The Democratic Alliance is contemplating laying charges against President Zuma for lying under oath, and accuses him of a transparent attempt to delay and frustrate the release of the Public Protector's report into state capture.

Absa's attempt to obtain summary judgment against Cape Town's Greg Smith was summarily thrown out of court last Friday. Ironically, Smith spent much of his life working on advertising campaigns for various banks. What's fairly unique about this one is Smith specifically accused the bank of securitising his loan. While the judge didn't address this, he did not like that Absa turned up in court with recreated documents instead of the originals.

Former finance minister Trevor Manuel recently complained of a smear campaign involving the current finance minister Pravin Gordhan. But his memory is short. He might have mentioned the ANC's trumped up smear campaigns alleging a third force, falsely implicating former president FW de Klerk, IFP leader Mangosutu Buthelezi and others. These are just some of the smears the ruling party has confected over the years.

Government's decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) is being challenged by the Democratic Alliance. Burundi has also given notice that it intends pulling out of the Court, as Africans realise they - and only they - are subject to prosecution by the ICC. Perhaps President Zuma and some of his cohorts fear they may some day find themselves in front of the ICC, so what better time to plan their escape than now.

Solomon Nhlapo is squatting in the Soweto house his late mother first acquired in 1965. Police have told him he in tresspassing in his own home, and this week he has been ordered to appear to the Protea, Soweto, magistrates court on charges of tresspassing. His house was sold behind his back for R100 by Nedbank, all over a R22,000 loan his mother took out with the SA Perm in 1986. What makes this case all the more disturbing is Solomon has written confirmation that his mother's loan is fully paid up.

Here's a fascinating story of how Royal Bank of Scotland stripped Scottish hotel owner Nigel Henderson of his life savings when it repossessed his hotel after he took out what he thought was a regular residential home loan. Turns out, the bank pulled this heist on 16,000 businesses, but is now facing the prospect of justice in the US courts, along with massive fines. South African courts take note - this is how you handle corrupt bankers. The only question is: will Bank of Scotland survive?

Finance minister Pravin Gordhan filed an affidavit before the High Court last week detailing several suspicious transactions involving the Gupta family, close allies of President Jacob Zuma. This is the latest instalment if a soap opera between various factions of the ANC. Gordhan has also given the middle finger to Shaun Abrahams, head of the National Prosecuting Authority, over his invitation to the minister approach his office to review its decision to prosecute him for fraud relating to supposedly unlawful actions taken while he was head of SA Revenue Services.

This is a brief but brilliantly written video on what causes poverty. The banks are the architects of financial crises but have managed to shift blame to competitors or even to their clients. As we watch the derivatives crisis unfold at Deutsche Bank, this is a timely reminder that the next crisis could be the last for the fiat currency experiment that is now unravelling.

Joburg's new mayor Herman Mashaba outlined his plans to rid the CBD of criminal elements and hopes to attract the interest of hotel developers. He has asked hotel group Marriott International and South African developer Amdec Group to help him achieve this. 

Here's a case with shades of Kenneth Makate's claim that Vodacom ripped off his intellectual property, adn for which he has rewarded earlier this year with R10,5bn in the Constitutional Court. In this case, Johan Reynders of software company ADS says Standard Bank pilfered his intellectual property when it introduced an anti-hacking solution for its online clients in the 2000s. The difference here is Reynders is claiming $10bn from the bank.

Document storage company Docufile is being summonsed to court to explain what happened in the fire of 2009 when possibly hundreds of thousands of documents, many of them mortgage bonds, were destroyed. Docufile's parent company, Iron Mountain, has had its own share of bad luck with fires, raising suspicions at least some of these were deliberate. 

Jacob Zuma is a God-given gift to the DA and EFF. They should cherish it while it lasts. Because as soon as Zuma goes, so too will the coterie of acolytes he has surrounded himself with. The biggest beneficiary of his departure wil be the ANC, but that party hasn't figured that out yet.

