When Saambou Bank collapsed on 9 February 2002, 20twenty, its newly formed online banking arm, had only been in operation for six months. During the six months it had been in operation, however, 20twenty had managed to capture the hearts of 40 000 customers with its innovative approach and fanatical service ethic: so much so, that most of its customers did not leave when Saambou collapsed, but stayed faithful to 20twenty until a rescuer came along 18 months later.

Between 2014 and 2017 the management team of the South African division of global software company, Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP), managed to exploit loopholes in the group’s integrity management systems so as to take advantage of the influence that members of the Gupta family had over state machinery and land lucrative contracts with state-owned enterprises, Transnet and Eskom. These activities might have gone undetected had they not been exposed by whistle blowers in mid-2017.

In October 2012, Dr Kenneth Ross, professional fellow at the Graduate School of Education of the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia and chairperson of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) Scientific Committee, was busy analysing the combined results of the SACMEQ III research conducted on the 15 participating African countries. He had to determine which factors made a difference to the quality of education in primary schools in southern and eastern Africa.

Six months had passed since the South African government had gazetted draft regulations on salt content in food. Now, in December 2012, the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, was reviewing the submissions received on the proposed laws. As the comments had come in from individuals, corporates, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academics, the public health sector and civil society, Motsoaledi had realised that he would be facing some resistance to his department’s proposals.

This is a background note on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in South Africa. The note defines and explains PPPs as an alternative service delivery option for the public sector, highlighting the legislation that governs PPPs and the Project Cycle. The debate for and against the PPP option for service delivery and PPP performance are examined.

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On 18 June 2019, the Gauteng High Court “set aside and declared unlawful all the decision-making processes through which Eskom had concluded [a] contract with McKinsey”. The contract in question had resulted from McKinsey South Africa's turnaround proposal to the struggling electricity utility in February 2015. Although McKinsey SA had experienced difficulties with a Transnet contract in 2013, the organisation had decided that working with Eskom, its client since 2005, on this project was a risk worth taking.

By September 2019, six months had passed since KPMG South Africa had released its integrated annual report titled Rebuilding Trust, Redefining Professionalism. Since 2017, the firm had lost R3 billion ($204 million) in revenue and suffered significant reputational damage, after being caught up in a number of scandals involving corruption and unethical conduct. The report detailed the progress it had made in rebuilding itself, enhancing the quality of its work and restoring good governance.

Steven Fitzgerald looks relaxed as he arrives home from his fourth trip to South America this month. The chief executive officer of Andbeyond (originally Conservation Corporation Africa), a leader in luxury ecotourism, is taking his company to new climes. The company started in South Africa in 1990, spread its wings to other African countries and then ventured into India in 2004, where it has been successful – although with a few initial surprises.

From her office on her farm in the Eden District of South Africa’s Western Cape province, Wendy Crane, who had for many years been involved in the conservation efforts of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR), drank in the view of the Langeberg Mountains. Her pleasure was a bit diminished by the knowledge that, like so many parts of the GCBR, this area’s environment was under threat.

In July 1997, Maurice Radebe moved from a successful, eight-year career at Shell Oil South Africa to take up the position of retail manager at Exel Petroleum, a black economic empowerment (BEE) company newly started by energy and chemical company Sasol Oil and a consortium of black shareholders. His career prospects at Shell had been good. But South Africa was at an interesting juncture in its history, spirits were high because of the successful 1994 elections, and BEE was in its infancy.