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A grab-bag of goodies (and indeed baddies) from Shoprite this week. First up, the Big Red One has been fined a cool million for reckless lending, pertaining specifically to the cases of nine punters who, the High Court has determined, were clearly dicey credit prospects. Shoprite has also been ordered to provide debt counselling to similarly burdened customers. The nine in the meantime have settled their debt. Next, Oom Christo Wiese has flogged another 18.9 million of his shares for R2.5bn. That’s approximately 4,000 suitcases full of cash in a Business Class carry-on to London. Finally, Checkers reports that it is seeing an increase in demand for vegan and plant-based alternatives, with growing sales of the 90 vegan products in its wildly successful Simple Truth range and its exclusive Linda McCartney Foods line.

Comment: We can assume that if Shoprite are making a buck from it, it’s something of a big deal. That’s good news when it comes to plant-based dietary alternatives, essential as we make the necessary move towards a lower-carbon food economy.

The good news: AB InBev have issued a decree that all of their divisions should source half of their power from renewable sources by the end of the year, and all of it by 2025. Even better, is that globally, they’ve reached the first goal. The bad news is that local subsidiary SABMiller are only just getting started, with an agreement signed with local outfit Sola to equip the local breweries with 23,000 solar panels that will meet 10%-15% of their electricity needs once installed. But to get to 50%, say SAB, they need an agreement with Eskom, energy regulators and government on a regulatory framework that will allow them to generate renewable energy off-site and wheel it through Eskom's grid to breweries across the country. Unfortunately, despite Eskom being unable to supply business with its needs – either renewable or non – Mineral & Energy Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe is moving at glacial speed on approving such deals. And unrelated, but fun fact: SAB alumni seem to be riding to the rescue at trouble

Comment: Come on Gwede. Power to the People. Don’t make us send the retired SAB execs over there.