A remarkable woman with some truths from...

BRIEFCAS...

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BRIEFCASE

Horatio Bottomley was a working-class child from London who was twice elected to parliament and became a director of the Financial Times in 1888. A legal wizard, and a charming and witty liar, he survived the crash of his first business to become a promoter of mining companies in Western Australia, from which he extracted the bulk of the investors' cash.

A racing man, he enjoyed using metaphors from the Turf, introducing his partner in his West Australian Market Trust in 1897 as the jockey who would win the race. "Knowing the cattle we have in our stables, knowing the form of our opponents to the ounce, I am certain that with Charlie Kaufman up, the West Australian Stakes are at your mercy," he told the crowd.

Two years later, his stock had slumped, and after further manipulations he ended up in Wormwood Scrubs sewing postbags. There, so the well-known story goes, the prison chaplain greeted him: "Ah, Bottomley. Sewing?" To which the reply came: "No, reaping."

LIBERTY'S TWO ROYS At Liberty Life's Johannesburg presentation to the top ranks of South African business this week, director Alan Romanis raised the only difficulty now that Roy Andersen has joined the team: two Roys.

So the taller Andersen is now referred to as Big Roy, and the shorter McAlpine (who has shed none of his Scottish accent in 30-odd years abroad) is Wee Roy.

When McAlpine rose to speak, he mentioned that it was nice to hear about this: "Nobody's told me to my face."

GRAVY TRAIN IN REVERSE For once the gravy train was in reverse. The British Airways flight leaving Johannesburg for The World Economic Forum in Harare was packed. In what everybody assumed was a great public relations exercise two ministers - Trade and Industry's Alec Erwin and Communications' Jay Naidoo - and their entourage were seated in economy while businessmen and journalists enjoyed the luxury of business class. Alas, fiscal rectitude it wasn't; the public servants had booked but couldn't get in.

TWO NEEDLESS BLUNDERS There were two needless blunders by President Nelson Mandela and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, reminiscent of the rhetoric of the years past. In the opening session Mandela was asked what role the private sector could play in the region. Economics is clearly not his forté and he said: "Industrial countries owe us support because our region was subject to the most brutal exploitation in the colonial era, which robbed us of our resources."

Manuel, on the question of crime stopping investment, said: "Don't forget only the bad news makes the headlines. Also, crime is mainly concentrated in Johannesburg and not the rest of the country." This went down like a lead balloon with the SA businessmen, most of whom hailed from Johannesburg.

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