EDITORIAL

7 Shooting the messenger

CODER STORV

8 Cote d’Ivoire coup

SHOLUBUSINESS

11 African cinema & the box office

UIEUJ FROM THE CITV

12 The merits of free trade

FOCUS

14 A plague of con-men

COMMODITIES

19 Oil -The rewards of discipline

DATELINE USR

22 The WTO shambles

Spotlight

25 Senegal elections

BEHRUIOUR

29 How to recognise a liar

FINANCE

30 Stanbic rejects Nedcor bid

M IN IN G NOTEBOOK

34 ZCCM heartbreak and tears

COUNTRVFILE

37 Namibia: Railways & fashion

AfricanBUSINESS

February 2 0 0 0 No. 251

CONTENTS

COVER STORY

Cote d’Ivoire coup T he recent coup in one of Africa’s most politically stable and economically prosperous countries came as a rude shock to most observers. However, according to correspondent Paul Michaud, the signals were always there but the world had failed to read them correctly.

FOCUS

A plague of con-men C on-men have been with us since the dawn of civilisation but over recent years they seem to have multiplied, particularly in Africa. Tom Nevin has been investigating the often ingenious tricks employed by these criminals to part you from your hard earned property and how to beat them at the game.

DATELINE USA

The WTO shambles T he WTO conference in Seattle late last year will be remembered mostly for attracting the biggest demonstration since the Vietnam War protests. But who was protesting about what to whom? Milan Vesely has pieced together fragments from the confusion to present a coherent and sometimes ominous picture of what actually went on in Seattle.

African B u s in e s s I February 2000 I 3