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/ 4 July 2005

Alonso adds flair to French victory

Fernando Alonso wanted to savour the moment. The Renault driver had time to slow down in front of the stands filled with blue-and-yellow Renault supporters and hold up five fingers — indicating his number of victories this season. Alonso has now won five of the season’s 10 races and has six career wins.

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/ 4 July 2005

Coasting in comfort

There’s no better way to assess a vehicle’s qualities — its roadholding, fuel consumption, dynamic performance and comfort — than a long journey. And when Citroën delivered a new C4 Hdi to the Mail & Guardian, a quick 1 200km round trip to St Lucia did exactly this.

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/ 4 July 2005

Loaded with features

The French build small cars that seem to expand into big ‘uns once you’re inside them, get around corners without wallowing, and don’t guzzle gas. Renault’s new Modus is just such an offering. The Modus is the first of a Renault range that will include the new Clio and the next-generation Twingo minicar.

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/ 4 July 2005

Decoding the codes

The Department of Trade and Industry’s black economic empowerment codes of good practice on ownership and management last week became as mysterious as the Da Vinci codes. And this is quite apart from the bramble of legalese in which their inner message is contained.

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/ 4 July 2005

Africa needs its own cartels

The West is not, out of altruism, going to reverse the system of trade that impoverishes Africa. It is Africa that must fight politically to force the change. Why hasn’t it been done before now? The answer is that African governments have, in the past, been short-sighted and self-centred to a degree that borders on stupidity.

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/ 4 July 2005

Tax, taxis and toyi-toyi

Last week’s SACP-Cosatu–inspired rolling mass action has been an interesting thing to observe, to say the least.The idea had been to bring the central business district of Johannesburg, if not the country itself, to its knees. ”No more job losses,” the placards read. ”No more racism in the workplace.” ”Deflate the currency strong Rand means less jobs.”

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/ 4 July 2005

Bet big, or lose your shirt

Single stock futures are steadily overtaking warrants as the drug of choice for those in search of investment thrills. Stories abound of individuals making profits of 50% or even 100% on single stock futures over two or three days, but less well told are the stories of investors nursing monstrous losses over a similar time frame.