Retail giant Woolworths was dealt an embarrassing blow on Wednesday, which resulted in a product being discontinued when it was ruled that they had imitated Frankie's Olde Soft Drink Company. By GREG NICOLSON.

It’s official, Facebook has finally filed for a public stock offering. But does the company’s revenue-generating model justify its expected valuation of $100 billion? Will anybody aside from the investment bankers and industry insiders benefit from the listing? KEVIN BLOOM considers the question.

If this isn’t a sign of how far the USA has fallen, I don’t know what is. Twenty years ago it would have been American workers targeted by rebel groups. But the times they are a-changing, and two kidnappings in the last week suggest China’s increasingly dominant role in the world – and especially Africa – is being recognised. And not in a good way. By SIMON ALLISON.

When Vodacom’s business partnership in the Congo fell apart at the seams, and the company’s directors in the DRC were about to land in jail, the mobile giant’s chairman phoned Moto Mabanga, a fixer with firm ANC connections. Mabanga fixed the problem all right, but he and Vodacom had a difference of opinion on a little matter of a multi-million dollar success fee. No problem for Mabanga; he’s managed to get a Kinshasa commercial court to make a $21-million award against Vodacom. Now if only Vodacom would recognise the DRC’s jurisdiction. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Many NGOs are on the brink of financial collapse and they’ve laid the blame squarely at the feet of the department of social development and the new Lottery Board. Now they’re turning to the media and public at large, hoping somebody will finally pay attention. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Americans will soon begin to groan under the weight and information overload of politically-charged advertising, broadcast media commercials, Internet-based messages and targeted, automated phone calling in favour of candidates and policies. The superPACs are taking the presidential campaign trail by storm. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

The truth about reality television is that there’s nothing real about it, writes MANDY DE WAAL.

The team who a decade ago transformed South African online banking with 20Twenty are back, this time with an online financial services tool that’s “guaranteed” to save you money. By GREG NICOLSON.

Yada yada yada yada yada. Talks about talks about talks about talks. So far, the World Economic Forum in Davos, which kicked off on 25 January, seems to be more of the same. Except this time, there really doesn’t seem to be much of a “forum” to speak of—mainly because the “world” part isn’t being bought by the 99%. By KEVIN BLOOM.

With just a month to go to the budget speech, we really don’t envy the Treasury budget team – but it’s not just the number crunchers who have been fretting the prospects for 2012. Economy voyeurs, that curious species who thrill at the subtle curvature in a line graph, have also been in heated debate about exactly what this year portends for South Africa. By SIPHO HLONGWANE and KHADIJA PATEL.

For those who believe there is no solution to the regular carnage on South African roads – a thousand or so killed this past holiday season, by way of example – think again. Google’s driverless car is here to save us. It has a couple of twists and turns to manoeuvre before we’re out of the driver’s seat, though. By RICHARD POPLAK.

Kim Schmitz, aka Kim Dotcom, was until his arrest last week the kingpin of one of the largest piracy networks the Internet has yet seen. But the misdirected “libertarian” hacker group Anonymous supported him anyway. What does this have to do with the two pieces of anti-piracy legislation that have just been shelved by the United States Congress? And how can artists, writers and musicians make a living in the face of a populist call for online anarchy? By KEVIN BLOOM.

Ever since the death of feudalism, the captains of capitalism have churned the wheels of spin to have us believe that free markets are free, globalisation is good, capitalism is fair and other fairy tales. Cambridge development economist Ha-Joon Chang says it’s high time we stopped drinking the pro-capitalist Kool-Aid. By MANDY DE WAAL.

How many companies can claim that Paul Simon once wrote a song about it, without being paid—or even asked—to do so? Not many. But on Thursday 19 January, as Kodak files for chapter 11 bankruptcy in Manhattan, the last line of the chorus from that tune is something the directors (and perhaps the founder, from his grave) are going to be forced to weep over… “Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away…” By KEVIN BLOOM.

The man who brought mobile telephony to South Africa through Vodacom is Cell C’s new Chief Executive. Analysts predict that the move will be great for consumers while Knott-Craig said the first thing he would fix was Cell C’s platform so that the mobile operator could “deliver on its promises.” By MANDY DE WAAL.

