NAMIBIAN President Sam Nujoma and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki held talks in Windhoek on Tuesday on detailed development and investment issues, including the Trans-Kalahari highway. “We discussed the nitty gritty of development and investment,” Namibian Trade Minister Hidipo Hamutenya told journalists after the talks. He said the meeting had been “businesslike, not politics as usual,” and had reviewed bilateral projects, including the Trans-Kalahari highway which links Namibia with South Africa’s Gauteng province and the development of the Kudu gas field off Namibia’s southern coast. The presidents met in the Namibian capital a day after the conclusion of the two-day Southern African Development (SADC) summit, at which a regional free-trade zone was approved. South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said the two leaders had also discussed how countries in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) could help other SADC nations enter the zone. SACU groups South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. These countries were “better prepared” for the free-trade area than were some of the other SADC states, Erwin said. “We discussed whether we as a customs union could provide technical assistance to our neighbours” so that they could join the trade area which is due to be launched on September 1, he said.