The capture of the state by the Guptas and others is an ever-present danger in SA. A new book called Rogue: The inside story of SARS's elite crime busting unit details the extent to which dark forces have taken over key pillars of the state apparatus. 

RW Johnson argues that the funding crisis at universities is due in large measure to the culture of appeasement and political correctness that has enveloped the university management. A little more backbone from the management would have gone a long way to staving off the campus crises we are now witnessing.

The debt collection industry was dealt a fatal blow in March when it became illegal for companies to attempt to get someone to pay a prescribed (old) debt. But still they try, as this article by Wendy Knowler makes clear. You could be paying prescribed debt right now, even though it is unlawful for companies to collect this from you.

A recent Constitutional Court finding brings to an end the shady practice of "forum shopping" - bringing legal action in a court far from where the creditor lives so as to thwart justice - and all emolument attachment orders now issued must be subject to judicial oversight. 

Quite apart from its well publicised lapses of governance, South African Airways (SAA) has been a serial visitor to the Competition Court since 1998 over accusations that it violated fair competition rules. Recently, the national airline was ordered to pay R104m to Nationwide for infringements of competition rules. This case serves as a useful barometer for meauring damages in similar cases, says Ahmore Burger-Smidt.

Since the year 2000, SA has slipped from the 42nd freest country in the world to 105th - placing us in the bottom third. There are now 14 Africa countries rated higher than SA in terms of overall freedom. As Richard Grant explains, this creates a toxic environment ripe for corruption and graft.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) today laid criminal charges against Daniel Mahlangu of BnP Capital, the little-known boutique finance house that stood to gain R256m for arranging finance on behalf of SAA. And in a clear threat to SAA employees who were party to the alleged fraudulent financing scheme, OUTA says they had better come forward with information or they too may be charged.

Garnishee orders have a soggy history in SA. Stories abound of workers trying to survive on R100 a month after garnishee orders had been deducted from their monthly pay. Many of these were granted by clerks of the court in jurisdictions far away from where the victims lived. This is now a thing of the past, after a Constitutional Court decision that garnishee orders must be subject to judicial oversight (rather than issued by clerks of the court), and must be just, equitable and of an appropriate amount, according to Moneyweb.

Prescription in law means a debt or obligation is extionguished after the passage of a certain amount of time. In this review on a recent case that came before the Supreme Court of Appeal, Kirsty Simpson of ENS Africa looks at what happens when you default on a debt and the creditor elects to demand the full amount outstanding, rather than just the arrears (which is known in banking as acceleration).

The ANC is at war with itself, as the Occupy Luthuli House protests affirm. After the local government electoral disaster in which the ruling party lost most of SA's big cities to the opposition, the party of liberation should have entered a period of deep soul searching. Instead it has atomised into various factions each seeking ascendancy and retribution, as this editorial from Mail & Guardian points out.

In this article, Armand Rinier argues against going under debt review. We've had 10 years' experience with debt review and most people find themselves doling out money every month that they can ill-afford. There is a better way - manage the debt yourself, pay only your most important creditors (house and car) and start a personal savings fund to carry you through future financial shocks. As Rinier points out, many of the debts that people are paying are prescribed - meaning they are under no obligation to pay them 

The government and its satrapies obsessess continuously about income equality. This is a convenient flogging horse for those who want more state power. Of course, we will never achieve income equality, which is exactly what government wants. It wants the power to tax and direct the affairs of others. The freeloaders in government will forever declare war on poverty, war on drugs, war on income inequality... So many wars to wage, none of them winnable. Instead of obsessing about income inequality, we should welcome it as a vital ladder of opportunity that everyone is free to climb.

President Jacob Zuma is not one to back down from a fight, particularly one where he was humiliated. In this case, he was forced to appoint Pravin Gordhan as his finance minister after trying to shoe-horn a hopelessly unqualified Des van Rooyen into that post. In this article, Gumani Tshimomola, a researcher for the Economic Freedom Fighter's parliamentary caucus, explains why the decision by certain investors to stop funding SA's state corporations may save SA in the long run.