A TEAM from French car manufacturer Peugeot arrived in Gabarone, Botswana on Thursday for talks about bailing out Hyundai’s bankrupt car assembly plant. The 193-million pula ($41-million) plant, Botswana’s biggest manufacturing enterprise, was placed under temporary liquidation last month after it could not service loans of about $127-million. The talks with Peugeot follow similar ones […]

Marlene Burger The marathon trial of Dr Wouter Basson degenerated into a clash of legal wills this week after the extraordinary demand by the state prosecutor that the presiding Judge, Willie Hartzenberg, step down. After searching in vain for legal precedent, lawyers on both sides concluded that this was probably the first time in South […]

Christian Figenschou In what is likely to be one of the year’s most important new car launches, Italian car maker Fiat has marked an aggressive leap into the local market with the introduction of its 178 “world car” range, comprising the Fiat Palio hatchback, the Palio Weekend station wagon and the Siena sedan. Fiat, which […]

Howard Barrell OVER A BARREL You are not alone if you, too, are beginning to think that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is a few marbles short of a full bag. It is not a question on which we should expect our own Thabo Mbeki or his officials to comment. They are currently engaged in manoeuvres to […]

Marianne Merten ‘Anyone who believes in his innocence has no trouble sleeping. I sleep like a baby.” That’s how outspoken senior Western Cape New National Party member and former poverty relief MEC Peter Marais reacts to his sacking. He is awaiting formal charges ahead of a disciplinary hearing, having been fired by Premier Gerald Morkel […]

Shaun de Waal MOVIE OFTHEWEEK Inevitably, once Leonardo DiCaprio got involved, the making of The Beach became a major gossip-fest. Allegations flew about the film-makers’ ecological destruction of the beach where it was being filmed in Thailand; and Leo had allegedly hired an entire island nearby to house his current girlfriend. The rumours that impinge […]

Mercedes Sayagues The queues for paraffin at the petrol stations were longer than the queues at the polling stations. Some of the four million people, or 80% of registered voters, who abstained must have been queuing. Others instead voted because paraffin, petrol and diesel are scarce but hardship is abundant. On two days, 1,33-million Zimbabweans […]

Sarah Bullen Last year the Insider Trading Directorate (ITD) dropped a minor bombshell on local markets by publishing a list of companies in whose shares insider trading was suspected. In January it added 10 more to its list of 43. Six claims have been settled, seven have been closed due to lack of evidence and […]

AFRICA’S largest single energy sector industrial plant, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, will be officially opened in April by President Olusegun Obasanjo, the company said. The plant has been operating since last October and the second of its two units was completed this week. The official opening had been planned for November but was delayed after […]

Bob Fisher SAILING Days before the start of the America’s Cup, New Zealand’s defence has come under fire – and not solely from their Italian challengers. The Kiwi skipper Russell Coutts and his crew are at odds with Team New Zealand chief executive Sir Peter Blake and his team responsible for the defence of the […]