Boekehuis, a well-loved bookstore in Johannesburg, is set to shut its doors this month after Media24 Books, a subsidiary of Naspers, decided the store’s failure to turn a profit could not be sustained any longer.  KHADIJA PATEL spoke to manager, Corina van der Spoel, about the store’s legacy.

Almost a year since President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation unemployment address, we have a new job-creation proposal. Incentives for special economic zones (SEZs) will be expanded and areas of advantage prioritised. By GREG NICOLSON.

A group of US lawmakers have asked the state department to investigate whether Chinese technology firm Huawei Technologies Co. has violated US sanctions on Iran by supplying Tehran with sensitive communications technology used for censorship. Iran is of course the bogeyman en vogue and Huawei is a soft target undermining the reliance of Western technology for government-level filtering in repressive nations. By KHADIJA PATEL.

The government of South Sudan has put pen to paper on the first oil contracts to be signed since independence, giving four companies access to the new country’s lucrative oil fields. That these companies all have a distinctly Asian flavour might show that the west doesn’t have as much influence in South Sudan as they’d like to think. By SIMON ALLISON.

Eskom’s warning of possible renewed rolling blackouts is enough to chill the heart of any South African. It’s a grim prospect – we remember the (ironically) hellish time of “load shedding”, with billions of rands lost. As dark predictions of shedding resurface, we wonder if the lessons of 2008 were completely lost? By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

What’s less trustworthy than a Swiss Bank? It’s the unanswerable question – a showstopper by virtue of the fact that the Swiss banking system utterly lacks virtue. Bern has now been thrown into further turmoil, presaged by the resignation of the head of the Swiss National Bank. Cue the “hole in the cheese” jokes. But no one is laughing. By RICHARD POPLAK.

It’s a strange day when the issue of breast implants could have an impact on the political future of the EU. But that’s what political analysts suggest may be at stake in the wake of a move to create EU-wide implant regulations. By REBECCA DAVIS.

It’s going to be the biggest initial public offering since Google listed in 2004, and it’s likely to happen in the next few months. So how has Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg been preparing for the event that could value his company at $100 billion? By vacationing like the craziest rich guy on Earth, of course. By KEVIN BLOOM.

The world's richest sporting competition happens to be the one that is least predictable. Which is why it is also the best sporting competition in the world. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Poor old Coca-Cola. The world’s favourite drink can’t do much right these days. If it’s not responsible for America’s obesity epidemic, then it’s causing children’s teeth to rot. Or using up all of India’s water while stealing Nigerian jobs. But this latest accusation goes even further, claiming Coke is responsible for propping up the authoritarian regime of an entire country – and it refuses to do anything about it. By SIMON ALLISON.

Who knows what happens to a media baron when he gets humiliated by the very government he helped shepherd into power. Does he lie awake at night mumbling to himself? Does he hear voices and see dead people? Does he discover Twitter and decide it’s the perfect vehicle to take his madness to the masses? Or is the truth of his presence on one of the world’s most successful social networks more sinister than that? By KEVIN BLOOM. 

As an entrepreneur, the odds of success really are stacked against you. Out of every 10 new business ventures started, three or four will be lucky to see out the first two years of existence, and two of those will be lucky to get even further. STYLI CHARALAMBOUS takes a look at a new enterprise that aims to assist South African entrepreneurs bridge the funding gap, one of the biggest reasons start-ups fail before they even start.  

Warren Buffett, a man who carries in his walletr the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa, is 81 years old. Who will run his Berkshire Hathaway firm when he buys his way into heaven? That’s the question currently obsessing Wall Street. By RICHARD POPLAK

1Time’s new route to Mombasa, Kenya is an exciting expansion of its small but growing African network. It wants to get bigger, and – with other low cost airlines – make Africa’s exorbitant airfares a little cheaper. But it’s expanded just about as far as the continent’s governments will let it. By SIMON ALLISON.

The Economic and Business Outlook for South Africa 2012 is out. It is compiled by Business Unity South Africa and is meant to represent what Big Business feels about our economy. Well, the feelings aren’t particularly good. The odds are stacked too mightily against good growth. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.