In 2018 the world watched as 82 per cent of all wealth created was claimed by the top 1 per cent of the global population. The bottom 50 per cent of humanity saw no increase at all. While one new billionaire was created every two days, one in every four South Africans were living on less than R18 per day – not enough to buy a loaf of bread.

Inequality has always been part of the world we live in, but in the past twenty years the situation has worsened. We have seen the rise of mega corporations, where regional companies have become global players: power brokers that are richer and more powerful than most countries. This has seen businesses record ever-increasing profits while they pay ever-decreasing taxes. How is this happening?

In South Africa, millions of people depend on the services and products of mega corporations, but to what extent do these corporations influence and affect the lives of their consumers? What do these companies do with all the power that is in their hands?

In The Dirty Secrets of the Rich and Powerful, James-Brent Styan casts the spotlight on economic inequality and unpacks historical and ongoing business practices that have a real influence on people today. This book takes you right into the corridors of power and behind the closed doors of the boardrooms of the rich and powerful to show you how, and why, the status quo seems so unfair.

Just as South Africans were starting to come to grips with the staggering cost of state capture, the Bosasa bombshell hit the country. This grand-scale corruption scandal cost South Africa billions of rands while the politicians involved were bought for as little as braai packs and booze.

While investigating state capture, The Zondo commission of inquiry blew the lid off the tangled web of bribery that was Bosasa. Gripping testimony before the commission about “little black books”, cash bribes and walk-in vaults held the public in thrall while a new realisation dawned: The notorious Gupta family had not been the only ones pillaging the country. In The Bosasa Billions, best-selling author James-Brent Styan and co-writer Paul Vecchiatto uncover the sordid story of how one company exploited the greed of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats to establish an extensive tender network stretching right to the top of the ANC government.

Its cast of characters include:

• Angelo Agrizzi, the whistleblower who makes new revelations to Styan about the secrets behind Bosasa’s glittering profit margins
• Vernie Petersen, the prisons boss who waged a lonely battle against the dark forces taking over his department, and
• Gavin Watson, the ultra-religious Bosasa puppet master who parlayed his family’s struggle credentials into vast wealth while leading his employees in prayer every morning.

Ultimately, however, Bosasa was not in the business of saving souls, but selling them.

Op Dinsdag 5 Desember 2017 was die Steinhoff-groep nog R199 miljard werd. Vier en twintig uur later is meer as R160 miljard daarvan uitgewis. Die Steinhoff-sakeryk, wat oor 20 jaar tot ’n internasionale sakereus opgebou is, het oornag verkrummel.

Markus Jooste, Steinhoff se flambojante grootbaas, het per SMS bedank en vlug sedertdien van die een na die ander geraamte wat uit sy kas val: tientalle spoghuise vir ’n blonde minnares, resiesperde, bewerings van bedrog en ’n blinkswart Jaguar vir ’n ou universiteitskoshuis.

Wat presies het hier gebeur? Wie het wat geweet? Wat is Steinhoff, wie is Markus Jooste en wat het dit met die sogenaamde Stellenbosch-mafia te doen? Hoe pas Christo Wiese, Shoprite en Pepkor in en waarheen is die pensionarisse se geld? Die bekende sakeskrywer James-Brent Styan beantwoord dié en ander vrae in hierdie verstommende verhaal van die grootste finansiële ineenstoring in die geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika.

Deur onderhoude met betroubare bronne, inligting uit vertroulike dokumente en in- dieptenavorsing oor Steinhoff se geskiedenis, onthul hy dít wat die groep oor jare probeer wegsteek het.

Steinhoff en die Stellenbosse Boys is ’n boeiende sakeriller wat nog dekades lank in sowel raadsale as sitkamers oorvertel sal word.

On 5 December 2017 the Steinhoff group was still worth R199 billion. Twenty four hours later more than R160 billion of this fortune was wiped out. The Steinhoff Empire which took 20 years to build into an international business giant, had crumbled overnight.

Markus Jooste, Steinhoff’s flashy CEO, resigned via SMS and has since been fleeing an avalanche of scandals and accusations: luxury homes for a blonde mistress, allegations of fraud, racing horses and unparalleled extravagance, a lavish, black Jaguar for an old university residence...

What exactly happened here? Who knew what? What is Steinhoff, who is Markus Jooste and what does it all have to do with the so called Stellenbosch mafia? Where does business tycoon Christo Wiese, Shoprite and Pepkor fit in and where is the pensioners’ money?

Well-known financial writer James-Brent Styan unpacks these and other questions in this astounding tale of power and greed, of secrets and deceit, and ultimately the biggest financial breakdown in the history of South Africa.

Through interviews with trustworthy sources, revelations from confidential documents and in-depth research about Steinhoff’s history, Styan uncovers what the group doesn’t want you to know.

Follow the Money: The story of Steinhoff, Markus Jooste and the Stellenbosch Boys is a gripping financial thriller that will be told as cautionary tale or salacious scandal in both boardrooms and living rooms for decades to come.

In 1998 the South African government was warned that the country was running out of electricity. Despite the warnings, the decision was taken not to invest in new power stations. Had the warnings been heeded, South Africa could have had a new power station up and running by 2006 and load shedding may never have happened. Instead, in 2007, as predicted, South Africa ran out of electricity.

Eight years later, the crisis has deepened and despite assurances to the contrary by government leadership, it has the potential to become the biggest post-apartheid crisis in South Africa. By 2015 load shedding cost the South African economy an estimated R2 billion per day.

Is the situation getting better or worse? Are the interventions working or is a blackout inevitable? What can be done and what do future scenarios look like?

Blackout: The Eskom Crisis provides a look at what’s happening to one of the greatest power utilities in the world, the greatest on the African continent. It deals with everything from load shedding to blackouts and unpacks the issues raging around candlelight dinners in households across South Africa today.