Is Molusi being conned out of a job?

But instead, he has decided to tell Johncom where to stick their R15million and has started kicking up a storm about finding out precisely why he was put on some sort of vague, "performance-related" suspension last week.

One must admit that does sound a little odd, given that literally weeks before he was the hero of the day when Johncom posted some pretty nifty results.

What is happening at Johncom is pretty typical of what has been going on in the big English newspaper houses in this country for the past decade. Intrigue, petty politics, backstabbing, posturing and all manner of nefarious sleight of hand accompanied by paranoia, private agendas, empire building and arse-creeping to beat the band.

While it is laudable that Molusi has decided to get to the bottom of his suspension and not just walk away like so many other lily-livered businessmen who think pride, survival and money way ahead of things like justice and integrity, one can't help thinking that the odds are stacked against him.

Annoyed chairman

While there is no reason to doubt his performance, it seems clear he has annoyed his chairman who obviously had a majority board backing to get the suspension through.

And lesson one at any self-respecting business school is that that if you go against the wishes of a chairman and the majority of the board, no matter how right or successful you might be, you will end up having to watch your name coming off your office door and your private parking place faster than you are able to blink.

The odds of an individual beating the corporation are not high, but despite this Molusi seems determined to give it a go.

Nervous twitches

But, whatever the outcome, the fun and games, intrigue, politics and backstabbing is by no means over at Johncom. With it now likely that a consortium led by Caxton's Terry Moolman will end up owning Johncom to all intents and purposes, there is no doubt that there are a lot of nervous people at The Sunday Times, Business Day and the Financial Mail particularly.

They're nervous because they know that Moolman's enormous success with Caxton has resulted from his determined and often drastic approach to keeping costs to an absolute minimum. And while Johncom might not think it has a lot of fat, the fact is that there is no question that Moolman will spot a lot of blubber both on the management side and on the editorial floors.

Terry Moolman is a businessman first and media owner second. Right now, there is, for example, no comparison between editorial head count and salary packages on, say, The Sunday Times and the Citizen.

Frustrated people

On both sides of the fence there must also be a lot of frustrated people who have been waiting for years for the inevitable to happen. Prime example is the actual printing of The Sunday Times which for years has been printed by The Newspaper Printing Company which is majority owned by arch-rival Independent Newspapers. In fact, the statistic that was bandied about most during the latter half of the 1990s was that the only newspaper at Independent making a profit was The Star and only the reason for this was that The Star printed The Sunday Times.

There have been people at Johncom that for the years or more have been itching to get the print contract away from Independent.

It seems they will soon get their wish. But, with that comes the obvious risk of editorial quality taking a nosedive as a result of severe cost cutting.

The fun and games at Johncom aren't over yet - not by a long shot.