Time to hold individuals behind corporate and financial malfeasance accountable. Justice is the supreme condition that makes societies work. Few things can drive people to greater anger and frustration than when justice is seen not to be done. Yet it has been a feature of modern times that massive misconduct, white collar crimes, and tax and price manipulation have gone unpunished with perpetrators hiding behind corporate structures and complexity shields. In the last ten yea

Confronting the thorny issue of merit based appointments in society. It may be connecting some very obscure dots, but former Springbok rugby player, Ashwin Willemse’s walking off the SuperSport set reminded me of tennis champion Arthur Ashe’s rebellious tour of South Africa some 45 years ago. The two events may be on a completely different scale. Ashe’s defiance of the global sport isolation of South Africa was a highly significant activist gesture against existing racial pre

Things that really matter in keeping it together for South Africa’s future. Love them or hate them, but current events have demonstrated how deeply ingrained the ANC has become in South African society. In many respects we are like a one party state, and the trauma that that party experiences, reverberates through all walks of life. Its leadership transition has created as much uncertainty and anticipation as the country experienced in the heady days of the early 90’s. But th

Let's use our fury to restore business to its true purpose. It may take a while to unravel the wicked web that Steinhoff’s leaders and mercenary executives elsewhere have woven and who have flung another layer of tarnish on free enterprise. But after countless examples of the recent past and present, including the state capture thugs, we should now be very angry at those who play shareholder-value Sudoku for maximum self-gain: at executive remuneration which encourages this b

Name, shame and put in jail are inseparable in fighting corruption. As VIP’s go, you can’t get much higher than a Saudi prince, specifically billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud. With a Forbes net worth rating of $16,5bn he is one of the richest men in the world and has large holdings in some of the biggest global companies. I wrote about him some years back (see When Billionaires pout) when the prince threw some of his golden toys out of the cot at not being ranked