promises a huge clean-up of corruption. What is also clear is that he plans a realignment with Pakistan's so-called ally, the US. He failed to win an outright majority, but will be able to secure control through a coalition with smaller regional parties.

The corruption case against former president Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales has been postponed for a further three months to allow the defence teams to make applications for a permanent stay of prosecution.

Labour brokers have been dealt a major blow after the Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that they were not dual employers when their clients absorb contract workers as permanent staff.

During the last few months, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille has been in and out of court, facing off against her own political party, the Democratic Alliance, which has been moving heaven and earth to get rid of her. Something similar may be on the cards in Knysna and George as well, where the DA is at loggerheads with the mayors that represent it in those municipalities. The SA Catholic Bishops' Conference Parliamentary Liaison Office looks at the growing number of "lawfare" cases - which are argued through the courts rather than in the political arena - and asks whether this beneficial for our democracy.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu-PF hope a credible victory in the July 30 election will legitimise the power (both party and state) they gained from the “soft coup” that toppled his predecessor Robert Mugabe last November, but a recent poll shows the opposition MDC closing the gap.

The cash heist suspect who worked at the ANC headquarters was involved behind the scenes in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC presidential campaign‚ a newspaper reported on Friday.

The following laws were recently amended. Of note, the amendments to the Debt Collectors Act requires attorneys to register as debt collectors and subjects them to the same law as other debt collectors. The Magistrates Court Act has been amended to regulate the rescission of judgments in certain cases, the manner of issuing garnishee orders, and debt collection proceedings. The Superior Courts Act has also been amended to provide for the rescission of judgments by consent and the rescission of judgments where the judgment debt has been paid.

Seventy-seven-year-old former stockbroker and debt counsellor Fanie Grove has spent most of his life in financial services, but what he saw as a debt counsellor turned him against credit forever. His advice: avoid credit altogether, but if you must dip your toes in this sewer, be aware of the scams and tricks. 

Things are hotting up ahead of Zimbabwe's 30 July poll which is expected to be a watershed event for the country. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is led by 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, who faces off against the 75-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa, formerly part of the Mugabe government before he desposed his one-time boss in a soft coup late last year. Stories are circulating in the Zimbabwean press that Chamisa has been in talks for Mugabe's wife, offering her a potential vice presidency should he win the race. Chamisa denies this. Voters are spoiled for choice of candiates, and the MDC appears to be contemplating the possibility of outright victory for the first time in its history (not counting the corrupt 2000 election which it undoubtedly won but had the result stolen by the ruling Zanu-PF). Not so fast, say Zimbabweans in SA. Chamisa may be young and charismatic, but he has not earned the trust of voters. If that's the case, could we see Mnangagwa pulling off yet another term for Zanu-PF? MDC parliamentarian from South Bulawayo, Eddie Cross, looks at what the new government has to confront, regardless of who wins.

Absa launched its new logo and image this week as part of its separation from Barclays. Visitors to Absa’s head office in Joburg were greeted by a gathering of aggrieved customers, led by the Lungelo Lethu  Human Rights Foundation (LLHRF), protesting the bank’s abusive home repossession practices. A memorandum was handed over to a senior representative of the bank’s legal department, with an undertaking to commence a dialogue with LLHRF to iron out grievances.

Disgraced and disbarred father and son attorneys Ronald and Darren Bobroff are on a list of the worlds’ most wanted fugitives after Interpol issued Red Notices for their arrest, says Moneyweb.

Our law will generally hold you to the agreements you make, and a suretyship is no exception. You can only free yourself from it if it “was induced by fraud, duress, undue influence or mistake, whether induced by misrepresentation or otherwise”. Here's a recent case where the court found against Absa and in favour of the defendant who signed surety, as GhostDigest reports.

Duduzane Zuma appeared in the Randburg magistrates court this week to answer for charges related to a 2014 car accident that resulted in the death of a young woman. Phumzile Dube died instantly after Zuma’s Porsche crashed into a minibus taxi on M1 in Johannesburg in February 2014. But Duduzane, the son of former president Jacob Zuma, has other legal problems on his plate, as Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) reports.

Tubular Technical Construction (TTC) - part of the Tubular Group of companies - is a prominent construction and engineering company that hauled in massive contracts at Kusile, Exxaro and others. But behind the smiling facade, things are not looking that rosy. The company has been accused of bribery and corruption, and now the BEE partners in a subsidiary company say they are owed more than R24m, and TTC has stopped paying it. This prompted the BEE partners to bring an application for the liquidation of TTC.

EFF leader Julius Malema wants an apology from author and journalist Jacques Pauw for his alleged ties to people in the criminal underworld. No I won't apologise, says Pauw. In fact, he has doubled down on his accusations, as this posting on his Facebook page shows.

News out today from Capital Economics in London suggests the Ramaphoria effect is dead in the water. Ramaphosa's accession to the presidency was supposed to lift our hearts and souls and produce an economic miracle on the basis that with Jacob Zuma gone, everything would sort itself out.

Lawyers defending clients against the banks say the Gauteng Judge President’s recent directive can be used to freeze home repossessions and evictions.

It is now less than 30 days to Zimbabwe's election. MDC opposition parliamentarian Eddie Cross looks beyond the election result to the frightful challenge that awaits the winners, including the need to create jobs at the rate of 150,000 a year. The education and health budgets will have to double, but all of this will mean increased taxes. The old man Robert Mugabe might be gone, but his legacy is one of ruin. Whoever wins the election - and the opposition MDC is certainly in with a stronger than ever chance provided vote rigging is avoided - has a mountain to climb to pull the country back from the abyss.